On Becoming

There are things we inherit that are easy to name—eye color, recipes, family traditions. And then there are the things we inherit that no one talks about. The grief. The silence. The secrets. The patterns that show up in our relationships, our parenting, our choices, and our creativity, all without us fully understanding why. This is what Dr. Galit Atlas calls emotional inheritance: the unconscious transmission of trauma, desire, and unspoken narratives across generations.About Dr Galit Atlas: Dr. Atlas is a clinical psychologist, psychoanalyst, and faculty member at NYU’s Postdoctoral Program in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times and academic journals around the world. Emotional Inheritance has been translated into 27 languages and become an international bestseller—for good reason. It helps people name what they’ve never had language for.I’ve been wanting to talk to her for years, but I reached out now because I’ve been sitting with this question in my own life and in the lives of the women I work with:What’s the connection between emotional excavation and creativity? Especially at midlife, when we feel a pull to become more ourselves—but often bump up against everything that’s unfinished, unspoken, or inherited. Galit helped me name something I hadn’t fully seen before: that creativity isn’t about making something new out of nothing. It’s about making new connections. It’s the act of looking at our own story—especially the fragmented or incomplete parts—and asking: What else might be true?In this episode, we explore:Why what we don’t know about our family may shape us more than what we doWhat makes a secret a secret—and why that distinction mattersWhy therapy mirrors creativity, and how both restore the capacity to connectWhy midlife is a powerful portal for this kind of transformationAnd how breaking unconscious emotional contracts can unlock new agency, clarity, and alivenessWe also talk about Galit’s beautiful The Emotional Inheritance Workbook, a structured, compassionate, and profound tool for doing this work—alone or in partnership. I can’t recommend it enough! And Galit also give a sneak-preview of her next book, coming in 2027, which explores childhood wounds and adult love. Connect with Me:• Book a discovery call at www.zevabellel.com• Subscribe to my Substack: On Becoming• Email me: zeva@zevabellel.com• Leave me a voice message on SpeakpipeCredits: Artwork Jessie Kanelos Weiner; Editing Matthew Jordan; Music © Fabrice FortinP.S. If you love this episode, share it with a friend, leave a 5-star review, or drop me a line. I love hearing from you!

Full disclosure: This episode almost didn’t make it to you. After our conversation, I got one of those dreaded error messages—my guest’s audio was supposedly damaged beyond repair. Which meant I had to do the unthinkable: ask her to re-record the whole thing. And not only was that a professional bummer, it felt like a crime. Because the conversation you’re about to hear was full of spontaneous, goosebump-inducing moments—those rare, honest sparks when something deeper comes through.So yes, we did a backup recording (thank you, Ana, for your grace). But right before I sent the files off to my editor… I discovered the original audio—the one you’re about to hear—was perfectly intact. Don’t ask. Just thank the podcast gods.Now, about my guest: Ana Tajder is a Croatian-born journalist, author, and host of the award-winning podcast Thank You, Mama, where she’s interviewed over 170 women from 80 countries about the lessons they learned from their mothers. She’s also the daughter of renowned Yugoslav actress and artist Jagoda Kaloper, a university lecturer in Vienna, and a two-time author whose work explores storytelling, sociology, and the cultural legacies passed down through the motherline.I invited Ana on because—whether she knows it or not—she’s been quietly building what I’d call a doctorate in mother-daughter wisdom. I wanted to know: after all these conversations, what has she learned not just about our mothers, but about us? What resurfaces in women’s lives at midlife? What gets inherited, and what gets rewritten?Ana’s story is extraordinary. She grew up with a fiercely independent, creative mother—and carries the legacy of a Croatian island ruled by “white widows,” badass women who held down entire communities while the men were gone. That matriarchal strength runs through this entire episode.We talk about:What actually gets passed down from mother to daughter—and what’s left unsaidWhy so many women were never taught to understand or care for their bodiesThe shadow side of over-functioning and emotional self-sacrificeThe creative awakening that often begins at midlifeHow women mother each other through storytelling, friendship, and witnessingAnd Ana’s powerful realization that women across cultures are living out a kind of universal, archetypal life story—one with distinct phases we’re only just beginning to nameConnect with Me:• Book a discovery call at www.zevabellel.com• Subscribe to my Substack: On Becoming• Email me: zeva@zevabellel.com• Leave me a voice message on SpeakpipeCredits: Artwork Jessie Kanelos Weiner; Editing Matthew Jordan; Music © Fabrice Fortin; Mai's photo bt Lyloutte StudioP.S. If you love this episode, share it with a friend, leave a 5-star review, or drop me a line. I love hearing from you!

