- 57 minutes 5 secondsSUMMER OF SURRENDER: Let’s give up, girls
There is no shame in giving up, despite the fact that the #Girlboss from the 2010s in us all might be rolling over in her metaphorical grave at the thought. But if you’re anything like Nora, you’ve felt the pressure from… well, everywhere to have a plan for the summer. To make it the most magical summer for your kids. To juggle work and hobbies and friends and your health with ease even as we’re hit by heat wave after heat wave. To meet every make believe deadline you have created for yourself.
This episode, Nora’s introducing you to the Summer Of Surrender: The One Where We Give Up. It’s about letting go of that tight hold you have on to-do lists, deadlines, and plans. It’s about letting life take you wherever it may go. It demands that you step away from that email you’ve been writing, accept you are not the center of the universe, and surrender.
Come surrender with us.
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7 July 2026, 7:00 am - 1 hour 1 minuteUprooted: What Can Happen When a Black Child Is Transracially Adopted by a White Family?
Adoption is often viewed as a happy ending, and sometimes it is! But for Thenedra, her experiences as a child in the foster care system and later as a trans-racial adoptee were — and still are — much more complicated than that. This is an episode about what can happen when trans-racial foster and adoptive parents are not just unprepared to raise traumatized children, but also unprepared to raise Black children in a predominantly white society.
References:
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The National Association of Black Social Workers’ 1972 position statement on transracial adoption
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1984 study on the long-term effects of trans-racial adoption
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Children of color disproportionately likely to enter foster care system
Listen to Geoffrey’s album on Spotify and Apple!
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30 June 2026, 7:00 am -
- 1 hour 2 minutesNothing Starts on Sunday but Birth Control with Courtney Maum
If you’ve been feeling like life is throwing everything at you all at once – burnout, exhaustion, chaos – today’s episode is for you. Today, Nora is joined by author and friend of the pod Courtney Maum, who brought OK things from weird Zillow listings in Florida to fancy gifts from very classy ladies. And, despite their love for each other, they very nearly have a friendship-ending fight – over whether the calendar should start on Sunday or Monday. Things get pretty heated.
If you’re searching for joy in the chaos, sit back and press play on today’s episode.
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❤️ Experience your juiciest and deepest sensual experience with a bottle of Foria. FORIA is offering a special deal for our listeners. Get 20% off your first order by visiting foriawellness.com/tfa OR use code TFA at checkout. That’s F-O-R-I-A WELLNESS DOT COM FORWARD SLASH TFA for 20% off your first order. I recommend trying Awaken or their Pleasure Set with all three of their best sellers.
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26 June 2026, 7:00 am - 44 minutes 43 secondsWhat happens after Viral Fame? Rebecca Black can tell you.
In 2011, it was impossible to escape the “Friday” music video. September 16, 2011 changed the trajectory of pop culture – and of 13-year-old Rebecca Black’s life – forever. What started as a harmless, fun music video (with yes, some questionable lyrics) turned into a vitriolic mob obsessed with bullying a teenage girl. Even now, every few months the song will resurface on TikTok. But what happens to the person behind the viral fame? What happens to the subject of unnecessary hate? Rebecca Black is on the pod to tell you.
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❤️ Experience your juiciest and deepest sensual experience with a bottle of Foria. FORIA is offering a special deal for our listeners. Get 20% off your first order by visiting foriawellness.com/tfa OR use code TFA at checkout. That’s F-O-R-I-A WELLNESS DOT COM FORWARD SLASH TFA for 20% off your first order. I recommend trying Awaken or their Pleasure Set with all three of their best sellers.
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23 June 2026, 7:00 am - 44 minutes 30 secondsHappyish Complicated Father’s Day to all who struggle to celebrate! with Dayna Kathan
Father's Day can be complicated.
In this special mini-episode, we hear an essay from writer Hannah Diaz titled No One Sent Flowers for the First Loss. Then, podcaster and former Vanderpump Rules actor Dayna Kathan talks about how loving her dad from a distance is an act of self-love.
Happy Complicated Father's Day.
Hannah's IG: @hannah_d1az
Dayna's IG: @daynakathan
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❤️ Experience your juiciest and deepest sensual experience with a bottle of Foria. FORIA is offering a special deal for our listeners. Get 20% off your first order by visiting foriawellness.com/tfa OR use code TFA at checkout. That’s F-O-R-I-A WELLNESS DOT COM FORWARD SLASH TFA for 20% off your first order. I recommend trying Awaken or their Pleasure Set with all three of their best sellers.
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16 June 2026, 7:00 am - 53 minutes 10 secondsA Spiritual Hug with Nadia Bolz-Weber
Today’s IGTBO episode is a spiritual hug – as previous guest and friend of the pod Kelly Corrigon called it – with guest Nadia Bolz-Weber, a beautiful writer, a fellow griever, and a pastor. Don't be frightened away from this episode if you are not a religious person – there won’t be any lecturing here. Nadia is not that kind of religious person. She’s the kind of religious person that, at the very least, inspires you to find the beauty in the world around you. And that’s what today’s episode is – a balm for your soul and a confirmation that a small, simple life is more than enough.
You can find Nadia’s work on Substack here.
You can share your okay things with us at ☎️502-388-OKAY (6529) or 📧 [email protected]
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Our music is by Secret Audio, and their new album is on Spotify or Apple!
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12 June 2026, 7:00 am - 54 minutes 25 secondsThere’s an Alien Inside Me: Medical Misogyny, a Rom-Com, and Struggles with Infertility
Nicole was 21 years old and had an alien growing inside her chest.
Well, no, not really. But it WAS an extremely large tumor growing inside of her that very much FELT like an alien — an alien that doctors had told her multiple times was just weight gain. After dismissal time after time again, Nicole finally meets a surgeon who tells her that she has a massive cyst on her fallopian tube that was 32 centimeters wide.
This isn’t just a story about the pain of medical misogyny (although, hey, if you needed more proof women are never taken as seriously as they should be in healthcare, here’s more for you!) – it’s also a story about the pain of what could have been.
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Nora is on IG, TikTok, Facebook and LinkedIn.
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❤️ Experience your juiciest and deepest sensual experience with a bottle of Foria. FORIA is offering a special deal for our listeners. Get 20% off your first order by visiting foriawellness.com/tfa OR use code TFA at checkout. That’s F-O-R-I-A WELLNESS DOT COM FORWARD SLASH TFA for 20% off your first order. I recommend trying Awaken or their Pleasure Set with all three of their best sellers.
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9 June 2026, 7:00 am - 58 minutes 3 secondsThe Summer Reading List with Kate Baer
Summer is coming, and you know what that means – beach days (or days spent inside with the AC blasting, no judgment) with your favorite books. Today, Nora and friend of the pod and special guest Kate Baer get together to give you the Ultimate Summer Reading List for 2026, including Lena Dunham’s new memoir, a creepy novel that’s like if the Hunger Games and Love Island had a baby, and many more (seriously, you may not even get through all these recs this summer). If you’ve been craving a library summer reading challenge, look no further – we’ve got it for you. Open up your Libby app or your cart, babe, and get reading!
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❤️ Experience your juiciest and deepest sensual experience with a bottle of Foria. FORIA is offering a special deal for our listeners. Get 20% off your first order by visiting foriawellness.com/tfa OR use code TFA at checkout. That’s F-O-R-I-A WELLNESS DOT COM FORWARD SLASH TFA for 20% off your first order. I recommend trying Awaken or their Pleasure Set with all three of their best sellers.
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2 June 2026, 7:00 am - 46 minutes 26 secondsIt's (still) Okay To Laugh (and crying is still cool, too)
It has been 10 years since Nora’s first book, “It’s Okay to Laugh (Crying Is Cool Too)” was published. A lot has changed since – she got remarried, had another child, and started this podcast to carve a space in the world for conversations that really matter. In honor of IOTL’s 10th birthday, today Nora is reading the two chapters out loud and live annotating – connecting with the person she was six months after her husband’s and father’s death, miscarrying a baby, and desperately trying to stay afloat.
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Watch us on YouTube here!
Get this episode ad-free here!
Listen to Geoffrey’s album on Spotify and Apple!
You can buy Nora’s books on Bookshop or Amazon, or wherever you buy books.
Check out Nora’s Instagram here!
Check out Nora’s TikTok here!
Check out Nora’s Facebook here!
Check out Nora’s LinkedIn here!
Our Sponsors:
❤️ Refresh your everyday with luxury you'll actually use. Head to Quince.com/TFA for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too. Go to Quince.com/TFA for free shipping and 365-day returns. Quince.com/TFA
❤️ Experience your juiciest and deepest sensual experience with a bottle of Foria. FORIA is offering a special deal for our listeners. Get 20% off your first order by visiting foriawellness.com/tfa OR use code TFA at checkout. That’s F-O-R-I-A WELLNESS DOT COM FORWARD SLASH TFA for 20% off your first order. I recommend trying Awaken or their Pleasure Set with all three of their best sellers.
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26 May 2026, 7:34 am - 1 hour 15 minutesCreativity is For Everyone (The Artist’s Way with Elizabeth Kott)
Burnout seems like the biggest thing all of us have in common right now. It’s hard NOT to get burnt out when the world is rife with injustice and horror and you’re expected to carry on as normal. Here’s the thing: you don’t have to carry on as normal. But you do have to reach out and find joy – it’s going to keep you alive. It’s going to keep you going. It’s going to remind you that you won’t always feel like this.
On today’s episode, Nora talks to Elizabeth Kott, who inspired her to pick up The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron and “get unstuck.” Elizabeth is a founder of Club Artist’s Way, where she leads people through a 13-week program to rekindle their creative spark, and host of the Too Niche podcast, where Nora first heard about The Artist’s Way.
If you’re burnt out, stuck, and desperately searching for a way to claw your way out of the dark, this episode is for you.
Read my original Substack about my experience with The Artist’s Way here.
Follow Club Artist’s Way on Instagram and Substack Join Elizabeth’s next Artist’s Way Group here (code NORA50 gets you $50 off!). Listen to the Too Niche podcast here.
My Brick code is NORA, and should auto-apply 10% off with this link.
Get a used copy of The Artist’s Way from your thrift store, or here. You can get a new copy on Bookshop or Amazon.
Get this episode ad-free here!
Listen to Geoffrey’s album on Spotify and Apple!
You can buy Nora’s books on Bookshop or Amazon, or wherever you buy books.
Check out Nora’s Instagram here!
Check out Nora’s TikTok here!
Check out Nora’s Facebook here!
Check out Nora’s LinkedIn here!
Our Sponsors:
❤️ Refresh your everyday with luxury you'll actually use. Head to Quince.com/TFA for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too. Go to Quince.com/TFA for free shipping and 365-day returns. Quince.com/TFA
❤️ Experience your juiciest and deepest sensual experience with a bottle of Foria. FORIA is offering a special deal for our listeners. Get 20% off your first order by visiting foriawellness.com/tfa OR use code TFA at checkout. That’s F-O-R-I-A WELLNESS DOT COM FORWARD SLASH TFA for 20% off your first order. I recommend trying Awaken or their Pleasure Set with all three of their best sellers.
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19 May 2026, 7:00 am - 56 minutes 49 secondsWhat Is Happening and Where Are We? with Catherine Newman
On this episode of IGTBO, Nora is joined by her favorite living novelist, Catherine Newman, to put a little more OK in your day. They talk about celebrating sobriety and not drinking, Artemis II, how to unwind with the Bear Valley Eagle Cam, and the importance of family (and highly intense family card games). If your anxious heart needs a break from the whirlwind of Bad outside (and need to feel validated in how lame grocery shopping is), take this episode as your daily dose of OK.
Catherine’s books:
Sandwich Amazon | Bookshop
Wreck Amazon | Bookshop
You can share your okay things with us at ☎️502-388-OKAY (6529) or 📧 [email protected]
To support our show, you can subscribe to our YouTube content here.
Our music is by Secret Audio, and their new album is on Spotify or Apple!
Our Sponsors:
❤️ Refresh your everyday with luxury you'll actually use. Head to Quince.com/TFA for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too. Go to Quince.com/TFA for free shipping and 365-day returns. Quince.com/TFA
❤️ Experience your juiciest and deepest sensual experience with a bottle of Foria. FORIA is offering a special deal for our listeners. Get 20% off your first order by visiting foriawellness.com/tfa OR use code TFA at checkout. That’s F-O-R-I-A WELLNESS DOT COM FORWARD SLASH TFA for 20% off your first order. I recommend trying Awaken or their Pleasure Set with all three of their best sellers.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
15 May 2026, 7:00 am - More Episodes? Get the App