Toxic

Toxic podcast hosted by Amanda Kippert and Jenna Brandl
  • 3.8 (45)
  • TRUE CRIME
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY
Toxic

What happens when toxic masculinity goes unchecked for far too long? Domestic violence journalist and advocate Amanda Kippert along with co-host Jenna Brandl shine a spotlight on the men who have chosen to abuse more than just their male privilege. Through candid and unreserved conversions with survivors, advocates and experts, we're calling out the audacity of men, one abuser at a time. To end domestic violence, abuse, sexual assault, sexual harassment and general male bad behavior, it's time we call it as we see it.

  1. Ep. 110: Dogs Are Now Hunting Murder Suspect Travis Decker While Trump’s Circus of Distraction Continues

    JUN 12

    Ep. 110: Dogs Are Now Hunting Murder Suspect Travis Decker While Trump’s Circus of Distraction Continues

    Washington state police are still looking for 32-year-old Travis Decker, suspected of killing his three young daughters last Monday, June 2, near Rock Island Campground in Chelan County, Washington. It's just another heartbreaking example of a judge not listening to a woman when she says a man is dangerous. How many examples will it take?   Meanwhile, admist his breakup with Elon, Trump is soothing himself with an ego parade on Saturday in D.C. the cost of which could literally eradicate homelessness, while weaponizing the National Guard in Los Angeles and allowing ICE to hunt down brown people for sport. Cool, cool, cool. In response, people with their sanity still intact are rising up in nationwide in more than 2,000 No Kings Day protests this coming Saturday, June 14. Grab a poster board, a sharpie and an American flag, because we're taking it back, and join us. Go to nokings.org to find the protest nearest you.    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.   If you’re experiencing abuse or domestic violence, please reach out to someone you trust. You can also connect with a trained advocate near you through DomesticShelters.org.   Finally, help us keep this conversation going. Share an episode of Toxic with someone at the protest this Saturday, the cop who tries to tell you to move back or your racist uncle, just because. Follow us on your favorite podcast platform or social media, and please consider leaving us a review so we can be seen in this vast sea of equally talented podcasts. Your support helps us amplify these critical stories. Together, we can create change.

    1h 9m
  2. Ep. 109: Inside the Netflix Documentary with Gabby Petito’s Mom, Nichole Schmidt

    MAY 13

    Ep. 109: Inside the Netflix Documentary with Gabby Petito’s Mom, Nichole Schmidt

    We’re honored to welcome Nichole Schmidt to Toxic today — a friend of the pod and a fierce advocate for survivors, especially young survivors of dating violence. In 2021, her 22-year-old daughter, Gabby Petito, was murdered by her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, during what was supposed to be an idyllic cross-country van trip — and instead became a national tragedy. This past February, Netflix released American Murder: Gabby Petito, a docuseries featuring never-before-seen details about how Gabby’s story unfolded. Ultimately, she became yet another preventable victim of dating violence, strangulation — and, yes, femicide. Just two weeks before her death, police in Moab, Utah, pulled the couple over after a witness saw Brian hit Gabby. Despite clear signs of abuse — and officers even identifying it as assault — Laundrie wasn’t arrested. Instead, they named Gabby the primary aggressor and gave Brian a hotel room usually reserved for domestic violence victims. The incident laid bare just how much law enforcement — and society — still doesn’t understand about abuser tactics. A little over a month later, Brian strangled Gabby to death in Wyoming. He later scribbled a confession in a notebook before dying by suicide — because, of course, accountability was never on his itinerary. Today, Nichole shares what life has been like since Gabby’s death — and how she’s working to keep her daughter’s memory alive, one survivor at a time. 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. If you’re experiencing abuse or domestic violence, please reach out to someone you trust. You can also connect with a trained advocate near you through DomesticShelters.org. Finally, help us keep this conversation going. Share an episode of Toxic with someone also outraged by the relentless epidemic of violence against women. Follow us on your favorite podcast platform or social media, and please consider leaving us a review. Your support helps us amplify these critical stories. Together, we can create change.

