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Hello and hi, friends. Today is Sunday, March 3rd, 2024, 2.36 p.m. Pacific Time, aka today is What Came Next's first birthday, so I want to start by saying congratulations to my bestie, producer and host, Amy B. Chesler, aka Fishbowl Chesler. To know her is to love her. I'm
I'm so, so proud of you and everything you've done for survivors over this past year, not only helping us support more survivors and sharing their stories, but also with the Something Was Wrong update episodes, helping us bring those updates to our community and also helping us just continue the support and mission of everything that we try to do for our community. So thank you so much, Amy, and to our audio editor of What Came Next, Stephen.
Thank you so much as well.
So today I'm doing something completely out of my comfort zone and I'm coming to you solo. I've had so many topics on my mind that I've been thinking about. Also having people reach out to me on Instagram and ask me. So I'm excited to try this out, kind of a community catch up, but I look forward to your thoughts on everything that I'm going to talk about today, as well as your feedback on in general, do you enjoy these types of episodes from time to time?
Or do you hate the sound of my voice as much as I do? But I digress. Okay, so I kind of want to work my way backwards a bit because like I said, there's so much I want to talk about.
Season 19 has been incredible. Thank you so much to Jake of Strictly Stalking for helping me kick off the season. Thank you to Amy and her family and friends and colleagues and Sarah for sharing.
I really enjoyed getting to know Amy, Sarah, and all of their friends and family over these last few months. I'm incredibly thankful to them for their bravery and honesty and willingness and just epic badassery and for everything. Thank you all so much for all of the love and feedback and shares and positive reviews. All of those things super help. Thank you for sharing Doug Broadway's mugshot.
A couple updates there with Sarah's story, the most recent story from season 19, which is we have gotten word that Doug has lost his nursing license. Fantastic, fantastic.
I also am very thankful to share that thanks to Amy sharing her story and all of the details and intricacies involved, we were able to locate another victim. And this other survivor has been a long-time listener of the podcast, and as soon as she heard Amy start describing her experience in her first episode,
She reached out and she has connected with law enforcement and hopefully we will see what we sought out to do, which is more charges for Morrison. We do have a few more episodes coming for season 19 before the season 20 trailer drops next week. We're going to hear from survivor and advocate Jennifer. She is the senior director of prevention strategies for the California partnership to end domestic violence.
She's not only going to share with us about her personal story and what she's overcome, which is incredible, but also about the work she does every day, about the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence, about challenges that our systems are currently facing and ways that we as a community can help in the fight.
As we covered on the podcast, Caitlin Braun was first arrested in March of 2023. The articles that I'm referencing specifically today are both from the CBC. The Brantford woman who faked pregnancies, harassed and fraudulently sought the services of numerous doulas across Ontario, pled guilty in December to 21 charges, including fraud, indecent acts, false pretenses and mischief.
Of the 52 charges she faced for seeking the help of doulas in what ended up being false pregnancies and stillbirths from June 2022 to February 2023. On January 17th, 2024, Caitlin Braun spoke after over a dozen doulas shared that they were traumatized and financially set back by 25-year-old Braun's actions and the victims were able to give impact statements in Brantford's Court of Justice.
In her victim impact statement, London doula Shauna said that she was utterly drained and emotionally defeated, adding that Braun was her first ever client. Quote,
said that the ordeal with Braun has left them feeling violated. Some of them said their families have also been impacted, as they had to spend time away from them and their young children to work with Braun. Many doulas shared that they changed the way that they take on new clients and how they advertise their businesses after meeting Braun.
Doula Shana shared that she had added a false pretenses clause to her contract and no longer offers virtual support or any free services. Quote, Caitlin Braun has made me afraid of doing the work I'm so passionate about. I'm afraid of gaining new clients and being triggered at birth. This crime has ruined me. End quote.
Another London doula, Amy, told the sentencing hearing that she lost about $6,000 by working with Braun and as a result of therapy costs. Quote, The judge involved in this case, Justice Robert Gee, said,
said he needed more time on January 17th to reflect on the joint submission that the Crown and the defense had put forward, that Braun receive, instead of jail time, a two-year conditional sentence for house arrest. This would include two years of house arrest with certain exceptions. It would be followed by a three-year probation period, which Braun would have to receive therapy. In court, they also shared that Braun's health records indicate a history of suicidal ideation,
and almost 200 hospital visits from 2006 up until her arrest in March. The remaining charges that Braun hadn't pled guilty to, including the sexual assault, would be dropped once Gee handed down her sentence. So that hearing happened on January 17th. Then it was announced that on Valentine's Day, February 14th, 2024, they would come back for sentencing.
