
Accidentally on Purpose
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Pre-order for $21.83
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Kristen Kish
-
By:
-
Kristen Kish
About this listen
A tender, cleareyed memoir, Accidentally on Purpose charts a journey full of purpose, belonging, and real love—a “recipe for a life worth living” (Stacy London).
Kristen Kish never could have imagined people on the street knowing her name—not when she was a carefree softball-tossing kid, in high school working at a pretzel stand, and not even when she finally found her true calling as a chef. In those early days, becoming a chef meant tethering oneself to a restaurant and working in the back of a kitchen, not a television set. But working in the spotlight happened naturally, even if the attention was totally unanticipated. And like most things in Kristen’s life, the road was so much more winding and complicated than it may have appeared from the outside.
From growing up as an adoptee in the Midwest, to trying to fit in with all the other girls who were busy dating boys, to coming out and finding love when she least expected it, Kristen learned that, unlike a map, no set of plans or definitions can dictate or explain a life. In fact, accidents happen. Curveballs will come. And even the full-circle moments—like winning Top Chef to becoming its Emmy-nominated host years later—could have guaranteed these opportunities.
In Accidentally on Purpose, what defines Kristen’s story aren’t the missteps or even the pleasant surprises that crop up but how she learned to find her voice and use it. Because while accidents may be unexpected, they don’t have to be at odds with purpose. And as Kristen approaches life’s milestones, big and small, with intention, she realizes at those junctures—the ones beyond the borders of the map, behind-the-scenes, and off camera—are where the decisions and discoveries are made. Where the unexpected meets the intentional. And that’s where things get really interesting.
©2025 Kristen Kish (P)2025 Little, Brown & CompanyListeners also enjoyed...
-
We Can Do Hard Things
- Answers to Life's 20 Questions
- By: Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, Amanda Doyle
- Narrated by: Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, Amanda Doyle, and others
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The #1 New York Times bestselling authors and award-winning podcasters Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, and Amanda Doyle created We Can Do Hard Things—the guidebook for being alive—to help fellow travelers find their way through life.
By: Glennon Doyle, and others
-
Care and Feeding
- A Memoir
- By: Laurie Woolever
- Narrated by: Laurie Woolever
- Length: 12 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this moving, hilarious, and insightful memoir, Laurie Woolever traces her path from a small-town childhood to working at revered restaurants and food publications, alternately bolstered and overshadowed by two of the most powerful men in the business. But there’s more to the story than the two bold-faced names on her resume: Mario Batali and Anthony Bourdain.
-
-
The raw honesty
- By Amazon Customer on 03-12-25
By: Laurie Woolever
-
Food for Thought
- Essays and Ruminations
- By: Alton Brown
- Narrated by: Alton Brown
- Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From cameraman to chef, musician to food scientist, Alton Brown has had a diverse and remarkable career. His work on the Food Network, including creating Good Eats and hosting Iron Chef America and Cutthroat Kitchen, has resonated with countless viewers and home cooks. Now, he shares exactly what’s on his mind, mixing compelling anecdotes from his personal and professional life with in-depth observations on the culinary world, film, personal style, defining meals of his lifetime, and much more.
-
-
I learned to cook from good eats
- By jordan kuehl on 02-06-25
By: Alton Brown
-
Connie
- A Memoir
- By: Connie Chung
- Narrated by: Connie Chung
- Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Connie Chung is a pioneer. In 1969 at the age of 23, this once-shy daughter of Chinese parents took her first job at a local TV station in her hometown of Washington, D.C. and soon thereafter began working at CBS news as a correspondent. Profoundly influenced by her family’s cultural traditions, yet growing up completely Americanized in the United States, Chung describes her career as an Asian woman in a white male-centered world.
-
-
Superb.
- By Sondra W. Walters on 02-02-25
By: Connie Chung
-
Say Everything
- A Memoir
- By: Ione Skye
- Narrated by: Ione Skye
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Gen X icon Ione Skye bares all in an achingly vulnerable coming-of-age memoir about chasing fame, desire, and true love in the shadow of her famous, absent father.
