161. Diane: Fighting for Justice for Almost 50 Years…Because It’s That Important!
Sexual Assault Survivor Stories Podcast - SASS
Release Date: 10/28/2025
170. What Stayed With Us: The Conversations From 2025 We Couldn’t Shake
Sexual Assault Survivor Stories Podcast - SASS
As this year comes to a close, I wanted to take a moment to pause and reflect, not with a countdown or a highlight reel, but with intention. This episode brings together a handful of powerful moments from conversations released in 2025 that truly captured what Sexual Assault Survivor Stories is about: survivor courage, hard truths, clarity around trauma, and the willingness to sit with conversations that don’t offer easy answers. The clips you’ll hear were chosen using a hybrid approach—listener engagement, impact, and significance. They include moments from conversations with Rachel...
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169. Shannon Porter: "What They Don’t Say" Is in The House...and The Social Media Reels People Can’t Ignore
Sexual Assault Survivor Stories Podcast - SASS
I’m happy to announce that I’m joined once again by Shannon Porter, host and co-founder of the What They Don’t Say podcast. Shannon returns to talk about the evolution of her work, her growing presence on social media, and what’s driving her to speak more openly, and more frequently, about the realities of surviving rape and sexual assault. Our conversation centers on the reels and posts Shannon is producing to help shed light on what survivors face every day: how people respond when a survivor shares their story, the misunderstandings that follow trauma, and the emotional labor...
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168. Marina Lacerda: When Epstein Power, Money, and Rape Collided — and She Survived
Sexual Assault Survivor Stories Podcast - SASS
For decades, Marina was known only as “Minor Victim-1” in legal documents — a label that stripped away her humanity while protecting those responsible. In this conversation, Marina reclaims what was taken from her: her voice, her story, and her identity. She speaks not just about what happened, but about what it costs to survive abuse at that scale — the trauma that lingers, the mistrust that settles in the body, and the long road back to agency and truth. This episode is not sensational, and it is not speculative. It is grounded in lived experience and courageous truth-telling....
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167. Erin Williamson: Love146 — Pulling Children Back from the Darkness
Sexual Assault Survivor Stories Podcast - SASS
Erin Williamson joins me for an incredibly important conversation about her work with Love146, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting children from human trafficking and walking alongside young survivors on their path to healing. Erin shares what this work truly looks like — not the headlines, but the day-to-day reality of survivor care, long-term recovery, and prevention education — and how essential it is to understand trafficking as a real issue affecting real children in communities across the country. We discuss the profound impact trafficking has on children’s brains,...
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166. Jason Patrick Berry: Secrets Beneath a Perfect Childhood
Sexual Assault Survivor Stories Podcast - SASS
This week on Sexual Assault Survivor Stories, I sit down with Jason Patrick Berry, author of the brave and unflinchingly honest memoir Secrets Beneath. Jason’s story is one that quietly breaks your heart and then slowly helps rebuild it. On the outside, his childhood looked perfectly normal, even picturesque. But behind closed doors lived a painful reality of abuse, secrecy, and survival that no child should ever have to experience. In Secrets Beneath, Jason pulls back that veil and walks us through the lasting impact of trauma, including post trauma stress, anxiety, and emotional...
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165. Anonymous: A Return Guest Shares Some Meaningful Impacts of Being a Guest on SASS
Sexual Assault Survivor Stories Podcast - SASS
This week on Sexual Assault Survivor Stories, I’m joined once again by a guest whose voice made a deep impact the first time she appeared on the show. For this episode, she’s choosing to remain anonymous and will be known as “Ann”—a decision that becomes increasingly meaningful as you hear why she reached out to return. Ann came back to talk about a part of the survivor experience that rarely gets acknowledged: what happens inside a person after they share their story publicly, and how the emotional ripple effects can show up long after the recording ends. In this conversation, Ann...
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164. Rita Smith: The Voice That Changed the National Conversation
Sexual Assault Survivor Stories Podcast - SASS
In this week’s episode of Sexual Assault Survivor Stories, I’m honored to welcome someone whose name has become synonymous with advocacy, leadership, and meaningful systemic change. Rita Smith has spent more than four decades reshaping how this country understands, responds to, and prevents violence against women. From her grassroots beginnings to her national-level impact, Rita has consistently shown up for survivors with a rare blend of humility, strength, and deep psychological insight. Rita’s work reaches across some of the largest platforms in the nation. She has served as Senior...
