Everything Happens with Kate Bowler Joy, Absurdity, and the Weird Ways We Survive with Rhett McLaughlin and Jenny Lawson
Apr 14, 2026
Rhett McLaughlin, entertainer and co-founder of Rhett & Link, musician and creator of scheduled silliness. Jenny Lawson, writer and irreverent humorist who writes candidly about mental illness and pain. They trade taxidermy tales, childhood oddities, and how anxiety, faith shifts, and deliberate absurdity become survival tools. Expect stories of staged experiments, medical weirdness, and finding connection through ridiculous small yeses.
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Rhett and Link's Silly Friendship Began In First Grade
- Rhett McLaughlin learned timing and dry wit from his dad and developed a lifelong comedic partnership with Link that began in first grade.
- Early tapes of them making radio shows at age eight show silliness was the foundation of their creative collaboration.
Taxidermy And Runaway Dolls Fed Jenny Lawson's Stories
- Jenny grew up with a taxidermist father and played dark imaginative games like 'runaway girls' with taxidermied animals as props.
- Those unusual childhood details became source material for her later writing and comedic stories.
Small Ridiculous Yeses Interrupt Despair
- Absurdity and whimsy can coexist with real despair; Jenny says sometimes the only achievable goal is "cling to the couch and keep breathing."
- She intentionally seizes small ridiculous opportunities (clown school, dressing cats) to reinject joy when possible.
