Stay ConnectedCome do life with Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, and Amanda Doyle.
With more than half a billion plays, We Can Do Hard Things is a hilarious, raw, comforting “support system for braving the everyday.” The Pod Squad goes hard ($56 Million raised in global aid) and stays soft: meet here on Tuesdays to laugh, talk, and cry our way through the pain and magic of being human.
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Copyright: © Glennon Doyle. All Rights Reserved.
In this beautiful conversation–in which Glennon names Cole’s book “This Here Flesh” the Next Right Book–we discuss:
1. What we learned from Cole’s insight that, “If you’re not in your body, someone else is.”
2. A mind-blowing revelation about all of our own faces that we will never stop thinking about.
3. Why the phrase “If you don’t believe you’re beautiful, no one else will” is horseshit.
4. Why dignity is the bedrock to being alive–and how to find it when we haven’t been loved well.
5. The connection between fear and awe–and how to practice wonder as a cure for despair.
About Cole:
Cole Arthur Riley is a writer and poet. She is the author of the NYT bestseller, This Here Flesh: Spirituality, Liberation, and the Stories that Make Us. Her writing has been featured in The Atlantic, Guernica, and The Washington Post. Cole is also the creator and writer of Black Liturgies, a project that integrates spiritual practice with Black emotion, Black literature, and the Black body.
TW: @blackliturgist
Abby’s former USWNT teammates–and dear friends–Ashlyn Harris and Ali Krieger are here for a double date discussing:
1. Ashlyn and Ali’s wedding, their vision for queer marriage visibility, and Glennon’s top moments of their magical day.
2. Ashlyn and Abby’s friendship–why Ashlyn pulled Abby’s final game captain’s band out of the trash and what she plans to do with it.
3. Who made the first move, which one “knew” first, and how Ashlyn and Ali’s love story started with friendship and mixtapes.
4. Their hardest night with their newborn, how Ali neutralizes mom guilt, and what they want most for Sloane as she grows up.
About Ashlyn:
Ashlyn Harris is a two-time World Cup Champion, two-time CONCACAF Champion, and three-time SheBelieves Cup Champion. She currently plays for Gotham FC of the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) and leads the NWSL with most saves as a goalkeeper.
A champion of self-expression and self-love, Ashlyn is known for her style and her extensive tattoo artwork.
TW: @Ashlyn_Harris
IG: @ashlynharris24
About Ali:
Ali Krieger is an Olympian, two-time World Cup Champion, and two-time SheBelives Cup Champion. She was a key part of the defense that held opponents scoreless for 539 consecutive minutes during the 2015 World Cup.
Recently, Ali was named #7 Most Marketable Athletes in the World and currently plays for the NWSL’s Gotham FC.
In 2019 Ashlyn and Ali married and in February 2021, they welcomed their new baby Sloane. They are also parents to two puppies – Logan and Storm.
TW: @alikrieger
IG: @alikrieger
1. The inspiring pep talk Bozoma gives herself in the mirror – and why we might all want to start using it to rally ourselves.
2. How to navigate the tightrope of corporate expectations for women: to be both self-assured and humble; both hard and soft.
3. The revolutionary realization that you don’t have to be the savior of others – you can save yourself, too.
4. How to know when to dig deep, and stay and fight for change – and when to stop digging and go – and the moment Bozoma knew it was time to leave Netflix.
5. Why our inability to forgive ourselves for wrong decisions keep us in bad situations – and how Boz’s “it’s not you, it’s me” philosophy can guide us out.
About Bozoma:
Bozoma Saint John is a Hall of Fame inducted Marketing Executive, author, entrepreneur, and general badass. Boz has led Global Consumer Marketing at Apple Music & iTunes; she was Chief Brand Officer at Uber; and Global Chief Marketing Officer at Netflix. Boz is currently named #1 Most Influential CMO in the world by Forbes, and has been named one of Billboard’s Most Powerful Women in Music for 10 consecutive years.
