"Don't tell anyone."

That's exactly what Secret Shadow wants to hear.

But not everything we're asked to keep to ourselves belongs in the same category.

In this episode of Unmuted: Families, Brie helps children and their grown-ups explore the differences between privacy, surprises, and secrets - including one simple distinction little superheroes can remember:

A surprise has an ending.

Together, we'll talk about secrets that feel heavy, confusing, scary, or unsafe; what children can do when someone asks them not to tell; and why caring about someone doesn't mean having to carry something too big alone.

Most importantly, children will hear this:

You are allowed to tell.

You don't need perfect words. You don't need proof. You don't even have to be completely sure something is wrong before asking a safe grown-up for help.

And grown-ups? Our job is to make sure that when a child finally decides to speak, their words have somewhere safe to land.

Gather your superheroes and listen together.

Secret Shadow may love hiding things in the dark.

We're going to practice bringing them into the light.

Unmuted: Families is a family-focused series from The Lioness in the Darkness, creating space for the conversations that matter.

To support the mission of educating, healing, and protecting families and schools in the digital age, visit: https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/donation-form/support-the-lioness-in-the-darkness

Meet Emotion Eater, the villain who makes big feelings feel even bigger.

Anger. Sadness. Fear. Jealousy. Frustration. Embarrassment. Sometimes emotions can become so overwhelming that kids don't know what to do with them. And sometimes grown-ups are so focused on stopping the behavior that we forget to ask what feeling might be underneath it.

In this episode of Unmuted: Families, Brie helps families explore what emotions are trying to tell us, why feeling something and acting on it are two different things, and how children can learn to recognize, name, and safely express what is happening inside them.

Because the goal isn't to raise children who never get angry, cry, feel jealous, or become overwhelmed.

It's to help them learn: I can feel something really big without letting that feeling decide what I do next.

Gather your superheroes and listen together. Emotion Eater may love big feelings, but families can learn how to make room for them without letting them take over.

Unmuted: Families is a family-focused series from The Lioness in the Darkness, creating space for the conversations that matter.

To support the mission of educating, healing, and protecting families and schools in the digital age, visit: https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/donation-form/support-the-lioness-in-the-darkness

Sometimes your body makes a decision and you simply… have no say in the matter.

In this episode of Unmuted, Brie talks about growing up with inflammatory bowel disease, the loss of control that can come with it, and a recent episode that brought some very old feelings rushing back.

She also explores an unexpected connection: childbirth.

IBD and giving birth are obviously very different experiences, but both have taught Brie something about what it feels like when your body takes over and your only option is to get through what comes next.

This episode contains honest conversation about bodies, bathrooms, birth, embarrassment, and the strange ways our past experiences can echo into adulthood.

To support the mission of educating, healing, and protecting families and schools in the digital age, visit: https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/donation-form/support-the-lioness-in-the-darkness

What happens when what someone said and what we thought they meant aren't quite the same thing?

Meet Messenger Mix-Up.

In this episode of Unmuted: Families, Brie explores how easily misunderstandings can happen through conversations, texts, group chats, gaming messages, emojis, and even the different ways families learn to use the exact same words.

Sometimes our brains fill in information we don't have, creating a story about what someone meant before we've had a chance to check.

Together, families learn three Hero Skills:

Pause. Ask. Give People Room to Explain.

Plus one simple question that can change an entire conversation:

"Can I check my story?"

And grown-ups, there's something here for us too. Sometimes we'll discover that a child misunderstood what we meant. Other times, we may realize we didn't communicate as clearly as we thought we did. Both are important.

Because communication isn't about proving who was right. It's about understanding each other.

Listen together, then try the family activity in this episode and see how many different meanings your family can give the words "I'm fine."

Unmuted: Families is a family-focused series from The Lioness in the Darkness, creating space for the conversations that matter.

To support the mission of educating, healing, and protecting families and schools in the digital age, visit: https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/donation-form/support-the-lioness-in-the-darkness

About a year ago, Charrow and Laserstream came to life in a three-part story from The Lioness in the Darkness.

Now, for the first time on Unmuted: Families, Brie is bringing their entire story to audio - reading all three original parts of The Battle of Charrow vs. Laserstream from beginning to end.

Through superheroes, imagination, and adventure, Charrow and Laserstream gave families another way to approach conversations about emergencies, safety, and what we can do when situations feel bigger than us.

So gather the family, press play, and meet Charrow and Laserstream.

The battle is about to begin.

Unmuted: Families is a family-focused series from The Lioness in the Darkness, creating space for the conversations that matter.

To support the mission of educating, healing, and protecting families and schools in the digital age, visit: https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/donation-form/support-the-lioness-in-the-darkness

AI toys are coming.

