Latest Episodes
Thomas Lynch: A Good Funeral
September 27, 2022
- 50:42
Thomas Lynch is an essayist, poet, and funeral director in Milton, Michigan, where he has served since 1974 when he took over the trade...
Arthur Brooks: When Success Isn’t Success
September 20, 2022
- 37:06
Arthur Brooks was a professional musician and spent his twenties touring all over the world. Until one day, he stopped being able to hit...
Randall Balmer: Wrestling With the Faith We Love
September 13, 2022
- 45:44
Many of us miss the churches of our childhood and are trying to figure out what pieces of our faith to keep and which to leave behind....
About The Show
Life isn't always bright and shiny, as Kate Bowler knows. Kate is a young mother, writer and professor who, at age 35, was suddenly diagnosed with Stage IV cancer. In, warm, insightful, often funny conversations, Kate talks with people about what they've learned in difficult times. Kate teaches at Duke Divinity School and is author of Everything Happens for a Reason (And Other Lies I've Loved) and No Cure for Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear). Find her online at @katecbowler.
More Episodes
Thomas Lynch: A Good Funeral
September 27, 2022
- 50:42
Thomas Lynch is an essayist, poet, and funeral director in Milton, Michigan, where he has served since 1974 when he took over the trade...
Arthur Brooks: When Success Isn’t Success
September 20, 2022
- 37:06
Arthur Brooks was a professional musician and spent his twenties touring all over the world. Until one day, he stopped being able to hit...
Randall Balmer: Wrestling With the Faith We Love
September 13, 2022
- 45:44
Many of us miss the churches of our childhood and are trying to figure out what pieces of our faith to keep and which to leave behind....
Ibram Kendi: Showing Your Scars
September 6, 2022
- 42:06
Ibram Kendi and Kate Bowler have more in common than they would have liked. Historians and professors. Parents of young kids. Diagnosed...
Introducing Season 9 of EVERYTHING HAPPENS
August 30, 2022
- 03:59
I'm Kate Bowler and I am so excited to be back for another season of EVERYTHING HAPPENS. A podcast where we don't have to pretend to...
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby: Suspicious of Joy
May 3, 2022
- 56:55
In this special episode, Kate visited the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, at Lambeth Palace in London.In this funny and poignant...
Susan Cain: Survival of the Kindest
April 26, 2022
- 40:05
How is it that joy and pain seem to coexist at once? Susan Cain (author of the bestseller Quiet) explores this question in her new book,...
Haider Warraich: Embracing the Complexity of Pain
April 19, 2022
- 40:33
When a random weight-lifting accident left cardiologist Dr. Haider Warraich in chronic pain, he went from being a physician to being a...
Tara Westover: Remaking Home
April 12, 2022
- 37:40
What do we do when our families are sources of pain, confusion, or harm? How do we (or can we) outgrow our complicated childhoods when...
Anna Sale: Hard Topics, Softer Conversations
April 5, 2022
- 45:24
Our culture seems convinced that going off-script is unbecoming. Instead, we are rewarded for being buttoned up, perfect (or at least...
Cammie McGovern: Mythbusting Parenting
March 29, 2022
- 39:13
We often have very romantic expectations about parenthood. Parenthood is about a mythical child who will be perfect in a way we haven’t...
Mitch Albom: Counting your Somethings
March 22, 2022
- 38:09
Bestselling author Mitch Albom was at the height of his career when his favorite professor was dying. Mitch then spent his Tuesdays with...
Ann Patchett: Behold, These Precious Days
March 15, 2022
- 44:01
Bestselling novelist Ann Patchett knows how to walk right up to the edge with people she loves. She is the friend who sits with you...
Taylor Harris: Peace for Our Anxious Selves
March 8, 2022
- 38:38
Everyone loves to get VERY BOSSY when it comes to our fears. “Don’t worry, be happy!” Just be brave! But maybe ‘being brave’ doesn’t...
Liz Tichenor: Being Church on Our Worst Days
March 1, 2022
- 40:11
Author and priest Liz Tichenor lost her mom and her baby in the same year. Brand new to leading a church and reeling from the grief, the...