In 2021, Harvard Business School published a multi-media case study on her career, titled “Leading with Authenticity and Urgency”; through which she developed and taught a program at the University aptly named “The Anatomy of a Badass.” Boz was named as an Ambassador for the African Diaspora and Special Envoy to the President of Ghana. In the Spring of 2023, Penguin Books will publish her memoir, “The Urgent Life.” Boz counts her highest achievement as being a mother to her 12 year old daughter, Lael.
TW: @badassboz
IG: @badassboz
1. Content warning: Discussion of suicide.
2. Jenny puts words to her experience of ADD – "being a kitten on cocaine" – and her anxiety – seeing "rainbow fire.”
3. How Jenny felt guilty for years about a way her mental illness impacted her mothering – only to later learn it was her child’s favorite memory.
4. The moment she decided to be honest about her struggles – and how sharing our awkwardness can save the world and cure our loneliness.
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 800-273-8255
About Jenny:
Jenny Lawson is an award-winning humorist known for her great candor in sharing her struggle with mental illness. She's written four NYT bestsellers, including Let's Pretend This Never Happened (a mostly true memoir), Furiously Happy (A funny book about terrible things), You Are Here (An owner's manual for dangerous minds) and Broken (in the best possible way), which recently won the Goodreads Choice award for Best Humor of 2021. One of those books is a coloring book but she insists it still counts. She lives in Texas with her husband and child and would like to be your friend unless you're a real asshole.
TW: @TheBloggess
IG: @thebloggess
1. Why guns are now the leading cause of death for American children and teens, and who is profiting from America’s suffering.
2. What to say today when your child leaves the house to help protect them from gun violence.
3. The lie our leaders are selling us about why they won’t pass the reforms that 90% of Americans want, and how one mom became the NRA’s biggest nightmare.
4. How to safeguard our kids from the negative impact of for-profit active shooter drills in schools.
About Shannon:
Shannon Watts was a stay at home mother of five when she founded Moms Demand Action, the nation’s first and largest grassroots movement fighting against gun violence – and the most powerful counter-movement the gun lobby has ever faced. Moms Demand Action now has a chapter in every state and, with over 8 million supporters, is now larger than the National Rifle Association. For almost ten years, Moms Demand Action volunteers have stopped the NRA’s priority legislation in statehouses roughly 90 percent of the time, helped pass hundreds of gun safety laws across the country, changed corporate policies and educated Americans about secure gun storage. Shannon’s book, Fight Like a Mother: How a Grassroots Movement Took on the Gun Lobby and Why Women Will Change the World, is now available in paperback.
TW: @shannonrwatts
1. What Alua has learned about living well from the many people she’s helped walk home as a death doula.
2. The “deathbed test” that guides her toward what is important and helps her stay present.
3. Alua eases Abby’s immense fear of death by sharing her glitter-wave vision.
4. The most surprising thing she wants us to know about death.
5. Concrete steps we can take now to help prepare ourselves–and our loved ones–for the inevitable.
About Alua:
Alua Arthur is a death doula, recovering attorney, and the founder of Going with Grace, a death doula training and end-of-life planning organization that exists to support people as they answer the question, “What must I do to be at peace with myself so that I may live presently and die gracefully?” Going with Grace works to improve and redefine the end-of-life experience for people rooted in every community using the individual lived experience as the foundation. Alua was a keynote speaker at EndWell 2019, and has been featured in the LA Times, Vogue, Refinery29, The Doctors, and InStyle. She is inspired by the gift of LIFE itself and is always on the quest for the best donuts and fried plantains!
TW: @goinggracefully
1. How we are each haunted by our family’s secrets and trauma–whether we know them or not–and how to break the cycle for future generations.
2. The astounding new research on generational trauma showing that our personal trauma is passed down genetically to our children and grandchildren.
3. Our unconscious need to heal what our parents could not–and how to mourn what we cannot control.
4. Why our bodies carry what our mind won’t remember–and how to release that burden.
5. Dr. Galit’s new book Emotional Inheritance and the incredible new way to understand ourselves.
About Dr. Atlas:
Dr. Galit Atlas is a psychoanalyst and clinical supervisor in private practice in New York City. She is on the faculty of the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. Dr. Atlas has published three books for clinicians and numerous articles and book chapters. A leader in the field of relational psychoanalysis, Dr. Atlas is a recipient of the André François Award and the NADTA Research Award. She teaches and lectures throughout the United States and internationally. Her new book Emotional Inheritance was published in January 2022 and is being translated into 17 languages.
