The Girlfriends: Spotlight

When tragedy strikes on a quiet spring morning, Niko Quinn’s tight knit community is torn apart. But that moment is just the start of an investigation that will uncover deep corruption, decades of abuse and a dark scandal at the heart of her hometown, Kansas City Kansas. 

US resources for Violence and Sexual Assault: https://rainn.org/   

International resources for Violence and Sexual Assault: https://nomoredirectory.org/   

US Suicide & Crisis Helpline: https://988lifeline.org/  

International Suicide & Crisis Helplines: https://blog.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines/ 

 

The Girlfriends: Untouchable is produced by Novel for iHeart Podcasts. For more from Novel, visit https://novel.audio/. 

 

You can listen to new episodes of The Girlfriends: Untouchable completely ad-free and 1 week early with an iHeart True Crime+ subscription, available exclusively on Apple Podcasts.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As Niko Quinn grieves the loss of her favorite cousin and Lamonte McIntyre stands trial for a murder he says he didn’t commit, buried secrets about the lead detective in the case begin to  surface. 

US resources for Violence and Sexual Assault: https://rainn.org/   

International resources for Violence and Sexual Assault: https://nomoredirectory.org/   

US Suicide & Crisis Helpline: https://988lifeline.org/  

International Suicide & Crisis Helplines: https://blog.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines/ 

 

The Girlfriends: Untouchable is produced by Novel for iHeart Podcasts. For more from Novel, visit https://novel.audio/. 

 

You can listen to new episodes of The Girlfriends: Untouchable completely ad-free and 1 week early with an iHeart True Crime+ subscription, available exclusively on Apple Podcasts.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Niko Quinn saw her favourite cousin murdered in broad daylight, her life turned upside down. She went looking for justice, but instead uncovered a dark scandal at the heart of her community: A police detective had spent decades targeting, threatening and sexually abusing black women across Kansas City Kansas.

 

Detective Roger Golubski used the power of his badge to launch a reign of terror. He acted as if he was above the law, until Niko, and an incredible group of women, came together to take him down.

 

The Girlfriends: Untouchable tells the story of a courageous sisterhood who exposed the dark underworld of a corrupt police officer, and brought their city’s horrifying truths to light. Because when the women of Kansas City Kansas realised the police weren’t coming to save them from their abuser, they stepped up to save themselves.

 

US resources for Violence and Sexual Assault: https://rainn.org/   

International resources for Violence and Sexual Assault: https://nomoredirectory.org/   

US Suicide & Crisis Helpline: https://988lifeline.org/  

International Suicide & Crisis Helplines: https://blog.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines/ 

 

The Girlfriends: Untouchable is produced by Novel for iHeart Podcasts. For more from Novel, visit https://novel.audio/. 

 

You can listen to new episodes of The Girlfriends: Untouchable completely ad-free and 1 week early with an iHeart True Crime+ subscription, available exclusively on Apple Podcasts.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lois Gibson has a rare gift: A gift for accurately drawing people she’s never seen before, from fragmented descriptions from traumatised witnesses. And that gift is incredibly useful to the Houston Police Department. 

Lois is the world’s most successful forensic artist. Over 40 years, on more than 5089 cases, she’s worked with victims and witnesses to painstakingly piece together a likeness of a suspect. And in more than 1313 cases, her drawings have nailed it with a conviction - case closed.

This is the story of how she found this talent in one of the very darkest moments of her own life.

 

The Girlfriends: Spotlight is produced by Novel for iHeartPodcasts.

For more from Novel visit Novel.Audio

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Miss saHHara was born to be a beauty pageant queen. As a child at home in Nigeria she would wrap herself in a mosquito net and sashay along a make-believe cat walk, delivering inspirational speeches to an imagined audience. 

But when she grew up and started to compete, she found that not only was she rejected from all the mainstream pageants she tried to enter, even trans beauty pageants seemed to celebrate all the cliched cisgender beauty norms. 

So, Miss saHHara decided to do something about it: She founded Miss Trans Global, a pageant where everybody is welcome, and where your advocacy and community work mean much more than the lightness of your skin or the bounciness of your hair.

