Everything Happens with Kate Bowler

Don’t Waste Your Life. Savor Every Moment. Live in the Present. 

Culture has a lot of prescriptions for how to live a good life. But what if we don’t know where to start? Writer and researcher Catherine Price started to notice how much time she was spending on her phone and how the habit was sucking joy from her life. Instead, she wanted to learn how to have fun again. What is fun? How do you have it? Can you become a more fun person? Catherine debunks the myths around what it means to have fun—especially when we think we’re too tired, too careworn, or too old—and gives us a little homework to start today. 

In this conversation, Kate and Catherine discuss: 

How to break up with your phone (and why we turn to our phones in the first place)

How to create more opportunities for fun in the midst of regular days and too-full lives

The simple practice Catherine uses to bring more joy to her days

This episode originally aired November 2023.

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nicholas Kristof understands how to hope—especially in the face of despair or disappointment. He has spent his life shining a light on global tragedies like the Tiananmen Square massacre or the genocide in Darfur. And yet, despite all the horrors he has born witness to, he maintains a sense of hard-won optimism. “Hope is a muscle,” he says, and one we can all learn to develop. 

In this live conversation, Kate and Nicholas discuss: 

How to maintain hope in the year ahead

Nicholas’ best argument as to why this is the best time to be alive

His strategies to seeing pain and courage up close over and over again

Why our small actions matter (even when it feels like a drop in the ocean) 

If you liked this episode, you’ll love: 


Bryan Stevenson on justice in the face of unthinkable odds


David Fajgenbaum on how hope pulls us forward


Sarah Polley on why we should run toward what scares us

 This episode originally aired September 2024.

There are no training manuals for this. Just a child staring up at you with cartoon eyes and an inner monologue that asks: Am I doing this right? Am I ruining them?

Kate sits down with Dr. Becky Kennedy—a clinical psychologist and creator of Good Inside—to talk about the heartbreak and hope of parenting. What does it mean to raise (or re-raise) someone with compassion and boundaries, especially when you never learned how?

Whether you're parenting toddlers, teens, or the little one inside yourself, this conversation offers grace for anyone trying again.

Show Notes:


Good Inside by Dr. Becky Kennedy — parenting platform, book, and podcast

A Blessing for When You're Not the Parent You Meant to Be


katebowler.substack.com — essays, blessings, and community reflections


Support Guide: When Your Child is in Pain — for parents supporting kids through emotional struggle


Support Guide: Those Who Care for Teens — compassionate care for older children

This episode originally aired September 2025.

In this episode, Kate speaks with surgeon, writer, and public health leader Dr. Atul Gawande about the deeply human questions that surface when medicine meets its limits. What does it mean to be a good doctor when a cure isn’t possible? What do people really mean when they say they want “quality of life?”

Together, they talk about caregiving, end-of-life decisions, and how the most honest conversations in healthcare begin—not with answers—but with better questions.

For anyone living with chronic illness, caring for someone they love, or wondering what it means to live a good life with limits, this conversation won’t offer easy fixes. But it might offer something just as rare: clarity, compassion, and the courage to ask what really matters.

This episode originally aired September 2025.

Watch the full episode on YouTube: Kate C. Bowler on YouTube

Subscribe to Kate’s Substack: katebowler.substack.com

Show notes: 



The Aspen Ideas Festival



Being Mortal by Dr. Atul Gawande



The Green House Project

Ari Johnson & Muso Health

Organizations for further action: World Food Programme, UNICEF, American Red Cross

We don’t usually have repeat guests on this podcast… except we’re making an exception for the wonderful and wise Alan Alda. Alan Alda, of course, is an award-winning actor, writer, director, and podcast host. You probably know and love him as Hawkeye on M*A*S*H or Senator Arnie Vinick on The West Wing. He is endlessly curious on just about every topic—which makes him the perfect person to talk to about empathy, learning across differences (and disagreement), and how we might age into new hobbies and careers. 

In this conversation, Alan and Kate discuss: 

 Tricks for staying curious as we age

How to talk to someone you disagree with

How Alan hopes to destigmatize Parkinson’s Disease

The difference between empathy and compassion and how to practice these important skills

This episode originally aired March 2024.