Thanks For Asking

If it’s Tuesday, the phone lines are open and operators (me) are standing by. Today we’re talk to callers from Honolulu to North Carolina about everything from worrying to working as an extra on Hallmark movies to existential crises. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As a widow, I get many emails from other widows. But this one – from a man who created an AI version of his dead wife – was definitely a first. And I knew I had to talk to him. For full episodes, the full back catalog and a listener community, you can join us here. Want to be on the show? Call or text 612.568.4441 or book a call here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sharing a podcast we can’t get enough of: Your Mama’s Kitchen. It’s a show about cuisine and culture, ingredients and identities, and the meals and memories that make us who we are. Host Michele Norris talks to Michelle Obama, Glennon Doyle, José Andrés and so many other guests about the complexities of family life and how their earliest culinary experiences helped shape their personal and professional lives. And of course, each guest shares a recipe for a favorite dish from their youth so you can taste a bit of their story. In this episode, singer John Legend takes us back to his roots in Springfield, Ohio, where he was an academic overachiever and a musical prodigy. John opens up about his early rocky relationship with his mother and how, over time, they came together to nurture one beautiful family. Plus, we learn how to make his mama's special mac & cheese. You can find more Your Mama’s Kitchen at https://lnk.to/yourmamaskitchenTF Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Loneliness is, according to people who know about these things, an epidemic on par with smoking and obesity. It affects our physical and mental health…and it seems like it’s affecting everyone. Today’s callers are experiencing loneliness in many different ways and for many different reasons, and if you are also feeling lonely…you’re definitely not alone. Take a listen, then call someone (anyone!). Make a plan to hang out, and follow through. Let’s find and nurture connections wherever and however we can. For full episodes, the full back catalog and a listener community, you can join us here. Check out Nora on YouTube. Want to be on the show? Call or text 612.568.4441 or book a call here. Articles mentioned in this show: Americans need to party more The antidote to loneliess The loneliness epidemic Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The first episode of our new call-in show is here, and we have two callers who seemed to be totally unrelated: a new rancher in Texas, and a Swiftie with Cerebral Palsy in New York. But (get your red string and your tinfoil hat) everything is connected! Especially us. That’s easy to forget when we’re constantly pushed to see each other as the enemy, and something we need to remember now more than ever. For full episodes, the full back catalog and a listener community, you can join us here. Want to be on the show? Call or text 612.568.4441 or email thanks@feelingsand.co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s been awhile since we’ve been in your feed, probably because we took a hiatus in March of 2024. Nearly a year later, we have some clarity on what’s next (it’s exciting!). The new show will launch on January 14, but on Sunday I shared that 2025 is The Year of Less and at least 5 people said they were interested in hearing more about what that means and I couldn’t wait ANOTHER week because I simply don’t have the brain storage space. In this episode, we cover: What practices led me to this new iteration of the podcast How my family closes out an old year and makes room for a new one my vision board process (don’t cringe!), which I learned from the wonderful Elizabeth Kott. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In case you didn't know, we're still making episodes that are available exclusively on Nora's Substack! We wanted to give all of our listeners a little preview of our most recent episode! Consider joining Nora's Substack to listen to the rest of the episode, get additional bonus episodes, and ad-free episodes! _ Most people I know are feeling overwhelmed, to put it lightly. Between the stuff you have to do (work, paying your bills, getting your kid new shoes, or vacuuming up the dog hair before you host book club) and the things you wantto do and know will make you feel better (going to the gym, drinking water, REST, spending time with friends, starting one of the million hobbies you bought supplies for and shoved into a closet), it’s all too much and somehow we still don’t feel like we’re doing enough. We’re supposed to do it all (and make it look easy), but it feels like an equation that always adds up to “well, if you can’t figure out how to do it all you must be a loser!” Today’s guest is Kendra Adachi, AKA The Lazy Genius. Kendra is the author of The Plan: Managing Your Time Like A Lazy Genius, a book that is nearly the exact opposite of any time management book I’ve ever read, and a message I desperately needed to hear. - Please send us your questions and comments about this episode or any other! You can email us at ttfapremium@feelingsand.co or leave us a voicemail at 612-568-4441. — Check out Nora on YouTube. Find all our shows and more at feelingsand.co.

