Tell Me Something True with Laura McKowen

How would your life look if you arranged it so you could do what you love? Rob Bell has one of the most pure, electric, inspiring and infectious energies for life. He’s truly engaged in the mystery and is such a model for doing things your own way. A former megachurch pastor, who is the New York Times bestselling author of “Love Wins” and ten other books has been encouraging us to engage in the joy of life for many years. In a time of “influencers,” cheap fixes, social media narcissism, hustle culture, self-improvement by meme, and increasingly shallow teachers, he’s a rare example of someone who walks the talk. He’s far more interested in remaining curious than appearing to have all the answers and we love that about him. Rob Bell: https://robbell.com/ Rob’s Everything Is Spiritual Tour: https://robbell.com/event/all-new-everything-is-spiritual-tour/ Rob Bell: An Introduction to Joy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sA7LmEn3xyc Spotify playlist for this episode: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/63nPvfLdS50UjcXlc3N2jZ 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/

This week, Laura takes the mic solo to reflect on hitting seven years of sobriety. She goes deep on four ideas that feel most important now as she looks back - ideas that are both urgent and grounding, timely and timeless - whether you’ve struggled with addiction or not. Since Laura got sober in 2014, cultural ideas and discussions around sobriety and addiction have massively changed. A “condition” once cloaked in anonymity and dark church basements has become both vocal and visible as more and more people choose to recover out loud, new recovery modalities surface, and movements like #sobercurious #oneyearnobeer #soberoctober and #dryjanuary have brought alcohol-free experiments and lifestyles into the mainstream, Amidst this shift, Laura encourages us to play the long game. She touches on the many layers of her sobriety from quitting Ambien to body issues, money, emotional sobriety, relationships with men, and finally quitting social media, and how the work of recovery is an ever-evolving, mysterious and life-giving process. ‘How I Knew I Needed to Quit Instagram’ (New York Times) https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/01/well/mind/instagram-quit.html Laura’s book: https://www.amazon.com/We-Are-Luckiest-Surprising-Magic/dp/160868654X/ The Luckiest Club: www.theluckiestclub.com Laura’s Website: www.lauramckowen.com Spotify playlist for this episode: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/478iRwMKSjbPbLBaJQaHsy?si=845f0479f47c4342 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/

How many times have you looked at your relationship partner and wondered, “Why do they do that?” Have we got an episode for you! Julie Menanno’s “The Secure Relationship” (@thesecurerelationship) Instagram account is a touchstone for many folks in the TMST community. In a sea of glib, pop psychology, and low nutrition, feel-good content, she's taken her work as a couple’s therapist and scholar and turned it into a feed that’s operating at a much higher level. In recent years, the concept of attachment styles - anxious types, avoidant types - has crept into our consciousness. Julie brings these concepts, and other ideas like attachment needs, emotional safety, and healthy vulnerability, to life in a smart, accessible way for almost half a million followers. Her first book, The Secure Relationship, and her latest, Secure Love, are shining a light on ways we can be more centered in our relationships - and how we can enjoy them more. Julie Menanno: https://www.thesecurerelationship.com/ The Secure Relationship IG account: https://www.instagram.com/thesecurerelationship/ 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/

What would life be like if we gave ourselves PERMISSION? Permission to truly chill, to feel deeply, to open up and express ourselves in ways that serve us - and others? Kristoffer “KC” Carter has A LOT of ideas about this. He’s the exact opposite of aspirational hustle culture and warmed over self help -- and he’s Laura’s coach! In this episode, Kristoffer shows us what happens when a disaffected sales dude goes deep into the world of meditation and spirituality and emerges as a Fortune 100 executive coach and unwavering advocate for every. single. one. of us. Have a pen and paper handy for this one, because the wisdom is flowing. The Four Permissions: https://www.thisepiclife.com/manifesto/ KC’s Book Permission To Glow: https://www.thisepiclife.com/book/ Meet KC: https://www.thisepiclife.com/about/ 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, hear uncut interviews, and keep it ad-free: https://tmst.supercast.com/ Join our free online community (it’s not a Facebook group!): https://www.tmstpod.com/

Have you ever said, “I’d love to stop scrolling/ drinking/ shopping/ gambling, but…?” That’s the power of dopamine. Dr. Anna Lembke is one of our most brilliant science communicators. She’s the New York Times bestselling author of Dopamine Nation, the program director for the Stanford Addiction Medicine Fellowship, and the chief of the Stanford Addiction Medical Dual Diagnosis Clinic. Simply, if there is ONE VOICE you should listen to on why the relentless pursuit of pleasure leads to pain, it’s Anna Lembke. In this episode she helps us understand massive topics like self-binding and see that escaping the vicious cycle of compulsive behaviors is so much more than abstinence or will power. This is a hopeful and encouraging episode and one to share with everyone you know who’s said, “I’d love to stop scrolling, but…” Dr. Anna Lembke: https://www.annalembke.com/ Further reading: https://www.annalembke.com/selected-publications Dopamine Nation Book: https://www.amazon.com/Dopamine-Nation-Finding-Balance-Indulgence/dp/152474672X/ 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, hear uncut interviews, and keep it ad-free: https://tmst.supercast.com/ Join our free online community (it’s not a Facebook group!): https://www.tmstpod.com/

What do you do when you’ve impacted the lives of MILLIONS and you want to walk away because you’re miserable? Annie Grace’s book, This Naked Mind, and her free online course, The Alcohol Experiment, blew open the conversation around alcohol. It’s a legit cultural phenomenon. But after years of making a difference, she had to face the fact that some of the things that had animated her drinking - the scarcity, the unhealthy competition, the never-enoughness - were still there. Her old animating energy was still running the show and it was tainting all the good things. Annie’s willingness to share how she confronted that old animating energy is inspiring and she was so generous in sharing her hard-earned wisdom. Also, she answered a bunch of questions from our TMST PLUS members. The paid community plays a key role in helping us make this show and you can get in on that at https://tmst.supercast.com/ 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, hear uncut interviews, and keep it ad-free: https://tmst.supercast.com/ Join our free online community (it’s not a Facebook group!): https://www.tmstpod.com/

How is social media rewiring us, and what’s the cost? Laura has been living with this question for years. In her writing and on the show, she’s shared how social media has affected her mental health, some of the eerie parallels to her alcohol addiction, and what ultimately led to her decision to bow out of social media earlier this year. Following her exit, Laura’s been diving deep into this topic, and this week, she goes solo on the mic, exploring one specific psychological framework she’s chewing on: the false self vs. the true self. She talks about what it is, how it plays out on social media, and how it might provide one answer to why social media is linked with high rates of depression and anxiety. This episode will likely be part of an ongoing series about social media. To that end, we REALLY want to hear from you about it. Join us at the TMST community (it’s not Facebook) and share your experience, what’s working and not working for you when it comes to social media, and your reaction to Laura’s thoughts. Show notes: Quitting Social Media, Laura McKowen: https://www.lauramckowen.com/blog/social-media-drinking-alcohol-instagram-facebook Push off From Here: Quitting Social Media (Again), Laura McKowen: https://www.lauramckowen.com/blog/quitting-social-media Dopamine Nation by Dr. Anna Lembke: https://amzn.to/2V48KvA The Holistic Psychologist on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CS9f5UIvQCs/ 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, hear uncut interviews, and keep it ad-free: https://tmst.supercast.com/ Join our free online community (it’s not a Facebook group!): https://www.tmstpod.com/

How do you show up in relationships? Jim Zartman is a certified Enneagram teacher, a former Midwest megachurch producer, a father, husband, and the Co-Founder of The Art of Growth, a top-rated Enneagram podcast and company of the same name. He also happens to be one of Laura’s best friends. Laura brought Jim on to break down the three types of relational energy we tend to inhabit, how each can cause pain and dysfunction in our relationships, and the magical fourth type, or “with” energy, that he believes is the path through to peace. Jim’s the first to tell you that he doesn’t have the answers, but he’s a hell of an example of how awesome the process of growing up can be. Get to know Jim better: You can connect with him through his site or you can reach him and the entire team at The Art of Growth. 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, hear uncut interviews, and keep it ad-free: https://tmst.supercast.com/ Join our free online community (it’s not a Facebook group!): https://www.tmstpod.com/

What do you do when the music stops and there’s no dancing in the distraction machine? For Jenn Wasner, like so many of us, that was her pandemic year. She had become “incredibly adept at outrunning myself,” so when her life as a touring musician was paused and two relationships ended she realized that picking up the guitar was not going to bring peace. Jenn Wasner’s band Wye Oak, her collaboration with Andy Stack, is connoisseur-grade indie rock and her deep musicality has earned her spots on the Bon Iver and Sylvan Esso touring line-ups. She just released her best solo work as Flock of Dimes and the moving, evocative songwriter that has won over so many showed up in our interview. Even if you’ve never been in the spotlight, we think you’ll identify with Jenn’s poignant, often funny and piercingly true reflections on why we can’t let the outside give us our inside. Plus, you get a surprise detour discussion about the Enneagram. Get to know Jenn better: Flock of Dimes' Jenn Wasner: 'I became incredibly adept at outrunning myself' An instrument of healing with Jenn Wasner and Helado Negro - Jenn Wasner of Wye Oak and Flock of Dimes, Roberto Lange (aka Helado Negro), Hand Habits’ Meg Duffy and saxophonist Joseph Shabason discuss music as a form of healing. 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, hear uncut interviews, and keep it ad-free: https://tmst.supercast.com/ Join our free online community (it’s not a Facebook group!): https://www.tmstpod.com/

“Rachel Hollis is a manifestation of a larger ideology about women's place in society. That if you just try hard enough, all of these structural issues that are making your life really, really hard can be solved if you just wash your face. .” - Anne Helen Petersen Anne Helen Petersen is one of our most essential cultural observers. Her work at Buzzfeed culminated in her 2020 book, Can't Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation. Now she’s using Culture Study, her Substack newsletter, to explore everything from The Unified Theory of Peloton to how to make friends. In the episode, Laura and Anne unpack the faux empowerment of Rachel Hollis, the ways we sell quick fixes to systemic problems (like how a bath bomb will overcome the ways our society devalues women, and, particularly mothers) and the myth of “having it all.” More than ever, this is one to share with your favorite people! Readings mentioned in the show: Culture Study - AHP’s newsletter and community. Towards A Unified Theory of Peloton by Anne Helen Petersen How Millennials Became The Burnout Generation by Anne Helen Petersen “Girl, Wash Your Face” Is A Massive Best-Seller With A Dark Message by Laura Turner A Quick Explainer On Why People Aren’t Happy With Rachel Hollis 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 and keep it ad-free: https://tmst.supercast.com/ Join our free online community (it’s NOT a Facebook group!): https://www.tmstpod.com/