Kate Baer: Tolerating Imperfection
February 22, 2022
- 31:11
Poet Kate Baer found herself inundated with the demands of motherhood and little time to write. Nothing was easy and then, at a breaking...
Giving Up on Perfect
February 15, 2022
- 16:09
I do not imagine that I will settle centuries of debate about just how good we are, except that I believe that it is somewhere between...
Rick Mercer: Proud of Absolutely Everybody
February 8, 2022
- 42:27
Rick Mercer didn’t exactly know he was allowed to be proud. As a teenager, he was barely making it through high school and traveling the...
Katie Couric: The Courage to Try (and Wisdom to Know When to Let Go)
February 1, 2022
- 43:12
Katie Couric is an award-winning journalist and bestselling author. Her hustle and ambition not only served her career aspirations, but...
Introducing Season 8 of EVERYTHING HAPPENS
February 1, 2022
- 01:53
My name is Kate Bowler, and I'm a professor at Duke, a writer of some books that have joyfully sarcastic titles, wife, and mom of a boy...
David Brooks & Kate Bowler: Never, Ever Enough
November 30, 2021
- 43:54
How do we reach for wisdom instead of self-help solutions? Much to their embarrassment, New York Times columnist David Brooks and Kate...
Sarah Sentilles: Loving a Stranger
November 23, 2021
- 40:24
We're often given a story of birds and bees where two people fall in love and out of their love blooms a perfect little creature. But...
Cindy McCain: A Special Kind of Brave
November 16, 2021
- 34:52
What does courage look like in the face of the impossible? Cindy McCain had a front row seat to history, as wife of Arizona Senator and...
Richard Rohr: Learning to Hold On, Learning to Let Go
November 9, 2021
- 36:05
Life is painful. Period. But are there some aspects of our faith or our posture toward the world that can change how we experience it?...
Alexi Pappas: Staying Awake to Our Pain
November 2, 2021
- 40:50
When she was a child, Alexi Pappas lost her mother to suicide. So when Alexi faced a season of deep depression she knew had to find a...
Jerry Sittser: Life After Loss
October 26, 2021
- 36:56
How do you move forward after an incalculable loss? Jerry Sittser lost his wife, young daughter, and his mom in one horrific accident....
Susan David: Toxic Positivity
October 19, 2021
- 34:20
Do you ever feel a pressure to be positive? Harvard psychologist and bestselling author of Emotional Agility, Dr. Susan David studies...
Stanley Tucci: Small Pleasures, Simple Joys
October 12, 2021
- 38:21
Stanley Tucci is a total foodie—of course, he starred in Julie and Julia and brought us the mouth-watering CNN special, Searching for...
Philip Yancey: The Scandal of Grace
October 5, 2021
- 35:18
Philip Yancey is well-known for his bestselling books like What's So Amazing About Grace and Disappointment with God. But behind all of...
No Cure For Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear)
September 28, 2021
- 18:27
The bestselling author of Everything Happens for a Reason (And Other Lies I’ve Loved) asks, how do you move forward with a life you...
Tony Hale: Gentleness for Our Awkward, Anxious Selves
September 21, 2021
- 41:20
What if we never fit in? Or always miss the script that everyone else seems to so easily understand? From Arrested Development’s Buster...
Antoni Porowski: Tastes Like Love
September 14, 2021
- 40:37
What kind of food tastes like love to you? Food has a beautiful way of making us feel less lonely in our pain or in our isolation or in...
Gretchen Rubin: Can We Be A Tiny Bit Happier?
September 7, 2021
- 35:33
Is it possible to be happier? Bestselling author Gretchen Rubin wondered if she could discipline herself to take tiny steps in order to...
Nadine Burke Harris: What Your Childhood Means for Your Health
August 31, 2021
- 41:38
Can trauma you experienced as a kid still affect you now? What about the traumatic experiences of our parents and grandparents? Is there...
