Toxic

We all remember the Bronco. The glove. The 1995 televised trial. And somewhere underneath all of it was Nicole Brown Simpson, a 35-year-old mother of two young kids who had spent years telling people she was afraid.

Her sister, Denise Brown, has spent the last 30 years traveling from one side of the country to the other trying to warn people about what we didn't see and what she wishes she'd known. We're honored to have her on Toxic to talk about how we're all angry that, despite so many of us yelling from the mountaintops, things seem to be getting worse, not better.

TOMORROW, Oct. 6, Denise Brown's first book, "For My Sister Nicole: Love Shouldn't Hurt—What to Know About Domestic Violence," comes out. fI you want to support Denise's ongoing and tireless work, buy the book and keep the conversation about domestic violence going.

Visit us at ToxicThePodcast.com to learn more about us, access previous episodes and pick up our "Stop Killing Women" merch—and more.

If you're experiencing abuse or domestic violence, please consider connecting with a trained advocate near you. You can find one through DomesticShelters.org.

Finally, help us spread these important conversations further. Share an episode of Toxic with someone just as pissed off as you that this keeps happening. Follow us on your favorite podcast platform or social media, and if you're willing, leave us a review. Your support helps us amplify these critical stories.

Together, we can create change.

Keisha Golden called the police more than 50 times in two years to report her boyfriend's abuse. She filed for not one, but two protective orders. She wanted to leave, but was pregnant. Like so many survivors, she still held out hope that Calvin Sydney could change.

He had other plans. When she was 8 months pregnant, he attacked her. She fought back and Calvin ended up dying from a stab wound to the leg. Keisha found herself cuffed and put behind bars, about to have a baby any day.

Survivors who seek help are often retraumatized by the system meant to protect them. Some will argue a crime is a crime. But that fear of winding up arrested for saving one's own life is what keeps so many survivors trapped, silent and feeling helpless.

Learn more about one alternative to prison in "What Is Restorative Justice?"

And sign the petition to pardon Keisha's here.

We want to hear from you. Do you have a story we need to discuss or a guest we should feature? Visit us at ToxicThePodcast.com and share your story. We're sorry if we can't reply to every email immediately, but we we are trying our best to respond to everyone who writes in. Just know that we hear you and you're not alone.

If you're experiencing abuse or domestic violence, please consider connecting with a trained advocate near you. You can find one through DomesticShelters.org.

Finally, help us spread these important conversations further. Share an episode of Toxic with someone just as pissed off as you that this keeps happening. Follow us on your favorite podcast platform or social media, and if you're willing, leave us a review. Your support helps us amplify these critical stories.

Together, we can create change.

Have you ever watched movie sex and then wondered why the sex you have is so.....not that? Sure, we know it's scripted, but in the same way romcom writers make stalking look romantic, so too is over-the-top passionate 30-second sex the best orgasam of any woman's life. Umm......what?

How are these completely inacurate portrayls of sex influencing our own ideas about what intimacy should look and feel like? And how does it especially impact young people who are growing up with a completely inaccurate expectation for sex?

Doménica Feraud is a writer, producer and actor whose new book, You Are What You See: How My Favorite Shows Became My Worst Influences, examines how the movies and television we consume shape our ideas about sex, relationships and ourselves. She also wrote an ahhhhmazing essay that went viral for good reason: The 26-Year-Old Virgin.

Tl; dr: We need more women writing sex scenes because—shocker—men are writing about the sexual responses they *think* women should be having. And sorry guys, this just isn't it.

We want to hear from you. Do you have a story we need to discuss or a guest we should feature? Visit us at ToxicThePodcast.com and share your story. We're sorry if we can't reply to every email immediately, but we we are trying our best to respond to everyone who writes in. Just know that we hear you and you're not alone.

If you're experiencing abuse or domestic violence, please consider connecting with a trained advocate near you. You can find one through DomesticShelters.org.

Finally, help us spread these important conversations further. Share an episode of Toxic with someone just as pissed off as you that this keeps happening. Follow us on your favorite podcast platform or social media, and if you're willing, leave us a review. Your support helps us amplify these critical stories.

Together, we can create change.

Pride is about visibility, but not everything is rainbows and glitter, despite what the media feeds us about queer relationships. This episode dives into how intimate partner abuse shows up in queer relationships, including the tactics and dynamics that can fly under the radar.

But never fear—we end on a lighter note with the queer shows we love (and the scenes we'll never stop thinking about). Love is love, bitches.

As mentioned in the episode, here are some LGBTQ+-specific organizations that are here if you need someone supportive and nonjudgmental to talk about what's going on in your relationship, or need help leaving an abusive partner.

