The Femme Cast | Saying the Quiet Parts Out Loud

Maria Rei

You're listening to The Femme Cast. The podcast where the quiet parts finally get said out loud. Where we undo, unbecome, and unlearn everything the world told us we should be. I'm Maria Rei. Leader, Speaker, & Advocate. I'm an advocate for women's worth, wealth, voice, and empowerment, and a catalyst committed to breaking the cultural patterns that silence and diminish women, and keep them from their potential. I bring visibility to the lived experiences women are taught to ignore, minimize, or survive quietly, so women can step up, step out, and move through the world with greater confidence, agency and awareness. This is the space where we get honest about what is actually shaping women's lives, including what it looks like when women lead, speak up, and show up fully in their communities and careers, and what gets in the way of them doing it. Sometimes that looks like unpacking gender conditioning and the systems of modern womanhood. Sometimes it looks like two people saying the thing nobody at the table was willing to say first. We cover power, identity, relationships, work, religion, politics, bodies, and culture, and we do not tiptoe around any of it.Because the patterns are real. The conditioning is real. And most of us were never given the language to name it. That's what this show is for. Some episodes are reflective. Some are sharp. Some are deeply personal. Some will crack open something you have been carrying your whole life. Some are the lessons I learned the hard way, mistakes I made, and what I wish someone had told me sooner. And some are just the conversation you wish you could have had at the table. The one where nobody is performing, nobody is softening the truth, and someone finally just says it. This is not another self-help show. This is for women ready to dismantle everything standing between them and their full potential, step into their power, and unbecome everything that was never theirs to begin with.

  1. 2d ago

    The Money Shame Nobody Talks About | My Cycle of Wealth, Loss, and Rebuilding From Scratch

    In this deeply vulnerable episode of The Femme Cast, I share what I have kept private for years. My financial life has not been a straight line of growth, but a repeated swing between abundance and rock bottom. Times of earning and expansion followed by sudden collapse, maxed out credit, living on overdraft, and the quiet fear of not being able to pay rent or even buy gas without panic. This is not just about money. It is about shame, secrecy, childhood money trauma, and the emotional weight of growing up feeling separate from people who seemed to have everything. It is about learning to perform stability while privately unraveling, and how that performance eventually shapes your relationships, confidence, and sense of safety in the world. We go into the long shadow of financial humiliation, the survival patterns that carry into adulthood, and the exhausting cycle of curating success while struggling behind the scenes. I also speak honestly about how parts of the personal development world can make this worse by dismissing real survival stress as mindset failure or victim mentality, when basic needs are not met. At the core of this conversation is one truth. Self worth is the turning point. When money feels unsafe, unstable, or tied to guilt and effort, abundance cannot land in a grounded way. Healing starts by telling the truth, not bypassing it. In this episode I also share a simple one week practice I am committing to. Stop avoiding the trigger, allow the discomfort to be seen, journal what is underneath, and shift from performance into compassion. This is emotional alchemy, not avoidance. If you have ever felt trapped in financial cycles, ashamed of your money story, or exhausted by trying to stay positive while things feel unstable, this conversation is for you. Speak up! Tell me what you thought of this episode or ask a question for the show — your voice matters. Support the Show Pay what feels right and get The Rebuild Ritual free. Stop spinning. Start rebuilding: https://thefemmecast.kit.com/products/the-rebuild-ritual Subscribe to The Femme Cast Never miss an episode. New conversations every week, delivered straight to you: https://thefemmecast.kit.com/podcast Subscribe to The Femme Cast Diaries Real-time dispatches from the rebuild. For the woman who's tired of pretending otherwise: https://thefemmecast.substack.com/ Come 'unbecome' with me! Don’t forget to Rate & Review 30 seconds is all it takes to help other women who need this find their way in.

