We Can Do Hard Things

In Part 2 of our deeply personal interview with Abby, she reveals for the first time:1. Her romance with an unrequited love – someone who strung her along hopelessly for years;2. Her anguish and rebirth after being arrested;3. Her sense of loss when being crowned FIFA Player of the Year; 4. Her divorce after fighting for marriage equality – inside her own family and on the public stage; and 5. The night she met Glennon.Before you start the episode, please go back and listen to Part 1 of our interview with Abby: We Can Do Hard Things Episode 188 Abby Wambach: Will I Ever Be Truly Loved?And come back tomorrow for Abby’s *very* special Part 3 bonus episode!ABOUT ABBY WAMBACH:Olympian, Activist, Author, and Co-host of the We Can Do Hard Things PodcastAbby Wambach is a two-time Olympic gold medalist, FIFA World Cup Champion, and six-time winner of the U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year award. She was the United States’ leading scorer in the 2007 and 2011 Women’s World Cup tournaments and the 2004 and 2012 Olympics. Abby is the host of ABBY’S PLACES on ESPN+, in which she showcases what makes her beloved sport of soccer a worldwide sensation. An activist for equality and inclusion, she is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller WOLFPACK as well as the adaptation of WOLFPACK for the next generation, an instant New York Times bestseller. She is a founder and part owner of Angel City FC, the first majority-female-owned soccer team in history, and is a member of the Board of Directors for the non-profit organization Together Rising. Abby lives in California with her wife and their three children.TW: @abbywambach IG: @abbywambach

This is the one!  Our favorite person on the planet – Abby Wambach – is going deep, answering the questions that we all have, but that only Glennon and Amanda can ask.  Abby shares, in an intensely new and courageous way, about her lifelong pursuit of love – including her complicated relationships with her mom, soccer, her first marriage, queerness, and her “shadow self” – and why she has questioned her own lovability for so much of her life.ABOUT ABBY WAMBACH:Olympian, Activist, Author, and Co-host of the We Can Do Hard Things PodcastAbby Wambach is a two-time Olympic gold medalist, FIFA World Cup Champion, and six-time winner of the U.S. Soccer Athlete of the Year award. She was the United States’ leading scorer in the 2007 and 2011 Women’s World Cup tournaments and the 2004 and 2012 Olympics. Abby is the host of ABBY’S PLACES on ESPN+, in which she showcases what makes her beloved sport of soccer a worldwide sensation. An activist for equality and inclusion, she is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller WOLFPACK as well as the adaptation of WOLFPACK for the next generation, an instant New York Times bestseller. She is a founder and part owner of Angel City FC, the first majority-female-owned soccer team in history, and is a member of the Board of Directors for the non-profit organization Together Rising. Abby lives in California with her wife and their three children.TW: @abbywambach IG: @abbywambach

1. How to listen to the signals our bodies give us, and other concrete strategies to hold on to being human.2. The healing power of honoring and reconnecting with our little girl selves and with our Mother Earth.3. How, if all else fails, we can practice presence and embodiment by talking to a house plant.  4. The traumatizing effect of purity culture, colonization, and assimilation, and how to come home to the wholeness of our core nature, desire, and wisdom. 5. Concrete, everyday acts of rebellion that help us regain what we lost, and restore us to who we really are. About Kaitlin: Kaitlin Curtice is an award-winning author, poet-storyteller, and public speaker. As an enrolled citizen of the Potawatomi nation, Kaitlin writes on the intersections of spirituality and identity. She is a wise and vital voice on decolonizing our bodies, faith, and families, and the freedom and peace of embodiment - finding wholeness in ourselves, our stories, and our lineage. Her new book, Living Resistance: An Indigenous Vision for Seeking Wholeness Every Day, examines the journey of resisting the status quo by caring for ourselves, one another, and Mother Earth – and is available now. Find her on Twitter and Instagram at @kaitlincurtice.If you want to hear more about Embodiment, please listen to the We Can Do Hard Things episode 168 Sonya Renee Taylor: What If You Loved Your Body?

GLORIA STEINEM – who dedicates her life to ensuring we know that we are not broken, but were born into a system intended to break us – lives in the DNA of millions who are giving birth to movements or to themselves.She reminds us why there’s nothing more radical than telling the truth of our lives, and listening to the truth of others’ lives. She reminds us that leaving our lives unlived is no badge of honor. She reminds us of the thirst-quenching, life-giving, revolutionary power of laughter.   She reminds us of the three different kinds of laughter, and that we can do hard things – like laugh our way to liberation. About Gloria: Gloria Steinem is a writer, lecturer, political activist, and feminist organizer. She has spent decades traveling in this and other countries as an organizer and lecturer and is a frequent media spokeswoman on issues of equality. She is particularly interested in the shared origins of sex and race caste systems, gender roles and child abuse as roots of violence, non-violent conflict resolution, the cultures of Indigenous Peoples, and organizing across boundaries for peace and justice. She lives in New York City. TW: @GloriaSteinemIG: @gloriasteinem