Mai Hua is a filmmaker, writer, color designer, and one of the most emotionally honest storytellers I know. Her work doesn’t just explore intimacy, it practices it.Born in Paris to Vietnamese immigrant parents, Mai was raised to be pleasant, high-achieving, and accommodating. But one deceptively simple question from her then-boyfriend, now husband—“Tell me who you are”—pierced the surface. It cracked open everything she thought she was supposed to be. Her willingness to even try answering it became, in her words, "an act of love."Mai has been on a creative and spiritual journey toward what she calls l’intime—“the inside of the inside.” Her groundbreaking documentary Les Rivières traced the hidden emotional inheritance of the women in her family. Her second film, Make Me a Man, co-created with her husband, the British psychotherapist, Jerry Hyde, brings viewers into men’s therapy groups where emotional truth is the only currency. Her upcoming project, May Day, follows a 12-day group therapy circle, continuing her exploration of what it means to live and love honestly. And on her top-rated Substack Tell Me Who You Are, she asks and explores the hard questions, in public, with vulnerability, laughter and grace.In this conversation, we talk about:Why l’intime is more powerful than identityHow telling someone who you are can be the ultimate act of loveThe quiet safety that lives inside emotional truthWhy midlife is fertile ground for creative and spiritual freedomHow courage begins with speaking from the heartMai’s work invites us to find the courage to speak as close to the heart as your consciousness allows. After this conversation, I felt empowered to have some overdue conversations of my own. I hope it opens something for you too.💫 Want to take this work deeper? Join me this June in Paris for Creative Camp—a five-day immersive designed to reignite your creative spark. Learn more at zevabellel.com/creative-campConnect with Me:• Book a discovery call at www.zevabellel.com• Subscribe to my Substack: On Becoming• Email me: zeva@zevabellel.com• Leave me a voice message on SpeakpipeCredits: Artwork Jessie Kanelos Weiner; Editing Matthew Jordan; Music © Fabrice Fortin; Mai's photo bt Lyloutte StudioP.S. If you love this episode, share it with a friend, leave a 5-star review, or drop me a line. I love hearing from you!

We tend to talk about creativity as something we have to do. Write that proposal. Complete that project. Perfect that performance. But what if we're completely missing the point of engaging with creativity? What if creativity isn’t something to manipulate and master, but more like a living, breathing relationship that just wants some genuine TLC? Like any of the meaningful relationships we check in on regularly. (e.g. Hey, what’s up? How are you? What’s going on? What do you need? Can I give you a hug?)And what if our creativity in midlife—more than at any other stage in life, perhaps—is especially about dropping our incessant desire to control the outcome? And instead, just about showing up. With no expectations. Just a willingness to be curious, to listen, and to see what's cooking.That creative reframe is at the core of my conversation today with Liz Kimball—a creative catalyst, transformational coach, and visionary thinker whose work lives at the intersection of imagination, embodiment, and identity. Liz doesn’t just coach women to “get things done.” She helps them reimagine the creative process as a living relationship with their voice, their purpose, and their future self.About Liz:Liz grew up in a deeply artistic home and began dancing seriously at a very young age. Ballet became her creative container. A space where she poured years of discipline and devotion into the pursuit of excellence. Everything seemed mapped out for a professional career in performance, until one day, in a moment of radical clarity (which she shares in her TEDx talk), she walked away. That choice unraveled everything and sparked something entirely new. Today, Liz is the founder of The Creative 15 and The Expansion Project. Her work has been featured on Oprah.com, The Guggenheim, and more. With an MFA and a CPC certification, she helps women birth the great work of their lives, not just the external projects, but the truest version of themselves.In this episode we explore:When goals become cages instead of containersThe myths that block women from creative freedomThe difference between creative output and creative intimacyWhy “too much time” is exactly what women need to fully express themselvesPractical tools to nurture a creative practice that feels alive.💫 Want to take this work deeper? Join me this June in Paris for Creative Camp—a five-day immersive designed to reignite your creative spark. Learn more at zevabellel.com/creative-campConnect with Me:• Book a discovery call at www.zevabellel.com• Subscribe to my Substack: On Becoming• Email me: zeva@zevabellel.com• Leave me a voice message on SpeakpipeCredits: Artwork Jessie Kanelos Weiner; Editing Matthew Jordan; Music © Fabrice FortinP.S. If you love this episode, share it with a friend, leave a 5-star review, or drop me a line. I love hearing from you!

