Get Your Weekly Digest

Receive the best podcast summaries and insights delivered to your inbox every week.

We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe anytime.

You're Wrong About

The Auralyn with Blair Braverman

with Blair Braverman

Published September 30, 2025
Visit Podcast Website

About This Episode

Survival correspondent Blair Braverman tells Sarah the little-known true story of Maurice and Marilyn Bailey, a British couple whose yacht Auralyn was sunk by a sperm whale in 1973, leaving them adrift on a liferaft for 118 days. Blair walks through their improvised survival strategies, the couple's contrasting mindsets, and how Marilyn's optimism, ingenuity, and traditionally "feminine" tasks became central to their endurance. Together, Blair and Sarah reflect on gender norms in survival narratives, the role of hope and realism, and what this story reveals about relationships, depression, and everyday forms of resilience.

Topics Covered

Survival at sea Resilience Relationships Feminism Gender norms Adventure travel Trauma Mental health Perspective shift Personal narrative

Disclaimer: We provide independent summaries of podcasts and are not affiliated with or endorsed in any way by any podcast or creator. All podcast names and content are the property of their respective owners. The views and opinions expressed within the podcasts belong solely to the original hosts and guests and do not reflect the views or positions of Summapod.

Quick Takeaways

  • Maurice and Marilyn Bailey's yacht Auralyn was fatally holed by a sperm whale in 1973, forcing them to survive 118 days on a leaking liferaft and dinghy with no radio or motor.
  • Marilyn consistently took over as de facto captain, improvising fishing gear, harvesting turtle blood and fish eyeballs for water, and even attempting to harness turtles as living tugboats.
  • The couple's ordeal shows how survival often consists of tedious, repetitive tasks and gradually lowered standards rather than cinematic heroics.
  • Marilyn's seemingly "domestic" actions-planning menus, designing dresses, untangling her hair, crafting games-helped preserve hope and mental structure, illustrating that femininity and toughness are not opposites.
  • Several ships passed without rescuing them, and at one point a homemade smoke flare briefly turned a ship before it sailed on, making ship sightings more psychologically painful than their absence.
  • Both rafts were eventually punctured, their bodies became covered in sores down to the bone, and Maurice's health collapsed, leaving Marilyn to do nearly all the physical work.
  • They were finally rescued by a South Korean tuna boat after 118 days, having drifted so long that Maurice said he would endure it again if he knew rescue would come, because of what he learned and shared with Marilyn.
  • Later media coverage largely centered Maurice as the hero despite his own insistence that Marilyn's will, leadership, and ingenuity saved them both.
  • Blair and Sarah use the story to explore how survival skills overlap with coping with depression and long-term hardship: accepting reality, doing small tasks, and investing in a future you can't yet see.
  • The episode challenges macho survival tropes and suggests a "lifeboat test" for close relationships: is this someone you'd want beside you in an actual survival situation?

Podcast Notes

Opening and framing of the mystery survival story

Show introduction and Blair's role

Sarah opens with a darkly humorous shark line and welcomes listeners to the show[0:00]
• She says, "If you see a shark circling your boat, you should think purse," establishing the mix of humor and doom that will recur later.
Blair is introduced as the show's survival correspondent with a secret story[0:25]
• Sarah notes that Blair has brought a "suspenseful survival story" she deliberately kept secret from Sarah beforehand.
• Sarah recalls Blair's previous fan-favorite episodes on Balto, Baby Jessica, Miracle in the Andes, Dyatlov Pass, Aron Ralston, and Chris McCandless.

Setting up the experiment: Sarah hears the story totally fresh

Trust-based recording and Sarah's lack of prior knowledge

Blair describes the unusual setup: she asked Sarah to record on trust without knowing the topic[3:10]
• Blair notes it's the first time on this show Sarah truly doesn't even know the subject's name, emphasizing the "purity" of Sarah's reactions.
Sarah shares her habit of self-soothing by reading about scary events[4:25]
• Because of that habit, Sarah is half expecting to already know the story and imagines feeling both "chagrined and encouraged" if she doesn't.

Sarah's initial guesses about the story

Sarah guesses it could be about famous sea survival hoaxes or tragedies[4:37]
• Her first guess is a lesbian couple who pretended to be lost at sea but actually weren't; Blair confirms it's not that story.
• Her second guess is the Lonergans, inspiration for the film Open Water, but notes they didn't survive, which wouldn't fit a classic "survival" story.
Blair confirms it is a survival story but relatively obscure[3:55]
• Blair says she had never heard of it before reading about it and expects Sarah might unexpectedly know detailed trivia.

