Sometimes, the bad thing happens—again. The kind of news that flattens your plans, your energy, your sense of who you are. And you think, surely that’s enough now. Haven’t we hit the quota for suffering? But there’s no quota, just the long middle where life doesn’t follow a script and you’re left figuring out how to be a person again.

Suleika Jaouad knows this terrain well. She’s a writer, artist, and advocate, beloved for her memoir Between Two Kingdoms and her new offering The Book of Alchemy—a creative companion for those learning to live when life doesn’t go according to plan. Diagnosed with leukemia in her twenties and now navigating her third relapse, Suleika brings a voice shaped by experience, beauty, grief, and humor.

Together again on the Everything Happens podcast, Suleika and Kate talk about:

• how illness reshapes the rhythms of a life
• the grief and freedom of falling apart—and not rushing to fix it
• the idea of “creative injuries” and why so many of us stopped making
• how small rituals can anchor us in seasons of uncertainty
• why creating something, anything, can be a way to stay human in the in-between

If you liked this episode, you might also like:

• Artist Lanecia Rouse Tinsley on “When Hope Seems Lost”
• Stacey Heale, “The Aftermath of the Aftermath”
• Suleika’s first and second Everything Happens episodes

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Erin and Ben Napier didn’t plan on becoming household names. They were just trying to build a beautiful life in their beloved hometown of Laurel, Mississippi, one house, one neighbor, one Main Street at a time. In this heartwarming conversation, Kate talks to the stars of HGTV’s Home Town about what happens when our plans fall apart and something even better takes root.

They reflect on the surprising twists that led from political aspirations and magazine dreams to woodworking, parenting, and a television show that celebrates belonging. Along the way, they explore how creativity is born out of necessity, making a home, building a community, and loving the place where you are.

In this episode, they discuss:

• The ache and joy of making a home in the place that raised you
• How small acts of community build a life
• The beauty of third places and why talking to strangers still matters

If you liked this episode, you may also like:

• Angela Williams on The Caring Power of Community
• Sharon McMahon, Drops Make an Ocean
• Priya Parker on The Art of Gathering

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Stacey Heale’s husband, Greg, was diagnosed with terminal cancer, life became a blur of caregiving, grief, and trying to hold a family together with two small children and no time to waste. Overnight, Stacey became a caregiver, medical advocate, emotional buffer, and the person holding all the impossible pieces.

In this tender and fiercely honest conversation, Stacey and Kate talk about what it means to love someone all the way to the end, and then somehow keep living. They explore the invisible labor of caregiving, the loneliness of anticipatory grief, and the weird sacredness of the small things that break you. There are no perfect endings here. Just the beauty and brutality of trying to live inside a love that doesn’t get to last.

Heads up: There’s some strong language in this episode—because sometimes life is just too much for tidy words.

In this conversation, Kate and Stacey discuss:

• Why we grieve the ordinary things like school plays and grocery store noodles
• What it means to love someone without believing in soulmates
• The quiet devastation of living in the “before and after”
• The strange glow of early grief and what happens when it fades

If you liked this episode, you’ll also like:

• John Green: Chronic not Curable
• Clover Stroud: The Rituals of Grief
• Tembi Locke: Grief of the Almosts

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.