Cecily Strong: Embracing the Yes/And
August 24, 2021
- 34:21
Can hilarity and sorrow co-exist? Comedian and actress Cecily Strong (of Saturday Night Live fame) is professionally funny. But after a...
Malcolm Gladwell: Can People Change?
August 17, 2021
- 38:29
The Self-Help Industry would like to convince us that everyone is capable of change. Just drink this! Read this book! Pick up this daily...
Introducing Season 7 of EVERYTHING HAPPENS
August 10, 2021
- 02:39
We all wish we could fix our lives. And it works!Until it doesn't.Until we lose someone we love. Or an addiction ruins the family...
Debunking "Everything Happens for a Reason" with Kelly Corrigan
June 22, 2021
- 44:03
The Everything Happens team is still on a bit of a summer break, but don't worry! We'll be back in August with all new episodes. We...
How Far We’ve Come
June 8, 2021
- 33:20
In our season six finale, Kate takes us back to the very beginning. In this episode, you’ll hear the unlikely beginning of the...
Julianna Margulies: Getting Unstuck
June 1, 2021
- 38:50
Chaotic childhoods can leave us feeling stuck. Stuck in the roles and relationships and chaos that once felt familiar. Actress Julianna...
Suleika Jaouad: You Are Not The Bad Thing (Part 2)
May 25, 2021
- 30:52
There is a strange tension when we want so badly for the people we love to support us, but want to shield them from the pain at the same...
Suleika Jaouad: The Kingdom of the Sick (Part 1)
May 18, 2021
- 35:10
There are two different worlds people inhabit. In one world, people feel infinite bounce. They can see every silver lining and believe...
Adam Grant: Leaning into Uncertainty
May 11, 2021
- 33:43
Everything is in flux. Nothing is the same anymore. How do we live amid all of this uncertainty? Well, psychologist and bestselling...
Heather Havrilesky: Be Where You Are
May 4, 2021
- 37:53
How do we find “enough” in a life that keeps getting…. harder? Our lives are shrinking. We are shrunk by the pandemic or by illness or...
Mari Andrew: Beautiful, Terrible, and Everything In-Between
April 27, 2021
- 34:32
How do we navigate the life in-between? In-between relationships and jobs and friends. In-between independence and dependence....
Bessel van der Kolk: Our Bodies Keep Score
April 21, 2021
- 36:41
When something truly awful happens, we can’t forget. That memory isn’t just stored in our brains. Our bodies keep the score too....
Jamie Lee: Weddings, Divorces, and Loves That Carry Us
April 14, 2021
- 37:26
Comedian Jamie Lee is now Netflix’s The Wedding Coach where she’s on a mission to help couples survive the craziness of planning a...
Jenny Lawson: The Art of the Absurd
April 6, 2021
- 40:29
Our culture’s obsession with hyper-instrumentalization has meant everything has to be FOR something. But when you are facing unfixable...
Father James Martin: What Good Is Prayer?
March 30, 2021
- 35:20
We don’t always know how to move through this strange, distended season. The season before the cure or the vaccine or the answer. Before...
Willie Jennings: Belonging
March 23, 2021
- 39:04
Our bodies tell a story, and we find ourselves having to live inside it. At home. At work. At church. At school. But what happens when...
Nicole Chung: Family Lore
March 16, 2021
- 38:19
What if the story you’ve been given about your family isn’t the whole truth? Writer Nicole Chung had been told a story like so many...
Matthew McConaughey: Stories We Tell Ourselves
March 9, 2021
- 40:34
Sometimes there are stories about ourselves that just need to be true, even if they aren't. Stories about our ancestors or younger...
Anne Lamott: Loved and Chosen
March 2, 2021
- 40:43
What do you do with a world that is full of things to fear? People we won’t please. Kids who die. Parents who don’t change. Writer Anne...
Dani Shapiro: Family Secrets
February 23, 2021
- 40:11
Who are we when we can't answer where we're from? Who are we when we can't locate ourselves on family trees or on familiar religious...
Father Greg Boyle: The Case for Hope
February 16, 2021
- 40:05
There are some people who see need and, rather than feeling stuck by the magnitude of the world's pain, they move toward it. Today's...
