Today is Election Day in the U.S. and for many of us that means…getting through the day is going to feel like watching water boil. So we have an idea: delete the news apps off your phone today, don’t check social media, and press play on this multi-hour, politics free chat between Nora and Kate Kennedy. 

When you finish this episode, don’t worry, THERE’S MORE. Head over to Kate Kennedy’s Patreon to get more of this conversation. 

And if you need MORE distractions, we got you: 

• Listen to our It’s Going To Be Okay playlist to combat anxiety
• Watch our YouTube videos!

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In case you didn't know, we're still making two episodes a month for our Patreon and Apple Plus subscribers. We wanted to give all of our listeners a little preview of our most recent episode!

Consider joining our Patreon to listen to the rest of the episode(or watch the episode!), get additional bonus episodes, ad-free episodes, and join a community of Terribles. (Or, if you’re an Apple Podcast listener, you can sign up for TTFA Premium right in the app!)

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Please send us your questions and comments about this episode or any other! You can email us at [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at 612-568-4441. 

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Check us out on YouTube.

Find all our shows and more at feelingsand.co

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In case you didn't know, we're still making two episodes a month for our Patreon and Apple Plus subscribers. We wanted to give all of our listeners a little preview of our most recent episode!

Consider joining our Patreon to listen to the rest of the episode(or watch the episode!), get additional bonus episodes, ad-free episodes, and join a community of Terribles. (Or, if you’re an Apple Podcast listener, you can sign up for TTFA Premium right in the app!)

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Three years ago we published a TTFA episode called ‘Don’t You Want Somebody To Take Care Of You?’, an interview with Gina Demillo Wagner about her experience growing up in a dysfunctional family and being a caregiver as a child. 

Gina’s brother Alan had a rare genetic disorder that caused him to veer from loving to violent. His illness put stress on the entire family, including her parents, whose mental illnesses went untreated. 

Since that episode, Gina’s written a book about this experience called Forces of Nature: A Memoir of Family, Loss and Finding Home. On this episode, Gina and Nora catch up about writing the book, how writing helped her process and how some of the Real Housewives helped give her the courage to cut off contact with some family members.

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Please send us your questions and comments about this episode or any other! You can email us at [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at 612-568-4441. 

—

Check us out on YouTube.

Find all our shows and more at feelingsand.co

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In case you didn't know, we're still making two episodes a month for our Patreon and Apple Plus subscribers. We wanted to give all of our listeners a little preview of our most recent episode!

Consider joining our Patreon to listen to the rest of the episode(or watch the episode!), get additional bonus episodes, ad-free episodes, and join a community of Terribles. (Or, if you’re an Apple Podcast listener, you can sign up for TTFA Premium right in the app!)

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Have you thought at some point in your adult life, I wish I had more friends? 

Maybe you moved to a new city, saw your social life dwindle after having kids, or spent all your time and energy on your romantic relationships. No matter how you got there, trying to make friends as an adult is a really hard task! To try and help us all be better friends, we called in an expert: 

Marisa Franco is a professor and studies and writes about friendship and human connection. She is the author of Platonic: How the science of attachment can help you make- and keep- friends. Marisa and Nora discuss how important friendships are to our mental health and how we can all strengthen our friendships.  

Please send us your questions and comments about this episode or any other! You can email us at [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at 612-568-4441. 

—

Check us out on YouTube.

Find all our shows and more at feelingsand.co

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In case you didn't know, we're still making two episodes a month for our Patreon and Apple Plus subscribers. We wanted to give all of our listeners a little preview of our most recent episode!

Consider joining our Patreon to listen to the rest of the episode(or watch the episode!), get additional bonus episodes, ad-free episodes, and join a community of Terribles. (Or, if you’re an Apple Podcast listener, you can sign up for TTFA Premium right in the app!)

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Earlier this year we did a bonus episode showcasing obituaries from your dead loved ones. Nora cried throughout the entire episode, so we wanted to do it again! There were so many obituaries we couldn’t read the first time, so we’re honored to share more of your beautiful loved ones and we wanted to give all of our listeners a little preview of that bonus episode!

