
Tell Me Something True with Laura McKowen
Tell Me Something True is for people who want to fall in love with the mystery of life again. Practical, fun, and provocative conversations that use the lenses of psychology, philosophy, creativity, science, and spirituality to help us discover the surprising things that make life meaningful. Laura McKowen, the host, is the best-selling author of We Are The Luckiest, a "raw, deep and hopeful" memoir. Laura brings hard-won life experience, a searing curiosity, and deep passion for others to every conversation.
Latest episodes

Mar 3, 2022 • 53min
Caroline Dooner on Saying F*ck It to Hustle & Diet Culture
This week, we’re revisiting one of our most discussed and asked-for topics: BURNOUT.
Caroline Dooner’s first book, The F*ck It Diet: Eating Should Be Easy is a massively popular and influential book for good reason. It’s that helped so many of us reframe diet culture and to finally drop the 10,000 lb gorilla that is our obsession with food.
After several years of feeling the effects of her work, and the way she approached her life and success, Caroline is back with a second book - Tired as F*ck: Burnout at the Hands of Diet, Self-Help, and Hustle Culture
This is the conversation we NEED and Caroline is the perfect person to get us going. She doesn’t sit on high and issue pronouncements about how we’re supposed to live. Her work is very personal and, as she says, she uses her stories as a cautionary tale.
Show notes:
Caroline Dooner: https://carolinedooner.com/
Caoline’s IG: https://www.instagram.com/thefuckitdiet/
The Fuck It Diet: https://thefuckitdiet.com/
Episode link:
Spotify playlist for this episode: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2MMf9BdRlYSWoXc1T2s0Eg?si=6a479752967e4994
Tell Me Something True is a 100% independent podcast. There are no corporations or advertisers backing this community. We are 100% funded by the TMST community.
Support TMST today so you can hear the uncut interviews, attend private events with Laura and help keep TMST ad-free: https://tmst.supercast.com/

Feb 24, 2022 • 42min
Jill Louise Busby on Being Unfollowed
How many of us have the courage to face the friction that comes when we need to grow, but people want us to stay the same? You’ve built an audience as a “truth-teller,” but then what if your understanding of the truth changes?
When you’re an author, artist and performer like Jill Louise Busby, creative growth is essential, but the community that first delivered your moment of “micro-fame” might not be on board. It’s a life challenge we all face, even if we don’t all do it publicly. Laura gets into all that and a whole lot more in her darkly funny and thoroughly revealing conversation with Jill.
Then, we REALLY want you to check out Jill’s debut book, Unfollow Me: Essays on Complicity. It’s an intimate, impertinent, and incisive collection about race, progress, and hypocrisy, and was released in September, 2021 by Bloomsbury Publishing.
Show notes:
Jill Louise Busby: https://jilllouisebusby.com/
Jill’s IG: https://www.instagram.com/jilllouisebusby/
Jill’s book: https://amzn.to/352QlUX
Episode link: https://www.tmstpod.com/episodes/36-jill-louise-busby-on-being-unfollowed
Spotify playlist for this episode: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7KI7qvvyINKOjyOqcjtszZ
Tell Me Something True is a 100% independent podcast. There are no corporations or advertisers backing this community. We are 100% funded by the TMST community.
Support TMST today so you can hear the uncut interviews, attend private events with Laura and help keep TMST ad-free: https://tmst.supercast.com/

Feb 17, 2022 • 54min
AMA with Laura on Rising Above Shame & Regret, plus a big show announcement!
The TMST community takes center stage again as Laura tackles some universal questions on facing down shame and regret. In this episode, we explore the ways our mistakes, our successes, our disappointments and our growth can’t be compartmentalized if we’re going to be free. It’s a VERY hopeful and energizing AMA. We’re continually blown away by the candor and courage TMST listeners bring to this space.
And THEN…we have a major show announcement to share, plus a taste of next week’s guest - the brilliant and witty Jill Louise Busby.
Show notes:
TMST LIVE at SXSW site: https://schedule.sxsw.com/2022/events/PP1140837
Jill Louise Busby: https://jilllouisebusby.com/
Episode link: https://www.tmstpod.com/episodes/35-laura-mckowen-ask-me-anything
Spotify playlist for this episode: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6n0cP0PuSjGh0IW5tF9VOk?si=47f8ccf2da064067
Tell Me Something True is a 100% independent podcast. There are no corporations or advertisers backing this community. We are 100% funded by the TMST community.
Support TMST today so you can hear the uncut interviews, attend private events with Laura and help keep TMST ad-free: https://tmst.supercast.com/

Feb 10, 2022 • 55min
Nadia Bolz-Weber on How We’re REALLY Doing
This week, we asked a big question... what can Timothée Chalamet’s character in “Don’t Look Up” teach us about finding faith in tough times?
No, seriously… we dig into it in a real way and Nadia Bolz-Weber is exactly the person to explore what we can take away from what she admits is a “deeply cynical movie.”
Nadia is an ordained Lutheran pastor, the New York Times best selling author of three memoirs including Pastrix and Accidental Saints; Finding God In All The Wrong People, and a woman in long-term recovery. She’s an example of the ways faith can exist without dogma, exclusion, or shaming. She speaks candidly and generously as a woman with decades of sobriety and a life spent as the person who “always sits in the corner with the other weirdoes.”
In this conversation, Nadia urges us to take a breath and step forward into life with courage, an open heart of acceptance, a hell of a lot of humility, and especially, a sense of humor.
Show notes:
Nadia’s site: https://nadiabolzweber.com/
Episode link: https://tmstpod.com/episodes/34-nadia-bolz-weber-how-we-are-really-doing
Spotify playlist for this episode: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3dhzKN3INZTtRg6TQkPuSr?si=a0a9ae43b3674c23
Tell Me Something True is a 100% independent podcast. There are no corporations or advertisers backing this community. We are 100% funded by the TMST community.
Support TMST today so you can hear the uncut interviews, attend private events with Laura and help keep TMST ad-free: https://tmst.supercast.com/

