This episode is brought to you by Lily Endowment as part of our series on Christian spirituality.

And it's just a chance to have a moment to reflect on life and faith in the service of knowing and loving God.

Hey friends, it's Kate, your friendly neighborhood cultural mythbuster.

Oh, yes, it's that time of year. Back to school. New start energy where it feels like everyone is turning into a better version of themselves. It's like January. but with the added pressure of locating lunch boxes and no champagne

toast.

The stores are packed with shiny new planners and color-coded to-do lists that whisper,

This is the year.

You finally get your act together.

I promise.

I fall for it every time.

Maybe you've said it to yourself too.

I thought summer would fix me.

I'll be more rested, more zen, more magically able to juggle everything on my schedule.

But then, here I am.

Slightly more sun-damaged and really behind on email. But the same me. We love a good

transformation story though, don't we? We binge the podcasts. We ordered the supplements. We Google

how to become a morning person, like it's an emergency.

But what does it actually take to become someone new? How much change is actually possible this year?

And what does that look like for people with, I don't know, actual lives, jobs, kids, obligations, anxiety, Amazon returns. A lot of anxiety about my Amazon

returns. These are the questions that animate all of my work as a cultural historian. I study what

people believe about themselves and what those beliefs make possible or impossible, especially when it comes to change.

Are we the captains of our fate, masters of our blah, blah? Are we just ready to turn it all

...