We Can Do Hard Things

Glennon takes us along on her “exile walk” to share how recovery’s going and some new found wisdom that will help us all including: 

1. How to shut off the mind and stop over-intellectualizing to allow space for other parts and memories to rise up.

2. Acknowledging that nobody’s “fine” – and we’re all either transforming or transmitting our pain. 

3. Glennon's interaction with a young surfer that offended them both (in very different ways). 

4. How to start to let go of the prize of privilege in order to receive the treasures of being fully human. 

If you haven’t listened to Glennon’s last recovery episode, check it out here: Ep 182 Glennon Update: Lessons from Therapy.

If talk about eating disorders and mental illness helps: Listen today.

If it triggers: Skip today.

CW: eating disorders

If you have an eating disorder, you may find the National Alliance for Eating Disorders a helpful resource: https://www.allianceforeatingdisorders.com/

MICHELLE OBAMA!

1. How to develop the one tool that has sustained Mrs. Obama throughout her entire life.

2. How to identify whether you’re deeply satisfied or deeply stuck – and how to reach for the goal of living “comfortably afraid.”

3. What we never knew about Mrs. Obama’s incredible father, Fraser C. Robinson III, and how he shaped her life. 

4. How to avoid what Mrs. Obama calls, “Getting lost in the battle of explaining yourself.”

5. How to finally live in your own Enoughness. 

Read Mrs. Obama’s glorious new book THE LIGHT WE CARRY.  

TW: @MichelleObama

IG: @MichelleObama

Pioneering sports journalist – the brilliant, hilarious, badass Sarah Spain – joins us to reflect on:

1. One of our most popular episodes – Episode 147: The Episode That Wasn’t – when we ended an interview after the guest was disrespectful to our team member;

2. The constant indignities and inequities in male-dominated fields;

3. To report or not to report harassment – and what actually happens when you do report?; and

4. How to help ourselves – and come together to help each other – secure safer and more just work spaces.  

CW: sexual harassment 

About Sarah: 

Sarah Spain is an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning sports journalist. In her 12+ years at ESPN she has worked as a radio and podcast host, writer and TV analyst. She's a minority owner of the Chicago Red Stars of the NWSL, a co-founder of “Hear The Cheers,” which provides hearing aids and equipment to kids so they can continue participating in sports, and is on the board of Embarc, a program that provides community-driven experiences and learning opportunities to low-income Chicago high school students. 

TW: @SarahSpain

IG:@spain2323

1. When is it too late to cancel on someone?

2. How do we split the bill?

3. Text messages: What NOT to do, and is there time-induced amnesty?

4. Phone calls in public: Hell no, or do what you wish?

5. Once and for all: Can we agree on how we all get off the plane? 

Today, Abby – whose mom sent her to etiquette school to learn to be a “lady” – and Glennon and Amanda – whose mom did not – discuss the New Rules for being human while surrounded by humans; the thin line between manners meant to offer consideration vs. manners meant to signal superiority; how we are all inadvertently insulting each other; and where we go from here.

In Part 2 of this Abby conversation, Abby shared the greatest gift she’s ever received. In this Part 3, we dive into: exactly what happened that magical morning from Abby, Glennon, and Amanda’s perspective; Craig’s reaction; and why it was that singular moment that Abby finally felt fully loved and chosen.

If you haven’t listened to Part 1, check it out here: Episode 188 Abby Wambach: Will I Ever Be Truly Loved? 

If you didn’t catch Part 2, listen here: Episode 189 Abby for the 1st Time On Divorce & Her Unrequited Love.

In Part 2 of our deeply personal interview with Abby, she reveals for the first time:

1. Her romance with an unrequited love – someone who strung her along hopelessly for years;

2. Her anguish and rebirth after being arrested;

3. Her sense of loss when being crowned FIFA Player of the Year; 

4. Her divorce after fighting for marriage equality – inside her own family and on the public stage; and 

5. The night she met Glennon.

Before you start the episode, please go back and listen to Part 1 of our interview with Abby: We Can Do Hard Things Episode 188 Abby Wambach: Will I Ever Be Truly Loved?

And come back tomorrow for Abby’s *very* special Part 3 bonus episode!

ABOUT ABBY WAMBACH:

Olympian, Activist, Author, and Co-host of the We Can Do Hard Things Podcast

Abby Wambach is a two-time Olympic gold medalist, FIFA World Cup Champion, and six-time winner of the U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year award. She was the United States’ leading scorer in the 2007 and 2011 Women’s World Cup tournaments and the 2004 and 2012 Olympics. Abby is the host of ABBY’S PLACES on ESPN+, in which she showcases what makes her beloved sport of soccer a worldwide sensation. An activist for equality and inclusion, she is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller WOLFPACK as well as the adaptation of WOLFPACK for the next generation, an instant New York Times bestseller. She is a founder and part owner of Angel City FC, the first majority-female-owned soccer team in history, and is a member of the Board of Directors for the non-profit organization Together Rising. Abby lives in California with her wife and their three children.

