Consider Before Consuming

Valiant Richey started his career as a prosecutor, where he moved to the Special Assault Unit, handling sexual assault, child exploitation, and human trafficking cases for a decade. He now works for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), an organization that works on security issues and human rights for 57 countries. Val is an ambassador for the organization, working with countries on how they can better combat trafficking. His extensive experience and work with so many countries give him unique insight into how consistent the patterns and functions of human trafficking are from country to country.

In this episode, Valiant talks about how trafficking is fed by a demand for people willing to pay for sex. He explains how sexually explicit material further drives the demand for sexual violence and sex trafficking and the connection between how victims are treated and their abusers' use of pornography. Valiant discusses how rampant sex trafficking is and what we can do to address it on a macro level, as well as individual shifts in our perspective and attitudes towards sex buying can help decrease the demand for sex trafficking.

Article: How Porn Can Fuel Sex Trafficking

Video: Truth About Porn: Valiant Richey

Podcast: Consider Before Consuming, Episode 90: Taina Bien-Aimé

Visit: Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe

Disclaimer: Fight the New Drug collaborates with a variety of qualified organizations and individuals with varying personal beliefs, affiliations, and political persuasions. As FTND is a non-religious and non-legislative organization, the personal beliefs, affiliations, and persuasions of any of our team members or of those we collaborate with do not reflect or impact the mission of Fight the New Drug.

Dr. Robert Jensen has been part of the anti-pornography movement since the 80s. Since he started, he has taught, written books and articles, and done extensive research on how society has been affected by pornography, with a particular focus on how pornography shapes men's behaviors and beliefs. Dr. Jensen explains how we're living in an age of extreme pornography, how normalized sexism and racism have become in mainstream pornography, and how it's affecting children and the way they're growing up. In this episode, Dr. Robert Jensen discusses the importance of having conversations with our kids about the harmful effects of porn, modeling healthy interactions, and start changing the conversation about pornography in our own homes and communities.

Article: How the Porn Industry Capitalizes Off of Racism and Racist Stereotypes

Article: Why the Goal of the Phrase "Porn Kills Love" Isn't to Shame Anyone

Podcast: Consider Before Consuming Ep. 90: Taina Bien-Aimé

Resource: Let's Talk About Porn

Visit: Culture Reframed

When Dr. Jill Manning began her career as a therapist, she quickly realized how many people of all ages struggled with issues surrounding the use of pornography, including addiction and betrayal trauma. This led her to obtain a Ph.D. in marriage and family therapy, specializing in betrayal trauma. Dr. Jill Manning explains how betrayal trauma victims are affected by their partner's porn use and offers advice to listeners who are experiencing betrayal trauma.

Article: How Avoiding Shame Can Help Partners Who are Healing From Betrayal Trauma

Video: Truth About Porn: Jill Manning, Ph.D.

Video: Our Experience on Porn Recovery and Betrayal Trauma

Podcast: Consider Before Consuming Ep. 54: Ashlynn Mitchell

Podcast: Consider Before Consuming Ep. 45: Jo Robertson

Visit: Dr. Manning's Website

Visit: The Association of Partners of Sex Addicts Trauma Specialists

Visit: International Institute for Trauma and Addiction Professionals

After being exposed to pornography for the first time during his freshman year of high school, Chandler began struggling with pornography and realized that he wasn't able to stop using willpower alone. It wasn't until he connected with others in an in-person support group that Chandler was able to see improvements in his journey to be porn-free. In this episode, Chandler discusses how finding a support group helped him to break free from shame and stay accountable and what ultimately led him to create Relay, a virtual group-based program for overcoming pornography use.

Article: Watching Porn Might Be Making You More Lonely

Visit: Try Relay at ftnd.org/relay

Video: What Recovering From Porn Is Like For Me

Uldouz started her acting career and quickly began to grow a following from her modeling and acting work. As she was growing in popularity, she learned that intimate, nonconsensual images and videos of her were leaked in the 2014 iCloud hack that affected hundreds of women, including many celebrities. After the leak, Uldouz battled to have the videos removed from mainstream porn websites, including Pornhub. In this episode, Uldouz discusses how being a victim of image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) has affected her life, from being bullied by her peers to brands deciding not to work with her. Uldouz says she's been able to find healing in openly discussing her image-based sexual abuse and support to other victims.

Article: “Am I In Porn?”: This Tool Searches Porn Sites to See if Your Images are Used in Videos

Podcast: Consider Before Consuming Ep. 88: Victoria Galy

Visit: Foundation Ra and Protect America's Daughters

Watch: Uldouz Wallace Testifies At Capitol Hill, Washington D.C

As the owner of a personal training company, Look Like You Lift, Braydon helps people strength train and get mentally and physically healthy, which sometimes means helping them address their addiction to pornography and begin to heal. Braydon shares his own personal story of being exposed to pornography at a young age and how it affected him throughout his adolescence, including how it affected his relationships and how he saw others. In this episode, Braydon discusses the importance of being open about your struggle with porn in order to combat shame, why he discusses the benefits of quitting porn with clients, and the conversations he's been able to start by wearing Fight the New Drug shirts to the gym.