I was originally going to publish a conversation this week. It was all recorded and ready to go but I had so many dots that needed connecting that I had to grab the mic and record a solo episode to try to make sense of things. What’s been bubbling up for me as I rip open and explore this season’s theme—creativity at midlife—is whether this phase of life is truly age-specific… or something more nuanced. Something broader. Like a spectrum.There have been moments in my life—applying to colleges, being pregnant, first moving to Paris—that felt so immersive and all-consuming, I couldn’t take in anything else. Surprisingly, midlife feels the same, and I want to understand why.In this episode, I explore that question through a few key touchpoints:Why Gen X’s midlife feels so saturated with analog nostalgia—and what that means for our creative urges now.Whether these questions of reinvention and identity are universal, or uniquely tied to a particular cohort of women.Annie Ernaux, obsession, and the idea of turning your life into a “work of art” and what that says about this moment.Glennon Doyle’s controversial departure from Substack and why it feels like a midlife flex.The real voice of intuition and why it doesn't come with an elaborate bullet point list of explanations, even though we'd love it to.And why being a creative beginner at midlife isn’t just about picking up new hobbies and crafts—it’s also about being novices at things that are hard to explore and do (eg. setting boundaries, claiming desires, having conversations we'd like to avoid.)I also share something I’ve been building quietly behind the scenes: Creative Camp—a new series of in-person events in Paris to help you reignite your creative energy, reconnect with parts of yourself that have gone quiet, and say yes to being bad at something new. It very much ties it with a new term I learned from Chip Conley called "type 2 fun"—the kind that feels awkward or uncertain in the moment but leaves you changed, glowing, and deeply alive in hindsight.So here’s the question I’ll leave you with today:Where are you on the midlife spectrum?And more importantly—what’s quietly calling to you from the next place?Spots at Creative Camp are limited, and they’re already filling, so come get yours!Connect with Me:• Book a discovery call at www.zevabellel.com• Subscribe to my Substack: On Becoming• Email me: zeva@zevabellel.com• Leave me a voice message on SpeakpipeCredits: Artwork Jessie Kanelos Weiner; Editing Matthew Jordan; Music © Fabrice FortinP.S. If you love this episode, share it with a friend, leave a 5-star review, or drop me a line. I love hearing from you!

