Kelly Corrigan Wonders

Kelly shares an episode of a podcast she loves called A Braver Way which is hosted by friends of Kelly Corrigan Wonders, Mónica Guzmán and April Lawson.  

Is it the facts that get in the way in our politics, or our stories? Baratunde Thurston is a renowned comedian, activist, and PBS host who knows a lot about how the stories we tell about ourselves can either unlock our civic power... or make us forget we even have it. We’...

Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, author of Just Mercy, thinks with Kelly about repair in the face of deep societal ruptures. Can memorials transform thinking?  Can laying bare  injustice and its personal and collective effects foster a collective understanding -- followed by a durable commitment to equity?  From Berlin to South Africa to Montgomery, Alabama, people are confronting past harms and le...

Listener Katie Niemeyer shares a poignant story from her time as a 16-year-old patient in a burn unit, battling a severe reaction to a depression medication. Katie recounts how a fellow patient named Kerry, a fireman recovering from his own traumatic burns, brought light and support to her darkest days. Despite his own suffering, Kerry showed up for Katie consistently, forming a lifelong bond that transcended age, color, a...

Today, I'm sharing my notes from listening to Indra Nooyi, who had a transformative tenure as CEO of PepsiCo, and is now a woman who speaks freely and blunty about what the country needs most. Live from the stage at Aspen Ideas Festival, Nooyi set the audience on fire with her blunt assessments and candid insights on how business can serve society and not the other way around.

 (Speaking of interpersonal bravery, here's the...

Nicholas Kristof is one of America's most experienced, prolific, awarded and grounded journalists.  I read him often when I want a point of view that comes with 35 years in the field and his signature big picture optimism.  This is a conversation to remind us all how exactly change happens.   

Special thanks to the Aspen Ideas Festival for putting me on stage with Nick and for generally being such a great partner this year ...

Kristina Phipps wrote this exquisite, poetic eulogy to honor her mom Ann Emanuels.  Ann's love for beauty and her affinity for the natural world shone through in her garden, where she loved to spend time.  She saw a world to be seized and not squandered and would pack more into a day than seemed humanly possible. Perhaps more than anything though, Ann viewed the world as a place that should be savored - like a plump peach ...

Living in an optimization culture is making parenting much more complicated than it need be. Or so says Dr. Aliza Pressman, author of The Five Principles of Parenting and the host of Raising Good Humans, who spends a lot of time with the latest research and a lot of time with parents in clinic. Today’s conversation is about exactly what does and does not protect us from the worst health outcomes and is to be shared with an...

Today’s submission is introduced in the episode as a eulogy but it’s actually an essay that writer, speaker and advocate Tracy Hargen wrote about her beloved dad Joe, shortly after he died in 2012. Tracy describes her dad as her “cheerleader, biggest fan, bear hugger, tear wiper and supporter of crazy ideas”. He had a big personality that filled every room he walked into and had a memorable, radio-worthy voice that Tracy g...

You and I both have short lists of people we just cannot bring ourselves to understand. But even in those most strained circumstances, we do have a set of things in common. Here’s my reminder to self of that always true fact. Meant to be shared, especially with people you’d love to reconnect with.  (Previously aired)

Please be in touch. Write us anytime about anything — hello@kellycorrigan.com — we read every single one.

Rainn Wilson (who you might know as Dwight Schrute) is making a serious call for a spiritual revolution based on joy, acts of service and being honest about our mixed natures. This is a conversation to share with anyone who is thinking seriously about how to elevate matters of the soul over the clang and bang of the modern world. Or maybe just someone who needs a laugh. (Previously aired)

Special thanks to the Aspen Ideas F...

 In honor of 20 years together, Leslie Browning wrote this sweet tribute to her husband Ben. In her early years, Leslie got her idea of “romantic love” from what she saw in chick movies but after sharing two decades together and the juggling required with kids, jobs, financial pressures, competing demands, middle age, menopause and loss, she learned that although solid, steady, “real love” might not make that great of a mo...

Dan Harris is a smart, hungry skeptic looking for ideas you can count on in the worst of times, like say when you have a panic attack while you’re anchoring the news for ABC. He’s been thinking out loud with some very wise people for many years now through books and a podcast called 10% Happier that I find invaluable. Some topics we break open are uncertainty, humility and practices to keep us connected. 

Thanks to our many...

Krista Tippett, informed by decades of inquiry through her super-project, On Being, sits with Kelly to consider what’s in flux, what needs will never abate and what we might rediscover in new forms. In this moment when everything is broken open, when institutions are received with less reverence and more skepticism, where should we point our minds and hearts? What practices serve us best? This is a conversation to share wi...