On February 14th, 2024, I was about to head into oral surgery. I was in the car on the way to my surgery and I got a text from one of the survivors saying that Caitlin Braun was going to walk. Again, going off of the CBC report of what they witnessed and reported to in court, they said that
Braun kept her head down while her sentence was released by Justice Robert Gee and Brantford's Court of Justice. In addition to her house arrest, she has to wear a GPS ankle bracelet and undergo mandatory counseling. She's also forbidden to contact the victims and is banned from using internet and social media for two years. I don't know how they monitor that.
They also reported that before announcing his decision, the judge, Gee, empathized with the doulas who fell victim to Braun. Quote, the 21 offenses committed by Ms. Braun caused significant, long-lasting harm to her victims. The trauma caused was expressed eloquently by many during their victim impact statements. Many now have trust issues. It's impacted their abilities to carry out duties in their chosen profession as doulas.
and some have left the profession entirely, and all have suffered financially because of Ms. Braun. End quote.
Gee said he did not agree with the Crown and Defense's joint submission asking for the two-year conditional sentence for Braun, but is reluctantly bound to impose the proposed sentence, given that Braun is young, she's a first-time offender, and she pled guilty. Quote, End quote.
The CBC reports that some of Braun's victims who were in court burst into tears when the decision was announced and later expressed their disappointment.
After the verdict, many of her victims told CTV News that it was unacceptable. Quote, I'm upset. I'm really upset. I was with her for nearly a week. I was one of the victims who had assault charges against her before they were withdrawn. I'm disgusted with her lawyer and our crown attorney. This survivor said she's receiving professional support for her complex PTSD diagnosis due to the ordeal with Braun.
Although her trust is severely broken, she said she will continue working as a doula. Quote, I'm not going to let Braun win. I'm going to continue to help people and give them the best support I can. I'm not going to let her ruin it for me. End quote. Judge Gee also said, I do not like the joint submission and I don't like how it was structured. He explained that he was troubled by a mental health assessment that indicated Braun was likely to re-offend.
Despite his reservations, Justice Gee said higher courts have indicated they expect judges to allow joint submissions except in extreme cases. Quote, End quote.
I'm incredibly proud of all of the survivors who wrote and shared their victim impact statements. I'm disheartened as well by this sentencing and my heart is with all of the victims. And I frankly find the sentence disgusting. I think it's really gross that she's released to her mom, who I believe should have faced charges as well due to the evidence and information that I gathered, as well as the participation in the lie.
I think it's really hard to monitor whether or not someone's on social media. My heart goes out to her victims and we will continue to think of them and offer our support where we're able.
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In January 2022, local woman Karen Reed was implicated in the mysterious death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O'Keefe. It was alleged that after an innocent night out for drinks with friends, Karen and John got into a lover's quarrel en route to the next location. What happens next depends on who you ask.
Was it a crime of passion? If you believe the prosecution, it's because the evidence was so compelling. This was clearly an intentional act. And his cause of death was blunt force trauma with hypothermia. Or a corrupt police cover-up. If you believe the defense theory, however, this was all a cover-up to prevent one of their own from going down. Everyone had an opinion.
And after the 10-week trial, the jury could not come to a unanimous decision. To end in a mistrial, it's just a confirmation of just how complicated this case is. Law and Crime presents the most in-depth analysis to date of the sensational case in Karen. You can listen to Karen exclusively with Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.
Switching gears a bit, I want to talk about 2024. It is off to a wild start. On January 21st, Something Was Wrong celebrated its fifth birthday. I celebrated by donating to some local Sacramento nonprofits that serves domestic violence survivors and the unhoused community. And I'm looking forward to celebrating throughout the year with everyone. It feels like such a huge milestone. And I'm looking forward to celebrating with everyone.
It feels like, how has it been five years? And also, how has it not been 50 years? It's definitely incredible.
We got to celebrate it shortly after the birthday. Hearing that something was wrong has been nominated for Best Crime Podcast at the iHeart Podcast Awards. And I am so thankful for the nomination, very honored. And I'm looking forward to celebrating and attending the awards that are at South by Southwest for the first time this year. So keep your fingers crossed for us.
but a huge honor to be nominated either way and best of luck to all the nominees. Okay, I have also had a lot of people reach out to me about Survivor, Risa, Tisa. And full transparency, I have not had time to watch. I did read a synopsis of what was shared. We have reached out to her.
