Anna Sale: Hard Topics, Softer Conversations

04/05/22 • 48 min

1 Listener

Our culture seems convinced that going off-script is unbecoming. Instead, we are rewarded for being buttoned up, perfect (or at least appearing to be), and never ever no-matter-what admit weakness. But... don’t we need each other, especially when facing the most difficult moments?

Author and Death, Sex, and Money podcast host Anna Sale leans into every hard conversation no matter how difficult the topic. In this conversation, Kate and Anna discuss:

How conversations might engender the intimacy we need to get by
Fostering the right interpersonal and listening skills it takes to approach a difficult topic (especially when you’re feeling nervous)
Best practices for responding to someone’s hard news
How learning to listen might bridge differences of all kinds

What do we lose when we don’t talk about hard things? And what might we gain if we do?

***

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Introducing, GOOD ENOUGH: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection. Available wherever books are sold.

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Author and Death, Sex, and Money podcast host Anna Sale leans into every hard conversation no matter how difficult the topic. In this conversation, Kate and Anna discuss:

How conversations might engender the intimacy we need to get by
Fostering the right interpersonal and listening skills it takes to approach a difficult topic (especially when you’re feeling nervous)
Best practices for responding to someone’s hard news
How learning to listen might bridge differences of all kinds

What do we lose when we don’t talk about hard things? And what might we gain if we do?

***

Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter.

Be sure to subscribe to our weekly email for bits of wisdom, prayers, free downloads, and more.

No Cure for Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear) is now available wherever books are sold. Order your copy, today.

Introducing, GOOD ENOUGH: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection. Available wherever books are sold.

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

Previous Episode

Cammie McGovern: Mythbusting Parenting

We often have very romantic expectations about parenthood. Parenthood is about a mythical child who will be perfect in a way we haven’t quite put our finger on, and the journey to love them will teach us something reasonably easy about ourselves. But what if we are not the parents we thought we’d be? Or our kids are not the kids we thought we’d have.

Writer Cammie McGovern’s oldest son, Ethan, was diagnosed with autism as a small child. Soon though, he was not just a toddler learning how to play or a child needing adjustments in the classroom. He is an adult who wants to participate in the world, and Cammie is still determined to learn what it means to be an advocate for him and others living with disabilities as they enter adulthood.

In this conversation, Kate and Cammie discuss:

The myths parents of children with autism might face
How to build inclusive communities (and how both parties might benefit from them)
How the role of every parent is to discover their kid for the mystery and wonder they are
Why parenting shouldn’t always be about becoming heroes or martyrs and how we might need communities and systems that better support our needs

This heartwarming conversation covers everything from love to policy and everything in between, as Cammie describes her son and his future.

***

Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter.

Be sure to subscribe to our weekly email for bits of wisdom, prayers, free downloads, and more.

No Cure for Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear) is now available wherever books are sold. Order your copy, today.

Introducing, GOOD ENOUGH: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection. Available wherever books are sold.

Join us for Lent. Receive a free lenten reflection guide, here.

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

Next Episode

Tara Westover: Remaking Home

What do we do when our families are sources of pain, confusion, or harm? How do we (or can we) outgrow our complicated childhoods when we no longer need the defenses we created?

Today, I am speaking with Tara Westover. Tara earned her PhD in history from Cambridge, which is incredible on its own, but particularly when you remember that she had never stepped foot in a classroom until she was 17. She is the author of the bestselling memoir EDUCATED which describes growing up in a survivalist family and her costly pursuit of learning and unlearning.

In this conversation, Kate and Tara discuss:

How to navigate the religious baggage of our childhoods
Learning to hold people’s point of views but without letting go of your own
Why people aren’t always doing their best (and why knowing that helps restore some dignity)
How to approach people who have different worldviews than us
How to outgrow the defenses we develop as kids in painful or abusive homes

CW: physical, emotional, and spiritual abuse

***

Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter.

Be sure to subscribe to our weekly email for bits of wisdom, prayers, free downloads, and more.

No Cure for Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear) is now available wherever books are sold. Order your copy, today.

Introducing, GOOD ENOUGH: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection. Available wherever books are sold.

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

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.