Finally Some Wisdom to Move Forward! Dr. Tressie McMillan Cottom

We Can Do Hard Things

Treat Media and Glennon Doyle

Society & Culture, Relationships, Education, Self-improvement

4.8 • 41.1K Ratings

🗓️ 11 November 2025

⏱️ 91 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Dr. Tressie McMillan Cottom – MacArthur Genius award winner and brilliant chronicler of our times – unmasks the American stories that got us to this place—and explains, with amazing precision and clarity, how we can imagine our way out. We discuss: - How the MAGA story broke through and became the winning story; - How money hijacked democracy; - The little-known history of the Black Panther party of the American South; - Why Responsibility is Freedom; - How to frame and reclaim the American story through radical humanity: art, truth, creativity, and community. Join us for this riveting, smart, funny conversation about power, hope, and writing a freer future. About Tressie: Dr. Tressie McMillan Cottom is a professor and principal investigator with the Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, NY Times columnist, and 2020 MacArthur Fellow. Her work has earned national and international recognition for the urgency and depth of its incisive critical analysis of technology, higher education, culture, media, class, race, and gender. Recent accolades include being named the 2023 winner of the Joseph B. and Toby Gittler Prize by Brandeis University for her “critical perspective and analysis to some of the greatest social challenges we face today,” the recipient of the 2025 Thomas Wolfe Prize, and a 2025-26 National Humanities Center Fellow. Her most recent book, THICK: And Other Essays was listed as one the 30 best nonfiction books of the last 30 years by the L.A. Times Festival of Books. Two books are forthcoming with Random House Books. Follow Tressie: @tressiemcphd on Instagram @tressiemcphd.bsky.social on Bluesky Follow We Can Do Hard Things on: Youtube — @wecandohardthingsshow Instagram — @wecandohardthingsTikTok — @wecandohardthingshow

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	It feels like Christmas to me.
0:01.3	I'm very, very honored and thrilled that you are here.
0:05.4	Well, thank you very much for having me.
0:07.2	But that does suggest that we need to step up your Christmases just a little bit.
0:11.8	There's so much we need to step up.
0:13.9	You have no idea.
0:15.8	I'm just saying it.
0:16.9	We could do this.
0:20.5	Music We could do this.
0:28.1	Okay.
0:31.6	I know we're stressed.
0:37.5	I know we're not sure exactly what's going on or what to do about it.
0:43.7	And by exactly we mean not at all what's going on or what to do about it.
0:44.6	Right.
0:48.0	Behold, I bring you tidings of great joy.
0:49.2	That shall be for all the people.
0:52.7	And that is, we have Tressie McMillan Cottom.
0:55.7	If you don't know Tressie, you probably do.
1:02.4	Tressie is the one on the computer or in newspapers explaining this shit to us.
1:03.3	Okay?
1:04.9	That is what she does.
1:07.3	She is incredible mind.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 5 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Treat Media and Glennon Doyle, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Treat Media and Glennon Doyle and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.