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Hosted by award-winning journalist, trauma researcher and author Tamara Cherry, The Trauma Beat podcast features conversations with trauma survivors, survivor support workers, investigators and journalists. From homicides to traffic fatalities and sexual violence to mass violence, The Trauma Beat explores how the news media covers traumatic events, the impact this coverage has on survivors and journalists, and how we all might be able to tell (and consume) these very important stories, better. Based on Tamara’s book, The Trauma Beat: A Case for Re-Thinking the Business of Bad News.
Episodes
Monday Aug 12, 2024
Monday Aug 12, 2024
Consider some of the most common top news stories.
Your local hockey team makes it to the Stanley Cup Finals. A high-profile businessperson throws their hat into a political race. A grieving parent breaks down at the scene where their child was just murdered.
Now consider how the media interacts with the people in these stories.
The hockey stars have received some media training and are only interviewed in controlled news conferences or locker room scrums by accredited sports reporters. The aspiring politician has undergone hours of media training, has a list of key messages they’ve practiced in a series of mock interviews, and has a handler who decides which reporters they will talk to and for how long.
The parent of the murdered child, meanwhile, stands alone, fielding a steady stream of requests for media interviews about things their brain hasn’t even had an opportunity to process. All the while, they are making funeral arrangements, speaking with investigators, and caring for their other children. They’ve never been approached for a media interview before this. But here they are, answering phone call after phone call, doorbell after doorbell. They are sad, afraid, and extremely vulnerable.
David Guarino, a former journalist-turned-communications adviser, noticed the disparity in how trauma survivors interacted with the media, and the lack of services for those who are forced to suffer on the public stage. He decided to do something about it.
“How could there not be an organization that does this? And how could government not do it? It just didn’t make sense to me,” David tells Tamara.
David is the founder and president of Survivors Say, a Boston-based non-profit with a team of volunteers who support trauma survivors with the media.
Resources:
As per trauma-informed practice, each guest in The Trauma Beat podcast is afforded the opportunity to review and veto a list of anticipated questions before the recorded conversation. Ongoing, informed consent is sought throughout the production process.
This conversation was recorded in March 2024.
For more trauma-informed storytelling resources, visit pickupcommunications.com.
Monday Aug 05, 2024
Monday Aug 05, 2024
When Dr. Jessica Beard began working as a trauma surgeon in Philadelphia, she turned to local news to understand why there were so many firearm-injured patients arriving at her hospital. What she found was not helpful.
Very little mention of root causes. Very little mention of possible solutions. The way gun violence was framed in the media made it all seem so, well, inevitable. She wanted to change that.
Enter Jim MacMillan, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Philly photographer on a mission to change the way gun violence was reported in his city. Jim is the founder of the Philadelphia Center for Gun Violence Reporting (PCGVR), a non-profit that is educating journalists about better ways to report gun violence, with much of its work drawing on the research of Dr. Beard, who is now PCGVR’s director of research.
PCGVR works closely with victims and survivors of gun violence in an effort to change the narrative from “gun violence is inevitable” to “gun violence is preventable.”
Resources:
Better Gun Violence Reporting Toolkit
As per trauma-informed practice, each guest in The Trauma Beat podcast is afforded the opportunity to review and veto a list of anticipated questions before the recorded conversation. Ongoing, informed consent is sought throughout the production process.
This conversation was recorded in March 2024.
For more trauma-informed storytelling resources, visit pickupcommunications.com.
Monday Jul 29, 2024
Monday Jul 29, 2024
For more than three decades, Michèle Anderson worked on the front lines of sex trafficking in Toronto, supporting victims and survivors through her role at a local non-profit organization.
Michèle speaks with Tamara about her experiences supporting survivors in their interactions with the media, her own interactions with the media, and the impact she saw the media have on survivors throughout the years. While Michèle speaks mostly about the harm that she has experienced and witnessed from the media, she also talks about the potential benefit that can come from survivors sharing their stories publicly.
“I think there are ways and pathways forward where it can be done in a very thoughtful, mindful, meaningful, supportive way,” Michèle says.
Though retired, Michèle remains a fierce advocate for sex trafficking survivors, including for their “right to be forgotten,” which she speaks about in this episode. She discusses the importance of consent when writing about the trauma of others and providing agency in the ways in which their stories are collected and shared.
