Do we like Brené Brown?
Our score: 8 out of 10. No harmful words or acts turned up, and she has spoken against dehumanising talk about migrants, but the record on real-world good deeds I could open is thin.
Brené Brown is the Texan researcher who made vulnerability a household word. She is a University of Houston research professor, and she has turned that academic work into bestsellers, podcasts and a corporate speaking circuit. Her clients, according to one critic, include Microsoft and IBM.
The most recent bit of drama is a gentle one. In April 2026 the Financial Times quoted her as being “solidly in my f*cking era”. She contacted the writer, who changed it to “solidly in my f*ck it era” and apologised publicly. The Mediaweek write-up is mostly about how much those two phrases differ.
She also ended a long-running spat. Adam Grant and Brown fell out publicly in 2016 over the definition of authenticity, and the two went years without working together. In 2026 they launched The Curiosity Shop on the Vox Media Podcast Network, a show built around disagreeing productively.
On the harm check, nothing nasty turned up in what I could open. In a 2019 keynote at the University of Houston she said of an administration that its talk of immigrants as an “infestation” was dehumanising language. She warned that this kind of language preceded Nazism. In a 2017 piece for OWN she advised parents to name hurtful behaviour and explain why it clashes with family values. I found no work with anyone pushing harm.
Her one real critic-bait moment is the February 2024 essay on the Israel-Hamas war. She wrote in support of a “peaceful, prosperous, secure and free” Israel and Palestine, drawing on her vulnerability framework. Writers at Lit Hub and Jacobin called it a vapid plea that avoided naming what was happening in Gaza. Others may see it as a call for empathy on both sides, so where you land depends on how you read it.
On the good-person side, there are no court cases or credible accusations in what I found. Her recent public work, such as her 2025 Fortune interviews, is about leaders treating staff humanely. In those interviews she says that “power over” needs periodic cruelty to survive, and that fear has a short shelf life. Honest caveat: my search turned up little on charity or costly stands, so the good-stuff box is empty rather than padded.