There is a lot to talk about when survivor/warriors break their silence and connect, and that’s what Finding Our Voices: The Podcast is all about: Conversations to get us all out of the dark and into the light. We come at it all different ways— best friends talking about how one introduced the other to the sociopath then helped her escape; sisters talking about one being angry at the other for how her “staying ” in the abuse was damaging their family; mother and daughter about how their experience in the abuse converged and was different and how the abuse affected their own relationship. Tune in, and let’s make some beautiful noise!
Music by Roan Yellowthorn.
Blue Elan Records. Audio engineering by Tammy Oropesa.
SEASON ONE
EPISODE 1 : Mandy and I shared the same wonderful domestic abuse victim-advocate, Missy Fairfield of NextStepDVProject.org. We talk here about emotional abuse from her boyfriend starting when she was 15, steadily escalating over the next 20 years and exploding in a sadistic rampage against her, their three children, and her mother that should have netted him 30 years in jail, but saw him released on "good behavior” after less than a year.
Part One: Patti & Julie - Sisters Julie, a teacher and Patti, an airline pilot, talk about how Patti blamed Julie for years over the torment their parents and family were going through over Patti’s marriage to a sadistic, violent man. The discuss how Patti came to understand that her sister was trapped and couldn’t “just leave,” and also how they healed their own relationship.
Part Two: 79-year-old entrepreneur-firecracker Linda of Rockport talks about a first, 20-year marriage to a cold controlling man who she only now is realizing was abusive.
EPISODE 3 : Kathi and Nicky are business partners in a house-cleaning business and best friends. It was while cleaning my house and seeing Finding Our Voices paraphernalia that Nicky mentioned to me she had been sucked into a relationship with an older man that left her a shell of herself within months. Kathi helped her to get out so joined our conversation, but in talking we came to realize Kathi is currently trapped in her own domestic abuse nightmare.
EPISODE 4 : Mother and daughter Patrisha and Jackie talk about the abuse in their home.
“There was a constant state of fear in the house about the slightest thing [that] would make my dad turn into a crazy person,” Jackie McLean says about her famous father.
EPISODE 5 : Tiffany, from the Portland Maine area, talks about how her first romance with a woman went from exhilarating and liberating to scary, and how police in three departments let her down.
EPISODE 6 : Hannah got pulled into a relationship when she was 30 with someone she knew from high school and it wasn’t long before he trapped through pregnancy, shame, and fear.
EPISODE 7 : Rhonda and Ashley, mother and daughter: Rhonda reached out to me to tell me about the emotional terrorism she underwent in her marriage, and then her daughter hearing of her appearance on my show asked if she could join the conversation. Here, they talk about their different and same perspectives and how the abuse affected the mother/daughter relationship.
EPISODE 8 : Best Friends Courtney and Jess: It was from admiring Courtney’s retro tattoo on a bench in a district court that I learned we we were both there to support the same friend, trying to get a protection from abuse order. She told me that in a matter of a few months, a man that presented as Prince Charming stripped her of her personality. Here I talk with Courtney and her best friend Jess who both introduced her to this man then helped to pull her out of his trap.
EPISODE 9 : Two Parts
Part One: Jess, a nurse, talks about how drugs fueled escalating physical violence.
Part Two: When Mia was In her early 20s and living in the small Maine town in which we both reside, her boyfriend repeatedly beat her up publicly and no one said a word.