    45 min
  2. May 12

    The Dark Side of Personal Development | The Billion-Dollar Industry Keeping Women Feeling “Not Enough”

    I’ve been quietly breaking up with the personal development machine, and this time, I think it’s for good. In this deeply personal episode of The Femme Cast, I unpack the darker side of the self-help and spiritual industry: the high-vibe performance culture, emotional bypassing, and the billion-dollar cycle that keeps people chasing the next “healed” version of themselves while quietly reinforcing the belief that they’re still not enough. We talk about: 🎤 The hidden conditioning inside coaching and spiritual spaces 🎤 Why “doing the work” can turn into an endless fixing loop 🎤 The pressure to package your purpose into promises of money, love, or success 🎤 Fear-based resistance vs. true misalignment 🎤 Burnout, self-trust, and reclaiming your inner authority 🎤 Money wounds, financial fear, and taking your power back 🎤 Women’s empowerment, patriarchal conditioning, and redefining abundance on your own terms 🎤 What happens when you stop being externally led and start becoming internally guided I also share the moment I realized my work was never meant to fit neatly into the business coaching mold, why I’m stepping away from performative online culture, and how returning to my voice, my story, and my intuition is changing everything. If you’ve ever felt exhausted from constantly trying to “fix” yourself, if you’ve spent years investing in healing but still feel stuck, or if you’re questioning the narratives you’ve been sold about success, worthiness, abundance, and purpose, this conversation is for you. Speak up! Tell me what you thought of this episode or ask a question for the show — your voice matters. Support the Show Pay what feels right and get The Rebuild Ritual free. Stop spinning. Start rebuilding: https://thefemmecast.kit.com/products/the-rebuild-ritual Subscribe to The Femme Cast Never miss an episode. New conversations every week, delivered straight to you: https://thefemmecast.kit.com/podcast Subscribe to The Femme Cast Diaries Real-time dispatches from the rebuild. For the woman who's tired of pretending otherwise: https://thefemmecast.substack.com/ Come 'unbecome' with me! Don’t forget to Rate & Review 30 seconds is all it takes to help other women who need this find their way in.

    44 min
  3. May 5

    What If God Is a Woman | The Truth Patriarchy Doesn’t Want You to Hear

    What if the reason women have been controlled throughout history is because their power has always been patriarchy’s greatest threat. In this episode of The Femme Cast, we ask a question that challenges spirituality, culture, and power at the root: what if God is a woman. Not as shock value, but as a radical reframing of creation, intuition, and what it means to be human. If God is the creator of life, and women literally create life, what does that say about where feminine power truly sits in the world. We explore how women carry emotional intelligence, intuition, empathy, and relational awareness that has been consistently dismissed as irrational, and how those same qualities are the ones societies quietly rely on to function. We unpack how patriarchal systems have shaped religion, politics, and cultural narratives in ways that often suppress women’s bodies, choices, and inner knowing. This conversation goes deeper into dominance orientation, the idea of gaining power by diminishing what is seen as powerful, and how that mindset can show up in systems that control reproduction, rewrite spiritual narratives, and define who gets to be seen as sacred versus dangerous. We also reflect on the stories we inherit about Eve, Lilith, and women’s roles, and how shame has been used to disconnect women from their own guidance. At its core, this episode is not just theory, it is a lived question of identity and power. If women are not secondary but central to creation itself, what shifts in how we live, choose, and lead. You will be invited into a practical challenge: move through your life asking, what if God is exactly like me. What would you stop apologizing for. What would you create. What would change if you fully trusted your intuition, voice, and power. If you are questioning systems, spirituality, or your place in the world, this conversation is for you. Speak up! Tell me what you thought of this episode or ask a question for the show — your voice matters. Support the Show Pay what feels right and get The Rebuild Ritual free. Stop spinning. Start rebuilding: https://thefemmecast.kit.com/products/the-rebuild-ritual Subscribe to The Femme Cast Never miss an episode. New conversations every week, delivered straight to you: https://thefemmecast.kit.com/podcast Subscribe to The Femme Cast Diaries Real-time dispatches from the rebuild. For the woman who's tired of pretending otherwise: https://thefemmecast.substack.com/ Come 'unbecome' with me! Don’t forget to Rate & Review 30 seconds is all it takes to help other women who need this find their way in.

