*Trigger warning: This episode mentions “intimate partner violence”, “sexual assault,” “rape,” and “domestic violence”.

For the very last episode of sexual assault awareness month, I’m joined by my best friend, fellow sexual assault survivor, and first-ever official podcast guest, Mary Rose Malone. Mary Rose is a foster parent coach, a former child welfare case manager, and a future lawyer. She is my best friend as well as a survivor of intimate partner violence, and she likes to give me (Madison) credit for saving her life. Mary Rose is passionate about improving child safety through political action and community intervention. In her free time, she enjoys talking shit about racism, capitalism, and the patriarchy and hanging out with her pups, Kyreigh and Irving.

In this episode, Mary Rose and I are inviting you to join in on an open, raw, and sometimes candid conversation between best friends. We’re sharing our personal experiences navigating complex, multi-level abusive relationships, as we help each other heal in a way that only best friends could.

Disclaimer: This is an intimate and honest conversation between two friends where we laugh and make jokes about our personal experiences and ourselves as we deal and heal from our traumas.

Episode Highlights

• Our realities of being survivors
• Mary Rose’s experience with being in an abusive relationship
• How that relationship impacted our friendship
• My own experience with emotional abuse in a relationship
• The process of healing
• How we left our abusive relationships

Thanks for tuning into this episode of the Empowered AF Podcast. If you liked what you heard, please leave a review at Apple Podcasts and share this episode! There are so many entrepreneurs looking for empowerment and I’d love for you to spread the word.

Resources:

• Website: https://itsmadisonryan.com/ 

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itsmadisonryan/

Ready to be a conscious business owner? Check out my Conscious Entrepreneur VIP Day

*Trigger warning: This episode DOES NOT focus on violence, but words and terms such as “sexual assault,” “rape,” and “domestic violence” are mentioned.

As you may know, I’ve had a career in victim services. Throughout my experience, I’ve seen some truly hard days, some frustrating days, and some great days. If you (or anyone you know) are interested in working in sexual assault services, or maybe you’re just curious about what working in this field entails, this episode is for you.

I’ve worked as a sexual assault victim advocate, held a position at the district attorney’s office in the greater Atlanta area, and worked with a nonprofit. In this episode, I dive into the issues surrounding each one of my jobs and why I ultimately decided to quit. I also share which of these job experiences was my favorite, my least favorite, and why.

This episode will give you an in-depth look into working in sexual assault services. I share what you can expect, my wildest experience during my time in the field, and the life implications that come with the territory.

Episode Highlights

• The different positions I’ve had in sexual assault services
• My stance on making money per call
• Why I ultimately ended up quitting each job
• Which position was my favorite, least favorite, and why
• My favorite and least favorite parts of working in sexual assault services
• Why your local helplines are incredible
• Drawing the line between what helpline call is appropriate and what isn’t 

Thanks for tuning into this episode of the Empowered AF Podcast. If you liked what you heard, please leave a review at Apple Podcasts and share this episode! There are so many entrepreneurs looking for empowerment and I’d love for you to spread the word.

Resources:

• Website: https://itsmadisonryan.com/ 

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itsmadisonryan/

Ready to be a conscious business owner? Check out my Conscious Entrepreneur VIP Day

*Trigger warning: This episode DOES NOT focus on violence, but words and terms such as “sexual assault,” “rape,” and “domestic violence” are mentioned.

For the second episode of sexual assault awareness and prevention month, I deep-dive and debunk 5 uncommon (but important) myths around sexual assault and sexual violence that you may believe. 

There are a lot of myths about sexual assault and sexual violence that have been debunked, but the 5 myths I address in today’s episode aren’t very common. You might have heard these myths on social media or TV, but most people are unaware of their existence. I’m debunking myths such as sexual assault being just about sex, the idea that sexual assault only happens to a certain group of people, and the belief that all convicted rapists go to jail.

This is an incredibly informative episode that may challenge some beliefs you might have had about sexual assault and sexual violence.

Episode Highlights

• Why sexual assault and sexual violence isn’t about sex
• Why sexual assault does not only happen to a specific group or person
• Do all convicted rapists go to jail?
• Debunking the Stranger Danger myth
• Are all sexual assault survivors traumatized?

Thanks for tuning into this episode of the Empowered AF Podcast. If you liked what you heard, please leave a review at Apple Podcasts and share this episode! There are so many entrepreneurs looking for empowerment and I’d love for you to spread the word.