Origin of the story: a book review assignment and deliberate spoiler-avoidance

Blair discovers the Baileys' story via Sophie Elmhurst's book

Blair found the story while reviewing a book for the New York Times[5:06]
• The book is by Sophie Elmhurst; Blair initially withholds the title to avoid minor spoilers, promising to reveal it later.
Blair's immediate obsession with the story[5:18]
• Within two pages she was "running around" her house reading passages aloud, indicating the story's intensity.
Blair tries to keep Sarah from accidentally seeing spoilers online[5:25]
• Blair asked Sarah not to Google her or look at her social media for months to preserve the surprise.

Background of Maurice and Marilyn in suburban England

Introducing Maurice: personality and history

Maurice is a lonely, self-doubting man with a harsh religious upbringing[6:08]
• He works at a printing press, was sick and bedridden for months as a child, learned to enjoy solitude, and is estranged from his strict family.
• He has a stutter, is shy, and struggles with low self-esteem; Blair calls him "Morose Maurice" as a shorthand.
Maurice's hidden adventurous streak[6:39]
• Despite his shyness, he learns to fly planes and enjoys climbing mountains.

The car rally where Maurice meets Marilyn

Maurice attends a car rally in a friend's place and meets Marilyn[7:41]
• His friend Mike usually goes to car rallies but can't, so Maurice is sent instead and ends up sharing a car with Mike's friend Marilyn.
Marilyn's initial description and Maurice's infatuation[7:41]
• Marilyn is 21, a tax accountant, described as gorgeous, charming, sweet, energetic, and Maurice is immediately smitten.
Maurice's comically disastrous first impression[7:57]
• He repeatedly drives the wrong way, says the wrong things, and finally buys her a tank of gas only to realize he has no money and she has to pay.
• He feels he "completely blew it" with her and is more ashamed of himself than ever.
Follow-up apology and second chance[8:27]
• He sends Marilyn flowers and an apology letter; she replies, and he somehow musters the courage to ask her out again.
• She agrees to another date, and they fall deeply in love despite being an "unlikely" pairing.

Their marriage, shared adventures, and decision about children

They marry in 1963 with conventional expectations around them[8:57]
• They live in the suburbs; Marilyn is 22, Maurice 30, both have professional jobs, and culture expects them to have children and settle into domestic life.
Maurice's desire for his genetic line to end[11:28]
• Maurice explicitly does not want children because he wants his "genetic line to end" with him, which Sarah comments she oddly finds attractive.
• Marilyn is fine with not having kids; motherhood doesn't interest her and she's bored with suburban life.
Marilyn proposes a radical life change: live on a boat and sail to New Zealand[13:22]
• She suggests selling their house and everything they own to sail to New Zealand, "just see what happens," which Maurice initially calls a bad idea.
• Marilyn is described as extremely stubborn and adventurous, and she keeps pressing the idea until Maurice yields.

Preparing for the voyage on the yacht Auralyn

Four years of preparation and boat-building

They dedicate four years to learning to sail and getting a boat built[13:29]
• They don't yet know how to sail or own a boat, so they sell their furniture, work on the boat's interior, and learn sailing skills over several years.
Naming the boat Auralyn and what it symbolizes[14:07]
• They commission a 31-foot yacht and name it the Auralyn, a portmanteau of their names, symbolizing their partnership.

Sarah's personal parallel: her own fleeting desire to sail to New Zealand

Sarah recounts wanting to sail to New Zealand after her father died[15:29]
• She describes it as the form her grief took, a "mind vacation" she never seriously pursued, and mentions Blair once wrote advice urging her to start small with a little boat.
They reflect on grief, big quests, and how they reshape a life[15:33]
• Blair observes that big losses create big holes that feel like they require equally big quests to fill, whereas more modest actions can gradually build a new life around the void.

Departure and catastrophic whale collision

Sailing out and early smooth months

The Auralyn departs Southampton in June 1972[16:55]
• They set sail to "see the world," stopping in Spain, Portugal, the Canary Islands, and the Caribbean, moving at their own pace.
They pass through the Panama Canal and aim for the Galapagos[17:41]
• In February they transit the Panama Canal and head toward the Galapagos, treating the journey as a world tour rather than a straight shot to New Zealand.
They intentionally sail without a radio transmitter[17:04]
• Maurice and Marilyn decide against bringing a radio transmitter, wanting to "do things old school" and navigate by the stars, which Sarah criticizes as ignoring the reason such safety tools exist.

