Kelly Corrigan Wonders

When her daughter Zoe was departing for college, Shelley Russell wrote her this gorgeous, poetic (and funny) letter. It honors all that the two shared as mother and daughter living under the same roof and offers loving acceptance for all that is yet to come. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices....

My friend Jennie just lost her friend Katie, which of course makes me think about my friend Liz, who died almost 8 years ago now. To make a bit of sense of things, I turned to a book of blessings by my friend Kate Bowler and her friend Jessica Richie. I offer a selection here as a salve for Jennie, for myself, for any of you who are looking for a place to rest in your grieving. Please share with t...

Dan Harris is a smart, hungry skeptic looking for ideas you can count on in the worst of times, like say when you have a panic attack while you’re anchoring the news for ABC. He’s been thinking out loud with some very wise people for many years now through books and a podcast called 10% Happier that I find invaluable. Some topics we break open are uncertainty, humility and practices to keep us con...

Today’s episode features an anonymous essay submitted by a teacher who works in New York City. This is for all of us who care so deeply but may not have the broader context for what’s really happening day-to-day in the life of a teacher. 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://podcas...

How do people come to change their minds? Hint: it’s not because of some novel argument or just the right amount of pressure. Thanks to conversations with Monica Guzman and Michael Lewis, I came to see something more clearly. This is one to share with anyone you wish you could talk to more openly and comfortably about contentious issues. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices...

Krista Tippett, informed by decades of inquiry through her super-project, On Being, sits with Kelly to consider what’s in flux, what needs will never abate and what we might rediscover in new forms. In this moment when everything is broken open, when institutions are received with less reverence and more skepticism, where should we point our minds and hearts? What practices serve us best? This is...

Jennifer Wallace, who was recently a guest on Kelly Corrigan Wonders, shared this lovely eulogy she wrote for her dear friend Katie Spikes. Jennifer and Katie met as 20-something journalists, just starting out their careers together, while working at CBS. They remained very close for 30 years and this eulogy is a loving tribute to the talented, humble, sunny, generous and grounded woman that Katie...

Things we know about touch and why it is so important, from my own recent experiences and through this conversation with Gretchen Rubin. 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

In large and small ways, mattering is essential. Self esteem depends on our ability to contribute to the lives around us. You may know Jennifer B. Wallace from her stints on morning television or her journalism in the Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. She and Kelly discuss her first book: Never Enough: When Achievement Culture Becomes Toxic—And What We Can Do About It. Please note: In t...

Nancy Brown, a military spouse of 19 years, wrote this loving tribute for her two best deployment buddies. It honors the way the three friends formed one great big family while living through several deployments in Eastern North Carolina. Three women, no husbands and nine children all dressed in each other's hand-me-downs. On paper, they were more different than alike but maybe that's a more accur...

Food for thought on America Ferrera’s speech at the climax of Barbie, informed by the great Jia Tolentino (a former guest who I found totally fascinating and original) and her book Trick Mirror. Let us never forget that we are a product of our culture. Please share, especially with the younger generation working to figure out who they are. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practice...

First up, a conversation with Katie Couric, who has been in the media business for 40 some years now in a variety of roles, who has a really honed perspective on where we are, how we got here, and where we might try to get to next. After Katie, a discussion with Neal Katyal, a Georgetown law professor who has argued in front of the Supreme Court. Between Neil and Katie, we hope we come to a set of...

It’s often the little things in life that help us to get through the day: a cup of tea in the morning, gardening, puttering around the house and moving shoes, books and empty glasses back where they belong. We all have things which help us to stay grounded in the midst of a world that feels more crazy and frightening by the day. Stefanie Wass submitted her essay, “Chicken Soup for the Soul”, to sh...

Play this one on repeat. Share widely. Michelle Icard tells me that kids have rights (okay) and these are they. From Michelle’s book 8 Setbacks That Can Make a Child A Success, available August 22, 2023. 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

Based on her invaluable playbook for anxious parents everywhere, Michelle Icard thinks with Kelly about mistakes and making sure that rebellions don’t become the headline of our kids’ childhoods, but rather a jumping off point. This is a conversation to save us all from the overreactions and regrets that stymie growth. Michelle’s book is 8 Setbacks That Can Make a Child A Success, available August...

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...