At the core of nursing is the ability to love a stranger, to care indiscriminately. Christie Watson was a nurse in the UK for 20 years before she began teaching nurses. But when COVID-19 hit, she knew she needed to stand with her colleagues. So she put on her scrubs once again. In this moving conversation, Kate and Christie discuss the cost of COVID on healthcare workers, chaplains, and those who can’t be by their loved ones’ side when they need it most. If you are a nurse, know a nurse, or have...
Jan 14, 2025•41 min
Does life ever feel like an endless to-do list? Like if you could just wake up tomorrow with a little more discipline, you’d finally master your schedule, achieve balance, and feel… enough ? On today's episode, Oliver Burkeman (bestselling author of Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals ) and Kate unravel some of the beautiful lies we cling to about time and control, the fantasy of hyper-efficiency, and what it might look like to embrace the limits that make us who we are. In this con...
Dec 31, 2024•44 min•Season 13Ep. 18
Kate and Kelly Corrigan (Kelly Corrigan Wonders) wrap up the year with a heart-to-heart about the ups, downs, and everything in between. From the thrill of unexpected friendships to the tenderness of saying goodbye to loved ones, they reflect on the beauty and complexity of it all. Along the way, they share stories of resilience, connection, and the ways we find light—even in the darkest moments. This episode reminds us that life is always a mix of happy and crappy—and it’s better when we face i...
Dec 24, 2024•52 min•Season 13Ep. 17
It's that time of year—reflection season, where the "happy" and "crappy" moments rise to the surface. Kate and Kelly Corrigan (Kelly Corrigan Wonders) dive headfirst into the messiness of life: chronic struggles that won’t budge, the ache of missing loved ones, and the tension of unmet expectations. Along the way, they wrestle with the unyielding pressure to optimize everything (thanks, wellness monsters), the quiet pain of loneliness, and the beauty of being truly seen. This heartfelt conversat...
Dec 17, 2024•58 min•Season 13Ep. 16
Writer and poet Safiya Sinclair describes her childhood growing up in a Rasta family in Montego Bay, Jamaica. In this live conversation, Kate and Safiya explore what it is like growing up in more fundamental families, with worldviews we didn’t get to pick, and how—through it all—we become ourselves… somehow. In this conversation, Kate and Safiya discuss: The intertwining of personal and national history The power of poetry as a means of self-discovery and resistance How Safiya broke free from fa...
Dec 10, 2024•57 min•Season 13Ep. 15
It’s the most wonderful time of the year here at Everything Happens. And you're invited to join along. Advent is a season that leads us up to Christmas. And it is all about living with eyes wide open—seeing the world as it is, with all its cracks and flaws, and still holding on to the hope that everything wrong will one day be made right. And if that sounds like your sort of thing, we made a free daily Advent guide just for you. It's filled with: daily reflections questions to mull over response...
Dec 03, 2024•14 min•Season 13Ep. 14
Today’s conversation is dedicated to the many loves that make up our lives—especially that of our friends. Dolly Alderton is a Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling writer and memoirist. She recognizes the great gift of the friends who have walked with her through many seasons of life—all the highs and lows and inbetweens. In this conversation, Kate and Dolly discuss: The great loves that make up a life The push-pull of loving relationships with your body The power of witness If you liked ...
Nov 26, 2024•36 min•Season 13Ep. 13
How do you stay close to someone whose pain you can’t fix, whose questions you can’t answer? In this episode, Kate sits down with her dear friend, the Rev. Dr. Sam Wells, a longtime advocate of “being with,” a theology that goes beyond advice and into the sacred space of simply staying. Sam–vicar at London’s St.-Martin-in-the-Fields, an astonishingly wise thinker, and one of Kate’s favorite people on Earth–invites us into a deeper courage: to show up without trying to tidy things up. In this bea...
Nov 19, 2024•38 min•Season 13Ep. 12
There are some realities we can never get over . And yet, we keep living. How do we do that well? Wilma Derksen writes and speaks on the topics of victimization and criminal justice. Her wisdom is hardwon. In the mid-80s, Wilma’s daughter, Candace, was murdered. Their family’s response to this tragedy has inspired so many people…and you’ll soon see why. In this conversation, Kate and Wilma discuss: How we live with the things we cannot change What does forgiveness look like in practice How to st...
Nov 12, 2024•40 min•Season 13Ep. 11
This week we're introducing you to a show we love called A Slight Change of Plans with Dr. Maya Shankar . Kate was actually a guest on the show, where she joined to talk about how her entire belief system was thrown into question when she was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer at age 35. If you want to hear more conversations like this one, listen to A Slight Change of Plans wherever you get your podcasts. Plus, the show has new episodes coming on November 11. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy...