Obviously, her story has received a lot of national attention and she's been on major talk shows now and things like that. While we would, of course,
Would, of course, love to have her on the podcast. We wish her the best regardless. And I appreciate y'all tagging us on TikTok and sending the TikToks to us and our team. We greatly appreciate it. And actually, season 20's story came to us thanks to somebody sharing on TikTok or tagging us on TikTok. Sending her all of our love, though. And thank you again to everybody for sharing it with me.
Another topic that has been circulating a lot, especially in January, was the topic of Taylor Swift regarding not only her being a survivor of stalking, she's also a survivor of AI deepfakes of non-consensual pornography, which has helped enable a national conversation about both stalking victims and digital violence victims.
I know Ariana Grande has also spoken out about her experience as a stalking survivor. I am appreciative to both Taylor Swift and Ariana for using their platforms to speak out about these things, especially when you're already being stalked and harassed pretty much 24-7. I also think that it's fantastic that people are starting to listen to these conversations, understand the need for legislation, especially as it's regarding AI deepfakes.
We have had several of you reach out to request that we cover a story regarding AI deepfakes, and I'm happy to share that we actually will be doing that in the future. It will likely be on season 21, and I'm so, so thankful to those survivors.
A couple other safety things that I wanted to talk to you all about in terms of national conversations and things that we have been hearing a lot about in our community. I've seen some posts recently from the U.S. Consumer Reports about knockoff security cameras. So these are security cameras being sold allegedly on websites like Timu or like Wish. Basically, they're knockoff ring doorbell cameras.
And unfortunately, what's been discovered is that these knockoff security cameras are apparently really easy for people to hack. So I just want to give a warning about that. I understand the attraction of paying less money, but I also think it's important for folks to know, especially since we have so many stalking victims that listen to the show.
I also want to tell y'all a short story about an incident that happened to me. This actually happened a while back. I think it's a very good cautionary tale. Hopefully it'll help somebody. So I'll try and make it as succinct as possible. But essentially, I traveled to Texas maybe a year and a half ago for a work conference. I was staying in downtown Dallas and I had been attending a conference for about a week.
I traveled there alone, but the first four nights or so that I was staying there, Amy B. Chesler, ABC, aka Fishbowl Chesler, was rooming with me and she was flying out Friday and I was going to fly out Saturday. So the last night that I was staying in the hotel, she had left.
And I actually went to dinner with one of my favorites, Shay from Unveiling Dallas. Check out her podcast. She's amazing. We were having dinner. And after I had dinner with her, I went back into my room and my key didn't work. So I go back down to the front desk and most of the people have left from the conference now. Apparently, I didn't get the memo, but everybody else did. And they flew out on Friday so they could get out sooner, probably.
So anyhow, the hotel was much slower at this point. I'm waiting at the desk in the front and there's a ton of male staff members. I'm not sure what department they were in, but I could tell because they were all in uniforms and they were standing to the left of this very echoey room front desk check-in situation. So I go up to the front desk. I'm like, hey, my key's not working, yada, yada.
Now, by this point, it's important to note that I had almost completely lost my voice and I was at the point where I could barely speak to the front desk person. I'm trying to raspily tell this guy like, hey, my key's not working. And he's like, oh, your key's not working. And I was like, yeah, I think it's because maybe the woman I was rooming with checked out or whatever. He's talking really loud and he's like, oh, so you're rooming by yourself tonight, huh? I leaned over the counter and I just very quietly was like, please don't announce that.
And he laughed and he's getting me the key. And he's like, oh, my God. And you're losing your voice, too, huh? And I'm just like, what the fuck? I don't think he was being malicious in any way, but it's just interesting. Sometimes the lack of awareness that men have to the constant state of fear that women live in, especially when they're outside alone or traveling alone. But anyhow, it must be nice to like run at night and not be scared of everything.
So I'm already like, okay, thank you for announcing that in front of these 20 dudes that are standing here, that I have no voice and that I'm rooming tonight by myself. Thought it was weird even then, especially given what I do. Understandably, I am even more thoughtful about my privacy than I've ever been. And I've always been pretty thoughtful just due to life experience. So anyways, I head back up to my room. I'm exhausted after a week of the conference. I pack up my stuff for the next morning when I'm flying out.
