Unlocking Us with Brené Brown

I’m talking with singer-songwriter, activist, and artist Jake Wesley Rogers, whom I discovered on TikTok. It was love at first listen — and I mean, I fell madly, truly, deeply in love with him and his art, as well as how it made me feel, how it made me dance, and how it made me sing. He takes me to church. His songs are relatable and universal, he is pure light and love, and I cannot wait for you to hear this conversation.

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OY! It’s our first LIVE Unlocking Us, recorded at ACL Fest in Austin, Texas. I asked Brett Goldstein — writer, comedian, producer, and Emmy Award–winning actor — to join me onstage for a conversation. We talked about the vulnerability and humanity behind comedy, we talked about the band we’d create, we talked about the Muppets — and we talked about why everyone loves his character Roy Kent and all his friends on the beloved comedy series Ted Lasso. This will definitely not be our last live recording.

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I am back with my sisters, Ashley and Barrett, to do a follow-up on the Summer Sister Series on The Gifts of Imperfection. We received a lot of questions in the comments after the six-episode series, so I’ve pulled my sisters back in to seek some answers. We are also knee-deep in life stuff right now, so we open up about our own struggles with some of the topics in question, including running away, setting and managing boundaries, polling others over listening to ourselves, and living in authenticity. Join us as we seek A’s to all the Q’s from social media.

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I’m talking with first-time authors and longtime podcasters — and even longer-time friends — Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman. We’re talking about their book, Big Friendship: How We Keep Each Other Close, and why the lack of meaningful, intimate, vulnerable friendships is almost a crisis right now. One key learning for me is how many of us believe that friendships should be easy and require little effort, when, in reality, we can’t have any meaningful relationships without putting in meaningful work. And that’s not always easy.

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Sarah Niles plays respected sports psychologist Dr. Sharon Fieldstone on Ted Lasso — and I just want to let you know that we have worked very hard for no show spoilers at all. It’s just a great conversation about where she came from, what she believes in, and the story of how she ended up as this central and pivotal character on one of our favorite shows. This is one of those podcasts where if you’re walking, just take a deep breath. If you’re driving, maybe crack the window. If you’re at home, grab some hot tea or a cup of coffee. To know Sarah is to love her and appreciate her talent, her gifts, and her commitment to truth, love, and kindness.

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I’m talking to Esther Perel, psychotherapist, New York Times bestselling author, and podcaster, about relationships in the pandemic and beyond. She blew my mind around some patterns that Steve and I have discovered over the past months in lockdown. We also talk a lot about paradox and straddling the tension of two competing ideas that can both be true. It’s maddening and inspiring. And you’ll hear in real time how I’m wowed, impressed, and completely Esther Perel-ed before it’s all over.

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I’m talking to my dear friend Tarana Burke about her new memoir, Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement. Her book is beautiful, hard, and breathtaking. Tarana is unflinching in her storytelling. As she takes us on the journey that transformed her life and the world, we can feel our own transformation happening. The person who starts this book is not the person who finishes this book.

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It’s the final episode of our six-part Summer Sister Series on The Gifts of Imperfection with my sisters, Ashley and Barrett, and we finish strong with the last of the Guideposts, #9 and #10 (Cultivating Meaningful Work: Letting Go of Self-Doubt and “Supposed To” and Cultivating Laughter, Song, and Dance: Letting Go of Being Cool and “Always in Control”). We talk about how doing meaningful work connects us and how being cool is honestly very lonely. And we finally reach the moment Ashley and Barrett have been waiting for all along — and possibly the only reason they agreed to do this series — they finally get to share their top five songs.

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In this second-to-last episode of the Summer Sister Series on The Gifts of Imperfection, I have a couple of in-real-time revelations: namely that I suck at cultivating quality rest and play (a.k.a. Guidepost #7). Thankfully, on the flip side, I’ve gotten pretty good over the years at cultivating calm and stillness (thank you, 5-mile-long daily walks) and letting go of anxiety as a lifestyle (Guidepost #8). We dig in and ask the existential question: What does your ideal restful vacation look like?

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This might just be the toughest, most personal episode yet in the Summer Sister Series on The Gifts of Imperfection. As Ashley, Barrett, and I tackle Guideposts #5 and #6 (Cultivating Intuition and Trusting Faith: Letting Go of the Need for Certainty and Cultivating Creativity: Letting Go of Comparison), we reflect on our upbringing, which was marked with uncertainty, unpredictability, and plenty of eggshell living. It’s no surprise then that letting go of certainty is one of my greatest challenges. We talk about that and how we try to show up differently in the families we are raising now.

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