Everything Happens with Kate Bowler

Do you ever look back at your childhood and go… certainly that didn’t happen like that? Where were the adults? Academy Award-winning director and childhood actress Sarah Polley describes what it was like to not be believed when she was afraid or when she wanted to stop or when she was in pain or when she was in danger. And how, as adults, we can all better protect those around us and learn to look back on our younger selves with compassion.

• How hard it can be to believe our own memories or pain
• When kids aren’t protected by the adults in their life and how they make sense of that as adults
• Managing invisible illnesses
• How we can better support those going through chronic illness with compassion

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today, we’re talking about tragicomedy. And isn’t that all of life? The absurdity. The horror. The laughter that somehow cuts through the most difficult of moments. Our guest today, Stephanie Wittles Wachs wrote a beautiful memoir called Everything is Horrible and Wonderful about the death of her brother to an accidental heroin overdose when he was 30 years old.

In this conversation, Kate and Stephanie discuss:

• Loving someone with addiction
• Grieving a person in public
• Why it’s okay (and maybe necessary) to laugh in the midst of the worst moments
• The 6th stage of grief—the manic-investigative stage

CW: mention of suicide, drug overdose, death of a sibling

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today, we have a little bonus episode to kick off your weekend. Vivek Murthy, the current U.S. Surgeon General, had so much wisdom to offer us in this week's conversation on combatting loneliness and building better relationships. In this bonus clip, he offers us a little pep talk for connection. It may be just what you need to hear.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A basketball coach, a doctor, and a history professor walk into a bar….

This might be the start of a great joke OR the start of an episode of Everything Happens. 

In this conversation, Kate Bowler speaks with Duke Men’s Basketball Coach, Jon Scheyer and the current US Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy. Together they discuss:

• What is ailing Americans (especially young people)—loneliness (and why it can be so embarrassing to admit)
• Practical tips to connecting with others
• The usefulness and pitfalls of social media use

This conversation was taped live at Duke University as part of the Surgeon General’s We Are Made to Connect Tour. A huge thank you to Chris Simmons, the Office of Student Affairs, and the Office of the US Surgeon General for making this possible.

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We are kicking off Season 12 of the Everything Happens Podcast (!!) with a little bonus situation because we’re having a little bonus moment. Kate’s new book HAVE A BEAUTIFUL, TERRIBLE DAY! Is available everywhere books are sold today. 

It is a book of daily meditations meant to ground whatever day you’re having—all of the ups and downs and inbetweens. And who better to talk about that with than my friend, Bob Crawford. Bob is the bass player for the wildly popular band The Avett Brothers, and someone who knows too well how terrible and beautiful life can be. 

In this conversation, Kate and Bob discuss:

• How there can be a strange comfort in our worst moments
• How they continued despite the ongoingness of their kinds of tragedies 
• Why they both long for more spiritual language around living like this

Everything Happens is brought to you by Cologuard®. Are you 45 or older? Start screening for colon cancer with Cologuard, an effective and noninvasive screening option for adults 45 and older at average risk for colon cancer. Rx only. Learn more at Cologuard.com/everything

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today, we are re-airing one of our favorite episodes.  

Beth Moore has been in the limelight for almost thirty years, but during that time, she revealed very little about her formative family history. Now, this world-famous Bible teacher is ready to tell her story for the first time. 

In this episode, Kate and Beth discuss: 

• How Beth’s faith offered stability during a very unpredictable and unstable childhood 
• The complicated grief that occurs when family members cause deep, unforgivable harm
• What it means to be fully known (and why that feels better than anything else) 
• Beth’s long-faithfulness despite experiencing rejection, pain, and hurt from her faith community

This was Beth’s first interview about her new memoir, and Kate felt so honored to get to ask this wise soul about the role of faith in lives that haven’t worked out like we thought they should. 

CW: sexual abuse, mental illness. 

Looking for the transcript or show notes? Click here.

Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or X. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today, we are re-airing one of our favorite episodes. 

Bryan Stevenson (founder of the Equal Justice Initiative) is committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment, to challenging racial and economic injustice, and to protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable among us.

In this episode, Kate and Bryan discuss: 

• The hope that motivates Bryan in this slow, sometimes frustrating work of justice
• What it means to be a ‘stonecatcher’ (and why it serves both the one being condemned and the one doing the condemning)
• The power of forgiveness, maybe especially toward those who don’t deserve it 

CW: discussion of slavery, lynching, and other racist violence, death row

Looking for the transcript or show notes? Click here.

Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or X. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Living in uncertainty can lead to a sense of languishing. How do we wake up from this feeling?

Katherine May has written gorgeous books like Wintering and Enchantment that help us better understand how to live wide-awake to the world around us. 

In this conversation, Kate and Katherine discuss: 

• How we move from languishing to enchantment
• Why we need community more now than maybe ever
• Why we both hate gratitude journals

Everything Happens is brought to you by Cologuard®. Are you 45 or older? Start screening for colon cancer with Cologuard, an effective and noninvasive screening option for adults 45 and older at average risk for colon cancer. Rx only. Learn more at Cologuard.com/everything

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bozoma Saint John is a successful marketing executive, but she is also a woman who knows the rollercoaster of profound love and deep loss. She shares her hard-won wisdom and complicated grief as she faced her husband’s terminal cancer diagnosis. 

In this conversation, Kate and Bozoma: 

• Give us permission to tell the whole truth (even when it isn’t a neat)
• Speak honestly about the complicated realities of caregiving 
• Discuss how our roles change within families from daughter to parent or spouse to caregiver
• Describe anticipatory grief 

CW: adult language, death of a child during pregnancy, death of a spouse

Everything Happens is brought to you by Cologuard®. Are you 45 or older? Start screening for colon cancer with Cologuard, an effective and noninvasive screening option for adults 45 and older at average risk for colon cancer. Rx only. Learn more at Cologuard.com/everything

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this conversation, Kate and Anna discuss:

• How conversations might engender the intimacy we need to get by
• Fostering the right interpersonal and listening skills it takes to approach a difficult topic (especially when you’re feeling nervous)
• Best practices for responding to someone’s hard news
• How learning to listen might bridge differences of all kinds

What do we lose when we don’t talk about hard things? And what might we gain if we do?

Everything Happens is brought to you by Cologuard®. Are you 45 or older? Start screening for colon cancer with Cologuard, an effective and noninvasive screening option for adults 45 and older at average risk for colon cancer. Rx only. Learn more at Cologuard.com/everything

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.