I've got Steve Lacey playing and I can say that for certain because that was the only album I was listening to at this time. And I start hearing this like little tapping. Let me see if I have a card so I can kind of like show you an example here. Okay, so I'm like chilling in bed. I've got Steve Lacey playing, just trying to vibe out, fall asleep. I'm exhausted. And I start hearing like a little tap, like tapping.
like with a card on the door. You know when housekeeping is knocking on the door or somebody who works at the hotel and they like use the key?
So I hear that and I'm like, what the heck? I have the music on. I know the person on the other side can hear that there's somebody inside the hotel room. And I'm figuring like housekeeping has never in my life come and knocked on my door this late in the day. I also had the do not disturb sign on the door. So I'm just laying there like doing what I always do when people pop by unannounced, which is ignore the fuck out of them. So I'm laying in bed, whatever. And then I keep hearing like, I'm like, what the fuck?
So I just like turn the music up louder to be like, yeah, I'm definitely somebody in here. Like go the fuck away. And then all of a sudden I hear beep, beep, beep. And the door is like the person on the other side is trying to push open my hotel door.
So I jump out of bed. I run to the hotel door, which luckily I had put the extra lock on the back and he hadn't been able to push it through all the way. So I go and I full force slam the hotel door closed and I close the top lock thing again. And I am trying my hardest to yell through the door because mind you, I can barely talk at this point because of my losing my voice. And I'm like,
go away. I didn't even try to figure out who it was. I instantly just had this really weird, bad feeling. And I was like, go away. And then I hear them beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, and try to push open the door again, like even harder to try and essentially break my security door lock on the top and push his way through. And I say he because I had looked through the peephole, but it was dark in the hotel room. All my lights were off because again, I was going to bed.
You could see the lit hallway. And normally when the hotel staff knock on your door, and they had it previously on this trip, so I know for sure what the protocol was, is they, you know, knock and then they step back. So when you look through the peephole, you can see them, right? Well, this person had not done that. They had their body pressed up against the door. I could see him, but it was more...
his hair and ear. I couldn't see his face. I know it's kind of hard to understand, but basically because he was like zoomed in because he was so close. So it was just like a different experience in general. Then he tried twice to push through. I closed the door and I screamed enough. I make sure the door is locked. I think I threw a chair behind the door. And then actually I called the front desk first and I was like, hey, did you guys send housekeeping up here? Is there any reason why housekeeping would be trying to come in my room right now? And the guy on the phone said, absolutely not.
And if they were going to come at this time of day, they would call first. And I was like, okay, well, someone just tried to fucking break into my room. So I need hotel security now. And he's like, holy shit, let me get them. So then hotel security calls me right away. I tell them about it. And at first they are like balls to the wall. They're like, say less. We're doing a sweep. They get all the details. They tell me, then they call me back and they're like, uh,
Uh, so the person who tried to get into your room works in housekeeping and he was just checking to see if anybody was still staying in the room. But the complete energy had changed as soon as they knew it was a staff member of the hotel.
And I was just like, what? I just spoke to the front desk. They said no one had been sent here. There's no reason that they would be coming to my room. I was obviously in the room after the first time he tried to enter the room, explaining the situation, explaining how terrified I was. I was saying this all through tears and being really tired and scared at this point and just wanting to go home and see my babies. And I ended up getting off with security and I went to bed.
And I wish I had called the police that night, but I stupidly assumed that security had called the police to report it because I reported it to them. And stupid me, I thought that they would automatically do that. I go to bed the next morning, I wake up and I have a badass female Lyft driver. And she's like, so where are you from? Blah, blah, blah. We get into the whole, oh, California is different than Texas, huh? Conversation.
I asked her about how she feels about her safety, working in the state, driving alone and for, you know, ride sharing apps. And she said that basically they're not allowed to carry, but she does for her own safety, that she had had some really scary incidents happen herself, driving Uber solo and had had someone spit at her and some really icky stuff. So I'm like, oh God. So I ended up telling her on this drive to the airport a bit about what I had happened the night before. And she's like,
Yeah, I've actually heard about this before. There's TikToks about it. This is something that women who travel a lot for work have talked about openly online. And I was like, oh, shit. And she's like, did you talk to the police about it? And I was like, oh, fuck. Like, no, I'm such a moron. I was so tired. And by the time I got finished with security, I just wanted to go to bed and I had an early flight. And so anyways...