As per trauma-informed practice, each guest in The Trauma Beat podcast is afforded the opportunity to review and veto a list of anticipated questions before the recorded conversation. Ongoing, informed consent is sought throughout the production process.
This conversation was recorded in March 2024.
For more trauma-informed storytelling resources, visit pickupcommunications.com.
Monday Jul 22, 2024
Monday Jul 22, 2024
It was during the pandemic, and all the stressful stories that came along with it, that Dave Seglins was assigned a story about a historical child murder case. And he couldn’t do it.
By this point, Dave knew a thing or two about his mental health. Years earlier, he had been diagnosed with PTSD following his coverage of a trauma-filled court case. And in that moment that he was assigned that historical child murder case, he knew he didn’t have the capacity. The reaction from his boss, he recalls, was that Dave wasn’t allowed to refuse an assignment and that if he couldn’t handle it, perhaps he should be in a different job.
“The words were, ‘This is not the way it’s supposed to work.’ And I reflected on that and I said, ‘You know what? This is exactly how it’s supposed to work. I’m a 25-year veteran who’s been through the wringer. I know what PTSD is. If I’m in the height of stress and I can’t put up my hand, you know, as a senior white guy in the newsroom with a secure, union-protected job, who can?’”
That experience inspired Dave’s crusade to create safer and healthier workplaces for journalists across the country.
In this conversation, the investigative journalist and self-described Well-Being Champion speaks with Tamara about the “trauma load” experienced by many journalists and his efforts to make things better, not only for his colleagues at Canada’s public broadcaster, but for journalists across the country. When he’s not reporting and hosting shows for CBC, Dave is focused on research, advocacy, training and building better supports to enhance mental health and well-being within the industry. He was the co-lead of a national Take Care Survey, which studied the well-being of more than 1,200 journalists across Canada, and holds certificates in Global Mental Health and Trauma and Mental Health First Aid.
Resources:
As per trauma-informed practice, each guest in The Trauma Beat podcast is afforded the opportunity to review and veto a list of anticipated questions before the recorded conversation. Ongoing, informed consent is sought throughout the production process.
This conversation was recorded in November 2023.
For more trauma-informed storytelling resources, visit pickupcommunications.com.
Monday Jul 15, 2024
Monday Jul 15, 2024
Dr. Anthony Feinstein is a world-renowned psychiatrist who has spent much of his career studying the impact of trauma on journalists who work in war zones and under oppressive regimes. He is also the person who first introduced Tamara to the term “moral injury.”
In this episode, Dr. Feinstein discusses the concept of moral injury as it pertains to local news reporters, along with the responsibility of journalists and newsroom managers to ensure victims and survivors of traumatic events are handled in an ethical, trauma-informed way.
“In my profession, in medicine, the cardinal rule is doctor do no harm. And I think you have to bring that same lens to what you do as well,” Dr. Feinstein says of approaching victims and survivors in the immediate aftermath of traumatic events. “Because in that particular moment, you are getting that person at their most vulnerable, at a moment of overwhelming trauma.”
In illustrating the impact of photojournalism on trauma survivors, Dr. Feinstein refers to the Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph taken by an amateur photographer in the aftermath of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, and how harmful that iconic photo was for the family of the baby whose body was featured in the image. “Every time this woman sees the photograph, it reminds her of what happened,” he says. “From a trauma perspective, that’s a very difficult situation to deal with. So if you can prevent that, if you can lessen that, for me, that becomes a priority, not the Pulitzer photograph.”
Dr. Feinstein also discusses to the shame and guilt that most often accompany moral injury, sometimes alongside anger, disgust and contempt. He discusses how moral injury suffered by journalists can impact their journalism, and how newsroom managers can measure the risk of moral injury through the use of the Toronto Moral Injury Scale for Journalists.
Dr. Feinstein’s latest book, Moral Courage: 19 Profiles of Investigative Journalists, presents moral courage as the antidote to moral injury. All royalties from the sale of Moral Courage go toward covering the cost of therapy for freelance journalists.
