We Can Do Hard Things

1. Why guns are now the leading cause of death for American children and teens, and who is profiting from America’s suffering.

2. What to say today when your child leaves the house to help protect them from gun violence.

3. The lie our leaders are selling us about why they won’t pass the reforms that 90% of Americans want, and how one mom became the NRA’s biggest nightmare.

4. How to safeguard our kids from the negative impact of for-profit active shooter drills in schools. 

About Shannon:

Shannon Watts was a stay at home mother of five when she founded Moms Demand Action, the nation’s first and largest grassroots movement fighting against gun violence – and the most powerful counter-movement the gun lobby has ever faced. Moms Demand Action now has a chapter in every state and, with over 8 million supporters, is now larger than the National Rifle Association. For almost ten years, Moms Demand Action volunteers have stopped the NRA’s priority legislation in statehouses roughly 90 percent of the time, helped pass hundreds of gun safety laws across the country, changed corporate policies and educated Americans about secure gun storage. Shannon’s book, Fight Like a Mother: How a Grassroots Movement Took on the Gun Lobby and Why Women Will Change the World, is now available in paperback.

TW: @shannonrwatts

IG:@shannonrwatts

1. What Alua has learned about living well from the many people she’s helped walk home as a death doula. 

2. The “deathbed test” that guides her toward what is important and helps her stay present.

3. Alua eases Abby’s immense fear of death by sharing her glitter-wave vision.

4. The most surprising thing she wants us to know about death.

5. Concrete steps we can take now to help prepare ourselves–and our loved ones–for the inevitable.

About Alua:

Alua Arthur is a death doula, recovering attorney, and the founder of Going with Grace, a death doula training and end-of-life planning organization that exists to support people as they answer the question, “What must I do to be at peace with myself so that I may live presently and die gracefully?” Going with Grace works to improve and redefine the end-of-life experience for people rooted in every community using the individual lived experience as the foundation. Alua was a keynote speaker at EndWell 2019, and has been featured in the LA Times, Vogue, Refinery29, The Doctors, and InStyle. She is inspired by the gift of LIFE itself and is always on the quest for the best donuts and fried plantains!

TW: @goinggracefully

IG: @going_with_grace

1. How we are each haunted by our family’s secrets and trauma–whether we know them or not–and how to break the cycle for future generations. 

2. The astounding new research on generational trauma showing that our personal trauma is passed down genetically to our children and grandchildren.  

3. Our unconscious need to heal what our parents could not–and how to mourn what we cannot control.  

4. Why our bodies carry what our mind won’t remember–and how to release that burden.  

5. Dr. Galit’s new book Emotional Inheritance and the incredible new way to understand ourselves.  

About Dr. Atlas:

Dr. Galit Atlas is a psychoanalyst and clinical supervisor in private practice in New York City. She is on the faculty of the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. Dr. Atlas has published three books for clinicians and numerous articles and book chapters. A leader in the field of relational psychoanalysis, Dr. Atlas is a recipient of the André François Award and the NADTA Research Award. She teaches and lectures throughout the United States and internationally. Her new book Emotional Inheritance was published in January 2022 and is being translated into 17 languages.

IG: @galit_atlas

Glennon and Abby welcome their dear friend Cameron Esposito to discuss:

1. Cameron’s brutiful relationship with her body–and how it feels playing a sexy TV role.

2. The way Cameron grew up using humor as self-defense and to become socially “valuable”–and the moment she wondered if comedy was no longer working for her. 

3. Why Cameron says she’s able to cry for the first time in 35 years. 

4. How as a gender-nonconforming queer kid, Cameron felt “overnoticed”–and how being a comedian allows her to “hide in plain sight."

5. The rule Cameron and Glennon made to help them become better at friendship.

CW: eating disorders

About Cameron:

Cameron Esposito is a queer, gender non-conforming standup comic, actor, writer and host.

As a standup, Cameron has headlined tours and festivals nationwide and internationally. As an actor and host, Cameron has been seen across television and film, appearing in big budget films and beloved Sundance indies, and on Netflix, HBO, NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, Starz, Comedy Central, Logo, TBS, IFC, E! and Cartoon Network. Cameron's podcast, Queery, features hour long conversations with some of the brightest luminaries in the LGBTQ+ community, including Emmy and Grammy winning performers, Olympians, politicians, even an astronaut. Cameron's writing has been published by The New York Times, Vulture/New York Magazine, Vanity Fair, Bon Appetit, Refinery29 and more. Cameron's first book, Save Yourself, was an instant bestseller and is available in paperback March of 2022. Next up, Cameron is set to recur on the ABC series A Million Little Things and appear in HBOMax's Moonshot. Cameron lives in Los Angeles and likes to swim.

TW: @cameronesposito

IG: @cameronesposito

Part Two of our gorgeous conversation with Elizabeth Gilbert:

1. Liz describes Rayya’s death as “a fist fight”–and how Rayya went out swinging.

2. In the wake of Rayya’s death, how Liz grieved, and what helped.

3. Liz’s spiritual practices: communing with a higher power, her recovery community, and starting over.

About Elizabeth: 

Elizabeth Gilbert is author of the international bestseller, EAT PRAY LOVE, which has been translated into over thirty languages, and sold over 12 million copies worldwide. The book became so popular that Time Magazine named Elizabeth as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2010, Elizabeth published a follow-up to EAT PRAY LOVE called COMMITTED—an instant a #1 New York Times Bestseller, as well as BIG MAGIC: CREATIVE LIVING BEYOND FEAR. She is author of two novels: THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS, and CITY OF GIRLS. And she is the creator of the Onward Book Club, which takes place on her Instagram via a live chat, as a way of spotlighting, studying, and celebrating the work of Black women authors. 

