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Everything Happens with Kate Bowler

Listen Again: Oliver Burkeman on New Year, Same Me

Everything Happens with Kate Bowler

Kate Bowler

Society & Culture, Religion & Spirituality, Health & Fitness

4.85.1K Ratings

🗓️ 6 January 2026

⏱️ 51 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Does life ever feel like an endless to-do list? Like if you could just wake up tomorrow with a little more discipline, you’d finally master your schedule, achieve balance, and feel…enough?  On today's episode, Oliver Burkeman (bestselling author of Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals) and Kate unravel some of the beautiful lies we cling to about time and control, the fantasy of hyper-efficiency, and what it might look like to embrace the limits that make us who we are.  In this conversation, Kate and Oliver discuss:  Some of the most common self-help myths that stand in our way Why the relentless pursuit of self-improvement often leaves us feeling empty, anxious, and overwhelmed.  How embracing our limits can lead to more contentment This is a conversation about limits—not as something to overcome, but as a doorway to something richer, deeper, and (dare I say) more human. If you liked this episode, you’ll also love:  Katie Couric on The Courage to Try (and Wisdom to Know When to Let Go) Susan David on Toxic Positivity Samantha Irby on Doing My Best (Life Now) Elizabeth Gilbert on Why Your Creativity Matters Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here. Subscribe to Kate’s Substack for blessings, essays, and reflections that hold what’s hard and beautiful.  This episode originally aired December 2024. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hey there, it's Julia Louis Dreyfus. I'm back with a new season of Wiser Than Me,

0:07.8

the show where I sit down with remarkable older women and soak up their stories, their humor,

0:14.6

and their hard-earned wisdom. Every conversation leaves me a little smarter and definitely more inspired.

0:22.0

And yes, I'm still calling my 91-year-old mom, Judy, to get her take on it all.

0:28.7

Wiser than me from Lemonade Media premieres November 12th, wherever you get your podcasts.

0:40.6

Hey, it's me, Steve Burns, and I'm so glad you're here because you and I go way back,

0:45.7

right?

0:46.4

Yeah.

0:47.1

And look at us now.

0:48.3

Like, we're all grown up.

0:49.4

We've got this new podcast where we talk about all this grown up stuff and there's special

0:53.5

guests like

0:54.2

Jamie Lee Curtis and Bill Nye but for the most part it's about you mean it's always been about

1:00.7

you from Lemonada Media alive with Steve Burns is coming September 17th wherever you get your

1:06.3

podcasts or you can watch every episode on YouTube.

1:13.9

Does life ever feel like an endless to-do list?

1:17.8

Like, if you could just wake up tomorrow with a little more discipline,

1:20.7

you'd finally master your schedule,

1:24.0

achieve balance, and feel enough.

1:27.5

You are not alone.

1:30.2

I really feel that way, too.

1:47.3

It's the exhausting hum of modern life, whispering and sometimes shouting, that if we just work a little harder and develop a better system, we can finally conquer the chaos and feel whole. And it is never louder than at the start of a new year. I'm Kate Bowler, and this is everything happens.

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