White Women Wake Up

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White Women Wake Up

Jonelle + Karen

49 episodes

4 days ago

This week, Karen and Jonelle dig into what it really means to let people be—without needing them to think, act, or believe like us. Karen shares how a moment at church triggered deep discomfort around conversion culture and her own lifelong urge to “help” others align with her values. Together, the two explore how white women are often taught to equate goodness with agreement and acceptance with control. They look at why authenticity requires boundaries, why curiosity can feel risky, and how ...

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Self-Improvement

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This week, Karen and Jonelle dig into what it really means to let people be—without needing them to think, act, or believe like us. Karen shares how a moment at church triggered deep discomfort around conversion culture and her own lifelong urge to “help” others align with her values. Together, the two explore how white women are often taught to equate goodness with agreement and acceptance with control. They look at why authenticity requires boundaries, why curiosity can feel risky, and how ...

Show more...

Self-Improvement

Episodes (20/49)

White Women Wake Up

The Hard Work of Letting People Be

This week, Karen and Jonelle dig into what it really means to let people be—without needing them to think, act, or believe like us. Karen shares how a moment at church triggered deep discomfort around conversion culture and her own lifelong urge to “help” others align with her values. Together, the two explore how white women are often taught to equate goodness with agreement and acceptance with control. They look at why authenticity requires boundaries, why curiosity can feel risky, and how ...

1 week ago

32 minutes

White Women Wake Up

From Equity to Exclusivity: The Quiet Shift in Dual-Language Schools

Dual-language preschools were created to celebrate cultural and linguistic diversity, yet many are now being reshaped by privilege. This episode looks at how programs once designed for shared language learning have become popular among affluent white families, driving up costs and limiting access for others. Karen and Jonelle explore how good intentions—wanting children to experience another language—can unintentionally reinforce inequity when opportunity becomes exclusive. The conversation b...

2 weeks ago

32 minutes

White Women Wake Up

The Tradwife Trap: When Branding Masquerades as Empowerment

This week on White Women Wake Up, Karen and Jonelle take a hard look at the tradwife movement—a social media trend romanticizing “traditional” homemaking while quietly monetizing it. Behind the pastel aprons and vintage aesthetics lies a contradiction: many of these so-called traditional wives are entrepreneurs, influencers, and podcasters profiting from the very labor they claim to reject. The hosts unpack how this rebranding of submission as virtue hides real work, reinforces privilege, and...

3 weeks ago

30 minutes

White Women Wake Up

Beyond the Food Desert: Naming Food Apartheid and the Cost of Systemic Neglect

This week, Karen and Jonelle explore how language shapes awareness—and accountability. What many call “food deserts” are not barren by nature but by design. Coined by activists like Kerry Washington, the term food apartheid more accurately names the systems that segregate communities from affordable, nutritious food. Together, they unpack how profit-driven zoning and racialized neglect turn low-income neighborhoods into nutritional dead zones, driving higher rates of obesity, diabetes, and he...

1 month ago

33 minutes

White Women Wake Up

From Apathy to Action: Naming White Women’s Burnout

Karen and Jonelle explore a term that’s been circulating in activist spaces—white women apathy. But as they dig deeper, they realize the issue isn’t indifference, it’s burnout. Many white women doing diversity and justice work feel emotionally drained, unsure how to keep showing up when progress feels slow or unseen. The hosts challenge the idea that exhaustion equals disengagement, reframing it instead as a signal to rest, re-evaluate, and reconnect with purpose. They discuss how shifting pe...

1 month ago

31 minutes

White Women Wake Up

Psychological Safety: Building Trust Beyond Words

In this episode of White Women Wake Up, Karen and Jonelle explore the concept of psychological safety and why it matters in both personal relationships and professional spaces. Drawing from research by Harvard professor Amy Edmondson and examples from workplaces like Google, they discuss how true safety means creating an environment where people can admit mistakes, share concerns, and disagree without fear of humiliation or punishment. Karen shares raw reflections from her own classroom and l...

1 month ago

34 minutes

White Women Wake Up

BRAVE Conversations: Finding Meaning in the Mess

Hard conversations shape us—yet too often we avoid them, shut them down, or mistake venting for dialogue. Karen and Jonelle take a closer look at what really happens when conflict rises at the dinner table or online, from visceral reactions in the body to the cycle of rehearsed narratives that keep us stuck. They draw on both personal stories and research to show why silence is never neutral and why staying at the table matters. At the center of their conversation is the BRAVE framework: Brea...

1 month ago

35 minutes

White Women Wake Up

Inside and Out: How Social Identity Shapes Our Reactions

In this episode of White Women Wake Up, Karen and Jonelle examine social identity theory—the idea that our self-esteem is often tied to group membership, which leads us to view our “in-group” as good and “outsiders” as bad. Using recent violent events as a lens, they explore why some tragedies spark widespread outcry while others are met with silence. From media coverage that overrepresents white victims to the empathy gap revealed in psychological studies, the conversation reveals how deeply...

1 month ago

32 minutes

White Women Wake Up

From Bias to Belonging: The Power of Interdependence

In this episode of White Women Wake Up, Karen and Jonelle explore how interdependence transforms the way we challenge bias and build belonging. White women are often taught to strive for independence—doing it all alone—or to slip into codependence, losing themselves in the needs of others. Interdependence offers another path: a shared practice of mutual care, accountability, and authenticity. Through personal stories of failure and resilience, they highlight how choosing community over isolat...

