Kelly Corrigan Wonders

Episodes

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  Thanks For Being Here - Auntie Marge the Maker 04.10.2026 7m

  Jody Weverka wrote this sweet eulogy for her Auntie Marge - a woman who made everything from crafts to meals to gardens to family life better for everyone. (Previously aired)
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  Go To on What a Maasai Childhood Teaches About Modern Life 02.10.2026 29m

  A Maasai girl grows up milking cows at dawn, walking ten kilometers for water, sleeping eight to a bed, surrounded by 38 siblings and five mothers who all knew her name and sang her song. Then she leaves for the city—chosen husband, three children, a laptop, shoes with zippers. Kelly shares Ndinini Kimesera Sikar's TED talk about living in two worlds and the question that haunts her: what do we preserve as we rush toward the future? In the village, mental health was strong because life included everything research now tells us we need—movement, nature, community, belonging. In modern life, we've traded all of that for autonomy and advancement, filling bookstores with self-help guides trying to teach us what we once knew naturally. As AI promises to manage even more of family life, Ndinini asks us to pause and decide: do we know what we want to keep and do we know how we'll protect it before the current sweeps us away? (Previously aired)
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  Deep Dive with "Can Do Mom" Chelsea 29.09.2026 48m

  Chelsea wakes up before 4:30 AM, drives a school bus through rain and mud, and still finds a way to give her sons the kind of stability she lacked growing up. Kelly opens a new four-part series, Can Do Moms with a conversation about what it actually takes to raise good kids on very little sleep and even less margin for error. They talk about the community that shows up when family can't, the quiet calculus of choosing presence over productivity, and why the old story about financial help making people lazy has never held up to scrutiny. It's a conversation about competence that goes unrecognized, love that runs on almost nothing, and the particular kind of intelligence it takes to hold a whole family together — all by yourself.This episode was made possible by the Monarch Foundation.To learn more about the Bridge Project visit:https://www.bridgeproject.org/
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  Thanks For Being Here - When a Friend Loses a Parent 27.09.2026 4m

  Quite often, it’s hard to know how to properly show up for a friend who’s going through a tough time - that is, until you’ve been through the experience yourself and can relate more fully. This is Kelly’s letter to friends who have lost a parent and also to those of us who feel we could have shown up for someone in a better way. (Previously aired)
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  Go To on Attention and Awe 25.09.2026 11m

  What does it take to truly see someone before they're gone? Kelly shares an essay she wrote for an evening celebrating awe, reflecting on attention as a practice—learning to notice in wild places with a guide who insists you look closer, then bringing that same discipline to a quiet room where it matters most. (Previously aired)
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  Deep Dive with Nicholas Epley on Connection 22.09.2026 55m

  Why do so many of us sit in silence next to a stranger, certain a conversation would go badly, when the data says otherwise? Kelly talks with behavioral scientist Nicholas Epley, author of the new book A Little More Social, about the small, quiet decisions that keep us more isolated than we need to be—and what happens in the rare moments we choose to reach out instead. We're airing this conversation as a part of the Be Hope Podcast Takeover, a project with the United Nations timed to the UN General Assembly — and Kelly makes the case that one of the simplest paths to hope is human connection. Kelly and Nick dig into why our own predictions about other people are so often wrong, what gets lost when we type instead of talk, and how a single question can turn a stranger into something closer to a friend. It's a conversation about the real, measurable cost of loneliness, and why connection might be less about finding the right words than about simply being willing to try.Thank you to our friends at the Aspen Ideas Festival where this episode was recorded.Check out Nick's book A Little More Social: How Small Choices Create Unexpected Happiness, Health, and ConnectionThis episode is part of the BE HOPE Podcast Takeover by Project Everyone, bringingtogether podcasts from around the world to explore the theme of hope and how we cancontinue to make progress in a rapidly changing world.
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  Thanks For Being Here - Tracy's 80th Birthday Toast to her Mom 20.09.2026 8m