This season we’re exploring creativity in midlife. That electric, unpredictable, often inconvenient force that resurfaces just as everything else in your life is demanding your attention. For many women, this chapter brings a hunger to express, create, and feel deeply… even while navigating brain fog, hot flashes, insomnia, or a sneaky sense that time is running out. What happens when your creativity doesn’t quiet down, but starts to boil up? Enter my guest today, Robinne Lee.About Robinne Lee:Robinne is a Jamaican-Chinese writer, actress, and producer, a graduate of Yale University and Columbia Law School. She’s spent the past three decades building an impressive career in film and television, with standout roles in Hitch, Seven Pounds, 13 Going on 30, Being Mary Jane, and the Fifty Shades franchise. But she’s perhaps best known today as the author of the breakout novel The Idea of You—an international bestseller, translated into over a dozen languages, and adapted into an Amazon Studios movie starring Anne Hathaway. She’s currently working on her anxiously awaited second novel, due out in 2026.If you don’t already know the book, here’s the premise: a nearly 40-year-old single mom and art gallerist unexpectedly falls into a passionate relationship with the 20-year-old lead singer of the world’s biggest boy band. Yes, it’s erotically delicious. But it’s also a daring, tender, and deeply honest exploration of what it means to feel alive, desirous, and sexually empowered at midlife—a time when society often expects women to shrink and fade.In our conversation, we dive into:How Paris—with its beauty, history, and seasonal sensuality—awakens her curiosity and creativity.Why fantasy isn’t just escapism, but a portal to our hidden, electric selvesHow Robinne developed a deep understanding of intimacy and seduction, long before living it outHow writing about the complexity of women’s lives is a quiet act of rebellionAnd how midlife sharpens our hunger to live fully, unapologetically, right nowWe also get into the audiobook version of The Idea of You (which Robinne narrates herself). It’s masterful—she inhabits the characters of Solène and Hayes so completely, it’s like being inside the story with them. Honestly, if you’re tempted to skip the book and just watch the movie… don’t. Listen to the audiobook. Trust me.And if today’s subject stirs something in you—if you’re feeling your own creative fire asking for space—just remember: this is the work I support my clients with through my coaching practice.Connect with Me:• Book a discovery call at www.zevabellel.com• Subscribe to my Substack: On Becoming• Email me: zeva@zevabellel.com• Leave me a voice message on SpeakpipeCredits: Artwork Jessie Kanelos Weiner; Editing Matthew Jordan; Music © Fabrice FortinP.S. If you love this episode, share it with a friend, leave a 5-star review, or drop me a line. I love hearing from you!

This season, we’re diving into something deeply personal, often misunderstood, and wildly powerful: creativity for women in midlife. The theme is inspired by my own observations and the voices of so many women I've worked with as a women's empowerment coach. There’s a narrative tension in this chapter of life: a deep, almost primal hunger to make, express, and reinvent… right alongside physical symptoms like brain fog, emotional reactivity, night sweats, anxious insomnia, and a creeping sense that you’re not as fired up as you used to be. You wonder: What the heck is going on inside of me? What do I need to express—and why is it so hard to get it out? Add in the cultural messaging that a woman’s midlife brain is in decline, and you’ve got a potent mix of doubt, confusion, and disconnection from your power.So I wanted to begin this season with something grounding. Not just inspiration—but the science. The “under the hood” truth of how our brains evolve as we do. To help us, I’m joined by Dr. Sarah McKay, a neuroscientist, author, speaker, and unapologetic brain nerd, who’s spent the last decade unpacking the wildly misunderstood world of women’s brain health.About Dr. Sarah McKay:Dr. McKay is an Oxford-educated neuroscientist who lives on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, where she writes, teaches and translates brain science into real-world tools for clinicians, coaches, and curious minds. Her books include:The Women’s Brain Book (2018) second edition due September 2025); Baby Brain (2023), on how pregnancy and motherhood rewire the brain for the better; Brain Health For Dummies (2025). And she also gave a TEDx talk on the power of naps—a woman after my own heart. Sarah’s journey began with a viral blog post on “baby brain.” Instead of brushing off the stereotype, she got curious. That spark turned into a decade-long exploration of how the female brain transforms across life stages—from matrescence to menopause. When she started researching menopause and the brain, it was niche—barely a blip in mainstream science. Now? It’s everywhere. And Sarah helped lead the way.What makes her work powerful is how she breaks the science down—dissecting, decoding, and making it useful. She shines light on what’s long been hidden, creating a hunger for understanding, agency, and more.In this conversation:We explore what really happens to the brain during hormonal transitions—not the myths, but the messy, magical, science-backed truth.We talk matrescence, connection, sleep, and why midlife might be your most creatively fertile season yet.Why midlife isn’t a crisis but a creative recalibrationThe truth about hormonesThe neurological shift of motherhoodSleep as a creative superpowerSocial connection as brain medicineHow purpose and play keep the brain aliveSo, whether you’re foggy, fired up, or somewhere in between, this episode will reframe how you see your midlife mind—not as decline, but creative rebirth.Connect with Me:• Book a discovery call at www.zevabellel.com• Subscribe to my Substack: On Becoming• Email me: zeva@zevabellel.com• Leave me a voice message on SpeakpipeP.S. If you love this episode, share it with a friend, leave a 5-star review, or drop me a line. I love hearing from you!

