Everything Happens with Kate Bowler

Writer Jeff Chu was raised in a devout Chinese Baptist community, yet struggled to reconcile being gay with the conservative faith of his family. And the feeling of not-quite-belonging gave his life a strong purpose. He became a journalist and a pastor determined to make communities a place where you don’t actually have to “fit in” to belong.  

In this episode, Kate and Jeff discuss: 

• Navigating certainty and doubt when ambiguity is so uncomfortable
• Why great resumes sometimes mask lives of pain
• How Jeff has discovered grace for himself and his family (and others who many have different versions of faithfulness)

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Writer Mary Laura Philpott had all the regular kind of parental worries until her teenage son had his first seizure. She had to learn to balance her fear alongside her love all the while recognizing that everyone has something they are dealing with.  

In this episode, Kate and Mary Laura discuss: 

• Why love sometimes makes us afraid for all we have to lose
• Why remembering that “everyone has something” can make us feel less alone (and more likely to bring snacks)
• Why worry isn’t the mental work we think it is

CW: epilepsy

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Looking for the transcript or show notes? Click here.

Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter.

Subscribe to our weekly email for blessings.

No Cure for Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear) is available wherever books are sold and now available in PAPERBACK. Order your copy, today.

Looking for some short spiritual reflections and blessings? Check out GOOD ENOUGH: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection. Available wherever books are sold.

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Thomas Lynch is an essayist, poet, and funeral director in Milford, Michigan, where he has served since 1974 when he took over the trade from his father. Thomas speaks honestly about life and death and mortality from what he’s learned, standing so close to the edge. 

In this episode, Kate and Thomas discuss: 

• What elements make up a good funeral
• How the habits of love are hard to break, no matter how old the person died who you grieve
• How those we grieve know our hearts and our love more fully

I don’t know quite how to express this, but holy crap. This is one of the best conversations I’ve ever had. I can’t wait to hear what you think.

CW: suicide, death

***

Looking for the transcript or show notes? Click here.

Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter.

Subscribe to our weekly email for blessings.

No Cure for Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear) is now available wherever books are sold and now available in PAPERBACK. Order your copy, today.

Looking for some short spiritual reflections and blessings? Check out GOOD ENOUGH: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection. Available wherever books are sold.

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Arthur Brooks was a professional musician and spent his twenties touring all over the world. Until one day, he stopped being able to hit the notes. He had to reinvent himself entirely, and wonder… what does happiness look like after I lose the career I had worked so hard for? 

Now, Arthur writes about high achievers and how they might find meaning and purpose as they experience decline in their bodies or minds or in careers through his bestselling book, Strength to Strength. 

In this episode, Kate and Arthur discuss: 

• What he calls “The Strivers Curse” and why high achievers may not feel as satisfied by life as they age
• What is more important than success and amassing wealth (spoiler alert: it has to do with love)
• Why happiness is something we should take seriously (but why it is not as simple as ‘CHOOSE HAPPINESS’)

Not everyone in this community is #winning at life. For those of us who have been forced off the productivity train, fallen down the success ladder, and now find ourselves wondering if we could be more than the sum of our jobs, this conversation is for you.

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Looking for the transcript or show notes? Click here.

Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter.

Subscribe to our weekly email for blessings.

No Cure for Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear) is now available wherever books are sold. Order your copy, today.

Looking for some short spiritual reflections and blessings? Check out GOOD ENOUGH: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection. Available wherever books are sold.

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Many of us miss the churches of our childhood and are trying to figure out what pieces of our faith to keep and which to leave behind. My guest today knows that better than anyone. Randall Balmer is a historian of American religion at Dartmouth College, THE expert of American evangelicalism, and a pastor’s kid (PK!) of a fundamentalist preacher.  

In this conversation, Kate and Randy talk about: 

• How to reconcile the evangelism of today with its progressive past
• The cost of a more manufactured worship experience
• Why they both value those stray moments of faith
• What (if any) hope is there for evangelicalism 
• Maintaining faith when you’ve been hurt by the church

Kate ends with a blessing for when faith sometimes breaks your heart.

***

Looking for the transcript or show notes? Click here.

Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter.

Subscribe to our weekly email for blessings.

No Cure for Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear) is now available wherever books are sold. Order your copy, today.

Looking for some short spiritual reflections and blessings? Check out GOOD ENOUGH: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection. Available wherever books are sold.

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See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ibram Kendi and Kate Bowler have more in common than they would have liked. Historians and professors. Parents of young kids. Diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer at age 35. No history of the disease in their families. 

In this conversation, Dr. Ibram Kendi (who Time magazine’s called one of the most influential people of 2020) and Kate discuss: 

• How a diagnosis like the one they share creates a sense of urgency in their work
• How to address the policies behind health care disparities
• Why addressing racism with your kids is an act of courageous living
• The importance of recognizing our own fragility
• Learning to celebrate scars as evidence of life

CW: colon cancer 

***

Looking for the transcript or show notes? Click here.

Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter.

Subscribe to our weekly email for blessings.

No Cure for Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear) is now available wherever books are sold. Order your copy, today.

Looking for some short spiritual reflections and blessings? Check out GOOD ENOUGH: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection. Available wherever books are sold.

To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy

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See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I'm Kate Bowler and I am so excited to be back for another season of EVERYTHING HAPPENS. A podcast where we don't have to pretend to explain away our suffering. If your life is not going the way you hoped, I'm someone you do not have to pretend around.

About seven years ago, I was diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer at age 35. And I have ruined small talk ever since. Thanks to the wonders of immunotherapy, I'm no longer in that sort of endless danger zone of cancer, but it means that I live with my body, often breaking as a kind of chronic condition. And I imagine that's where a lot of us find ourselves one way or another with lives that keep sometimes breaking.

So often people want us to say the easy thing like something terrible happens and we're supposed to say "everything happens for a reason." Or "it made me who I am today." We find ourselves surrounded by a culture who loves us for our positive mindset or our willingness to buy essential oils from our cousin named Jennifer. But on this podcast, we're going to do something different.

There will be no easy answers. There will be no trite, Precious Moments type wisdom. They'll just be suggestions of how to live and breathe and walk through the things that we didn't really want to carry.

We would love to hear from you this season. Leave me a voicemail at 919-322-8731. You can share something that resonated on an episode, a question you have or just tell us your story.

Wherever you listen to podcasts, subscribe so you don't miss a new episode every Tuesday morning starting September 6th.

Bless you, dear listener, and may you bring all of your questions and fears and curiosity to the table. You, in all your joy and pain and uncertainty and doubt and hope, are welcome here.

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Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter.

Be sure to subscribe to our email to receive weekly blessings.

No Cure for Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear) is now available wherever books are sold. Order your copy, today.

Looking for some short spiritual reflections to start your day? Check out GOOD ENOUGH: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection. Available wherever books are sold.

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In this special episode, Kate visited the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, at Lambeth Palace in London.

In this funny and poignant conversation, the Archbishop and Kate discuss:

• Why sometimes we feel God’s love (or don’t) 
• How to pray when you have run out of words (he gives us permission to be impolite with God)
• Why he is suspicious of joy, and why they both use the theology of Winnie the Pooh 
• How people in emotionally expensive professions can feel permission to do small acts of love (and angry when it’s not enough)

***

Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter.

Be sure to subscribe to our weekly email for blessings all summer long.

No Cure for Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear) is now available wherever books are sold. Order your copy, today.

Looking for some short spiritual reflections? Check out GOOD ENOUGH: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection. Available wherever books are sold.

To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy

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See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How is it that joy and pain seem to coexist at once? Susan Cain (author of the bestseller Quiet) explores this question in her new book, Bittersweet. 

In this conversation, Kate and Susan discuss:

• How we are literally hardwired for compassion 
• Susan’s advice for pushing back against compassion fatigue
• How that feeling of longing isn’t something to be ashamed of but allows us to see things clearly—the beautiful and the terrible

If you ever feel like you didn’t have a word for the sweetness of longings (and why your compassionate heart is a gift), this conversation is for you. 

***

Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter.

Be sure to subscribe to our weekly email for bits of wisdom, prayers, free downloads, and more.

No Cure for Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear) is now available wherever books are sold. Order your copy, today.

Looking for some short spiritual reflections? Check out GOOD ENOUGH: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection. Available wherever books are sold.

To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When a random weight-lifting accident left cardiologist Dr. Haider Warraich in chronic pain, he went from being a physician to being a patient in one moment. His experience of chronic pain gives him a hard won insight as he reexamines how we understand and treat pain.

In this conversation, Kate and Haider discuss:

• the difference between pain and suffering
• why pain might be subjective, yet should be taken just as seriously (and perhaps invites doctors to not just treat blood work or an x-ray, but the patient in front of them)
• why we should erase the arbitrary demarkations between mind and body when it comes to understanding and treating chronic pain
• the value of accepting the reality of pain as a fundamental truth of being human (and why that doesn’t mean “it’s all in your head”)

If you are someone (or loves someone) who suffers from chronic pain, this episode is for you. Haider talks with such gentleness about when your pain isn’t believed and how doctors can do a better job at treating their patients in pain. 

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Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter.

Be sure to subscribe to our weekly email for bits of wisdom, prayers, free downloads, and more.

No Cure for Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear) is now available wherever books are sold. Order your copy, today.

Introducing, GOOD ENOUGH: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection. Available wherever books are sold.

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