    20 min
  4. Apr 28

    Side B | Breaking All The Rules And Saying The Quiet Parts Out Loud, A New Era Of The Femme Cast

    Side B of The Femme Cast is where the polished world of personal development ends and the raw, unfiltered truth begins. This episode marks a turning point. After a season of loss and grief, and a growing resistance to the pressure to reframe everything into positivity, I am stepping away from the rules of personal development culture and the marketing boxes we are told to fit into. We explore why women are exhausted by constant positivity, why “health, wealth, love” is not the only language of value, and why the word impact became a personal anchor for something deeper: a ripple effect of truth, voice, and change. This is a conversation about what it really means to be seen. Not performatively visible, but truly witnessed. We talk about women’s rights, workplace inequality, politics, religion, and the everyday ways women are taught to stay small or stay silent. Side B is a metaphor for everything we were told not to say out loud. The filler tracks. The raw recordings. The truth that often becomes the most powerful part of the record. If you have ever felt disconnected from the glossy version of self-improvement, this space is for you. This is a shift toward honesty, embodiment, and impact that spreads when one woman tells the truth and another realizes she is not alone. Speak up! Tell me what you thought of this episode or ask a question for the show — your voice matters. Support the Show Pay what feels right and get The Rebuild Ritual free. Stop spinning. Start rebuilding: https://thefemmecast.kit.com/products/the-rebuild-ritual Subscribe to The Femme Cast Never miss an episode. New conversations every week, delivered straight to you: https://thefemmecast.kit.com/podcast Subscribe to The Femme Cast Diaries Real-time dispatches from the rebuild. For the woman who's tired of pretending otherwise: https://thefemmecast.substack.com/ Come 'unbecome' with me! Don’t forget to Rate & Review 30 seconds is all it takes to help other women who need this find their way in.

    23 min
  5. Apr 21

    Not All Men… But Which Ones? | Rape Culture, Misogyny & Women’s Safety

    Sixty-two million visits to an “online rape academy”… and the loudest response online is debating the numbers. This episode of The Femme Cast goes where most conversations won’t. It names the deeper truth: when violence against women gets reduced to stats, we expose how normalized misogyny, exploitation, and assault have become, both online and in real life. I share the emotional weight this story carries and a personal experience of being followed home just days before the headlines broke. The reality is, women aren’t guessing. Hypervigilance is learned. Checking the backseat, changing routes, gripping keys as protection… this isn’t paranoia, it’s survival. We break down the data honestly: visits vs. unique users, and why even conservative estimates still point to millions engaging, observing, or choosing silence. Because the real issue isn’t whether it’s “all men”… it’s that women cannot tell who is safe. Predators don’t announce themselves. Sometimes, they’re strangers. Sometimes, they’re trusted partners. Sometimes they’re the person sleeping next to us at night.  This conversation challenges: 🎤 the obsession with statistics over morality 🎤 the culture of “not all men” as a deflection from accountability 🎤 the conditioning that teaches women to be careful instead of teaching men not to harm women We also get clear on what real allyship looks like: reporting abuse, refusing complicity, speaking up, and actively rebuilding trust through action, not defensiveness. Because this isn’t just about one site. It’s about a system that protects predators and questions women. Speak up! Tell me what you thought of this episode or ask a question for the show — your voice matters. Support the Show Pay what feels right and get The Rebuild Ritual free. Stop spinning. Start rebuilding: https://thefemmecast.kit.com/products/the-rebuild-ritual Subscribe to The Femme Cast Never miss an episode. New conversations every week, delivered straight to you: https://thefemmecast.kit.com/podcast Subscribe to The Femme Cast Diaries Real-time dispatches from the rebuild. For the woman who's tired of pretending otherwise: https://thefemmecast.substack.com/ Come 'unbecome' with me! Don’t forget to Rate & Review 30 seconds is all it takes to help other women who need this find their way in.

    33 min
  6. Apr 16

    Lauren of Love on Why the Coaching Industry Needs a Full Reset | Consent, Truth, and Trauma-Informed Leadership

    The coaching industry doesn’t need more scripts. It needs truth. In this powerful conversation on The Femme Cast, I sit down with transformational mentor Lauren Eliz Love from Lauren of Love to unpack what’s really broken in online coaching, and what it takes to rebuild a business rooted in consent-based selling, emotional safety, and unapologetic authenticity. We go straight into it: toxic sales tactics, algorithm anxiety, performative content, and the pressure to “do it right.” And we replace all of it with something far more disruptive. Presence over performance, sovereignty over strategy, and truth over templates. Lauren reframes selling as a spiritual, consent-led practice where both people get to explore fit without pressure or manipulation. We explore how attachment to outcome creates burnout, misaligned clients, and disconnection from your work, and what opens up when you release it. We also unpack trauma-informed space holding, what actually happens when unprocessed emotions enter coaching containers, why so many clients are retraumatized in “growth spaces,” and how leaders can create safety without shrinking their power. This conversation also challenges the myth of “the algorithm,” inviting you back into creative freedom, where content is led by intuition, not fear. Because the moment your strategy starts choking your voice, it’s no longer structure… it’s a cage. This is for the woman who’s done shrinking, over-performing, and hiding her voice, and is ready for visibility, emotional alchemy, making an impact, and stepping into her Unapologetic Woman era. If you’ve felt disillusioned by the coaching space, this is your permission slip to do it differently.  Want more Lauren?  Join her Magic App with dozens of Lauren's courses, resources, and a private community! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://laurenoflove.com/app⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Visit her website: https://⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠laurenoflove.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow her on IG: https://www.instagram.com/laurenoflove/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Speak up! Tell me what you thought of this episode or ask a question for the show — your voice matters. Support the Show Pay what feels right and get The Rebuild Ritual free. Stop spinning. Start rebuilding: https://thefemmecast.kit.com/products/the-rebuild-ritual Subscribe to The Femme Cast Never miss an episode. New conversations every week, delivered straight to you: https://thefemmecast.kit.com/podcast Subscribe to The Femme Cast Diaries Real-time dispatches from the rebuild. For the woman who's tired of pretending otherwise: https://thefemmecast.substack.com/ Come 'unbecome' with me! Don’t forget to Rate & Review 30 seconds is all it takes to help other women who need this find their way in.

    48 min
  7. Apr 9

    How Breaking Up With Religion Healed My Relationship With Myself And God

    What if the very thing you were taught would bring you closer to God… actually kept you disconnected from yourself? This episode of The Femme Cast is raw, unfiltered, and completely off-script. We’re talking about the quiet rebellion so many women feel—but are afraid to admit: outgrowing organized religion, questioning what you were taught, and reclaiming your relationship with the divine on your own terms. Not from rebellion… but from truth. Because for me? Breaking up with religion didn’t distance me from God—it brought me home. We go deep into the emotional alchemy of unraveling shame, releasing fear-based narratives, and healing the parts of you that were taught your intuition, your voice, your power… were wrong. We’ll explore: 🎤 Why “the kingdom of God is within you” changes everything 🎤 How religion can create disconnection, over-performance, and fear of being seen 🎤 Reclaiming intuition, healing gifts, and self-trust without guilt 🎤 Rewriting the stories of Jesus + Mary Magdalene as mirrors—not idols 🎤 The truth about power, control, and who benefits from your disempowerment 🎤 How to build a direct, embodied relationship with the divine (no middleman required) This isn’t about tearing anything down. It’s about rising into your sovereignty. If you’ve ever felt the tension between your ambition, your spirituality, and your desire to make an impact—this conversation will activate something in you. Because the most unapologetic woman? She doesn’t ask for permission to be powerful. She remembers she already is. Speak up! Tell me what you thought of this episode or ask a question for the show — your voice matters. Support the Show Pay what feels right and get The Rebuild Ritual free. Stop spinning. Start rebuilding: https://thefemmecast.kit.com/products/the-rebuild-ritual Subscribe to The Femme Cast Never miss an episode. New conversations every week, delivered straight to you: https://thefemmecast.kit.com/podcast Subscribe to The Femme Cast Diaries Real-time dispatches from the rebuild. For the woman who's tired of pretending otherwise: https://thefemmecast.substack.com/ Come 'unbecome' with me! Don’t forget to Rate & Review 30 seconds is all it takes to help other women who need this find their way in.