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163. Anne Marie Hauben: The Truth About Non-consent, Trauma, and Speaking Up
Sexual Assault Survivor Stories Podcast - SASS
Sexual Assault Survivor Stories Podcast with Dave Markel Guest: Anne Marie Hauben I’m honored to share this week’s episode of The SASS Podcast with someone whose courage doesn’t just echo across a microphone—it reverberates across decades of silence, retaliation, and survival: Anne Marie Hauben. Anne Marie isn’t just a guest. She is a truth-teller, an advocate, and a woman who refused to let a lifetime of dismissal define her story. After more than 30 years of carrying the weight of an assault she endured at 18 years old, she decided she would not stay silent any...
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162. Dr. David Lisak, PhD: The Man Who Shaped My Work — Sharing Science, Wisdom, and Hope
Sexual Assault Survivor Stories Podcast - SASS
I’m so honored to share this week’s episode of The SASS Podcast with someone who is far more than a guest—he’s a mentor, a guiding light, and a dear friend: Dr. David Lisak, PhD. I’ve personally known David since 1992, when I met him at a training conference where we were both teaching on rape and sexual assault investigations. From those early days of my journey into trauma-informed investigations, inspired by David, he set the bar for what rigorous, compassionate, science-based work looks like. I’m grateful every day that our paths crossed. Who is David Lisak? David is a...
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161. Diane: Fighting for Justice for Almost 50 Years…Because It’s That Important!
Sexual Assault Survivor Stories Podcast - SASS
I had a SASS listener reach out to me a few months ago via email. It was a short email, but it sure got my attention. The writer, Diane, told me that she had been listening to SASS for a while, and that she was very appreciative of the show, as she is a survivor of military sexual assault (MSA) from almost 50 years ago. She also told me she had sent me a large envelope of important information about her case…certified, return receipt. That’ll peak you’re curiosity! I did get a large envelope a few days later. It was a pretty full, 9x12 , mailing envelope, full of documents—letters, law...
info_outlineI had a SASS listener reach out to me a few months ago via email. It was a short email, but it sure got my attention. The writer, Diane, told me that she had been listening to SASS for a while, and that she was very appreciative of the show, as she is a survivor of military sexual assault (MSA) from almost 50 years ago. She also told me she had sent me a large envelope of important information about her case…certified, return receipt. That’ll peak you’re curiosity!
I did get a large envelope a few days later. It was a pretty full, 9x12 , mailing envelope, full of documents—letters, law enforcement reports, a narrative of Diane’s story—enough to keep me reading for about an hour. And what I read was both horrific and miserable information, but frustrating and compelling at the same time. It was a compilation of most of the work that Diane had been compiling for the past almost 50 years in order to try to get the Army to bring a retired physician back into active duty for the purpose of having him court-martialed. Can you imagine how frustrating it must feel to have your case investigated by one of this country’s foremost criminal investigation agencies, have the investigation result in being substantiated, sue the perpetrator civilly, and win, and then to have the Army’s prosecutors refuse to prosecute your case…for no particular reason other than to save face for the Army because to court-martial a retired colonel, doctor, from the Army would be embarrassing. Yeah…that’s what happened. It’s asinine; you’re gonna want to hear the story from Diane herself. So listen to this episode. Then, share it with everyone you know. Because it’s that important!
An important side note: if you’re finding value in this show and these amazing episodes, please take a moment to leave a 5-star rating on your podcast platform. AND, follow SexualAssaultSurvivorStories on Instagram, then, please send me a note of support. I can’t tell you how much your emails mean to me—they fuel my passion to keep this podcast going. And if you’re a victim or survivor and are ready to tell your story in order to help yourself or someone else heal, let me know, and we can start a conversation about the possibility of you being on the show. Here’s my email address: dave@sasstories.com Thank you to all of you who have reached out to me already. Just provide me with a phone number where I can reach back out to you…because I like to talk to people who are interested in guesting. And please keep those emails and texts coming…I truly look forward to hearing from you!
Here are some critically important links that I hope you’ll take the time to explore, and where a contribution is requested, please consider doing so!—Thank you!!
https://www.whattheydontsay.com
https://www.survivor-school.com/?ref=DAVEMARKEL
As mentioned, and emphasized, it’s time to Normalize the Conversation.™ And please remember to Start by Believing…because we all know someone whose life has been impacted by rape or sexual assault.
Thank you for tuning in.