A Very Honest Christmas

A Very Honest Christmas

Ho, ho, hold on a second. Welcome to the very first HTG holiday special, where we know you already know all about the importance of giving.   On today’s episode, we’re flipping the script and unwrapping the secret to Christmastime’s highest and most forgotten art: receiving.  From singleness to budgeting and jealousy to exhaustion, we’re learning from every possible pustule of holiday frustration how to better position ourselves to receive an outpouring of favor and joy this year. We’re holding space for the things that threaten our capacity to celebrate—particularly around the holidays—and moving through them with vulnerability, accountability, and open hands. Get yours this Christmas, honestly. Follow the Podcast: @honesttogodpod on Instagram & TikTok Connect with me: @alyssakattan on Instagram & TikTok

Maybe in Another Life

What if I didn’t date my college boyfriend? What if I never loved? What if I believed the things they said about me?  What if my parents never split? What if I never left my childhood home? What if I gave up on myself when I was at my lowest low? Answering these questions and others on the season finale of Honest to God, an exploration of alternate timelines and the miracle of God’s grace in every single one. TW: themes include abuse, sexual assault, depression Follow the Podcast: @honesttogodpod on Instagram & TikTok Connect with me: @alyssakattan on Instagram & TikTok

Friends: Making them, Losing them, and Keeping them

This week on Honest to God, we’re tackling friendship: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Starting off where it all began (with crippling childhood social anxiety and a deep-set hatred of birthday parties), we’ll journey along the winding road that humbled me into someone worthy of those I get to call my friends today. We’ll encounter betrayal and emotional exhaustion, relational growing pains and painfully awkward attempts at being social, hyperfixation and hypocrisy, poorly ordered priorities, and an unwillingness to trust as we grow in understanding of how to be the kind of friend that we, ourselves, want and need. On today’s episode, I realize it’s okay to walk away from places we’re unwanted, to not be scared of investing effort into a relationship, and to stop assuming everybody’s love languages are the same as mine. From first kisses to girl dates (iykyk), we’ll talk through strategies for maximizing confidence and minimizing panic while attempting to make new friends. Guarding your heart, taking full accountability for mistakes, resisting the urge to overshare, and finding comfort in silence are among the many skills sharpened along the way. By the end, we’ll have a better idea of how to leverage intentionality to help others blossom, even as we use boundaries and invitations to help our dearest friendships go the distance. If Charli and Lorde could work it out on the remix, we’re working it out on this podcast. Follow the Podcast: @honesttogodpod on Instagram & TikTok Connect with me: @alyssakattan on Instagram & TikTok

I Doubt It: Healing from Soul Ties, Shame, and Beef with the Bible

This one is for the girls tied up in invisible strings. And the guys. On today’s episode of Honest to God, we’re taking the gloves off and getting into the messy reality of past lives: the holds they still have over us, the doubt and fear they create in our hearts, and the perilous search for an escape hatch. Living a happy, healthy life in what may feel like a broken body or brain isn’t easy—this pursuit of deep peace begs some pretty sobering questions: Is faith worth anything? Is God truly enough? And for the hungering Christian, was I better off before Jesus?  This week’s conversation investigates the empathy and competency of Christ to untangle the tightest of soul knots, whether the entanglement is with a particular person, vice, idea, or traumatic event. I talk about feeling tied to a stake in the ground somewhere in the landscape of my old ways, a place riddled with mistakes and memories I’d rather forget. I’ll explain how realizing that our strongest desires rarely equal our deepest desires changed my worldview, before unpacking the shame that comes with shifting appetites, suffering from intense but unmet needs, and carving better neural pathways.  Follow the Podcast: @honesttogodpod on Instagram & TikTok Connect with me: @alyssakattan on Instagram & TikTok

Scared to be Lonely: An Honest Conversation about Isolation

After an unintentionally long break, we’re BACK and plunging immediately into the darkness. Kidding, but only kind of. This week on Honest to God, we’re dealing with loneliness: thief of light and maker of pain. I open up about my own wrestle with loneliness throughout the college years, but also reach back in time to understand how the nature of my childhood created voids in my adult self that lured me into destructive situations. From desperately wanting “someone to brush my teeth with,” to eventually learning how painful it can be to protect your peace, I talk through every unspoken and often embarrassing facet of navigating isolation. We’ll get candid about struggling to get out of bed, the difference between company and companionship, throwing away our safety blankets, running from catastrophic temptation, and not hurting our own feelings. In calling out the obvious (people in college rarely look how they feel), we’ll discuss the desire to be hotter, smarter, nicer—a better friend—and ultimately learn how to use stretches of isolation to heal and grow tremendously. On today’s episode, we’re turning aloneness into both a construction site and a playground, a place to rebuild and (just maybe) have genuine fun. Follow the Podcast: @honesttogodpod on Instagram & TikTok Connect with me: @alyssakattan on Instagram & TikTok