Advancing Women Podcast
103 episodes - English - Latest episode: 4 days ago - ★★★★★ - 125 ratingsWelcome to the Advancing Women Podcast where ambitious women come together to challenge the status quo, advance their careers, and up-level their lives. The Advancing Women Podcast is hosted by Gender Equity Expert and Executive Coach Dr. Kimberly DeSimone.
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Episodes
Career Advice From Women of Influence
April 22, 2024 22:49 - 49 minutes - 56.3 MBToo often the advice given to women doesn’t work because it wasn’t designed by or for women. In this episode, we share advice from inspirational women of influence. We break it down and talk about what advice serves us, and what advice…seemingly well-meaning, might lead to unintended consequences. Should we always give 100% in everything we do? Should we bring our authentic selves always? Should we only do work we love? Maybe, maybe not. #Tunein and we’ll break it all down. With a special g...
What Autism Moms Need: Empathy & Understanding
April 08, 2024 21:00 - 17 minutes - 23.7 MBWant to know what you can do to show support for your family or friends who have a child with autism? This is the episode for you. April is autism awareness month so here are some things to be aware of. Research shows that mothers of children with autism have elevated levels of depression and stress levels comparable to the stress levels of active combat soldiers! This episode is about awareness, acknowledgment, empathy, and small ways YOU can show your support. This is what moms of childre...
Ideal Leadership: Out of the Darkness
March 25, 2024 21:00 - 25 minutes - 29.6 MBWhich leadership traits are ideal and who decides? How important are confidence and assertiveness versus interpersonal sensitivity and empathy? Are we better off with the relaxed, caring, leader who strives to “do it harmoniously,” or the motivated, inspirational leader who strives to “do it together”? The logical, cautious leader who strives to “do it right,” or the determined, competitive leader who strives to “do it now”? Which traits are associated with positive outcomes, and which are...
Silence the Inner Saboteur & Rise Above the Resistance
March 12, 2024 01:25 - 22 minutes - 25.5 MBDo you ever find yourself working on anything and everything but the thing that you should be working on? This episode addresses the inner saboteur and all the things that create resistance and interfere with your creativity and purpose. “Whenever you're feeling bored, bummed, or broken resistance is winning in your life.” ~ Mel Robbins Resistance is anything that stops you from taking creative action, things like inner fears, negative self-talk, ego, and self-doubt. Resistance has one s...
Delivering Big Creativity: Small Steps & Practices
February 26, 2024 22:00 - 22 minutes - 20.9 MBDelivering big creativity starts with small steps and practices you incorporate into your everyday life. Too often we hold back our creative energy because we lack courage, but the truth is connecting to your creativity is connecting to your courage. Creativity = Courage Just like any proficiency, creativity is a muscle that needs to be exercised. Developing your creativity starts with the simple act of developing a creative practice that is judgment-free and full of fun. #tunein to this ...
Black History Month: Ain't I a Woman?
February 12, 2024 22:00 - 18 minutes - 24.8 MBFebruary is black history month, an annual celebration of achievements by African Americans, and a time for recognizing their central role in U.S. history and, importantly, in the women’s equality movement. African American women have too often been overlooked in the history of our fight for gender equity. This episode honors and quotes many brilliant, brave, black women who fought to create a fairer and more equitable world. These words have tremendous power and impact including the import...
The Community We Nourish
January 29, 2024 23:40 - 15 minutes - 18.2 MBWhen you sit with warriors, the conversation is different. The power of sitting with warriors is the impact of those conversations. Too many of us are surrounded by people that will always see us as we are, rather than seeing our potential and growth. We need to nurture the right relationships and build a community of people that we can count on, that give it to us straight, that we trust, and that have our backs. I'm talking about the people who elevate us and move us toward our best selve...
Advice That Works for Women! Center Coach Create™
January 15, 2024 22:00 - 48 minutes - 55.1 MBAs women, we are often faced with unique barriers and then contradictory advice. This episode is about better understanding the biases that produce those barriers so that we can interrupt them and ditch the contradictory advice with strategies that work FOR WOMEN. Too often the best practice advice that women receive doesn't work for us because it wasn't designed by or for us! So, we end up internalizing the fault and the flaw when ANY advice grounded in women as not enough, flawed, or defe...
This Is the Year for Bold, Audacious Goals!