Resources:
Moral Courage: 19 Profiles of Investigative Journalists
Dr. Feinstein’s series on Moral Courage for The Globe and Mail
Witnessing images of extreme violence: a psychological study of journalists in the newsroom
Trauma Assistance Fund for Freelancers
As per trauma-informed practice, each guest in The Trauma Beat podcast is afforded the opportunity to review and veto a list of anticipated questions before the recorded conversation. Ongoing, informed consent is sought throughout the production process.
This conversation was recorded in March 2024.
For more trauma-informed storytelling resources, visit pickupcommunications.com.
Monday Jul 08, 2024
Monday Jul 08, 2024
In the near quarter century that Michelle Maluske has reported on news as a video journalist with CTV News Windsor in Ontario, she has reported on a wide variety of traumatic events. From shadowing paramedics as they went from call to call several years ago, to a high-profile and trauma-filled murder trial and sentencing hearing in the weeks and months before this conversation was recorded, Michelle’s work has had a deep impact on her life.
“I was overcome with emotion, and I did start to cry to the point I couldn’t talk. And I was embarrassed for a moment,” Michelle says of her experience covering the victim impact statements for a man who murdered four members of a London, Ontario family simply because they were Muslim. “And then I thought, ‘No, this is real emotion. And I may be a reporter, but I’m allowed to feel.’”
Not only was it a highly emotional court case. It was an extremely high profile, garnering national and international interest. This meant Michelle was not only filing stories for her local newscast; she was also doing hits with stations across the country and had very little time to process what she was witnessing and feeling throughout the long days.
Acknowledging that some people view crime reporters as “vultures” and “ambulance chasers,” Michelle puts a human face to the trauma beat. “It costs me nothing to be kind to these people whose lives have been exposed forever,” she says. “I want people to give us the benefit of the doubt. We’re not terrible people.”
As per trauma-informed practice, each guest in The Trauma Beat podcast is afforded the opportunity to review and veto a list of anticipated questions before the recorded conversation. Ongoing, informed consent is sought throughout the production process.
This conversation was recorded in February 2024.
For more trauma-informed storytelling resources, visit pickupcommunications.com.
Monday Jul 01, 2024
Monday Jul 01, 2024
Steph Crosier is a newlywed, aunt, dog mom, athlete, and journalist who for the past decade has covered mostly crime for the Kingston Whig Standard and papers across the Canada’s Postmedia Network. Before settling in Kingston, Ontario, Steph worked for newspapers in Hamilton, Winnipeg and Sault Ste. Marie.
In this conversation, Steph reflects on her early days as a cub reporter and how her thoughts around the crime beat have evolved over time. She also discusses the challenges posed by local blogs that don’t operate by the same rules as mainstream media outlets, adding a layer of complexity to her job and causing harm to victims and survivors of traumatic events who are forced to suffer on the public stage.
Tamara and Steph also discuss barriers that exist for journalists who would like to collect and tell stories in a trauma-informed way, and what it means to practice “ethical journalism.”
As per trauma-informed practice, each guest in The Trauma Beat podcast is afforded the opportunity to review and veto a list of anticipated questions before the recorded conversation. Ongoing, informed consent is sought throughout the production process.
This conversation was recorded in December 2023.
For more trauma-informed storytelling resources, visit pickupcommunications.com.
Monday Jun 24, 2024
Monday Jun 24, 2024
Photographer, writer and traveler Fernanda H. Meier has learned many things while documenting stories from around the globe. She speaks with Tamara about the importance of being purposeful in collecting and sharing stories of trauma and ensuring journalism is in the best interest of victims and survivors whose stories are being documented.
“It’s great to tell stories, but just make sure you’re telling the real story, not the one you want people to see and hear,” Fernanda says.
Fernanda also discusses the ethics of capturing images that depict someone’s trauma, the impact of war photography, and the concept of “the human zoo,” in which experiences and events are viewed and presented through a harmfully narrow lens. Tamara and Fernanda contemplate the ethics of profiting from the stories of others, and the idea of compensating subjects for the use of their images.
Resources:
As per trauma-informed practice, each guest in The Trauma Beat podcast is afforded the opportunity to review and veto a list of anticipated questions before the recorded conversation. Ongoing, informed consent is sought throughout the production process.
This conversation was recorded in November 2023.
For more trauma-informed storytelling resources, visit pickupcommunications.com.