Does Kate Bowler think optimism helps people with illness, or is it toxic positivity?

Kate Bowler separates two things often lumped together. Stubborn hopefulness, holding open what better might look like, likely has real health benefits and keeps a sense of continuity with one's past and future self. Blind optimism that insists everything will be fine is different, she says, because it makes people emotionally rigid and less willing to hear their doctors. She describes prosperity gospel funerals where relatives were never allowed to admit the truth.

• Bowler says people in crisis want a witness who sees the cost and will hold their hope when they cannot.

Source: our own transcription of the episode. The full conversation is on Hidden Brain (2026-10-05). Read the whole episode summary →

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