2 months ago

35 minutes

White Women Wake Up

Unmasking Ableism: Rethinking Neurodiversity and Inclusion

In Episode 40 of White Women Wake Up, Karen and Jonelle turn their attention to ableism and its everyday impact. They explore how neurodivergent people are often pressured to mask to fit into neurotypical expectations, and why this demand for assimilation can be harmful rather than supportive. Drawing from teaching, personal experience, and lived realities, the hosts highlight how good intentions—like “modeling” behavior—can unintentionally reinforce exclusion. Instead, real inclusion begins ...

2 months ago

32 minutes

White Women Wake Up

Breaking the Niceness Trap: Choosing Clarity over Comfort

In this episode of White Women Wake Up, Karen and Jonelle unpack the tension between cultural expectations of “niceness” and the need for authentic clarity. They reflect on how generations of white women have been socialized to prioritize politeness, avoid conflict, and mask their true feelings, often at the expense of vulnerability and growth. Drawing from research on emotional labor and gendered expectations, the hosts explore how vague or coded language can starve learning opportunities, w...

2 months ago

32 minutes

White Women Wake Up

Wellness or Whitewashing? Decolonizing Our Self-Care Practices

In this episode of White Women Wake Up, Karen and Jonelle unpack the hidden layers of cultural appropriation in today’s wellness industry. From yoga studios with no South Asian teachers to trendy sound baths, sage burning, and mindfulness retreats, they examine how many white women’s wellness practices borrow heavily from other cultures without honoring their origins. The hosts explore how wellness spaces often exclude marginalized communities through high costs, ableism, and elitism—while si...

2 months ago

31 minutes

White Women Wake Up

Decoding the Dog Whistle: How “Soft” Words Shield Hard Truths

In Episode 37, Karen and Jonelle pull back the curtain on coded language—those seemingly harmless words that hide bias in plain sight. They introduce the CODE scan (Context, Othering, Denied specifics, Echo) as a quick litmus test for spotting dog-whistles in conversation. Real-world examples abound: a car-dealer who calls residents “weird,” Maude Littleton’s smear of the Jewish Levy family at Monticello, and political catchphrases like “merit-based” or “DEI” that quietly signal who belongs a...

3 months ago

30 minutes

White Women Wake Up

Beyond Borrowed Voices: Reading for Authenticity

Karen and Jonelle tackle when imaginative empathy crosses into cultural appropriation. Jonelle defines appropriation as writers “taking ownership… and not giving honor, research, or credit to its heritage”. She flags 2024 data: more than half of novels with LGBTQ protagonists were written by straight authors, proving demand often outruns authentic representation. Karen defends artistic freedom yet agrees readers must verify whose stories they consume. Both hosts celebrate Mad Honey, co-author...

3 months ago

31 minutes

White Women Wake Up

Peace at Any Price? Rewriting Our Family’s Bias Scripts

Episode 35 explores the roots of bias inside our households. Jonelle opens with eye-opening research: babies only exposed to their own race 90 percent of the time start favoring faces like theirs by six to nine months, and children aged five to twelve already show a pro-white bias on implicit tests. The hosts note that just one ten-minute, color-conscious conversation with a parent can reduce anti-Black bias in kids by 61 percent. Building on those figures, Karen and Jonelle scrutinize their ...

3 months ago

36 minutes

White Women Wake Up

Believe First: Trusting Lived Experience Over Comfort Bias

In this episode, Karen and Jonelle step into the awkward pause that follows the question, “Are you sure?” They dissect why white women often doubt a friend’s painful account, tracing the habit to quick-fire heuristics. Proximity bias trusts stories that sound like our own. Authority bias treats doctors, pastors, and headlines as default truth. Comfort bias protects the worldview we already like. The hosts introduce philosopher Miranda Fricker’s idea of epistemic injustice to show how these re...

3 months ago

36 minutes

White Women Wake Up

Echo Chamber Check: Algorithms, Bias, and Your Feed

In this episode, Karen and Jonelle dive into the hidden power of echo chambers on social media. They compare their own TikTok feeds to reveal how algorithms quietly reinforce race, age, and ideology, even when we think we are curating diverse voices. The hosts unpack how recommendation systems favor anger, diet culture, and other triggers that keep users scrolling, and how that constant reinforcement shapes beliefs, voting habits, and personal relationships. Moving beyond abstract ethics, the...

4 months ago

33 minutes

White Women Wake Up

Decolonizing Daily Habits

In this episode, Karen and Jonelle move beyond theory to confront how a colonial mindset shows up in choices. They define the colonial mindset as believing resources exist for our claiming, elevating Western norms, and embedding hierarchies of power that erase other histories. Recognizing that giving away property overnight is unrealistic, they explore smaller on-ramps: widening whose stories they consume, questioning scarcity scripts, and sharing space and goods more generously. Examples sur...

4 months ago

32 minutes

White Women Wake Up

When the Majority Feels Marginalized: Unpacking Reverse Discrimination

In Episode 31, Jonelle and Karen zero in on the surge of reverse discrimination claims and why they differ fundamentally from racism. They start by defining racism as prejudice backed by systemic power—something only the dominant group can wield—and contrast it with discrimination, which any individual or group can experience. Drawing on a recent Supreme Court ruling under Title VII that lets any employee allege unfair treatment without extra proof, they explore how white-majority workers now...

4 months ago

35 minutes

White Women Wake Up

Moving Beyond Me: The Language of Individualism

After a brief conversation about how cultural backgrounds influence trauma responses, Karen and Jonelle dive into the concept of individualism as a defining feature of American society. They explore how an overemphasis on personal autonomy—evidenced by the United States scoring 91 on Hofstede’s individualism index—can foster colorblindness, political polarization, and a disconnect from collective wellbeing. Using examples from pandemic-era community efforts, public policy debates and marketin...

4 months ago

32 minutes