January 01, 2024 22:00 - 17 minutes - 23.9 MBThanks to the sponsor of this episode Center Coach Create™ a personal and professional development company that helps ambitious women develop their mindset, skillset, and toolset with evidence-based strategies designed by and for women, Center Coach Create™ can help you get unstuck so you can transcend and thrive. Learn more at https://centercoachcreate.com/ Let's let 2024 be a year for bold, audacious goals. Let's get unstuck, start the thing, and overcome resistance BUT, let's also rememb...
Less Chaos, More Comfort & Joy
December 19, 2023 01:17 - 20 minutes - 28.5 MBAs women, we can find ourselves feeling more stressed with all the holiday prep that so often disproportionately drains us of our time and our calm. We feel like if we don’t do all the things, others will be disappointed, or things will fall through the cracks. So, we do everything in our power to mediate that, often at great personal cost to our comfort and joy. This episode focuses on YOUR comfort, joy, calm, and cozy. Learn more in this episode of the Advancing Women Podcast about the Da...
Warrior Gift Giving: Women Supporting Women
December 04, 2023 22:00 - 15 minutes - 17.9 MBDid you know that although women make up half the population, research shows we control or influence most consumer spending (more than 80% of all purchases!) Why then don't more businesses large and small think of women first when creating new products and services AND how dare these companies that benefit so greatly from the decisions women make to purchase their products not create more equity for women within the organization's leadership? Tis the season…to flex our consumer power and h...
Stop Telling Us We Have Imposter Syndrome
November 21, 2023 01:33 - 19 minutes - 22.7 MBHave you ever felt Imposter Syndrome? Then #tunein because this is the episode for you! Women in the workplace and in society are too often “problematized” rather than addressing very real biases and barriers we face. We are told if we want to succeed…to belong…we have to fit in and research shows that fitting in is the opposite of belonging because we are expected to change who we are rather than be who we are. We are told to be our authentic selves then feel consequences when we do. This...
The Seeds We Water Are the Seeds That Grow
November 06, 2023 22:00 - 12 minutes - 14.2 MBWe are all so busy juggling so many competing priorities for our time and energy. Careers, families, relationships, goals, aspirations, personal growth, wellness, and self-care. It can all begin to feel like too much. Where do we put our energy? Which seeds do we water? This episode is about focus and ensuring that energy flows where attention goes. It’s not just about planting and watering the right seeds, it’s about dealing with those seeds that we didn’t even plant (the social condition...
Less Hustle & Grind, More Alignment & Balance
October 23, 2023 21:00 - 24 minutes - 34 MBToo often culturally we glorify the hustle and grind. The truth is though, we all pay a price for overwork including stress, burnout, and less healthy emotional well-being. Especially for women. This episode of the #advancingwomenpodcast addresses the extreme work model, presenteeism, and a 24/7 work culture where high intensity is the norm, where everything is an emergency, and where every problem is critical. A culture of constant accessibility and availability has become the productivity...
What Mansplaining IS and What It Is NOT (And How to Make It Stop!)
October 09, 2023 23:17 - 23 minutes - 26.6 MBMansplaining is more than condescension or interrupting, it’s where condescension intersects with power and privilege. Mansplaining is a condescending explanation by members of socially, culturally, or legally privileged groups in their interactions with those who don’t hold the same power and privilege. In this episode, we deconstruct Androcentric Bias (the assumption that the male view is the norm or default), and Androcentrism (the tendency to center society around men’s needs and priori...
When and HOW to Say NO. Setting Boundaries in Work and in Life!
September 25, 2023 21:30 - 24 minutes - 28.5 MBToo often we as women take on an unfair share of responsibilities and then are blamed for saying yes to every request when we are too busy and feel overwhelmed. But… if we don’t do it, who will? This episode demystifies why it is so difficult for us as women to say no (hint: it’s not your fault, but it is your problem!) I explore with compassion (and a lot of evidence) why saying no, while difficult for many people, can be especially difficult for women. I address the very real patterns of...
The Paradox of Meritocracy
September 12, 2023 03:37 - 20 minutes - 23.9 MBCan meritocracy make things fairer? Does it level the playing field? A meritocracy is a system where power and advancement are granted to individuals based solely on talent, effort, ability, and achievement. That we will be evaluated based solely on performance as measured through objective criteria and demonstrated achievement. The problem is the premise of meritocracy. The assumption is that evaluations in the workforce are objective, despite research and knowledge that we as human being...
