WE CAN DO HARD THINGS
Episode: The New Era: LOVE, FURY, FREEDOM
Date: September 16, 2025
Hosts: Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, Amanda Doyle

Episode Overview

In this pivotal episode, the “We Can Do Hard Things” trio—Glennon, Abby, and Amanda—usher in a new era for their beloved podcast, marked by intimate video recordings and a renewed sense of embodied presence. Framed by a backdrop of personal upheaval and societal crisis—fascism, menopause, empty nesting, and a nation in turmoil—they reflect on activism, joy, embodiment, and the responsibilities (and opportunities) facing their community, the “Pod Squad.” The conversation is rich with vulnerability, humor, metaphor, and practical wisdom for braving hard times and staying human together.

1. Moving to Video: Why Embodiment?

Timestamps: 01:47 – 06:16

• The show now features a video component, responding to overwhelming Pod Squad requests and Glennon’s therapist’s encouragement.
• Glennon muses on the tension between being a writer (sharing ideas without her body being judged) and being visible:
  • “Even though I became a writer so that I could get you my thoughts without my body being involved, we can do new things.” (03:05)
  • “It might be something we’re overdoing... I would like to make a small case for disembodiment.” (07:02)
• Insightful discussion about how public perception, especially for women, often prioritizes bodies over ideas, and the political act of showing up physically.
  • Amanda: “…the fact that women show up in their bodies… and they are immediately judged and policed based on their bodies…” (08:49)
• Lighthearted banter weaves throughout:
  • “Smash that subscribe button… and ding dong the bell!” (Amanda and Glennon, 03:49)

2. A New Season: From Planned Episodes to Real Conversations

Timestamps: 06:16 – 14:41

• The hosts commit to a more unfiltered, conversational format—less performance, more genuine “just being together.”
• Glennon: “One of the things I’d like to do more of this season… is just talk to you, just have conversations about what we’re really feeling and going through and seeing in the world…” (11:06)
• Abby shares, “Sometimes our pre call meetings about the episodes… are often my most favorite.” (12:45)

3. Glennon’s Triple Threat: Fascism, Menopause, and Empty Nesting

Timestamps: 14:41 – 21:15

• Glennon reveals personal struggles at the crossroads of political upheaval, menopause, and children leaving home:
  • “If you, like, looked at a Venn diagram, you would see me at the intersection of fascism and menopause… and also there’s a third one, which is empty nesting.” (14:51)
  • “I have lost whoever the hell I was before all this happened.” (21:15)
• Glennon humorously paraphrases Bruce Springsteen to describe menopause symptoms:
  • “Was Bruce Springsteen in perimenopause?... ‘I wake up with my sheets soaking wet and a freight train running through the middle of my head.’” (22:16)
• Music as medicine: Florence & The Machine’s “Free,” especially the lyric:
  • “Is this how it is, to exist in the face of suffering and death and somehow still keep singing?” (23:03, paraphrased by Glennon)
• The genesis of their tour: an instinct to “open up our arms and give it all to you.” (23:39)

4. The Tour—Activation, Hope, and the Power of Community

Timestamps: 25:31 – 30:09

• Abby: “It’s the best time I’ve had in a long time.” (25:34)
• Amanda expands on the collective energy: “Hopelessness is a result of most people believing that most people don’t care. And being in those rooms was like, oh, no, we… all… care deeply.” (26:18)
• The idea that connection and mobilization are our generational call:
  • “You can also just say, am I going to step up into my place in this? This is who I am. … What is my role in this?” (Amanda, 28:53)
  • “Here we are. What’s our plan and what’s our posture?” (Amanda, 29:38)

5. Metaphors for Activism: The Candle and the River/Fleet

Timestamps: 30:09 – 43:54

• Glennon shares two powerful organizing metaphors:

  • The One-Candle Vigil: “I come here every night with my little candle so that they don’t change me.” (32:35)
  • The River and the Freedom Fleet:
    • Inspired by Michelle Alexander’s essay, Glennon reclaims “resistance” narratives: “We… are not the resistance. We are the river.” (36:37)
    • “The fleet is made up of so many different ships… all working together towards one goal, to get humanity further.” (38:23)
    • “Our job is to make life in the boat, in the fleet so irresistible that we are loving each other so hard… that the people from the shore cannot help but want to jump aboard.” (38:55)
    • Guidelines for welcoming “shore standers” onto ships without ego or gatekeeping.

