Advertise on podcast: Kelly Corrigan Wonders

In honor of the midterm elections, Kelly sits down with Heather Gerken, a longtime constitutional law professor and election law expert who went on to become dean of Yale Law School. Heather later stepped away from academia to lead the Ford Foundation, one of the largest philanthropic organizations in the country. She spent her career studying elections before giving up tenure to put her ideas into practice, and she pulls back the curtain on what actually threatens a free and fair vote. They talk about the quiet army of election administrators holding the whole system together with almost no support, why mail-in ballots matter to veterans and working parents alike, and the strange, specific ways officials have made it harder to simply register. There’s also a case for why the Electoral College might be the single worst idea still standing, and what one ordinary person can actually do, today especially, to help protect the process. Special thanks to the Aspen Ideas Festival where this episode was recorded.

We all have things we do to help us manage grief. Today's episode is a look at one of the ways that Kelly handled the loss of her beloved dad, Greenie. In the year following his death, she wrote and sent emails out into the ether - to connect with him in a small but very meaningful way. (Previously aired)

Journalist and author Amanda Ripley cuts through the noise with a startling fact: America is on track for its lowest murder rate since 1960, yet most Americans believe the opposite. Kelly shares insights from Amanda's Substack "Unraveled," examining how we've become so disconnected from reality, why conflict entrepreneurs profit from our fear, and what it would look like if media corrected our biases instead of amplifying them. Amanda points to researchers tracking the actual data on political violence, cancer mortality, and public perception, then asks three simple questions we should answer every time we share a story: How often is this happening? Is it getting better or worse? What can we do about it? The antidote to apocalyptic thinking, she argues, isn't denial—it's action, context, and a willingness to see what's actually there. (Previously aired) Learn more about Amanda and her work at https://www.thegoodconflict.com/

With the midterms approaching, Kelly wanted to sit down with someone who actually knows how government works — from the inside. Former US Senator Jeff Flake spent 18 years in Congress: twelve in the House and six in the Senate, and he’s no longer running for anything, which means he can say what he really thinks. Recorded at the Aspen Ideas Festival, this conversation goes places most political interviews don’t, into the real cost of principle and the quiet mechanics that actually move legislation. It’s an unfiltered look at what Washington is like when the cameras aren't rolling. Special thanks to our friends at the Aspen Ideas Festival.

Kelly shares a moving piece by her friend Susannah Meadows about the complex relationship she had with her father. Originally published in The New York Times and titled "What My Dad Gave Me," Susannah writes with unflinching honesty about the gifts she received from her father—some welcome, others less so—and how their relationship transformed in his final years. From awkward silences and missed connections to a surprising moment of tenderness in an assisted living dining room, this is a story about how people can change, even stubborn fathers in their nineties. It's a gentle reminder that our most important relationships don't have to be perfect to hold beauty, and that it's never too late for two people who love each other imperfectly to find connection and understanding. (Previously aired)

When someone admits they're struggling at 2 AM, should they have to wait until morning to talk to another human? Kelly shares her TED stage conversation with Dr. Allison Darcy, creator of Woebot, an AI therapy tool used by over 1.5 million people. From questions about who profits when we share our deepest fears to whether perfect AI responsiveness might make us reject messy human relationships, this conversation explores what happens when technology enters our most vulnerable moments. Through reflections on business models, red lines and the surprising ways people use AI as practice for real conversations, Kelly and Allison wrestle with whether these tools are helping us become more human or less—and how we might tell the difference before it's too late. (Previously aired)

She left an abusive relationship while pregnant, moved into a shelter system built for a hundred women she’d never met, and still found a way to finish her bachelor’s degree, texting an assignment to her professor from the delivery room. Kelly closes out the Can Do Moms series with Briana, a graduate student now working toward a career in public policy — trying to close the distance between the people making decisions and the people living with them. They talk about what it means to lose your voice and slowly build it back, the phrase Briana's mother used that she still leans on, and why policy tends to go wrong when no one at the table has actually lived it. This is a conversation about rent, bus transfers and juggling to pay high Con Edison bills, but also about something much bigger: who gets to tell their own story, and who has it told for them. This is the 4th in our "Can Do Moms" series made possible by the Monarch Foundation. To learn more about the Bridge Project visit: https://www.bridgeproject.org/

Kelly's cousin Kathy Corrigan Zentgraf honored her mother Lena Natale Corrigan in this incredible talk.

Kelly and her longtime friend Jennifer Wallace, the New York Times bestselling author known for her work on mattering, are taking their ongoing conversation on the road. Jenny makes the case for mattering, Kelly makes the case for making and creativity, and the two sit down together to find where those ideas actually meet. Thanks to the Walton Family Foundation, they’re bringing the whole thing to you live, with stops in Portland (ME), Bozeman, Washington D.C., New York City, and Bentonville. As Kelly puts it, "there’s a synchronicity that happens when people breathe and think together in the same room". Join us - details below. Portland, ME — Tuesday, October 20, 2026 - SOLD OUT Bozeman, MT — Monday, October 26, 2026 Washington, DC — Thursday, October 29, 2026 New York, NY — Monday, November 2, 2026 Bentonville, AR — Saturday, November 7, 2026 For tickets and more information: https://www.kellycorrigan.com/fall-tour-2026 (Click on the city you're interested in on the web page listed above to access ticketing.)

She spent a decade in uniform, searched for signs of life on Mars, and once calmly aided soldiers wounded in combat. Then, at 40, she found herself living in her car, pregnant, with nothing left but the will to start over. Kelly talks with new mom Cortney in the 3rd episode of our Can Do Moms series, about what happens when a person built for crisis finally meets one she can't out-strategize. They get into the particular unraveling of new motherhood, the 3 AM rituals that become sacred, and a hard-won rule for staying curious with people who see the world differently than you do. Turns out there's no field manual for this one - just a dedicated mom, showing up with love. This is the 3rd episode in our "Can Do Moms" series made possible by the Monarch Foundation. To learn more about the Bridge Project visit: https://www.bridgeproject.org/

A letter from Kelly to honor the many special nurses who have provided care to her and the people she loves. (Previously aired)

Andy Laats thought parenting was a complete alphabet—he did A through M, his wife Liz handled N through Z. After she died of ovarian cancer, he learned he'd underestimated the N through Z work, and then discovered there was a whole world beyond language he never even knew existed. In this Go To episode featuring Andy's TED talk from Kelly's curated session on AI and family life, a CEO learns what a mother knows—that the prize of parenting isn't in mastering the logistics or even the emotional check-ins, but in earning access to something beyond words. (Previously aired)

Kelly talks with Ariela, a mother of two in Massachusetts who was told by a doctor, just three days after giving birth, that her newborn son was slowly dying. He was diagnosed with a rare metabolic disorder, rushed to Children's Hospital, and spent 22 days in intensive care. It was a crisis that reshaped her family's finances, her older son's sense of normal — and one she is still navigating every day. They get into why the oxygen-mask metaphor falls apart the moment you're actually living it, and how Ariela is slowly learning to give herself the same grace she gives everyone else. This is the 2nd in our "Can Do Moms" series made possible by the Monarch Foundation. To learn more about the Bridge Project visit: https://www.bridgeproject.org/

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)

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)