Everything Happens with Kate Bowler

Is religion in America disappearing—or are we secretly in the middle of a revival? Sociologist Mark Chaves has spent decades studying what Americans actually believe and how our religious lives are changing. He joins Kate to separate the headlines from the data: why religious decline is real but slow, what we misunderstand about young people and faith, why megachurches keep getting bigger, and what we might lose when our institutions disappear. Show Notes American Religion: Contemporary Trends, Second Edition — Mark Chaves’s book on changing patterns in American religious belief and practice. National Congregations Study — The long-running study of American congregations directed by Mark Chaves. Why Conservative Churches Are Growing — Dean M. Kelley’s 1972 book, discussed in the episode in relation to the idea that stricter churches are stronger. Kate Bowler on Substack — More blessings and reflections from Kate. Kate Bowler on YouTube — Watch full episodes of Everything Happens.

Who are the people who have made you who you are? Kate sits down with novelist Andrew O’Hagan for a funny and tender conversation about friendship: the childhood friends we swear we’ll love forever, the unexpected people who become essential, and the friends who know how to stay when life gets frightening. Together, they wonder what makes someone a good friend, why some friendships deepen while others fade, and how love sometimes looks less like having the right words and more like simply keeping pace. Show Notes On Friendship — Andrew O’Hagan Mayflies — Andrew O’Hagan Caledonian Road — Andrew O’Hagan The Illuminations — Andrew O’Hagan Andrew O’Hagan — London Review of Books Edna O’Brien — RTÉ Archives Sam’s Cafe — Primrose Hill Dignitas

Aging is a privilege — but perimenopause and menopause can still blindside you. Kate Bowler sits down with Dr. Mary Claire Haver, board-certified OB-GYN and bestselling author of The New Menopause and The New Perimenopause, to explain what’s actually happening in the body during perimenopause and menopause, why symptoms like brain fog, frozen shoulder, and anxiety get dismissed or misdiagnosed, and what the evidence really says about hormone replacement therapy after the 2002 Women’s Health Initiative study derailed women’s care for two decades. They also cover practical, low-cost tools for this stage of life — bone density screening, strength training, protein and fiber, cardio guidelines — and why replacing shame with information changes everything. This conversation was recorded on location at the Aspen Ideas Festival: Health.