We Can Do Hard Things

1. A hilarious, profound take on judging people, and why Luvvie’s telling the world–and has often told Glennon–to: “Fix your face.”

2. How to prepare for hard conversations with those we love–including the lists Luvvie brings to those talks that help keep her calm and vulnerable.

3. The importance of sitting with the fear behind the questions: “Who am I when I am not giving something to somebody?” and “What is my worth when I have nothing to offer?”

4. How we can affirm our teen Troublemakers to keep being different–that their power is in remaining as odd and amazing as they already are–and the complications that led to in Glennon and Abby’s home. 

About Luvvie:

Luvvie Ajayi Jones is a two-time New York Times bestselling author, podcast host, and sought-after speaker who thrives at the intersection of humor, media, and justice. Her critically acclaimed books Professional Troublemaker: The Fear-Fighter Manual and I’m Judging You: The Do-Better Manual were instant bestsellers and established her as a literary force with a powerful pen. Professional Troublemaker was just released in paperback.  

She’s an internationally recognized speaker who takes on dozens of stages every year around the globe and has spoken at some of the world's most innovative companies and conferences, including Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Twitter. She is also co-creator of the #SharetheMicNow global movement and hosts her podcast, Professional Troublemaker.

Instagram: @luvvie

Twitter: @Luvvie

1. What if we stop trying to figure out whether our feelings and intuition are “right” or “wrong”– and instead, just acknowledge them as real–and move toward them?

2. How Glennon is experiencing a little shift in peace, joy, and non-reactivity through her newfound relationship with meditation.

3. Why a lot of our suffering exists in the space between the Knowing and the Doing–and how life is at its best and most exciting when we shorten that gap.

1. Why do we spend our lives trying to become what our culture ascribes as “good” only to burn ourselves out, wake up, and realize: I thought it would all be more beautiful than this?

2. Why Glennon says that stillness has been her greatest teacher–and how she was able to find it in her most rock bottom moments. 

3. How listening for and committing to the next right thing then leads us to the next thing–and why we should rush towards whatever looks and feels like freedom.

1. What we should STOP saying to people who are struggling—and what to say, or do, instead. 

2. How Kate received the support she needed because people were willing to embarrass themselves in their attempts to show up—and why we shouldn’t be scared of doing it wrong.

3. Kate offers some words to a Pod Squader feeling anticipatory grief—and how to accept that we can’t always make it okay for the people we love. 

About Kate:

Kate Bowler, PhD is a New York Times bestselling author, podcast host, and a professor at Duke University. She studies the cultural stories we tell ourselves about success, suffering, and whether (or not) we’re capable of change. She is the author of Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel and The Preacher’s Wife: The Precarious Power of Evangelical Women Celebrities. After being unexpectedly diagnosed with Stage IV cancer at age 35, she penned the New York Times bestselling memoir, Everything Happens for a Reason (and Other Lies I’ve Loved) and her latest, No Cure For Being Human (and Other Truths I Need to Hear). Kate hosts the Everything Happens podcast where, in warm, insightful, often funny conversations, she talks with people like Malcolm Gladwell and Anne Lamott about what they’ve learned in difficult times. She lives in Durham, North Carolina with her family and continues to teach do-gooders at Duke Divinity School.

Book: No Cure for Being Human: (And Other Truths I Need to Hear)

Instagram: @katecbowler

Twitter: @KatecBowler

1. Kate describes the overwhelming feeling of love—not anger—that she felt when she was sure she was near death. 

2. Why it’s time we throw out expressions like “Everything is possible” and “What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger,” and rewrite our cultural cliches. 

3. Why Kate delights in celebrating the holidays—and how to survive the holiday season when there’s grief and loss and fear in all of us. 

4. Kate and Glennon bond over their love for swear words—and how using them is a reflection of what’s going on inside of them.