The Power of Positive Affirmations: Sitting with Warriors
August 29, 2023 00:12 - 42 minutes - 49 MBIf you think positive affirmations are a touchy-feely approach to dealing with bias and inequity, think again! Research shows that positive affirmations are an excellent way to combat negative messaging and positively impact our thoughts and actions. Positive affirmations help us to disrupt negative thinking (that often comes from gender bias that is not our fault but is our problem) and help re-wire our brains for positive thoughts. Women in society, especially in the world of social media...
Create Habits & Systems to Interrupt Bias
August 15, 2023 05:23 - 22 minutes - 26.2 MB“You do not rise to the level of your goals, but you fall to the level of your systems” (James Clear, 2018, Atomic Habits). It is crucial for us as women who so often encounter unique, unfair barriers while also hearing conflicting advice (not created by or FOR women!) to transcend and thrive by creating intentional, actionable, steps and strategic processes that disrupt the bias and better serve us. This episode is about creating the clarity we need to be proactive and effective. When we ...
The Problem with Presenteeism & The Extreme Work Model
August 01, 2023 01:00 - 22 minutes - 26.1 MBIf you are ambitious and achievement driven, it can be easy to find yourself in an extreme work model and out of balance especially when #presenteeism and constant availability are often erroneously associated with commitment and drive. This outdated “ideal worker” norm is bad for everyone, men and women, but research shows it can be especially damaging to women’s careers. Societal norms and expectations continue to perpetuate the idea that being a wife and raising a family is the top prior...
Gender Equity = Win/Win
July 18, 2023 01:04 - 24 minutes - 34.3 MBThis episode focuses on evidence-based, positive outcomes of gender equity for everyone, men, women, children, businesses, and even nations. A more gender-egalitarian future is one that can improve our lives. It’s a future with a higher potential for more happiness and satisfaction, reduced stress, better health, better marriages, stronger families, and more successful and profitable companies. Research shows conclusively that the more gender equitable an organization is, the better outcom...
Let’s Swap Expectations for Requirements
July 03, 2023 21:00 - 18 minutes - 24.8 MBResearch shows that expectations can be a major cause of stress, anxiety, and loss of trust and respect in our relationships. This episode challenges the too-common narrative that it is women’s “too high expectations” that cause many of our problems. I introduce a more accurate narrative that serves women by distinguishing expectations(grounded in social norms and stereotypes) from requirements and standards(grounded in our self-esteem and self-care.) The real questions we should be asking...
Kicking the Over-Apologizing Habit
June 19, 2023 21:00 - 22 minutes - 31.3 MBDo you over-apologize, even when you haven’t done anything wrong? Do you deflect compliments? These are topics that I am asked to speak about often and in this episode, I dig into why we as women over-apologize (hint: It’s not our fault) and what we can do to successfully interrupt this pattern. Apologizing when we have done something wrong is a real strength, but compulsive apologizing can present as a weakness at work and in personal relationships. Research shows women apologize up to thr...
Two-Year Anniversary Episode: It’s Still Not Your Fault!
June 05, 2023 21:00 - 17 minutes - 23.9 MBToday marks two years since I launched the Advancing Women Podcast. This episode highlights the evidence-based knowledge and awareness of our reality as ambitious women. The very real biases and barriers that can make our journey more difficult. I continue to hold up to the light, call out, and interrupt the narratives around women’s advancement that too often suggest that we are flawed; that it is our not-enoughness that leads to inequity. This podcast continues to be grounded in the rejec...
Women, Inclusivity, and the Business of Sports with Leah Boyd
May 22, 2023 21:00 - 28 minutes - 39.6 MBIn the past few decades, we have seen a steady increase of women entering male-dominated fields, yet they are still finding that the good ole boys’ club persists. Studies show that women working in the business of sports trail all other industries on every dimension of inclusion. Women are expected to prove their competency again, and again, and again, while working tirelessly to “fit in.” In this episode of the Advancing Women Podcast, I am chatting with Leah Boyd; a leader for a global br...
