Kelly Corrigan Wonders

Beth Trutner wrote this poignant letter to her father in the middle of the night after one of his trips to the hospital. The letter is a meditation on aging: Beth honors her once vital and independent dad who loved to hike, sail, bike and play golf but also acknowledges the many changes to his body and mind in his 93rd year. Her love for her dad is evident as she recalls time spent hiking with him, crewing on his yacht and looking into his pale blue eyes. 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

Every Friday for the next 3 weeks, Kelly takes a small but real parenting challenge to her friend Julie Lythcott-Haims, the author of some very good books. This week we’re talking about how to decide when to intervene and when to let the shit hit the fan when our kids are traveling. They missed the train. They lost their luggage. The Uber didn’t show. And so, the ideal parental response is…what? [Join us on Instagram to talk it out @kellycorrigan and subscribe to the pod to catch every episode.] 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

To understand the brain’s function and methods is to get some much needed distance from family dynamics so that we might understand them more fully. Lisa Feldman Barrett has been researching and writing about how emotions are made for many years. Kelly and Lisa met on the set of Tell Me More for PBS and they have been talking ever since, particularly about how neuroscience informs parenting. This is a conversation for anyone who has ever been stunned by an interaction, good or bad, and wondered what just happened? Check out Lisa’s books - How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain & Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain. 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

Tim and Julie Vasquez submitted two lovely essays that Tim wrote when it was time to send their sons off to college. We loved both and today we’re airing the first one called, “The Drive to Oregon”. It’s a beautiful reminder to us all that although the destination is important, it’s the journey that really matters. 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

Katy Milkman caught my ear when she said: unsolicited advice is demotivating. She’s at U Penn’s Wharton’s school and does a lot of research on behavior change, including with young adults. Her book is called How To Change and along with people like Angela Duckworth, The New York Times and Charles Duhigg, I highly recommend it. 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

How do toddlers become tweens who become teens who take themselves so seriously, they get right to work on the biggest, hairiest problem on planet earth? We start with Stanford student Sophia Kianni, known as the family megaphone, the one who started every argument, and then sit down with Colorado State’s 2019 Outstanding Professor of the Year, Dr. Emily Fischer. To stay up to date with non-partisan facts about the climate and how we can help, sign up for the newsletter on ScienceMoms.com. 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

Joy Netanya Thompson submitted this moving eulogy for her paternal grandmother Zelda, a Holocaust survivor who endured so much and yet threw her arms open to life. Zelda danced at every opportunity and basked in the presence of her grandchildren like they were sunshine. 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

Thanks to the team at Reasons to be Cheerful, a feed and website started by my old friend from an interview I did for PBS, David Byrne, I have learned of a story that proves what I so desperately need to believe: one person can move an organization, a country, a continent. 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

Today’s show features two charming, unassuming, determined women. First, a humble teenager named Ardra Charath shares her ideas about what we can do to make sense of the extreme weather events she lived through in India and the Middle East. Then, atmospheric scientist Dr. Melissa Burt fills us in on the enthusiasm and forward motion she sees every day with her students. If you are finding yourself thinking more and more about how to protect Mother Earth, join the mailing list at ScienceMoms.com to keep in touch and stay up to date. 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

Catherine wrote this loving tribute to honor her mother Judith on the occasion of her 80th birthday. Judith is a mother of 4 and grandmother of 8 who has lived on 3 continents and loves nothing more than a house full of family. 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

Something I have long sensed to be true from personal experience and now know is the case, thanks to the work of Dr. Samantha Boardman, author of Everyday Vitality, and my neuroscientist friend Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett. 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

Emma Venarde is a college sophomore at Brown. Joellen Russell is a climate scientist in Arizona. They are leaders in a growing army of earnest, endearing women inspiring growth in understanding, behavior, policy and legislation to protect our planet. Here we talk about their best and worst moves on the road to change. Sign up for the free 2x monthly nonpartisan newsletter at ScienceMoms.com to stay in touch on how we can be a part of the solutions going forward. 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