    1h 3m
  3. Ep. 108: Perimenopause: Understudied and Overheating Thanks to Misogyny

    APR 29

    Ep. 108: Perimenopause: Understudied and Overheating Thanks to Misogyny

    Is it hot in here or is it just us? If you're in the throes of perimenopause, you're going to feel right at home in this episode. As ladies of our mid-40s, we have to talk about this. Disclaimer: This is NOT a medical advice podcast.  Thanks to overt sexism within medical research fields, most health research funds are allotted to study diseases that affect men, or how diseases that affect both sexes mostly affect men.  The National Institutes of Health found that diseases, ailments and conditions that affect men receive twice as much funding as those affecting women. Therefore, it would be correct to say scientists are spending much more time and resources studying erectile dysfunction than perimenopause or menopause, leaving women woefully unprepared and under-resourced for this major life change.  How do we deal with that? Well, we're resourceful as always, aren't we ladies? We turn to crowd-sourcing solutions like TikTok and Facebook groups and happy hours. Which means we wind up with a slew of solutions like yam cream, red light therapy, eating more kiwis and drinking mushroom coffee. Will any of it help? Who knows! We'll try it anyhow because dammit, we want to look like we're aging gracefully while also biohacking our faces.  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 also have some sweet merch!) If you’re experiencing abuse or domestic violence, please reach out to someone you trust. You can also connect with a trained advocate near you through DomesticShelters.org. Finally, help us keep this conversation going. Share an episode of Toxic with a friend (or maybe a frenemy?), your eyebrow waxer, your petsitter or really, anyone you want. Follow us on your favorite podcast platform or social media and please consider leaving us a review. Your support helps us amplify these critical stories. Together, we can create change.

    1h 2m
  4. Ep. 107: Jim Jones, Trump....It's Like All Cult Leaders Attended the Same Meeting or Something—Dr. Janja Lalich Confirms Our Suspicions

    APR 1

    Ep. 107: Jim Jones, Trump....It's Like All Cult Leaders Attended the Same Meeting or Something—Dr. Janja Lalich Confirms Our Suspicions

    In the '70s, a charismatic minister named Jim Jones convinced thousands of followers of his Peoples Temple that he was for them, moving them from the U.S. where he was being investigated for running a cult (lol, nothing to see here) to an agricultural commune in Guyana under the auspice that he was "creating a paradise free from the oppression of the U.S. government." Oh, and also, they had to call him dad, maybe sleep with him and never, ever leave unless they wanted to be shot.  But that's neither here nor there. He was FOR them, you guys. Of course, if you know anything about Jonestown, you know this didn't end well for 909 of them.  You'll never believe this, but the markers of Jim Jones—a guy who loved Hitler, schmoozing with politicians and exerting power over others—have a lot of overlap with our current RPOTUS (that would be rapist president of the United States).  In this episode, we welcome back—Dr. Janja Lalich, CEO of the Lalich Center on Cults and Coercion and foremost international expert on cults to answer our is-half-the-country-in-a-cult? questions.  She also recommended a book that we're going to recommend to you: The Brainwashing of My Dad: How the Rise of the Right-Wing Media Changed a Father and Divided Our Nation—And How We Can Fight Back, by Jen Senko. 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. If you’re experiencing abuse or domestic violence, please reach out to someone you trust. You can also connect with a trained advocate near you through DomesticShelters.org. Finally, help us keep this conversation going. Share an episode of Toxic with a friend, your gyno, or even the person next to you in line voting for Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Susan Crawford. 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.

    1h 31m
  5. Ep. 106: Deepfake Case Out of Minneapolis, Victims Are Told to Just Ask Man Politely to Stop

    MAR 12

    Ep. 106: Deepfake Case Out of Minneapolis, Victims Are Told to Just Ask Man Politely to Stop

    In another disturbing case of women's safety being not at all a priority, a man in Minneapolis turned images of some 80 women he sort-of-but-not-really-knew into graphic p*rn. When his WIFE found out, he fled town with his laptop in hand, probably to infiltrate a new town with his predator ways. Police threw their hands up and said, "Uh, we don't know what you want us to do. Is this illegal?" Turns out, it is and it isn't. One of the victims talks to Toxic about how she's using her law background to help make sure future women get the justice they deserve against gross men who can't literally make everything in the world about getting off.  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. If you’re experiencing abuse or domestic violence, please reach out to someone you trust. You can also connect with a trained advocate near you through DomesticShelters.org. Finally, help us keep this conversation going. Share an episode of Toxic with a friend, your Lyft driver, or even the person next to you in line at your next protest for women's rights. Follow us on your favorite podcast platform or social media, and please leave us a [nice] review. Your support helps us amplify these critical stories. Together, we can create change.

