Actor Dakota Johnson launched her new podcast, The Left Ear, where she shares sexual assault survivor’s stories.
The initiative began when Johnson posted her cell phone number on social media asking followers to leave her voicemails of their sexual assault, harassment, and gender-based inequality stories. Johnson, one year later, has now taken these stories and compiled them into a podcast. She stated, “To protect anonymity the voices have been slightly pitched, and any identifiers have been removed. Other than that, they have not been edited. These are real stories from real people around the world.”
Johnson explained that the podcast is titled “The Left Ear” because the left ear is the ear closest to your heart and “by listening with your heart, you can save someone even just a little bit.”
In the creation of the podcast, Johnson said, “I didn’t want to speak on their behalf, I just wanted to listen to them. I wanted to create a space where the listener is listening just as honestly and bravely as the speakers who had the courage to call.”
The actress also urged that listening to sexual assault stories can be “intense. So, take care of yourself if you choose to listen. And I hope that you do listen, because listening is the most important thing you can do for someone.”
The first episode of The Left Ear is available for streaming now, and new episodes will be released every Monday starting October 7, 2019.
Sources: Independent 10/1/19, Metro News 9/30/19