We Can Do Hard Things

1. Why Esther often recommends letter writing if you don’t know quite how to start—or have—hard conversations.   2. What to say—and when to say it—to show up for a friend who is in a bad relationship. 3. The importance of rituals in transitioning through breakups—what we should do when it’s time to say goodbye; and what we can do if we’ve never gotten the closure we need. About Esther Perel:  Psyc...

1. How, if you have been struggling in your romantic, parental, family, or work relationships through the lingering uncertainty of the last two years, you are not alone. 2. The revolutionary understanding that, in relationships, “behind every criticism is a longing; behind every anger is a hurt.” 3. What to do when your relationship is a bond of co-parenting / life management instead of a partners...

1. How Glennon and Abby transitioned from the “falling in love” phase to “landing in love” at different times—and how Glennon felt “bamboozled” by it. 2. How the self-inflicted guilt of pursuing joy ruins everything. 3. Why a precious gift from Abby made Glennon feel like she’d finally landed in the right galaxy. 4. How the things about our partners that drive us nuts are the same things that attr...

1. Why “falling in love” feels like you’re losing your mind—and Amanda’s experience when Glennon fell hard for Abby.  2. Why Abby thinks the idea of “the one” is the most romantic way to live, and why Amanda thinks “the one” is unromantic and uninteresting.   3. Glennon’s belief that loves are like plants: some loves are perennials that continue to bloom, others are annuals, full for a season and...

1. Glennon makes a “pod-pology”—and why we should stop saying, “I can’t imagine.”  2. Amanda makes the case for no longer praising people as “superheroes”—and why we should stop giving them lip service and bring them a sandwich instead.   3. How we abandon things we love because the environments surrounding them are unbearable—and how to recreate the environment and reclaim what we love.    4. Ama...

HOW TO SAY NO with Simone Biles and Laurie Hernandez  In this very special conversation, three GOATs and Glennon discuss: 1. What we can learn from Simone’s revolutionary decision at the Tokyo Olympics to choose her physical and mental health over the world’s expectations of her.  2. The tiny decisions that helped Laurie practice trusting herself again after surviving a toxic coach. 3. Why Simone,...

1. How Amanda’s breaking point—when her life felt like all “shoulds” and no “wants”—led to simple, concrete changes.  2. Why the labels put upon us early—the sporty one, the smart one, the artsy one—can shut us off from exploring other parts of ourselves. 3. How Glennon feels like Ben Affleck in Good Will Hunting—and why she wants Amanda to “go see about a girl.” 4. What the chemistry of fire has...

1. How writing is a lifeline for Glennon because it’s the one place her real self can tell the truth. 2. Why Abby feels that her time on the soccer field was art.  3. The unorthodox way Glennon’s writing evolved from hourly 5AM sessions to survive sobriety with three young kids to three New York Times Best Sellers. 4. Why it’s horseshit that books by women authors are indiscriminately labeled “sel...

We’re continuing our conversation with activist, founder of the me too movement, and our personal friend and hero,Tarana Burke. We talk about:  1. What Tarana would say to her twelve-year-old self that might have changed the trajectory of her life. 2. Tarana’s life-shifting realization that her relationship struggles with her mother were not due to her mother’s lack of desire to love her well, but...

Please join us in the first part of our joyful, energizing, and hopeful conversation with activist, advocate, and our personal hero,Tarana Burke. We talk about: 1. How the spoken and unspoken rules for girls led Tarana to constantly perform the role of “good girl” so that “her secret” would never be revealed.   2. The impossible double bind so many survivors live through: that the protection of ou...

1. Why Glennon believes the bravest thing she’s ever done was marching into her counselor’s office in high school—and what made her finally say, “I’m not leaving until I get some help.” 2. How we can identify the difference between our Knowing versus our anxiety and conditioning. 3. Why Glennon describes herself as Dory from Nemo, and how she returned to meditation when her mind became unmanageabl...

1. The story that led to Abby’s iconic haircut—how that decision terrified her, changed how she played the game, and changed how she lives her life.  2. How Abby and Glennon view “brave” differently—and why Amanda believes their perspectives may be more similar than they think. 3. Why for Amanda the bravest decisions feel like “lonely certainty” that can never be explained or defended to others. 

