That Wasn't The Plan
That Wasn't The Plan
Human stories for those struggling to be human.
A podcast for anyone whose life took a left turn when you were peacefully asleep.
Life doesn't come with a script—thank god, because ours would've been returned for rewrites.
Warning: May cause unexpected feelings, snort-laughing, and the overwhelming urge to text us your own "that wasn't the plan" story.
Join co-hosts Emily White and Courtney Holland as they navigate the beautiful disasters, plot twists, and "well, that happened" moments that nobody warned you about. From bed bugs, winning the lottery, breaking your neck, and finding a furry lump on the side of the road that turns out to be your best friend.
We're here to talk about the stuff that wasn't in your life plan: Getting sober. Couch-surfing at 35. Teaching Jazzercise in a thong leotard at 5 AM (Courtney looks great, by the way). Death showing up uninvited. Your career ghosting you.
Each episode brings you real stories, terrible advice, excellent commiseration, and the reminder that if your life feels like a dumpster fire, at least you're in good company.
New episodes drop weekly. Follow us wherever you get your podcasts, because we all need witnesses to this beautiful mess.
Remember: Just because it wasn't the plan doesn't mean it wasn't supposed to happen.
Episodes
41 episodes
The Princess Who Collected Egos, A Bird Without Wings - The Story of Khutulun
In 1280, a prince rode to a royal palace in Central Asia with a thousand horses and a plan to win a wife. He was handsome, wealthy, and by every measure of his time, a very good match. Her parents quietly begged her to let him win.She th...
Five Stars, Would Not Recommend ft. Annie Edson Taylor
On October 24th, 1901 — her sixty-third birthday — a retired schoolteacher named Annie Edson Taylor climbed into an oak barrel the size of a pickle cask, had the lid screwed down, had air pumped in with a bicycle pump, and was pushed into the c...
The Girls Who Fooled Sherlock Holmes
In July 1917, a nine-year-old girl named Frances kept falling into a stream in Yorkshire and coming home with wet shoes. When the grown-ups asked why she kept going down there, she said she went to see the fairies. Her sixteen-year-old cousin E...
From the Vault: Bed Bugs ft. Dr. Dini Miller
Emily's on the road this week, so we're pulling one of our favorite early episodes out of the vault — originally released as Episode 6 back in Season 1, when Dr. Dini Miller became our very first-ever TWTP guest. We're re-releasing it for all o...
Is Anything Okay? Sunday Brunch Vol 1 - ft. Becky Smith
Welcome to Sunday Brunch — a new TWTP format where Emily and Courtney invite a friend to the table to talk about the thing that's eating all of us at the same time. For our first one, we called in Becky Smith.Becky is Emily's longtime cl...
What Would Binti Jua Do? - ft. Rescue Animals
No guest this week — just Emily and Courtney, a rainy day, some research, and an hour of the purest content this podcast has ever produced: animals doing extraordinary things for humans, for each other, and sometimes just because.This on...
See Something, Say Something - ft. Dena Smiley
Everything you think you know about human trafficking is probably wrong.Dena Smiley is Chairman of the Board at Blazing Hope Ranch — a Tennessee-based Christian residential ministry that provides free two-year aftercare, equine-assisted ...
I Woke Up In A Jail Cell - ft. Kurt Kemple
(We open with a spirited debate about sweet potatoes and mayonnaise. Courtney flashes the camera. Miracle Whip is described as the devil's sauce. And then somehow we pivot to one of the most remarkable guests we've ever had on this show. Th...
A Field Guide To Not Dying
Do I Smell Almonds?No guest this week — just Emily and Courtney, one gorilla-glued tooth, and a three a.m. Google spiral that took a hard turn into poisons.What starts as Courtney describing the ongoing chemistry experiment...
Nobody Here Knows Me ft. Annie Elmendorf
What happens when the story you've been telling yourself for ten years unravels over a single glass of wine on the other side of the world?Annie Elmendorf is a mother of two, a cyclist, an athlete, and a sister. She's also — as she'll te...