• Abby: “One of the frustrations that I see a lot is… a new person comes aboard and because they might not have the language down yet… [The left] is very exclusive at times in our ships. And I think we need to become much more inclusive.” (45:04)

6. Engagement as the Antidote to Despair

Timestamps: 46:24 – 49:14

• Amanda reflects on the correlation between happiness, engagement, and activism:
  • “…people who are in that position who get activated—who get involved—then their life is actually better.” (47:47)
  • “If you are sitting there feeling like everything sucks, life is shit… that doesn’t mean stop there. That means keep pushing.” (48:16)
  • “The actual place where you are going to be happy and contented is when you get on a boat.” (48:26)

7. Holding On To Humanity—In All Its Messiness

Timestamps: 49:14 – 54:34

• Amanda slams self-shame around what matters or brings joy:
  • “There’s this sort of shame… between what are our things that we’re like ‘that’s stupid and petty’ and… these unpetty and unstupid and important things. But I actually think it’s all the same thing.” (49:15)
    • “The whole ball game is to remain so human that certain things don’t fail to break your heart, and remain so human that certain things don’t fail to delight and bring you such joy…” (51:03)
• Glennon: “The only way to save each other and ourselves right now is to hold on dearly to the preciousness of life, of life everywhere… and the only way to hold on to the preciousness of every life is to hold dear to the preciousness of your own.” (52:25)
• The revolution includes snuggling up with “Love Island”:
  • “I mean when you were talking, I was thinking about the last time Lillian was at my house, and …organizing, and then… we got in our pajamas and had huge bags of candy…and watched Love Island.” (53:52)
  • “That felt like the irresistible revolution to me.” (54:11)

8. Rage, Gentleness, and the Pursuit of Joy

Timestamps: 54:34 – 59:09

• Compassion for those struggling to feel loving or hopeful:
  • Glennon: “I have deep compassion for everyone who is not feeling loving right now… What is going on is so barbaric… Some people who are most angry… are staying the most human, too.” (54:35)
• The tension between wellness culture and collective liberation:
  • “As white women… giving up the idea of wellness as… an individual project… and instead surrendering to these collective liberation movements as deckhands…” (55:23)
• Glennon on menopause: “I’ve already requested an entire episode where all I do is bitch about this menopause thing with no solutions. I’m not ready for solutions yet.” (57:29)
• The silver lining: “There’s a shift shedding of all the horseshit during perimenopause that somehow leaves you with all that matters.” (58:22)
• “I was made for such a time as this. That’s all I’m saying. God bless the menopausers. This is our time.” (58:31)

9. Pod Squad Invitations: Community Calls-to-Action

Timestamps: 59:09 – 60:23

• The hosts invite listeners to share in the comments:
  • What ship you are on and who your captain is.
  • Your daily vigil—your personal act of maintaining hope/humanity.
  • “Tell us also what you’re doing to stay human. What you’re doing to feed yourself, to delight yourself, to fuel your humanity.” (Amanda, 59:09)

Notable Quotes & Moments

• “The flow is love. …the side that wishes to stop that and builds the dam against it… They are the resistance.” (Glennon, 36:37)
• “The whole ball game is to remain so human that certain things don’t fail to break your heart, and remain so human that certain things don’t fail to delight and bring you such joy and make you laugh like crazy.” (Amanda, 51:03)
• “We might be like on the dock going, everybody get your asses in the boats. That’s what we are.” (Glennon, 38:55)
• “You must double down [on joy]. …the whole enterprise is trying to unhuman us.” (Amanda, 51:54)
• “I think I was made for such a time as this. That’s all I’m saying. God bless the menopausers. This is our time.” (Glennon, 58:31)

In Summary

This episode marks a creative and emotional leap for “We Can Do Hard Things.” With vulnerability, wit, and urgency, Glennon, Abby, and Amanda invite listeners to embrace both the fight for justice and the pursuit of joy as equally human endeavors. Through powerful metaphors and shared stories, they call on their community to stay fiercely connected, inclusive, and “human as hell”—lighting small candles in the darkness, finding their ships, fueling the fleet, and refusing to let these hard times harden their hearts.

Join the conversation:

• What is your activism “ship” and who is your “captain”?
• What’s your daily vigil, big or small, that keeps you human and hopeful?
  Comment on YouTube or Instagram to be part of the ongoing Pod Squad dialogue.