We saw the film WOMEN TALKING and we couldn’t rest until we had the chance to speak with the genius who wrote, directed, and is nominated for an Oscar for it: Sarah Polley. This conversation is about hope, survival, imagination, and revolution. It’s about burning it all down and building from the ashes. Please listen to this conversation and then please watch the film. You will be powerfully changed. CW // sexual assaultAbout Sarah: SARAH POLLEY is an Oscar-nominated director and award-winning actor whose works include Away From Her, Take This Waltz, and Stories We Tell. As an actor, Polley starred in a variety of films including The Sweet Hereafter, Go, Dawn of the Dead, Mr. Nobody, and My Life Without Me. In 2022, Polley released an autobiographical collection of essays – Run Towards the Danger: Confrontations with a Body of Memory.More recently, Polley wrote and directed the film adaptation of Miriam Toews’s novel Women Talking, which has since been nominated for several awards, including the Academy Awards, Critics’ Choice Awards, and Golden Globe Awards.IG: @realsarahpolley

1. Why no one talks about the complicated feelings of freedom after the death of a toxic loved one.2. How Jennette’s mom enforced extreme calorie restriction to control and bond with Jennette, and the moment her body finally said, No.3. What led Jennette to step away from acting after her iCarly stardom, and why she doesn’t think “resilient” is a compliment.4. How Jennette found herself still “doing her mother’s work” in therapy – and how she stopped forcing forgiveness.5. Why – when you’ve grown up in an environment of chaos and volatility – healthy, comfortable relationships can feel boring. 6. Jennette's relationship with her inner voice – and how she understands and experiences Obsessive-compulsive disorder today.CW // eating disorders, toxic relationships About Jennette:Jennette McCurdy is the New York Times Bestselling author of I’m Glad My Mom Died, which stayed at #1 on the NYT bestseller list for eight consecutive weeks and has remained on the list for 24. In her memoir, Jennette dives into her struggles as a former child actor—including eating disorders, addiction, and a complicated relationship with her overbearing mother—and how she retook control of her life. Jennette has been honored as part of the 2022 TIME100 Next list, and her debut fiction novel will be released in 2024.TW: @jennettemccurdyIG: @jennettemccurdy

1. Hard-won, joyful, practical wisdom from Bozoma’s exuberant life, and her lessons on how to overcome after enduring excruciating loss.2. How big love and life can be when we are brave enough to be fierce and tender. 3. The rarely talked-about confusion and fear that often come with pregnancy. 4. Why love isn’t enough — and we all deserve a community surrounding our love.5. Why Boz gave her husband a book report assignment before she’d go out with him, and the heart wrenching truth that you can carry anger toward a loved one even after death. About Bozoma: Bozoma Saint John is a Hall of Fame inducted Marketing Executive, author, entrepreneur, and general badass. In 2021, Harvard Business School published a multi-media case study written about her career, titled “Leading with Authenticity and Urgency”. And Bozoma’s highly-anticipated memoir, THE URGENT LIFE, is available now.Bozoma’s brilliant career has spanned various industries and included roles as Global CMO of Netflix, CMO of Endeavor, CBO of Uber, Head of Marketing of Apple Music & iTunes and Head of Music and Entertainment Marketing at PepsiCo. Bozoma’s work has been lauded and awarded with notable recognition including inductions into the American Advertising Federation Hall of Achievement, Billboard’s Women in Music Hall of Fame, the Marketing Hall of Fame; and has been included in The Hollywood Reporter’s Women in Entertainment Power 100 list and crowned as The World's Most Influential CMO by Forbes. By far, her greatest achievement is raising her 13 year old daughter, Lael. TW: @badassbozIG: @badassboz

Glennon shares what she’s learning in therapy and what she feels we all could benefit from knowing – especially about wanting, yearning, fixing, and the next right thing. If talk about eating disorders and mental illness helps: Listen today.If it triggers: Skip today.CW // eating disordersIf you have an eating disorder, you may find the National Alliance for Eating Disorders a helpful resource: https://www.allianceforeatingdisorders.com/

In this Bonus episode, Amanda answers your follow-up questions:1. How do you take care of the person who takes care of everyone else?2. How do you find peace and closure when you will never know the story of what really happened?3. The weird way Amanda can only relax when her husband gets fired up.4. The strategy that now grounds Amanda when she is most activated and afraid.

1. Practical ways to make a friend and become what Dr. Franco calls a “Super-friend.”2. How to address issues with a friend even if you hate conflict.3. Why expressing anger is more likely to deepen a relationship than destroy it.4. How we need to express vulnerability to make friends – but first, what the hell is vulnerability?5. Destroying the unhelpful myth that friendship happens organically. About Dr. Franco: Dr. Marisa G Franco is psychologist, international speaker, and New York Times bestselling author known for digesting and communicating science in ways tha change their lives. She works as a professor at The University of Maryland and authored the New York Times bestseller Platonic: How The Science of Attachment Can Help You Make—and Keep—Friends.TW: @DrMarisaGFrancoIG: @drmarisagfranco