By Samantha Pomerantz, written November 2023
Have you heard the We Can Do Hard Things podcast? With over 500K monthly listeners and multiple appearances at the top of the Apple Podcasts chart, this is one for the books! The world of We Can Do Hard Things is one that inspires hope and community. It is a safe place for sensitive souls and all curious human beings to dive into the recesses of the daily hard things and the macro, worldly hard things that we face in our 21st-century lives. Author Glennon Doyle converses with cohosts Abby Wambach and Amanda Doyle, as the three bring their hard questions, and those of the community, to expert seekers who have figured some of these hard things out. From interviews with author and clinical psychologist Dr. Becky Kennedy to author and First Lady Michelle Obama, the WCDHT podcast offers a way to engage with the pain and the pleasures of our world.
My to-read list is mostly padded with books written by WCDHT podcast interviewees. These episodes offer a way to get to know the author behind their best-selling work and allow you to feel like a part of the conversation. They are human, they are advocates, they are activists, and listeners get to fight for a freer world alongside them as we ask ourselves the hard questions together.
Here are four must listen to episodes (descriptions taken directly from the podcast) and the inspiring books written by their interviewees.
Episode 74. ALOK: What makes us beautiful? What makes us free?
On the podcast: “‘The days that I feel most beautiful are the days that I am most afraid.’ ‘What feminine part of yourself did you have to destroy in order to survive in this world?’ ‘Why have we been taught to fear the very things that can set us free?’”
ALOK (they/them) is an internationally acclaimed writer, performer, and public speaker. As a mixed-media artist their work explores themes of trauma, belonging, and the human condition. They are the author of Femme in Public (2017), Beyond the Gender Binary (2020), and Your Wound/My Garden (2021). They are the creator of #DeGenderFashion: a movement to degender fashion and beauty industries and have been honored as one of HuffPo’s Culture Shifters, NBC’s Pride 50, and Business Insider’s Doers.
Instagram @alokvmenon; website alokvmenon.com.
Episode 168. Sonya Renee Taylor: What If You Loved Your Body
On the podcast: “Sonya Renee Taylor—author of The Body is Not an Apology—explores the personal and global promise of Radical Self Love:
1. Examining the way we talk to our bodies – and how to change negative self-dialogue.
2. How to shift from a relationship with our body based on dominance and control to a relationship based on trust.
3. The pitfalls of ‘body positivity.’
4. Recognizing this global moment we are in as a gift inviting us to collective Self Love.
5. The full life that is possible only if we stop believing our body is our enemy, and start seeing our body as a teammate.”
Sonya Renee Taylor is a world-renowned activist, award-winning artist, transformational thought leader, author of six books including The New York Times best-selling The Body is Not an Apology (2018), and founder of the international movement and digital media and education company of the same name whose work has reached millions of people by exploring the intersections of identity, healing, and social justice using a radical self-love framework. She continues to speak, teach, write, create, and transform lives globally.
Instagram @sonyareneetaylor; website sonyareneetaylor.com/about.
Episode 92. Chanel Miller Promises: We Are Never Stuck
On the podcast: “Chanel Miller discusses—
1. Thinking of depression as a way of seeing the world . . . through toilet paper roll binoculars.
2. Why healing might actually just be permission to go.
3. Chanel’s definition of success: refusing to succumb to perfection or exhaustion–and showing up as herself in every moment.
4. The healing moment when Chanel returned to Stanford and was held in sound–which set her free.”
Chanel Miller is a writer and artist who received her BA in Literature from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her critically acclaimed memoir, KNOW MY NAME, was a New York Times bestseller, a New York Times Book Review Notable Book, and a National Book Critics Circle Award winner, as well as a best book of 2019 in Time, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, NPR, and People, among others. She is a 2019 Time Next 100 honoree and a 2016 Glamour Woman of the Year honoree under her pseudonym, “Emily Doe.”
Instagram @chanel_miller; website chanel-miller.com.
See also The Ultimate Barbie Reading List blog by Cecelia Caldwell that included Know My Name. Find the book here.
Episode 239. Why Are We Never Satisfied? with adrienne maree brown
On the podcast: “Are you capable of being satisfied? Today, adrienne maree brown helps us uncover: How to find beauty and connection in the everyday; How to stop wasting your time on things that don’t feel good; Why the greatest risk of life is also where its preciousness comes from; How, through the discipline of pleasure, we can ALL be satisfied.”
adrienne maree brown is a pleasure activist, writer, and radical imaginist who grows healing ideas in public through writing, music, and podcasts. adrienne has nurtured Emergent Strategy, Pleasure Activism, Radical Imagination and Transformative Justice as ideas, frameworks, networks, and practices for transformation. adrienne’s work is informed by 25 years of social and environmental justice facilitation primarily supporting Black liberation. adrienne is the author/editor of several published texts including Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds; Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good; Grievers; and Maroons. After a multinational childhood, adrienne lived in New York, Oakland, and Detroit before landing in her current home of Durham, North Carolina.
Twitter @adriennemaree; Instagram @adriennemareebrown. Find Emergent Strategy here.
Happy listening and reading! Find the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Audacity, and Spotify.
Samantha Pomerantz (she/her) is a writer and a lover of stories. She is studying English and creative writing at Elon University until mid 2024. And then she will do other things that will likely also involve reading and writing. She is the poetry editor of Colonnades literary and art journal and the second-place recipient of the 2023 Frederick Haartman poetry prize. Samantha has spent most of her life in Germantown, Maryland, hugging trees and learning how to be a person.
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