The sperm whale strike and sinking of the Auralyn

On March 4, 1973, a sperm whale collides with their yacht[17:54]
• Early morning, they hear a huge bang, items fly off shelves, and they rush on deck to find they have been struck by a sperm whale that is pouring blood.
The hull is holed and the boat begins to sink[19:19]
• They try covering the hole with a sail and stuffing it with clothes, and they pump water, but the inflow is too strong; the Auralyn is doomed.
• It takes about an hour from impact until the boat disappears beneath the surface.
Blair quotes a vivid image from Elmhurst's book about the sinking mast[19:53]
• A photograph shows the last triangle of sail and mast tip sinking, looking like an arm reaching up for rescue, a line Blair reads aloud from "A Marriage at Sea."

Evacuation to the liferaft and dinghy

They deploy a rubber liferaft and dinghy with limited supplies[19:02]
• The two small rubber craft are tied together; one has a canopy, one is open, and together they hold about 20 days' worth of supplies plus a biography of Richard III.
They abandon ship without any way to call for help[19:02]
• They have no motor and no radio, so once the yacht sinks they are completely dependent on oars, currents, and whatever ships might incidentally pass.

Contrasting mindsets and early attempts to row to safety

Marilyn's optimism vs Maurice's despair

Marilyn immediately starts planning to row to the Galapagos[20:00]
• She estimates they are about 300 miles from the Galapagos and cheerfully suggests they can row there, despite intense heat and limited water.
Maurice secretly considers suicide via stove gas[19:24]
• While Marilyn strategizes, Maurice checks the gas canister to see if there is enough fuel to kill them both painlessly, showing how paralyzed he feels.
Marilyn becomes the de facto captain of the lifeboat[21:23]
• Maurice had captained the yacht, but Blair frames Marilyn as clearly taking over command of survival decisions once they are in the raft.

Night rowing and the realization of the current's power

They row in exhausting two-hour shifts at night[21:31]
• To avoid daytime heat, they row all night in two-hour intervals, steering by the stars while on strict food and water rations.
After days of effort, the current defeats their plan[21:59]
• After two nights they have moved only four miles south but drifted 30 miles west; after four nights they've gone 10 miles south but are being carried west even faster.
• They realize they are on a treadmill-like current and no realistic amount of rowing will get them to the Galapagos.
Shift to aiming for shipping lanes[22:23]
• Marilyn abandons the Galapagos plan and decides they should drift toward a shipping lane; she improvises a sail by tying a sail bag to the oars.
Sarah and Blair discuss the vastness of the ocean and visibility limits[22:58]
• Blair notes that at sea the horizon is only about two miles away, so even heavily trafficked shipping lanes leave a tiny chance of being within sight of a passing ship.
• Sarah reflects that it's hard for her brain to comprehend the ocean's scale because it lacks obvious visual landmarks.

Ships pass, flares fail, and they turn to turtles and improvisation

First ship sighting and flare failure

They see a ship but their flares don't ignite[23:31]
• When a ship finally appears, they attempt to launch flares, but discover to their horror that the flares don't work and the ship passes by.
Salt-contaminated water worsens their situation[25:23]
• At roughly the same time, they discover four gallons of their stored water are contaminated with salt and must be discarded.

Turning to turtles and fish for sustenance

Sea turtles constantly bump the raft and become both annoyance and resource[26:04]
• Turtles are "annoying" them by knocking the rafts from below, and Blair points out they are also full of blood, a crucial hydration source.
After 24 days, they kill a small turtle and start fishing[26:22]
• On March 28, after more than three weeks adrift, they kill their first small turtle and Marilyn fashions fishing hooks from safety pins so they can catch fish.
They drink fish eyeball fluid and turtle blood for water[26:32]
• As fresh water runs low, they drink the liquid from fish eyes and consume congealed turtle blood, which sets into a jello-like substance.

