This Is Woman's Work with Nicole Kalil

Latest Episodes:

On Our Best Behavior: The Price Women Pay to Be “Good” with Elise Loehnen | 388 Feb 18, 2026

Show notes

What if being a “good woman” isn’t actually virtuous — but conditioned? In this episode of This Is Woman’s Work, Nicole Kalil sits down with Elise Loehnen, New York Times bestselling author of On Our Best Behavior: The Price Women Pay to Be Good, to dismantle the centuries-old rules that still dictate how women are expected to behave, desire, rest, earn, and lead.

Together, they unpack how the seven deadly sins — yes, those — quietly shape modern women’s lives, ambitions, bodies, money stories, and relationships. Pride, envy, greed, sloth, lust… turns out they’ve been weaponized against women for generations, rewarding self-sacrifice and punishing visibility, appetite, and power.

This conversation goes deep — into patriarchy, good-girl conditioning, reputational harm, money shame, envy as information, and why women are often both the enforcers and the casualties of these ancient rules. If you’ve ever felt exhausted by trying to be good, likable, selfless, and low-maintenance all at once… this episode is your permission slip to stop.

Because goodness that costs you yourself isn’t goodness. It’s conditioning.

Thank you to our sponsors!

Sex is a skill. Beducated is where you learn it. Visit https://beducate.me/bg2602-womanswork and use code womanswork for 50% off the annual pass.

Shopify has everything all in one place, making your life easier and your business operations smoother. Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month trial today at shopify.com/tiww

Connect with Elise:

Substack: eliseloehnen.substack.com

IG: https://www.instagram.com/eliseloehnen/

Book: https://www.eliseloehnen.com/onourbestbehavior

Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pulling-the-thread-with-elise-loehnen/id1585015034

Related Podcast Episodes:

Share the Love:

If you found this episode insightful, please share it with a friend, tag us on social media, and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform!

🔗 Subscribe & Review:Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Like A Wave, We Break: How Falling Apart Builds Confidence with Jane Chen | 388 Feb 16, 2026

Show notes

We’ve been taught to avoid it — to hide it, shame it, or outwork it. But what if failure isn’t the thing that destroys confidence… what if it’s the thing that builds it?

In this episode of This Is Woman’s Work, Nicole Kalil sits down with Jane Chen, co-founder of Embrace Global and author of Like a Wave, We Break, to talk about what happens when success collapses — and why that moment might be the most honest, transformative chapter of your life.

Jane shares the raw story of losing the company she poured a decade into, how her identity unraveled alongside it, and the healing journey that followed — from redefining resilience and self-worth to learning how to listen to her body, sit with discomfort, and rebuild from a place of authenticity instead of achievement.

This conversation dives deep into:

Why failure is a confidence builder, not a confidence killer
How achievement can become a trauma response
Separating your worth from your results, titles, and accolades
Knowing when to keep pushing — and when it’s time to stop
The role of self-compassion, community, and psychological safety in leadership
Why breaking isn’t the end… it’s often the beginning

Because confidence isn’t built by never falling apart. It’s built by trusting yourself to rise again.

This episode is a powerful reminder that failure, fear, and doubt aren’t detours — they’re part of the path. When we stop chasing perfection and start honoring what’s real, we build the kind of confidence that actually lasts.

Thank you to our sponsors!

Sex is a skill. Beducated is where you learn it. Visit https://beducate.me/bg2602-womanswork and use code womanswork for 50% off the annual pass.

Shopify has everything all in one place, making your life easier and your business operations smoother. Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month trial today at shopify.com/tiww

Connect with Jane

Website: https://www.janemariechen.com

Book: https://www.amazon.com/Like-Wave-We-Break-Falling/dp/0593582349

IG: https://www.instagram.com/janemarie.chen/?hl=en

LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janemariechen/

FB: www.facebook.com/janemariechen

Tiktok: @janemariechen

TEDtalk: https://www.ted.com/talks/jane_marie_chen_what_losing_everything_taught_me_about_resilience

Related Podcast Episodes:

Share the Love:

If you found this episode insightful, please share it with a friend, tag us on social media, and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform!

🔗 Subscribe & Review:Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do I Matter? The Mattering Instinct with Rebecca Newberger Goldstein | 387 Feb 11, 2026

Show notes

If you’ve ever wondered “Do I actually matter?” — not in a motivational-poster way, but in the deep, existential, 3am-staring-at-the-ceiling way — this episode is for you.

In this powerful conversation, Nicole Kalil sits down with Rebecca Neuberger Goldstein, award-winning philosopher and author of The Mattering Instinct: How Our Deepest Longing Drives Us and Divides Us, to unpack one of the most fundamental human needs: the need to matter.

