We Can Do Hard Things

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...

1. Why are we conditioned to spend so much of our precious time and energy on our appearance? 2. Why is it that when men put work into the world, the world asks if his work is worthy—but when women put work into the world, the world asks if she’s worthy?  3. Why is half the population’s face allowed to exist as is, while the rest of our faces “need” to be covered in concealers, colors, botox, etc....

1. Glennon’s radical acceptance that she’s always going to be a midnight person in a sunshine world. 2. Our favorite movies and music—and what they reveal about our personalities. 3. Why Abby is objectively hot, but please don’t say that to Glennon at parties.

1. The one question to ask yourself when deciding whether it’s time to quit something. 2. Why Glennon actually believes that quitting each day is necessary for her survival. 3. The big quits that led Abby to Glennon.   4. Amanda’s unexpected great relief—and hope for your relief—in learning about how we’re all just as happy as we’re ever going to be. (And how, as expected, Glennon disagrees.)  5....

1. If you’re like 75% of women, Amanda’s hot tips for setting yourself up for success in the bedroom. 2. Detoxing from religious purity / sex shame culture, and raising kids with a healthier relationship to sex.  3. The one sex subject that’s a hard no for Abby and Glennon.

1. Glennon, Amanda, and Abby discuss their sex origin stories and how that shapes their current sex fears. 2. Glennon’s high-pressure situation of sex with Abby for the first time—and how it didn’t go quite as you’d expect. 3. The biggest sex challenges in Glennon, Abby, and Amanda’s marriages now. 4. What Amanda regrets about her past sex life—and how she’s already worried about what she’s going...

Glennon and Amanda decided to add a second episode each week after Glennon’s big move to California—in the first Thursday episode, they discuss: 1. Glennon’s experiment of Saying Yes to anything the universe invites her to. 2. How much screen time is too much screen time? 3. Are we all just Pendulum Parenting (over-correcting parents’ mistakes and screwing our kids up in the equal and opposite way...

1. The 5 things Glennon wishes she’d known during those early days with young kids. 2. Why it’s important to let our kids see us mess up, cry, and lose it every once in a while. 3. How to let go of Expectation Parenting and embrace Treasure Hunt Parenting. 4. On teaching kids the most important lesson: How to disappoint everyone else (including you) before they disappoint themselves. 5. Why if you...

1. Craig’s first two thoughts the moment Glennon sent him “the text.” 2. How Glennon and Craig told the kids they were divorcing.  3. The big mistake Glennon and Craig agree they made in the early days of blending their family. 4. What Craig says is the most annoying thing about co-parenting with Glennon, and the best thing about co-parenting with Abby. 5. How Craig really feels about Glennon writ...

TW // eating disorders 1. Glennon’s “final frontier”—her attempt to stop controlling her body. 2. The opportunity costs of a lifetime spent obsessing about our size and shape. 3. How we’ve been taught to fixate over every hair, wrinkle, and pound—but have never been taught how our bodies actually work. 4. How to quit conditioning girls to stay small in body, hunger, ambition, and desire. 5. The ty...

1. How Abby learned from church as a child to hate herself—and the healing moment she realized that God and religion are not the same. 2. The miraculous letter Glennon received from a reader the day after she came out.  3. Glennon’s response to the statement “I disagree with your lifestyle, but I love you anyway.” 4. When it’s time to either raise hell inside of—or leave—the institutions that requ...

1. How to create lives that we don’t need to escape from. 2. Why our resentment toward others is our Secret Self-Care Signal. 3. Why refusing to be selfless is the best way to care for others and the world. 4. How to stop passing down the brutal legacy of martyrdom to our children. 5. Glennon’s life-changing spiritual practice: Habitual Quitting.

In this episode, in which Abby joins Glennon and Amanda, discover:  1. How Glennon and Abby realized that each of their recurring Five Fights (about money, food, etc.) are all actually about the exact same thing—and how it all goes back to their childhoods.   2. The guardrails Abby and Glennon built to protect each other when they fight.   3. How to handle a relationship in which one partner runs...

In the episode discover: 1. How the constant to-do list ticker looping in Amanda's brain makes her feel like a dormant volcano. 2. The job description we've somehow accepted for motherhood—and whether self-abandonment is a job requirement. 3. The way gender expectations even creep into Glennon and Abby's marriage. 4. How to know whether your partner is a co-builder or an assistant. 5. How to make...

TW // abortion, bulimia, addiction  In this episode discover:     1. How Amanda protected their sisterhood from Glennon’s addiction. 2. Which of the 12 steps Glennon refused to take. 3. What it took for Amanda to finally quit the wine.   4. The answer to the Pod Squad’s question about quarantine drinking and how much is too much.  

In this episode—in which Abby confronts my sister and me about our inability to have fun—discover: 1. The one “fun” post that caused more people to unfollow me on social media than any other. 2. Why girls may disassociate early from their ability to access fun. 3. Science’s insistence that when we’re gloomy, rest won’t fix us. We gotta play the blues away. 4. A playlist I created for YOU—if you, l...

In this episode, discover: 1. The messed up way my sister Amanda learned her marriage was over -- and how that sabotaged her healing process. 2. How we often cling to unforgiveness because it’s the last connection we have left.   3. The one question not to ask someone who is recovering from infidelity and what you can say instead.  

In this Episode, discover: My quirkiest boundary and how I finally fired Texts as the Boss of Me.  Our response to a Pod Squad listener’s question about creating and holding boundaries with her in-laws. How my aversion to moderation has led me from too few boundaries to way too many.