  Kelly shares a listener's story that perfectly captures what Thanks For Being Here is all about - honoring the people who matter most, whether they're still with us or have moved on. Tracy Hargan's beautiful toast to her 80-year-old mother Janet shows us why these tributes are so powerful and needed. Through the toast given at her mom's birthday celebration, Tracy reminds us all to speak our love out loud - to grab those chances to tell someone exactly what they mean to us, creating moments of connection that stay with us forever. (Previously aired)
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  Go To on the Health Benefits of Connection 18.09.2026 7m

  For almost 90 years, Harvard has been tracking the same group of men to answer one question: what actually leads to a long, happy life? Kelly digs into the findings, which point again and again to the same surprising answer — not money, not IQ — but the quality of our closest relationships. She connects it to research on chronic pain, a study on personality change well into old age, and a simple trick for staying connected that takes less time than a coffee run. It's a conversation about what actually protects us as we age, and why the smallest gestures of connection might matter more than we think.Links:Harvard Study of Adult Development:https://www.adultdevelopmentstudy.org/Robert Waldinger's TED talk on What Makes a Good Life? (discusses the Harvard study):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KkKuTCFvzI&t=16sKelly's PBS Tell Me More (video) episode with pain psychologist Rachel Zoffness:https://www.pbs.org/video/rachel-zoffness-1vq8xc/Kelly Corrigan Wonders podcast episode with Rachel Zoffness:https://www.kellycorrigan.com/podcast/rachelzoffnessJancee Dunn's article in the New York Times: "The Secret Power of the 8-Minute Phone Call"https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/02/well/phone-call-happiness-challenge.html
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  Deep Dive with Cava Menzies and Charles Limb on Music and the Brain 15.09.2026 56m

  Why do we still treat music like a luxury, given everything we now know about what it actually does for the human brain? Kelly talks with music educator and composer Cava Menzies and hearing surgeon and neuroscientist Dr. Charles Limb about the strange, powerful territory where sound meets the mind—the growing evidence that hearing loss may be tied to cognitive decline, and the case that music itself may be one of the most underused tools we have for mental health. It's a conversation about creativity, flow, and the case for treating music less like entertainment and more like medicine.Special thanks to our friends at the Aspen Ideas Festival, where this conversation was recorded.
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  Thanks For Being Here - Mary Hope's Letter to her Dad on his 90th Birthday 13.09.2026 11m

  Kelly reads a birthday letter from her lifelong friend Mary Hope McQuiston to her father Bob, who is turning 90. Instead of throwing a surprise party, Mary Hope decided to honor her dad by collecting the lessons he's taught her—one for each decade he's lived. What unfolds is a portrait of a life well-lived, told through stories about elaborate pranks, deep friendships, showing up when it matters, and never missing an opportunity for dessert or— pyrotechnics. It's about the quiet ways we shape the people we love, and how the best parts of who we become are often learned by watching someone live with generosity, courage, and joy. (Previously aired)
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  Go To on Someday 11.09.2026 7m

  Kelly follows up on her conversation with Susan Cain (author of Quiet and Bittersweet) with a song that captures the same ache of longing they talked about. It's a small tribute to the things we're all still waiting for, featuring a haunting, original song, Someday, by her friend — musician and NYU professor Mike Errico.Mike's book that Kelly mentioned is: Music, Lyrics, and Life: A Field Guide for the Advancing Songwriter
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  Deep Dive with Susan Cain on Longing 08.09.2026 55m

  Author Susan Cain, who first reframed introversion for millions of readers in Quiet, turns her attention to something even more universal: the strange, aching beauty of knowing that everyone we love, we will someday lose. Kelly talks with Susan about why sorrow might be one of the most uniting forces we have — and what changes in us once we stop running from that truth. They also discuss Susan's bestseller Bittersweet, on sorrow and longing, and her new children's book, Lucky and Norman: Saying Goodbye Is Bittersweet, written by three generations of the Cain family. It's a conversation about the particular kind of happiness that only comes from accepting how fragile everything actually is, and why the ache might be worth it.
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  Thanks For Being Here - Kristina's Eulogy for her mom Ann Emanuels 06.09.2026 9m

  Kristina Phipps wrote this exquisite, poetic eulogy to honor her mom Ann Emanuels. Ann's love for beauty and her affinity for the natural world shone through in her garden, where she loved to spend time. She saw a world to be seized and not squandered and would pack more into a day than seemed humanly possible. Perhaps more than anything though, Ann viewed the world as a place that should be savored - like a plump peach warm off the tree - and she made sure to impart that valuable lesson to her three daughters. (Previously aired)
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  Go To on the Fourth Instinct 04.09.2026 8m

  Kelly shares a piece by her friend Arianna Huffington ("Self-Discovery Is Our Strongest Drive" - New York Times, June 17, 2026) about the drive underneath all our other drives—the pull toward meaning that shows up in our hardest losses and our most exhausting successes. It's a reflection on what psychologist Abraham Maslow called transcendence, and what it means to keep growing toward the truest version of yourself, even when the world tells you success should be enough.
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  Deep Dive with Jim Collins on Discovery 01.09.2026 1h 5m

  Kelly sits down with Jim Collins—the bestselling author behind business classics Good to Great and Built to Last—for a live conversation recorded on stage at Sixth & I in Washington, D.C., about his new book, What to Make of a Life. For over a decade, Collins studied 34 exceptional people, from astronauts to Supreme Court justices to rock stars, matching them into pairs who faced the same defining turning point in life and tracing how each person navigated what came after. They talk about the "cliff" moments that split a life in two, the disorienting fog that always follows, and why the advice we get from people who love us often says more about them than it does about us. It's a conversation about trusting the parts of yourself that don't come with a plan, and why some of the most meaningful chapters of a life can show up decades later than expected.
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  Thanks For Being Here - Amy's Dad Harold "Wes" Westlund 30.08.2026 7m

  Amy Zuckerman shares a remembrance of her late father Harry “Wes” Westlund. Wes was a special man whose dream of becoming an Air Force fighter pilot was taken away just days before he was to receive his wings, due to a heart murmur. Amy says that although her dad lived his entire life under the threat of a heart defect, he had no issues at all with his capital “H” heart. He was a loving, caring and kind man who made all around him feel comfortable and welcome. (Previously aired - created for Father's Day in 2023)
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  Go To on the College Drop-off 28.08.2026 7m

  Kelly reads an essay she wrote several years ago about dropping her daughter off at college—the last box unpacked, the last goodbye said, and the strange quiet that follows. It's a reflection on the myth of ownership in parenting, and what it actually means to raise someone only to watch them walk away — unstoppable.
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  Deep Dive with Raymond Ansotegui on Great Coaching 25.08.2026 54m

  Most people run from danger. Raymond Ansotegui spent a decade running toward it. In this episode of our Great Coaches series, Kelly talks with a retired rodeo bullfighter about what happens when your job is to step between a thrown rider and an animal the size of a car. Through stories about learning to read personality in a bucking bull, finding connection in the most chaotic moments and understanding when getting closer is actually safer than staying back, Raymond reveals lessons that reach far beyond the arena. This conversation explores commitment, presence and the strange grace that emerges when you stop trying to control everything and just learn to move with what's in front of you—whether that's a 1,800-pound bull, an addiction or a father slipping away to Alzheimer's. (Previously aired)Raymond's organization is petriCORE Compass: https://petricorecompass.com/The aversion therapy program Raymond mentioned is the Schick Shadel Hospital which stopped providing behavioral healthcare services as of June 30, 2022.
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  Thanks For Being Here - Kelly Finds an Old Letter to her Mom 23.08.2026 6m

  Kelly recently found an old letter (hidden away in a closet in Bozeman) that she had written to her mom, way back in 1991. It’s good to look back sometimes at old letters and half-finished journal entries and be reminded of who we were - and who we wanted to become. (Previously aired)
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  Go To on Our Greatest Collaborator 21.08.2026 8m

  Every piano, every oil painting, every scrap of silk is proof of a 150,000-year collaboration between human hands and the raw materials of the earth. Kelly shares a speech she wrote for the OneGreenThing Forum in Bozeman, MT, making the case that art isn't separate from nature—it's the clearest evidence of our dependence on it.