L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual; Transgender Community Center (New York)

CenterLink, The Community of LGBTQ+ Centers

Community United Against Violence (CUAV)

FORGE, for transgender and non-binary survivors

LGBT National Help Center

National Resource Center on LGBTQ+ Aging

The Network/La Red

The Mazzoni Center

We want to hear from you. Have a story we should cover or a guest we need to feature? Head to ToxicThePodcast.com and tell us what's on your mind. We can't always respond right away—but we are reading, and you are not alone.

If you're experiencing abuse or domestic violence, you deserve support. You can connect with a trained advocate near you at DomesticShelters.org.

If this episode resonated, share it with a friend, a group chat or honestly, anyone else who's fed up that this is still happening. Follow Toxic wherever you listen, please leave a review i and help us keep these conversations loud.

Change doesn't happen quietly and we're not done talking.

We're back! Sorry for the hiatus, but life threw us some curveballs (we'll tell you about them in this episode).

But really, we're here to talk to Mae Scott, survivor and author who so bravely shares her story of what abuse can look like up close: not just fear, but confusion, manipulation and a slow erosion of reality. Then comes the fun part (read: not fun at all)—navigating a legal system that doesn't seem to want to believe or even listen to women.

It's raw, frustrating, and necessary listening about what survivors are really up against—and why believing them matters more than ever.

Got a story we should be talking about? Or a guest we need to have on? Tell us everything at ToxicThePodcast.com. You'll also find some sweet merch bound to start conversations.

If you're dealing with an abusive partner, you don't have to navigate it alone. You can connect with a trained advocate through DomesticShelters.org.

And if this episode lit a fire under you (rage counts), don't keep it to yourself. Share it. Follow. Leave a review. Help us get these stories in front of more people who need to hear them—and maybe a few who really need to hear them.

After Donald Trump publicly berated Kaitlan Collins of CNN for pressing him about the Jeffrey Epstein files, he used a cheap power move familiar to women worldwide.

"Why aren't you smiling?"

Because apparently women exist to decorate the room — and keep powerful men comfortable.

It's also a great way to deflect questions you don't want to answer.

In this episode, we unpack the long history of telling women to "smile" — and why it's one of the most annoying things men can say next to....oh, about anything. We examine how policing women's expressions becomes a way to reassert dominance, derail accountability and minimize a woman's place in a professional seetting.

Because when a woman is told to smile, it's rarely about happiness. It's about control.

We want to hear from you. Do you have a story we need to discuss or a guest we should feature? Visit us at ToxicThePodcast.com and share your story. We're sorry if we can't reply to every email immediately, but we we are trying our best to respond to everyone who writes in. Just know that we hear you and you're not alone.

If you're experiencing abuse or domestic violence, please consider connecting with a trained advocate near you. You can find one through DomesticShelters.org.

Finally, help us spread these important conversations further. Share an episode of Toxic with someone just as pissed off as you that this keeps happening. Follow us on your favorite podcast platform or social media, and if you're willing, leave us a review. Your support helps us amplify these critical stories.

Together, we can create change.

We're starting this episode with Jenna's take from the frontlines in Minneapolis, where she lives, and the horrors she's seen there firsthand in the wake of ICE's terror campaign. Spoiler: It's all bad. But you can do something, no matter where you are. Visit standwithminnesota.com to donate to families impacted and to the tireless volunteers standing guard in the negative temps 24/7.

Next, because we can't let ICE distract us from the fact that women are in peril every day, and most often by their own partners in their own homes, we're telling the story of Elizabeth "Lizzie" Weinstein. Lizzie was a mother, former ER nurse and outspoken critic of the family court system whose life ended under still-unclear circumstances last July.

After divorcing her ex-husband, prominent attorney Brian Stryker Weinstein, Lizzie alleged abuse and corruption within a system she said stripped her of her children, her finances and her credibility—while protecting power and wealth. What followed was a series of deeply troubling events involving her being put behind bars, subjected to psychiatric confinement against her will and court orders that raise more questions than answers.

This episode traces Lizzie's story through its many confusing and perplexing twists, exploring how family court can be weaponized against survivors—and why the full truth of what happened to her may never be known. We close with an interview with Natalie Blundell, Lizzie's friend, a domestic violence advocate and the founder of WeSpoke.org, who shares her perspective on Lizzie's final years and what her case reveals about systemic failures that continue to impact women across the country.