Resources:

• Website: https://itsmadisonryan.com/ 

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itsmadisonryan/

• Ready to be a conscious business owner? Check out my Conscious Entrepreneur VIP Day

*Trigger warning: This episode DOES NOT focus on violence, but words and terms such as “sexual assault,” “rape,” and “domestic violence” are mentioned.

April is sexual assault awareness and prevention month. As someone who has worked in sexual assault services, April was always a huge month where we would plan events in support of survivors. In honor of that, I want to spend a lot of time this month on the podcast to host these important conversations. In today’s episode, I discuss the unique relationship that sexual assault survivors have with both law enforcement and the legal system.

I unpack the complicated relationship that sexual assault survivors have with law enforcement, especially when it comes to the difficult decision of reporting their case. I also discuss the ways in which law enforcement and the legal system have failed sexual assault survivors. So much so that the common experiences and traumas cause survivors to feel as though the process of reporting isn’t worth it. 

I’m sharing in detail how the system works, not to scare you away, but simply to advocate for sexual assault survivors. Tune in to this difficult but important conversation and let’s get one step closer to creating a safe space.

Episode Highlights

• About sexual assault awareness and prevention month
• My background in sexual assault services and women’s studies
• How we were raised to view law enforcement (depending on your ethnicity, race, and where you grew up)
• The hard decision of reporting an assault
• How the legal system has failed survivors in many instances
• The painful process of retelling your story
• How some survivors feel empowered by going through the legal system
• How the police don’t provide the level of safety for survivors that need to
• The problems with non-profit organizations
• What is victim advocacy and how they help survivors

Thanks for tuning into this episode of the Empowered AF Podcast. If you liked what you heard, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts and share this episode! There are so many entrepreneurs looking for empowerment and I’d love for you to spread the word.

Resources:

• Website: https://itsmadisonryan.com/ 

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itsmadisonryan/

Ready to be a conscious business owner? Check out my Conscious Entrepreneur VIP Day

*Trigger warning: This episode DOES NOT focus on violence, but words and terms such as “sexual assault,” “rape,” and “domestic violence” are mentioned.

I’m not going to lie, this episode is a heavy one. Over the past few weeks, there have been several cases and incidences that pertain to violence against women. Although I didn’t focus on the violence in today’s episode, I felt compelled to talk about a concept topic within feminism that I found clarity on.

In this episode, we have a conversation all about men. Specifically, why so many feminist conversations are still centered around men. I discuss the ways in which we attempt to make our voices more digestible for men, and how we might be catering our conversations for men unknowingly. I also breakdown how the media continues to fail women and their families, especially women of color, and how this reveals so much about white male fragility.

This is a heavy discussion, but a very important one to have.

Episode Highlights

• Why this is an important and timely conversation
• My background in women’s studies and work with survivors
• Why are the vast majority of feminist conversations centered around men?
• The problem with the phrase “not all men”
• How the media continues to fail women why this exposes white male fragility
• The innate problems that come with a patriarchal society
• How internalized misogyny within women supports (but doesn’t create) violence towards women
• Why we need to stop catering to and coddling men’s feelings

Thanks for tuning into this episode of the Empowered AF Podcast. If you liked what you heard, please leave a review at Apple Podcasts and share this episode! There are so many entrepreneurs looking for empowerment and I’d love for you to spread the word.

Resources:

• Website: https://itsmadisonryan.com/ 

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itsmadisonryan/

• Ready to be a conscious business owner? Check out my Conscious Entrepreneur VIP Day

After a year in lockdown, people living in the United States finally have an end in sight when it comes to the pandemic. With more and more people getting vaccinated on a daily basis, we’re hearing a lot of chatter about life returning to some sort of normalcy. Although vaccines are more widely available, it doesn’t mean that the virus is going away. However, it does mean that life is shifting, things are changing, and suffering caused by the virus is subsiding. 

As great as that news is, I must admit that I’m feeling pretty anxious and fearful of what’s to come in a post-lockdown world. And after sharing my fears on TikTok, I realize that I’m not alone in feeling this way. In this episode, I get truly vulnerable as I express my fears and anxieties about the future. 

2020 has opened our eyes to more traumas, atrocities, and disappointments in the United States that even when the pandemic is all over, we will be facing an immense societal pressure. Tune in as I talk through my concerns surrounding life after the pandemic, my fears regarding mental health and societal pressures, and why I encourage everyone to engage in conversations about boundaries and expectations in a post-COVID world.

Episode Highlights

• The beginning of the end of the pandemic in the United States
• Where I was a year ago and my lockdown situation
• Balancing two opposing emotions with the end of the pandemic
• The eye-opening traumas we’ve experienced in 2020
• Societal pressures to return to “normal”
• Why mental health issues might worsen post-pandemic
• The importance of setting your boundaries and COVID-keeps

Thanks for tuning into this episode of the Empowered AF Podcast. If you liked what you heard, please leave a review at Apple Podcasts and share this episode! There are so many entrepreneurs looking for empowerment and I’d love for you to spread the word.

Resources:

• Website: https://itsmadisonryan.com/ 

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itsmadisonryan/

Ready to be a conscious business owner? Check out my Conscious Entrepreneur VIP Day

I have a theory that people’s hatred for cats is actually rooted in sexism. Hear me out--in order to understand my random feminist theory, we need to acknowledge that society has assigned cats with femininity and deviant women. And when we look at binaries, society has often assigned dogs to men and cats to women.

In this fun, off-the-cuff episode, I’m sharing my thoughts on what cats and feminism have to do with one another, and why the societal idea that cats should be hated is rooted in sexism. I’ll walk you through the history and how cats have been so closely associated with deviant women throughout time. I’ll also discuss how closely related women and cats are in the language we use, and why society doesn’t give cats the luxury of being treated properly.

My theory on cats and sexism has gained a lot of attention on TikTok, receiving over 720k views and 180k likes, so I know I’m definitely not alone in my observations. Tune in to this fun conversation as we unpack the relationship between cats and feminism through history and the evidence that supports this theory.

Episode Highlights

• How society assigned cats to women and dogs to men
• Who this theory doesn’t apply to
• The association between cats, witches, goddesses, and strong women
• The history of unfair treatment of women who owned cats
• Why cats and women are synonymous especially in language
• Generalized excuses for why people like dogs more than cats
• Why cats require more consent and why people aren’t ok with that
• Femininity and cats in the heterosexual world
• Why cats are more accepted in LGBTQIA+ communities

Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the Empowered AF Podcast. If you liked what you heard, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts and share this episode! There are so many entrepreneurs looking for empowerment and I’d love for you to spread the word.

Resources:

• Website: https://itsmadisonryan.com/ 

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itsmadisonryan/

Ready to be a conscious business owner? Check out my Conscious Entrepreneur VIP Day

Are you familiar with the different waves of feminism? Each wave of feminism is characterized by a different set of goals, motivations, and results. This also constitutes a difference between the public opinion of the movement when compared to the opinions of those who participated in it. And before I dive into what this episode covers, I want to give our listeners a disclaimer that these different waves of feminism are very much rooted in American feminism and American politics.

In this episode, we’ll deep dive into the different waves of feminism, what happened within each wave, and what constitutes each wave. We’ll start by discussing the very first wave of feminism that started in the mid-1800s, ending with the fourth wave of feminism which is feminism as we know it today.

This episode is a crash course on the history of feminism. I’ll be sharing everything from the good, bad, and the ugly. Understanding the history and evolution of feminism will give us clarity on how we got here today, and how we can pave the way for future feminists. So tune in and join me for a look back on the history of feminism.

Episode Highlights

• Breaking down the history of American feminism into 4 different waves
• Understanding the first wave, suffragettes, and their fight for a woman’s right to vote
• How the first wave brought out racial division within the feminist movement
• The Feminine Mystique and how it marked the second wave
• Major political winds that came with the second wave
• When the third wave of feminism began and the two major movements that marked it
• How third wave feminism separated itself from second wave feminism
• Identifying the fourth wave of feminism
• How the internet sets the fourth wave of feminism apart from the other waves

Thanks for tuning into this episode of the Empowered AF Podcast. If you liked what you heard, please leave a review at Apple Podcasts and share this episode! There are so many entrepreneurs looking for empowerment and I’d love for you to spread the word.

Resources:

• Website: https://itsmadisonryan.com/ 

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/itsmadisonryan/

• Ready to be a conscious business owner? Check out my Conscious Entreprenuer VIP Day