Comparison is the Thief of Joy
May 08, 2023 21:53 - 12 minutes - 16.7 MBIt happens each time we turn on the tv, or scroll on our favorite social media app, and even when we visit with good friends. As human beings, we are all driven to try to gain an accurate self-assessment of who we are. If we’re not careful, this passive watching (and sometimes judging) of others can subconsciously begin to make us feel like what we have isn’t enough. Who we are and what we have achieved isn’t enough. Or on the flip side of this, we may begin to feel a sense of superiority ov...
How We Talk About Women and Work
April 24, 2023 22:47 - 24 minutes - 34.1 MBWomen represent half of the workforce, yet still, it is necessary to call out the subtle and overt ways the narratives surrounding women's contributions in the workforce can serve to reinforce biases. Too often, discussions on women and work, especially women, in a partnership or marriage suggest that work for women is a "choice" or in some way less important than it is for men. This can perpetuate the bias that men's, careers, and career successes are more important than women's AND that i...
Autism Mom Empathy #autismawarenessmonth
April 10, 2023 21:00 - 17 minutes - 23.7 MBWant to know what you can do to show support for your family or friends who have a child with autism? This is the episode for you. April is autism awareness month so here are some things to be aware of. Research shows that mothers of children with autism have elevated levels of depression and stress levels comparable to the stress levels of active combat soldiers! This episode is about awareness, acknowledgment, empathy, and small ways YOU can show your support. This is what moms of childre...
Don’t Call Them Soft Skills With Communications Strategist Anna Bulszewicz
March 27, 2023 22:00 - 30 minutes - 41.6 MB“It is no longer reasonable or appropriate to identify everyday communication skills or people skills as soft skills. In a post-pandemic world, leaders, managers, and teammates must trailblaze with empathy and strong emotional intelligence or lose out.” (AMC) Tune in for this pragmatic interview on mindful communication with communications strategist Anna Bulszewicz. After working for nearly 20 years in corporate, the media, and academia, Anna helps leaders and businesses implement mindful c...
Young Men are Opting Out of Marriage and Relationships. Should we Care?
March 13, 2023 22:59 - 20 minutes - 28.1 MBA recent Pew Research Center report is gaining a lot of attention in the media. The study found that 30 percent of U.S. adults are neither married, living with a partner, nor engaged in a committed relationship and nearly half of all young adults are single. Here’s what is surprising, 34 percent of women, and a whopping 63 percent of men are single. Why are so many young men shying from marriage or even dating? Are younger men getting lazier or more selfish? Are young women getting choosie...
Black Women’s Voices in The Women’s Rights Movement
February 28, 2023 04:35 - 18 minutes - 24.8 MBFebruary is black history month, an annual celebration of achievements by African Americans, and a time for recognizing their central role in U.S. history. African American women have too often been overlooked in the history of our fight for gender equity. The struggle against racism, sexism, and all other-isms. All must be addressed simultaneously. This episode honors and quotes many brilliant, brave, black women who fought and fight, to create a fairer and more equitable world. Don’t mis...
Fashion Should Be Fun for EveryBODY, Talking Body Positivity With Veronica Freund
February 13, 2023 22:00 - 28 minutes - 39.2 MBFashion is one of the most visible ways we express ourselves, yet too often we feel compelled to choose what is most flattering. We choose clothing that shrinks us or “sucks us in” versus what makes us feel joyful. Fashion should NOT just be for some, we should all be comfortable and confident enough to enjoy fashion, but that requires dismantling the negative external messaging around women’s bodies, perfection, and who is “deserving” of fashion. Increasingly there is a movement to make fa...
Authentic Branding with Pamela Long from Little Big Brands
January 31, 2023 00:55 - 16 minutes - 23.1 MBWith the super bowl approaching many of us are going to be thinking about and talking about the ads. Recent studies show that despite an increased cultural focus on equality and empowerment movements, women report feeling that major brands are still not effectively acknowledging women’s priorities or communicating with women in an empowering or authentic manner. This conversation is about more than entertainment. It's about continuing to challenge a media industry, organizations, and brands...
Bold, Audacious Goals
January 16, 2023 23:07 - 16 minutes - 23.2 MBThere is NOT an expiration on our goals. It’s our lives and our goals, so it should be on our timeline. We must be mindful though, that our timeline isn’t when things get “less busy” or when “you’re ready.” Here’s the thing warriors, things will NEVER not be busy. You will not likely ever find that elusive “more time” and there is no “perfect time.” We don’t want our goals to be on someone else’s timeline, but we also don’t want the internal saboteur to talk us out of moving forward with ou...