Nov 09, 2024•37 min
How do we stay hopeful in the face of despair and disillusionment—especially when politics threaten to tear us in two? Kate speaks with Parker Palmer, a writer, teacher, and activist. As you’ll hear, he has gone through seasons of deep clinical depression, and has hard-won wisdom to share with us on how to survive, how to regain a sense of agency, how to remain hopeful despite it all . In this episode, Kate and Parker discuss: finding agency in the midst of depression and despair (including his ...
Nov 05, 2024•43 min•Season 13Ep. 10
We need more room to be honest about what it costs when people or institutions fail us. Today's conversation is with Lord Charles Spencer, the 9th Earl Spencer. You might also know him as Princess Diana's brother. His latest book, A Very Private School, is a courageous and beautifully written memoir about his time in an abusive English boarding school that was shrouded in secrets, abuse, and cruelty. While his circumstances may be unlike something you’ve experienced, Charles speaks so candidly a...
Oct 29, 2024•43 min•Season 13Ep. 1
In every deep relationship, there comes a point where we are asked to give up something of ourselves or change in ways we never anticipated. Who will this make me? What will this love cost? Tembi Locke fell in love with an Italian chef named Saro when she was studying abroad in Italy during college. Their romance was a story for the big screen. ( Quite literally. One starring Zoe Saldana.) A rare illness upended it all. Tembi spent ten years as Saro’s caregiver before he died. In her grief, Temb...
Oct 22, 2024•45 min•Season 13Ep. 8
What if you started thinking really concretely about small, hard choices? That’s exactly what palliative care physicians do every day. They help us think about what we really want—knowing that we have limited time and limited resources. You’re going to love our guest today, Dr. Kathryn Mannix, palliative care physician and cognitive behavioral therapist. She offers practical steps to help people and their loved ones make sense of what limited choices they have, navigate any pain and fear they ma...
Oct 15, 2024•57 min•Season 13Ep. 7
Sometimes you really need someone to believe that you are good. Unshakably good. Over 30 years ago, Father Greg Boyle started working with gang members in Los Angeles through Homeboy Industries. The lessons that he learns from whom he calls “homies” are contagious. Every day, they teach him about what it means to heal, to belong to one another, to practice compassion, and to relearn how to feel good again to God and others. These are just some of the transcendent truths that he has to share with...
Oct 08, 2024•50 min•Season 13Ep. 6
Nurse and writer Christie Watson found herself in a grocery store fish-finger freezer and realized something was very, very wrong. Why was she so desperate for more? (And also, why was she so extremely overheated? Oh wait…hormones?) In this hilarious and hopeful conversation, Christie speaks with Kate about the importance of prioritizing joy in the face of our emotionally expensive professions and roles, as well as joy’s importance as we get older (and how lucky we are to age in the first place)...
Oct 01, 2024•35 min•Season 13Ep. 5
This week we have something special for you. Kate Bowler joins Rainn Wilson to explore the complexities of American Christian traditions and the nature of suffering on Soul Boom. Kate delves into her personal journey with stage four cancer, her struggles with the American healthcare system, offering profound insights into faith, resilience, and the misconceptions of positive thinking. Together, they discuss the dichotomy of American religious practices and the deep, often unspoken struggles that...
Sep 27, 2024•1 hr 8 min
It is a hard time to be a person in the world given the volatile political climate or state of our world or the realities we’re facing in our family. But the weight of the world’s problems are not on your shoulders alone. Sharon McMahon, America’s Government Teacher, joins Kate for a hopeful conversation that reminds us all of the small, faithful ways we can make a difference in our communities. In this conversation, Kate and Sharon discuss: why it’s not our job to fix every problem how ordinary...
Sep 24, 2024•50 min•Season 13Ep. 4
We all experience seasons where all we can do is scratch our heads and say, “WHAT EVEN HAPPENED?!” Dr. Francis Collins led the National Institutes of Health during 2020—our season of collective “WHAT EVEN HAPPENED!?” He is still picking up the pieces of heartbreak from how people responded to one another and to science at the time. Yet he hasn’t lost his faith in humanity. In this conversation, Kate and Francis discuss: Why faith and science seem at odds (and why they shouldn’t be) The importanc...
Sep 17, 2024•48 min•Season 13Ep. 3
Is it possible for anyone to change—change their mind, change their theology, change their priorities? What does it mean to hope when we live in such uncertainty? Richard B. Hays is a world-renowned scholar of the New Testament. He is also a dear friend and colleague of Kate Bowler. Richard and Kate were both unexpectedly diagnosed with cancer at the same time, which meant they spent many hours discussing the heart of what it means to hope. Their hard won wisdom adds such depth and heart to toda...
