It's mostly just being willing to get up close because that's what kind of takes a minute to have the courage to be close

To something that's gonna break your heart

I think it's hard to love people all the way and see sir to let go right before

Welcome to Kelly Corrigan Wonders. I'm Kelly Corrigan and today I'm wondering about positivity, prayer,

Presparity and what if anything they have to do with happiness. My conversation partner is my friend Kate who has stage 4 cancer

She is also the best-selling author Kate Boller of Duke Divinity School

After she and I finish I'll sit down with Arthur Seabrux to see how Kate's experiences and intuitions

Square with the latest social science on happiness. We'll be right back with Kelly Corrigan Wonders

Welcome back to Kelly Corrigan Wonders. I'm Kelly Corrigan

It's not easy to talk about death. It may be even harder to talk about dying or may be dying or being told you're dying

But pandemic or not these kinds of conversations are a requirement for the living

Kate Boller has spent a lot of time thinking broadly and

personally about death and dying as a professor at the Duke Divinity School and a stage 4 cancer patient

She has cross-examined the topic from multiple perspectives

Historical, religious, medical. She has wondered aloud in multiple New York Times columns and bestsellers

What promises can prayer and positive thinking really keep?

What's right and wrong with health insurance and clinical trials often with her eight-year-old son in her lap?

Here's my conversation originally recorded from my PBS show Tell Me More with academic writer, patient and prayer

Kate Boller

I wanted to spend my time with you talking about dying and death and

You are an academic you studied the history of Christianity in North America

How did you pick that as your area of inquiry and what does it have to teach us about dying and death?

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