Podcast Review: Money Trauma

The year 2025 was a transformative one for me. I moved cities, changed careers, got married, and learned how to budget effectively for the first time in my life.

In moving cities and changing careers, I ended up spending the first half of 2025 unemployed, relying on the support and generosity of family and friends. Since then, I realized as much as I had a newfound peace with my money - I was still experiencing a degree of anxiety. I told my husband, I think I need to find a therapist. I've been in and out of therapy for various types of trauma and anxiety for a good portion of my life. I recognized it before I even had a name for it.

I have been experiencing the title of this podcast. Money Trauma.

Money is hard. It's gross and icky. No one likes talking about it because having or not having it is tied up in morals and values. The truth is, money is a necessary tool to get you food, shelter, medicine and whatever else you need or want. People are impacted negatively when they have too little, or even too much of it.

Which is why I like this podcast. Hosted by Miho Soon, this six part limited series isn't a self-help podcast. It's a documentary series that lets us know that we aren't alone, and there are pathways to feeling better about money that are sometimes through different avenues than we first realized. It is calm, fortifying, and an easy listen if you think you'll be intimidated by money. It's not one to be overwhelmed by, it's one to sit peacefully with and feel not so alone.

I was able to listen to the first three episodes early, and let me tell you, I felt so seen. It is uncomfortable talking about money. We tie it up with other measurements of value and success. If you have money but don't give enough of it away, you're seen as selfish. If you have no money, you're seen as lazy and not hard working enough. It doesn't matter how you got there. These issues don't even begin to mention how stereotypes around culture can directly impact how a system is structured to help, or not help who are struggling the most.

As much as we think about the impacts of not having money, I love that this podcast is laying it all out there. It's not about what people do or how people are impacted by the times they had financial uncertainty. It's also about how being wealthy impacts people and their own world view. It even uses a clip from a podcast I listen to on occasion The Nerd Reich which had an episode talking about how the ultra wealthy are in this position of not being able to achieve the next benchmark - so they go a little haywire on their power because what else is there? I mention this because across society there are versions of this, where anxiety creates a cycle of hoarding wealth we don't need. The anxities of a few people impact the whole world, because people use money to legally evade taxes so they can have more of it - but it never helps. It never makes them feel safe because they aren't actually facing what they are anxious about.

The way these six podcast episodes frame this problem of money trauma and financial anxiety feels like an older friend passing down their wisdom. Each episode is its own 40ish minute trove of information. It is not judgemental, it is pragmatic. It's not giving you solutions, it's telling you pathways to solutions exist. Money Trauma is an examination of a phenomenon we only just now have the language for. As a people, it will probably be a long time before we truly crack open our hearts for a candid discussion about these stressers. I can speak from experience, though, if you start to do just that - you will start to feel less alone, more in control, and less alone.

Money is hard. It's treated as clinical and unfeeling when really, our feelings drive every decision we make around it. Money Trauma is looking at how we get out of these cycles, and how we can maybe globally move forward into a better world.

Listen to Money Trauma Here

TLDR:

Episodes: Six

Episode Length: 40ish minutes

Vibes: Calm, fortifying, friendly, understanding

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