“The truth is part of hoping.” 🙏“The truth is part of hoping.” 🙏
Misfit Stars
In between raving about spring springing in Washington, we manage to have some good non-weather-related conversation! Topics include: a couple of unexpected wins in the effort to protect trans kids, a beautiful and emotionally intelligent mechanism ...
49:47•23 Mar 2022
Truth, Hope and Bad Movies: Misfit Stars on Authoritarians, Feelings and Spring
Episode Overview
- Naming emotions and needs openly can make everyday life feel more grounded and connected.
- Anti-trans policies can sometimes be stopped, even in conservative states, and those moments matter.
- Saying “sadness is on me” rather than “I am sad” creates space between identity and emotion.
- Authoritarian movements thrive on confusion and constant lying, eroding people’s ability to judge what’s true.
- Real hope looks straight at uncomfortable truth and still chooses to work for something better.
“Hope sees truth and still believes in better. That which dismisses or does not seek truth but says, "It'll be okay," is naivete, not hope.”
What drives someone to seek a life that’s honest, hopeful, and grounded in reality? Misfit Stars’ Shannon Curtis and Jamie Hill spend this episode chewing on that exact mix, blending big political ideas with everyday emotional life and a fair bit of laughing at bad movies. You’ll first hear them swapping feeling words like “fortunate”, “rested” and “clear-headed”, and joking about singing in completely different keys – a reminder that emotional check-ins don’t have to be heavy to be real.
From there, they shift into their “good news machine”, celebrating two rare bright spots: Republican governors in Indiana and Utah vetoing anti-trans sports bills. As they put it, “Hey, we’ll take a win. We’ll take two wins.” A highlight for many will be the Irish-language idea that you don’t say “I am sad”, but “sadness is on me”.
Shannon loves how this shifts identity away from emotion, echoing later when Jamie reads a Buddhist piece on watching feelings pass like clouds or a river: nothing to suppress or indulge, just something you sit with kindly. Things turn heavier but sharply focused with Hannah Arendt’s warning about authoritarianism: if people are lied to constantly, they stop believing anything at all.
That line hits hard against US right‑wing media, conspiracy culture and the sense that confusion, not conviction, is the real danger.
This threads straight into a powerful Bernice King quote: “Hope sees truth and still believes in better… That which dismisses or does not seek truth but says, ‘It’ll be okay,’ is naivete, not hope.” To balance all that seriousness, they take a playful but brutal swing at this year’s Best Picture nominees and close with a tender tribute to Shannon’s late friend Adam, wrapping grief and gratitude together.
If truth really is part of hoping, what truths about your own life are you finally ready to look at so you can believe in better for yourself?
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