The turtle harness experiment and a pet turtle

Marilyn attempts to harness turtles to tow the raft[26:58]
• Realizing how strong a struggling turtle is, Marilyn tries to treat it like a sled dog, making a rope harness around its flippers and letting it pull the raft.
• The first turtle pulls strongly in a straight line; she then harnesses a second turtle, which immediately swims the opposite direction, creating a futile turtle tug-of-war.
She keeps a turtle as a pet on a leash[28:23]
• After the towing scheme fails, Marilyn chooses a "cute" turtle, leashes it so it can swim while she fishes, effectively adopting it as a pet.
Marilyn's unwavering expectation of survival[28:38]
• When a whale surfaces near them, she laments not having a camera and assumes they will later be telling people this story, which Maurice notes as evidence she never doubts they'll survive.
• Marilyn is religious and interprets events as part of a larger plan, saying that ships which pass were simply not the ones "meant" to save them.

Monotony, deterioration, and the tedious reality of survival

Blair's reflection on what survival stories usually contain

Survival often involves tedium and lowered standards, not dramatic action[29:34]
• Blair emphasizes that many survival narratives are mostly about time passing, repetitive chores like procuring water and food, and gradually worsening conditions.

Extreme weather, sores, and insomnia

They swing from dehydration to constant wetness and skin breakdown[30:07]
• At first they fear dying of thirst; then heavy rains leave them perpetually soaked, their skin peeling in strips and developing deep sores.
Deflating rafts create painful creases that prevent sleep[32:32]
• Both the raft and dinghy get punctured (one by Maurice's fishing hook, the other by a spiky fish), so they constantly leak air and water, sagging and pinching their sore-covered bodies.
• They must pump water out every 20 minutes, day and night, leading to extreme sleep deprivation as they can't sleep more than short intervals.
Birds, barnacles, and a mini-ecosystem on the raft[34:52]
• Seabirds, unafraid due to lack of large predators at sea, regularly land on the rafts; Maurice and Marilyn quietly wring their necks to eat them.
• Barnacles grow on the raft bottoms, attracting fish that bump the boats, which in turn attract dolphins and sharks that also ram the craft while hunting.
A seabird regurgitates fish for them[34:52]
• On one occasion a seabird lands and vomits up six or seven fish right next to them, providing food without needing to kill the bird.
Maurice develops a serious lung condition[35:43]
• He begins coughing constantly and at one point coughs up a large chunk of tissue he believes is part of his lung, after which he starts losing consciousness for long stretches.

Ship sightings become emotionally torturous

A fourth ship appears; Marilyn invents a smoke flare that briefly turns it[39:04]
• With no flares left, she burns paper in a turtle shell to create smoke; the ship turns as if it has seen them, then turns back and sails away.
They start dreading rather than hoping for ship sightings[38:25]
• Because visible ships repeatedly fail to rescue them, new sightings become more upsetting than encouraging, as they anticipate another near-miss.

Marilyn's "feminine" tasks as survival work

Marilyn's journaling, card games, and fashion sketches

She spends off-hours doodling cats and designing clothes[39:18]
• When not fishing, tending Maurice, or bailing, Marilyn draws cats and designs dresses in her journal, specifying fabrics and details like a "brown and pink paisley" dress with straight sleeves.
She crafts playing cards from journal paper and designs future dinners and boats[40:41]
• She cuts thin paper into cards so translucent they can see each other's hands, forcing them to rely on the honor system, and sketches plans for their next yacht and elaborate dinner-party menus.
On her birthday, Maurice accidentally punctures the raft while trying to catch her favorite fish[41:11]
• On April 24, after seven weeks adrift, Maurice wants to honor Marilyn by catching her favorite fish species but instead punctures the raft with his hook, worsening their situation.

Blair's explicit argument about gender and survival work

Blair reads her own New York Times review passage about Marilyn's work[42:11]
• She notes that survival stories rarely center women, and even more rarely frame traditionally female tasks-like planning menus, grooming, decorating-as core survival work rather than frivolous extras.
Marilyn's domestic-seeming activities are integral to staying alive[42:11]
• Blair argues that planning dinner parties, untangling her hair daily, designing dresses, and making games are not contradictions to survival but part of what keeps Marilyn's will and mind intact.
She even kills and skins a shark intending to make a purse[41:40]
• Blair mentions Marilyn kills a shark with "pearly" skin and plans to make a purse, another example of bringing aesthetic and domestic imagination into a lethal environment.
Maurice recognizes her strength but still narrates from a male-centric frame[42:08]
• In his writing, he says he "sat back" and was "prepared to let her take over," implying he is granting responsibility, even as Blair notes Marilyn simply assumes command because she is stronger.

