PODCAST
Our founder/CEO Patrisha McLean and her fellow survivors — including those who grew up in it— get real in conversations about how complicated and dark domestic abuse is, and what it takes to get over to the bright side.
Music is by Jackie McLean Strack, the host’s daughter. https://open.spotify.com/artist/1M6qI3IXGTAAKFEZNLGr13
The “Let’s Talk About It" podcast airs on WMPG-FM out of Portland run by community members and students at University of Southern Maine https://www.wmpg.org.
A version runs as a monthly radio show on WERU-FM out of Orland, Maine https://archives.weru.org/category/lets-talk-about-it/.
EPISODE 18 – DV HOMICIDE, ALMOST AND ACTUAL
Guests: Michelle, Kerry, Amber
Michelle, a communications executive talks about an early marriage that almost killed her. Kerry and Amber talk about their best friends who were murdered by DV this year.
Topics include: Financial abuse, guns, family impact of abuse
EPISODE 17 – INCARCERATION AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE
Guest: Melody
Melody, a Mi’kmaq native, realized when she connected with Finding Our Voices that domestic abuse is at the root of her substance abuse as well as incarceration. She talks here about how she transcended both to become a wellbriety coach and published author.
Topics include: Incarceration, Substance Abuse, Native culture
EPISODE 16 – DOMESTIC ABUSE AND RELIGION
Guests: Anonymous and Jennifer.
Two-parter about how religion helped to trap both women in domestic abuse and made it harder to get out.
“Anonymous" talks about the Cantor who refused to give her a Get for a divorce, and Jennifer talks about the pious-acting husband who was anything but.
EPISODE 15 – WHEN YOUR FATHER KILLS YOUR MOTHER
Guest: Shelly Edwards Jorgensen
Shelly is the author of the memoir Beautiful Ashes: A quest to uncover family secrets and survive the truth. https://www.beautifulashesmemoir.com/books/
Topics: Child abuse, Siblings, Arson
EPISODE 14 – WHEN HE BURNS EVERYTHING TO THE GROUND
Guest: Mary Kamradt, Chief of Staff of Finding Our Voices.
Her home was destroyed and dog killed in a fire set by her ex, and her family sided with him.
Topics: Sexual abuse, arson, estrangement from children and grandchildren.
EPISODE 13 – TWO-PARTER: THE MILITARY AND SAME SEX ABUSE
Guests: Ashley and Dezarae.
Ashley talks about how overseas deployments made him increasingly abusive at home. Dezarae talks about being terrorized by a girlfriend.
Topics: The military, same sex abuse, impact on children
EPISODE 12 – WHEN YOUR PASTOR SIDES WITH YOUR ABUSER
Guest: Caroline McKuen
The director of the Presbyterian Advocacy Council talks about her church’s enabling of criminal, financial, and sexual abuse
Topics: Religious abuse, financial abuse, sexual abuse.
EPISODE 11 – ISOLATION AND THE IMPORTANCE OF FRIENDS
Guests: Courtney Davis and Jess
Jess introduced her best friend to him, then grew alarmed as he steadily turned Courtney into a shell of herself
Topics: Sexual abuse, financial abuse, what to do when you are worried for a loved one
Short film on Courtney here.
EPISODE 10 – SEXUAL AND FINANCIAL ABUSE ACROSS 40 YEARS
Guests: Lora and Jeannine Lauber Oren
A Maine nurse talks about financial abuse continuing with the divorce. Then Jeannine Lauber Oren of Finding Our Voices talks about the Maine law she helped get through to help mitigate financial abuse.
Topics: Financial abuse, sexual abuse, divorce hell
More about Jeannine is here. The law Jeannine helped to pass is here: H.P. 553 - L.D. 748 law, "An Act To Provide Relief to Survivors of Economic Abuse".
EPISODE 9 – IT HAPPENS IN RICH FAMILIES, TOO
Guest: Anonymous
What it was like having a childhood that on the outside seemed golden and glamourous, and on the inside was a “living hell”.
Topics: Narcissistic fathers, living a lie, child abuse
EPISODE 8 – NO JUSTICE, NO SAFETY III
He strangled her and forced her at gunpoint to take a bottle of sleeping pills, and is out on bail pending trial!
Guest: Anonymous
Topics: Strangulation, perpetrator right trumping victim rights, bail reform
EPISODE 7— NO JUSTICE NO SAFETY Il
Guest: Jolene
No accountability from the courts and police make him scarier and scarier, to her, her children, the police and the public.
Topics: Criminal court reform, good ol’ boy network, the folly of Batterer’s Intervention
EPISODE 6 – NO JUSTICE, NO SAFETY l
Guest: Bethany
This nurse’s ex has a 30-page criminal record and has violated protection from abuse orders 20 times with no consequences
Topics: Uselessness of PFAs, do-nothing DAs, child abuse
EPISODE 5 – WHEN YOUR ABUSER IS A CELEBRITY
Guest: Donna Kaz
William (Body Heat) Hurt swept Donna off her feet when she was a young actress, and grew steadily more dangerous.
Topics: Narcissists, fame as an enabler, career-sabotaging
Donna is a feminist activist and author of Unmasked: Memoirs of a Guerilla Girl on Tour https://www.amazon.com/MASKED-Memoirs-Guerrilla-Girl-Tour/dp/1510709436
https://variety.com/2022/film/news/donna-kaz-william-hurt-former-partner-surviving-abuse-1235208312/
EPISODE 4 – MOTHER & DAUGHTER
Guest: Jackie Lee McLean
The host of this Podcast talks with her daughter about how the abuse impacted them separately and also together and their path to healing.
Topics: Child abuse, narcissistic fathers, triangulation
Jackie is an executive of an IT company, and singer-songwriter who provides the music for this Podcast. More of Jackie’s music here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-ssQkIzbQ4SCOoGlpF6sRA
EPISODE 3 – WHEN THE RIGHTS OF THE FATHER TRUMP THE SAFETY OF THE CHILD
Guest: Amy
Maine officials worked overtime to give full custody of her baby granddaughter to a two-time domestic violence felon.
Topics: Family court dysfunction, child abuse, grandparental rights
EPISODE 2 – A MAN TALKS ABOUT HIS VIOLENT FATHER
Guest: Randall Liberty, Maine's Commissioner of Corrections
Randy talks with Patrisha about the impact his father’s violence toward his mother had on him and his brothers.
Topics: Sons and fathers, sons and mothers, the importance of prison for violent abusers
EPISODE 1 – ABUSE IS WORSE DURING THE HOLIDAYS
Guests: Jolene, Jennifer, Tiffany, Gina, Sarah, and Mary
Six survivors talk about how holidays are the scariest and most miserable times of the year.
Topics. The role alcohol plays in abuse, being let down by the court system, child abuse