TW: @abbywambach 

IG: @abbywambach

This is the one!  

Our favorite person on the planet – Abby Wambach – is going deep, answering the questions that we all have, but that only Glennon and Amanda can ask.  

Abby shares, in an intensely new and courageous way, about her lifelong pursuit of love – including her complicated relationships with her mom, soccer, her first marriage, queerness, and her “shadow self” – and why she has questioned her own lovability for so much of her life.

ABOUT ABBY WAMBACH:

Olympian, Activist, Author, and Co-host of the We Can Do Hard Things Podcast

Abby Wambach is a two-time Olympic gold medalist, FIFA World Cup Champion, and six-time winner of the U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year award. She was the United States’ leading scorer in the 2007 and 2011 Women’s World Cup tournaments and the 2004 and 2012 Olympics. Abby is the host of ABBY’S PLACES on ESPN+, in which she showcases what makes her beloved sport of soccer a worldwide sensation. An activist for equality and inclusion, she is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller WOLFPACK as well as the adaptation of WOLFPACK for the next generation, an instant New York Times bestseller. She is a founder and part owner of Angel City FC, the first majority-female-owned soccer team in history, and is a member of the Board of Directors for the non-profit organization Together Rising. Abby lives in California with her wife and their three children.

TW: @abbywambach 

IG: @abbywambach

1. How to listen to the signals our bodies give us, and other concrete strategies to hold on to being human.

2. The healing power of honoring and reconnecting with our little girl selves and with our Mother Earth.

3. How, if all else fails, we can practice presence and embodiment by talking to a house plant.  

4. The traumatizing effect of purity culture, colonization, and assimilation, and how to come home to the wholeness of our core nature, desire, and wisdom. 

5. Concrete, everyday acts of rebellion that help us regain what we lost, and restore us to who we really are. 

About Kaitlin: 

Kaitlin Curtice is an award-winning author, poet-storyteller, and public speaker. As an enrolled citizen of the Potawatomi nation, Kaitlin writes on the intersections of spirituality and identity. She is a wise and vital voice on decolonizing our bodies, faith, and families, and the freedom and peace of embodiment - finding wholeness in ourselves, our stories, and our lineage. Her new book, Living Resistance: An Indigenous Vision for Seeking Wholeness Every Day, examines the journey of resisting the status quo by caring for ourselves, one another, and Mother Earth – and is available now. Find her on Twitter and Instagram at @kaitlincurtice.

If you want to hear more about Embodiment, please listen to the We Can Do Hard Things episode 168 Sonya Renee Taylor: What If You Loved Your Body?

GLORIA STEINEM – who dedicates her life to ensuring we know that we are not broken, but were born into a system intended to break us – lives in the DNA of millions who are giving birth to movements or to themselves.

She reminds us why there’s nothing more radical than telling the truth of our lives, and listening to the truth of others’ lives. 

She reminds us that leaving our lives unlived is no badge of honor. 

She reminds us of the thirst-quenching, life-giving, revolutionary power of laughter.   

She reminds us of the three different kinds of laughter, and that we can do hard things – like laugh our way to liberation. 

About Gloria: 

Gloria Steinem is a writer, lecturer, political activist, and feminist organizer. She has spent decades traveling in this and other countries as an organizer and lecturer and is a frequent media spokeswoman on issues of equality. She is particularly interested in the shared origins of sex and race caste systems, gender roles and child abuse as roots of violence, non-violent conflict resolution, the cultures of Indigenous Peoples, and organizing across boundaries for peace and justice. She lives in New York City. 

TW: @GloriaSteinem

IG: @gloriasteinem

We saw the film WOMEN TALKING and we couldn’t rest until we had the chance to speak with the genius who wrote, directed, and is nominated for an Oscar for it: Sarah Polley. 

This conversation is about hope, survival, imagination, and revolution. It’s about burning it all down and building from the ashes. 

Please listen to this conversation and then please watch the film. You will be powerfully changed. 

CW // sexual assault

About Sarah: 

SARAH POLLEY is an Oscar-nominated director and award-winning actor whose works include Away From Her, Take This Waltz, and Stories We Tell. As an actor, Polley starred in a variety of films including The Sweet Hereafter, Go, Dawn of the Dead, Mr. Nobody, and My Life Without Me.

In 2022, Polley released an autobiographical collection of essays – Run Towards the Danger: Confrontations with a Body of Memory.

More recently, Polley wrote and directed the film adaptation of Miriam Toews’s novel Women Talking, which has since been nominated for several awards, including the Academy Awards, Critics’ Choice Awards, and Golden Globe Awards.

IG: @realsarahpolley