May 16, 2025

Beyond Brené Brown: Shame, Power, and the Conditions for Belonging - The Deeper Thinking Podcast

22 minutes

Beyond Brené Brown: Shame, Power, and the Conditions for Belonging

The Deeper Thinking Podcast

For anyone thinking more deeply about what makes vulnerability possible—and what makes it dangerous.

We honour the work of Brené Brown—her reframing of vulnerability as the birthplace of love and belonging—and then we carry it further. This episode explores the structural, political, and ethical conditions that determine who gets to be vulnerable, who pays a price for being seen, and what must change for emotional truth to be met with more than applause. Vulnerability is no longer framed as a personal act alone, but as a relational, designed, and often exploited condition.

With nods to thinkers such as Sara Ahmed, Judith Butler, Gabor Maté, Claudia Rankine, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and bell hooks, this essay examines what happens after someone speaks: do we adapt, or do we consume? We reframe vulnerability not as courage rewarded, but as truth revealed—and ask what kind of world is required to receive it.

Reflections

This episode challenges comfort. It suggests that real care is not found in sentiment, but in redesign. That to honor someone’s openness, we must be willing to change what surrounds them.

Vulnerability, without protection, is not connection—it is exposure.

When we ask people to speak, we inherit the obligation to adapt.

The most ethical spaces are not those that encourage honesty, but those that change when honesty arrives.

We do not need more people to be brave. We need fewer systems that make bravery necessary just to be heard.

Refusal is also integrity. The right not to disclose is part of any real ethic of care.

To listen well is not to be moved—it is to be reconfigured.

We honor vulnerability not when we admire it, but when we build what it asks of us.

Why Listen?

Rethink vulnerability as a collective ethical and design challenge—not just a personal choice

Understand how shame, visibility, and risk operate differently across gender, race, and class

Explore the limits of performative openness in culture, workplaces, and institutions

Engage with Brown, Butler, Ahmed, Maté, Rankine, Coates, and hooks on emotional ethics, power, and care

Listen On:

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Support This Work

If this episode stayed with you and you’d like to support the ongoing work, you can do so gently here: Buy Me a Coffee. Thank you for being part of this slower conversation.

Bibliography

Brown, Brené. Daring Greatly. New York: Gotham, 2012.

Butler, Judith. Precarious Life. London: Verso, 2004.

Ahmed, Sara. On Being Included. Durham: Duke University Press, 2012.

Maté, Gabor. The Myth of Normal. New York: Avery, 2022.

hooks, bell. All About Love. New York: William Morrow, 2000.

Coates, Ta-Nehisi. Between the World and Me. New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2015.

Rankine, Claudia. Citizen: An American Lyric. Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, 2014.

Bibliography Relevance

Brené Brown: Frames the emotional premise of vulnerability as a path to connection.

Sara Ahmed: Brings institutional critique, especially around complaint and the limits of inclusion.

Judith Butler: Grounds the politics of recognizability, grief, and precarity.

Gabor Maté: Anchors the somatic and trauma-informed dimensions of trust and openness.

bell hooks: Shapes the ethical lens on love, care, and the risk of being known.

Claudia Rankine: Illuminates the experience of racialized exposure and enforced vulnerability.

Ta-Nehisi Coates: Provides clarity on surveillance, systemic risk, and structural fragility.

We do not honor vulnerability by admiring it. We honor it by changing for it.

#BrenéBrown #JudithButler #SaraAhmed #GaborMaté #bellhooks #ClaudiaRankine #TaNehisiCoates #StructuralCare #RelationalEthics #Vulnerability #Shame #TraumaInformed #EthicsOfListening #TheDeeperThinkingPodcast

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