-
-
Wow
- By santos on 03-11-25
By: Ione Skye
-
The Mother Next Door
- Medicine, Deception, and Munchausen by Proxy
- By: Andrea Dunlop, Mike Weber
- Narrated by: Andrea Dunlop
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No bond is more sacred than the one between a mother and child. And no figure is more sympathetic than a mother whose child faces a life-threatening illness. But what if the mother is the reason for the illness? What if the sympathy is the point? With help from some of the top MBP experts in the world, Dunlop and Weber uncover the complex maze of psychological, systemic, and cultural issues that compound MBP and offer solutions for how we might find our way out.
-
-
Terrible Narration
- By Sam on 04-19-25
By: Andrea Dunlop, and others
-
We Can Do Hard Things
- Answers to Life's 20 Questions
- By: Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, Amanda Doyle
- Narrated by: Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, Amanda Doyle, and others
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The #1 New York Times bestselling authors and award-winning podcasters Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, and Amanda Doyle created We Can Do Hard Things—the guidebook for being alive—to help fellow travelers find their way through life.
By: Glennon Doyle, and others
-
Care and Feeding
- A Memoir
- By: Laurie Woolever
- Narrated by: Laurie Woolever
- Length: 12 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this moving, hilarious, and insightful memoir, Laurie Woolever traces her path from a small-town childhood to working at revered restaurants and food publications, alternately bolstered and overshadowed by two of the most powerful men in the business. But there’s more to the story than the two bold-faced names on her resume: Mario Batali and Anthony Bourdain.
-
-
The raw honesty
- By Amazon Customer on 03-12-25
By: Laurie Woolever
-
Food for Thought
- Essays and Ruminations
- By: Alton Brown
- Narrated by: Alton Brown
- Length: 6 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From cameraman to chef, musician to food scientist, Alton Brown has had a diverse and remarkable career. His work on the Food Network, including creating Good Eats and hosting Iron Chef America and Cutthroat Kitchen, has resonated with countless viewers and home cooks. Now, he shares exactly what’s on his mind, mixing compelling anecdotes from his personal and professional life with in-depth observations on the culinary world, film, personal style, defining meals of his lifetime, and much more.
-
-
I learned to cook from good eats
- By jordan kuehl on 02-06-25
By: Alton Brown
-
Connie
- A Memoir
- By: Connie Chung
- Narrated by: Connie Chung
- Length: 11 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Connie Chung is a pioneer. In 1969 at the age of 23, this once-shy daughter of Chinese parents took her first job at a local TV station in her hometown of Washington, D.C. and soon thereafter began working at CBS news as a correspondent. Profoundly influenced by her family’s cultural traditions, yet growing up completely Americanized in the United States, Chung describes her career as an Asian woman in a white male-centered world.
-
-
Superb.
- By Sondra W. Walters on 02-02-25
By: Connie Chung
-
Say Everything
- A Memoir
- By: Ione Skye
- Narrated by: Ione Skye
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Gen X icon Ione Skye bares all in an achingly vulnerable coming-of-age memoir about chasing fame, desire, and true love in the shadow of her famous, absent father.
-
-
Wow
- By santos on 03-11-25
By: Ione Skye
-
The Mother Next Door
- Medicine, Deception, and Munchausen by Proxy
- By: Andrea Dunlop, Mike Weber
- Narrated by: Andrea Dunlop
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No bond is more sacred than the one between a mother and child. And no figure is more sympathetic than a mother whose child faces a life-threatening illness. But what if the mother is the reason for the illness? What if the sympathy is the point? With help from some of the top MBP experts in the world, Dunlop and Weber uncover the complex maze of psychological, systemic, and cultural issues that compound MBP and offer solutions for how we might find our way out.
-
-
Terrible Narration
- By Sam on 04-19-25
By: Andrea Dunlop, and others
Critic reviews
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
We Did Ok, Kid
- A Memoir
- By: Sir Anthony Hopkins
- Narrated by: Sir Anthony Hopkins
- Length: 13 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Born and raised in Port Talbot—a small Welsh steelworks town—amid war and depression, Sir Anthony Hopkins grew up around men who were tough, to say the least, and eschewed all forms of emotional vulnerability in favor of alcoholism and brutality. A struggling student in school, he was deemed by his peers, his parents, and other adults as a failure with no future ahead of him. But, on a fateful Saturday night, the disregarded Welsh boy watched the 1948 adaptation of Hamlet, sparking a passion for acting that would lead him on a path that no one could have predicted.
