We Can Do Hard Things

1. Why “falling in love” feels like you’re losing your mind—and Amanda’s experience when Glennon fell hard for Abby. 

2. Why Abby thinks the idea of “the one” is the most romantic way to live, and why Amanda thinks “the one” is unromantic and uninteresting.  

3. Glennon’s belief that loves are like plants: some loves are perennials that continue to bloom, others are annuals, full for a season and then back to earth to nourish soil—but that no love is ever, ever wasted.  

4. Why so many of us either think we can be fixed by love, or that we can fix others with our love.

1. Glennon makes a “pod-pology”—and why we should stop saying, “I can’t imagine.” 

2. Amanda makes the case for no longer praising people as “superheroes”—and why we should stop giving them lip service and bring them a sandwich instead.  

3. How we abandon things we love because the environments surrounding them are unbearable—and how to recreate the environment and reclaim what we love.   

4. Amanda’s reaction to her new role opening up on the podcast—and how she feels like the very intimate stories she shares are “not personal at all.”

HOW TO SAY NO with Simone Biles and Laurie Hernandez 

In this very special conversation, three GOATs and Glennon discuss:

1. What we can learn from Simone’s revolutionary decision at the Tokyo Olympics to choose her physical and mental health over the world’s expectations of her. 

2. The tiny decisions that helped Laurie practice trusting herself again after surviving a toxic coach.

3. Why Simone, Laurie, and Abby believe their talent is both a blessing and a curse. 

4. The places and times Simone and Laurie create where they have nothing to prove—to remind themselves they are human beings, not performance machines. 

5. How Simone and Laurie are a big part of one of Abby and Glennon’s favorite family stories.

About Simone: 

Simone Biles, one of the greatest gymnasts of all-time, is the first woman to capture five All-Around World Championship titles. She is the most decorated gymnast in World Championships history—male or female—with 25 medals overall (19 gold), and is a seven-time Olympic medalist (4 gold). A three-time Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year, she earned the rare distinction of having four skills named in her honor—called The Biles. 

Simone’s autobiography Courage to Soar is a New York Times bestseller.  

Simone advocates for change and supports initiatives that provide education and assistance for children and young adults associated with adoption and childcare.

Instagram: @simonebiles

Twitter: @Simone_Biles

About Laurie: 

Laurie Hernandez is a second generation American, as her grandparents are from Puerto Rico, making her the first U.S. born Latina to make the U.S. team since 1984. Laurie is an Olympic medalist, winning both Gold and Silver medals at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. Her book I Got This: To Gold and Beyond and her children’s book She’s Got This are both New York Times bestsellers. Laurie is a fierce advocate for the importance of mental health, and travels the country speaking to the next generation about following their dreams. 

Instagram: @lauriehernandez

Twitter: @LaurieHernandez

About The GOLD OVER AMERICA TOUR (GOAT):

Simone and Laurie—and an all-star team of gymnasts—are on the road this Fall for the 35-city Gold Over America Tour, showcasing their fierce talent and athletic brilliance in ways we’ve never seen before… their way! The show emerges from their personal values of empowerment, friendship, positive body image, mental health awareness, and self-confidence. Together, they are a united force proudly representing the sport of women’s gymnastics and inspiring audiences across the nation.

More information: https://www.goldoveramericatour.com/goat

1. How Amanda’s breaking point—when her life felt like all “shoulds” and no “wants”—led to simple, concrete changes. 

2. Why the labels put upon us early—the sporty one, the smart one, the artsy one—can shut us off from exploring other parts of ourselves.

3. How Glennon feels like Ben Affleck in Good Will Hunting—and why she wants Amanda to “go see about a girl.”

4. What the chemistry of fire has to teach us about how we can resurrect our Fun selves.  

1. How writing is a lifeline for Glennon because it’s the one place her real self can tell the truth.

2. Why Abby feels that her time on the soccer field was art. 

3. The unorthodox way Glennon’s writing evolved from hourly 5AM sessions to survive sobriety with three young kids to three New York Times Best Sellers.

4. Why it’s horseshit that books by women authors are indiscriminately labeled “self-help.”

We’re continuing our conversation with activist, founder of the me too movement, and our personal friend and hero,Tarana Burke. We talk about: 

1. What Tarana would say to her twelve-year-old self that might have changed the trajectory of her life.

2. Tarana’s life-shifting realization that her relationship struggles with her mother were not due to her mother’s lack of desire to love her well, but her lack of capacity—and how Tarana built more capacity for her own child.   

