We Can Do Hard Things

In this deeply intimate collaboration with beloved therapist Esther Perel, she dives deep in a couples therapy session with a Ukrainian couple torn apart by the war.

The wife is compelled to leave the country for the sake of her youngest son; the husband and older son are compelled to stay in the warzone for the sake of their country.

Miraculously, even amid unthinkable loss – and maybe especially amid unthinkable loss – love and connection are unrelenting.

Love does impossible things.

(Ukrainian and English language transcripts available at http://wecandohardthingspodcast.com)

1. The politeness curse – and how it almost killed Geena.  

2. Geena’s brilliant “Oops…” strategy to get folks to act decent.  

3. Abby thanks Geena for the monumental impact of A League of Their Own on her life.

4. The story behind the iconic ending of Thelma and Louise.

5. The hilarious story of why Geena’s mom chose her name – setting her on an unlikely feminist path.  

CW: Brief mention of sexual assault

About Geena: 

Geena Davis is a two-time Academy Award winning actor and has appeared in roles that became cultural landmarks including Muriel Pritchett in The Accidental Tourist, Thelma in Thelma & Louise, and Dottie Hinson in A League of Their Own. She is also a world-class athlete, a member of the genius society Mensa, and is now recognized for her advocacy for women and girls as Founder and Chair of the Emmy-winning non-profit Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, which engages film and television creators to dramatically increase the percentage of female characters, and reduce gender stereotyping, in media made for children. Her memoir, DYING OF POLITENESS, is available now. 

TW: @GeenaDavisOrg

IG: @geenadavisorg

No digging deep.

No paradigm shifts to be found.

Welcome to Easy Fridays.

P.S. Thanks to @ohnochels & @dmc1138 for the haunted house laughs.

1. The top (surprising) signs that tell you it’s time to set a boundary.

2. Paying attention to “energy leakage” – when you’re giving out more than you’re getting back.

3. How to set the specific boundaries you need with in-laws, friends, and romantic partners.

4. Scripts for Melissa’s green, yellow, and red system of clear, kind communication in boundary setting.

5. Rethinking boundaries – not as not a response to someone else’s behavior – but as giving voice to your worth and health.

CW: brief mention of sexual abuse

About Melissa:

Melissa Urban is a six-time New York Times bestselling author, and her highly anticipated book, The Book of Boundaries, is available now. She is the host of the Do the Thing podcast – building community, health, and entrepreneurship, and the co-founder and CEO of Whole30. She lives in Salt Lake City, UT.

TW: @melissa_urban

IG: @melissau

1. The Mother of Codependence shares the difference between healthy and unhealthy helping. 

2. The daily practice that helps Melody stop controlling others and “Let Life Happen.”

3. Why no one is able to gaslight you more than you. 

4. The one area of life where Codependence is necessary.

5. All four of us surrender to the truth that we will never be Codependent No More.

About Melody:

A pioneering voice in self-help literature, Melody Beattie is the author of many bestselling books, including Codependent No More – a #1 New York Times bestseller, which has sold over 7 million copies – as well as The Language of Letting Go, Playing It by Heart, The Grief Club, and Beyond Codependency. An updated edition of the bestselling, modern classic, Codependent No More, is available now. Melody lives in Southern California.

TW: @MelodyBeattie

IG: @authormelodybeattie

1. Abby shares with Sara the great personal impact Sara’s music has made on her life.

2. Sara and Glennon bond over the joy of solitude, the underrated gifts of being heavy-hearted, and the fact that “there are too many things to be worried about at all times” to be lighthearted.

3. When you are in deep stress, do you try to sabotage your job, relationship, etc.? (Before this conversation, Amanda thought it was just her.)

4. How playfulness and joy – connecting to the little kid who grew up into you – are vital to loving yourself. 

5. Sara’s beautiful journey with medication for depression and anxiety – and how she learned her anxiety often arises from an unexpressed need. 

About Sara:

Sara Bareilles is a Tony Award and Emmy Award nominated actor, and Grammy Award winning singer and songwriter.

On Broadway, Sara composed music and lyrics for Waitress, in which she was also the lead. Sara also produced original music and executive produced the musical drama series Little Voice. She plays Dawn Solano on the Emmy-nominated musical comedy series Girls5eva, and stars as The Baker’s Wife in the Broadway revival Into the Woods.