In case you didn't know, we're still making episodes that are available exclusively on Nora's Substack! We wanted to give all of our listeners a little preview of our most recent episode! Consider joining Nora's Substack to listen to the rest of the episode, get additional bonus episodes, and ad-free episodes! _ Charles Bock was not interested in parenthood. He moved to New York to be a writer, not to change diapers. But when he met his wife Diana, all she wanted was to be a mom. So he said yes, thinking he would be part of a parenting team. But in the first six months of his daughter’s life, Diana was diagnosed with advanced leukemia and died. Charles became a single dad to a little baby, while also grieving the person he loved. In this episode, Nora interviews Charles about this experience and writing about it in his memoir, I Will Do Better. - Please send us your questions and comments about this episode or any other! You can email us at ttfapremium@feelingsand.co or leave us a voicemail at 612-568-4441. — Check out Nora on YouTube. Find all our shows and more at feelingsand.co.

In case you didn't know, we're still making episodes that are available exclusively on Nora's Substack! We wanted to give all of our listeners a little preview of our most recent episode! Consider joining Nora's Substack to listen to the rest of the episode, get additional bonus episodes, and ad-free episodes! _ In June 2021, Isaiah Goodman, a financial adviser, was sentenced to 7 years in prison for defrauding clients out of $2.3 million dollars. One of the clients he stole from was Celisia Stanton, and in 2021 we interviewed Celisia about being a victim of that crime. Nora recently caught up with Celisia about how she’s processing this experience a few years later and how she took this experience and created a podcast called Truer Crime, which centers the victims of crimes in the storytelling. - Listen to our first episode with Celisia, Behind The Scammer. Check out Celisia’s podcast, Truer Crime. _ Please send us your questions and comments about this episode or any other! You can email us at ttfapremium@feelingsand.co or leave us a voicemail at 612-568-4441. — Check us out on YouTube. Find all our shows and more at feelingsand.co

In case you didn't know, we're still making episodes that are available exclusively on Nora's Substack! We wanted to give all of our listeners a little preview of our most recent episode! Consider joining Nora's Substack to listen to the rest of the episode, get additional bonus episodes, and ad-free episodes! _ In 2022, Prolonged Grief Disorder was added to the DSM-V. A new mental health disorder tied to grief ruffled a lot of feathers, including Nora’s. She talked about it on TTFA (including skepticism around this diagnosis) and you all shared your thoughts on this news as well. This episode is a very cool follow up because we get to learn more about this disorder from one of the doctors who created the diagnosis. Nora interviews Dr. Katherine Shear from Columbia University’s Center for Prolonged Grief about the difference between grief and prolonged grief, the treatment plan she and her team developed, and how American culture is still *so* bad at grieving. Listen to the previous episodes: How Long Should Grief Last? How Long Should Grief Last? Part 2 _ Please send us your questions and comments about this episode or any other! You can email us at ttfapremium@feelingsand.co or leave us a voicemail at 612-568-4441. — Check us out on YouTube. Find all our shows and more at feelingsand.co

Subscribe to TTFA Anthologies here. Two days after Nora’s husband Aaron died, she celebrated Thanksgiving with her family. Well... maybe not “celebrated.” Every year, millions of people do the same thing during the holidays. In this episode, we talk with some of those folks, including Dr. Lucy Kalanithi and comedian Amber Tozer. We also spend some time with some of the women of the Hot Young Widows Club, talking about their hopes and dreams for the upcoming year. Plus, stories of some of the worst holidays ever. _ Come see the Happyish Holidays Live Show: A Petty LIttle Christmas at The Parkway Theatre in Minneapolis on December 4th and 5th, or join the livestream on December 5th! _ It’s the most wonderful time of the year… um, but is it really? The holiday season can be complicated. Sometimes instead of cozy nights with hot cocoa and meaningful moments, we get tears, ruined plans, and nights spent hiding in the bathroom at family parties. If the holiday season hasn’t always lived up to your expectations, join us for Happyish Holidays, a collection of holidays gone wrong presented by Terrible, Thanks for Asking. Happyish Holidays to you and yours! Terrible, Thanks for Asking tells the real stories of real people who have lived through the terrible things in life. TTFA Anthologies are a curated collection of some of our best stories; released in seasons that focus on a specific topic. You can find our entire episode catalog ad-free on Apple+ or Patreon. Created and hosted by Nora McInerny. - Find Nora’s weekly newsletter here! Also, check out Nora on YouTube. _ The Feelings & Co. team is Nora McInerny, Claire McInerny, Marcel Malekebu and Grace Barry. _ Find all our shows at www.feelingsand.co.

