EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW: SongWriter Season 5 Launches with Cheryl Strayed, MILCK

SongWriter is a podcast that turns stories into songs, featuring Questlove, David Gilmour, Joyce Carol Oates, Steve Earle, Roxane Gay, Amanda Shires, Susan Orlean, and Katie Melua. You can hear an exclusive preview of next week’s episode featuring Cheryl Strayed and MILCK only at Paste.

Season 5 of SongWriter launches next week with an episode that grapples with the complicated mechanics of forgiveness. Bestselling author Cheryl Strayed returns for another letter from her celebrated collection, Tiny Beautiful Things, which has just been adapted into a television series for Hulu. The letter is a meditation on self-forgiveness, and explores how forgiving yourself for past mistakes can be a doorway to forgiving others.

“The minute I can say to myself ‘I can be forgiven, because what’s true is that I know I was doing my best,’” Cheryl says, “I can grant that to other people, too.”

The episode began as a panel at the First Annual Global Scientific Conference on Human Flourishing, which was convened by the Templeton World Charity Foundation. Along with Cheryl’s reading, the episode includes the perspective of an expert on the science of forgiveness, Dr. Suzanne Freedman. Dr. Freedman points out that forgiveness is often misunderstood—forgiving someone doesn’t mean reconciliation, and it doesn’t mean forgetting.

“Some people think, ‘Well, I haven’t forgiven because I still think about it,’” Dr. Freedman says. “You’re never going to forget a deep hurt.”

The song that was written in response to Cheryl’s letter is by activist, producer, and songwriter Connie Lim, aka MILCK. Connie has spent years thinking about issues of forgiveness, especially those that arise around sexual assault.

“In the lens of domestic violence and sexual assault, forgiveness is a very tough and very personal thing,” Connie says. “Every survivor has their own approach with whether or not they want to forgive.”

Connie’s viral song “Quiet”—the unofficial anthem of the Women’s March—also relates to sexual assault. In the podcast, Connie talks about the difficult work she did after being assaulted by an ex-boyfriend. Granting forgiveness to this man required a tremendous amount of emotional labor, something that felt deeply unfair to Connie. Yet it also proved worthwhile.

“There’s a big cost to radically forgive,” Connie acknowledges. “And the reward is tremendous freedom. That is priceless.”

Ben Arthur (@MyHeart on Twitter) is the creator and host of SongWriter. His latest song, “Leaf Pile,” is written in response to Cheryl’s letter.
For more on forgiveness go to HumanFlourishing.org