Together, they explore why mattering may be even more essential than happiness, how our desire to matter shapes our lives, relationships, and conflicts, and why the pressure to prove our worth often leads to comparison, competition, and division. Rebecca introduces the concept of “mattering projects” — the deeply personal ways we justify our lives to ourselves — and why there is no single “right” way to matter.

This episode challenges the idea that mattering is loud, performative, or scarce, and reframes it as an inside-out experience rooted in integrity, connection, and self-justification — not productivity, perfection, or approval.

💥 What we cover:

Why the need to matter may be more fundamental than the need to be happy
The difference between fleeting happiness and long-term flourishing
What a “mattering project” is — and how to recognize yours
Why comparison and competition distort our sense of worth
How mattering becomes dangerous when treated as a zero-sum game
Why the person you most need to matter to… is you
How women have been taught to confuse usefulness with worth
The ethical guardrail: you matter and so does everyone else

Mattering isn’t about being extraordinary, productive, or universally admired — it’s about living in alignment with what you can justify to yourself. You matter not because you prove it, but because you’re here, shaping lives through how you live, lead, and relate.

Thank you to our sponsors!

Sex is a skill. Beducated is where you learn it. Visit https://beducate.me/bg2602-womanswork and use code womanswork for 50% off the annual pass.

Connect with Rebecca

Website: https://rebeccagoldstein.com/

Book: https://rebeccagoldstein.com/the-mattering-instinct/

Substack: https://rebeccanewbergergoldstein.substack.com/

Related Podcast Episodes:

Share the Love:

If you found this episode insightful, please share it with a friend, tag us on social media, and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform!

🔗 Subscribe & Review:Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

AQ: The Intelligence You Actually Need (And Why IQ & EQ Aren’t Enough) with Liz Tran | 386 Feb 09, 2026

Show notes

For decades, we were sold a lie: get good grades, be smart, keep climbing—and success will magically follow. But in a world of nonstop disruption, AI, political chaos, and careers that don’t come with ladders anymore, IQ and EQ alone aren’t cutting it.

In this episode of This Is Woman’s Work, Nicole Kalil sits down with Liz Tran, executive coach, former venture capitalist, and author of AQ: A New Kind of Intelligence for a World That’s Always Changing, to unpack the intelligence that actually determines who thrives when everything keeps shifting: AQ (Agility Quotient).

AQ isn’t about being perfect, flexible to the point of burnout, or endlessly accommodating. It’s about how well you adapt to change, uncertainty, and the unknown—without losing yourself in the process. Liz breaks down the four AQ archetypes (Firefighter, Novelist, Astronaut, Neurosurgeon), how proactive vs. reactive change impacts your life and career, and why adaptability is no longer optional—it’s survival.

This conversation will change how you think about intelligence, leadership, confidence, and what it really takes to succeed when the rules keep changing mid-game.

Bottom line: Intelligence isn’t just what you know—it’s how you respond when what you know stops working.

Thank you to our sponsors!

Sex is a skill. Beducated is where you learn it. Visit https://beducate.me/bg2602-womanswork and use code womanswork for 50% off the annual pass.

Connect with Liz

Website: https://liz-tran.com/

Book: https://liz-tran.com/#aq

IG: https://www.instagram.com/liztranwrites/

Quiz: https://liz-tran.com/#quiz

LI: linkedin.com/in/liztran1

Related Podcast Episodes:

Share the Love:

If you found this episode insightful, please share it with a friend, tag us on social media, and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform!

🔗 Subscribe & Review:Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I’ve Got Beef With The Health & Wellness Industry | Unfiltered & Unhinged Feb 06, 2026

Show notes

The health and wellness industry loves to tell women they’re broken — and then sell them the fix. In this unfiltered and slightly unhinged solo episode, Nicole Kalil calls out wellness culture for what it too often is: rebranded diet culture, influencer-led misinformation, and shame dressed up as self-care.

From green juice guilt to inflammation fear-mongering to TikTok experts blaming women for their own illnesses, Nicole takes aim at an industry that claims to prioritize longevity and quality of life — while obsessing over looking younger, smaller, and more “acceptable.” She shares her own expensive experiments with wellness trends, what actually helped, what didn’t, and why one-size-fits-all solutions are a massive red flag.

This episode is a permission slip to trust your body, question the algorithm, and stop outsourcing your health decisions to people with discount codes and zero accountability. Because real wellness isn’t about perfection — it’s about agency, discernment, and self-trust.

Thank you to our sponsors!

Sex is a skill. Beducated is where you learn it. Visit https://beducate.me/bg2602-womanswork and use code womanswork for 50% off the annual pass.

Connect with Nicole:

Subscribe to Nicole’s Substack: https://nicolekalil.substack.com/

Join the Inner Circle: https://nicolekalil.myflodesk.com/newsletter

Related Podcast Episode:

Share the Love:

If you found this episode insightful, please share it with a friend, tag us on social media, and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform!

