Thanks For Asking
A call-in show from author Nora McInerny that lets real people get real honest about how they're really doing. Operators(me) are standing by to take your calls. In case you didn't know, we're still making episodes that are available exclusively on Nora's Substack!
Episodes
May 27, 2025 • 52 mins
Breaking news: humans make mistakes. This is not a bad thing! Our mistakes are how we learn and grow, and we have to get comfy with accepting that mistakes are an uncomfortable part of the human experience.
But what happens when we say the wrong thing at the wrong time to someone that we love during the worst time of their life? And what happens when they can’t forgive you right away? What happens when your best try just… doesn’t...
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May 20, 2025 • 73 mins
The world doesn’t make a lot of sense right now, including other people and why they think the things they think and do the things they do. So I’m tapping in Steven J. Heine, professor of Social and Cultural Psychology and the author of Start Making Sense: How Existential Psychology Can Help Us Build Meaningful Lives in Absurd Times to talk about:
-How these times are actually kind of precedented by the Age of Anxiety
-How we mak...
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May 13, 2025 • 59 mins
Last week’s pep talk episode (https://noraborealis.substack.com/p/stop-being-mean-to-yourself) was such a hit we’re back with more (and I’m making some phone calls today because WOW WE ARE ALL GOING THROUGH IT RIGHT NOW!!!)
Today we have two callers: a 32-year-old who feels lost after losing both of her parents and receiving a tough diagnosis, and a 23-year-old who is a little too wise beyond her years because of a traumatic child...
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May 8, 2025 • 52 mins
Sharing an episode of “What It’s Like to Be…” from author Dan Heath. On the podcast, Dan explores the world of work, one profession at a time, and interviews people who love what they do. He finds out: What does a couples therapist think when a friend asks for relationship advice? Is a Secret Service Agent supposed to pretend like they’re not there when they’re around the president? What are the 3 clocks that govern the life of a l...
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May 6, 2025 • 51 mins
Estrangement is one of those hot button topic that everyone has an opinion about, and here’s mine: you have one job as a parent1, and that’s to love your children. To show up for them. To support them. To not ditch out on their wedding LIKE A TOTAL WEIRDO.
Are things more complicated than that? Sure, people are complicated. But on this show I let you call in and talk about your life and your feelings and, most importantly:
I will...
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April 29, 2025 • 67 mins
Every once in a while, we all need a little bit of solicited motivation from someone totally unqualified to give it. In this episode, Nora shells out loads of love and support in the first of our series of TFA Pep Talks.
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.
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What if your doctor prescribed you a hiking group? A ceramics class? Not in place of whatever medication or treatment you may need, but as a complement to it? It’s called Social Prescribing, and journalist Julia Hotz traveled to some 30 countries to talk to patients and professionals who are at the forefront of this approach to wellness. I loved her book, and loved this conversation (and regret we didn’t have time to talk about AI ...
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April 15, 2025 • 62 mins
In this episode, we discuss the defining moments in our lives that forever branded us with shame.
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.
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April 8, 2025 • 36 mins
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April 1, 2025 • 60 mins
Of all the stages of grief, anger has to be the ugliest one. The one that feels the ickiest no matter what side of it you’re on. So today we’re talking about it.
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
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March 27, 2025 • 68 mins
Sharing a new show from my friends at Higher Ground, hosted by Michelle Obama, called IMO. You know on Thanks for Asking, we keep it real and help each other through some of our hardest times. Similarly on IMO, Michelle and her big brother Craig Robinson tackle real questions from real folks just like you, offering practical advice, personal storytelling, and plenty of laughs. Each week, they’re joined by a guest to bring candid pe...
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March 25, 2025 • 64 mins
In this episode, we get an update from widower David Cherson. This is the first part of a two-part series called Life of a Lonely Widower.
For Life of a Lonely Widower (Part 2) and other 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
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March 18, 2025 • 66 mins
Take a break from the doom and disaster and reset your psyche with some okay things.
We won’t ever say “everything is going to be okay” but we will do our best to find and focus on even the littlest okay things around us that aren’t the very worst.
Keep the bar low and your head up.
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 boo...
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March 11, 2025 • 30 mins
I cannot trust anyone who says No Regrets. Because really…you don’t have ANY? NONE?! Are you sure about that? I can tend towards the opposite mentality myself, but in between No Regrets and All Regrets is a safe middle ground of self-reflection and accountability without self-flagellation and rumination, and that is where we met today’s callers, who bravely dialed in to share their regrets - big and small.
For full episodes, the ...
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March 4, 2025 • 51 mins
Rise and Grind, Girlbosses! It’s time to GROWTH HACK your way to your BEST SELF and make this the ULTIMATE year. If you don’t have time, you can make time, because excuses are no excuse.
Just kidding! Like so many of us, author Maria Bowler found herself caught up in the Productivity Machine, which demands we do more and more and more for the sake of…what, exactly? For the sake of more, of course!
Maria’s new book, Making Time: ...
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February 25, 2025 • 28 mins
Do you say something? Do you shut up? I’m just one woman with an opinion, so I took your calls and texts to answer this listener question: do you say something when your friend is in a relationship with someone you hate?
This is a preview of Thanks for Asking, a call-in show about what matters to you. You can get the full episode on my Substack.
Have something you want to talk about? You can call or text us any time at 612.568.4...
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February 18, 2025 • 66 mins
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.
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February 11, 2025 • 31 mins
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
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February 4, 2025 • 51 mins
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 gu...
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January 28, 2025 • 35 mins
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 foll...
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