Believe Her

We’re thrilled to introduce you to Legacy Talk with Lena Waithe. Hosted by Emmy-winning writer, actor and producer, Lena Waithe, Legacy Talk is a series of conversations celebrating the brilliance and artistry of some of the most iconic Black women in entertainment. Join Lena as she sits down with powerhouses like Jada Pinkett Smith, Debbie Allen, and more, as they explore how these legends shaped the industry and inspired a generation. They’ll dive into their creative process, how they prepared for their roles, and the legacy they continue to build. 

Here’s a sneak peek into the first episode, where Lena chats with acclaimed actress and singer Sheryl Lee Ralph about her groundbreaking role on Dreamgirls and the journey that led her to Broadway. Informative, inspiring and unforgettable– lock into your legacy with Legacy Talk.

Listen to the full episode wherever you get your podcasts or head to https://lemonada.lnk.to/LegacyTalkWithLenaWaithefd

 

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We’re excited to introduce My So-Called Midlife, a new podcast by Reshma Saujani and Lemonada Media. “Is this it?” That’s the question our host Reshma Saujani asks herself daily. She’s the founder of two successful nonprofits, she’s married to a great guy, and she’s raising two beautiful children. She’s gotten everything she’s ever wanted, so why does she feel so unsatisfied? Is this a woman’s version of a midlife crisis? 

She’s determined to figure it out, and with the strength of her group chat behind her, she’s calling in reinforcements. From conversations with Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, Emily Oster, Cheryl Strayed, and more, Reshma’s going to help us all figure out how we stop trying to just get through this time of life… and actually start living it.

Here’s a sneak peek of episode one of My So-Called Midlife. Listen as Reshma chats with Julia Louis-Dreyfus about why her 50s have been the best decade of her life. My So-Called Midlife with Reshma Saujani– listen to the full episode wherever you get your podcasts or head to https://lemonada.lnk.to/mysocalledmidlifefd

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We’re so excited to let you know that Wiser Than Me with Julia Louis-Dreyfus - is BACK for a third season – with even more wisdom from some legendary older women! Each week, you’ll hear Julia have insightful, funny, and important conversations with these ladies who have so much to teach us about living unapologetically and focusing on the stuff that really matters. This season is yet again chock-full of marvelous guests, and, as always, every episode ends with a conversation between Julia and her 90-year-old mom Judy. 

You’re about to hear an extended clip of the first episode of season 3 of the show, featuring the remarkable scientist and researcher, Doctor Jane Goodall. After you listen, search for Wiser Than Me in your podcast app to hear the rest of the episode or head to https://lemonada.lnk.to/wiserthanmefd.

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We’re excited to tell you about a brand new storytelling show – hosted and produced by the amazing Lupita Nyong’o – that we are just loving. It’s called Mind Your Own, and it’s about navigating what it means to belong, all from the African perspective. 

Lupita Nyong’o knows what home feels like. But where exactly is it? In Mexico, where she was born? Kenya, where she grew up? Or the States, where she’s spent the past 20 years? Like Lupita, millions of Africans are spread out across the globe following family, searching for love, building futures and creating stories. It's these stories – wild and messy, intimate and joyous – that she wants to hear.

Here’s a sneak peek of Mind Your Own episode 1. It’s about what it’s like to try to find your voice. You’ll hear a story from Lupita, and then you’ll meet a Ghanaian who rediscovered his voice after losing it. Mind Your Own – listen to the full episode wherever you get your podcasts or head to https://lemonada.lnk.to/mindyourownfd.

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Hosted by Emmy-winning talk show host Ricki Lake, The High Life brings us into Ricki’s blissed-out world of joy and pleasure, featuring conversations with compelling guests who have cracked the code to living a full and vibrant life. Join Ricki as she continues her lifelong journey of self-reinvention by talking to friends and experts in the realm of healing, health and wellness such as Olympian Alexi Pappas, journalist and psychedelics expert Ernesto Londoño, and death doula Alua Arthur. She’ll tackle topics like biohacking, tantric sex, somatic therapy, crystals, astrology, and clairvoyance. The High Life with Ricki Lake is a lighthearted dive into living your best life at any age.

You’re about to hear a clip of the first episode of The High Life, where Ricki joins Olympian Alexi Pappas as they talk about losing loved ones to suicide, opting into life, and how Alexi regained her footing after her Olympic win and ensuing battle with her mental health. 