We’re back with author and sex educator, Emily Nagoski, taking our Pod Squad’s questions about sex.  1. How to navigate a relationship when one partner has a lower sex drive and the other has a higher sex drive. 2. The “sleepy hedgehog” practice Emily suggests to help partners find their way back to each other after months (or years) of not having sex.  3. How to raise our kids in a more sex-posit...

We welcome our very first guest, author and sex educator Emily Nagoski, who talks with us about how to finally build true, joyful, confident sex lives: 1. How our sex issues are totally normal—we’re all worrying about the same things.  2. Why more than 75% of women do not orgasm from penetration alone—and why Glennon thinks the world doesn’t want us to know that. 3. The single factor that is most...

1. Why Abby says that people pleasing is both her superpower and her Achilles heel. 2. Why Glennon says playing with kids is just the worst—and insists it’s okay for adults to sit it out. (This is why she’s not a parenting expert.) 3. Why Glennon and Abby decided to say goodbye to Florida and hello to California. 4. Glennon, Abby, and Amanda answer rapid fire questions about: their astrological si...

1. The one question to ask ourselves if we want to know if our love is really reaching our people. 2. How Glennon’s dearest friend Liz Gilbert taught her that a relaxed woman is the new revolution. 3. Abby offers tips for bonus parents—and why she says earning her kids’ love has been the most rewarding part in her entire life.

1. The amazing life hack that has Glennon and Abby replying “Yes” to social invitations. 2. Glennon acknowledges her sexual fantasies … and TRIES (but fails) to share them. 3. Glennon talks about how she “knew what to do” the first time she and Abby were together. 4. The best and worst parts of Glennon and Abby’s big California move.

1. How Abby discovered she was gay while out to dinner with her parents at a Macaroni Grill. 2. The moment Glennon knew for sure she was queer (in an Amish Boogie Nights bathroom)—and the song that sealed the deal. 3. How, as a straight, cis woman, Amanda never had to wrestle with her sexuality, why she thinks that stunted her exploration. 4. How Glennon’s failed Van Gogh visit inspired Amanda’s n...

1. The viral note Glennon wrote to herself in her car this week—and how the world’s response confirmed that we’re all struggling right now. 2. How we tend to either Avoid the world’s pain or Be Consumed by it—and how to survive the overwhelm by embracing the Third Way. 3. What Glennon fears most as her oldest child leaves for college. 4. Why we can’t let the fact that we can’t fix everything keep...

1. Glennon describes how she’s feeling as her oldest leaves for college—and the survival strategy that’s getting her through. 2. The life secret someone told Glennon in early sobriety that changed her life. 3. Amanda discusses the only two strategies that are proven to help us cope with our emotions and become more resilient.  4. How hard feelings always reveal something to you about you. 5. How t...

1. Amanda presents a case for “summer rain” love—and rejects “lightning love” as the highest form of romantic love. 2. Glennon’s theory for when to speak up and when to shut up. 3. How Abby’s experience in a mostly male meeting showed her that “silent solidarity” is a cowardly lie. 4. The trick Glennon uses to communicate with highly sensitive kiddos. (Abby swears it works every time.)

1. Five communication ideas that might help us connect more deeply with people. 2. How Glennon feels that “everyone is talking but nobody is listening to each other ever” and why that’s one of the reasons most of us feel lonely.  3. The conversation strategy that Glennon and Abby use at the dinner table with their kids and friends. 4. Why we love talking about ourselves—and when it helps (and when...

1. Glennon lets f-ing loose about the misogyny in our cursing lexicon—and how it reveals our hidden conditioning. (Note: Don’t listen with the kiddos.) 2. The connection between how little girls are taught to avoid conflict with each other and how adult women are called “catty.”  3. What Glennon really means when she says she’s a feminist—and why she’s baffled when a group fighting for their own e...

1. How, in the business world, Amanda is labeled as aggressive and dominant—and why that’s a gender trap. 2. Abby’s experiences of being publicly misgendered—and how that makes her feel. 3. Why is gender the last place we’re agreed it’s acceptable to make identity assumptions? 4. Why do we tell people who they are before they’re even born—and a thousand different ways every day after? 5. Why Glenn...

1. The Pod Squad is peeved that Glennon refers to Amanda as “Sister”—so what should we call her? 2. How Glennon and Amanda both spent their college weekends in jail—but for very different reasons. 3. Getting to know Amanda and her innate obsession with the link between our personal experience and our location within systems of power. 4. What’s making life a little easier for the Doyle sisters this...