The second I get home that evening after I fly home, I report this to police, to Dallas police. And that was a very interesting experience. I could definitely tell right away the officer could not be less interested in taking a report and was trying to just rush me off the phone. Then he told me I couldn't make a report because I was no longer in the state. So I did a simple Google search and determined that everything he was telling me was actually not aligned with penal code.
and asked for his badge number. And wouldn't you know it, all of a sudden everybody can do their job and they took the report. And, you know, I do have a case number, but nothing that I know of came of it.
While it was an unfortunate situation, it was pretty minor in terms of trauma for myself compared to other things I've experienced. But the reason that I wanted to share it with y'all again is for safety reasons. So I've now discovered that there's some locks and things that you can get on Amazon that you essentially like put into your hotel door or can use while you're staying in these hotels. It's really sad that we have to live this way, but I think any way we can spread information about safety and ways we can look out for each other, the
the better. I also want to highlight that Lyft has an awesome new feature that I just learned about this past week, which is where female and non-binary Lyft passengers can match with non-binary and female Lyft drivers, which is a great safety feature for the exact reasons that I was speaking to before. When you're
definitely been in situations where I didn't feel super comfortable with the driver and I travel a lot by myself and ride in rideshare apps a lot by myself so I certainly have in the past if it's late at night and I have a male driver I'll just cancel the ride until I get a female driver but now through this through Lyft's new feature could automatically do that so just wanted to highlight that
Scammers are best known for living the high life until they're forced to trade it all in for handcuffs and an orange jumpsuit once they're finally caught. I'm Sachi Cole. And I'm Sarah Hagee. And we're the host of Scamfluencers, a weekly podcast from Wondery that takes you along the twists and turns of some of the most infamous scams of all time, the impact on victims, and what's left once a facade falls away.
We've covered stories like a Shark Tank certified entrepreneur who left the show with an investment but soon faced mounting bills, an active lawsuit filed by Larry King, and no real product to push. He then began to prey on vulnerable women instead, selling the idea of a future together while stealing from them behind their backs.
acts. To the infamous scams of Real Housewives stars like Teresa Giudice, what should have proven to be a major downfall only seemed to solidify her place in the Real Housewives Hall of Fame. Follow Scamfluencers on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to Scamfluencers early and ad-free right now on Wondery Plus.
I'm Dan Taberski. In 2011, something strange began to happen at the high school in Leroy, New York. I was like at my locker and she came up to me and she was like stuttering super bad. I'm like, stop f***ing around. She's like, I can't. A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms, and spreading fast. It's like doubling and tripling and it's all these girls. With a diagnosis, the state tried to keep on the down low. Everybody thought I was holding something back. Well, you were holding something back intentionally. Yeah, yeah, well, yeah.
You know, it's hysteria. It's all in your head. It's not physical. Oh my gosh, you're exaggerating. Is this the largest mass hysteria since The Witches of Salem? Or is it something else entirely? Something's wrong here. Something's not right. Leroy was the new dateline and everyone was trying to solve the murder. A new limited series from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios. Hysterical.
Follow Hysterical on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge all episodes of Hysterical early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. So lastly, I had put on my Instagram that I was recording a solo episode today and put up a little one of those Q&A boxes. And so I'm going to answer some of those questions for y'all now. First question is from Tanya. Hi, Tanya. Thank you so much.
How are you, all caps? I'm good. I feel like life is pretty much always a roller coaster for me in terms of it's so dynamic and emotion, not only the work, but just life itself. Right. And the news and everything going on in the Middle East and Africa, where we have so many of these human rights crises happening.
And with our upcoming presidential election and the things we see in the news and the things we see in our systems, and it can get so, so hard not to feel downtrodden or negative or hopeless. And so this is probably a great place to also remind and plug our resource guide for folks. And there's so many free texting crisis apps, call apps that can help support if you're feeling the weight of
of these things nationally and internationally that we are seeing every day on social media and in the news and in our communities. And so I just want to remind folks of the resources there, as well as organizations where you can get involved, volunteer, donate towards these important causes, etc. So it's like always feels like living inside this weird reality of knowing nationally and internationally what's going on, but then also knowing
feeling deep moments of joy with my kids and my friends and my loved ones. And so life is very dynamic, especially in the work that I do on a daily basis, sitting with people talking about the hardest things, the hardest days of their lives that they've ever experienced, but then also talking with them about the joy or the pride or the resilience or the love that follows. In general, though, if I'm speaking just like generally, how am I doing?
