Unlocking Us with Brené Brown

Brené Brown spent two decades researching vulnerability, shame, and courage before most people even had the vocabulary for those concepts. Unlocking Us is where she puts that research to work in hour-long conversations that feel remarkably unguarded for someone with her platform. Brown talks with researchers, authors, and cultural figures, but the best episodes are the ones where she gets personal, sharing her own struggles with perfectionism or the messiness of raising teenagers. She has this way of naming an emotion you have been carrying around without words for it. The show has 134 episodes, a 4.6-star average from over 23,000 ratings, and it airs weekly through the Vox Media Podcast Network. Topics range widely, from grief and racial equity to the psychology of leadership and how social media rewires our sense of self. Brown is direct. She will not sugarcoat things, and she expects the same from her guests. If you have read her books, this is the audio companion that goes deeper. If you have not, the podcast stands on its own as a sharp, emotionally honest exploration of what it means to be a person trying to do better.