This Is Woman's Work with Nicole Kalil

Being “powerful” and being “likeable” aren’t opposites — they’re a killer combo when we stop contorting ourselves into someone else’s definition. In this episode, we get tactical about communicating with influence and warmth, minus the people-pleasing or performative toughness. Our guest today, Dr. Kate Mason, PhD, is an executive communications coach and former Silicon Valley operator who helps w...

When a powerful man says, “She’s not my type,” and a jury (actually, multiple juries) finds that man liable for sexual abuse and defamation, that’s not just a headline — that’s a masterclass in what it takes for a woman to be believed in America. In this episode, writer, journalist, and Not My Type: One Woman vs. a President author E. Jean Carroll joins Nicole to talk about truth, power, paperclip...

Running a small business feels like jumping out of a plane and building the parachute on the way down… all while managing a team, cash flow, and our kid’s snack schedule. In this LIVE episode at the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Summit, I sit down with three women who prove that entrepreneurship isn’t just about revenue and hiring — it’s about who you become while you’re building. You’ll h...

In this episode we call BS on the “you’re not enough / who do you think you are?” soundtrack and dig into self-deception—the sneaky brain patterns that distort our reality and keep us looping the same results. Our guest, Bizzie Gold, creator of Break Method and author of Your Brain Is a Filthy Liar, shows us how to spot the lies, map our patterns, and rewire for freedom. Known for her no-BS approa...

We’re done pretending intuition is “woo.” In this lively, challenging conversation with Laura Day—New York Times bestselling author, intuitive consultant to billion-dollar companies, and the no-nonsense brain behind Practical Intuition and The Prism—we dig into how to train your intuition like a skill, use it alongside logic, and make small changes that create big shifts. Laura shares how to set o...

Caregiving is not an easy thing. It’s paperwork, passwords, POAs, and the courage to say the hard things before the crisis hits. In this episode, we get real about the emotional and financial marathon of caring for aging parents, why women disproportionately shoulder the load, and exactly what to do now so your future self isn’t rage-crying in probate court. Our guest, Beth Pinsker—MarketWatch fin...

We’re talking about reproductive freedom — history, facts, nuance, and feelings. Rebecca Grant — journalist and author of Birth and Access: Inside the Abortion Underground and the Sixty-Year Battle for Reproductive Freedom — breaks down how we got here (pre-Roe to post-Dobbs), what “the abortion underground” actually means today, and why medication abortion has completely reshaped access and agenc...

We’re talking real-deal confidence—the kind you build while you’re ugly-crying in your car between school drop-off and a board meeting. In this conversation with media pro and author Lynn Smith, we dig into the messy intersection of courage and confidence, why perfectionism and your “brain bully” are killing your clarity, and how to model bravery for your kids (and, TBH, for yourself). Spoiler: br...

We spend a ridiculous amount of our lives at work—so why do so many people hate it? In this conversation, we go straight at the big question: how do we actually make work good? Together with Moe Carrick, culture architect, work futurist, and author of When Work Is Good, we unpack the seven human needs of work (connection, safety, contribution, growth, fair pay… the whole lineup), why “throw money...

Most of us were taught to color inside the lines, follow the rules, and get a gold star for staying tidy. Cas Holman has spent her career blowing that up — and thank god. She designs tools, not toys, to spark creativity, collaboration, and imagination. (If you’ve watched Abstract: The Art of Design on Netflix, yep, she’s the genius behind the episode that made you want to ditch your to-do list and...

We’re taking out the mental garbage — the “you’re not enough / you’re too much / who the hell do you think you are?” soundtrack — and swapping it for inner wisdom that actually serves us. Our guest, Megan Dalla-Camina, bestselling author and founder of Women Rising, breaks down 13 inner-critic archetypes and gives us a simple 3-step system to catch the story, question it, and reframe it so we can...

We’re done with performative “women supporting women” while the DMs and side-eyes tell a different story. This conversation gets real about ditching scarcity, gossip, and grown-ass mean girl behavior and replacing it with unapologetic ampleship—front-row friends who say your name in rooms you’re not in, transfer social capital, and clap loud enough for the world to hear. Our guest, Erin Gallagher—...

Let’s get something straight: sex isn’t the problem—control is. In this episode, we go there with award-winning journalist Carter Sherman, unpacking the “second coming” of the sexual revolution: why Gen Z is having less sex, how abstinence-only “education” and the internet are shaping desire (and anxiety), and what sexual conservatism vs. sexual progressivism actually looks like on campuses, in sc...