 

Related Resources

Sylvia Rivera Law Project 

Big Door Brigade - Mutual Aid Toolbox

Transgender Law Centre

Trans Rescue

The Gender Reveal Podcast

Jesse Lou Lawson - Media consultancy

The Girlfriends: Spotlight is not affiliated to any of these organizations and we are not in a position to endorse them.

 

The Girlfriends: Spotlight is produced by Novel for iHeartPodcasts.

For more from Novel visit Novel.Audio

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Phyllis Omido is just a few months into a new job, when her infant son starts to get sick. Fevers, dehydration, hospitalisation - Phyllis is scared. Then the doctors give her some shocking news: Her son has lead poisoning. The metal smelting plant where Phyllis works, just outside Mombassa, Kenya, is leeching toxic chemicals into the water of the nearby river. And her son isn’t the only one who’s unwell: she believes the factory is poisoning the whole community.

So Phyllis turns campaigner, and starts gathering stories from all over town. Children with skin burned off, babies dying in the womb, women with mysterious fatal illnesses… And she’s going to force her employer, and the Kenyan government, to pay attention. It’s a fight that will see her life threatened, and her dubbed ‘The Erin Brockovich of East Africa’.

 

The Girlfriends: Spotlight is produced by Novel for iHeartPodcasts.

For more from Novel visit Novel.Audio

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When Jasvinder Sanghera was just 15 years old, her mum told her that she was going to be married to a man she had never met. Jasvinder’s older sisters had been through similar things. But instead of going along with the way things had always been in her family and community, Jasvinder escaped.

And then, she helped thousands of other women and girls to do the same.

Related resources

Karma Nirvana - https://karmanirvana.org.uk/ 

Unchained At Last (a US-based NGO) https://www.unchainedatlast.org/get-help/

The Girlfriends: Spotlight is not affiliated to any of these organizations and we are not in a position to endorse them.

 

The Girlfriends: Spotlight is produced by Novel for iHeartPodcasts.

For more from Novel visit Novel.Audio 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The fourth and final bonus episode of Season 3 and our first ever LIVE episode of The Girlfriends!

Recorded in front of a live audience from Wilderness Festival in Oxfordshire, UK, Anna is joined by author Kate Summerscale to discuss her book, “The Peepshow” and the wider impact of the True Crime genre. 

 

If you’re affected by any of the themes in this show please reach out to NO MORE at https://www.nomore.org a domestic violence charity we’ve partnered with. 

 

The Girlfriends: Jailhouse Lawyer is produced by Novel for iHeart Podcasts. For more from Novel, visit https://novel.audio/.
 

You can listen to new episodes of The Girlfriends: Jailhouse Lawyer completely ad-free and 1 week early with an iHeart True Crime+ subscription, available exclusively on Apple Podcasts.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Anna sits down with author, lawyer and activist; Leigh Goodmark, to discuss the problems of prisons. Especially when it comes to imperfect victims, like Kelly. 

And Anna asks - is prison abolition really the answer? 

 

If you’re affected by any of the themes in this show please reach out to NO MORE at https://www.nomore.org a domestic violence charity we’ve partnered with. 

 

The Girlfriends: Jailhouse Lawyer is produced by Novel for iHeart Podcasts. For more from Novel, visit https://novel.audio/.

You can listen to new episodes of The Girlfriends: Jailhouse Lawyer completely ad-free and 1 week early with an iHeart True Crime+ subscription, available exclusively on Apple Podcasts.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Anna deep dives into the story of Tina, who you first met back in Episode 7. 

Unlike Kelly, Tina fully admits that she committed a terrible crime. But is prison the right place for her?  And does she deserve to be forgiven? 

 

If you’re affected by any of the themes in this show please reach out to NO MORE at https://www.nomore.org a domestic violence charity we’ve partnered with. 

 

The Girlfriends: Jailhouse Lawyer is produced by Novel for iHeart Podcasts. For more from Novel, visit https://novel.audio/. 

You can listen to new episodes of The Girlfriends: Jailhouse Lawyer completely ad-free and 1 week early with an iHeart True Crime+ subscription, available exclusively on Apple Podcasts.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.