“The journey lasted so long that by the time we finally returned, the dock was different, and so were we. This isn’t just the story of the pandemic, but of this podcast and of my family.”

“I spent years and years in high school and college nannying and babysitting and taking care of little children. And I still felt leveled by this experience.”

And my mother, she said, “you know, this writing thing is really frustrating you. I can see that. Maybe what you ought to do is take a break and try something else for a while.”

“How does your mother's influence show up in your life? Who are you because of your mother? What did or didn't you talk to your mother about?”

Relationships, parties, music, learned optimism, and more: life lessons from an eight-year-old, backed up by psychological research — and shocking yard work incident.

Relationships, parties, music, learned optimism, and more: life lessons from an eight-year-old, backed up by psychological research — and shocking yard work incident.

As we close our month-long celebration of 2 years of Shelter in Place, we share some big news. And as we enter April, National Donate Life Month, we share a beautiful story from Laurel Morales of 2 Lives about asking for help when your life depends on it.

As we celebrate two years as a show approaching 200 episodes, it’s time for a little retrospective: we look back the good, the hard, and the peaceful, escaping not out of life, but into it.

On the two-year anniversary of our podcast and the Covid quarantine, we revisit some milestone episodes along the away (one day in, one month in, 100 episodes in), reflect on the past two years, and pick a word for the year ahead.

What if we could escape to a place where we had everything we needed, where there was no pain or hunger or loneliness? Pulitzer prize-winning author Anthony Doerr shows us how.