HeyJaredThe Daily Ascent
Welcome to The Daily Ascent. I'm Molly Carmel — and this is the podcast I always wished existed: a bite-sized, on-the-ground spiritual note that can shift your thinking and your outlook on life.
- Indexed episodes, last 90 days
- 50
- Latest publication
- Sep 14, 2026
- Audience
- Checking…
- Earliest in this view
- Jul 6, 2026
Latest episodes
Ep. 225 | Why You Don't Reach Out to the People You Love Most (opens the original)
Read excerpt
One of my closest friends, a gorgeous storyteller who puts her real life online, posted the other day about how lonely she was feeling. And my stomach dropped, because I don't reach out to her much, and when I looked at why, the reason was that her life looks so full I'd decided she couldn't possibly need me. So I texted her: I'm here, and I'm going to be your little stalker, so stay tuned. This is an episode about the story we tell ourselves to avoid being the one who reaches first. Question to
Ep. 224 | How to Stop Letting Little Things Bother You (opens the original)
Read excerpt
I sent a friendly note to someone I barely know, the kind you forget about in an hour, and got something clipped back. So I wrote again and asked if she was okay. What came back was that we needed to clear the air, in person, and she wouldn't tell me what it was about. And that little text glued itself to my brain for days. In the shower, on a walk, at two in the morning. Then my spiritual advisor Juliana said the line her own spiritual advisor says to her: does this matter in Chicago? This is a
Ep. 223 | [FAVORITE] Why Comparing Your Pain to Someone Else's Doesn't Help Anyone (opens the original)
Read excerpt
My spiritual advisor was in Africa, shoveling garbage to clear a path to where people were living. And I sent her a voice memo about something bothering me, with a big disclaimer at the front: I know this is nothing compared to what you're seeing. What she said back changed something in me. This episode is about why comparative suffering doesn't make your pain smaller. It just makes you suffer alone. Question to carry into your day: Where have you been minimizing your own pain because someone el
Ep. 222 | How to Stop Saying Yes to Things You'll Regret (opens the original)
Read excerpt
About five years ago I was deep in a yoga retreat phase, and an email came in about one, and I read half of it. Then I put down the full deposit that same afternoon, glowing. Ready, fire, aim. Then the actual directions showed up: fasting, no caffeine, rigorous exercise with no breaks. A boot camp with incense. So I called my spiritual advisor Bessie looking for sympathy, and instead she handed me the guideline I've run my life on ever since. This is an episode about why the fast yes isn't a dec
Ep. 221 | [FAVORITE] Catching Sadness Before It Becomes Despair (opens the original)
Read excerpt
My friend put off a root canal because she didn't have time. By January she was in agony. And that same week, a woman in one of my groups was asking how to get out of despair. And I kept thinking about that root canal. Because most of us don't end up in despair because life is unbearable. We end up there because we didn't tend to our sadness when it was still just sadness. This episode is about why your feelings deserve your attention now, not later, not when it's convenient, not when you have t
Publishing over time
Last 90 days. Choose a month to open its work.
Recurring subjects
Named in the text we hold. One piece can cover several.
Audience
No verified audience measurement yet.
About this data
Counts cover the work we have indexed. Tone needs enough text and a confident classification. Excerpts and episode notes are not full articles or transcripts.
Identity or attribution wrong? Suggest a correction.