After accidentally crossing the border into Iran on a hike with her friend and her partner, a woman is detained and held for over a year in solitary confinement, awakening to the sobering realities of oppression and the fight for a new path to justice.

Today’s episode featured Sarah Shourd. Sarah Shourd is an award-winning narrative change leader and a somatic coach trained in trauma transformation. She is an author, playwright, trauma-informed investigative journalist, former Stanford John S. Knight Fellow and co-founder of The End of Isolation Tour and Documentary. For over a decade, since being held as a political hostage by the Iranian government, her work has focused on exposing the impact of mass incarceration and using storytelling to promote healing and reimagine justice outside prisons and jails.

You can contact Sarah at shourdsomatics@gmail.com or on Instagram @SarahShourd.

You can find out more about Sarah and her work at: sarahshourd.com, shourdsomatics.com, endofisolation.org, sarahshourd.substack.com

Producers: Whit Missildine, Andrew Waits, Aviva Lipkowitz

Content/Trigger Warnings: SA, divorce, domestic violence/abuse, drug/alcohol use, arrest/prison, solitary confinement, arrest abroad, divorce, explicit language

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Intro Music: ""Illabye"" – Tipper

Music Bed: Ambient Themes

Services

If you or someone you know is struggling with the effects of trauma or mental illness, please refer to the following resources:

National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: Text or Call 988

National Alliance on Mental Illness: 1-800-950-6264

National Sexual Assault Hotline (RAINN): 1-800-656-HOPE (4673)

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