-
The Hollow Half
- A Memoir of Bodies and Borders
- By: Sarah Aziza
- Narrated by: Sarah Aziza
- Length: 12 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
“You were dead, Sarah, you were dead.” In October 2019, Sarah Aziza, daughter and granddaughter of Gazan refugees, is narrowly saved after being hospitalized for an eating disorder. The doctors revive her body, but it is no simple thing to return to the land of the living. Aziza’s crisis is a rupture that brings both her ancestral and personal past into vivid presence. The hauntings begin in the hospital cafeteria, when a mysterious incident summons the familiar voice of her deceased Palestinian grandmother.
By: Sarah Aziza
-
Uptown Girl
- A Memoir
- By: Christie Brinkley
- Narrated by: Christie Brinkley
- Length: 14 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1974, a twenty-year-old Christie Brinkley was “discovered” outside a Paris phone booth, which set off a meteoric modeling career that would land her on the covers of hundreds of magazines and cement her legacy as an All-American icon. Although she’s lived more than fifty years in the public eye, the full story of her roller-coaster life has never been told. Now, for the first time, Christie shares what life has been like, both in front of and behind the cameras
-
How to Lose Your Mother
- A Daughter's Memoir
- By: Molly Jong-Fast
- Narrated by: Molly Jong-Fast
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Molly Jong-Fast is the only child of a famous woman, writer Erica Jong, whose sensational book Fear of Flying launched her into second-wave feminist stardom. She grew up yearning for a connection with her dreamy, glamorous, just out of reach mother, who always seemed to be heading somewhere that wasn’t with Molly. When, in 2023, Erica was diagnosed with dementia just as Molly’s husband discovered he had a rare cancer, Jong-Fast was catapulted into a transformative year.
By: Molly Jong-Fast
-
A Different Kind of Power
- A Memoir
- By: Jacinda Ardern
- Narrated by: Jacinda Ardern
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the former prime minister of New Zealand, then the world’s youngest female head of government and just the second to give birth in office, comes a deeply personal memoir chronicling her extraordinary rise and offering inspiration to a new generation of leaders.
By: Jacinda Ardern
-
So Many Stars
- An Oral History of Trans, Nonbinary, Genderqueer, and Two-Spirit People of Color
- By: Caro De Robertis
- Narrated by: Caro De Robertis
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
So Many Stars knits together the voices of trans, nonbinary, genderqueer and two spirit elders of color as they share authentic, intimate accounts of how they created space for themselves and their communities in the world, how they pursued their passions, and how they continue to be at the vanguard of social change.
By: Caro De Robertis
-
We Did Ok, Kid
- A Memoir
- By: Sir Anthony Hopkins
- Narrated by: Sir Anthony Hopkins
- Length: 13 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Born and raised in Port Talbot—a small Welsh steelworks town—amid war and depression, Sir Anthony Hopkins grew up around men who were tough, to say the least, and eschewed all forms of emotional vulnerability in favor of alcoholism and brutality. A struggling student in school, he was deemed by his peers, his parents, and other adults as a failure with no future ahead of him. But, on a fateful Saturday night, the disregarded Welsh boy watched the 1948 adaptation of Hamlet, sparking a passion for acting that would lead him on a path that no one could have predicted.
-
The Hollow Half
- A Memoir of Bodies and Borders
- By: Sarah Aziza
- Narrated by: Sarah Aziza
- Length: 12 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
“You were dead, Sarah, you were dead.” In October 2019, Sarah Aziza, daughter and granddaughter of Gazan refugees, is narrowly saved after being hospitalized for an eating disorder. The doctors revive her body, but it is no simple thing to return to the land of the living. Aziza’s crisis is a rupture that brings both her ancestral and personal past into vivid presence. The hauntings begin in the hospital cafeteria, when a mysterious incident summons the familiar voice of her deceased Palestinian grandmother.
