187 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.

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Everything Happens with Kate Bowler Lemonada

    • Society & Culture
    • 4.8 • 4.3K 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

    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
    Pamela Morris-Perez: Suicide Prevention and Hope

    Pamela Morris-Perez: Suicide Prevention and Hope

    Here on the Everything Happens Podcast we don’t shy away from difficult subjects, and today’s episode tackles a topic we’ve been wanting to discuss for awhile—suicide among teens and young adults. My guest today, Dr. Pamela Morris-Perez is someone who approaches this subject with the heart of a grieving mom and the mind of a professor and practitioner who wants to make change possible and wants to teach us how we can help. This is such an important conversation on how communities can help prevent adolescent suicide.

    In this conversation, Kate and Pamela discuss:


    Poignant reflections on being a suicide loss survivor from a parent who is grieving the loss of her child—a topic so rarely discussed
    Why we say “died by suicide”
    How we can prevent teen suicide—including what signs to look for, what to ask, and next steps to take when you’re concerned

    In a very important way, this episode won’t create nearly as much anxiety as you think. Talking about suicide is one of the most important ways of making it less likely. So let’s find better language together, shall we?

    If you need to talk to someone, call or text 988. If you are worried about someone, you too can call or text 988 to get resources. Remember: you matter. Please listen with care.

     


    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.

    • 1 hr
    Chantal Kreviazuk: Finding the Melody

    Chantal Kreviazuk: Finding the Melody

    Chantal Kreviazuk is a Canadian singer, songwriter, composer, and pianist—her voice is the soundtrack of all Kate’s Canadian’s teenage angst. She has had an incredible career with a passion for helping others. Among many things, she’s a powerful advocate for destigmatizing mental illness—a cause near and dear to her heart after her brother struggled to get adequate care for nearly 20 years. She’s said, “When a family member is sick, the whole family is sick.” She offers such wisdom for people who struggle with a hurting family member, or their own mental health, or for their marriages that are sometimes not as easy as we had hoped. 

    In this conversation, Kate and Chantal discuss:


    Setting necessary boundaries in complicated families
    The ups and downs of a marriage and the unexpected gifts that only reveal themselves when you commit to staying in it for the long haul
    A trick to starting a hard day

     


    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.

    • 39 min
    For Quieting an Anxious Mind

    For Quieting an Anxious Mind

    Instead of berating ourselves for not being worry-free, let’s imagine for a moment that peace is like a homecoming. When we cannot solve the problem of our worried minds, let’s bless our desire to return home to ourselves.

    Rainn Wilson: Brave, Beautiful, and Good Things

    Rainn Wilson: Brave, Beautiful, and Good Things

    Sometimes we can fix our lives and sometimes can’t. So when self-help and self-care fall short, what do we need to turn instead? Rainn Wilson (Dwight Schrute of NBC’s The Office) says that what we need is a spiritual revolution. This conversation is rich and challenging and invites us all to think about the virtues we need to sustain a life and how we might cultivate these virtues not just for our own wellbeing but for that of the people around us. Spoiler alert: it has nothing to do with bubble baths or the latest cold plunge trend. Wouldn’t it be nice if it were that easy?  

    In this conversation, Kate and Rainn discuss:


    How self-care is often a form of toxic individualism
    The current mental health crisis and the need for spiritual tools that provide vision, mission, and purpose
    How making oneself useful can be an antidote to despair

    A big thank you to our friends at The Fetzer Institute for making today’s conversation possible. 

     


    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

Customer Reviews

4.8 out of 5
4.3K Ratings

4.3K Ratings

Crazykrizzy ,

Important topics

I’ve been listening to Kate’s podcast for years and it’s always amazing! She is such a beautiful person and has so many lovely guests 💙 I love how direct she is and not afraid to talk about and delve into these important topics that most people just avoid. It will often tug at your heartstrings and this last episode legit made me ugly cry

W.HappyMom ,

Rituals of Grief with Clover

I’m gonna try to write this review through tears. Kate Bowler is the epitome of empathy. The warmth in her voice, her calmness, and just her ability to see her guest right where they are. This episode was raw, deep and real. Between 2016-2022 I had a miscarriage(2016), lost my stepdad to cancer(2017), my younger brother(2019), and my baby brother(2022). Just for kicks, let’s throw in there having to put my 15 year old dog down in 2020! The first time I heard Kate was on the Adam young podcast and she has suddenly jumped into my no.1 slot! Thank you for sharing your heart. Thank you for seeing the heart of others. Thank you for creating this safe place to be cut wide open trying to figure out how to put back the pieces. God bless you for what you do.

ArtGover ,

Tremendous, and you need to invite Kate DiCamillo

I became aware of Kate Bowler via Krista Tippet. She was enthralling. I immediately subscribed to her podcast. I find she has this unfathomable gift for talking about the most terrible experiences (as well as uplifting - it’s not all “fun with doom!”) where her guests speak candidly and humorously and almost painfully openly about devastating experiences, and the listener comes away reminded that living life fully in all of its permutations is great. An early example in my listening experience was her discussion with Rob Delaney. Their humorous while painful discussion of unbearable loss was amazing.

She really needs to have Kate DiCamillo as a guest. Kate’s conversation with Krista Tippet on “On Being” was one of the most memorable conversations I’ve ever heard, and I think the Kates would have an open and irresistible conversation about the unbearable light of being.

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