It’s truly an honor to learn about all of the people you loved, so thank you for sharing them with us. 

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Here’s the full article from Shiri, who wrote about the abortion she had to save her son’s life.

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Also, check out Nora on YouTube.

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Please send us your questions and comments about this episode or any other! You can email us at [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at 612-568-4441. 

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Find all our shows and our store at feelingsand.co

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe to TTFA Anthologies here.

This is an episode about two letters. One of those is the letter Jim left for his wife, Annie, before he died by suicide. The second is the letter Annie wrote to Jim after his death — and as she dealt with her own mental health issues and suicidality in the wake of it. When someone dies by suicide, people want it to be someone’s fault, so they can (hopefully) feel less like it’s their fault. But the thing is … it’s never anyone’s fault.

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Terrible, Thanks for Asking tells the real stories of real people who have lived through the terrible things in life. TTFA Anthologies are a curated collection of some of our best stories; released in seasons that focus on a specific topic. You can find our entire episode catalog ad-free on Apple+ or Patreon.

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Find Nora’s weekly newsletter here! Also, check out Nora on YouTube.

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The Feelings & Co. team is Nora McInerny, Claire McInerny, Marcel Malekebu and Grace Barry.

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Find all our shows and our store at www.feelingsand.co.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe to TTFA Anthologies here.

Terrible, Thanks for Asking tells the real stories of real people who have lived through the terrible things in life. TTFA Anthologies are a curated collection of some of our best stories; released in seasons that focus on a specific topic. You can find our entire episode catalog ad-free on Apple+ or Patreon.

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Find Nora’s weekly newsletter here! Also, check out Nora on YouTube.

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The Feelings & Co. team is Nora McInerny, Claire McInerny, Marcel Malekebu and Grace Barry.

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Find all our shows and our store at www.feelingsand.co.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Years ago, when Nora was in the worst phase of her life (dead husband, dead dad, lost pregnancy) she heard a lot of people describe her as resilient. Those people meant it as a compliment, but to Nora it didn’t feel that way. She was tired, grieving, and lost so much in her life- the “resilience” people saw was often just…the privilege she had to survive it. 

So when Nora got the new book, The Resilience Myth by Soraya Chemaly, she devoured it. In this episode, Nora and Soraya talk about different ways to think about resiliency and how celebrating it can be a little toxic. 

We are still on hiatus! But this episode in the main feed was brought to you by our TTFA Premium subscribers. Since the hiatus, we’ve been producing two episodes a month for people who support us on Patreon and Apple Premium (join in your Apple podcast app). If you want more TTFA, consider joining us on one of those platforms. 

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Check out Nora on YouTube!

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Find all our shows and our store at feelingsand.co.

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Find TTFA on social: TTFA on Instagram | TTFA on Facebook

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Nora was about to marry her first husband Aaron, they were in the thick of his cancer treatment. So the day before the wedding, she got a small tattoo to remind her to stay in the present moment.  

This was an excerpt from Nora’s first book, It’s Okay To Laugh (Crying is cool, too) which is available here.

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If you have anxiety, depression or any sense of the world around you, you know that not *everything* is going to be okay. In fact, many things aren’t okay and never will be! But instead of falling into the pit of despair, we’re bringing you a little OK for your day. Every weekday, we’ll bring you one okay thing to help you start, end or endure your day with the opposite of a doom scroll.

Created and hosted by Nora McInerny.

Find Nora’s weekly newsletter here.

We’re on YouTube, with new videos twice a week! Subscribe here.

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“It’s Going To Be OK” is brought to you by The Hartford. The Hartford is a leading insurance provider that connects people and technology for better employee benefits.  Learn more at www.thehartford.com/benefits. 

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Share your OK thing at 612.568.4441 or by emailing a note or voice memo to [email protected]. Start your message with “I’m (name) and it’s going to be okay.” 