    30 min
  8. Mar 31

    Fear You're Not Enough and Imposter Syndrome | Visibility Glow Up Series Part 5

    If “Who am I to do this?” has been quietly running your life… this is where we burn that story down. We’re closing out Visibility Glow Up Month with the most insidious visibility block I see in high-capacity, soul-led women: the belief that you’re not enough. Not ready enough. Not qualified enough. Not polished enough. And here’s the truth no one wants to say out loud: that story isn’t protecting you. It’s costing you. In this episode of The Femme Cast, I pull back the curtain on my own journey. Hitting top 5% globally, surpassing 10K downloads, and still confronting the voice that questioned my right to lead. This is about owning who you are, before the world validates it. We go deep into: 🎤 How imposter syndrome actually controls your visibility, income, and impact 🎤 The hidden addiction to overlearning, certifications, and “fixing yourself” 🎤 Why social media + personal development can reinforce not-enoughness 🎤 The opportunities you’re missing by waiting to feel 100% ready 🎤 My bold experiment with “unniching” and trusting alignment over algorithms 🎤 The real work: cutting off the supply and taking aligned action now This is emotional alchemy. This is reclaiming your voice. This is becoming the unapologetic woman who moves before she feels ready, and becomes powerful because of it. You don’t need more proof. You need to move. Speak up! Tell me what you thought of this episode or ask a question for the show — your voice matters. Support the Show Pay what feels right and get The Rebuild Ritual free. Stop spinning. Start rebuilding: https://thefemmecast.kit.com/products/the-rebuild-ritual Subscribe to The Femme Cast Never miss an episode. New conversations every week, delivered straight to you: https://thefemmecast.kit.com/podcast Subscribe to The Femme Cast Diaries Real-time dispatches from the rebuild. For the woman who's tired of pretending otherwise: https://thefemmecast.substack.com/ Come 'unbecome' with me! Don’t forget to Rate & Review 30 seconds is all it takes to help other women who need this find their way in.

    33 min
4.9
out of 5
12 Ratings

About

You're listening to The Femme Cast. The podcast where the quiet parts finally get said out loud. Where we undo, unbecome, and unlearn everything the world told us we should be. I'm Maria Rei. Leader, Speaker, & Advocate. I'm an advocate for women's worth, wealth, voice, and empowerment, and a catalyst committed to breaking the cultural patterns that silence and diminish women, and keep them from their potential. I bring visibility to the lived experiences women are taught to ignore, minimize, or survive quietly, so women can step up, step out, and move through the world with greater confidence, agency and awareness. This is the space where we get honest about what is actually shaping women's lives, including what it looks like when women lead, speak up, and show up fully in their communities and careers, and what gets in the way of them doing it. Sometimes that looks like unpacking gender conditioning and the systems of modern womanhood. Sometimes it looks like two people saying the thing nobody at the table was willing to say first. We cover power, identity, relationships, work, religion, politics, bodies, and culture, and we do not tiptoe around any of it.Because the patterns are real. The conditioning is real. And most of us were never given the language to name it. That's what this show is for. Some episodes are reflective. Some are sharp. Some are deeply personal. Some will crack open something you have been carrying your whole life. Some are the lessons I learned the hard way, mistakes I made, and what I wish someone had told me sooner. And some are just the conversation you wish you could have had at the table. The one where nobody is performing, nobody is softening the truth, and someone finally just says it. This is not another self-help show. This is for women ready to dismantle everything standing between them and their full potential, step into their power, and unbecome everything that was never theirs to begin with.

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