Priyanka Chopra Jonas: Love Big
February 9, 2021
- 35:18
Today’s episode is all about love—the loves that constitute us, the loves that break our hearts, and the loves that keep us going....
Everything Happens Trailer - Season 6
February 9, 2021
- 02:59
People love to pretend that there are simple formulas for living your best life. Now eat this and you won't get sick. Find that love and...
Ask Kate Anything: Season Five Finale
December 9, 2020
- 33:42
How do you get through a terrible day? What should you not say to someone with cancer? What keeps you believing in God? We thought it...
Nikki DeLoach: A Not-So Hallmark Christmas
December 1, 2020
- 37:59
The pandemic introduced many to living with uncertainty. But for some, uncertainty has always been their norm. Actress Nikki Deloach has...
Michele Harper: Beauty in the Breaking
November 24, 2020
- 35:35
Emergency Rooms are the theater of life itself. For ER Dr. Michele Harper, work has become a calling—to bear witness to people’s...
Christie Watson: Bless the Nurses
November 17, 2020
- 40:13
At the core of nursing is the ability to love a stranger, to care indiscriminately. Christie Watson was a nurse in the UK for 20 years...
Samantha Irby: I'm Doing My Best (Life Now)
November 10, 2020
- 41:04
Though magazines and movie stars try to convince us otherwise, we aren’t all living our BEST LIFE NOW. When humor writer Samantha Irby...
Jan Richardson: Stubborn Hope
October 27, 2020
- 37:28
What does it mean to be blessed? If you were to scroll through social media, you'd assume that "blessed" are the ones with gorgeous,...
Abigail Marsh: Extraordinary Empathy
October 21, 2020
- 34:55
Are some people more empathetic than others? By studying those on the opposite end of the compassion spectrum—those with...
Bishop Michael Curry: The Power of Ordinary Love
October 13, 2020
- 36:22
Sometimes it feels like the world is irreparably broken. A climate crisis leading to more hurricanes, fires, and melting glaciers. A...
Susan Burton: Bless This Body
October 6, 2020
- 28:34
There are some secrets we'd rather not tell, but that eat us alive anyway. Writer Susan Burton was trapped in an eating disorder with no...
Victoria Sweet: Medicine with a Soul
September 29, 2020
- 31:55
How do doctors, nurses, and other caring professionals keep their hearts soft when there are forces that make it hard to stay that way?...
Will Willimon: Your Work is a Calling
September 22, 2020
- 33:26
What does it mean to be called to something? What if that job wears you thin? What if you think you've aged out of your vocation? In...
Lanecia Rouse Tinsley: When Hope Seems Lost
September 15, 2020
- 34:47
What do you do when hope feels lost? Abstract artist Lanecia Rouse Tinsley is no stranger to the hopelessness that comes with grief. In...
Mary Pipher: The Art of Aging
September 8, 2020
- 31:37
Who are we as we age? Our culture has such poor language for the who-we-are-ness across time. The ways we grow and the things that...
Morgan Harper Nichols: Blessed Are The Mirrors
September 1, 2020
- 29:02
We have thick cultural scripts for what is deemed inspirational and it usually goes like this: You can do it. Never give up. Everything...
Shauna Niequist: Spread Too Thin
August 25, 2020
- 32:25
Our lives have shrunk and our choices have been dramatically restricted. But the obligations never stopped, did they? How do we get off...
Ken Carter: Living Alongside Fear
August 18, 2020
- 32:19
What does it feel like to really live? Some people jump out of airplanes. Others prefer for their feet to stay on the floor. Some seek...
Kristen Howerton: World's Okayest Mom
August 11, 2020
- 30:19
Parenting isn't always Instagram-worthy, but the American myth of perfectionism rarely shows that messy middle. Kristen Howerton, mom of...
Rachael Denhollander: The Pursuit of Justice
August 4, 2020
- 31:23
What do we do when the institutions that are supposed to protect us, fail? As a child, Rachael Denhollander was sexually abused by USA...
