Welcome to episode 20 of the Woman Uncaged Podcast!

We discuss:
-Is it a midlife crisis or a midlife questioning?
-How failing to listen to the deeper questions and the deeper yearnings, may move us into crisis mode or physical symptoms.
-How does the male version differ from the female version?
-What are the opportunities of this stage?
-And what are the questions?
-How stuff doesn't make up a life.
-The difference of grief as an emotion vs. grief as a story.
-Midlife as its own developmental phase.
-Looking for role models.
-The myth of fixed identity.
-How to ride the wave of change.
-Bringing some adventure into mature adulthood.

As always, we'd love it if you would share your thoughts about this episode with us. You can email us at womanuncagedpodcast@gmail.com.

We love hearing from you!

Linda's website: https://singingbirdcoaching.com/
Laura's Monday Money Missives: https://www.dearlaura.net/letters

Welcome to episode 19 of the Woman Uncaged podcast! In this week's episode, we use a topic that has been popping up in several of Laura's coaching sessions recently as a jumping off point to talk about money, relationships, reenvisioning work, and more.

We cover:

- Women in heterosexual marriages where the husband works a full-time job that he feels trapped in and the response is to want his wife to get a job and jump in the trap too

- Different work configurations Laura and Linda have experienced in their relationships, including Sophie's wisdom regarding the split between money and meaning

- What cultural drivers and gender biases could be contributing to husbands' desire for their wives to get back to a traditional "job" (when the finances don't require it)

- How the idea that "more is always better" keeps us trapped and adhering to the status quo

- How the fear of the unknown plays a part in our lives and relationships and how that relates to identity

- The issues around our current model of putting off joy till retirement aka when the work is done

- Redefining the whole darn idea of work and opting out of the matrix!

As always, we'd love it if you would share your thoughts about this episode with us. You can email us at womanuncagedpodcast@gmail.com.

We love hearing from you!

In our 18th episode of the Woman Uncaged Podcast, Laura welcomes a special guest to the Woman Uncaged Podcast. Julie Falatko is an award-winning, prolific children's author, who also teaches online classes, and writes a fabulous newsletter on Substack called Do The Work.

Julie and I discuss:
-what counts as "work"
-does work have to be hard and unenjoyable?
-why do we feel guilty when we enjoy work?
-why do we value the misery of work over the joy?
-the question Julie asked herself that has led to her joyful productivity
-Julie's writing process and the challenges of writing
-how writing takes time, including that Julie's next book Help Wanted: One Rooster took 10 years to be published
-Julie's desire that we get off social media and write those great books we're always thinking about writing
-how your writing, and your creativity, is not a corporate agenda

We mention these books:
Sacred Success by Barbara Stanny Huson
Filterworld: HOW ALGORITHMS FLATTENED CULTURE By Kyle Chayka

I also mentioned an article I thought was called "The Blanding of America." I was wrong about that. I confused the article with another I had read in the NY Times called "America, the Bland" and another in the Boston Globe called "The Blanding of America." The actual article I was referring to is called "The Age of Average" by Alex Murrell. It's fascinating and worth the read!

Julie's website: https://juliefalatko.com/
Julie's Substack (which I highly recommend): https://juliefalatko.substack.com/

Laura's Monday Money Missives: https://www.dearlaura.net/letters

As always, we'd love it if you would share your thoughts about this episode with us. You can email us at womanuncagedpodcast@gmail.com.

We love hearing from you!

Welcome to episode 17 of the Woman Uncaged Podcast. This conversation was prompted by newsletter that Laura wrote, of which the subject line was very similar to this episode! (You can read that Monday Missive here, if you wish: https://us17.campaign-archive.com/?u=ed5e7ea6928f28b2d95ef8fb3&id=d77933f7a0.)