Sarah connects this to broader cultural narratives about masculinity and the wilderness

Survival narratives often treat nature as a place to strip away femininity[43:14]
• Sarah cites examples like boy-centric adventure stories where characters cut off their hair or embrace ruggedness, implying feminine traits are obstacles to survival.
She notes some women care deeply about their hair and that this isn't incompatible with survival[43:14]
• Marilyn insists on spending time untangling her long hair instead of cutting it off, demonstrating that maintaining appearance can coexist with extreme toughness.
Blair recalls changing her own clothing to be taken seriously as a guide[44:29]
• At 19, starting as a dog-sled guide in Alaska, Blair immediately bought men's clothes at Salvation Army because she felt she wouldn't be taken seriously in women's clothing.

Media sexism, Maurice's later reflections, and the rescue

Maurice's statement that two men wouldn't have survived

He credits Marilyn's will to live and generalizes it to "females of the species"[53:06]
• He later says that if there had been two men in the raft they would not have survived, claiming women generally sustain the will to live more.
Sarah and Blair critique the gendered framing of his compliment[53:19]
• They appreciate his praise for Marilyn but note he seems to shift responsibility for his own collapse onto his gender and underplays her individuality by attributing her strength to being female.

Rescue after 118 days at sea

After 43 shipless days, a South Korean tuna boat appears[53:27]
• On June 30, after 118 days adrift and over 40 days without seeing any ship, Marilyn spots a vessel that clearly turns toward them and people shout from the deck.
Marilyn frees their animal companions before boarding[53:39]
• Before climbing the rope ladder dropped by the tuna boat, she releases their pet creatures back into the sea.
They can only crawl on deck and are given milk[53:48]
• Their leg muscles are too atrophied to stand, so they crawl onto a blanket on deck and drink milk offered by the crew.
They immediately start thinking about their next boat, Auralyn II[54:17]
• Maurice says, "We made it," and Marilyn replies, "Now for Auralyn too," signaling she's already envisioning their next yacht.

Media framing, book deals, and sexism in coverage

They sell their story rights to fund Auralyn II[54:17]
• Back in England, they sell rights to the story in order to buy a new boat and name it Auralyn II.
A counting error leads to the title "117 Days Adrift"[54:31]
• Though they were actually at sea for 118 days, an early misreport of 117 days stuck, and their book is titled "117 Days Adrift."
Press coverage centers Maurice despite his attempts to credit Marilyn[54:51]
• The media largely casts Maurice as hero; he repeatedly insists that Marilyn kept them alive and was their captain, but can't override broader sexism.
One journalist asks if Marilyn will "follow her husband to sea again"[55:12]
• Blair quotes a line where a reporter asks if she will "follow her husband" to sea again, and another article calls her "the small brunette," revealing gendered diminishment.

Their later life together

They keep sailing and remain deeply bonded[54:19]
• They continue voyaging on Auralyn II and are described as lifelong soulmates; the raft ordeal was a small portion of their shared life.
Marilyn dies in 2002; Maurice lives on 20 more years[54:01]
• After her death at age 61, Maurice, a lifelong vegetarian with her after the incident, spends his remaining years writing letters about her, sharing the story, and expressing enduring love.

Survival, depression, denial, and the "lifeboat test" for relationships

Survival mindset vs macho denial

They contrast Marilyn's realism-plus-hope with Stockton Rush-style denial[56:23]
• Sarah brings up the OceanGate Titan sub disaster and quotes its CEO's claim that he wouldn't die because he didn't want to, as an example of hubristic refusal to accept reality.
• Blair and Sarah note Marilyn, in contrast, accepts the situation's danger, updates her plans as new information arrives, and makes only choices that increase safety.
They emphasize the importance of assimilating new information[58:36]
• Sarah frames one key survival trait as the ability to accurately assess where you are, how much water or food you have, and then adjust behavior accordingly, instead of clinging to fantasies.

Survival as a metaphor for living with depression and long-term hardship

They compare Marilyn's daily tasks to coping with depression[58:39]
• Sarah suggests that drawing cats or planning dresses while severely depressed is analogous to Marilyn's buoying activities on the raft: small, future-oriented acts that push back against entropy.
Blair argues that small creative acts in hard times are real survival work[59:15]
• She says that if someone with depression can draw a cat in a day and it's very hard for them, that's a huge triumph, akin to Marilyn's mental survival efforts.

