Are you living your best life now? Not always? This is a podcast for you. Duke Professor Kate Bowler is an expert in the stories we tell about success and failure, suffering and happiness. She had Stage IV cancer. Then she didn’t. And since then, all she wants to do is talk to funny and wise people about how to live with the knowledge that, well, everything happens.

The pandemic introduced many to living with uncertainty. But for some, uncertainty has always been their norm. In this episode, Kate speak to actress Nikki Deloach, who has starred in several Hallmark Christmas movies, but her life hasn’t matched the happily-ever-after plot-lines of her characters. Nikki’s dad was diagnosed with an aggressive form of dementia and her son was diagnosed with congenital heart defects in utero… all in the same week. In this conversation, Kate and Nikki discuss how to live with constant uncertainty, how to stay open to both the terror and the beauty of living close to the edge, and how to make Christmas meaningful when hope is hard to come by. 

CW: suicidal ideation, postpartum depression, a parent grappling with a child’s fragile diagnosis, dementia 

To hear more episodes of Everything Happens, follow wherever you get your podcasts, or head to: https://lemonada.lnk.to/everythinghappensfd

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.