We talk about:
-the struggles we've had as women in business when it comes to promoting ourselves, and why it is that every single time we do, people unsubscribe from our lists.
-why it's important that we acknowledge and embrace the fact that, yes, we are in business to make money
-how we can all move past the idea that it's virtuous as a women to be self-less
-why our circle of care needs to include us and isn't a binary choice
-the discomfort of having needs
-how we've separated money from the relational
-how having models helps and normalizes asking for money
-the ways we've been taught to let others reward us, rather than asserting our needs
-how we can support other women in business
-how important it is to fill our cups in order to face unsubscribes (or other "rejection")
-the truth about entrepreneurship (it's not as glamourous as IG might have you believe)
-Helen Luke's book: The Way of Woman

If you missed our Sistermind Roundtable on Visibility for Women in Business, at which we both spoke, you can listen to the private podcast replay: https://podcasts.bcast.fm/sistermind-private-podcast/fd9ba910-bb21-11ee-a5eb-836300e9cabb
or watch us (and our fellow presenters) here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3piDKTWxL8.

Linda's website: https://singingbirdcoaching.com/
Laura's Monday Money Missives: https://www.dearlaura.net/letters

As always, we'd love it if you would share your thoughts about this episode with us. You can email us at womanuncagedpodcast@gmail.com.

We love hearing from you!

Welcome to the 16th episode of the Woman Uncaged Podcast with Laura Gates-Lupton and Linda Katz! Today we are diving into women DOING. SO. MUCH.

In this episode, Linda shares why she fell apart when Ursa's dog food order was late (as her husband said, "I don't think this is just about the dog food...") and Laura speaks about feeling proud of herself for cancelling brunch.

Other topics we explore include:
- When you're you doing so much and yet it still never feels like enough
- Why we need to carve out space to ADD what feels nourishing and exciting
- Why time management isn't enough and might actually be problematic in itself!
- The fear of letting balls drop
- What are the expectations that we put on ourselves and that society puts on us that lead us to a place of burnout?
- Why talking about "perennial problems" isn't just complaining and is actually vital
- Looking to male models doesn't work (sorry Cal Newport!)
- How we need the flexibility to meet what arises and what that has to do with releasing control
- Discerning and knowing what matters to us is key to preventing doing too much

We refer to:
- This song by Trevor Hall and Emory Hall about letting go of the old story: https://open.spotify.com/track/0yjJg8qTkgYuD2bvt4kKZl?si=15416ee86fca4dc3
- Slow Productivity and Deep Work by Cal Newport: https://calnewport.com/

Come see us live at our next Sistermind Roundtable!
We will be speaking, along with four other amazing women, on the topic of Visibility for Women in Business. The six of us will each present for 10 minutes, followed by 15 minutes of Q & A.

When: April 24 at 3:30 - 4:45 pm EDT
Where: via Zoom
Register here: https://larisanoonan.myflodesk.com/roundtable

This is a free, no-pitch, no-sell event and you will not be added to any other business email list. Please spread the word! We would love to see a world in which women are no longer afraid to be fully visible.

As always, share your thoughts about this episode with us! You can email us at womanuncagedpodcast@gmail.com. We'd love to hear from you!

Linda's website: https://singingbirdcoaching.com/
Laura's Monday Money Missives: https://www.dearlaura.net/letters

Welcome to the 15th episode of the Woman Uncaged Podcast with Laura Gates-Lupton and Linda Katz! This episode was inspired by this quote:

"Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them." Margaret Atwood, 1982

We dive into:
Why the fears you feel, as a woman, aren't irrational.
Why it's so hard to be brave and be seen.
Why this isn't an individual issue.
What the root of the fear is.
What "feel the fear and do it anyway" really means.
How can we more fully resource ourselves.
Who is allowed to be visible?
What are the costs of our fear?
Who is worthy of protection?
Our thoughts regarding Martha Stewart on the cover of Sports Illustrated in a bikini.
How power has been divorced from feelings.
How the power women desire looks different, and how to further redefine it.
What does power with and power to look like in the workplace?
How do we redefine leadership?
How do we step into our power?
How do we safely increase our visibility?
Linda's "code word" story.

