We Can Do Hard Things

Featuring Luvvie, Reese, Ash+Ali, Sam & Cam.

1. Cutting off contact with family is on a dramatic rise – how to know if there’s hope of repair, or if self-preservation requires distance.  2. How to have present, productive conversations with our parents about the past.  3. Why we grieve the loss of a family member even if we know it’s healthiest to cut them out. 4. Attachment styles, emotional honesty, and the difference between forgiveness and repair. 5. What to do and say – and what NOT to say – when attempting to reconnect with an estranged loved one.   About Dr. Atlas:Dr. Galit Atlas is a psychoanalyst and clinical supervisor in private practice in New York City. Her new book Emotional Inheritance was published in January 2022 and is being translated into 17 languages. She is on the faculty of the New York University Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. A leader in the field of relational psychoanalysis, Dr. Atlas teaches and lectures throughout the United States and internationally. IG: @galit_atlas

Glennon, Abby, Amanda, and Sarah Edmondson continue their conversation: 1. “Love bombing” and other red flag strategies used by cults to reel people in.  2. The jarring similarities between cults and abusive relationships – and how in both your best qualities are used against you.3. What to do if someone you love is pulled into QAnon, 4chan, or another conspiratorial culture.  4. The moment Sarah realized she had been initiated into a sex pyramid, and how she escaped. 5. The responsibility she felt – after having been such an avid recruiter – to expose the truth of NXIVM and help take down its leaders.  CW: Discussion of cult culture and sexual coercionAbout Sarah: Sarah Edmondson is an actor, podcaster, author, and cult-recovery advocate. Sarah has starred in a number of TV series, yet she is most recently known for her real-life saga escaping the multi-level marketing company NXIVM – and DOS, a “secret sisterhood” within NXIVM – which can also be seen on HBO’s The Vow. Sarah’s memoir Scarred shares her true story from the moment she joined NXIVM, to her harrowing fight to get out and bring its founder to justice. Sarah co-hosts the podcast A Little Bit Culty with her husband Anthony ‘Nippy’ Ames, and lives in Atlanta with her husband and two sons. TW: @sarahjedmondsonIG: @sarahedmondson Sarah’s resource page: https://www.sarahedmondson.com/resourcesSteven Hassan’s BITE model: https://freedomofmind.com/cult-mind-control/bite-model/

1. How attending a personal development training at a Holiday Inn led to Sarah being branded in a sex "secret sisterhood" initiation ceremony.2. Her path from top recruiter to the whistleblower who helped take down the cult and its leader Keith Ranieri. 3. Why we’re all susceptible to cult culture – the need for belonging, the temptation of simplification, and how we’re trained to deny our gut instincts.CW: Discussion of cult culture and sexual coercionAbout Sarah: Sarah Edmondson is an actor, podcaster, author, and cult-recovery advocate.Sarah has starred in a number of TV series, yet she is most recently known for her real-life saga escaping the multi-level marketing company NXIVM – and DOS, a “secret sisterhood” within NXIVM – which can also be seen on HBO’s The Vow. Sarah’s memoir Scarred shares her true story from the moment she joined NXIVM, to her harrowing fight to get out and bring its founder to justice. Sarah co-hosts the podcast A Little Bit Culty with her husband Anthony ‘Nippy’ Ames, and lives in Atlanta with her husband and two sons.TW: @sarahjedmondsonIG: @sarahedmondsonSarah’s resource page: https://www.sarahedmondson.com/resourcesSteven Hassan’s BITE model: https://freedomofmind.com/cult-mind-control/bite-model/

1. Why she left her body as a child and how she finally reintegrated 50 years later.  2. How, even as a public warrior for the highest ideals of democracy, she’s never had a democratic marriage – and when she knew she had to leave each one.  3. Her deepest fear, why she became happiest at 62, and a peek behind the scenes of her 85th birthday party.4. How, despite coordinated FBI and White House campaigns to vilify her, she’s kept showing up.5. Ways to get involved in her fight to defend the environment – and an invitation to march with her. Tomorrow in D.C.!   CW: References to existence of past sexual abuse and ongoing eating disorder recoveryFire Drill Fridays: https://firedrillfridays.org/About Jane: Jane Fonda is a two-time Academy Award-winning actor (Best Actress in 1971 for Klute and in 1978 for Coming Home), producer, author, activist, and fitness guru. Her career has spanned over 50 years, accumulating a body of film work that includes over 45 films and crucial work on behalf of political causes such as women’s rights, Native Americans, and the environment. She is a seven-time Golden Globe® winner and was honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2021, Stanley Kubrick Excellence in Film Award as part of BAFTA’s Britannia Awards in 2019, AFI Life Achievement Award winner in 2014, and Honorary Palme d’Or honoree in 2007. TW: @JaneFondaIG: @janefonda

1. How to know when it’s time to get out or stick it out – and the quit that set Abbi on course to meet Ilana and create Broad City.2. The life lessons of improv comedy: How to get out of your head, trust your choices, and make something together. 3. Abbi and Abby share similar but opposite stories about relationships that changed their lives (and whether to tuck or untuck shirts). 4. Why reimagining A League of Their Own was the Next Right project for Abbi – and how its label as a “queer show” frustrates her. About Abbi: Abbi Jacobson is a co-creator, co-showrunner, executive producer and star of the critically acclaimed show A League of Their Own. Prior to this, Abbi co-created, wrote, directed, executive produced and starred for five seasons in Broad City. She is the author of the New York Times bestseller I Might Regret This, and is currently adapting “Go Like This,” a short story by Lorrie Moore.IG: @abbijacobson

1. How to eliminate walking on eggshells around family, and avoid feeling badly about ourselves or our people. 2. Amanda shares the first time she broke her family’s biggest holiday tradition—and how it’s now one of her most precious memories.3. Abby remembers watching her mom stress out by “perfecting” every holiday detail—and the change she made to minimize her own holiday stress. 4. How carrying around a cup of hot tea serves as Glennon’s super shield.

Back by popular demand, it’s more mortifying stories! Glennon, Abby, and Amanda share more of their most embarrassing moments – and cry-laugh in solidarity with Pod Squaders’ new and hilarious voicemail confessions.

No digging deep.No paradigm shifts to be found.It’s Easy Fridays.

1. The good, the bad, and the ugly of Gary Chapman’s The Five Love Languages.2. How expressing the way we give and receive love can identify misalignments with our partners, friends, and family.3. How to explore – beyond our “love language” – our deep fears and needs underlying them. 4. Glennon, Abby, Amanda, and Pod Squaders share the specific, hilarious things that make them feel most loved.