Atticus is the anonymous poet and New York Times Bestselling author of Love Her Wild, The Dark Between Stars and The Truth About Magic. Dubbed “The World’s Most Tattoo-able Poet” by Galore Magazine, he has been featured in Time Magazine, Elle, The Guardian, Fast Company, Publisher’s Weekly, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, worked with Kygo, Maroon 5, Coach, Absolute Vodka, Stance Socks, Target, Urban Outfitters and Refinery 29, all while wearing a mask and keeping his identity a secret, preferring to send love from the shadows.

@atticuspoetry

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Brian Kelly aka The Points Guy has become one of the top influencers and experts in the travel and hospitality space. Anyone in my close circle knows how passionate I am about travel, my first true love, and my borderline obsession w points. I think I’ve visited 21 countries now and wouldn’t be surprised if guy’s been to the remaining 175.

Brian’s quickly become the go-to-guy when it comes to the Points Game - using lucrative credit card signup bonuses and strategic travel to accrue rewards points that can be redeemed for free trips. For those that play (like me) it’s a legit hobby we take very seriously and all I wanted to do was share my proudest points trips and use up all the recording time.

Brian and I decided to throw the standard interview script out the window and “just have a real conversation” so we could relish in gushing about our passion for travel, revisit some memorable experiences, and chat about the healing power of animals and our shared Pennsylvania roots. And now after our convo, I’m back to planning my Japan trip again, cancer be damned - I might just need to wrangle up a tour guide.

@briankelly

@thepointsguy

www.thepointsguy.com

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Writer Gretchen Rubin is widely known as an expert on Happiness and Good Habits. Few know that she actually started her career in law, as Editor of the Yale Law Review and clerking for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on the Supreme Court.

One day Gretchen came to an important conclusion about her life: It was time to move off this path because she realized she would rather fail as a writer than succeed as a lawyer. Except she didn’t fail. Gretchen wrote five NYT Bestsellers including “The Happiness Project” - how I was first introduced to her years ago - and more recently, “The Four Tendencies” which we ended up talking a lot about. (FYI I’m a Questioner with a tip to Rebel which apparently Steve Jobs was too)

Gretchenn’s also the co-host of the Happier Podcast, an experienced speaker, wife and mom. Keep in mind The Washington Post called Gretchen “Type A-PLUS” so you might not want to attempt to keep up with this one.

The Four Tendencies Book | Quiz

The Happier Podcast

@gretchenrubin

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Kate Bowler is a religious historian and Professor at the Duke Divinity School. She’s also a witty, warm, wildly successful author, wife and mom living with Stage IV Cancer.

Much of Kate’s early work was focused on the Prosperity Gospel - the belief that if you had the right faith, and prayed the right prayers, God would reward you with health, wealth and happiness.

Soon after writing “Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel” Kate got diagnosed with Stage IV Colon Cancer at the age of 35. Oh, the irony.

Her newest book No Cure for Being Human follows the bestseller “Everything Happens for a Reason: and Other Lies I’ve Loved” which all challenge the American belief that all tragedies are tests of character.

As you’ll hear, Kate felt like an old friend who’d happily greet me on one of those wraparound southern porches with a cup of tea and Ted Lasso biscuits.

We laughed and we laugh-cried as we compared stories and empathized with our shared grief. Because sometimes, there is no good answer to “why us?” but we move forward anyway.

No Cure for Being Human

Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I’ve Loved

Everything Happens Podcast

@katecbowler

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Sunita Puri is the Medical Director of Palliative Medicine at the Keck Hospital and Norris Cancer Center of the University of Southern California.

She’s also the author of 2019 bestseller That Good Night: Life and Medicine in the Eleventh Hour. Not since Suleika Jaouad’s Between Two Kingdoms have I experienced such poignant and elegant writing that captures the essence of the author’s experience so expertly.

Sunita documents the life events that led her to the palliative path, the challenges that those in her position face, and offers tools to help readers better communicate with our doctors about what matters most to us.

We chatted about the book and dug into the struggles of leading a department that requires nonstop justification to patients, their families, and even other medical professionals. And we also uncovered what Sunita does to take care of herself - mentally, emotionally, and spiritually - so her job doesn’t rob her of her own personal joy.

@sunitapurimd

Buy the Book Here

www.sunitapuri.com

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Sister Aletheia was profiled by the NY Times in “Meet the Nun Who Wants You to Remember You Will Die” reviving the Memento Mori movement. Memento Mori is the practice of intentionally thinking about our own death as a means of appreciating the present and living a better life now. 

Sister Aletheia’s path to the convent was anything but conventional. She was a rebellious atheist who loved punk rock and spent her 20s volunteering, then working in Bay Area tech before finding her way back to the church. Her Catholic order - the Daughters of St Paul - are known as the #medianuns for their use of social media (even TikTok!) and other modern tools to spread the gospel. 

Sister and I talked about our society’s avoidance of death, her ongoing wrestling match with God when it comes to the world’s suffering, and why reflecting on death isn’t a morbid affair, but a healthy and healing practice that can help us accept the inevitable with hope. 

Meet the Nun Who Wants You to Remember You Will Die (NY Times, May 2021) 

www.pursuedbytruth.com 

@pursuedbytruth 

Daughters of St. Paul TikTok 

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BJ Miller is a Hospice & Palliative Care Doctor with a unique path that brought him to this work.

As a sophomore at Princeton, while goofing around one night with his buddies, BJ climbed on top of a sleeping commuter train and was immediately electrocuted by 11,000 volts. As a result, BJ lost both his legs at the knee and one arm making him a triple amputee.

BJ and I talked not about his accident or the fact that he now has two futuristic metal blades for legs, but about his deep care for his patients and what he hopes to achieve with his virtual palliative services practice, Mettle Health.

TED Talk: “What Really Matters at the End of Life” (2015)

Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday (2017)

NPR’s Fresh Air: After A Freak Accident, Doctor Finds Insight Into Living Life and Facing Death

www.mettlehealth.com

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