Jen Hatmaker on Divorce, Deconstruction, and Rebuilding from Scratch

Everything Happens with Kate Bowler

Everything Happens Studios

Health & Fitness, Religion & Spirituality, Society & Culture

4.8 • 4.7K Ratings

🗓️ 23 September 2025

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What happens when the life you were supposed to have… disappears?

Jen Hatmaker joins Kate Bowler for a conversation about faith, divorce, and the slow art of healing. After the collapse of her marriage and being pushed out of the evangelical world, Jen had to figure out how to live again—how to co-parent, pay bills, go to therapy, and mother herself after decades of being the “pastor’s wife.”

They talk about:

What it means to lose a marriage, a career, and a community—at once
The weight of being a “good” evangelical woman
Codependency, caretaking, and letting your kids have their pain
The deep joy of discovering you can rebuild from scratch

This is for the people who are learning how to live when the story changes. A conversation about grief, grace, and not doing it alone.

Show Notes:

Awake by Jen Hatmaker – her latest book on rebuilding a life after loss
Support Guides — for divorce, caregiving, and rebuilding from the Everything Happens Project
Have a Beautiful, Terrible Day! by Kate Bowler – meditations for the ups, downs, and in-betweens
The Preacher’s Wife by Kate Bowler
For the Love podcast with Jen Hatmaker
Jen Hatmaker's book club – a delightfully honest reading community
Come hang out in our favorite little corner of the internet, Kate's Substack.
Check out the last time Jen joined Kate on the Everything Happens podcast!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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1:00.6	The longevity industry is booming. Everywhere you turn, you're being sold some supplement
1:06.6	or superfood to extend your life. But what if I told you that the real secrets to living a longer, happier life are much simpler?
1:16.4	And there are things that you can start doing today.
1:20.1	I'm Dan Butner, journalist and founder of the Blue Zones.
1:23.2	In my new podcast, I sit down with extraordinary people to uncover surprising secrets to living
1:30.8	longer better.
1:32.1	Listen to the Dan Butener podcast wherever you get your podcast.
1:35.8	The first two episodes premiere on Thursday, August 21st.
1:51.2	There are moments in our lives that draw a line in the sand, stark befores and afters.
1:57.2	We walk through a door, or we are shoved through it, and we can't go back.
2:04.3	Everything is different now, including us. This is everything happens, and I'm Kate Bowler.
2:10.7	And today I am talking to somebody I love and I trust and I admire, a friend who tells the truth because she's learned the steep cost of living inside untruths. She knows what it is to lose the life she imagined, and she is
2:20.2	brave enough to talk about what it took to build something new. My guest today is Jen Hatmaker.
	...

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