I am doing great. I feel so supported by my team. I am really looking forward and honored to work on the cases that I'm already working on this year and have worked on. I also have a lot of other projects I'm excited about that I'll hopefully be able to tell y'all about in the future. But one of my goals is to work on some screen projects and adaptations, things like that in the future, as well as gonna start working on another book, a book of a
short essays about my life. Also working on some more audio projects and things like that in the future. So there's a lot going on, but it's all very exciting and I feel very, very, very, very privileged every single day. I'm also working with some nonprofits and trying to connect with more senators and those in government who can help us put forward bills related to these topics so that we can get legislation passed. So how am I? That was a really long answer.
I am good and probably need to learn how to be more succinct. Okay, next question.
What goals, hopes do you have for the future if something was wrong? I love this question. I kind of just answered it, but I would say that I would add to that. My hopes is just for the show to continue as long as it can and to continue to add more nuances of stories. More international survivors would be fantastic. Finding more ways that we can reach broader communities.
And then in terms of broken cycle media and something was wrong on the more logistical side, I would say continuing to grow our staff so that we can support more survivors internally, responding to the messages that we get, connecting survivors with resources, developing our internship program, different things like that that are more internal support for our community. Next question is, how has working with the survivors on your podcast personally impacted you?
I feel like in every way humanly possible. I think I talk about this quite a bit at the end of season 16, but it may sound cliche or cheesy to people, but I genuinely wake up every day so excited to do this work because it's fulfilling to me in pretty much every way possible. I love it.
The opportunity and the honor to work with others who have been through things similar to the things that I've been through and things that I could never imagine going through and hearing about their resilience and being able to offer them a platform and an opportunity to finally feel heard.
is endlessly rewarding. 10 out of 10 stars. And I mean, I learn from every single survivor I work with, whether they're on the podcast or I just connect with them via social media. They've still helped me be better at my job because I learned so, so much just through hearing everyone's experiences. Next question. Are there some stories you have covered that you can't stop thinking about? Yeah, all of them. It's probably why I don't sleep very much. Um,
Right now, I'm really focused on season 20 and it's really got me in a chokehold. Season 20 is one of the most diabolical, insane, dark triad. I've been posting teasers on my Instagram at lookieboo, L-O-O-K-I-E-B-O-O, trying to be better about sharing more behind the scenes and insights. But it is a story about a group of friends who are all being...
stalked, catfished, sexually abused, terrorized by a female abuser. And I am hoping that we will get the attention of the FBI or the dual task force in the state that these crimes most occurred and that we are going to get justice for these victims. I'm incredibly thankful to the survivors, not only for speaking to their experience, being so brave and sharing with us
in detail what they endured for years and years and years, but also because we know that stories like theirs and sharing them publicly add to the national conversation regarding legislation and the need for it at a federal level for sure. This offender and predator and the impact that they have had on so many women and men, it's one of those cases where twist after turn after twist after turn after... It's so...
diabolical. It's so manipulative. I feel like it's truly unlike any other story I've told. It's very similar to stories that we've told in some ways, but in a completely different nuance than we've ever covered. I can't wait to bring it to y'all. So yeah, that's the one I can't stop thinking about right now. Okay, next question. How do you leave work at work and practice self-care?
That is a great question. And I would love any of your suggestions. I...
I don't know that it's... I got to take my glasses off to answer this one. I'm not going to lie and pretend that I have a good work-life balance at this time. I work very long hours. And when I'm not working, I'm still always pretty much thinking about work and the survivors and what I need to do and what's coming up and where I'm going. And, oh, I need to follow up on that lead. And, oh, I need to do this and da-da-da-da-da. But...
I really try to dedicate my weekends to my kids and my family as much as possible. And I try really hard to be thoughtful about how I balance my schedule, have more just boundaries and recognize more limitations that I have. And then in terms of like self-care, I definitely like do nice things for myself. So yeah,
I do practice it, but I don't think it's like regular routine because my schedule can just be so chaotic and it's often based around other people's availability. It's not really easy to predict, but I think it's about making time for fun, both with my family and with my friends. Things like that. Like to me, that's self-care, getting time with my loved ones.