Luck vs character in survival outcomes

Blair stresses the role of luck in who ultimately survives[59:38]
• She notes many people last a long time in survival situations and then die due to bad luck; their effort isn't less worthy just because rescue didn't come.
They discuss how we only celebrate survival when it ends in rescue[1:00:44]
• Blair points out that if the Baileys had died after 200 days, their story might be framed as a failure instead of a testament to their character and endurance.

The "lifeboat test" for close relationships

Sarah proposes asking whether you'd want someone in a lifeboat with you[1:02:35]
• She suggests a helpful heuristic for evaluating close relationships is: "Do I want to be in a lifeboat with this person?", and says she'd absolutely choose Blair.
Maurice later says he would choose to go through the ordeal again if guaranteed rescue[1:02:41]
• He reportedly says that if he knew he'd be rescued after four months, he would do it again because of what he learned and the beautiful moments he shared with Marilyn.

Survival narratives, children's books, and representation

Scarcity of girl-centered survival stories

Blair recalls growing up with boy-focused survival books[1:04:20]
• She mentions reading many survival books as a child and that they were almost all about boys, as discussed in a previous Big Island episode.
She's now writing a survival chapter book starring a girl[1:04:20]
• Blair says she is working on a kids' chapter book that's a survival story featuring a girl, essentially the book she wanted but didn't have growing up.

Survival stories as distilled versions of everyday struggle

Blair insists survival is not limited to the wilderness[1:05:23]
• She says survival is something everyone is doing all the time, and wilderness stories just distill those dynamics into a sharper, more visible form.
Sarah notes that survival stories feel increasingly relevant to everyday life[1:06:02]
• She observes that the more they talk about survival stories, the more applicable they seem to listeners' daily challenges, not just extreme expeditions.

Lessons Learned

Actionable insights and wisdom you can apply to your business, career, and personal life.

1

Effective survival requires simultaneously accepting reality as it is and committing to a future you can't yet see-hope is only useful when it's grounded in accurate assessment.

Reflection Questions:

  • • Where in your life are you relying on vague optimism instead of honestly assessing the constraints and resources you actually have?
  • • How could you update your current plans if you treated new information-good or bad-as something to adapt to rather than something to resist?
  • • What specific situation this week could benefit from you writing down the hard facts first, and only then deciding what hopeful actions to take next?
2

Small, "nonessential" creative or domestic acts can be critical survival tools because they structure time, preserve identity, and keep your mind anchored to a livable future.

Reflection Questions:

  • • What seemingly trivial hobbies or rituals help you feel more like yourself during stressful periods, and how might you protect time for them?
  • • How could you reframe one everyday task you've dismissed as frivolous-like planning a meal or sketching ideas-as part of your mental health toolkit?
  • • When you next feel overwhelmed, what small, absorbing activity could you choose that reminds you there will be a "later" you're living toward?
3

Choosing the right people to share crises with is a strategic decision: a good companion multiplies your resilience, while the wrong one can drain your energy and narrow your options.

Reflection Questions:

  • • If you applied the "lifeboat test" to your closest relationships, which people feel like true allies you'd want beside you in a long emergency?
  • • How might you gently shift your time and energy away from relationships that leave you more depleted than supported when things go wrong?
  • • What is one concrete step you could take this month to deepen a relationship with someone who has already shown up well for you under pressure?
4

Denial of risk-insisting that you're safe because you want to be-actually reduces your chances of survival; humility and continuous learning create space for smarter, safer choices.

Reflection Questions:

  • • Where are you currently assuming that "things will just work out" without having a clear plan or backup if they don't?
  • • How could you build a habit of asking, "What am I missing?" when making decisions about money, health, or work that carry real downside risk?
  • • What is one domain of your life where you could seek out a more experienced "reality-check" voice and let their perspective refine your plans?
5

Gendered expectations can obscure real competence; toughness and leadership may look like meticulous care, emotional steadiness, and planning-not just loud confidence or traditional "heroic" behavior.

Reflection Questions:

  • • Which people in your life quietly hold things together without getting much recognition, and what does their form of leadership look like?
  • • How might you be undervaluing your own contributions because they don't fit a stereotypical image of strength or authority?
  • • What is one way you could start giving more explicit credit-to yourself or others-for behind-the-scenes organizing, caregiving, or morale-building work?

Episode Summary - Notes by Quinn

The Auralyn with Blair Braverman
0:00 0:00