Ray Hinton: The Sun Does Shine
July 28, 2020
- 41:48
Ray Hinton spent 30 years on death row for a crime he didn’t commit. With the help of justice lawyer Bryan Stevenson, Ray won his...
Justin Yopp & Don Rosenstein: The Magic of WE
July 21, 2020
- 35:44
When a group of young moms died around the same time, clinicians Justin Yopp and Don Rosenstein wanted to refer their widowed spouses to...
Heather Lanier: Whole and Holy
July 14, 2020
- 34:28
What if your life hasn’t turn out like you thought it would? When writer Heather Lanier’s daughter was born with a rare genetic...
Timothy Omundson & Joel McHale: Flying Buttresses
July 7, 2020
- 42:31
Timothy Omundson knows what it feels like to have well-made plans come apart after he suffered a massive stroke at the height of his...
Jason Rosenthal: Blank Space
June 30, 2020
- 27:35
When Jason Rosenthal’s wife died, she left him a gift that he couldn’t even have known to ask for—in the form of a viral Modern Love...
Sarah Bessey: Ordinary Miracles
June 23, 2020
- 34:23
Sarah Bessey speaks right to the soft spot where our deepest pain and deepest hope meet. The place where in the bleakest of nights we...
Hillary McBride: Living Inside Our Bodies
June 16, 2020
- 37:43
Is fear avoidable? What does this emotion do to our bodies and minds? In this episode, Kate speaks with psychologist Hillary McBride on...
Mia Birdsong: Community as a Verb
June 9, 2020
- 32:29
There's a story we're told about how we should save ourselves through sheer grit. But many fall on the other side of that success...
Wes Moore: Fork in the Road
June 2, 2020
- 35:27
Wes Moore had a rough childhood growing up in Baltimore. His father died when he was a child, he struggled in school and was arrested...
Gary Haugen: Joy is The Oxygen
May 26, 2020
- 31:54
Certain people decide to make other people's pain their own. Gary Haugen, founder and CEO of International Justice Mission, is one of...
Wajahat Ali: Make Me A Gardener
May 19, 2020
- 34:33
Wajahat Ali was about to give a TED talk on the global case for having more kids, when he received news no parent should ever hear. Kate...
David Fajgenbaum: Hope Wears Sneakers
May 12, 2020
- 33:37
This is the story of one young doctor’s race against the clock as he searches for a cure for his own rare disease that brought him to...
Lori Gottlieb: Does My Pain Count?
May 5, 2020
- 33:20
How do we find joy and connection when tragedy surrounds us? In this episode, Kate speaks with bestselling author and psychotherapist...
Glennon Doyle: The Love Bridge
April 28, 2020
- 34:36
We need guides to walk with us when life goes a little off-script. In this episode, Kate speaks with bestselling author Glennon Doyle...
Sunita Puri: The Uncertainty Specialist
April 21, 2020
- 36:16
Pain is like a geography—one that isn't foreign to palliative care physician, Dr. Sunita Puri. Kate and Sunita speak about needing new...
The Emergency Button
March 31, 2020
- 43:46
When fear is overwhelming, sometimes you need to press the button—the emergency button. In this special episode, Kate gets real with the...
Ari Johnson: More than Enough
December 3, 2019
- 31:29
Sometimes everything is possible. Sometimes nothing is possible. How do you know the difference? Dr. Ari Johnson works to change the...
Angela Duckworth: Finding the Margins
November 19, 2019
- 33:41
Psychologist Angela Duckworth studies the significance of grit. There are those who experience a difficult circumstance and scrape by,...
Vivek Murthy: The Loneliness Epidemic
November 5, 2019
- 26:45
US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy embarked on a listening tour to determine what was ailing Americans. The answer surprised him. In...
Jen Hatmaker: The Preacher's Wife
October 22, 2019
- 24:27
Author and speaker Jen Hatmaker ruled the Christian marketplace as the evangelical darling. But when her theology shifted, she learned...