• Braydon can often be seen sporting our tees at the gym and starting up conversations about the harmful effects of pornography
• Shares both the research with his clients and his own personal story of becoming exposed to porn at age 10 and how it affected him throughout his adolescence, including how it affected his relationships and how he saw others.
• The importance of being open because shame is only going to prohibit healing
• How much brighter life is now free from porn

Article: 5 Things You Can Do Today Instead of Watching Porn 

Video: Paul’s Story: “I’m Not Discouraged and Ashamed Anymore” by My Porn Struggle

Podcast: How Porn Can Affect The Brain Like A Drug

Visit: Look Like You Lift

Trigger Warning: This episode contains frank discussions of sexual abuse and sex trafficking. Listener discretion is advised.

Taina Bien-Aimé is the Executive Director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW), one of the oldest international organizations dedicated to ending trafficking in women and girls and commercial sexual exploitation as practices of gender-based violence and discrimination. Speaking from 30 years of experience in women's rights and equality, Taina discusses how the rise of online pornography has affected sex trafficking and sexual exploitation. Taina draws the links between pornography and gender-based violence, how the majority of sex buyers are men, and how porn teaches girls to be submissive and boys to exert power over girls. Taina helps us understand the increase of online sexual exploitation and what we can do to end it.

Article: How Mainstream Porn Normalizes Violence Against Black Women

Video: Truth About Porn, Taina Bien-Aimé

Visit: The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women

Visit: Equality Now

Podcast: Get The Facts: How Porn Can Promote Sexual Violence

We sat down with Alex and Candice, a couple whose marriage was brought to the brink due to Alex’s consumption of pornography. Over the course of five years, they struggled together as Alex tried to find recovery from what can best be described as an “addiction” and Candice suffered from betrayal trauma and body image issues. After much pain, therapy, and setbacks, Alex is well on the road to recovery and Candice is finding new strength in sharing their experiences with the world.

Episode 70: Candice Diaz

Episode 71: Alex Diaz

Fight the New Drug YouTube Channel

To learn more about the harms of pornography on consumers, relationships, and its larger societal impacts, visit FTND.org.

To support this podcast, click here.

As you go about your day we invite you to increase your self-awareness, look both ways, check your blindspots, and consider before consuming.

Fight the New Drug collaborates with a variety of qualified organizations and individuals with varying personal beliefs, affiliations, and political persuasions. As FTND is a non-religious and non-legislative organization, the personal beliefs, affiliations, and persuasions of any of our team members or of those we collaborate with do not reflect or impact the mission of Fight the New Drug.

The following podcast episode contains discussions of child sexual abuse and sex trafficking. Listener discretion is advised.

The abduction of Elizabeth Smart was one of the most followed child abduction cases of our time. Elizabeth was 14 years old when she was abducted from her home on June 5, 2002, and endured daily sexual assault, starvation, and abuse for 9 grueling months. Fortunately, due in large part to help from active bystanders, the police safely returned Elizabeth back to her family on March 12, 2003.

Now a mother of three, Elizabeth discusses her work at the Elizabeth Smart Foundation to bring hope to sexual assault through education, healing, and advocacy. Elizabeth discusses the role active bystanders had in her rescue, how pornography aided in her grooming and abuse, and the importance of having open and honest conversations with your children about the dangers online.

Article: 9 Surprising Facts About Human Trafficking in the U.S.

Video: Elizabeth Smart Speaks For The First Time About Pornography's Role In Her Abduction

Visit Elizabeth Smart Foundation

Visit OnWatch

Visit Smart Defense

This episode discusses explicit sexual behaviors and abuse that may be triggering to some. Listener discretion is advised.

Victoria started online dating after her divorce. That's where she first met Brandon. In the beginning, Brandon was saying and doing all the right things to make Victoria believe this was a man that respected and loved her. Years into their relationship, however, Victoria discovered that footage that Brandon took of her without her knowledge and consent had been uploaded onto Pornhub. Even after the arduous journey to get the footage removed from Pornhub, those videos continue to pop up all over the internet.

Victoria talks with Fight the New Drug about her experience fighting Pornhub to get her nonconsensual videos removed, the trauma that followed after her image-based abuse, and what she's doing now to advocate for herself and other victims who have found themselves in similar situations.

Disclaimer: Fight the New Drug is a non-religious and non-legislative awareness and education organization. Some of the issues discussed in the episode are legislatively-affiliated. Though our organization is non-legislative, we fully support the regulation of already illegal forms of pornography and sexual exploitation, including the fight against sex trafficking.