Terrible, Thanks for Asking
“Terrible, Thanks For Asking” is a show by author Nora McInerny that lets real people get real honest about how they’re really doing. It’s sometimes sad, sometimes funny, and almost always both. A production of Feelings & Co.
Latest Episode
Am I grieving right? With Dr. Katherine Shear
In case you didn’t know, we’re still making two episodes a month for our Patreon and Apple Plus subscribers. We wanted to give all of our listeners a little preview of our most recent episode! Consider joining TTFA Premium on Apple to listen to the rest of the episode, get additional bonus episodes, and ad-free…
Featured Episodes
Your Favorite Obituaries
March 25, 2024 • Ep. 236 • 47 min 7 sec
Join us for a special bonus episode of TTFA where Nora reads obituaries submitted by listeners. Laugh, cry, and enjoy the stories in this exclusive episode.
Terrible, Thanks For Everything!!
March 4, 2024 • Ep. 234 • 10 min 20 sec
TTFA is taking a break, but new Patreon episodes will be available until Aug 2024. Join us for exclusive content and our full archive!
Still A Family
August 15, 2023 • Ep. 219 • 1 min 5 sec
When Anaya and Dave Lee fell in love, they saw a whole future with each other. Part of that future included being parents. But when they started trying, they learned creating a family was going to be much more challenging than they expected. They eventually had to ask the question, if a baby doesn’t happen,…
All Terrible, Thanks for Asking Episodes
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The Trail
In April 2022, Marlin Sill’s father died from a head injury caused by a cycling accident. A few weeks later, he embarked on a months-long hike through the Western United States. Throughout last summer, Marlin sent the TTFA team voice...
March 14, 2023
Gifted and Terrible
Enjoy this free TTFA Premium episode! And if you like it, consider signing up for future bonus content like this. Listener support makes our independent podcast possible. Consider joining to get ad-free episodes, bonus content, and more.
Should I Have Kids?
TTFA producer Claire McInerny experienced an extreme weather event in 2021, a result of climate change, that left her worried about the future.
February 28, 2023
Nora Needs a New Dad
Nora’s dad died in 2014 from pretty much all of the cancers, leaving her mom Margaret without her life partner of almost 50 years … and leaving Nora without a dad. Does a 40-year-old married woman with four children of...
Debt, Lies, and Other Things Our Parents Leave Us
Identity theft is something many of us are familiar with, but we have a specific image of what this looks like – our data being stolen online, or someone getting a hold of our social security number. But almost a...
How To Lose Your Name
Cheval spent her entire life trying to be a wedding dress designer (she started sewing at 7 years old and studied fashion design in college). In her mid 20’s, she got her big break when a large fashion house hired...
Into The Void
One thing we know about grief is that it needs a witness. That inside every griever is a nearly uncontrollable urge to make the people around us understand what we had and what we have now. In this episode, we...
January 10, 2023
Your Happyish Holiday Traditions
The happyish holiday season can be whatever the heck you want it to be, no matter what pressures you feel from family and friends and society. So, here’s to creating new traditions – and to the Terribles who shared theirs...
December 20, 2022
Happyish Holidays 2022
‘Tis the season! Our terrible holiday tradition is back, this time with more of your painful, sad, awkward holiday stories. Plus: boundary setting advice from Melissa Urban and a fiery Hanukkah story from Vanessa Zoltan.
Blocked and Reported
When Natalie Weaver stepped into the media spotlight to advocate for her 8-year-old daughter Sophia’s right to health care, she expected some pushback. She didn’t expect the flood of online hate and death threats that came her way … or...
Army Wife
Death by suicide has long been a problem within the U.S. military, and not just among veterans: In 2020, suicide rates among active duty service members hit a six-year high. On August 28th, 2015, Heather’s husband Tyler became one of...
Between Two Widows
Michael Allio was a fan favorite on Katie Thurston’s season of “The Bachelorette,” applauded for the vulnerability he showed as he talked about losing his wife, Laura, to cancer and raising his son James without his mom. Losing a partner...
After The Headlines
In the early morning hours of June 24th, 2021, an apartment complex in Surfside, Florida collapsed out of nowhere, killing 98 people – including Patty’s mom, Maggie. It’s difficult enough to lose a loved one to an unthinkable tragedy. It’s...
Bad Vibes Only
The vibes aren’t good. They’re not even decent. They’re bad. Nora’s new book, BAD VIBES ONLY, is available today wherever you buy books!
October 11, 2022
Update: The Beautiful Ones
Four years ago, Nora sat down with her friend Gigi to tell the story of … Gigi’s face. It was a story about confidence and beauty (and beauty standards) and chronic illness, and it has touched so many people since...
Para-Mom
When Leah Nixon woke up in the hospital after a construction accident and learned she was paralyzed from the chest down, she wondered how she’d go about starting a family someday. In this episode, she gives us a glimpse into...
Overthinking About You
Allison Raskin was just 4 years old the first time she told her parents she wanted to die. Within weeks, the preschooler was diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder and depression. In this episode, we talk with Allison and her mother...
Born Fat
Genna is fat. They are also queer and nonbinary. All of these things can make a person feel marginalized in a straight, cisgender, thin-obsessed society … but for Genna, it’s being fat that’s hardest.
Anything Can Happen
The thing about having your life fall apart is that there’s just so much to do, and there’s so much that you don’t know until it’s too late. In today’s episode: What helps when everything goes wrong. For more information...
Independence Days
We’re officially in our Taylor Swift era, and we can’t wait for what’s to come.
July 5, 2022
The Missing Puzzle Piece
Chelsea’s mom and unborn brother died in a car accident on Chelsea’s first birthday, leaving little Chelsea and her grief-stricken father behind to piece back together their shattered life. As a child, Chelsea longs for a mom – a living...
Asking for a Friend
When romantic relationships end, there’s usually a clean cut – a moment, a conversation, an argument that ends things for good. When friendships dissolve, the break is usually way less clear, if it’s clear at all.
June 21, 2022
Saved As Draft
Why do we hold on to things we no longer need? For many of us, it’s because they remind us of who we were and who we thought we might become. Support our new independent production (and get bonus content...
Matchmaker, Make Me a Match
Last year, we did a virtual live show on Valentine’s Day, and Nora — who considers herself a bit of a matchmaker — did some matchmaking. And while she was doing that, the live show comments section was popping off...
Girlboss or Bust
Girlboss culture is now, as they say, cringe, but during the 2010s, SO MANY of us thought we were on the precipice of busting through that glass ceiling. We thought we could rise and grind, hustle our way to the...