191 episodes

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.

Sales and Distribution by Lemonada Media https://lemonadamedia.com/

Everything Happens with Kate Bowler Lemonada

    • Society & Culture
    • 4.8 • 4.4K Ratings

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher

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.

Sales and Distribution by Lemonada Media https://lemonadamedia.com/

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher

    Heather Lanier: Whole and Holy

    Heather Lanier: Whole and Holy

    What if your life hasn’t turned out like you thought it would? When writer Heather Lanier’s daughter, Fiona, was born with a rare genetic syndrome, she learned that the world will not always see her beloved as good. In this conversation, Kate and Heather discuss how it’s okay that we are not summed up on bell curves. Perhaps the bodies in which we dwell are whole enough.

    In this conversation, Kate and Heather discuss:


    When our kids are considered “bad” by the world’s standards
    The doctor who said two perfect words to Heather
    How the divine sees everyone as good (and how we should seek to see through those same eyes)
    The difference between capacity building and deficit building

    This conversation originally aired in 2020, but it is one we return to again and again for its beauty, its honesty, its courage. 

     


    Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

    Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.
    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    • 34 min
    Sunita Puri: The Uncertainty Specialist

    Sunita Puri: The Uncertainty Specialist

    Pain is like a geography—one that isn’t foreign to palliative care physician, Dr. Sunita Puri. Kate and Sunita speak about needing new language for walking the borderlands and how we all might learn to live—and die—with a bit more courage.

    In this conversation, Kate and Sunita discuss: 


    How to walk with one another through life’s ups and downs—especially health ups and downs
    What “palliative care” means (and how it is distinct from hospice) 
    The difference between what medicine can do and what medicine should do 
    Sunita’s script for how to talk to patients facing difficult diagnoses 

    This conversation originally aired in 2020 but it is one of our all-time favorites.

     


    Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

    Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.
    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    • 37 min
    For Whatever is on the Calendar

    For Whatever is on the Calendar

    When life is hard, I secretly wish someone out there was keeping score and clapping. I wish you could get an award for everything you do for others too. But instead, most of the difficult and painful choices we make to love others and get up again after being knocked down will have no audience. No clapping. At most, we will get a small sense that we are moving in the right direction. So today let’s bless the things we do and what it costs, even though we probably won’t get a medal for whatever happens.

    Justin Yopp and Don Rosenstein: The Magic of “We”

    Justin Yopp and Don Rosenstein: The Magic of “We”

    When a group of young moms died around the same time, clinicians Dr. Justin Yopp and Dr. Don Rosenstein wanted to refer their widowed spouses to a grief support group… but none existed. So they started their own. 

    In this conversation, Kate, Justin, and Don discuss:


    The grief of imagined futures 
    The particular needs of parents with cancer and those of widowed parents
    How to talk to kids about cancer 
    How to parent while you have cancer

    Together, they uncover the magic of we.

    This summer, we are re-sharing our all-time favorite episodes. While this conversation originally aired in 2020, Kate caught up with Don and Justin to get an update on what they are working on lately. You won’t want to miss their important (and practical!) update.

     


    Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

    Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.
    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    • 53 min
    Judy Woodruff: How Will We Live Our Beautiful, Terrible Days?

    Judy Woodruff: How Will We Live Our Beautiful, Terrible Days?

    How do we navigate life within these beautiful, terrible days? In this special live episode of the Everything Happens podcast, Kate sits down with American broadcast journalist Judy Woodruff at the historic Sixth & I Synagogue in Washington, DC to discuss Kate’s latest book, Have a Beautiful, Terrible Day! Together, they explore what it means to live through the best of days, the worst of days, and all the in-betweens.

    Together, they discuss:


    The apology Kate wishes she would have gotten (and the moving story about when she did)
    How fragility unites us
    How can we be more empathetic towards people we disagree with

     


    Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

    Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

     
    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    • 42 min
    Samantha Bee: This is Going to Be(e) a Great Story

    Samantha Bee: This is Going to Be(e) a Great Story

    We become the sum of so many people throughout our lives. Kate speaks with one of the funniest people on the entire planet, comedian Samantha Bee, about the people who made her, her. What virtues did they create? What absurdity ensued? How does she think about how she impacts her own kids? 

    In this conversation, Kate and Samantha discuss:


    Samantha's hand of God moment that changed the trajectory of her life
    How the people who love us shape us into who we become
    What siblings or friends or partners teach us about intimacy

     


    Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

    Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.
    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

    • 46 min

Customer Reviews

4.8 out of 5
4.4K Ratings

4.4K Ratings

profam ,

I could listen to Kate Bohler forever…

…her voice is beautiful, her laugh is effervescent, her heart is so beautiful, and she is brilliant! I’m sure it takes enormous work, but she makes developing meaningful connection and enticing rapport with each guest seem effortless. I too am grateful to the sponsors for backing her platform; as a psychotherapist I have had a Birds Eye view of how very much people need accessible examples of how to be human and have faith. I’ve been in practice for 35+ years and I am Uber aware of how hard the past several years have been for everyone. People are desperate to understand how to carry deep grief, trauma reactive fear, and still access humor, joy, compassion. Bingeing Everything Happens is feeding my soul and helping me answer the constant ‘why?’…’how?’ that my people ask me every day. PS. I don’t have the internal resources to do reviews, but for Kate? Yeah, I can push myself to do it. She’s worth it.

SlippersV ,

Sunita Puri: The Uncertainty Specialist

So much wisdom and compassion in this interview! I want every medical student, nurse and physician to hear it. To learn how to stop talking in medical jargon about treatments. Just know it’s ok to hold our hands, be in our pain with us. Thank you!

Lbritwahl ,

Authentic and honest…

Just loved this! I unexpectedly lost my adult brother about the same age as your guest’s brother…. Her honest examination of feelings was confronting and resonated with me. Also can totally relate to the “manic investigating” phase….. perfect description !

Listening to your podcast is like hanging out with my best friend….. it literally fills a therapeutic need ❤️👍❤️

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