To hear more of The High Life with Ricki Lake head to: https://lemonada.lnk.to/TheHighLifewithRickiLakefd 

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We’re excited to drop in your feed today a special episode of Podcrushed featuring the prolific, amazingly talented, and incredibly sweet Ariana Grande. In this first part of a two-part conversation with the pop icon, the crew has a wide-ranging conversation on childhood, Ariana's Broadway origins, and getting to act alongside her best friends.

Podcrushed is the podcast where hosts Penn Badgley, Nava Kavelin, and Sophie Ansari bring you stories and conversations about middle school - from childhood crushes, to battles with body hair, to schoolyard scuffles. The results are sometimes awkward, sometimes heartwarming, and always relatable.

For more on Ariana Grande’s music, Eternal Sunshine, BTS tidbits on The Boy is Mine music video, and Wicked, listen to part 2 on the Podcrushed feed here: https://lemonada.lnk.to/Wp2OXBfd

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We’re excited to drop in your feed today to tell you about a new series from Lemonada Media and the BBC: Pop Culture Debate Club with Aminatou Sow. Being a pop culture fan naturally comes with a lot of opinions. You’ve got your favorites and you’re ready to defend your picks at a moment’s notice. That’s what Pop Culture Debate Club is all about. Each week, two notable mega-fans square off, ready to convince host Aminatou Sow that their opinion on TV, movies, and music is the only one that matters. And then Aminatou picks a winner. But we’re all friends, so even though someone wins, no one loses.

You’re about to hear a preview of the first episode of Pop Culture Debate Club, where Aminatou Sow must pick between actor Carl Tart’s choice of the original Space Jam and TV writer Lamar Woods’s selection of D2: The Mighty Ducks for the best sports film of all time. 

To hear more of Pop Culture Debate Club, head to: https://lemonada.lnk.to/7JiEmtfd

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On January 4th, 2024, Nikki Addimondo was released from prison and reunited with her family. To celebrate, we are sharing two excerpts that were previously only available to our Lemonada Premium subscribers. These two conversations speak to the range of the incredible reporting in this series – one touches on the heart of Nikki’s personal story and the other reminds us that Nikki was not the only person put behind bars for trying to save her own life – this is an issue still impacting so many others.

Resources:

• Follow the We Stand With Nikki campaign on Instagram at @westandwithnikki, on Twitter at @standwithnikki, and on their webpage at www.westandwithnikki.com.
• Nikki’s sister, Michelle Horton, wrote about Nikki’s story in her book Dear Sister: A Memoir of Secrets, Survival, and Unbreakable Bonds
• Check out Justine van der Leun’s book We Are Not Such Things: The Murder of a Young American, a South African Township, and the Search for Truth and Reconciliation
• Read Monica Cosby’s writing here 
• If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic abuse, use a safe computer and contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at www.thehotline.org or call 1-800-799-7233. You can also search for a local domestic violence shelter at www.domesticshelters.org/.
• If you have experienced sexual assault and need support, visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) at www.rainn.org or call 1-800-656-HOPE
• Have questions about consent? Take a look at this guide from RAINN at www.rainn.org/articles/what-is-consent.
• Learn more about criminalized survival in New York State at www.survivedandpunishedny.org/.
• Learn more about the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act at www.nysda.org/page/DVSJA. 
• Read Justine’s May 2020 investigative piece on Nikki’s case at www.gen.medium.com/nikki-had-proof-shed-been-abused-but-was-it-enough-for-self-defense-bd9f196396eb.  

 

 

Believe Her is created in partnership with Spiegel & Grau. Follow them on Twitter and Instagram at @spiegelandgrau.

Follow Justine on Twitter at @justinevdl and on Instagram at @jvanderleun.

Stay up to date with us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @LemonadaMedia.

If you want to continue the conversation with other listeners, please join our Facebook group at www.facebook.com/groups/believeher/. 

 

Interested in bonus content and behind the scenes material? Subscribe to Lemonada Premium right now in the Apple Podcasts app by clicking on our podcast logo and the "subscribe” button.

 

Stay up-to-date on everything in the Lemonada world by becoming a superfan at https://joinsubtext.com/lemonadasuperfan.  

Click this link for a list of current sponsors and discount codes for this and all other Lemonada series: lemonadamedia.com/sponsors.