High school junior Clare Murphy wrote this touching, personal and evocative essay for a school assignment. It conveys incredible warmth and deep affection for a very special lake house and also the large, loving family that inhabits it each summer. 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 a week’s worth of conversations with friends who are parenting hard and losing sleep because of it, I turned to my neuroscientist friend, Lisa Feldman Barrett, who gave me a validating thought. 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

What do college freshman Malia Honda and deep sea oceanographer Claudia Benitez-Nelson have in common? They both believe that they can change the story of Planet Earth. Here’s a lively, endearing conversation between people who care and have successes to show us. To keep in touch on this issue, join Kelly and sign up for the free, occasional newsletter from Science Moms. 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

Today’s Thanks For Being Here is the first episode since we here at Kelly Corrigan Wonders made the decision to include many different types of special tributes besides eulogies. We believe sharing tributes of all kinds is the loveliest way to tap into our better selves and remember our highest values. This episode features a beautiful Bar Mitzvah blessing. It was written and submitted by Kelly’s friend Rebecca for her charming son, Asher. 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

If you’ve been listening to our recent climate series, “All Together Now”, you’ve heard from some pretty impressive teens. For those of us listening to their incredible achievements and lovingly wondering about the drive of our own kids, we offer a delightful and hilarious poem by Billy Collins, former Poet Laureate of the United States called, “To My Favorite 17 year-old High School Girl”. 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

Join us as we marvel at the work of a young activist who reminds us that the movement cannot be stopped. Rahul Durai, a junior in high school, is working hard and smart to help Indiana pass a piece of legislation that could turn the tide in coal country. Katharine Hayhoe (professor, evangelical, science mom and bestselling author) says he’s right on the money. To stay informed as we move forward, we encourage every listener to sign up for the free email newsletter on sciencemoms.com. That’s the easiest way to keep learning from a nonpartisan, data driven, footnoted source. 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

Once in a great while, maybe even just once in a lifetime, a person comes along who totally changes your perspective, teaches you what matters and gives you an example of what loving your fellow man is supposed to look like. Avery Anderson was that person. She affected people near and far and people around the world showed their love and support of her by wearing rubber bracelets in Avery’s favorite color of teal green. #avethebrave 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

Thanks to a brilliant TED talk by Baratunde Thurston, I’m thinking about how people tell the story of what’s happened. I also reached out to my neuroscientist friend Lisa Feldman Barrett to ask her about how the brain processes language. It all sounds very heady and it is, a little, but it’s also something worth thinking about since we live in language. 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

Yllka Gashi is Kosovo’s answer to Jennifer Aniston. After years starring in the nation’s most adored sit-com, she left her war torn country to raise her daughter in the US. But a certain story stuck with her: a war widow who eked out a living selling honey from her husband’s beehives. 8 years in the making, HIVE won the Grand Jury prize at Sundance and was Kosovo’s official Oscar submission, making it onto the shortlist of films being considered for nomination. This is a conversation for people who wonder about the relationship between hardship, grit and integration. 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

12 year-old Jack was an artist, a brilliant reader, a mathematician, a serious student of the Bible and a lover of Legos, baseball and his family. Always conscious of doing the right thing, Jack was the kid you’d want your kids to hang around with to keep them on the straight and narrow. His school friends remember him as smart, kind, funny and the life of the party. Jack was able to take on the joy of others and keep it for himself and instead of allowing the joys and successes of others to diminish him, he allowed it to fill him up. 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

Coming off a family wedding, I dug out a copy of The Middle Place to share a passage about learning that my fertility was a casualty of the cancer war and why I had become so convinced that I was meant to have “four by forty.” 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

The worst thing that can happen to a mother happened to Cherylann Gengel. And it has changed every moment since. She is one of those high purpose people who makes you question your vocational certainty and wonder what might you be capable of. She is also a living reminder that loss is a territory with many eco-systems and singular viewpoints. If you feel so moved, her organization will put any gifts we give her to very good use. 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

Kirsten’s dad Tom was beloved by his kids and grandkids (one of whom couldn’t pronounce the letter “T”, resulting in the nickname Papa Fom). Tom was a man who loved the simple pleasures in life: playing and winning various games, flying balsa wood planes with his family, joking around, drawing and painting, eating candy, playing “house” and “school” with his grandkids or letting them climb all the way up his body to stand on his shoulders. He really loved the little things and everyday moments were his favorites. 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

Here’s a word that everyone is saying these days: mindfulness. I don’t totally know what it means, officially, but I have jerry-rigged a little process to help me mind the moment, to see the day for the small miracle that it is and enter it with intention — and it’s working for me. So, see what you think. And let me know if you have ideas or tweaks on Instagram. 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

As a 19 year old, Letitia Hanke took a job as a receptionist at the local roofing company. Within 10 years, she bought the business she has now been running (and growing) for 18 years. If you want to remember that anything is possible, this conversation will wake you up to the possibilities. Part 2 of the How’d You Do That? series. 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

The only person who didn’t know how truly special Ellie O’Connor was, was Ellie O’Connor. A woman of action, not words she was pure magic - able to make everyone’s wishes come true, quietly, humbly. Whether it was sending a letter every single week for 5 years to her grandson who was away at college, helping with family gatherings, cooking, cleaning or giving the perfect gift, Little Ellie’s generosity of spirit made everything and everyone feel better. 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

It’s a small but life changing miracle when someone tells you about their harder days. This is for anyone who needs a reminder that everyone, even the most famous people in the country, have heartaches, losses, lingering areas of shame and anxieties. 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

With the demand for excellent mental health care at its all time peak, it’s a good thing people like Tracy Defina dared to go back to school — for many years — to get a PhD in counseling. This is the story of how she pulled off this enormous achievement in the middle of life already teeming with to dos. My conversation with Tracy is the first of a 4-part series called How’d You Do That? with women who made radical changes to their lives well after most of their peers had settled into a given way of life. 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

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 top of his Jeep well into his 80’s. However it was the smaller, quieter moments in George’s life that truly made him a legend: the many times he reached out to help someone in need, the situations in which he simply showed up, his ability to let others love him. He was a man who was always there for his family and friends, right up to the very end. Happy Father’s Day to all - from the team at Kelly Corrigan Wonders. 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

For anyone who has ever caught themselves turning away from feedback, this one’s for you. And if you find it hard to learn from your children or their friends, this might particularly resonate! 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

Anthony Ray Hinton has been on the pod before. In fact, our listeners chose him for the 2021 Episode of the Year. Recently, Kelly and Ray met up on stage at St. Joe’s in Philly, together in person for the first time, to talk about — well — love, which guided Ray through an unjust 30 year sentence on Alabama’s death row. Nothing we tell you here can prepare you for his story and insights. Just know you are about to be changed. To view this conversation, go to PBS.org/kelly. Please share with everyone you know who cares about justice and the role of faith in one man’s very hard, very beautiful life. 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

Shawn eulogizes her parents Bobbie and Roy Gomer who she lost to Covid within a day of one another in May 2020. She talks lovingly of her stoic, humble, 5’2” father who beamed with pride over his children and grandchildren and her dynamo, firecracker, renowned bridge player of a mom, who was Shawn’s everything. These two incredible people who always wanted more for their children and grandchildren than they ever wanted for themselves, fulfilled exactly that dream. They are missed tremendously and loved enormously. 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

Our greatest act of agency is the minute by minute choice of where we place our attention. Here’s a thought for all of us who feel so damn out of control. 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

If you need proof that nothing is quite as endearing as honesty, meet Lilly Singh. She is a smart, funny millennial whose YouTube sketch comedy videos are as brilliant as they are beloved: 3 billion combined views. This is a conversation worth your time, both for yourself and any young adult in your life who would benefit from your expanded understanding of the pressures of modern life. You can watch this interview, and all of the previous 9 podcast episodes, on PBS.org/kelly. 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

All three of the Tiehel sisters eulogized their incredible mom PT but this one, written by daughter Amy really sums up the way PT lived her life: always on the lookout for the person having a tough go of it, the loner, the one who needed a helping hand. This is a story about taking the time to really notice people and to help make the world a better place, one small, kind gesture at a time. 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

From Kelly’s graduation speech at The University of Richmond, 67 legit reasons for optimism even now. 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

Bestselling author and stage 4 cancer patient Kate Bowler (Duke Divinity professor and host of Everything Happens podcast) asks as many questions as she answers. Where did we get our ideas about what’s fair, what can be manifested, what we’re owed? When it comes to cultural messages of self help, what’s true and what’s a bunch of profitable nonsense? After Kelly sat down with Kate on the set of her PBS show Tell Me More, she met up with bestselling author Arthur C. Brooks, a happiness researcher who writes for The Atlantic and teaches at Harvard. 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

Carter paints a vivid picture of her popular Baltimore mom Sally who always gave back and had plenty of love to spare. Whether it was founding an organization to help others, sitting on a board, creating the best Christmas ever or simply spreading love and joy to her family and beyond, Sally was a force for good. 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

During the book signing portion of a recent speech, I spent a few minutes with a woman whose story hasn’t left me. 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

Robin Roberts, who has been saying Good Morning America for decades now, has a few hard-earned lessons to share. She was in isolation for 174 days after a bone marrow transplant to save her life. She reported from Katrina only after searching the coast for her own family. She broke every barrier in journalism on her own terms. She personifies grit, which is why we had to bring Angela Duckworth into the conversation, to break down just how we all might nurture and sustain Robin’s perseverance and optimism. To watch this interview, go to PBS.org/kelly. Robin’s new book, Brighter by the Day, is available now. 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

The first time Julie met Pam of Kinderhook, NY, it was in the doorway of their freshman year dorm room. It was the beginning of a supercharged, meaningful friendship that lasted for over 30 years. 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

The week after I graduated from college I jumped on a boat in Malta and served as the cook for six weeks. I’m still thinking about a few things I learned on the water. Then, not a month ago, I talked a woman next to me on a plane ride who told me something about the north stars that are set for us by our parents and those we set for ourselves that was worth repeating, exploring and sharing here. 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

Samantha Power is devoted, insightful and oozing with compassion for the many pockets of the world that need our support. As part of the PBS series, Tell Me More, we sat down at her offices in DC to talk about loss, intervention, personal agency and progress. She is generous and open about miscarriages, panic attacks, the death of her father and the great man who raised her. Share with anyone who is worrying about the state of global affairs, any service-minded young adult or anyone who juggles a career of consequence and a family that lights her up. 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

Jen remembers her friend and “guardian angel” Hallie. The two women met on a week-long rock-climbing adventure for cancer survivors and quickly bonded. Jokingly nicknamed “Fancypants” by her new rock-climbing friends due to the enormous suitcase of clothes she packed for the trip, Hallie was incredibly warm and full of energy - a woman who sparkled and shined brightly. She had a gift for taking in the present moment, she loved and appreciated her family and friends and she reminded all around her to “Be Here Now”. 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

I believe in wonder as a way of life. Here are some thoughts about what hurts and helps curiosity flourish. 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

Recorded inside the National Museum of African American History and Culture in DC, this is a conversation about how and what we remember with the museum’s director (who is also a poet, an essayist and a New Yorker editor on the side) Kevin Young. Shared with thanks to PBS and easily viewed on www.PBS.org/kelly. 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

Kim writes about her mom who a childhood friend named “Lovely Lin”. She says: If you knew her, you were fortunate—whether a brief encounter, a colleague, lifelong friend, or most especially, her beloved family. You were fortunate because she was a bright and warm light in this world. She was a “feeling” - warmth, love, kindness. On this Mother’s day, we honor you Lovely Lin, you and all the amazing moms - wherever they may be. 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 my experience over these 20 years, the thing about motherhood that makes me batty is trying to gauge whether I’m overreacting or under reacting. What if I let up at the wrong time? What if I go to the mat over something that just doesn’t matter? This one is for everyone who wrestles similarly and is recorded with love and a ton of respect for my mom, a true wonder named Mary Corrigan. 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