Kelly Corrigan Wonders

Lauren Pauls wrote this tribute to honor her beloved grandmother Gigi. It’s a meditation on her grandma’s hands - hands that worked in the garden, splashed in the neighborhood pool with her grandkids, sewed matching jumpers for the youngest family members and played piano with gusto. Lauren’s grandma’s hands were never idle - they were those of a female warrior. To learn more about listener data a...

Another installment of Kelly’s “Existential Game Show - This is Your Life, What Are You Doing With It?” , recorded at the Aspen Ideas Festival, featuring advocate Alexandra Reeve Givens. Alexandra tells Kelly about the influence her late father, actor turned activist, Christopher Reeve had on her and also opens up about doing an accountability check each day, who she answers to and transforming en...

When one of her therapy patients said to Dr. Samantha Boardman, “All we ever do is talk about stuff that's going wrong in my life - and we don't talk about much else", it inspired a change in the way she approached her practice and eventually inspired her to write Everyday Vitality: Turning Stress into Strength. Based on 15 years of experience as a psychiatrist, Samantha gives Kelly some practical...

This essay has never before been shared outside of Julia Ogden’s family but fortunately for us, she has decided to share it with the Thanks For Being Here audience. It’s a look at her daughter’s OCD diagnosis and how managing a mental illness has challenged and changed their entire family - including in some unexpected and very positive ways. To learn more about listener data and our privacy pract...

Kelly continues her “Existential Game Show” recorded live at the Aspen Ideas Festival and puts Braver Angels’ Monica Guzman in the hot seat. Monica digs deep to answer Kelly’s questions and touches on how her infant son’s brain surgery transformed her and her family into the people they needed to be in that difficult moment, the motivating force of envy and being responsible ultimately to herself....

We all agree there is work to be done, smart solution-oriented moves to be made for the benefit of all. But who will do it? Who will walk away from richer paths and devote their life to growing businesses that operate for the greater good? Jacqueline Novogratz will. This is one of the quickest and most passionate people I’ve met in a long time. She has 20+ years of experience working with entrepre...

Every town needs someone like Peter Samson - the person who gives his or her all so that kids in the community can have a fun and safe outlet, a place to play sports, meet friends and learn some of life’s biggest lessons. Today’s episode features a eulogy written by Jack Brennan for his friend Peter Samson. Peter was as loyal and committed as they come and started a lacrosse league for boys 30 yea...

Kelly moderated a live panel event at the Aspen Ideas Festival with fantastic guests including Miroslav Volf, Monica Guzman, James Ijames, Alexandra Reeve-Givens and Rainn Wilson. Using questions from the book Life Worth Living, Kelly created a game-show format and put each of her guests in the hot-seat - resulting in some very honest, thought-provoking and funny responses. Today’s episode feature...

Timothy Goodman has made a great life for himself doing large format art projects like, say, making a basketball court for Kevin Durant, or small format masterpieces like a shoe for Nike, or the most personal work, a graphic memoir called I Always Think It’s Forever. He smiles when he talks and is unusually candid and I loved being with him so much I followed him home to meet his girlfriend and se...

Moira O’Connor submitted this 2-part eulogy written and originally read by her nephews Jonathan and Jamie to honor her dad/their grandfather, George Hebbel. George was the father of 5, grandfather of 13, and great grandfather of 14. He was a man who was larger than life: a fighter pilot, a water skier who skied with a pipe casually clenched in his teeth, an ocean kayaker able to hoist his kayak on...

Thanks to a brilliant TED talk by Baratunde Thurston, I’m thinking about how people tell the story of what’s happened. I also reached out to my neuroscientist friend Lisa Feldman Barrett to ask her about how the brain processes language. It all sounds very heady and it is, a little, but it’s also something worth thinking about since we live in language. (Replay of Ep 52 which originally aired on J...