TW: @SaraBareilles

IG: @sarabareilles

1. How the Abby+Alex sisterhood began, how hard it was for Alex to watch Abby suffer at the end of her career, and how friends can build each other up.

2. How to get back on the field – in life and in sport – after crushing defeat.

3. The way Alex’s mom helped Alex fulfill her dream, and what Alex is teaching her own daughter, Charlie.

4. How Alex finally stopped comparing herself to others and started resting in her own confidence.

5. Alex’s relationship with soccer – and does she still love it?

About Alex

Alex Morgan is a two-time FIFA Women’s World Cup Champion, Olympic Gold Medalist, UEFA Women’s Champions League Champion, and NWSL Champion. An entrepreneur, author, social media phenom, and marketing icon – Alex’s ability to inspire and excite fans stretches far beyond the pitch. She is the leading founder of TOGETHXR, a lifestyle and media company with a focus on youth and equality storytelling. As mom to Charlie, Alex is tackling motherhood while continuing to be a force on the pitch. In fact, I am not sure i’ve ever seen her as on fire right now, scoring goals at a wild rate for her NWSL team the San Diego Wave. 

TW: @alexmorgan13

IG: @alexmorgan13

1. The Nap Ministry’s Nap Bishop shares small, concrete ways to bring rest into our own lives – especially when rest seems impossible. 

2. Why so many of us feel like machines instead of humans – and the power of imagination as a spiritual practice to reconnect with our humanity and divinity.

3. Why grind culture – a collaboration of capitalism and white supremacy – wants to keep us exhausted, and how we can resist a culture of overwhelming busy-ness.  

4. Why everything changes when we embrace ease as our birthright. 

5. Creative ways to reimagine rest within our hectic daily lives. 

About Tricia

Tricia Hersey is a Chicago native who has called Georgia home for the last 12 years. She has over 20 years of experience as a multidisciplinary artist, writer, theologian and community organizer. She is the founder of The Nap Ministry, an organization that examines rest as a form of resistance and reparations by curating spaces for the community to rest via community rest activations, immersive workshops, performance art installations, and social media. Her research interests include Black liberation theology, womanism, somatics, and cultural trauma. She is the author of the upcoming book Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto which will be published in October 2022. You can learn more about her work and the book at thenapministry.com.

TW: @TheNapMinistry

IG: @thenapministry

1. What Melissa’s parents said when she told them about her dream – and how those magic words set the course of Melissa’s life.

2. The green and red flags Melissa tells her kids to look for in a relationship.

3. Why Melissa is a shark, and her brilliant strategy to “Run Around the Block” in almost any difficult situation. 

4. Melissa’s and Abby’s experiences with ghosts.

5. How Melissa learned about sex – and the way she talks to her kids about it.

About Melissa:

Melissa McCarthy is an award-winning writer, producer, and actor. Her work includes Bridesmaids, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Ghostbusters,The Heat; Identity Thief; This is 40, The Hangover Part III, The Starling, “Gilmore Girls”, and “Samantha Who?”. She won an Emmy Award and People’s Choice Award for her role in “Mike & Molly” as well as an Emmy for “Saturday Night Live”. 

Melissa and her husband Ben Falcone founded On the Day Productions and have produced Tammy, The Boss, Life of the Party, “Nobodies,” “Little Big Shots,” Superintelligence , Thunder Force, “God’s Favorite Idiot,” and Bob Ross: Happy Accidents, Betrayal & Greed.

TW: @melissamccarthy

IG: @melissamccarthy

1. What to do when you’ve done everything you were supposed to do and ended up in a place you don’t want to be. 

2. Why the question “What do you want?” is terrifying – and how to start answering it authentically for yourself.

3. The power of imagining what does not yet exist in order to make space for new possibilities. 

4. The gift of a “midlife crisis”

5. What a mother’s job really is.

About Celeste:

Celeste Ng is the number one New York Times bestselling author of Everything I Never Told You and Little Fires Everywhere. Her third novel, Our Missing Hearts, is available now. Ng is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation, and her work has been published in over thirty languages.

TW: @pronounced_ing

IG: @pronounced_ing