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The IGTBO team is Nora McInerny, Claire McInerny, Marcel Malekebu, Amanda Romani and Grace Barry.

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The transcript for this episode can be found here.

Find all our shows and our store at www.feelingsand.co.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two years ago Julia Winston was asked to help a gay couple start a family by donating her eggs. At the time, she was 38, single, and had no idea if she’d start her own family. Sometimes that made her feel insecure, so the opportunity to donate her eggs allowed her to help create a family, just not the one she imagined in her head. Since the donation, she’s gone through an emotional transformation that opened her eyes to all the different ways a family can look. 

Julia is the host of Refamulating, the newest podcast from the Feelings and Co universe. Listen to Refamulating now, wherever you get your podcasts. Follow the show on Instagram. 

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This is our last episode of Terrible Thanks for Asking for a while. If you want to get new episodes of TTFA through August, consider joining our Patreon. (Or, if you’re an Apple Podcast listener, you can sign up for TTFA Premium right in the app!)

Our Substack is a great way to connect with us and other listeners (and get more Terrible in your inbox). Join us here.

The episode transcript can be found here.

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We’re lucky to only work with sponsors and brands we know and love. Using our links and codes saves you money and supports our independent production!

Foria: Experience your juiciest and deepest sensual experience with a bottle of Foria. FORIA is offering a special deal for our listeners. Get 20% off your first order by visiting foriawellness.com/TERRIBLE OR use code TERRIBLE at checkout. I recommend trying their new Massage Oil combined with their Awaken Arousal Oil. You’ll thank me later.

BetterHelp: Learn to make time for what makes you happy, with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com/TTFA today to get 10% off your first month.

You can find our full sponsor list here.

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Find all our shows and our store at feelingsand.co.

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Find TTFA on social: TTFA on Instagram | TTFA on Facebook 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As we prepare for our indefinite hiatus, we wanted to remind you that we will still be making TTFA episodes on our Patreon and Apple Premium feeds. If you aren't a premium member, we wanted to show you what kind of episodes we make over there by bringing one of our bonus episodes to the main feed.

Recently, we asked listeners to send in obituaries about your dead people, and boy oh boy did you all deliver some gems that made us laugh, cry and reeeeeally want to double fist a Dr. Pepper with a Miller High Life. 

In this bonus episode, Nora reads some of her favorites.

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Find Nora’s weekly newsletter here.

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We’re lucky to only work with sponsors and brands we know and love. Using our links and codes saves you money and supports our independent production!

Foria: Experience your juiciest and deepest sensual experience with a bottle of Foria. FORIA is offering a special deal for our listeners. Get 20% off your first order by visiting foriawellness.com/TERRIBLE OR use code TERRIBLE at checkout. I recommend trying their new Massage Oil combined with their Awaken Arousal Oil. You’ll thank me later.

BetterHelp: Learn to make time for what makes you happy, with BetterHelp. Visit BetterHelp.com/TTFA today to get 10% off your first month.

You can find our full sponsor list here.

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Find all our shows and our store at feelingsand.co.

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Find TTFA on social: TTFA on Instagram | TTFA on Facebook 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2015, Sarah Super was raped by her ex-boyfriend Alex Neal. And she channeled that act of violence into a mission-driven organization that helped survivors of sexual violence feel seen and heard. 9 years after the night that changed her life, Sarah reflects on what it means to move forward with her life and to reclaim her identity as more than a survivor. Sarah was a guest on the first season of our podcast.

To hear Sarah's original episode, Unbroken, click here.

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Want more TTFA? Become a member of our Patreon! 

Patrons get bonus episodes, invites to monthly office hours with Nora, and access to the full back catalog of episodes. Patrons are the only people who get other perks like discounted live event tickets or opportunities to sit in on an editing session for future episodes. 

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Our Substack is a great way to connect with us and other listeners (and get more Terrible in your inbox). Join us here.

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Find all our shows and our store at feelingsand.co.

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Find TTFA on social: TTFA on Instagram | TTFA on Facebook 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices