For a long time, Daniela Brodesser had no idea what to do with the term “poverty”. “I really had months when the family income was less than 1,000 euros,” says the Austrian in the stern podcast “Die Boss”. But she didn’t allow herself to be pigeonholed as “poor”. She prefers to remain silent about her situation.
With silence comes social isolation. “You don’t say, ‘I can’t afford it.’ You say that maybe once or twice. You then look for excuses. You then say: ‘I’m sorry, I have plans.’ “I’m sorry, we’re already somewhere else.” At some point you won’t be asked anymore,” says the 48-year-old in an interview with “Die Boss” host Simone Menne.
“Then I started talking about it, really looking into poverty, the numbers behind it, the statistics, who gets into poverty, why, why. Then I got angry, then I got really angry “, she says. First of all, Twitter becomes an outlet for Brodesser. There she finds support from people who are also affected by poverty. “It was that moment where you think, wow, it’s not just me, it’s the same for other people. It’s not okay the way people treat us,” says the Austrian.
Brodesser is now an activist and author – and her family is once again in a good financial position. She is committed to removing taboos and destigmatizing the topic of poverty. In this episode of “Die Boss” you will find out what poverty and shame do to those affected, whether they are still afraid of slipping into poverty and how they managed to get out of poverty again.
At “The Boss – Power is Female” top women talk among themselves: host and multi-supervisory board member Simone Menne (including BMW, Deutsche Post DHL, Henkel) meets bosses from all areas of society to talk to them about their lives and careers. “Die Boss” appears every fortnight on Wednesdays on stern.de and the stern’s YouTube channel as well as on RTL and all common podcast platforms.
Editor’s note: Stern belongs to RTL Deutschland.
