Dr. Avrum Weiss is a seasoned psychologist and author of four books, including the provocatively titled Hidden in Plain Sight: How Men’s Fears of Women Shape Their Intimate Relationships. That book is the subject of a conversation you can hear on VBB epi XXX. This time around, we explore even more provocative topics, including Dr. Weiss’s insightful observations of pervasive social media discussions surrounding narcissism and how this has transformed into a thinly veiled campaign of male-bashing. Dr. Weiss challenges popular narratives, even among his peers, that paint narcissism as a “terminal condition” devoid of any path to understanding or empathy. His point is that the vast majority of clinically diagnosed narcissists are men. We also delve into the transformative power of involved fatherhood. It’s the evolving role of men in childcare, the enhanced emotional well-being it brings to fathers, and the life-long benefits for children. Dr. Weiss also shares three practical but somewhat counterintuitive steps men can take to nurture a deeper relationship with their kids.

Annemarie du LeBohn, AKA The Iron Butterfly, thanks to her exploits as a successful triathlon competitor, is also a TEDx star admired for her profoundly moving and vulnerable conversations that reveal her darkest days as a rape victim. Annemarie shares her transformation journey from victim to victor and highlights an often neglected concept – Post-Traumatic Growth. Annemarie courageously tells of her personal experiences with post-rape PTSD and how she has managed to turn her trauma into a powerful drive for advocacy and education. Annemarie’s insights, including the importance of proactive conversations with youth, resonate harmoniously with tools that help past victims transcend from just coping to thriving without limitations. This conversation is an essential addition to supporting the UN’s 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, which runs through December 10 — International Human Rights Day.

Teresa L’Heureux is an intelligent, bright, competent woman; she’s an outgoing, positive, encouraging, loving individual and a beautiful human being inside out. We know so because we asked her. We asked her because we couldn’t understand how such a proud and strong woman could fall victim to a man who convinced her she was less than loveable and turned her into someone he could abuse anytime and in any way he chose. Teresa’s award-winning book, My Rock My Hard Place, was written to share her painful experience and her mission to support, assist, and empower Domestic Violence Victims and Survivors to get past the pain and create a life full of respect, happiness, and love.

Julia Williamson is the author of a thought-provoking article titled, Sometime In My 50s, I Became Invisible To Men. Here’s What I Didn’t Expect. In her piece, Julia makes the point that the problem of women, age, and perceived loss of attractiveness is real and pervasive. What’s remarkable is this: Julia’s writing wasn’t her issuing a complaint; it was more a proclamation of her pure relief. Finally, as a woman, she wasn’t being ordered to smile by every random man on the street or being constantly harassed and subjected to the predatory male gaze! Aging out or Ageism has long been the most frequently reported type of discrimination women feel, and that same discrimination has long been a factor in women’s diminishing health and a drop in self-confidence. However, the Here’s What I Didn’t Expect part of Julia’s article shares a far more positive outcome for women approaching what could be the best years of their lives.

Rissa Miller is a fearless advocate for the term ‘witch,’ and she has faced her fair share of prejudice. Recognizing the longstanding stereotypes and misconceptions surrounding witches, Rissa delves into how the label has been reckless, insensitive, and deadly to women. She questions what qualifies a woman as a witch, and whether engaging in divination work, practicing reiki, or even collecting crystals classifies someone as a witch. Rissa notes that the perception of a witch has undoubtedly evolved, from the days when the Catholic Church condemned wild women for communing with the devil to present-day pop-culture perceptions where witches are beautiful and powerful women like Melisandre from “Game of Thrones, Wanda Maximoff as Marvel’s Scarlet Witch, and Netflix teenage witch, Sabrina. While some still hold onto outdated beliefs, Rissa believes society must catch up with the evolving understanding of what it means when women are okay with being called witches.

Kristen Donnelly (MSW, M.Div, Ph.D.), is an award-winning, four-time TEDx speaker, international empathy educator, and researcher with two decades of experience helping people understand the beauty in our differences and the power of inclusiveness. Kristen is a champion for social change and an expert on many poignant topics, including Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Intersectionality. In a world that’s becoming more and more fractured by conflict, Kristen advocates for a new understanding of empathy and the simplest human trait of them all: curiosity.

We welcome back ghostwriter and editor Juliane Bergmann, author of an influential article in Huffington Post titled “So I thought parents who forgot their kids in their cars were monsters. Then I did it!” It’s an emotional, even tearful conversation with Juliane where she shares a personal experience of accidentally leaving her child in a car. She expresses deep shame of having once coldly judged parents who had done the same, and now she was a failure as a mother. We explore the emotions and societal pressures around parenting and the importance of parents sharing mistakes to support those who dont get a second chance. It’s a conversation that challenges stereotypes and hopefully inspires parents to be more gentle with themselves as they confront their own fallibility.

So, as Christopher & Heather finished recording the last episode, talking about historian Gerder Lerner’s book “The Creation of Patriarchy,” the conversation just kept on rolling along with the microphone still live. In our “private” chat, we lamented a disturbing link that ties the domestic relegation of women to the advent of slavery—heady stuff. We even tackle the toughest question of them all: what is womanhood in a world dominated by the will and needs of men?