About Kate:

Kate Bowler, PhD is a New York Times bestselling author, podcast host, and a professor at Duke University. She studies the cultural stories we tell ourselves about success, suffering, and whether (or not) we’re capable of change. She is the author of Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel and The Preacher’s Wife: The Precarious Power of Evangelical Women Celebrities. After being unexpectedly diagnosed with Stage IV cancer at age 35, she penned the New York Times bestselling memoir, Everything Happens for a Reason (and Other Lies I’ve Loved) and her latest, No Cure For Being Human (and Other Truths I Need to Hear). Kate hosts the Everything Happens podcast where, in warm, insightful, often funny conversations, she talks with people like Malcolm Gladwell and Anne Lamott about what they’ve learned in difficult times. She lives in Durham, North Carolina with her family and continues to teach do-gooders at Duke Divinity School.

Book: No Cure for Being Human: (And Other Truths I Need to Hear)

Instagram: @katecbowler

Twitter: @KatecBowler

1. What if we deleted the picture in our head of how it’s “supposed to be,” and looked at “what is” right now, as enough?

2. What makes a good apology–and why we shouldn't pretend that it is possible to reorder what we did to people.

3. Glennon describes “the ache”–and how it’s really love, coming and going, and making life more beautiful.

1. Glennon, Abby, and Amanda share how opening up and being vulnerable on the podcast has changed their lives. 

2. What your preparation style says about your personality—and how some people bring their “magic” while others bring index cards. 

3. Abby recalls “the biggest bomb of her life”—and why she was nervous to join Glennon and Amanda on We Can Do Hard Things.

1. Why Ashley says we have to talk about what hurts if we’re ever going to heal.

2. Glennon asks Ashley about the power of apologizing—and why Ashley says we must begin apologizing to the people we love.

3. How many of us are really good at loving other people, but often struggle to let ourselves be loved.

4. Why Ashley says that nothing has ever given her more peace and power than knowing that she doesn’t really need others to believe in her—because she believes so deeply in herself.

About Ashley:

Ashley C. Ford’s New York Times best-selling memoir, Somebody’s Daughter, was published by Flatiron Books in June 2021. Ford is the former host of The Chronicles of Now podcast, co-host of The HBO companion podcast Lovecraft Country Radio. She currently lives in Indianapolis, Indiana with her husband, poet and fiction writer Kelly Stacy, and their chocolate lab Astro Renegade Ford-Stacy.

Ford has written or guest-edited for ELLE Magazine, Slate, Teen Vogue, New York Magazine, The New York Times, Domino, Cup of Jo, and various other web and print publications.

Book: Somebody’s Daughter

Instagram: @smashfizzle

Twitter: @iSmashFizzle

1. How to find a way to live in peace: to actually love complicated parents without compromising our love for ourselves.

2. How we can’t change our past—and why Ashley says that forgiveness is accepting the fact that the past is never going to be different.

3. The importance of being able to hold two truths at the same time: that, for some of us, our parents did the best they could—and it wasn’t close to good enough.

4. Why Ashley says she struggles, even in adulthood, to accept love and care from people who are not obligated to love and care for her.

5. Why anger often reveals our passion points—and for Ashley, why that leads her to show up for children.

About Ashley: 

Ashley C. Ford’s New York Times best-selling memoir, Somebody’s Daughter, was published by Flatiron Books in June 2021. Ford is the former host of The Chronicles of Now podcast, co-host of The HBO companion podcast Lovecraft Country Radio. She currently lives in Indianapolis, Indiana with her husband, poet and fiction writer Kelly Stacy, and their chocolate lab Astro Renegade Ford-Stacy.

Ford has written or guest-edited for ELLE Magazine, Slate, Teen Vogue, New York Magazine, The New York Times, Domino, Cup of Jo, and various other web and print publications.

Book: Somebody’s Daughter

Instagram: @smashfizzle

Twitter: @iSmashFizzle 

1. Why embracing that it’s not possible to do everything brings freedom.

2. One change that Amanda made to get back into her body and reclaim her fire.

3. How to navigate our anxieties about the impending “return to normal” and how to hold onto the rhythm many of us have found comforting during the pandemic.

4. How Glennon’s been rethinking her popular Untamed quote “The braver I am, the luckier I get.”

5. How inviting more life into your life gives your people permission to live more fully.