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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.
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Bill Haslam
You Might Be Wrong
We 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 argument and a little more like admitting we might not have all the answers? Kate talks with former Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam about the complicated work of public service, the difference between using faith and being shaped by it, and why humility might be one of the most underrated qualities in a leader. Together, they ask what it means to love our neighbors when we disagree with them—and how to…
Mark Chaves
Is There Really a Religious Revival?
Is 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 religious lives are changing. He joins Kate to separate the headlines from the data: why religious decline is real but slow, what we misunderstand about young people and faith, why megachurches keep getting bigger, and what we might lose when our institutions disappear.
Diana Butler Bass
Losing Religion
Something 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 believing in God, looking for meaning, or longing for community. Historian Diana Butler Bass helps us understand how we got here. Kate and Diana trace the transformation of American evangelicalism from Jimmy Carter to the Religious Right, why Christianity became increasingly entangled with political identity, and what happens when people leave religious institutions but still find themselves reaching for something sacred. Perhaps losing a religious label isn’t always the same thing as losing faith. And perhaps the…
Andrew O’Hagan
You’re Going to Need Some Friends
Who 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 swear we’ll love forever, the unexpected people who become essential, and the friends who know how to stay when life gets frightening. Together, they wonder what makes someone a good friend, why some friendships deepen while others fade, and how love sometimes looks less like having the right words and more like simply keeping pace.
Jennifer Garner
Joy, Come Find Me
Jennifer 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 outnumber the wins, and you’re still not who you thought you’d be by now. They talk about what actually separates happiness from joy (hint: one requires everything to go right, the other doesn’t), the strange gift of a copperhead snake bite, why Kate went paragliding after her cancer diagnosis despite being terrified of heights, and what it means to be a “witness” instead of just a friend. Plus: religious upbringing and how it…
Mary Claire Haver
Aging is a Privilege
Aging 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 The New Menopause and The New Perimenopause, to explain what’s actually happening in the body during perimenopause and menopause, why symptoms like brain fog, frozen shoulder, and anxiety get dismissed or misdiagnosed, and what the evidence really says about hormone replacement therapy after the 2002 Women’s Health Initiative study derailed women’s care for two decades. They also cover practical, low-cost tools for this stage of life — bone density screening, strength training,…
Libby Ward
How to Break Generational Cycles in Motherhood
What 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, people-pleasing, parental burnout, and the complicated work of becoming the parent you didn’t have. Libby shares how motherhood forced her to confront her own limits—and reconsider the impossible standards she’d absorbed about what makes a “good mom.” Together, they talk about boundaries, trusting your own needs, and letting go of the exhausting work of looking like a good parent so you can focus on what actually helps your children feel…
Tomáš Halík
Doubt, Depth, and the Future of Belief
What 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 spiritual value of doubt, and why going deeper—not louder—might be the only faithful response to a fractured world. Together, they consider silence, suffering, and what it means to remain open to God when clarity is nowhere to be found.
Nadia Bolz-Weber and Sarah Bessey
How to Love the World Anyway
Kate 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 world feels overwhelming—personally and globally—they explore small acts of love, embodied community, and “cozy faith” as resistance to despair. From knitting circles and prayer shawls to church, doubt, and the stubborn choice to keep loving the world, this episode is about finding hope in ordinary, human ways.
Rhett McLaughlin and Jenny Lawson
Joy, Absurdity, and the Weird Ways We Survive
What 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 strange, often dark roots of comedy. From childhood anxiety and taxidermy-filled homes to lifelong creative friendships and faith that evolves, they explore how silliness, honesty, and absurdity help us live with what hurts. This is a conversation about being “too much,” laughing at what’s not funny, and finding connection in the weirdest parts of being human.
Joyful Anyway (Yes, Even Now)
On 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 feels fractured, exhausting, and uncertain? In this short, personal episode, she pushes back on the pressure to optimize our way into happiness and instead explores a stranger, sturdier kind of joy—one that shows up alongside grief, ordinary stress, and lives that don’t quite match the ones we imagined. With a reading from the book and a few honest reflections, this is an invitation to consider what might be…
Rowan Williams
The Strange Gift of Joy
As 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, grief, music, gratitude, hope, and the strange, defiant way joy can sit right beside pain without denying what’s true.
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