With the demand for excellent mental health care at its all-time peak, it’s a good thing people like Tracy Defina dared to go back to school — for many years — to get a PhD in counseling. This is the story of how she pulled off this enormous achievement in the middle of life already teeming with to-dos. My conversation with Tracy is the first of a 4-part series called How’d You Do That? With women...

High school junior Clare Murphy wrote this touching, personal and evocative essay for a school assignment. It conveys incredible warmth and deep affection for a very special lake house and also the large, loving family that inhabits it each summer. (Replay of Ep 25 which originally aired on 7/31/22). To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/priva...

With our hearts in Ukraine, here’s a story to love about a group of caring people in San Francisco in a time of uncertainty who showed the world how to lean in. (Replay of Ep 38 which originally aired on 4/8/22). To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Let’s say this: the number one driver of happiness across time and culture is meaningful connection to others. So how do you get it and how do you keep it? Dr. Helen Fisher has been studying love for 5 decades. 5. That’s a lot of information. Share this conversation with the people you love. Tons of takeaways that you can integrate immediately. (Replay of Ep 124 which originally aired in January 2...

A touching eulogy for Walter Barry, written by his son Stewart (“Bear Bear"). This is a beautiful tale of family bonds, of three sons who loved to play sports (even inside the family home to a refrain of “Boys take it outside!”) and of a father who led with his heart and intuition. Walter Barry stuck to his guns even when his values and standards weren’t popular, brought joy with his humor, modele...

Sometimes, the only way to figure out what truly makes a life worthwhile is to get out there and “do it”. Yale student Cooper Newsom wrote an essay,“The Great Human Road Race; Or, the Lost Virtue of Corniness” as his final paper in Yale’s Life Worth Living class and it’s a comedic look at how corny but ultimately fun, running a road race can be. Dancing to blaring music first thing in the morning,...

In this final episode of our Life Worth Living series, Kelly reflects on some of her favorite book club moments with Claire Danes and Kate Bowler and offers takeaways and a list of practices to help us stay on track. Based on Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most from authors Miroslav Volf, Matthew Croasmun and Ryan McAnnally-Linz. Visit lifeworthliving.com/kelly to access a study guide...

Today’s Thanks For Being Here was submitted by Heather Hoskeer. It’s a poignant, beautifully-written essay called, “My Mom and Three Writers I Love” and it honors Heather’s mother, who she lost to Alzheimer’s disease. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoic...

Today’s For the Good of the Order is a speech that Kelly gave at Camp Kesem, a very special place that welcomes loss, friendship, sorrow and new beginnings equally. A place that shows us that we can be damaged and heavy-hearted, but still buoyant and insightful and very useful to one another. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-polic...

Sadly, this is the last conversation with Claire Danes and Kate Bowler about what makes life worth all the trouble, worry and suffering. In this freewheeling ride, we dig into just how inevitable personal ethical failure is and therefore, what does repair require. Like, how good are you at apologizing? Have you really accepted the people you love — as they are — or are you still trying to change t...

Amy Zuckerman shares a remembrance of her late father Harry “Wes” Westlund. Wes was a special man whose dream of becoming an Air Force fighter pilot was taken away just days before he was to receive his wings, due to a heart murmur. Amy says that although her dad lived his entire life under the threat of a heart defect, he had no issues at all with his capital “H” heart. He was a loving, caring an...

In this tender essay, Kelly traces her understanding of death from the day her goldfish died to the moment her father died. For everyone who will be missing someone on Father’s Day, this is for you. Please share. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Claire Danes, Kate Bowler and I try to figure out how the hell to live lives of real meaning and discovery, how to depersonalize the slings and arrows of any season, how to remember our agency and mobility. Based on Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most from authors Miroslav Volf, Matthew Croasmun and Ryan McAnnally-Linz. Visit lifeworthliving.com/kelly to access a study guide to help yo...

Writer Courtney Martin wrote this loving, humorous tribute to her mother for her 75th birthday. Along with detailing some of her mom’s quirks that used to drive her crazy (but which at age 43 she now appreciates), Courtney also lovingly describes her many incredible qualities. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more abo...