In the quest to win over white female voters — 53% of whom turned out for Donald Trump in 2020 — Kamala Harris made her case on a podcast hosted by one of their beloved avatars, vulnerability researcher Brené Brown. The episode, released Monday, was a mostly fluffy discussion about leadership, trauma and the idea of voting as agency in an out-of-control news cycle.
Brown, a University of Houston professor and best-selling author who spent two decades studying social sciences, became an overnight celebrity after giving a 2010 Ted Talk entitled “the power of vulnerability.” You could argue that the lecture, which spawned Brown’s Oprah-approved speaking empire, also spawned our culture’s current obsession with therapy language.
Brown’s mottoes, such as “courage over comfort” and “what we know matters, but who we are matters more,” echo Harris’s much-maligned tendency toward a self-help speaking style and an attitude that only assumes realm. Brown’s podcast, Unlocking Us, is a leader in the relationship genre on Apple Podcasts. The vice president’s campaign may also have hoped that an endorsement from Brown, a 58-year-old church-going Texan, would attract undecided white female voters — a crucial demographic group that would help bolster Harris’ record support among women and boost Trump’s popularity. can compensate. with men.
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That’s not to say Brown’s own politics are inscrutable: She reportedly donated to the White Women for Kamala Harris fundraiser, and she started the episode by proclaiming herself an “unapologetic Harris/Walz supporter.” Thus began an hour-long conversation about ‘courageous leadership’.
Harris spoke about the importance of family and friends as a support system for leaders. She spoke fondly of her mother, a late cancer researcher, and of her lifelong friends whom she considers just as valuable, if not more so, than romantic partners — a line that likely resonated with Gen Z women, who are increasingly prioritizing platonic relationships, and the many older women learning to live alone. When asked about her two greatest values in a leader, Harris exclaimed “fairness and justice.” “That’s so powerful,” Brown cooed back.
Harris seemed like, if not the candidate you want to have a beer with, then the pleasant enough person sitting next to you in an airport bar, sipping a glass of chardonnay
With just a week to go before Election Day, as she struggles to communicate policy issues with voters, Harris cycled through her greatest hits. While speaking about reproductive rights, she said she was the first sitting vice president to visit an abortion clinic. She imagined Trump sitting in the Oval Office on the first day of his second presidency drawing up an “enemies list,” as opposed to the “to-do list” she would look at — he cooks while she goes to work . In this vein, much of the conversation focused on the fear of another Trump presidency. Using a favorite therapy buzzword, Harris said Americans were “traumatized” by the “cruelty” of Trump’s Maga movement. “Trauma dulls our senses,” and voting blue was a way to take back some of the power, she said.
Harris seems to really enjoy talking to people in these lower-stakes conversation formats, and some of her standout pieces with Brown appeared spontaneously. We found out that her nickname in college was “C Cubed,” which stood for “cool, calm and collected.” And despite sporting what Brown described as a “Depeche Mode haircut” (a cropped, asymmetrical look) in her 20s, Harris said she was never big into the goth sound — although her husband, Doug Emhoff, of the group holds.
Aside from the two women’s emphatic support for abortion rights, the conversation seemed convivial and largely apolitical. That tactic could work well with Unlocking Us listeners, who likely come to Brown’s lovey-dovey podcast as an escape from the hyper-partisan news cycle. Harris seemed, if not the candidate you wanted to have a beer with, then the pleasant enough person sitting next to you in an airport bar sipping a glass of chardonnay.
Positioned against Trump’s macho posturing, which culminated this weekend with an appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast and the racist Madison Square Garden bonanza, Brown’s interview with Harris was like a cardigan on the first day of fall. And we know how much white women love falling.
