When many people hear the word Christian today, it comes with a lot of baggage—power, certainty, exclusion, and culture-war posturing. But there are still people of faith whose lives look nothing like that. People whose beliefs show up as love. Patient, persistent, deeply practical love.

Bishop Michael Curry is one of those people. A priest, pastor, and former Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Bishop Curry has spent a lifetime reminding people that Christianity is not an argument to win or an identity to defend—it’s a practice of love.

Recorded in front of a room full of pastors, this conversation is a kind of holy pep talk for anyone who feels worn down by a fractured, exhausting world.

Show notes:

• Pre-order Joyful Anyway by Kate Bowler

• Tour dates & tickets: katebowler.com/joyfulanyway

• Watch the live conversation on YouTube

• Kate Bowler on Substack: katebowler.substack.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What do we do when the world feels unbearably heavy—and no one is coming to save us?

To kick off Season 16 of Everything Happens, Kate Bowler sits down live with beloved author and truth-teller Anne Lamott for a luminous, funny, and deeply honest conversation about shame, joy, faith, aging, love, and what it means to keep showing up anyway.

Recorded in front of a packed house at the historic Carolina Theatre in Durham, Kate and Anne talk about the shame that follows us from childhood, the relief of putting down our armor, and the small, ordinary acts of love that still matter. This is a conversation for anyone who feels tender, overwhelmed, skeptical of easy answers—and still hungry for hope.

Show notes:

• Anne Lamott on Substack

• Pre-order Joyful Anyway by Kate Bowler

• Tour dates & tickets: katebowler.com/joyfulanyway

• Watch the live conversation on YouTube

• Kate Bowler on Substack: katebowler.substack.com

• Anne Lamott

  • Bird by Bird

  • Operating Instructions

  • Traveling Mercies

  • Good Writing (with Neil Allen)

• Maggie Smith, "Good Bones"

• Naomi Shihab Nye, “Gate A-4”

• William Blake, “We are here to learn to endure the beams of love”

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How do we stay soft in a world that has taught us to be tough? Actress Minka Kelly is known for her roles as Lyla Garrity on Friday Night Lights or as Samantha in HBO’s Euphoria. Despite her fame on the big screen, one might not realize the chaos that surrounded her childhood. Being raised by a single mom who worked as a stripper and struggled with addiction, Minka had to learn how to take care of herself and the adults around her, and, eventually, to forgive her mom.

In this tender conversation, Kate and Minka discuss:

• How we can be built from the outside in through our friendships and how our friends become our chosen family
• How anger tells us that a boundary has been crossed
• The unfinished ways people love us—reconciling our complicated childhoods with the love we feel for each another
• How Minka has processed her difficult childhood through a lens of love and grace
• The way Minka’s mom was changed by her cancer diagnosis, and how once they found their way to one another again, there could never, ever be enough time

CW: colon cancer, death of a parent, brief mentions of abuse and neglect

Looking for the transcript or show notes? Click here.

Subscribe to Kate’s Substack for blessings, essays, and reflections that hold what’s hard and beautiful.

This episode originally aired May 2023.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.