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We Can Do Hard Things

Mothers & Sons with Ocean Vuong (and Chase Melton) (Best Of)

We Can Do Hard Things

Glennon Doyle & Audacy

Society & Culture, Relationships, Education, Self-improvement

4.841.1K Ratings

🗓️ 11 May 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Glennon’s son, Chase, joins Glennon for a special conversation with his hero, author Ocean Vuong, to discuss: 1. Chase shares with Ocean the impact his work has had in his life–and Glennon thanks Ocean for helping mother her son. 2. What Ocean learned from his mother about how to navigate being an Asian boy in America–and Glennon’s recognition that she did not prepare Chase for the same realities. 3. Ocean’s new book, Time is a Mother, and why watching his own mother die gave Ocean a deep empathy and connection to every person. 4. His relationship to maleness–and why Ocean is interested in “staying and complicating” masculinity. About Ocean: Ocean Vuong, author of the critically acclaimed poetry collection Night Sky with Exit Wounds, and the New York Times bestselling novel On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous is a recipient of the 2019 MacArthur "Genius Grant" and the winner of the Whiting Award and the T. S. Eliot Prize. In Time Is a Mother, Ocean's newest poetry collection available now, he reckons with his mother’s death, embodying the paradox of sitting within grief while being determined to survive beyond it. His writings have been featured in The Atlantic, Harper's Magazine, The Nation, The New Republic, The New Yorker, and The New York Times. Born in Saigon, Vietnam, he currently lives in Northampton, Massachusetts. IG: ⁠ocean_vuong To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:05.0

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0:08.0

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0:11.0

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0:15.0

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0:17.0

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0:20.0

Search for Adobe Express to find out more and get the app for free.

0:23.9

Adobe Express, the quick and easy create anything app.

0:41.5

Hello everyone.

0:44.1

Welcome to We Can Do Hard Things.

0:54.0

I just told my son Chase, who's here, that I feel more nervous than I feel when I speak on a stage in front of 5,000 people because of the person we're speaking to today.

0:58.7

So today we are speaking with Ocean Vuong.

1:02.1

And my son Chase is here.

1:02.8

Hello.

1:09.9

Also, Ocean, even though we're nearing our 90th recording of We Can Do Hard Things,

1:12.2

you are the first man we've interviewed outside of Chase's dad. At the beginning of the year when we were dreaming up this pod,

1:18.8

our producer Allison said to all of us, my dream is for the first man we host to be Ocean Wong.

1:25.1

And when I found out that you were going to come, the first person I told was my son, Chase,

1:31.2

because he is the one who introduced me to your work years ago. And Chase is a very private

1:38.4

person, so he would never have agreed to do this podcast for any other human being on Earth.

1:43.5

So thank you for doing this,

1:45.7

because this is a really special day for me to have Chase here too. Thank you. And thank you,

...

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