🔗 Subscribe & Review:Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Death by Meeting: The Hidden Cost of Bad Meetings with Dr. Rebecca Hinds | 385 Feb 04, 2026

Show notes

If meetings are draining your energy, killing momentum, and stealing your calendar — you’re not imagining it. They’re broken. And they’re costing us trillions.

In this episode of This Is Woman’s Work, Nicole is joined by Dr. Rebecca Hinds, organizational behavior expert, Stanford PhD, and author of Your Best Meeting Ever, to expose why meetings are one of the most expensive, overlooked products inside any organization — and how to fix them.

We get into:

Why bad meetings are literally an old-school sabotage tactic (thanks, WWII)
The real cost of ineffective meetings — and who pays the highest price
The 4D CEO Test for deciding if a meeting should exist at all
Why status updates don’t belong in meetings (ever)
The science behind why meetings over 8 people stop working
How to measure meetings by return on time invested
Why you don’t need fewer meetings — you need better ones
And how to influence meetings even when you’re not the one in charge

This conversation is part wake-up call, part permission slip, and part playbook for anyone done pretending “this is just how work works.”

Meetings aren’t neutral. They shape culture, power, and whose work gets seen — so if your meetings are broken, your organization is too. The good news? You don’t need more authority to change them — just more intention.

Thank you to our sponsors!

Sex is a skill. Beducated is where you learn it. Visit https://beducate.me/bg2602-womanswork and use code womanswork for 50% off the annual pass.

Connect with Rebecca

Website: https://www.rebeccahinds.com/

LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-hinds/

Related Podcast Episodes:

Share the Love:

If you found this episode insightful, please share it with a friend, tag us on social media, and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform!

🔗 Subscribe & Review:Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Healthier Sex, Not Hotter Sex: Reclaiming Desire, Pleasure & Connection with Dr. Nicole McNichols | 384 Feb 02, 2026

Show notes

Talking about sex shouldn’t feel like a performance review you didn’t prepare for — and yet, for so many women, it does. In this episode of This Is Woman’s Work, Nicole Kalil gets publicly uncomfortable (on purpose) to talk about what we’re really craving when it comes to sex — not hotter, not louder, not more performative… but healthier.

Joined by internationally renowned human sexuality professor and author Dr. Nicole McNichols, this conversation cuts through cultural noise, outdated scripts, and unrealistic expectations around women’s desire. Together, they unpack why exhaustion, mental overload, hormonal shifts, and decades of conditioning disconnect women from their bodies — and how to rebuild a sex life rooted in honesty, agency, and pleasure.

This episode isn’t about doing more or trying harder. It’s about unlearning shame, understanding your body, honoring your evolving needs, and creating a roadmap for sex that works for you — at every stage of life.

What We Cover:

Why “hotter sex” is the wrong goal — and what healthier sex actually looks like
The mental load, exhaustion, and emotional labor killing desire (and what to do about it)
Dr. McNichols’ Hierarchy of Sexual Needs and why pleasure starts internally
Getting out of your head and back into your body (hello, sexual mindfulness)
Mismatched libidos, desire discrepancies, and how to stop making them mean something’s wrong
When curiosity, communication, and consent unlock deeper connection

Healthy sex isn’t about performance, frequency, or checking boxes — it’s about presence, permission, and pleasure that evolves with you. When women reclaim agency over their bodies and desires, connection deepens, shame loosens its grip, and intimacy becomes something we get to experience — not something we’re expected to perform.

Thank you to our sponsors!

Sex is a skill. Beducated is where you learn it. Visit https://beducate.me/bg2602-womanswork and use code womanswork for 50% off the annual pass.

Connect with Dr. Nicole McNichols:

Book: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/You-Could-Be-Having-Better-Sex/Nicole-McNichols/9781668053775

IG: https://www.instagram.com/nicole_thesexprofessor/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nicole_thesexprofessor

Related Podcast Episodes:

Share the Love:

If you found this episode insightful, please share it with a friend, tag us on social media, and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform!

🔗 Subscribe & Review:Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ask the Damn Question | Unfiltered & Unhinged Jan 30, 2026

Show notes

If you’ve ever turned a simple request into a full-blown production — congratulations, you’re one of us. In this short, unfiltered episode of This Is Woman’s Work, Nicole Kalil shares a painfully relatable story involving kindergarten, lasagna, glitter, and a catastrophic failure to ask a clarifying question.

This episode is a reminder (and a loving call-out) for all the women who default to over-functioning, over-planning, and over-complicating things that were never meant to be that deep. Sometimes the bravest, smartest move isn’t doing more — it’s asking the damn question.

Because clarity beats chaos. And noodles in a box beat four trays of lasagna.