Subscribe to TTFA Anthologies here. If the holidays make you want to tear your hair out or cry on the bathroom floor, YOU ARE NOT ALONE. It's a hard time for a lot of people, and still we have to force a smile and say through gritted teeth, "Happy Holidays!" But the holidays aren't always happy. Most of the time, all we can ask for is HappyISH Holidays. In this episode, Nora McInerny and producer Marcel Malekebu dive into AITA stories of holidays gone wrong. You can play judge, jury, and executioner with them. If you need a holiday survival guide, we're sorry, this isn't it. But it just might make you feel better about your holiday blunders! _ Come see the Happyish Holidays Live Show: A Petty LIttle Christmas at The Parkway Theatre in Minneapolis on December 4th and 5th, or join the livestream on December 5th! _ It’s the most wonderful time of the year… um, but is it really? The holiday season can be complicated. Sometimes instead of cozy nights with hot cocoa and meaningful moments, we get tears, ruined plans, and nights spent hiding in the bathroom at family parties. If the holiday season hasn’t always lived up to your expectations, join us for Happyish Holidays, a collection of holidays gone wrong presented by Terrible, Thanks for Asking. Happyish Holidays to you and yours! Terrible, Thanks for Asking tells the real stories of real people who have lived through the terrible things in life. TTFA Anthologies are a curated collection of some of our best stories; released in seasons that focus on a specific topic. You can find our entire episode catalog ad-free on Apple+ or Patreon. Created and hosted by Nora McInerny. - Find Nora’s weekly newsletter here! Also, check out Nora on YouTube. _ The Feelings & Co. team is Nora McInerny, Claire McInerny, Marcel Malekebu and Grace Barry. _ Find all our shows at www.feelingsand.co.

In case you didn't know, we're still making two episodes a month for our Patreon and Apple Plus subscribers. We wanted to give all of our listeners a little preview of our most recent episode! Consider joining our Patreon to listen to the rest of the episode(or watch the episode!), get additional bonus episodes, ad-free episodes, and join a community of Terribles. (Or, if you’re an Apple Podcast listener, you can sign up for TTFA Premium right in the app!) _ Refamulating, one of our other shows at Feelings and Co, is back today with its second season! To celebrate, we wanted to share one of their episodes from season 1. It’s called “Seahorse Dad” and features former TTFA guest Liam Magan (from Liam and the Letters). When Nora interviewed Liam a few years ago, he shared his experience of coming out as trans and the conflict that caused with his evangelical family. Liam is in a very different place in his life these days, and in this episode of Refamulating he talks about his journey of trying to get pregnant as a trans man. Listen to the new season of Refamulating now! _ Please send us your questions and comments about this episode or any other! You can email us at ttfapremium@feelingsand.co or leave us a voicemail at 612-568-4441. — Check us out on YouTube. Find all our shows and more at feelingsand.co

Today is Election Day in the U.S. and for many of us that means…getting through the day is going to feel like watching water boil. So we have an idea: delete the news apps off your phone today, don’t check social media, and press play on this multi-hour, politics free chat between Nora and Kate Kennedy. When you finish this episode, don’t worry, THERE’S MORE. Head over to Kate Kennedy’s Patreon to get more of this conversation. And if you need MORE distractions, we got you: Listen to our It’s Going To Be Okay playlist to combat anxiety Watch our YouTube videos! _ In case you didn't know, we're still making episodes that are available exclusively on Nora's Substack! We wanted to give all of our listeners a little preview of our most recent episode! Consider joining Nora's Substack to listen to the rest of the episode, get additional bonus episodes, and ad-free episodes! _ Please send us your questions and comments about this episode or any other! You can email us at ttfapremium@feelingsand.co or leave us a voicemail at 612-568-4441. — Check us out on YouTube. Find all our shows and more at feelingsand.co

In case you didn't know, we're still making episodes that are available exclusively on Nora's Substack! We wanted to give all of our listeners a little preview of our most recent episode! Consider joining Nora's Substack to listen to the rest of the episode, get additional bonus episodes, and ad-free episodes! _ Three years ago we published a TTFA episode called ‘Don’t You Want Somebody To Take Care Of You?’, an interview with Gina Demillo Wagner about her experience growing up in a dysfunctional family and being a caregiver as a child. Gina’s brother Alan had a rare genetic disorder that caused him to veer from loving to violent. His illness put stress on the entire family, including her parents, whose mental illnesses went untreated. Since that episode, Gina’s written a book about this experience called Forces of Nature: A Memoir of Family, Loss and Finding Home. On this episode, Gina and Nora catch up about writing the book, how writing helped her process and how some of the Real Housewives helped give her the courage to cut off contact with some family members. _ Please send us your questions and comments about this episode or any other! You can email us at ttfapremium@feelingsand.co or leave us a voicemail at 612-568-4441. — Check us out on YouTube. Find all our shows and more at feelingsand.co