By: Sarah Aziza
-
Uptown Girl
- A Memoir
- By: Christie Brinkley
- Narrated by: Christie Brinkley
- Length: 14 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1974, a twenty-year-old Christie Brinkley was “discovered” outside a Paris phone booth, which set off a meteoric modeling career that would land her on the covers of hundreds of magazines and cement her legacy as an All-American icon. Although she’s lived more than fifty years in the public eye, the full story of her roller-coaster life has never been told. Now, for the first time, Christie shares what life has been like, both in front of and behind the cameras
-
How to Lose Your Mother
- A Daughter's Memoir
- By: Molly Jong-Fast
- Narrated by: Molly Jong-Fast
- Length: 8 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Molly Jong-Fast is the only child of a famous woman, writer Erica Jong, whose sensational book Fear of Flying launched her into second-wave feminist stardom. She grew up yearning for a connection with her dreamy, glamorous, just out of reach mother, who always seemed to be heading somewhere that wasn’t with Molly. When, in 2023, Erica was diagnosed with dementia just as Molly’s husband discovered he had a rare cancer, Jong-Fast was catapulted into a transformative year.
By: Molly Jong-Fast
-
A Different Kind of Power
- A Memoir
- By: Jacinda Ardern
- Narrated by: Jacinda Ardern
- Length: 10 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the former prime minister of New Zealand, then the world’s youngest female head of government and just the second to give birth in office, comes a deeply personal memoir chronicling her extraordinary rise and offering inspiration to a new generation of leaders.
By: Jacinda Ardern
-
So Many Stars
- An Oral History of Trans, Nonbinary, Genderqueer, and Two-Spirit People of Color
- By: Caro De Robertis
- Narrated by: Caro De Robertis
- Length: 10 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
So Many Stars knits together the voices of trans, nonbinary, genderqueer and two spirit elders of color as they share authentic, intimate accounts of how they created space for themselves and their communities in the world, how they pursued their passions, and how they continue to be at the vanguard of social change.
By: Caro De Robertis
-
The Influencers
- A Novel
- By: Anna-Marie McLemore
- Narrated by: Brittany Pressley
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
“Mother May I” Iverson has spent the past twenty-five years building a massively successful influencer empire with endearing videos featuring her five mixed-race daughters. But the girls are all grown up now, and the ramifications of having their entire childhoods commodified start to spill over into public view, especially in light of the pivotal question: Who killed May’s newlywed husband and then torched her mansion to cover it up?
-
So Gay for You
- Friendship, Found Family, and the Show That Started It All
- By: Kate Moennig, Leisha Hailey
- Narrated by: Kate Moennig, Leisha Hailey
- Length: 10 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the early 2000s, Kate Moennig and Leisha Hailey—both young artists trying to figure it all out—met at auditions for an unknown little TV show. Given that it was a show about lesbians living in Los Angeles, with the first ever ensemble cast of openly queer female characters, Kate and Leisha knew the project was going to be unlike anything else out there—that is, if it even got picked up.
By: Kate Moennig, and others
-
To Save and to Destroy
- Writing as an Other
- By: Viet Thanh Nguyen
- Narrated by: Viet Thanh Nguyen
- Length: 5 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Born in war-ravaged Vietnam, Viet Nguyen arrived in the United States as a child refugee in 1975. The Nguyen family would soon move to San Jose, California, where the author grew up, attending UC-Berkeley in the aftermath of the shocking murder of Vincent Chin, which shaped the political sensibilities of a new generation of Asian Americans. The essays here, delivered originally as the prestigious Norton Lectures, proffer a new answer to a classic literary question: What does the outsider mean to literary writing?
-
On Muscle
- The Stuff That Moves Us and Why It Matters
- By: Bonnie Tsui
- Narrated by: Bonnie Tsui
- Length: 6 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the bestselling author of Why We Swim comes a mind-expanding exploration of muscle—from our ancient obsession with the ideal human form to the modern science of this amazing and adaptable tissue—that will change the way you think about what moves us through the world.
By: Bonnie Tsui
-
Her Name Is Alice
- By: Caroline Litman
- Narrated by: Caroline Litman
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Alice Litman died by suicide in May 2022, aged just twenty years old, having already waited almost three years for her first appointment at a gender identity clinic. In stunningly beautiful prose, Caroline Litman captures the realities of an often-messy journey navigating both her daughter’s transition and the days, weeks and months after Alice’s death.