I think the self-care piece really comes in for me when I'm being thoughtful about, oh, this recording is going to be super duper heavy. So I need to like give my family a heads up or I need to make sure I don't schedule anything after that so I can take a bath or go for a walk or reset. In a lot of ways, I didn't do that for a long time, but I don't want to burn out and I want to do this forever.
So I've had to recognize that this is a marathon, not a sprint. And I have to learn to live within the work in ways that work for me and for my family so that we can achieve everything we need to achieve, but also make sure that my kids' needs are met and my family's needs are met. Okay, here's a new one. I'm curious if your mother or father heard you share your story on the pod, did they reach out?
related to season 16, my memoir season and sharing about my family's abuse and charges and things like that. They have not reached out to me. No, I hope they don't. Yeah.
The best thing they could do for me now is just leave me in my peace and never contact me again. If they love me in any capacity, that's what I would request of them. They, thank God, have not reached out to me or attempted to, to my knowledge.
And I appreciate you listening to the season. I know it's heavy and it's a lot, but I'm just so, so thankful to everybody who was able to and those who sent messages of support or emailed them to the team or myself. I definitely treasure them and it means a lot. While the best validation I got was the validation I gave myself viewing my story at a bird's eye view and sort of like just spending time with it.
having y'all's support and the team support has been so validating. Okay, a couple people asked the best way to share their story with us. The way to share your story with us for us to consider it for the podcast is to go to our website, somethingwaswrong.com. And there at the top, you'll see share your story, click on that little guy. And then it'll prompt you to fill out a form with your name,
email, phone number, and then a brief overview of your story. We say brief overview, not because we're trying to keep people brief, but we also don't want to overwhelm folks. And you can find out more details about the process on the website. So thank you so much for your interest in doing that. The website is the best place to do so. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Next question. Do any of your guest stories trigger you because yours are similar?
Unfortunately, yes. It doesn't happen too frequently, but it actually did happen while I was working on season 20 recently. It brought up a memory about a friend that I lost years ago who unalived himself and a story that a survivor was walking me through. I did get really emotional and I did feel really triggered to the point where I felt sick.
And, you know, I let the survivor know what was happening and I profusely apologized. And they were incredibly gracious. And I asked if we could take a break. And I went and put cold water on my face and blew my nose and got some water and shook it off. And, you know, we continued. I apologized profusely multiple times because I felt really
embarrassed and ashamed that it happened, but the survivor was incredibly lovely and understanding. And thankfully, it doesn't happen very often. Okay, the next question is, would love to hear more about how you started the podcast, the bravery, vulnerability and tech. Thank you so much. In terms of the podcast.
and how it started, I would say check out season one if you haven't, because we talk about it a lot on there. Or if you want to fast forward and listen to an episode of my season, I believe it's Taking Up Space. But towards the end of the season, I talk about the reasons I start the podcast and how it kind of started and getting involved with Sarah's story and that whole behind the scenes in much greater detail if you're interested.
And then technologically, I will say I had a $0 budget. I had a used microphone, a free editing program, and access to Google and YouTube. And started from the bottom, now we're here. Okay, the next question is, can you talk about the submissions you get overall, any patterns that stick out? I have currently right now, let's see.
I actually, I've just been trying to organize my desk because I'm tomorrow recording a episode with the podcast Two Girls, One Ghost. I'm super excited. Shout out to them. Okay, so I have like three giant stacks right now. You can't hear that, but let's see. Can you hear this? There we go.
I mean, we received so, so many submissions. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The team and I are constantly trying to keep up with them and respond to folks, get resources to folks as much as possible. And it's something that we are going to continually work on in terms of overarching patterns, like from a very literal place. I would say we get a lot of submissions from victims of dating apps, childhood abuse, stalking,
We've also recently started getting a bit more workplace abuse type submissions. But the majority of stories that we cover come to us very directly through the website submissions.
Well, that is the last of the questions. Thank you so much to those who submitted questions and for being here in general. I think we have the best community ever. Not that I am biased at all, but I am just endlessly thankful to each and every listener for being here, for supporting. I look forward to all that's to come. Thank you so much for listening. Stay safe, friends.
Thank you so much for listening. Until next time, stay safe, friends.
Something Was Wrong is a Broken Cycle Media production created and hosted by me, Tiffany Reese. If you'd like to support the show further, you can share episodes with your loved ones, leave a positive review, or follow Something Was Wrong on Instagram at somethingwaswrongpodcast. Our theme song was composed by Glad Rags. Check out their album, Wonder Under. Thank you so much.
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