Kelly Corrigan Wonders

A letter from Kelly to honor the many special nurses who have provided care to her and the people she loves. (Previously aired)

Andy Laats thought parenting was a complete alphabet—he did A through M, his wife Liz handled N through Z. After she died of ovarian cancer, he learned he'd underestimated the N through Z work, and then discovered there was a whole world beyond language he never even knew existed. In this Go To episode featuring Andy's TED talk from Kelly's curated session on AI and family life, a CEO learns what a mother knows—that the prize of parenting isn't in mastering the logistics or even the emotional check-ins, but in earning access to something beyond words. (Previously aired)

Kelly talks with Ariela, a mother of two in Massachusetts who was told by a doctor, just three days after giving birth, that her newborn son was slowly dying. He was diagnosed with a rare metabolic disorder, rushed to Children's Hospital, and spent 22 days in intensive care. It was a crisis that reshaped her family's finances, her older son's sense of normal — and one she is still navigating every day. They get into why the oxygen-mask metaphor falls apart the moment you're actually living it, and how Ariela is slowly learning to give herself the same grace she gives everyone else.

This is the 2nd in our "Can Do Moms" series made possible by the Monarch Foundation.

To learn more about the Bridge Project visit:

https://www.bridgeproject.org/

Jody Weverka wrote this sweet eulogy for her Auntie Marge - a woman who made everything from crafts to meals to gardens to family life better for everyone. (Previously aired)

A Maasai girl grows up milking cows at dawn, walking ten kilometers for water, sleeping eight to a bed, surrounded by 38 siblings and five mothers who all knew her name and sang her song. Then she leaves for the city—chosen husband, three children, a laptop, shoes with zippers. Kelly shares Ndinini Kimesera Sikar's TED talk about living in two worlds and the question that haunts her: what do we preserve as we rush toward the future? In the village, mental health was strong because life included everything research now tells us we need—movement, nature, community, belonging. In modern life, we've traded all of that for autonomy and advancement, filling bookstores with self-help guides trying to teach us what we once knew naturally. As AI promises to manage even more of family life, Ndinini asks us to pause and decide: do we know what we want to keep and do we know how we'll protect it before the current sweeps us away? (Previously aired)

Chelsea wakes up before 4:30 AM, drives a school bus through rain and mud, and still finds a way to give her sons the kind of stability she lacked growing up. Kelly opens a new four-part series, Can Do Moms with a conversation about what it actually takes to raise good kids on very little sleep and even less margin for error. They talk about the community that shows up when family can't, the quiet calculus of choosing presence over productivity, and why the old story about financial help making people lazy has never held up to scrutiny. It's a conversation about competence that goes unrecognized, love that runs on almost nothing, and the particular kind of intelligence it takes to hold a whole family together — all by yourself.

This episode was made possible by the Monarch Foundation.

To learn more about the Bridge Project visit:

https://www.bridgeproject.org/

Quite often, it’s hard to know how to properly show up for a friend who’s going through a tough time - that is, until you’ve been through the experience yourself and can relate more fully. This is Kelly’s letter to friends who have lost a parent and also to those of us who feel we could have shown up for someone in a better way. (Previously aired)

What does it take to truly see someone before they're gone? Kelly shares an essay she wrote for an evening celebrating awe, reflecting on attention as a practice—learning to notice in wild places with a guide who insists you look closer, then bringing that same discipline to a quiet room where it matters most. (Previously aired)

Why do so many of us sit in silence next to a stranger, certain a conversation would go badly, when the data says otherwise? Kelly talks with behavioral scientist Nicholas Epley, author of the new book A Little More Social, about the small, quiet decisions that keep us more isolated than we need to be—and what happens in the rare moments we choose to reach out instead. We're airing this conversation as a part of the Be Hope Podcast Takeover, a project with the United Nations timed to the UN General Assembly — and Kelly makes the case that one of the simplest paths to hope is human connection. Kelly and Nick dig into why our own predictions about other people are so often wrong, what gets lost when we type instead of talk, and how a single question can turn a stranger into something closer to a friend. It's a conversation about the real, measurable cost of loneliness, and why connection might be less about finding the right words than about simply being willing to try.

Thank you to our friends at the Aspen Ideas Festival where this episode was recorded.

Check out Nick's book A Little More Social: How Small Choices Create Unexpected Happiness, Health, and Connection

This episode is part of the BE HOPE Podcast Takeover by Project Everyone, bringing

together podcasts from around the world to explore the theme of hope and how we can

continue to make progress in a rapidly changing world.

Kelly shares a listener's story that perfectly captures what Thanks For Being Here is all about - honoring the people who matter most, whether they're still with us or have moved on. Tracy Hargan's beautiful toast to her 80-year-old mother Janet shows us why these tributes are so powerful and needed. Through the toast given at her mom's birthday celebration, Tracy reminds us all to speak our love out loud - to grab those chances to tell someone exactly what they mean to us, creating moments of connection that stay with us forever. (Previously aired)