Sep 10, 2024•57 min•Season 13Ep. 2
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nicholas Kristof understands how to hope—especially in the face of despair or disappointment. He has spent his life shining a light on global tragedies like the Tiananmen Square massacre or the genocide in Darfur. And yet, despite all the horrors he has born witness to, he maintains a sense of hard-won optimism. “Hope is a muscle,” he says, and one we can all learn to develop. In this live conversation, Kate and Nicholas discuss: How to maintain hope in the year...
Sep 03, 2024•44 min•Season 13Ep. 1
Are you living your best life now? Not always? GREAT, ME NEITHER. My name is Kate Bowler. I’m a Duke professor, bestselling author, and your friendly neighborhood Canadian. This is a show for people who have learned that life is… well, complicated . And we need better language to tell the truth about all of our ups and downs and in-betweens. I’ve always been fascinated by how we, as humans, try to make sense of suffering and happiness. Spoiler alert : there’s no magic formula, but there are some...
Aug 27, 2024•1 min
Comedians have the ability to be unsparingly honest in ways that buck all cultural norms. It’s a truth-telling that so many of us crave. Cue Rob Delaney. Rob is a comedian, actor, writer, and director. His memoir, A Heart That Works is an unsparing account of the death of his beautiful son, Henry. Rob lives in London with his family where Kate visited him for this honest and hilarious conversation. Kate and Rob discuss: The importance of finding people who really understand what you’re feeling W...
Aug 20, 2024•46 min
There is this quote by writer and theologian Frederick Buechner. He writes, “Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid.” …But I always sort of wanted to amend his original words. Because the more honest truth is: “Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Be a little afraid.” Life is so beautiful. And life is so hard. For everyone. Sometimes at the same time. That is the premise behind my latest book of meditations called Have a Beautiful, ...
Aug 13, 2024•17 min
How should you show up for people in grief? What do you say? What should you do? Why is it that beauty can exist alongside deep suffering? What can be said at funerals when the person who died was complicated? These are just a few of the questions I wanted to ask Steve Leder—a bestselling author and a rabbi who has presided over a thousand funerals with wisdom and kindness. In this conversation, we discuss: The mysterious way beauty can be found the closer we inch to death (our own or someone el...
Aug 06, 2024•53 min
This is the story of one young doctor’s race against the clock as he searches for a cure for his own rare disease. In this conversation, Kate and David Fajgenbaum discuss: how love can turn hope into action what limited agency means how small steps can lead to big change This episode originally aired in 2020. Stay tuned to the end to hear an incredible update from David and the work he is up to now. He has expanded from finding the cure for his own incurable disease to developing an organization...
Jul 30, 2024•43 min
How hard is it to be a parent today? After a pandemic? With social media breathing down our necks? It’s so hard! Navigating the delicate balance between granting independence and providing guidance can be daunting as a parent. Dr. Lisa Damour ( New York Times bestselling author of The Emotional Lives of Teenagers) has dedicated her life to unraveling the intricacies of adolescence and offering practical, heartfelt advice. In this conversation, Lisa and Kate: offer a more reassuring definition of...
Jul 23, 2024•54 min
What do you learn standing so close to the edge with so many people? Listen for wisdom on mortality and hope—like how the habits of love are hard to break and what makes a ‘good funeral’ directly from a thoughtful and funny funeral director himself. In this episode, Kate and Thomas discuss: How the habits of love are hard to break, no matter how old the person died who you grieve How those we grieve know our hearts and our love more fully What elements make up a good funeral This episode origina...
Jul 16, 2024•49 min
Our most precious relationships are often our most complicated, aren’t they? Poet and bestselling author Kwame Alexander wrote an honest book of poems and essays that name the difficult and beautiful and heart-wrenching conversations we have (or should be having) with the people we love and with the ones who love us. In this conversation, Kwame and Kate discuss: How we can’t outrun our grief How our own parents love us in the ways they want to be loved, but maybe not in the ways we need—and how ...
Jul 09, 2024•38 min
There is a strange tension when we want so badly for the people we love to support us, but want to shield them from the pain at the same time. This is a beautiful, terrible kind of love. In this conversation, Kate and bestselling writer Suleika Jaouad discuss: What it is like to be the one suffering—all the guilt and shame and rage and mercy and grace How we can create better economies of love around those who need it The toll illness takes on those around us This episode originally aired in 202...
Jul 02, 2024•30 min
