Everything Happens with Kate Bowler
by Everything Happens Studios
Latest episode
Motherhood Was Never Meant to Be a One-Person Job with Reshma Saujani
Motherhood Was Never Meant to Be a One-Person Job with Reshma Saujani
About this podcast
Are you living your best life now? Not always? This is a podcast for you. Duke Professor Kate Bowler is an expert in the stories we tell about success and failure, suffering and happiness. She had Stage IV cancer. Then she didn’t. And since then, all she wants to do is talk to funny and wise people about how to live with the knowledge that, well, everything happens. Find her online at @katecbowler.
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Episodes
The newest 50 of 302 episodes
- Motherhood Was Never Meant to Be a One-Person Job with Reshma Saujani · 29 min · Season 17 Episode 9Motherhood can feel like an impossible job because, in so many ways, we’ve made it one. In this conversation, I sit down with the brilliant Reshma Saujani—founder of Girls Who…
- How to Disagree Without Hating Each Other with Tim Shriver · 53 min · Season 17We all believe people deserve dignity. Until someone says something outrageous at Thanksgiving dinner. Or posts something truly unhinged on Facebook. Or votes differently than we…
- You Might Be Wrong with Bill Haslam · 44 min · Season 17 Episode 7We live in a world that rewards certainty, outrage, and being absolutely convinced that the other side is wrong. But what if faithfulness looks a little less like winning an…
- Is There Really a Religious Revival? with Sociologist Mark Chaves · 41 min · Season 17 Episode 6Is religion in America disappearing—or are we secretly in the middle of a revival? Sociologist Mark Chaves has spent decades studying what Americans actually believe and how our…
- Losing Religion with Diana Butler Bass · 48 min · Season 17 Episode 5Something strange has happened to American religion. More people are checking “none” when asked about religious affiliation—but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve stopped…
- You’re Going to Need Some Friends with Andrew O’Hagan · 49 min · Season 17 Episode 4Who are the people who have made you who you are? Kate sits down with novelist Andrew O’Hagan for a funny and tender conversation about friendship: the childhood friends we…
- Joy, Come Find Me with Jennifer Garner · 55 min · Season 17 Episode 3Jennifer Garner joins Kate Bowler for a conversation about happiness, joy, and the particular ache that shows up somewhere around midlife when the disappointments start to…
- Aging is a Privilege with Dr. Mary Claire Haver · 47 min · Season 17 Episode 2Aging is a privilege — but perimenopause and menopause can still blindside you. Kate Bowler sits down with Dr. Mary Claire Haver, board-certified OB-GYN and bestselling author of…
- How to Break Generational Cycles in Motherhood with Libby Ward · 50 min · Season 17 Episode 1What if becoming the parent you want to be requires unlearning some of what you were taught? Author and creator Libby Ward joins Kate to talk about breaking generational cycles…
- Listen Again: We Are Good Medicine with Vivek Murthy · 46 minLoneliness is more than just a feeling—it shapes how we see ourselves and the world around us. It can make us withdraw, hesitate to reach out, or convince us that connection is…
- Listen Again: Where We Turn for Meaning with Michael Ignatieff · 42 minHistorian and Canadian politician Michael Ignatieff explores the cracks in our seamless worldviews… or at least the worldviews we thought were seamless until we’re faced with…
- Listen Again: The Luckiest Unlucky Person with Tig Notaro · 49 minHow do you live knowing life can just come undone at a moment’s notice? In the span of a few months, Tig Notaro received three life-threatening illnesses, unexpectedly lost her…
- Listen Again: Serious About Fun with Catherine Price · 48 minDon’t Waste Your Life. Savor Every Moment. Live in the Present. Culture has a lot of prescriptions for how to live a good life. But what if we don’t know where to start? Writer…
- Listen Again: Hope is a Muscle with Nicholas Kristof · 47 minPulitzer 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…
- Listen Again: Am I Ruining My Kid? with Dr. Becky Kennedy · 44 minThere are no training manuals for this. Just a child staring up at you with cartoon eyes and an inner monologue that asks: Am I doing this right? Am I ruining them? Kate sits…