Knowledge Artist ft. Dr. Patty Brennan
"Send me all the genitals" ft. Dr. Patty BrennanWhat do you do when the wildest sentence of your career is "I was sure it was a worm"?Dr. Patty Brennan is a Colombian-born, Cornell-trained evolutionary biologi...
Gen X, Empty Nesters, and A Very Quiet Drive Home ft. Lucas Smith
What happens when the paperwork for your son's college applications cracks open something you thought you'd buried 35 years ago?Lucas Smith is a Colorado-native-turned-Seattleite, a software engineer of 15+ years working at the intersect...
Big Cat Energy ft Daisy Fulgham - Board Certified Sexologist, Sex and Relationship Coach and Wardrobe Stylist
This week Emily and Courtney sit down with Daisy Fulgham — wardrobe stylist turned sex and relationship coach, devoted wife of 34 years, mother of two, and the woman who, at 54, Googled "sex coaching programs," sat down with her husband,...
Oh Canada, We See You (And We Love You)
Turns out That Wasn't The Plan is basically a Canadian podcast at this point. Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Calgary, Edmonton — you all showed up before anyone south of the border figured out what was happening. So Emily and Courtney d...
She Grabbed the Shark's Snout
Welcome back. Season 2. We opened with a tiger shark. Seemed right.That Wasn't The Plan is back for Season 2 — and we are not easing anyone in gently. Our first guest is Kinga Philipps: journalist, explorer, Shark Week ho...
Season One Finale: 25 Episodes, A Cliffhanger, and a Flying Tooth
Happy 25th episode, everybody — and welcome to the Season One Finale of That Wasn't The Plan.Emily and Courtney sit down to close out Season 1 the only way they know how: completely unscripted, slightly unhinged, and some...
I Want a Shit Ton of Kids ft. Jonathan Fitzgerald
This week's guest, Jonathan Fitzgerald, showed up with a life story that none of us were fully prepared for.Jonathan grew up the middle child of ten in Sarasota, Florida, in a family that could only be described as a force of natu...
Napster + Arctic weirdos + Classroom bliss = Richard Ault; in a nutshell...
(We open with Courtney's puppy accidentally getting marijuana poisoning. This is relevant because it sets the tone perfectly for an episode about a man whose life has taken approximately seventeen unexpected turns.)This week's g...
Shirts in Your Pants & Other Moral Dilemmas
No guest. No agenda. No plan. Just Emily and Courtney showing up, catching each other up on their weeks, and somehow covering: shoplifting ethics, a stolen Power Ranger backpack, a suspicious kid at Target, toad venom, recovery, sitting with yo...
We Don't Move On. We Move With. ft. Lindsay Brockman
(Courtney's back, everyone. Let the drinks flow. Also — Courtney's tooth made a brief unscheduled disappearance. We kept it in. You're welcome.)This week, Emily and Courtney sit down with someone doing some of the most quietly e...
Endometriosis: Painful Periods Are Not Normal ft. Hilary Pawlik
(Fair warning: Emily's mouth was fully uncensored this episode — blame the tech gremlins. Also, our earrings nearly derailed the whole thing. You'll hear it. We kept it in.)This week, Emily's co-host Courtney Holland is out due ...
What Is Your Body Capable Of?
Most of us learned to look at our bodies and immediately catalog what's wrong with them. Too big. Too small. Too much. Not enough. Wasting away. Filling out. The wrong shape for the wrong season for the wrong man's opinion.This week, we'...
ChatGPT won her the Powerball - and she gave it all away
Carrie Edwards bought a lottery ticket online (against her Army buddy's advice), let ChatGPT pick her numbers (also against his advice), forgot she'd opted into a second draw, and won $150,000.Then she gave every cent of it away. And $42...
Part 2: Hypothermia can be funn! - Ice Mermaid
Last week, Melissa Kegler said she was going to get her record back.This week, the universe said, we’ll see about that.What follows is five months of waiting for water that is somehow both too warm and too frozen, a logis...