We’ve all had them — the micromanagers, the credit stealers, the screamers, the ones who treat “reply all at midnight” like a leadership strategy. Bad bosses are everywhere, but here’s the kicker: leadership is learned. Which means we can unlearn the toxic part and redefine how we lead. In this episode, we sit down with Mita Mallick — Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author of The Dev...

We’re not dreaming about a finish line—we’re designing our next chapter. In this conversation with trailblazer Anne Chow (former CEO of AT&T Business, board director, author of Lead Bigger), we unpack “rewirement”: the smarter, saner, more sovereign way to approach life after (and beyond) traditional work. What we get into: The origin story of “rewirement” (engineer-brain meets real-life evolution...

How many times have we spoken up, set a boundary, or asked for what we need, and immediately thought, “Am I being a b**ch?” That’s the head-trash of good girl conditioning talking, not reality. In this episode, women’s empowerment coach and novelist Megan Walrod helps us separate distortion from truth, spot body cues that signal self-abandonment vs. self-advocacy, and practice being what she calls...

What if the fastest way to define who you are is to first declare who you’re not? In this episode, we connect with branding legend Laura Ries, bestselling author of The Strategic Enemy and chairwoman of Ries Global Consulting, to talk about why naming your “enemy” may just be the most powerful move you can make in business, branding, and life. We dig into how the world’s most successful brands (th...

What if the smartest, bravest thing you could say wasn’t “I know” — but “tell me more”? In this episode of This Is Woman’s Work, we sit down with Elizabeth Weingarten — journalist, applied behavioral scientist, and author of How to Fall in Love with Questions. Her career has spanned writing and research roles at The Atlantic, Slate, and The Think Tank New America, as well as leadership work in app...

Trauma isn’t just about the big, obvious events. It’s not only about war vets, abusive relationships, or catastrophic loss. Trauma is the stuff our bodies never fully processed — the shock, fear, or helplessness that got stuck in our nervous systems. And here’s the kicker: it doesn’t live in the past. It lives in your biology, right now. We’re joined by Dr. Aimie Apigian, double board-certified ph...

Here’s the truth: Raising emotionally intelligent kids isn’t about making sure they say “please” and “thank you.” It’s about raising little humans who can actually handle big feelings, express themselves without melting down (well, most of the time), and build relationships that don’t implode at the first sign of conflict. Emotional intelligence (EQ) is the underrated superpower that will serve yo...

What happens when decades of experience get labeled as “overqualified”? When the wisdom, grit, and perspective you’ve earned suddenly turn into workplace liabilities? Loren Greiff knows this story all too well — and she’s rewriting it. After 30 years in corporate leadership, Loren was told she was “too real” and put on a performance improvement plan. Instead of shrinking, she built a movement: hel...

Confidence. Courage. Boldness. We love to talk about them, post about them, hashtag them, and slap them on coffee mugs. But let’s be real—most of us aren’t sure how to actually build them in our own lives. Which is why we brought in Michelle “MACE” Curran, former fighter pilot and only the second woman in history to fly lead solo for the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds, to the show. Yep, she’s the rea...

Sometimes being “nice” isn’t so nice—it’s self-abandonment in disguise. In this episode, we learn about the fourth trauma response from Dr. Ingrid Clayton, a licensed clinical psychologist, trauma recovery expert, and author of Fawning: Why the Need to Please Makes Us Lose Ourselves and How to Find Our Way Back. Ingrid brings over 20 years of clinical experience helping people break free from trau...

Most of us think codependency looks like someone clinging to a toxic partner, losing themselves to someone else’s addictions, or being a doormat. But Terri Cole, licensed psychotherapist, global relationship and empowerment expert, and author of Boundary Boss and her brand-new book Too Much, is here to blow that outdated definition out of the water. Terri has spent over two decades working with ev...

We’ve been told stress will kill us. That we need to yoga-breathe it away, book a retreat, or stuff it down with a pint of Ben & Jerry’s (using your car key as a spoon… iykyk). But what if stress isn’t the villain? What if it’s actually the fuel for our best work? This week, we’re joined by Dr. Rebecca Heiss — a stress physiologist, researcher, keynote speaker, and author of Springboard: Transform...