Hey there, it’s Zeva Bellel—career and leadership coach for women—and I’m thrilled to welcome you to Season 4 of On Becoming.This season, we’re diving headfirst into a topic that’s been stirring in my heart, in my coaching work, and in nearly every honest conversation I’ve had with women lately:Midlife and the Creative Reckoning.If Season 3 was about how women lead, Season 4 is about what fuels that leadership—and for many of us, it’s creativity.But I’m not talking about creativity in the narrow, elite, paint-in-a-studio sense. I’m talking about creativity as life force. As inner knowing. As rebellion. As a return to the wildest, most vital parts of who we are.In this season, I’m exploring what happens when women at midlife feel the creative urge rising, and how many of us have lost the map to our own expression.Here’s what you can expect this season:Intimate conversations with extraordinary women—artists, coaches, storytellers, culture-makers—who are reimagining what it means to live, lead, and create in midlife.Juicy solo episodes where I’ll dig into topics like creative shame, desire, fantasy, self-trust, and the cultural conditioning that keeps women small.A peek behind the curtain of my own creative reckoning—and what I’ve learned from coaching women through theirs.We’ll wrestle with questions like:🎨 What happens when we stop expressing ourselves creatively?🌀 Why do so many women feel a quiet ache for “more”—but have no idea where to start?🔥 How do we move through the fear, shame, and perfectionism that block our creative power?🌿 What’s the link between creativity, vitality, and personal agency in midlife?And we’ll hold tight to this truth from Clarissa Pinkola Estés:“A woman’s creative ability is her most valuable asset, for it gives outwardly and it feeds her inwardly at every level—psychic, spiritual, mental, emotive, and economic.”If you’ve ever felt the hum of something inside you asking to be heard, expressed, made real—this season is for you.Midlife isn’t a dead end. It’s your next masterpiece in motion.So subscribe, follow the show, and share this episode with someone who needs a creative jolt. You’ll want to be part of what’s coming: powerful conversations, creative experiments (yes, a creative camp is happening!), and a collective reclaiming of the parts of ourselves we’re finally ready to honor.—Connect with Me:• Book a discovery call at www.zevabellel.com• Subscribe to my Substack: On Becoming• Email me: zeva@zevabellel.com• Leave me a voice message on SpeakpipeP.S. If you love this episode, share it with a friend, leave a 5-star review, or drop me a line. I love hearing from you!

This is a solo episode—a personal reflection on the biggest insights, toughest truths, and most electrifying moments from this season on fierce female leadership. When I started this season, I wanted to peel back the curtain on women’s power—to understand the unique ways we lead, the gifts we bring, and the impact we make when we show up fully. The moment felt hopeful. Kamala Harris had a real shot at sitting in the most powerful seat on the planet. But now, just a few months later, the backlash against women in leadership is intensifying and the exhaustion is real.So, as this season comes to a close, I want to pause and reflect—not just on what we learned, but on the one question I keep coming back to:How do we nurture and grow our unique power—and use it for the collective good—when the world seems dead set on stopping us?I connect the dots between my guests’ powerful stories and this cultural reckoning:Rha Goddess on why women are wired for collective power—and why that threatens traditional leadership models.Ida Tin on redefining leadership by centering women’s health and creating systemic change.Cindy Gallop on rejecting the male gaze, reimagining power, and breaking outdated systems.Colleen Curtis on emotional intelligence as a strategic advantage, not a liability.Jessi Klein on expanding our definition of power—because sometimes, the strongest thing we can do is simply endure.Anna Polonsky on leading with authenticity, and why embracing softness can be an act of radical strength.And I dig into the core themes that emerged this season:• The ways women are wired for collective power—and why that threatens outdated leadership structures• Why emotional intelligence is not a soft skill but a strategic advantage• The tension between ambition and backlash—and how we redefine success on our terms• The hard truth about women hurting other women in leadership—and why that’s not the full story• The power of embodied intelligence—how women’s lived experiences shape innovation, leadership, and creativity.Connect with Me:• Book a discovery call at www.zevabellel.com• Subscribe to my Substack: On Becoming• Email me: zeva@zevabellel.com• Leave me a voice message on SpeakpipeP.S. If you love this episode, share it with a friend, leave a 5-star review, or drop me a line. I love hearing from you!