- Listen Again: What Makes Life Worth Living? with Atul Gawande · 42 minIn this episode, Kate speaks with surgeon, writer, and public health leader Dr. Atul Gawande about the deeply human questions that surface when medicine meets its limits. What…
- Listen Again: Stay Curious with Alan Alda · 56 minWe don’t usually have repeat guests on this podcast… except we’re making an exception for the wonderful and wise Alan Alda. Alan Alda, of course, is an award-winning actor…
- Listen Again: The Mystery of God with N.T. Wright · 52 minScripture can become a weapon in the hands of the ultra-certain. As if every pain or suffering is part of “God’s divine plan.” So how should we understand and apply the Bible to…
- Listen Again: Everyone’s From Somewhere with Erin & Ben Napier · 32 minErin and Ben Napier didn’t plan on becoming household names. They were just trying to build a beautiful life in their beloved hometown of Laurel, Mississippi, one house, one…
- Doubt, Depth, and the Future of Belief with Tomáš Halík · 43 minWhat happens to faith when certainty collapses? Kate Bowler sits down with theologian and former underground priest Tomáš Halík to explore belief forged under surveillance, the…
- How to Love the World Anyway with Nadia Bolz-Weber and Sarah Bessey · 51 minKate Bowler is joined by Nadia Bolz-Weber and Sarah Bessey for an honest, funny, and deeply tender conversation about what it means to be people of faith right now. When the…
- Joy, Absurdity, and the Weird Ways We Survive with Rhett McLaughlin and Jenny Lawson · 57 min · Season 16 Episode 10What if humor isn’t just a personality trait—but a survival strategy? Kate Bowler sits down with writer Jenny Lawson and entertaining YouTuber Rhett McLaughlin to talk about the…
- Joyful Anyway (Yes, Even Now) · 10 min · Season 16 Episode 9On the day her new book Joyful Anyway releases, Kate pauses before the interviews and travel to reflect on a harder question: what does it mean to talk about joy in a world that…
- The Strange Gift of Joy with Rowan Williams · 51 min · Season 16 Episode 8As Holy Week arrives, Kate talks with theologian, poet, and former Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams about joy that doesn’t erase sorrow. Together they explore longing…
- Living the Questions (Without Fixing Yourself) with Suleika Jaouad · 38 min · Season 16 Episode 7There’s a particular kind of pressure that creeps in when we start measuring our lives—where we thought we’d be by now, who we imagined we’d become, how things were supposed to…
- What If Prayer Isn’t What You Think It Is? with Malcolm Guite · 37 min · Season 16 Episode 6What if Lent isn’t about giving something up, but about learning how to sit with what’s already gone? In this episode, Kate talks with poet, priest, and theologian Malcolm Guite…
- The Randomness of Everything with Mark Rank · 49 min · Season 16 Episode 5We live in a world that wants life to be fair. Work hard, make good choices, believe the right things—and things should turn out okay. But what happens when they don’t? In this…
- The New Shape of American Religion with Ross Douthat and Molly Worthen · 50 min · Season 16 Episode 4Kate Bowler invites two of her sharpest friends—Ross Douthat and Molly Worthen—to help her make sense of the current American religious landscape: why the long “decline” story…
- What If Happiness Isn’t What You Think It Is? with Patrik Hagman · 50 min · Season 16 Episode 3What does it mean to live well when danger, loss, and grief are never far away? Kate Bowler talks with theologian, pastor, and writer Patrik Hagman, whose life has been shaped by…
- There Is More Good Among Us Than We Think with Bishop Michael Curry · 40 min · Season 16 Episode 2When many people hear the word Christian today, it comes with a lot of baggage—power, certainty, exclusion, and culture-war posturing. But there are still people of faith whose…
- Anne Lamott on Love, Shame, and Being Human · 50 min · Season 16 Episode 1What do we do when the world feels unbearably heavy—and no one is coming to save us? To kick off Season 16 of Everything Happens, Kate Bowler sits down live with beloved author…
- Listen Again: Clear Eyes, Full Hearts with Minka Kelly · 41 min · Season 15How do we stay soft in a world that has taught us to be tough? Actress Minka Kelly is known for her roles as Lyla Garrity on Friday Night Lights or as Samantha in HBO’s Euphoria…