If you’re spiraling over something that feels way harder than it should be, this episode will hit you right in the overachiever feels. A funny, human reminder that better communication — and one simple question — can save you a whole lot of unnecessary stress.

Thank you to our sponsors!

Sex is a skill. Beducated is where you learn it. Visit https://beducate.me/pd2550-womanswork and use code womanswork for 50% off the annual pass.

Connect with Nicole:

Subscribe to Nicole’s Substack: https://nicolekalil.substack.com/

Join the Inner Circle: https://nicolekalil.myflodesk.com/newsletter

Related Podcast Episode

Yell for Help | Unfiltered & Unhinged

Share the Love:

If you found this episode insightful, please share it with a friend, tag us on social media, and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform!

🔗 Subscribe & Review:Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pioneers: 8 Principles for Building a Business That Lasts with Neri Karra Sillaman | 383 Jan 28, 2026

Show notes

If you’ve ever wondered how some people build businesses that last—this episode is your blueprint.

Nicole sits down with Neri Karra-Silliman (author, advisor, entrepreneur, and Oxford entrepreneurship expert) to unpack what immigrant entrepreneurs can teach all of us about confidence, courage, resilience, and creating businesses that thrive for generations—even when you’re not starting with privilege, connections, or a trust fund.

In this episode, we get into:

Why immigrant-founded businesses often endure longer—and why nobody’s been asking the right questions
The difference between an entrepreneur and a pioneer (hint: pioneers build what didn’t exist before)
How companies like WhatsApp and Duolingo started with impact-first problems
The 8 principles of business longevity inspired by immigrant entrepreneurs, including:

Cross-cultural bridging (innovation happens when you live in more than one world)
Community as currency (relationships are the wealth)
“Frying in your own oil” (aka self-sufficiency before outside money makes you lazy)
Shared values over growth-at-all-costsRejection as fuel (“no” is the beginning of negotiation)
Luck as a skill (recognizing moments and playing your hand)
Faith as the foundation for risk, reinvention, and resilience
And the most overlooked glue of all: kindness

Immigrants aren’t the problem—they’re the blueprint. This conversation will change how you think about risk, reinvention, and what it really takes to build something that lasts (with profit and purpose).

Thank you to our sponsors!

Sex is a skill. Beducated is where you learn it. Visit https://beducate.me/pd2550-womanswork and use code womanswork for 50% off the annual pass.

Connect with Neri:

Website: https://www.nerikarrasillaman.com/

Book: https://www.amazon.com/Pioneers-Principles-Longevity-Immigrant-Entrepreneurs/dp/1394304056/ref=

Related Podcast Episodes

Share the Love:

If you found this episode insightful, please share it with a friend, tag us on social media, and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform!

🔗 Subscribe & Review:Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Work Doesn’t Have to Suck: The Case for Fun, Joy, and Better Results with Bree Groff | 382 Jan 26, 2026

Show notes

Fun and work in the same sentence? For most of us, that’s a “does not compute” moment… and that’s exactly why this conversation matters.

Workplace culture expert Bree Groff (author of Today Was Fun: A Book About Work. Seriously.) breaks down why we’ve been trained to treat joy like it’s “unprofessional,” why busyness is murdering brilliance, and how to start building workplaces (and workdays) that are actually fit for human life.

In this episode, we get into:

Why “hard” doesn’t automatically mean “valuable” (and why we need to stop romanticizing suffering)
The two toxic extremes:

“Work is called work for a reason” (aka: misery cosplay)
“Do what you love and you’ll never work a day” (aka: burnout bait)

Bree’s “third way”: work can be a nice way to spend our time on the planet—not a daily punishment
Why people don’t buy your work because you suffered—they buy it because it creates value (pain is optional)
The “infinite workday” problem: nonstop meetings, constant interruptions, and zero space to think
Why brilliance requires spaciousness: “do nothing” time, thinking time, walking time, shower-epiphany time
How conformity kills creativity (and why “professionalism” can be a creativity straightjacket)
The case against delayed gratification when it turns into: “I’ll live later” (spoiler: later is not guaranteed)

Wrap-up: Work doesn’t have to be miserable to be meaningful—and if your job demands your whole life in exchange for a paycheck, that’s not ambition… that’s a bad deal wearing a blazer.

Thank you to our sponsors!

Sex is a skill. Beducated is where you learn it. Visit https://beducate.me/pd2550-womanswork and use code womanswork for 50% off the annual pass.

Connect with Bree:

Website: https://www.breegroff.com/home

Book: https://www.breegroff.com/book

Related Podcast Episodes

Share the Love: If you found this episode insightful, please share it with a friend, tag us on social media, and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform!

🔗 Subscribe & Review:Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | YouTube

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

This Is Woman’s Work with Nicole Kalil

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected