We Can Do Hard Things
Jia Tolentino: The 1% of Life that Makes It All Worth It (Best Of)
27 Apr 2025
Jia Tolentino joins us to discuss how to finally accept all sides of you: Why your un-productivity matters most; When your shame is good; How to make your real life bigger than your internet life; How to let motherhood energize you instead of drain you; and How to stop scrolling in the middle of the night. Plus, we talk acid trips, the sorority rush that Jia and Amanda shared, why Glennon’s friends track Jia’s words – and whether Glennon’s mug shot will inspire Jia’s next show. About Jia: Jia Tolentino is a staff writer at The New Yorker, a screenwriter, and the author of the New York Times bestseller Trick Mirror. In 2020, she received a Whiting Award as well as the Jeannette Haien Ballard Prize, and has most recently won a National Magazine Award for three pieces about the repeal of Roe v. Wade. Trick Mirror was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle’s John Leonard Prize and the PEN Award and was named one of the best books of the year by the New York Public Library, the New York Times Book Review, the Washington Post, NPR, the Chicago Tribune, GQ, and the Paris Review. Jia lives in Brooklyn. TW: @jiatolentino IG: @jiatortellini To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Full Episode
Welcome to We Can Do Hard Things. We have a big day. Huge. And that is because we have the Gia Tolentino here today. Before I read her bio, I need to tell Gia one of my favorite Gia Tolentino stories, which Gia and I have many, many funny stories together, which is interesting since we've never met. And most of our experiences have been extremely one-sided. But I have a group. Yes.
And there's this one recurring thing that people often say, which is kind of like a what would Jesus do situation, which you'll know from your We both have evangelical pasts. We certainly do. We certainly do. But ours is more like, what did Gia write? Oh, my God. And it's real. It's real. Somebody will say it. What would Gia write? And it kind of works because you can say, like, Giazus.
So it, like, goes, Giazus. Yeah, which I know you're going to really love. But if we have one complaint, it's that we often have to wait a long time for a Giazus take. we're mad now. Okay. So like, we'll have to wait for a New Yorker piece to come out. Or sometimes we get lucky and you're on a podcast, but it takes a while and that's annoying.
And so one time, one of the women in the group said, well, what did Jesus write? And I was thinking for a while and I thought, you guys, what if Jesus is trying to tell us something like, what if, what if we're supposed to think hard and do research? What if you're your own personal Gia?
What if I, what if I have, I too have a Jesus inside of me who can stay calm and cool and collected and like think hard and keep an open mind and open heart and interview people and then come to a nuanced conclusion and A month later. And one of my favorite group, they thought for a while. And my friend said, fuck that. We don't have time. I'm mad now. What do we tweet?
Oh, I'm so, that's so, I'm so moved by that. And I'm sure we'll talk about child care and child raising, but you know, something happened to my brain in 2020. And I mean, that something was the pandemic and having a baby and all of that. And I was like, I am not calm. My brain is not good. I have nothing to, you know, that thing that I had always relied on my job being and
This kind of writing being this process through the only way through which there's any ever any thought in my brain. It really, you know, my shit got rocked by 2020 and the years afterwards. But I think I'll be back on the on the blogging train. But I got so sick of myself, you know. I know.
It's a good example, Gia. It's an excellent example. The proof is in the writing. It might have been an accident, but you were showing us the way. So now I'm going to read your bio and then we're going to jump in.
Gia Tolentino is a staff writer at The New Yorker, a screenwriter, and the author of the New York Times bestseller, Trick Mirror, which everyone just needs to get right now if you haven't already read it. In 2020-
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