- Listen Again: Life After Dark with Barbara Brown Taylor · 35 min · Season 15Author and Episcopal priest Barbara Brown Taylor is no stranger to darkness. After experiencing devastating loss, Barbara explores our culture’s pursuit of the sunny side of…
- Listen Again: Loving Mercy with Bryan Stevenson · 1 h 3 min · Season 15Bryan Stevenson (founder of the Equal Justice Initiative) is committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment, to challenging racial and economic injustice, and to…
- Listen Again: Living with the End in Mind with Kathryn Mannix · 60 min · Season 15What 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…
- Listen Again: Oliver Burkeman on New Year, Same Me · 47 min · Season 15Does 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…
- Third Annual Happy Crappy: Let’s End with the Happies · 58 min · Season 15 Episode 15What happens when joy shows up anyway? In their third annual Happy Crappies, Kate and her dear friend Kelly Corrigan dare to name what went right in 2025 — personally…
- Third Annual Happy Crappy: Let’s Start with the Crappies · 58 min · Season 15 Episode 14What happens when the things you tried to fix turn out to be forever? In their third annual Happy Crappy, Kate and her dear friend Kelly Corrigan wade into the personal…
- Advent: Love Comes Down · 4 min · Season 15By this point in December, love has been merchandised within an inch of its life. It jingles in ads that say if you really love someone, you should buy them a luxury car with a…
- Listen Again: Jenna Bush Hager - Get in the Game · 47 min · Season 15The TODAY Show’s Jenna Bush Hager sits down for a wide-ranging conversation with Kate Bowler. Together, they share about the importance of family and intergenerational…
- Advent: Blue Christmas · 6 min · Season 15Every grocery store speaker is now officially blasting “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.” And let’s be honest: sometimes it feels like a demand. The happiest Christmas…
- Listen Again: Father Richard Rohr on Learning to Hold On, Learning to Let Go · 39 min · Season 15Life is painful. Period. But are there some aspects of our faith or our posture toward the world that can change how we experience it? Father Richard Rohr is everyone’s favorite…
- Advent: A Protest Song · 5 min · Season 15We’ve all seen the Christmas pageants where Mary is very sweet and demure and she is wearing a tablecloth pulled from the church dining hall. Sometimes it’s hard to remember how…
- Listen Again: Nikki DeLoach on a Not-So Hallmark Christmas · 41 min · Season 15The pandemic introduced many to living with uncertainty. But for some, uncertainty has always been their norm. Actress Nikki Deloach has starred in several Hallmark Christmas…
- Advent: Begin Again · 9 min · Season 15Well, here we are. December has arrived (shudder). And with it, the great cultural sprint: decorations, office parties, and the annual anxiety dream about whether you will…
- Listen Again: Anna Sale on Hard Topics, Softer Conversations · 50 min · Season 15In this conversation, Kate and Anna discuss: How conversations might engender the intimacy we need to get by Fostering the right interpersonal and listening skills it takes to…
- Nikki Grimes on Complicated Childhoods, Forgiveness, and Extraordinary Grace · 36 min · Season 15 Episode 13What happens when childhood teaches you more about survival than safety? Poet and author Nikki Grimes joins Kate to talk about growing up with profound instability—and still…
- More Happier: Do Holidays Leave You Exhausted, Not Restored? Priya Parker, Francis Lam & Kate Bowler on Celebration · 39 minToday, we’re sharing a conversation from the More Happier podcast between Kate, Gretchen Rubin, Priya Parker, and Francis Lam. It’s easy to get swept up in a cycle of holidays…
- Through the Lens of Love with Tim Shriver · 54 min · Season 15 Episode 12Tim Shriver—educator, author, and longtime Chairman of Special Olympics—joins Kate for a tender, funny, deeply practical conversation about dignity: what changes when we decide…
- Small Talk Survivors with Sarah Wildman · 50 min · Season 15 Episode 11What happens when you live on a planet where grief rewrites the language of everyday life? Kate Bowler speaks with writer and New York Times editor Sarah Wildman about her…