Not just toys that talk, sing, or respond when you press a button, but toys designed to remember, respond, learn, and potentially become something a child feels genuinely connected to.

In this episode of Unmuted, Brie talks about the future of AI companions for children and a part of the conversation that may be much bigger than screen time or privacy:

What happens when a child loves something that can disappear?

What happens when a subscription ends, a company shuts down, a model changes, the toy resets, or the AI they have spent years talking to suddenly doesn't remember them anymore?

Growing up during the early internet taught an entire generation that relationships formed through technology can carry very real emotions. AI may be about to take that lesson somewhere entirely new.

This isn't a conversation about fearing technology or pretending we can stop the future from arriving.

It's about making sure that while we're building smarter toys, we're also thinking about the children who may love them.

To support the mission of educating, healing, and protecting families and schools in the digital age, visit: https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/donation-form/support-the-lioness-in-the-darkness

In Eyes Closed Yet Still Seen, Brie explores what it means to grow up learning that sometimes the safest thing you can do is close your eyes.

Not just literally, but emotionally too.

When experiences in childhood teach you to disappear, look away, retreat inward, or make yourself smaller, those instincts don't automatically disappear when you grow up. Sometimes they follow you into the very life you're trying to build.

For Brie, that creates a complicated contradiction. The work she does today asks her to be visible. To use her voice. To tell the truth. To share pieces of herself online where strangers can see, interpret, support, criticize, and misunderstand her.

And sometimes, every part of her still wants to close her eyes.

This episode of Unmuted is about the space between hiding and being seen, the survival instincts we carry forward, and learning that perhaps being visible doesn't have to mean being unsafe.

To support the mission of educating, healing, and protecting families and schools in the digital age, visit: https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/donation-form/support-the-lioness-in-the-darkness

Content Warning: This episode contains discussions of domestic violence, childhood abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse and coercion, intimidation, and other potentially distressing experiences. Please listen with care and choose what feels right for you.

What does violence look like when it doesn’t look the way we were taught to recognize it?

In this episode of Unmuted, Brie reads an original Violence Vortex post exploring the complicated lessons she learned about abuse, fear, intimidation, and the phrase that allowed far too much harm to be minimized: “But I didn’t hit you.”

Through personal memories of childhood, relationships, and witnessing violence within her family, Brie examines how easily survivors can convince themselves that what happened “wasn’t bad enough” - especially when there are no broken bones or visible injuries to prove it.

This is the original, adult-focused Violence Vortex conversation. A separate Unmuted: Families episode explores the core message of Violence Vortex in a gentler, age-appropriate way designed to help families talk about fear, anger, safety, and healthy ways of handling big emotions.

Violence does not have to leave a bruise to leave a wound.

To support the mission of educating, healing, and protecting families and schools in the digital age, visit: https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/donation-form/support-the-lioness-in-the-darkness

Not every storm comes from the sky.

In this episode of Unmuted: Families, Brie introduces children and caregivers to Violence Vortex - a villain that represents yelling, intimidation, physical aggression, and the fear that violence can leave behind. Together, families will learn that violence is never a child's responsibility, explore how our bodies respond when we feel unsafe, and discover simple steps children can take to seek help from trusted adults.

Designed for children and the adults who love them, this conversation encourages open dialogue without graphic details, helping families build the language, confidence, and connection needed to navigate difficult topics together.

Conversation Starters:
• What does feeling safe mean to you?
• Who are three trusted adults you could talk to if you felt scared?
• What are some ways our family can solve problems without hurting people?

Unmuted: Families is a podcast by The Lioness in the Darkness, helping families have trauma-informed conversations about healing, digital safety, and the challenges children face in today's world.

To support the mission of educating, healing, and protecting families and schools in the digital age, visit: https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/donation-form/support-the-lioness-in-the-darkness

If I Was There ends at a critical moment. The story didn't end there though. Sometimes it takes a few extra years to clear your throat before you can tell the rest.

In this special episode of Unmuted, I read Chapter 21 - an additional chapter we wrote after finishing the novel. It isn't part of the original published story. Instead, it's a reflection on everything that came after the ending, exploring the lasting impact of trauma, the reality of what healing looked like beyond the final page, and the pieces of Bianca's journey that were too important to leave untold.

If you've read If I Was There, consider this the conversation that happens after you close the book.

If you haven't, you're still welcome here. This episode stands on its own as a story about memory, survival, and the promises we make to our younger selves when we finally find our voice.

Content Warning: This episode discusses childhood trauma, grooming, emotional abuse, family dysfunction, and sexual violence. Please listen at your own pace and take care of yourself while listening.

To support the mission of educating, healing, and protecting families and schools in the digital age, visit: https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/donation-form/support-the-lioness-in-the-darkness