    1h 8m
  6. Ep. 105: What Fresh Hells Today? Trump's Dizzying Array of Distractions Discussed

    FEB 18

    Ep. 105: What Fresh Hells Today? Trump's Dizzying Array of Distractions Discussed

    Abusers know the routine: First, present yourself as a savior. Promise a romanticized, idyllic version of the future. Earn trust. Then, isolate. “It’s the world against us, baby.” Brainwash. “Don’t trust anyone but me.” And finally, control at such a dizzying speed that the victim can’t make heads or tails of it all. What is real? Am I in danger? How do I get out of this? Hey, look at that, it's Trump, America’s abusive husband. In just under 30 days since he and his BFF Elon Musk invaded the White House, we’re in full oligarchy mode. This is not a drill. Call it a coup, call it a dictatorship or just call it the most embarrassing time of U.S. history unfolding before our eyes. Today we’re talking about Trump’s dizzying array of executive orders, declarations, hirings and firings, which are all just a distraction technique. An appetizer round if you will. We need to discuss why it’s important we don’t give up, put our heads in the sand and shut down our ear holes. Because that’s what he’s hoping will happen. 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. If you’re experiencing abuse or domestic violence, please reach out to someone you trust. You can also connect with a trained advocate near you through DomesticShelters.org. Finally, help us keep this conversation going. Share an episode of Toxic with a friend, your dog sitter, or the anxious person next to you in the TSA line. 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.

    1h 7m
  7. Ep. 104: Patrisha McLean Is a Survivor and Her Ex is Bitter About That

    FEB 4

    Ep. 104: Patrisha McLean Is a Survivor and Her Ex is Bitter About That

    Patrisha McLean survived nearly three decades of abuse by her [unfortunately still] famous ex, Don McLean, singer of "American Pie." Once free, though Don tried his best to discredit her in the media (sound familiar?), she started her own nonprofit to help other survivors of violence, aptly named, Finding Our Voices. It's been working on taking down abusive a-holes ever since, and we love her for it. She joins us today on Toxic to tell us more about it.  (Apologies in advance for the sound issues in this episode. Amanda was having issues with her microphone.) 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. If you’re experiencing abuse or domestic violence, please reach out to someone you trust. You can also connect with a trained advocate near you through DomesticShelters.org. Finally, help us keep this conversation going. Share an episode of Toxic with a friend, your dentist, or even the person next to you in line at the grocery store. 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.

    1h 7m
  8. Ep. 103: Where Do We Go From Here?

    JAN 21

    Ep. 103: Where Do We Go From Here?

    Trump "Tiny Hands" was sworn into the highest office in the land yesterday, leaving us all asking, "But seriously, no really, honestly, what in the actual eff?" As we enter this second iteration of a reoccurring nightmare that's actually reality, many of you may be stuck in fight, flight or freeze like us. (We're cycling between all three.) The question is: Where do we go from here? How do we get through these next four years? Are we ready to fight, and if so, how can we do it without burning ourselves out? Consider this a family meeting, group therapy or a support group meeting. Take what you need. Just know that we're in this together.  We want to hear from you. Do you have a story we need to discuss or a guest we should feature? Do you have an idea of how to fight against an oligrachy? Visit us at ToxicThePodcast.com and share your thoughts. If you’re experiencing abuse or domestic violence, please reach out to someone you trust. You can also connect with a trained advocate near you through DomesticShelters.org. You can find abortion resources at abortionfunds.org.  Finally, help us keep this conversation going. Share an episode of Toxic with a friend, your dentist, or even the person next to you in line at the grocery store. 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.

    56 min
See All (111)

3.8
out of 5
45 Ratings

About

What happens when toxic masculinity goes unchecked for far too long? Domestic violence journalist and advocate Amanda Kippert along with co-host Jenna Brandl shine a spotlight on the men who have chosen to abuse more than just their male privilege. Through candid and unreserved conversions with survivors, advocates and experts, we're calling out the audacity of men, one abuser at a time. To end domestic violence, abuse, sexual assault, sexual harassment and general male bad behavior, it's time we call it as we see it.

Information

  • Creator
    Toxic podcast hosted by Amanda Kippert and Jenna Brandl
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2025
  • Episodes
    111
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © All rights reserved
  • Show Website
    Toxic

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