3. The one thing Tarana said to her child that changed everything—and why Amanda now says the same thing to her children.  

CW: We reference sexual abuse and trauma.

About Tarana: 

For more than 25 years, activist and advocate Tarana J. Burke has worked at the intersection of sexual violence and racial justice. Fueled by commitments to interrupt sexual violence and other systemic inequalities disproportionately impacting marginalized people, particularly Black women and girls, Tarana has created and led various campaigns focused on increasing access to resources and support for impacted communities, including the ‘me too.’ movement, which to date has galvanized millions of survivors and allies around the world.

Book: Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement

Instagram: @taranajaneen

Twitter: @TaranaBurke

Please join us in the first part of our joyful, energizing, and hopeful conversation with activist, advocate, and our personal hero,Tarana Burke. We talk about:

1. How the spoken and unspoken rules for girls led Tarana to constantly perform the role of “good girl” so that “her secret” would never be revealed.  

2. The impossible double bind so many survivors live through: that the protection of our community is what saves us, but the need to protect our community is what silences us.

3. Why Maya Angelou’s work changed everything for Tarana—and how, in her early twenties, she began documenting everything joyful in her life. 

4. How dancing with Rob was the one place Tarana could safely explore her sexuality with no demands on her body—and how meaningful that was for her.   

CW: We reference sexual abuse and trauma.

About Tarana: 

For more than 25 years, activist and advocate Tarana J. Burke has worked at the intersection of sexual violence and racial justice. Fueled by commitments to interrupt sexual violence and other systemic inequalities disproportionately impacting marginalized people, particularly Black women and girls, Tarana has created and led various campaigns focused on increasing access to resources and support for impacted communities, including the ‘me too.’ movement, which to date has galvanized millions of survivors and allies around the world.

Book: Unbound: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement

Instagram: @taranajaneen

Twitter: @TaranaBurke

1. Why Glennon believes the bravest thing she’s ever done was marching into her counselor’s office in high school—and what made her finally say, “I’m not leaving until I get some help.”

2. How we can identify the difference between our Knowing versus our anxiety and conditioning.

3. Why Glennon describes herself as Dory from Nemo, and how she returned to meditation when her mind became unmanageable.

1. The story that led to Abby’s iconic haircut—how that decision terrified her, changed how she played the game, and changed how she lives her life. 

2. How Abby and Glennon view “brave” differently—and why Amanda believes their perspectives may be more similar than they think.

3. Why for Amanda the bravest decisions feel like “lonely certainty” that can never be explained or defended to others. 

We’re back with author and sex educator, Emily Nagoski, taking our Pod Squad’s questions about sex. 

1. How to navigate a relationship when one partner has a lower sex drive and the other has a higher sex drive.

2. The “sleepy hedgehog” practice Emily suggests to help partners find their way back to each other after months (or years) of not having sex. 

3. How to raise our kids in a more sex-positive family culture.

4. Emily advises Glennon on an exercise to help unbind her bedroom silence. 

EMILY NAGOSKI is the award-winning author of the New York Times bestselling COME AS YOU ARE and THE COME AS YOU ARE WORKBOOK, and coauthor, with her sister, Amelia, of New York Times bestseller BURNOUT: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle. 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. She lives in Massachusetts with two dogs, a cat, and a cartoonist.

The book recommendations Emily made during this episode: 

Magnificent Sex: Lessons from Extraordinary Lovers by Peggy Kleinplatz

What Fresh Hell Is This? by Heather Corinna

Girl Sex 101 by Allison Moon

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel (Ages 15+ years) 

The Times I Knew I Was Gay by Eleanor Crewes (Ages 15+ years) 

Let’s Talk About It by Erica Moen and Matt Nolan (Ages 14+ years) 

Queer: The Ultimate LQBTQ Guide for Teens (Ages 11+ years) 

Wait, What? by Heather Corinna and Isabella Rotman (Ages 9+ years) 

Sex Is a Funny Word by Cory Silverberg (Ages 8 - 11 years) 

What Makes a Baby by Cory Silverberg (Ages 2 - 5 years)

Podcast: https://www.feministsurvivalproject.com

Instagram: @enagoski

Twitter: @emilynagoski