Everything Happens with Kate Bowler

We all believe people deserve dignity. Until someone says something outrageous at Thanksgiving dinner. Or posts something truly unhinged on Facebook. Or votes differently than we do. So how do we hold on to our convictions without letting contempt take over? Kate talks with her friend Tim Shriver, longtime chairman of Special Olympics, about what his extraordinary family taught him about belonging, why outrage can feel so satisfying, and what it might look like to treat people with dignity—even when we really, really disagree. Because maybe the goal isn’t to agree on everything. Maybe it’s to remember that we belong to one another.

The Dignity Index

Become a Dignity Voter

Special Olympics

Tim Shriver

Kate on Instagram

Kate on YouTube

We live in a world that rewards certainty, outrage, and being absolutely convinced that the other side is wrong. But what if faithfulness looks a little less like winning an argument and a little more like admitting we might not have all the answers? Kate talks with former Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam about the complicated work of public service, the difference between using faith and being shaped by it, and why humility might be one of the most underrated qualities in a leader. Together, they ask what it means to love our neighbors when we disagree with them—and how to resist the contempt that makes it so hard to listen.

SHOW NOTES:

Faithful Presence: The Promise and the Peril of Faith in the Public Square by Bill Haslam

You Might Be Right — A podcast hosted by former Tennessee Governors Bill Haslam (Republican) and Phil Bredesen (Democrat), exploring difficult policy questions across political differences.

Howard H. Baker Jr. School of Public Policy and Public Affairs at The University of Tennessee

Kate Bowler's Newsletter (Substack)

Kate Bowler on Instagram

Kate Bowler on YouTube

Is religion in America disappearing—or are we secretly in the middle of a revival? Sociologist Mark Chaves has spent decades studying what Americans actually believe and how our religious lives are changing. He joins Kate to separate the headlines from the data: why religious decline is real but slow, what we misunderstand about young people and faith, why megachurches keep getting bigger, and what we might lose when our institutions disappear.

Show Notes

American Religion: Contemporary Trends, Second Edition — Mark Chaves’s book on changing patterns in American religious belief and practice.

National Congregations Study — The long-running study of American congregations directed by Mark Chaves.

Why Conservative Churches Are Growing — Dean M. Kelley’s 1972 book, discussed in the episode in relation to the idea that stricter churches are stronger.

Kate Bowler on Substack — More blessings and reflections from Kate.

Kate Bowler on YouTube — Watch full episodes of Everything Happens.

Something strange has happened to American religion. More people are checking “none” when asked about religious affiliation—but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve stopped believing in God, looking for meaning, or longing for community.

Historian Diana Butler Bass helps us understand how we got here. Kate and Diana trace the transformation of American evangelicalism from Jimmy Carter to the Religious Right, why Christianity became increasingly entangled with political identity, and what happens when people leave religious institutions but still find themselves reaching for something sacred. Perhaps losing a religious label isn’t always the same thing as losing faith. And perhaps the question isn’t only why people left—but what they’re still hungry for.

Show Notes:

Learn more about Diana Butler Bass

Subscribe to Diana’s newsletter, The Cottage

Explore Pew Research Center’s Religious Landscape Study

Learn more about America’s religiously unaffiliated (“nones”)

Explore the data on spirituality and religious identity

Join Kate on Substack

Who are the people who have made you who you are?

Kate sits down with novelist Andrew O’Hagan for a funny and tender conversation about friendship: the childhood friends we swear we’ll love forever, the unexpected people who become essential, and the friends who know how to stay when life gets frightening.

Together, they wonder what makes someone a good friend, why some friendships deepen while others fade, and how love sometimes looks less like having the right words and more like simply keeping pace.

Show Notes

On Friendship — Andrew O’Hagan

Mayflies — Andrew O’Hagan

Caledonian Road — Andrew O’Hagan

The Illuminations — Andrew O’Hagan

Andrew O’Hagan — London Review of Books

Edna O’Brien — RTÉ Archives

Sam’s Cafe — Primrose Hill

Dignitas