Afraid You Won’t Keep New Years’ Resolutions? Make Them Anyway!
January 02, 2023 22:00 - 13 minutes - 18.3 MBHappy New Year! In this first Advancing Women Podcast episode of 2023, we’re talking fresh starts, blank slates, and resolutions. Research shows that the most popular New Year’s resolutions are about self-improvement (living healthier getting happier, improving relationships, meeting goals.) Yet research also shows that less than 10% of people actually reach their goals. So, this reality leaves many of us questioning the point of it all – why even bother? This episode is about the good that...
Have a Hygge Holiday!
December 19, 2022 22:00 - 20 minutes - 28.5 MBAs women, we can find ourselves feeling more stressed with all the holiday prep that so often disproportionately drains us of our time and our calm. We feel like if we don’t do all the things, others will be disappointed, or things will fall through the cracks. So, we do everything in our power to mediate that, often at great personal cost to our comfort and joy. This episode focuses on YOUR comfort, joy, calm, and cozy. Learn more in this episode of the Advancing Women Podcast about the Da...
All-Or-Nothing Thinking: What It Is, and How to Stop It!
December 05, 2022 22:00 - 15 minutes - 14.3 MBIn this episode of the Advancing Women Podcast, we're tackling cognitive distortions. A cognitive distortion is an assumption we make based on minimal evidence, or without considering the evidence. It is an exaggerated or irrational thought pattern that causes us to perceive reality inaccurately. We all engage in cognitive distortions. We can overgeneralize and interpret one negative event or mistake as a pattern of defeat. We can mentally filter discounting our positive qualities and accom...
Surviving Workplace Bullying with Zenica Chatman
November 21, 2022 22:00 - 38 minutes - 35 MBAccording to a survey by the Workplace Bullying Institute, one in four American workers have said that they have dealt with workplace bullying. Too often, when women experience workplace discrimination and bullying, we internalize that we are the problem and that does NOT serve us. In this episode of the Advancing Women Podcast, I speak with certified coach, speaker, and anti-workforce bullying advocate Zenica Chatman to talk about how women can stand up against workplace bullying and help c...
Unlearn and Restore with Alicia Jabbar
November 07, 2022 22:32 - 34 minutes - 31.9 MBI often say when you sit with warriors, the conversation is different! We all need both challenge and support to thrive in our careers and our lives, but this is especially important for women. As women, we face unique biases and barriers that make #mentors, #sponsors, #coaches, and #community even more important. “When women connect in groups, they experience a sense of validation and inspiration that breaks down the barriers limiting their fully expressed leadership in the world.” There i...
The Dark Side of Beauty with Schonte Hamilton
October 25, 2022 00:13 - 27 minutes - 25.2 MB“We live in an age of ugly beauty. Reverence for beauty is just an escape from reality, it is the perpetual adolescent in us refusing to accept a flawed world” ~ author, Nancy Etcoff (Survival of the Prettiest). Research shows that society has long impacted our standards of beauty, playing a role in affecting beauty trends, body image, and self-esteem, and increasingly this is exacerbated by social media. In this episode of the Advancing Women Podcast, I talk with actress, singer, and song...
Cultivating Creativity with Illustrator Heather Harris
October 10, 2022 21:00 - 22 minutes - 20.9 MBIt takes courage to express the things you are passionate about and to transcend the limits of your comfort zone. Connecting to your creativity is connecting to your courage. Creativity, like courage, is energy with which you can connect. It is an essential part of who you are, AND it is a practice. Too often people think about creative people or the arts as being endowed from heaven, but as our guest today, illustrator and creator, Heather Harris says “That's not true. You were created, so...
The 4 Ps Advancement Model™ for Women
September 26, 2022 21:00 - 23 minutes - 21.4 MBThe advancing women podcast is where empathy meets pragmatism and today's episode is heavy on pragmatism. As ambitious, warrior women, we spend a lot of time and effort working toward professional goals and advancement. Unfortunately, there are many inequitable, sometimes invisible barriers and bias patterns that create an unlevel playing field for women because the system was not designed by or for us. We can't keep playing the game and expecting the outcomes to change. We must change the g...
Compassionate Self-Improvement with Wellness Warrior Erica Golub
September 12, 2022 21:00 - 38 minutes - 35.2 MBSeptember is Self-Improvement Month, a time to reflect on all you've accomplished this year and to think about which goals you still want or need to work toward. Self-Improvement Month encourages us to make conscious and intentional efforts to improve ourselves. In this episode of the Advancing Women Podcast, we approach self-improvement from a more compassionate and self-kind approach. Let’s think about the improvements we need to make, to be better to ourselves and at prioritizing OUR nee...
Toxic Positivity versus Mental Contrasting
August 29, 2022 21:00 - 16 minutes - 15.2 MBIn this episode of the Advancing Women Podcast, we explore toxic positivity; a phenomenon where positivity is used to minimize one’s experience, and how this has been painfully exacerbated because of social media which thrives on toxically optimistic outlooks. Toxic positivity has perpetuated a brushing over of the real inequities and challenges many women face. With empowerment language forced upon us, there can be a false reality that leaves too many talented, empowered women, confused wh...
Let’s Teach Girls Bravery AND Teach Boys Empathy!
August 15, 2022 21:00 - 26 minutes - 24.1 MBIn her popular TEDTalk titled Teach Girls Bravery Not Perfection, Reshma Saujani, the founder of Girls Who Code asserts that we are raising our girls to be perfect, and we're raising our boys to be brave. Saujani says “I worry about our bravery deficit. The bravery deficit is why women are underrepresented in STEM, C-suites, boardrooms, Congress, and pretty much everywhere you look.” While I don't disagree that girls and women have been overly socialized to avoid risk, in this episode, I ch...
Living Life to Our Fullest Potential With Margaret Weniger
August 01, 2022 21:00 - 32 minutes - 29.8 MBIn a world where high salaries and titles are often considered the pinnacle of success, we can sometimes overlook things like personal happiness, satisfaction, purpose, and reaching our full potential. Winning, collecting the most toys, making the most money, earning the big title, attaining and dominating...that tends to be the language of success. But what if we approach success more holistically? What if we had more conversations about the importance of living life to our fullest potentia...
Tightrope Bias & The Likeability Dilemma
July 18, 2022 21:00 - 22 minutes - 20.6 MBHave you been called bossy or pushy at work when you were just doing your job? Have you been tough, when necessary, only to be deemed difficult to work for or with? The explanation for this is Tightrope Bias and the Likeability Dilemma. Research shows that in many workplaces’ women wanting to advance often must take on more “masculine qualities” to get ahead, presenting as more ambitious, assertive, and competitive. Yet we are still expected to maintain our “feminine qualities” of being car...
Tone Policing, Vocal Fry, & Upspeak
July 04, 2022 21:00 - 19 minutes - 17.7 MBWarrior women, this is an important and timely episode of the Advancing Women Podcast. Our speech, our “tone”, and even the octave of our voice is under attack! Scrutiny of women’s speaking patterns is the latest frontier in an endless barrage of judgment and undermining women face. It is yet another way to blame women. An attempt to shift the emphasis to fixing women versus doing the hard work of fixing structural, and organizational inequities. We must see tone policing and commentary ab...
Purpose, Embrace Your Calling with author Jessica Huie
June 20, 2022 22:00 - 29 minutes - 27.4 MBIf you ask people the purpose of life, a lot of people will say happiness, but I would argue the purpose of life is to find purpose IN life. As Ralph Waldo Emerson famously said “The purpose of life is not to be happy, it is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate. To have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.” I am delighted to have author Jessica Huie on the Advancing Women Podcast. Jessica is an author, entrepreneur, and speaker who runs retreats to help ...
The Medical Gaslighting of Women: It’s NOT just in your head!
June 06, 2022 23:23 - 38 minutes - 35.4 MBWith guest Leah Noonan Medical gaslighting is when a healthcare provider dismisses your complaints or concerns. They don't take you seriously or blame your symptoms on a vague cause (such as stress) and often send you home without a proper diagnosis or treatment plan. This is what happened to today’s guest for decades. We live in a world where much of the data we have is based on the male experience. As Feminist author Simone de Beauvoir said, “Representation of the world, like the world ...