IG: @galit_atlas
Glennon and Abby welcome their dear friend Cameron Esposito to discuss:
1. Cameron’s brutiful relationship with her body–and how it feels playing a sexy TV role.
2. The way Cameron grew up using humor as self-defense and to become socially “valuable”–and the moment she wondered if comedy was no longer working for her.
3. Why Cameron says she’s able to cry for the first time in 35 years.
4. How as a gender-nonconforming queer kid, Cameron felt “overnoticed”–and how being a comedian allows her to “hide in plain sight."
5. The rule Cameron and Glennon made to help them become better at friendship.
CW: eating disorders
About Cameron:
Cameron Esposito is a queer, gender non-conforming standup comic, actor, writer and host.
As a standup, Cameron has headlined tours and festivals nationwide and internationally. As an actor and host, Cameron has been seen across television and film, appearing in big budget films and beloved Sundance indies, and on Netflix, HBO, NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, Starz, Comedy Central, Logo, TBS, IFC, E! and Cartoon Network. Cameron's podcast, Queery, features hour long conversations with some of the brightest luminaries in the LGBTQ+ community, including Emmy and Grammy winning performers, Olympians, politicians, even an astronaut. Cameron's writing has been published by The New York Times, Vulture/New York Magazine, Vanity Fair, Bon Appetit, Refinery29 and more. Cameron's first book, Save Yourself, was an instant bestseller and is available in paperback March of 2022. Next up, Cameron is set to recur on the ABC series A Million Little Things and appear in HBOMax's Moonshot. Cameron lives in Los Angeles and likes to swim.
TW: @cameronesposito
IG: @cameronesposito
Part Two of our gorgeous conversation with Elizabeth Gilbert:
1. Liz describes Rayya’s death as “a fist fight”–and how Rayya went out swinging.
2. In the wake of Rayya’s death, how Liz grieved, and what helped.
3. Liz’s spiritual practices: communing with a higher power, her recovery community, and starting over.
About Elizabeth:
Elizabeth Gilbert is author of the international bestseller, EAT PRAY LOVE, which has been translated into over thirty languages, and sold over 12 million copies worldwide. The book became so popular that Time Magazine named Elizabeth as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2010, Elizabeth published a follow-up to EAT PRAY LOVE called COMMITTED—an instant a #1 New York Times Bestseller, as well as BIG MAGIC: CREATIVE LIVING BEYOND FEAR. She is author of two novels: THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS, and CITY OF GIRLS. And she is the creator of the Onward Book Club, which takes place on her Instagram via a live chat, as a way of spotlighting, studying, and celebrating the work of Black women authors.
Elizabeth divides her time between New York City, rural New Jersey, and everywhere else.
TW: @GilbertLiz
Part One of our intimate conversation with Elizabeth Gilbert:
1. When Glennon called Liz about Abby–and Liz then told Glennon about Rayya.
2. The moment Liz imploded her life as she knew it.
3. How, after a decade of friendship, Liz finally told Rayya that she was in love with her.
4. The brutal chaos of Rayya’s addiction at the end of her life–and what Liz had to do and say to protect herself.
About Liz:
Elizabeth Gilbert is author of the international bestseller, EAT PRAY LOVE, which has been translated into over thirty languages, and sold over 12 million copies worldwide. The book became so popular that Time Magazine named Elizabeth as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2010, Elizabeth published a follow-up to EAT PRAY LOVE called COMMITTED—an instant a #1 New York Times Bestseller, as well as BIG MAGIC: CREATIVE LIVING BEYOND FEAR. She is author of two novels: THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS, and CITY OF GIRLS. And she is the creator of the Onward Book Club, which takes place on her Instagram via a live chat, as a way of spotlighting, studying, and celebrating the work of Black women authors.
Elizabeth divides her time between New York City, rural New Jersey, and everywhere else.
TW: @GilbertLiz
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