Nancy Davis Kho on How Gratitude Changes Your Everything – Episode 50

The Changed Podcast with Aden Nepom

This episode is not just the 50th episode of this podcast (WOW!), but it also brings to a close an amazing second season of this show. What better guest than Nancy Davis Kho, host of the Midlife Mixtape Podcast, and author of the book: The Thank You Project, Cultivating Happiness One Letter of Gratitude at a Time.

Nancy Davis Kho is a speaker, author, and podcaster whose work has appeared in the Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, and NPR affiliate KQED. Nancy is also the author of the book THE THANK-YOU PROJECT: Cultivating Happiness One Letter of Gratitude at a Time published by Running Press.

Nancy covers “the years between being hip and breaking one” at MidlifeMixtape.com and on the Midlife Mixtape Podcast, available on all major podcast platforms. The Midlife Mixtape Podcast won a 2020 Iris Award as Podcast of the Year and was included in the Wall Street Journal’s list of 8 Podcasts for Anyone Nervously Facing Retirement.

Nancy has also been both champion and judge in the acclaimed international comedy-lit improv show, Literary Death Match! More on Nancy can be found on her website, at www.DavisKho.com.

And for the 50th episode of The Changed Podcast, which also brings to an end the second season of the show, I could not think of a better guest than Nancy Davis Kho!

I like to think that I express my gratitude often and well, but Nancy has dug deeper than arguably the majority of us, and certainly far deeper than I have, producing 50 separate thank you letters, not just to people but to places, and whole swaths of the entertainment industry that have shaped her, inspired her and helped her become who she is today. Clearly, we can all learn something about saying thank you from someone who has really put in the time and effort to do so as thoroughly as Nancy Davis Kho.

What's in this episode?

• A longer than necessary discussion as to whether or not Nancy and I have met before, or if we just look like other people (spoiler alert, we look like other people
• A midlife specific on the moments that shape us
• the reality that reaching midlife means you have seen and experienced some pretty significant things
• Thoughts on the gifts overcoming struggle, loss, and challenge can leave us with
• The relationship between grief and processing change (shoutout to previous guest Andrew Williams!)
• Does empathy come with age and experience?
• Two book suggestions! 1) The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow and 2) Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler
• Nancy's journey of writing two books (and then 50 letters of gratitude later) and then a third book!
• Lessons learned from saying thank you, and more importantly thinking about the specific reasons you are grateful
• A long closing statement from me expressing gratitude for all of you who listen to the show, and read the show notes! (You're the best!)
• Shoutouts to the Super Seven (the first seven guests of this show) Mary Jo Pehl, Mo Daviau, Dr. Rick Kirschner, BJ Lange, Nadine Montaghami,
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