What do you get when you pitch a bestselling author, an Olympian football icon and a feminist firebrand lawyer? A great podcast with half a billion plays, of course. When Untamed writer Glennon Doyle, her wife Abby Wambach and sister Amanda Doyle teamed up to make We Can Do Hard Things, they brought their spirited, intimate family connection to listeners, creating honest, brave, important conversations about the reality of life.

“We started the podcast because talking honestly about the hard parts of being human is the only thing that has ever made us feel less alone and overwhelmed,” Glennon says. And they’re not alone: the “Pod Squad”—as they call their listening community—are giving back, raising over $56 million in global aid.

With their selections, they’re looking to connect us in a world where we could be numbed: “We hope they invite you to stay soft and honest with yourself, to laugh and cry and delight, to create and love and desire, and to stay alive through the beautiful, brutal magic of being human.” Glennon encourages us to let the “old scripts burn” about what we tell ourselves. “Let this collection remind you that you don’t have to wait for everything to be perfect to do the things you want to do—you can live, love, rest, rage, create and tell the truth right in the middle of the hard.”