We want to hear from you. Do you have a story we need to discuss or a guest we should feature? Visit us at ToxicThePodcast.com and share your story. We're sorry if we can't reply to every email immediately, but we we are trying our best to respond to everyone who writes in. Just know that we hear you and you're not alone.

If you're experiencing abuse or domestic violence, please consider connecting with a trained advocate near you. You can find local advocacy groups and information on all facets of abuse at DomesticShelters.org.

Finally, help us spread these important conversations further. Share an episode of Toxic with someone just as pissed off as you that this keeps happening. Follow us on your favorite podcast platform or social media please leave us a review. Your support helps us amplify these critical stories.

Together, we can create change.

It's one of our favorite episodes of the year where we recap a bad (or is it actually a genius?) holiday movie. This year's pick: Christmas at the Catnip Cafe. Olivia, a marketing exec (OF COURSE SHE IS) is left half a cat cafe in her aunt's will and who owns the other half? A hot vet who loves cats, obviously. Olivia hates cats! And has no time for romance or small towns! But does love to make vegetable tians! Oh my god, WHAT will happen?!

Have a very festive, safe holiday y'all. And men, ask how you can help, FFS.

We're back! Thanks for your patience. We had life stuff.

This week, Jenna and Amanda are strapping on their metaphorical hazmat suits and wading into the darkest corners of the internet: the manosphere. What starts as "dating tips" or "how to be more confident" quickly turns into a pipeline of misogyny, conspiracy thinking victimhood narratives ("men have it the worst!"), and in too many cases, encouragement of real-world violence against women.

We're breaking down how this ecosystem has gone fully mainstream, how influencers sell young men a fantasy of power and entitlement—usually wrapped in $999 "mastermind" courses—and why boys searching YouTube for perfectly innocent advice on dating or fitness are now just one algorithmic shove away from some of the most toxic women-hating, pro-grape messaging online.

Come for the snark. Stay for the unsettling realization that this stuff is everywhere now.

If you want to go even deeper into the manosphere, we can't recommend highly enough Laura Bates' book "Men Who Hate Women: From Incels to Pick-Up Artists, the Truth About Extreme Misogyny and How It Affects Us All."

And to jumpstart a fun conversation over morning coffee, get your "Prevent Male Podcasts" coffee mug at our Toxic store here!

We want to hear from you. Do you have a story we need to discuss or a guest we should feature? Visit us at ToxicThePodcast.com and share your story. We're sorry if we can't reply to every email immediately, but we we are trying our best to respond to everyone who writes in. Just know that we hear you and you're not alone.

If you're experiencing abuse or domestic violence, please consider connecting with a trained advocate near you. You can find one through DomesticShelters.org.

Finally, help us spread these important conversations further. Share an episode of Toxic with someone just as pissed off as you that this keeps happening. Follow us on your favorite podcast platform or social media, and please consider leaving us a [kind] review. Your support helps us amplify these critical stories.

Together, we can create change.

Sigh. Here we go again. In a case of this-can't-possibly-be-true-oh-my-god-why-is-the-system-so-broken-this-is-why-women-keep-dying, a Tucson, Ariz., judge set free Michael Martinez Duran from a Pima County jail while he was awaiting trial for charges of domestic violence, including strangulation, which we KNOW is one of the deadliest red flags of a future homicide.

Due in court Sept. 19, Michael never made it. Instead, he did something most of us could 100 percent predict any abuser who had already been escalting his abuse was going to do when losing power and control—he murdered his girlfriend, a mom and brand-new grandmother, Michelle Gracia, 47, less than two weeks before he was set to be back in court.

In this episode, we discuss the deadly consequences of downplaying an abuser's threats — and the heartbreaking ways victims often disconnect from the reality of their danger, because fully facing it can feel impossible.

We are also honored to have Michelle's mother, Linda, talk to Amanda in this traumatic aftermath about her daughter's murder, and how it was absolutely preventable. (Apologies for the sound quality of the phone call.)

Please consider making a donation to Michelle's GoFundMe, if able, to help support her children moving forward.

We want to hear from you. Do you have a story we need to discuss or a guest we should feature? Visit us at ToxicThePodcast.com and share your story. We're sorry if we can't reply to every email immediately, but we we are trying our best to respond to everyone who writes in. Just know that we hear you and you're not alone.

If you're experiencing abuse or domestic violence, please consider connecting with a trained advocate near you. You can find one through DomesticShelters.org.

Finally, help us spread these important conversations further. Share an episode of Toxic with someone just as pissed off as you that this keeps happening. Follow us on your favorite podcast platform or social media, and if you're willing, leave us a review. Your support helps us amplify these critical stories.

Together, we can create change.