Elizabeth divides her time between New York City, rural New Jersey, and everywhere else.

TW: @GilbertLiz

IG: @elizabeth_gilbert_writer

Part One of our intimate conversation with Elizabeth Gilbert:

1. When Glennon called Liz about Abby–and Liz then told Glennon about Rayya.

2. The moment Liz imploded her life as she knew it.

3. How, after a decade of friendship, Liz finally told Rayya that she was in love with her.

4. The brutal chaos of Rayya’s addiction at the end of her life–and what Liz had to do and say to protect herself.

About Liz: 

Elizabeth Gilbert is author of the international bestseller, EAT PRAY LOVE, which has been translated into over thirty languages, and sold over 12 million copies worldwide. The book became so popular that Time Magazine named Elizabeth as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2010, Elizabeth published a follow-up to EAT PRAY LOVE called COMMITTED—an instant a #1 New York Times Bestseller, as well as BIG MAGIC: CREATIVE LIVING BEYOND FEAR. She is author of two novels: THE SIGNATURE OF ALL THINGS, and CITY OF GIRLS. And she is the creator of the Onward Book Club, which takes place on her Instagram via a live chat, as a way of spotlighting, studying, and celebrating the work of Black women authors. 

Elizabeth divides her time between New York City, rural New Jersey, and everywhere else.

TW: @GilbertLiz

IG: @elizabeth_gilbert_writer

1. With everything going on in the world, and in our lives, is “Burnout” the reason we all feel like zombies? 

2. Why stress is like trash: You have to get rid of it often or your life starts to stink.  

3. Emily and Amelia Nagoski – the authors of Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle – answer our Pod Squad’s burning questions about how to bounce back from burnout. 

About Emily: 

EMILY NAGOSKI is the award-winning author of the New York Times bestselling Come As You Are and The Come As You Are Workbook. She earned an M.S. in counseling and a Ph.D. in health behavior, both from Indiana University, with clinical and research training at the Kinsey Institute. Now she combines sex education and stress education to teach women to live with confidence and joy inside their bodies. Emily’s new podcast, Come As You Are, is launching this Summer and her forthcoming book, Come Together, will be released in 2023. She lives in Massachusetts with two dogs, a cat, and a cartoonist.

TW: @emilynagoski

IG: @enagoski

About Amelia: 

AMELIA NAGOSKI, Amelia is the co-author with Emily, of the New York Times bestseller Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle. A Doctorate of Musical Arts, her job as she describes it is to run around waving her arms and making funny noises and generally doing whatever it takes to help singers get in touch with their internal experience. She lives in New England with her husband, one cat, and two rescue dogs.

IG: @amelianagoski

1. Thinking of depression as a way of seeing the world … through toilet paper roll binoculars. 

2. Why healing might actually just be permission to go. 

3. Chanel’s definition of success: refusing to succumb to perfection or exhaustion–and showing up as herself in every moment.

4. The healing moment when Chanel returned to Stanford and was held in sound–which set her free.

About Chanel: 

Chanel Miller is a writer and artist who received her BA in Literature from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her critically acclaimed memoir, KNOW MY NAME, was a New York Times bestseller, a New York Times Book Review Notable Book, and a National Book Critics Circle Award winner, as well as a best book of 2019 in Time, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, NPR, and People, among others. She is a 2019 Time Next 100 honoree and a 2016 Glamour Woman of the Year honoree under her pseudonym, “Emily Doe.”

IG: chanel_miller

1. How to get your orgasm back.

2. Dr. Jen Gunter’s advice–and personal mantra–for surviving hot flushes.

3. How to differentiate between mental health challenges and menopause.

4. The one easy thing you can do at the doctor’s office to ensure better care.

5. Is menopause a reboot of the brain and an opportunity to reallocate mental resources?

Resource: North American Menopause Society (NAMS) 

About Jen: 

Dr. Jen Gunter is an OB/GYN and pain medicine physician and the author of The Menopause Manifesto, The Vagina Bible, and The Preemie Primer. She is the host of the podcast Body Stuff (TED Audio Collective) and of the streaming docuseries Jensplaining (CBC Gem). She blogs at TheVajenda.com and her writing can also be found in the New York Times, Glamour, DAME, and other publications. Her mission is to build a better medical Internet. She has been called Twitter’s gynecologist, the Internet’s OB/GYN, and a fierce advocate for women’s health.

TW: @DrJenGunter

IG: @drjengunter

1. Hot flushes, night sweats, sleep disturbances, vaginal dryness, and the less common, frequently-missed symptoms of menopause. 

2. A strategy and script for how to talk to your doctor without being dismissed.

3. The lies and truth about menopause hormone therapy.

4. Why our culture is fixated on investing to ensure men never lose their erection, but is fine with women losing their quality of life. 

5. What we need to know about our bodies and lives during menopause, which will impact up to 20 years of our lives. 

Resource: North American Menopause Society (NAMS) 

About Jen: 

Dr. Jen Gunter is an OB/GYN and pain medicine physician and the author of The Menopause Manifesto, The Vagina Bible, and The Preemie Primer. She is the host of the podcast Body Stuff (TED Audio Collective) and of the streaming docuseries Jensplaining (CBC Gem). She blogs at TheVajenda.com and her writing can also be found in the New York Times, Glamour, DAME, and other publications. Her mission is to build a better medical Internet. She has been called Twitter’s gynecologist, the Internet’s OB/GYN, and a fierce advocate for women’s health.

TW: @DrJenGunter

IG: @drjengunter