31 snips
Feb 3, 2022 • 42min
Amanda White and Our Desire for Control
In this insightful discussion, Amanda White, a therapist and author of 'Not Drinking Tonight,' shares her journey of recovery from disordered eating and alcohol. She tackles the illusory nature of control, linking it to deeper motivations and emotional struggles. The conversation covers valuable topics like self-care, setting boundaries, and the importance of reparenting for personal growth. Amanda emphasizes that confronting our emotions and nurturing self-compassion are crucial steps in healing, making her insights relatable to everyone.

33 snips
Jan 27, 2022 • 44min
Katy Milkman on How To Change for the Good
Katy Milkman, a Professor at The Wharton School, blends psychology and economics to tackle personal change. She discusses viewing change as both a mindset and a practice. Katy shares insights on navigating a male-dominated field, emphasizing community support for resilience. She highlights the power of fresh starts for motivation and the effectiveness of commitment devices in achieving goals. Additionally, she reveals how peer influence can shape our choices, making it essential to surround ourselves with achievers for personal growth.

Jan 20, 2022 • 52min
AMA with Laura on Infidelity, Trust, Grief and The Complex Reality of Love and LIfe
We promised more AMAs, so let’s go! This week, Laura answers three questions that interlace around the topics of infidelity, trust, intimacy, divorce, addiction, forgiveness, and the complex reality of life and love.
We are so grateful for the courage and trust our listeners place in us when they call in and share themselves in such generous ways. Trust us, their words and their voices will stick with you and add to your day.
Submit a question for a future episode: https://www.tmstpod.com/question
Show notes:
The State of Affairs by Esther Perel: https://amzn.to/3AdvTvK
Spotify playlist for this episode: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7yWLC9O1WCpXdaqYArvedI?si=e740532b6dd64878
Tell Me Something True is a 100% independent podcast. There are no corporations or advertisers backing this community. We are 100% funded by the TMST community.
Support TMST today so you can hear the uncut interviews, attend private events with Laura and help keep TMST ad-free: https://tmst.supercast.com/

Jan 13, 2022 • 40min
Jamie Lee Finch on Purity Culture, Sex, & Befriending Your Body (pt.2)
Purity culture isn’t a thing that happens to OTHER people. The tendrils of sexual repression have insinuated themselves into all of our lives.
In the second half of our conversation with Jamie Lee Finch, we see how evangelical Christianity’s restrictive approach to sex, sex education and owning your body and desire isn’t that different from what so many of us experienced. It’s a shocking and bracing discovery that has profound implications for our lives.
This conversation is funny and weird and dark. We get into why so many pastors can’t stop talking about their “smoking hot wife” and how missionary work might be completely inseparable from sexual sublimation.
Jamie Lee Finch is the author of You Are Your Own: A Reckoning with the Religious Trauma of Evangelical Christianity. Make sure you check out the first half of our conversation from last week!
Spotify playlist for this episode: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2LdiPlkf5XqJiNPr8yKqD2?si=a7a9878a8eb845a4
Episode link:
Tell Me Something True is a 100% independent podcast. There are no corporations or advertisers backing this community. We are 100% funded by the TMST community.
Support TMST today so you can hear the uncut interviews, attend private events with Laura and help keep TMST ad-free: https://tmst.supercast.com/

Jan 6, 2022 • 37min
Jamie Lee Finch on Purity Culture, Sex, and Befriending Your Body - part 1
What if your body was your closest friend instead of…whatever it is now?
Jamie Lee Finch is a wise guide for so many women who are asking - what would a healthy relationship with my body look like? In this conversation we go deep into why we need to relate to our bodies like A PERSON and the healing that can come as a result.
Virtually NONE of us are free of body issues, whether they’re around our shape, or desire, or how we change with aging. Jamie’s unwavering stance for our health, wholeness and living an integrated life is the message we need to hear right now.
Jamie is also the author of You Are Your Own: A Reckoning with the Religious Trauma of Evangelical Christianity. Next week, in the second half of our conversation, we’ll explore what it’s been like to deal with the lasting effects of having been raised in purity culture and so much more.
Spotify playlist for this episode: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2LdiPlkf5XqJiNPr8yKqD2?si=a7a9878a8eb845a4
Tell Me Something True is a 100% independent podcast. There are no corporations or advertisers backing this community. We are 100% funded by the TMST community.
Support TMST today so you can hear the uncut interviews, attend private events with Laura and help keep TMST ad-free: https://tmst.supercast.com/

Dec 30, 2021 • 53min
Something True for 2022
Our final episode for 2021 is a harvest of hard-earned wisdom to launch us into 2022. You’ll hear from Peter Rollins, Annie Grace, Rob Bell, yung pueblo, and africa brooke. They share so much on how to slow down, trust ourselves, get our focus on what we truly need and, most of all, have fun while doing it!
We are SO GRATEFUL for all of the support and encouragement that has come our way in these first six months since we launched TMST. We can’t wait to get at in the New Year!
Super deluxe +2 hour Spotify playlist for this episode: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2QDWiNjDf9i5DDWZ3Smk9t
Tell Me Something True is a 100% independent podcast. There are no corporations or advertisers backing this community. We are 100% funded by the TMST community.
Support TMST today so you can hear the uncut interviews, attend private events with Laura and help keep TMST ad-free: https://tmst.supercast.com/