We refer to:
Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers, PhD (sorry, Susan! I misspoke and pronounced your last name as "Jeffries" in this episode. My apologies! ~Laura)

Come see us live at our next Sistermind Roundtable!
We will be speaking, along with four other amazing women, on the topic of Visibility for Women in Business. The six of us will each present for 10 minutes, followed by 15 minutes of Q & A.

When: April 24 at 3:30 - 4:45 pm EDT
Where: via Zoom
Register here: https://larisanoonan.myflodesk.com/roundtable

This is a free, no-pitch, no-sell event and you will not be added to any other business email list. Please spread the word! We would love to see a world in which women are no longer afraid to be fully visible.

As always, share your thoughts about this episode with us! You can email us at womanuncagedpodcast@gmail.com. We'd love to hear from you!

Linda's website: https://singingbirdcoaching.com/
Laura's Monday Money Missives: https://www.dearlaura.net/letters

Welcome to the 14th episode of the Woman Uncaged Podcast with Laura Gates-Lupton and Linda Katz! In this episode we talk about how to cultivate radical self-trust and why that is such a pivotal part of living an uncaged life.

We explore and discuss:
- The role that self-trust plays in claiming our own freedom
- How patriarchy breeds distrust in ourselves that has us outsourcing our knowing
- Being sold someone else's formula for life
- How unearthing your own rhythms relates to self-trust
- Why hearing our own deepest, most soulful voice clearly is vital (and why coaching can be a powerful aspect of that!)
- How our sense of self-trust is eroded, by ourselves or others
- Keeping promises to ourselves
- THE BEST question to ask to lead us back into our self-knowing and self-trust
- The cycle of self-trust and how we can strengthen this muscle with two simple, daily practices

Resources Mentioned:
Laura's Content Writers' Creation Circle: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1a6cGwg1ttpSciUwVyYrzT3XNFXTT0Jkk4tafMjHJUpE/edit

Quotes Mentioned:
"Don't talk about being true to myself
until you are sure
to what voice you are being true."
- Marion Woodman from Coming Home to Myself

Linda's website: https://singingbirdcoaching.com/
Laura's Monday Money Missives: https://www.dearlaura.net/letters


Questions? Thoughts? Emails us at womanuncagedpodcast@gmail.com. We love to hear from you!

Welcome to the 13th episode of the Woman Uncaged Podcast with Laura Gates-Lupton and Linda Katz! In this episode we talk about how necessary it is to center our own happiness and success, in order to be uncaged, and how difficult that can be in heterosexual relationships.

"What I’m asking women to do is to center their own happiness and center their success in a way that is radical. And probably going to be deeply destabilizing for their relationships.” Lyz Lenz

We explore and discuss:
-How do we center our own happiness and our success, in the context of relationships?
-What does this mean for our partners?
-How do we find freedom in the context of our relationships?
-The metaphor of keeping our own candles lit.
-How do we create a sense of wholeness for ourselves?
-What role does self-defining play?
-Why the notion of "stolen moments" and "guilty pleasures" piss us off!
-How do we still value relationships and also center our own happiness?
-How do we know what we most want and claim that?
-How do we split the load (both visible and invisible) with our partners without phrasing it as "asking for help?"

Linda talks about setting up her life in a way that furthers her goals and what she loves.
"And the truth is, if your doing so rocks the boat, then you are in somebody else's boat. You're not the captain of your boat." ~Laura Gates-Lupton

Laura tells the story of the time she confused her family with her Mother's Day plans.

We mentioned (and recommend):
This American Ex-Wife by Lyz Lenz
Virginia Sole-Smith's Substack: https://virginiasolesmith.substack.com/p/is-heterosexual-marriage-a-diet

How about you? Where do you struggle with this? What have you figured out that works for you? What terms do you use instead of "asking for help?" We'd love to hear from you. Email us: womanuncagedpodcast@gmail.com

Linda's website: https://singingbirdcoaching.com/
Laura's Monday Money Missives: https://www.dearlaura.net/letters