Episode 54
AI Financial Advice, the History of Women's Economic Independence and the Belle Burden Strangers Controversy
Join us for Episode 54 of Feminist Money as we discuss:
1. Feature: As artificial intelligence becomes a go-to source for money guidance and is recommended by pop culture figures like Mel Robbins, who encouraged using AI to look at personal finances in adverts for AI companies on her platform. We explore whether AI can really be trusted to help make financial decisions that could shape your future.
2. International: How the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum oral history project, “We Do Declare: Women’s Voices on Independence,” is revealing the untold stories of how women fought for financial freedom and transformed their economic futures across generations.
3. Pop Culture: We unpack the fierce debate surrounding Belle Burden's memoir Strangers and why a memoir about divorce in a world of wealth, privilege, and inherited money has struck such a nerve with readers despite the investigative reporting into her trust baby background.
episode description
episode show notes
(1.20) Should you trust AI to give you financial advice?
Seeking free money advice from AI? Don’t be so quick to upload any financial statements, CNN, 13 May 2026
Mel Robbins responds to backlash after telling women to upload all their financial documents to Microsoft Copilot, Yahoo Finance, 16 May 2026
Half of Americans now ask AI for financial advice, but how good is it?, MIT Sloan School of Management, 21 May 2026
Should You Trust AI With Your Finances? An Expert Shares Key Do’s and Don’ts, TODAY, 29 May 2026
Should you really use AI tools to manage your money?, Money Magazine, 14 August 2025
(11.36) The museum telling the history of women’s economic independence
We Do Declare: Women’s Voices on Independence, Smithsonian American Women's History Museum, accessed June 2026
Discover What a Woman’s Voice Can Do That a Textbook Can’t. Meet the Team Turning Oral History into Financial Education, Smithsonian American Women's History Museum, 4 June 2026
Using Oral Histories as Tools for Financial Education, Smithsonian American Women's History Museum, 26 August 2025
‘It reminds you of a fascist state’: Smithsonian Institution braces for Trump rewrite of US history, The Guardian, 30 March 2026
(15.46) Does Belle Burden's trust fund baby status make her divorce memoir, Strangers, controversial?
What’s Missing from Belle Burden’s “Strangers”, The New Yorker, 23 May 2026
A divorce, a fortune and a bestseller: The memoir everyone is arguing about, Sydney Morning Herald, 1 June 2026
Belle Burden's Memoir Is Making People Hate Their Husbands, Harper's Bazaar, 7 May 2026
NYC heiress reveals taunting, vindictive outbursts from cheating ex-hubby after he dumped her for younger gal: ‘Boo-hoo. Poor Belle’, New York Post, 16 January 2026
New York heiress Belle Burden's husband convinced her to alter prenup before affair shattered marriage: memoir, Fox News, 24 January 2026
Belle Burden’s divorce memoir was headed for a Salt Path-style scandal – but people are still on her side, The Guardian, 4 June 2026