November 01, 2021

Believe Her. A Discussion on Criminalized Survivors, True Crime Podcasts and Nikki Addimando with Investigative Journalist, Justine van der Leun.

37 minutes

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In follow up of their first conversation with representatives from the Nicole Addimando Community Defense Committee, The Two Jess(es) talk with Justine van der Leun, investigative journalist and host of the true crime podcast, Believe Her, produced by Lemonada Media.

Through this six part series, Justine explores true crime as it comes to us, upside down — she presents a story about survival, punishment, and a push for change through rare access to police audio, official documents, and rare conversations with criminalized survivor, Nikki Adamando, from prison. Justine is on a mission to unravel this complex, layered case of criminalized survival, and ask: How can we stop cycles of trauma and violence? What does true justice look like?

Jess and Jess, as close followers of Nikki's case, ask a few of their own difficult questions and the three women have a very open and honest discussion about the systemic work that still needs to be done so that victims of abuse may truly live free.

Meet Justine:
Justine van der Leun is an award-winning journalist and an Emerson fellow at the New America Foundation. She is currently writing Unreasonable Women: Survival, Punishment, and Mass Incarceration in America, which will blend narrative stories with original nationwide data to explore the links between trauma, systemic failures, and the criminalization of women’s acts of survival from physical and sexual abuse. The book will be published by Ecco, an imprint of HarperCollins. Follow her @justinevdl.

About Lemonada Media:
Lemonada is a podcast network founded in 2019 by Jessica Cordova Kramer and Stephanie Wittels Wachs. The company’s podcasts share an unfiltered version of the human experience in a time of increasing polarization, in an effort to make life suck less. Lemonada provides a robust advertising platform, one that is nonpartisan and deeply engaging, with uniquely amiable host-read ads. For sponsorship opportunities, contact: [email protected]. For press inquiries, contact: [email protected].

Listen to Believe Her here.

For more information on the Nikki Addimando case reference WeSTAT season 2, episode 38 (air date April 18)

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