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
July 1, 2025 • 65 mins
As a widow, I get a lot of grief emails. But this one stopped me right in my tracks with the subject line, “I was the other woman… and he died.” Today’s caller is not a widow. She’s not a girlfriend. She’s not a friend. She is the other woman, and she’s bringing us on her grief journey – the good, the bad, and the ugly.
This episode is available ad-free on Substack.
Have something you want to talk about? You can call or text us a...
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June 24, 2025 • 56 mins
Nora talks with Jess, a struggling caller who has found herself in a relationship with someone she desperately wants to trust. But after a string of unhealthy relationships, Jess can’t help but feel like she’s just waiting for the other shoe to drop.
For full ad-free 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 ...
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June 17, 2025 • 70 mins
In this episode, we catch back up with Jayson Greene, author of the memoir Once More We Saw Stars and learn about his new book and first novel, UnWorld.
For ad-free 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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June 10, 2025 • 62 mins
In this first episode of the newest installment of Thanks for Asking, Nora hears from three callers who explain what they actually do all day at work. And even though they’re wildly different – a regenerative agriculture performance and data reporting manager, an oncology nurse working with phase one clinical trials for cancer patients, and someone who works at a yarn store – each one brings a unique and interesting story.
For o...
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June 5, 2025 • 54 mins
This is an episode from the new season of TTFA Anthologies, go to Apple Podcasts and Spotify to listen to the full season(and past seasons)!
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Eva Hagberg is young, ambitious and about to get her Big Break — a byline in the New York Times! And then, she publishes an error. A big factual error. In the New York freaking Times! Cue the breakdown.
If you've ever laid in bed replaying your missteps, this episode is for you.
O...
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June 5, 2025 • 39 mins
This is an episode from the new season of TTFA Anthologies, go to Apple Podcasts and Spotify to listen to the full season(and past seasons)!
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Work is, to most of us, an important part of our lives. We spend something like a third of our lives at work, and even if we’re not working our “dream job” our work gives us a sense of purpose, accomplishment…and – oh, yeah – money to survive. But work – finding it, doing it, losing it – c...
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June 3, 2025 • 46 mins
Work is not your life. Your life is not your work. We try really hard to separate them.
But, hey! We live in a world where that’s not possible all the time. As a former corporate girlboss who was once chained to her laptop panicking over the dimensions of banner ads and now a podcaster and writer full-time, I get it. Work is a massive part of our lives – we spend a third of our lives working. It becomes part of our identity, for b...
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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.
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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.
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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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