Sister Helen Prejean: The Face of Love
October 8, 2019
- 25:08
Sister Helen Prejean didn't know what she was getting into when she became pen pals with an inmate on death row, a story told in the...
Nora McInerny: It's Okay to Laugh
September 24, 2019
- 33:40
Nora McInerny had a miscarriage, lost her father, and lost her husband all within a few weeks. Much to her surprise, she kept living....
Sesame Street: How do we talk to kids about hard things?
August 13, 2019
- 34:02
How do we prepare our kids for a world we can't always protect them from? Sesame Street creates educational programs to make the most...
Andrew Solomon: The Stories of Who We Are
July 30, 2019
- 30:54
Writer Andrew Solomon never felt like he fit in. But studying other communities that celebrate differences transformed his sense of...
Jerome Adams: We Belong to Each Other
July 16, 2019
- 25:14
US Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams is committed to combatting the rising fatalities from opioids because he knows the struggle too...
John Swinton: The Speed of Love
July 2, 2019
- 32:57
The quality of time depends on our abilities and disabilities, possibilities and limitations. In a world of speed and productivity, Kate...
BJ Miller: Loving What Is
June 18, 2019
- 30:06
After an accident left BJ Miller with a serious physical disability, he had to learn how to be patient with his limitations. Now, he’s a...
John Green: Chronic Not Curable
June 4, 2019
- 30:10
Society likes to tell the narrative of sick to healthy. But what if there are things we can’t just get over? In his novel, Turtles All...
Kelly Corrigan: Tell Me More
May 21, 2019
- 32:52
When bestselling author Kelly Corrigan experienced the death of her dad and dear friend back-to-back, she couldn’t shake the feeling...
How to Grieve Well (Special Conversation)
May 12, 2019
- 14:53
What can we expect in the first moments of loss? How is it possible to grieve someone we may have never met? How can we best support...
Jayson Greene: The Language of Grief
May 7, 2019
- 36:18
When Jayson Greene’s two-year-old daughter died in a random tragedy, he was forced to find a way forward. What does it look like to hope...
Mark Lukach: True Believers
December 18, 2018
- 34:15
Mark Lukach felt like he was hit with a tsunami when his beautiful marriage was upended by mental illness. With one diagnosis, he lost...
Barbara Brown Taylor: Life after Dark
December 4, 2018
- 31:19
Author and Episcopal priest Barbara Brown Taylor is no stranger to darkness. After experiencing devastating loss, Barbara explores our...
Emily McDowell: There's No Good Card for That
November 20, 2018
- 30:46
Why is it so hard to say the right thing to those going through difficult circumstances? Artist Emily McDowell was on the receiving end...
Alan Alda: Can You Hear Me Now?
March 20, 2018
- 33:53
Alan Alda is best known for his prolific acting career. But he has also spent years learning about, and teaching, communication. The...
Wes Moore: Fork in the Road
March 13, 2018
- 34:37
Wes Moore had a rough childhood growing up in Baltimore. His father died when he was a child, he struggled in school and was arrested...
Margaret Feinberg: Joyful, Anyway
March 6, 2018
- 29:43
Bestselling author and speaker Margaret Feinberg was writing a book about joy when her world fell apart. Suddenly she was fighting for...
Alexandra Petri: Awkward
February 20, 2018
- 26:13
Washington Post columnist Alexandra Petri is the queen of awkwardness. She didn't audition for "America's Next Top Model" and become a...
Lucy Kalanithi: Costly Love
February 14, 2018
- 29:19
When Lucy Kalanithi fell for another doctor, she couldn't know how much love would teach her about suffering. Lucy Kalanithi is the...
Nadia Bolz-Weber: The Insight of Outsiders
February 6, 2018
- 35:37
Before Nadia Bolz-Weber became famous as a foul-mouthed pastor and bestselling author, she was an alcoholic and stand-up comedian. This...
Everything Happens: Series Preview
January 26, 2018
- 01:59
Life isn't always bright and shiny, as Kate Bowler knows. Kate is a young mother, writer and professor who, age 35, Kate, was suddenly...