The Life Coach School Podcast · Brooke Castillo

Ep #522: Take Back Your Brain with Kara Loewentheil

May 23, 2024·46 min·2 clips

Financial media teaches men to build wealth; women to be thrifty.

Kara Loewentheil is a former Ivy League-trained women's rights litigator who became a life coach and hosts the podcast UnF*ck Your Brain; her book Take Back Your Brain synthesizes feminist theory with cognitive change tools. She and host Brooke Castillo discuss how socialization — the messages absorbed from family, media, and culture — shapes women's beliefs about money, worth, and possibility, often without conscious awareness. Kara explains that socialization is pervasive precisely because it arrives in one's own internal voice rather than as an outside directive, making it hard to recognize or resist. She identifies three specific money lies society teaches women: that money is for men, that virtuous women don't desire wealth, and that women's relationship to money is about budgeting rather than generating. The discussion unpacks how financial media aimed at women emphasizes thriftiness while media aimed at men emphasizes wealth-building and investment risk. Kara and Brooke explore how women are socialized to feel shame about wanting money or standing out financially, including through professional contexts such as Google's algorithm labeling Kara's substantial business as "lifestyle guru." They discuss how opting out of wealth creation is not a neutral act but reinforces the status quo by leaving money and influence in already-dominant hands. Kara describes how fear of people-pleasing and conflict often feels life-threatening to women because for centuries female non-compliance was genuinely dangerous. The book's structure is explained as two halves: first, how socialization works in the brain; second, chapter-by-chapter examination of how it shows up in major life domains including money, relationships, and ambition. Both hosts agree that pairing feminist theory with practical cognitive tools is what makes the approach transformative. Brooke shares her own experience of shock the first time she heard a female entrepreneur publicly claim a seven-figure income. The tone is candid, funny, and intellectually engaged, with neither host pulling punches. The episode is aimed at women seeking to understand the internal barriers to financial ambition and anyone interested in the intersection of feminism and self-development.

As heard by us

A grounded look at how culture trains women to think small.

Brooke Castillo and Cara Lowenthal use Take Back Your Brain as a springboard for a conversation about how culture shapes women’s thinking, money, power, and the pull to stay small.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want a direct coaching conversation about taking back your brain, with money, power, and gender in the mix.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from The Life Coach School Podcast