The Hardest Part: A Lent for Real Life

Everything Happens with Kate Bowler

Everything Happens Studios

Health & Fitness, Religion & Spirituality, Society & Culture

4.8 • 4.7K Ratings

🗓️ 4 March 2025

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Lent is here—the season we stop pretending we’re fine and admit that life is…a lot. It’s forty days of naming what’s fragile, walking toward the hard truths, and resisting the urge to skip straight to the happy ending.

In this special Ask Kate Anything episode, Kate answers your biggest, messiest questions: How do we stay soft in a brutal world? How do we practice Lent when life is already exhausting? What do we do when faith unravels? And because sometimes words aren’t enough, singer-songwriter Katelyn Tarver stops by to perform her song “Sh*t Happens,” an anthem for all of us who know that life doesn’t always make sense.

In this episode, Kate discusses:

Why Lent is for the weary, the doubting, and the grieving.
How to hold both grief and hope.
A faith that doesn’t demand you have it all figured out.

You’re invited to join us for lent—ashes, doubts, imperfections, and all. Download The Hardest Part Lent Guide for free at katebowler.com/lent.

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The first 100 days of a new presidential administration have the potential to be the most impactful.
0:05.2	Campaign promises and concepts of plans begin to take shape and become reality. I'm Sarah. And I'm Beth.
0:10.6	Together, we host Pansu Politics, a podcast where we take a different approach to the news.
0:14.4	Join us for this different approach where we ask questions, resist hot takes, and have fun no matter what the world serves up.
0:20.2	We'll get you through the first 100 days and beyond the new Trump administration. Stay informed without all the anxiety.
0:26.1	Join us for new episodes every Tuesday and Friday, wherever you get your podcast. Hi, I'm Erica Badon.
0:31.6	I'm the CEO of Food 52. I used to be the CEO of Barstool Sports, and I am very excited that I'm launching a podcast.
0:38.8	This is a new podcast that navigates the highs, lows, and in-betweens of that very thing
0:44.5	that consumes all of our days.
0:46.7	Work.
0:47.0	Join me every week as I candidly share my thoughts on what's great about work, what's
0:51.8	terrible about work, and what you need to know to make
0:54.9	work work for you. Work is out now, available wherever you get your podcasts.
1:02.1	Oh, hello, my dears. This is Everything Happens, and I'm Kate Bowler.
1:08.7	This is a podcast for anyone who's tired of trying to live their best lives now.
1:15.0	And I've always wished we could just rewrite that cultural script and instead just tell everyone
1:20.7	that we're living our okayest life now.
1:24.7	Except that really doesn't market well on t-shirts.
1:29.3	That's my marketing voice.
1:30.2	This one.
1:36.6	Life is beautiful and terrible and sometimes gloriously boring.
1:41.8	And this is the community of people where we are honest about every bit of it.
	...

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