By: Caroline Litman
-
All the Way to the River
- Love, Loss, and Liberation
- By: Elizabeth Gilbert
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Gilbert
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2000, Elizabeth Gilbert met Rayya. They became friends, then best friends, then inseparable. When tragedy entered their lives, the truth was finally laid bare: The two were in love. They were also a pair of addicts, on a collision course toward catastrophe. What if your most beautiful love story turned into your biggest nightmare? What if the dear friend who taught you so much about your self-destructive tendencies became the unstable partner with whom you disastrously reenacted every one of them? And what if your most devastating heartbreak opened a pathway to your greatest awakening?
-
Semi-Well-Adjusted Despite Literally Everything
- A Memoir
- By: Alyson Stoner
- Length: 9 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Actor-dancer Alyson Stoner's revelatory and incisive memoir—from family violence and betrayal, to eating disorders and religious trauma—may begin in Hollywood, but its chilling relatability will resonate with anyone navigating identity, privacy, purpose, and mental health in a digital age.
By: Alyson Stoner
-
Accidentally on Purpose
- By: L. D. Davis
- Narrated by: Serena Daniels
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Emmy sleeps with Kyle after a night of drinking, she quickly tries to put the mistake behind her. When the duo is snowed in together over a long weekend, Emmy begins to discover there is more to Kyle than his mean-spirited behavior. Unfortunately, Kyle has a steady girlfriend he is unwilling to break up with. Moving on and putting that long weekend behind her, Emmy starts dating attorney Luke Kessler. Luke treats Emmy with kindness, reverence, and loves her unconditionally. He is everything Emmy should ever want in a man - sexy, intelligent, successful, and funny, with strong family bonds.
-
-
Another Winner for Me!
- By Jordy ♡♡♡♡ on 06-10-13
By: L. D. Davis
-
I Wish Someone Had Told Me . . .
- The Best Advice for Building a Great Career and a Meaningful Life
- By: Dana Perino
- Narrated by: Dana Perino, Stephanie Gish, Roger Wayne
- Length: 7 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Terrific advice, insightful stories, and powerful life lessons curated by Dana Perino the #1 New York Times bestselling author of And the Good News Is . . . and beloved co-host of Fox News' The Five and America’s Newsroom, inspired by her friends and colleagues. I Wish Someone Had Told Me . . . is a blueprint for success in your life and career. An all-star line-up of Dana’s lifelong friends and Fox News personalities with wide-ranging talents and accomplishments share amazing stories about their own experiences, offering invaluable guidance and wisdom on a range of subjects.
By: Dana Perino
-
Don't Call It a Comeback
- What Happened When I Stopped Chasing PRs, and Started Chasing Happiness
- By: Keira D'Amato, Evelyn Spence - contributor
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Keira D’Amato was an all-American runner who used to chase success. But after being injured in her early twenties, she assumed her running career was over, and settled into life as a military spouse and mother of two young children. In her early thirties, she found herself overweight, out of shape, and battling postpartum depression. She knew that improving her fitness would make her feel better, and told herself to just get out and run ninety seconds, down her street and back.
By: Keira D'Amato, and others
-
Flirting Lessons
- By: Jasmine Guillory
- Narrated by: Heidi Franklin
- Length: 12 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Avery Jensen is almost thirty, fresh off a breakup, and she’s tired of always being so uptight and well-behaved. She wants to get a hobby, date around (especially women), flirt with everyone she sees, wear something not from the business casual section of her closet—all the fun stuff normal people do in their twenties. One problem: Avery doesn't know where to start. She doesn't have a lot of dating experience, with men or women, and despite being self-assured at work, she doesn't have a lot of confidence when it comes to romance. Enter Taylor Cameron, Napa Valley's biggest flirt.
By: Jasmine Guillory
-
Boat Baby
- By: Vicky Nguyen
- Narrated by: Vicky Nguyen
- Length: 7 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Starting in 1975, Vietnam’s “boat people”—desperate families seeking freedom—fled the Communist government and violence in their country any way they could, usually by boat across the South China Sea. Vicky Nguyen and her family were among them. Attacked at sea by pirates before reaching a refugee camp in Malaysia, Vicky’s family survived on rations and waited months until they were sponsored to America. But deciding to leave and start a new life in a new country is half the story…figuring out how to be American is the other.
-
-
wonderful history of a successful TV personality and the gift she was given after the Vietnam war.
- By Sandy on 04-18-25
By: Vicky Nguyen