To follow along with a transcript, go to www.lemonadamedia.com/show/believeher shortly after the air date.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sheree Warren left her job in Salt Lake City on a mild October evening in 1985. She told a coworker she was headed to meet her estranged husband, Charles Warren, at a car dealership. But she never made it, Sheree vanished. When her car mysteriously surfaced weeks later, hundreds of miles away in Las Vegas, no one could say how it got there.

When a young mother disappears under unexplained circumstances, police always turn suspicious eyes towards the husband. And although there was distrust around Charles Warren, he wasn’t the only suspect when Sheree went missing. She also had a boyfriend, a former cop named Cary Hartmann, who lived a sinister double life.

Season three follows two suspects– men who both raised suspicion for investigators. But with two strong persons of interest with competing facts and evidence, it muddied the murder investigation. This season, host Dave Cawley, digs into the lives of these two men, the details of the case and examines the intersections between domestic abuse and sexual violence. The COLD team seeks to answer the question: what really happened to Sheree Warren?

Hey Prime Members, listen to the Amazon Music exclusive podcast, COLD, in the Amazon Music App. Download the app today: www.amazon.com/COLD_us_pfd_AA_110122.

 

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In this bonus interview, Justine sits down with Sandra Brown, the criminalized survivor who you heard from in Chapter 6. Sandra was recently released from prison, where she worked on rebuilding herself over the course of 21 years, and is now working toward her Ph.D. This conversation has been edited for time and clarity.

 

Resources:

• If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic abuse, use a safe computer and contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at www.thehotline.org or call 1-800-799-7233. You can also search for a local domestic violence shelter at www.domesticshelters.org/.
• If you have experienced sexual assault and need support, visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) at www.rainn.org or call 1-800-656-HOPE.
• Ask Governor Kathy Hochul to grant Nikki clemency: https://www.change.org/p/president-trump-freenikki 
• Have questions about consent? Take a look at this guide from RAINN at www.rainn.org/articles/what-is-consent.
• Learn more about the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act at www.nysda.org/page/DVSJA. 
• Learn more about criminalized survival across the U.S. at https://survivedandpunished.org/.
• Read Justine’s Dec. 2020 article on criminalized survival in the U.S. at https://newrepublic.com/article/160589/women-prison-domestic-violence-survivors.
• Support incarcerated survivor Tanisha Williams by visiting https://standwithtanisha.com/.
• Support incarcerated survivor Tomiekia Johnson by visiting https://www.change.org/p/gavin-newsom-grant-commutation-for-incarcerated-survivor-tomiekia-johnson.
• Read Sandra Brown’s writing by visiting https://brill.com/view/book/edcoll/9789004441651/BP000023.xml.
• Learn more about incarcerated survivor Kelly Harnett’s story at https://www.survivedandpunishedny.org/kelly-harnett/.
• Follow the We Stand With Nikki campaign on Instagram at @westandwithnikki, on Twitter at @standwithnikki and on their webpage at www.westandwithnikki.com.

 

Justine van der Leun is the host and lead reporter. This series is produced by Justine van der Leun and supervising producer Kristen Lepore. The associate producer is Giulia Hjort. The production assistant is Rory James Leech. Additional reporting by Kristen Lepore and Giulia Hjort. Mixing and sound design by Kegan Zema. Music by RRA aka Sara Abdelaal. Fact checking by Justin Kloczko. Additional audio engineering by Ivan Kuraev. Story editing by Jackie Danziger. Story consulting by Amy Metsch. The executive producers are Stephanie Wittels Wachs, Jessica Cordova Kramer, and Spiegel & Grau.

 

Believe Her is created in partnership with Spiegel & Grau. Follow them on Twitter and Instagram at @spiegelandgrau.

Follow Justine on Twitter at @justinevdl and on Instagram at @jvanderleun.

Stay up to date with us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @LemonadaMedia.

If you want to continue the conversation with other listeners, please join our Believe Her podcast community on Bookclubz at www.bit.ly/believeherbookclubz and our Facebook group at www.facebook.com/groups/believeher/. 

 

Interested in bonus content and behind the scenes material? Subscribe to Lemonada Premium right now in the Apple Podcasts app by clicking on our podcast logo and the "subscribe” button.

 

Stay up-to-date on everything in the Lemonada world by becoming a superfan at https://joinsubtext.com/lemonadasuperfan.  

Click this link for a list of current sponsors and discount codes for this and all other Lemonada series: lemonadamedia.com/sponsors.

To follow along with a transcript, go to www.lemonadamedia.com/show/believeher shortly after the air date.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.