In case you didn't know, we're still making episodes that are available exclusively on Nora's Substack! We wanted to give all of our listeners a little preview of our most recent episode! Consider joining Nora's Substack to listen to the rest of the episode, get additional bonus episodes, and ad-free episodes! _ Have you thought at some point in your adult life, I wish I had more friends? Maybe you moved to a new city, saw your social life dwindle after having kids, or spent all your time and energy on your romantic relationships. No matter how you got there, trying to make friends as an adult is a really hard task! To try and help us all be better friends, we called in an expert: Marisa Franco is a professor and studies and writes about friendship and human connection. She is the author of Platonic: How the science of attachment can help you make- and keep- friends. Marisa and Nora discuss how important friendships are to our mental health and how we can all strengthen our friendships. Please send us your questions and comments about this episode or any other! You can email us at ttfapremium@feelingsand.co or leave us a voicemail at 612-568-4441. — Check us out on YouTube. Find all our shows and more at feelingsand.co

In case you didn't know, we're still making episodes that are available exclusively on Nora's Substack! We wanted to give all of our listeners a little preview of our most recent episode! Consider joining Nora's Substack to listen to the rest of the episode, get additional bonus episodes, and ad-free episodes! _ Earlier this year we did a bonus episode showcasing obituaries from your dead loved ones. Nora cried throughout the entire episode, so we wanted to do it again! There were so many obituaries we couldn’t read the first time, so we’re honored to share more of your beautiful loved ones and we wanted to give all of our listeners a little preview of that bonus episode! It’s truly an honor to learn about all of the people you loved, so thank you for sharing them with us. _ Here’s the full article from Shiri, who wrote about the abortion she had to save her son’s life. _ Also, check out Nora on YouTube. _ Please send us your questions and comments about this episode or any other! You can email us at ttfapremium@feelingsand.co or leave us a voicemail at 612-568-4441. — Find all our shows and more at feelingsand.co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe to TTFA Anthologies here. This is an episode about two letters. One of those is the letter Jim left for his wife, Annie, before he died by suicide. The second is the letter Annie wrote to Jim after his death — and as she dealt with her own mental health issues and suicidality in the wake of it. When someone dies by suicide, people want it to be someone’s fault, so they can (hopefully) feel less like it’s their fault. But the thing is … it’s never anyone’s fault. _ Terrible, Thanks for Asking tells the real stories of real people who have lived through the terrible things in life. TTFA Anthologies are a curated collection of some of our best stories; released in seasons that focus on a specific topic. You can find our entire episode catalog ad-free on Apple+ or Patreon. – Find Nora’s weekly newsletter here! Also, check out Nora on YouTube. _ The Feelings & Co. team is Nora McInerny, Claire McInerny, Marcel Malekebu and Grace Barry. _ Find all our shows and our store at www.feelingsand.co.

Subscribe to TTFA Anthologies here. Terrible, Thanks for Asking tells the real stories of real people who have lived through the terrible things in life. TTFA Anthologies are a curated collection of some of our best stories; released in seasons that focus on a specific topic. You can find our entire episode catalog ad-free on Apple+ or Patreon. – Find Nora’s weekly newsletter here! Also, check out Nora on YouTube. _ The Feelings & Co. team is Nora McInerny, Claire McInerny, Marcel Malekebu and Grace Barry. _ Find all our shows and our store at www.feelingsand.co.

In case you didn't know, we're still making episodes that are available exclusively on Nora's Substack! - Years ago, when Nora was in the worst phase of her life (dead husband, dead dad, lost pregnancy) she heard a lot of people describe her as resilient. Those people meant it as a compliment, but to Nora it didn’t feel that way. She was tired, grieving, and lost so much in her life- the “resilience” people saw was often just…the privilege she had to survive it. So when Nora got the new book, The Resilience Myth by Soraya Chemaly, she devoured it. In this episode, Nora and Soraya talk about different ways to think about resiliency and how celebrating it can be a little toxic. _ Check out Nora on YouTube! __ Find all our shows and more at feelingsand.co. — Find TTFA on social: TTFA on Instagram | TTFA on Facebook Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices