Everything Happens with Kate Bowler

What does it mean to live well when danger, loss, and grief are never far away?
Kate Bowler talks with theologian, pastor, and writer Patrik Hagman, whose life has been shaped by profound loss—including the death of his father, his young son, and later his wife. Raised in Finland and now living in Sweden, Patrik brings a distinctly Nordic perspective on happiness—not as constant joy or self-optimization, but as contentment, trust, and gratitude that survives close proximity to fragility.
This is a conversation about living with fewer explanations and more honesty. About faith that refuses easy answers. About the strange clarity that comes when life gets very small and very bright at the same time. And about learning to be less surprised by tragedy—and more surprised by goodness.
If you’re trying to hold grief and gratitude at once, this episode is for you.
SHOW NOTES
Babettes Kulturhus (Linköping, Sweden) – community space for conversation, fika, and culture

Stanley Hauerwas – theologian often referenced in the conversation

Patrik Hagman – theologian, pastor, writer, and translator of Stanley Hauerwas’s work

Pre-order Joyful Anyway by Kate Bowler

Tour dates & tickets: katebowler.com/joyfulanyway

Watch the live conversation on YouTube

Join Kate Bowler on Substack for the season of Lent: katebowler.substack.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.

Author and Episcopal priest Barbara Brown Taylor is no stranger to darkness. After experiencing devastating loss, Barbara explores our culture’s pursuit of the sunny side of life. But perhaps there are things we learn in the dark that we can’t learn in the light. Kate and Barbara discuss the two halves of our lives and how to practice courage even in the scariest of circumstances.
CW: Death of parents, tongue cancer
For show notes, the transcript, and discussion questions, click here.
Subscribe to Kate’s Substack for blessings, essays, and reflections that hold what’s hard and beautiful.
This episode originally aired December 2022.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.