the goop podcast

“You’re desperate to find causality even where there is none,” says Kate Bowler. She’s a historian at Duke Divinity School and the author of a memoir called Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I’ve Loved. And she makes us laugh, even when she’s talking about death, dying, and grief. In this episode, Bowler tells Elise Loehnen about what happened after she was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer in her mid-thirties. She shares the moments she stopped feeling like a person, the pressure she felt to be “the best” cancer patient, to find explanations, to treat everything as a lesson that she needed to learn. She talks about how her beliefs eventually shifted. And how, perhaps the biggest lesson is that it’s not always on us to figure it all out. “I was never a problem to be solved,” says Bowler. “I was just a person to be loved.” (For more, see The goop Podcast hub.) To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

GP got on a video call with Peter Attia, MD, data-focused physician, longevity specialist, and host of The Peter Attia Drive podcast. She asked Attia about the research and science evolving around the COVID-19 pandemic and what’s known (and not) about how viruses function—and how our bodies respond to them. Attia provides helpful updates on antibody testing, along with his thoughts on what might come next. He also speaks more broadly about health span and the factors that support our immune function; sleep, unsurprisingly, is perhaps the most important, he says. And Attia shares the toolbox he uses to manage stress: mindfulness meditation, journaling, and steady-state aerobic exercise. Attia believes that the more information you have, the better—and we felt a little more peace of mind after listening to his perspective. (For more, see The goop Podcast hub.) To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“I try to create the illusion of simplicity because life’s too complicated,” says Eileen Fisher. Today, the founder and clothing designer joins Elise Loehnen to talk about her appreciation for simplicity (which Loehnen shares). Fisher reveals that her own discomfort inspired her career—she could never understand why women were so willing to suffer to look good. Beyond creating a simplified system for style, Fisher shows us a different way to define and run a company: She doesn’t see herself as the sole leader. She thinks of her brand as more of a big collective, and the company is partially owned by its employees. But Fisher is probably most proud that her company is in the process of becoming fully sustainable—and it’s a fascinating, hopeful process for all of us to get a glimpse into. (For more, see The goop Podcast hub.) To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“The best way to get respect from people is through honesty and authenticity,” says Bob Iger, executive chairman of Disney (and one of GP’s idols). In this conversation, Iger and GP go back and forth about what makes a great leader. (After serving as the CEO of Disney for the past fifteen years and writing a memoir, The Ride of a Lifetime, Iger had some interesting insights.) Iger outlines the strategies that have driven his success and the principles and questions he always comes back to. For him, leadership is about being in a constant state of learning—and not being afraid to admit what you don’t know. It also involves speaking straight—listen in to hear how Iger and GP navigate the challenges of doing so. (For more, see The goop Podcast hub.) To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“Pay attention to your vulnerable feelings and lead with those,” says therapist Terry Real, who comes back on The goop Podcast to help us navigate sheltering in place with significant others. Real guides us on how to step up for our partners (and ourselves) in crisis. He dissuades us from falling back on losing strategies that make us feel disconnected and instead outlines a path toward a healthier, more pleasurable dynamic. (While reassuring us that a little “marital hatred” is still normal.) Real believes in what he calls “fierce intimacy.” It’s not always pretty but it allows us to repair our relationships and build trust—and it brings us closer together. (For more, see The goop Podcast hub.) To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“It’s the fuel of fear that keeps these patterns going,” says Craig Malkin, PhD. The Harvard Medical School psychologist joins Elise Loehnen to redefine narcissism. As he outlines in his book Rethinking Narcissism, Malkin believes that being a little narcissistic may help us—there’s a spectrum: “When we have that little bit of self-enhancement, that’s what gives us the protection against adversity in the world, and even loss,” says Malkin. In his work, he’s found that survival mechanisms and even genetics can be at the root of narcissistic behavior. He explains the differences between pride, self-esteem, and arrogance—and how not to conflate their meaning. He also guides Loehnen through a small but powerful breakthrough with her own fear-driven mechanisms. (For more, see The goop Podcast hub.) To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Host Elise Loehnen sits down with Pulitzer Prize–winning authors Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn to talk about their new book, Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope. It’s a story about our country that begins in rural Yamhill, Oregon—where Kristof grew up—and moves to the Dakotas and Oklahoma and New York and Virginia and everywhere in between. Through vivid personal reporting and the lives of real Americans, Kristof and WuDunn explore working-class America and the all ways our system has neglected and damaged these communities. They expose the mythology of personal responsibility, the tightrope that families have been forced to walk, and the devastating effect of one small slip when you have no safety net. They remind us that no community is “other,” and they show us that even issues as large and complex as addiction, homelessness, and incarceration are not unsolvable. We have the toolboxes; now we need the will. “There’s obviously no silver bullet,” says Kristof. “But we know how to make a big difference.” (For more, see The goop Podcast hub.) To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“This is not outside us,” says Terry Tempest Williams. “This is alongside us.” Today, the conservationist, activist, and award-winning author offers a spiritual perspective on this planetary change, as she calls it. She shares moving stories from her newest book, Erosions, that show how our undoing may be our becoming. She urges us to redefine what we deem essential. To ask ourselves if we could accept that this is a part of us—not just happening to us. Could we allow ourselves to find refuge in change? And: How will we live when we come out the other side? We are being asked to walk bravely into the unknown—and Tempest Williams assures us that we can refuse to live in fear. “We have no idea of the collective power that we hold together,” she says. (For more, see The goop Podcast hub.) To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“Healing is always a surprise,” says Bill Bengston, PhD. Bengston, a sociology professor and researcher, sat down with host Elise Loehnen to talk about his wild, fascinating, unconventional research. A reformed skeptic, Bengston set out to disprove the effect of hands-on healing, only to be proven wrong himself. (“Don’t spend all your time defending beliefs,” says Bengston. “The world is more interesting than that.”) Throughout his career, Bengston has studied healing techniques on mice with cancer—and tried to make sense of what his findings could mean for the future of healing more broadly. In this conversation, Bengston also shares his rapid image cycling technique. For reasons he doesn’t completely understand—Bengston is hilariously clear about just how much he doesn’t know—he says this technique seems to enhance healing. It involves making a list of twenty things we want, and very quickly cycling through them in our minds. Another suggestion from Bengston: When we put our ego aside, we may find that the answers we are looking for are more simple than we think. (P.S. As always, check with your doctor before beginning any healing process.) (For more, see The goop Podcast hub.) To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“There’s no secret sauce to parenting that parents need to know that kids shouldn’t be let in on,” says pediatrician Cara Natterson, MD. After GP read Natterson’s newest book, Decoding Boys, they sat down to talk about different ways to approach difficult and awkward conversations with our children—about, say, puberty. Natterson explains why puberty is occurring earlier and earlier in boys and girls and why it’s generally more common and easier for girls to talk about what they experience during puberty. She breaks down the chemistry of the limbic system to help us understand boys’ decision-making processes. She suggests ways that we can all address body image insecurities and social pressure. And: what to do if your son might be a late bloomer, how to talk about porn, how to empower our boys with healthy definitions of masculinity. These conversations are always going to feel uncomfortable for everyone, especially at first. But the most helpful thing we can do, says Natterson, is communicate directly, clearly—and repeatedly. (For more, see The goop Podcast hub.) To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices