Defiance of Silence - A Sacred Witness

About Defiance of Silence - A Sacred Witness

Defiance of Silence — A Sacred Witness is a space for human stories. Hosted by Valerie — a U.S. Army veteran, nurse, survivor, and trauma-informed witness — this podcast explores the quiet things people carry and what happens when they finally have a place to tell the truth about them. Through honest conversations with survivors, veterans, caregivers, healthcare workers, healers, advocates, and everyday people, we explore trauma, grief, moral injury, recovery, identity, caregiving, resilience, and the many ways human beings learn to keep going after life changes them. Some stories center on trauma. Others explore healing, service, loss, faith, purpose, or the unseen weight carried by those who witness suffering every day. Here, we don’t rush stories. We don’t fix people. We witness them. This is not therapy. This is not performance. This is a space where truth can land without spectacle. A field of human stories. A place to feel less alone. Take what steadies you. Leave what doesn’t. New episodes every other week.

Publisher

Valerie

Category

health & fitness · health & fitness · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

Yes

First episode

10 Sept 2025

Latest episode

30 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

31 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   30 Sept 2026

   Jaden - The Letter to My Mothers Murderer

   A mother is murdered. Her son faces the man responsible in court and believes that chapter is over. Then, more than a decade later, he does something almost no one expects: he writes to the man who killed her. Jaden Emerson shares a story shaped by childhood instability, his mother’s struggles with anxiety and addiction, and the complicated love that remained between them. At twenty-six, just as he began to hope he might finally get his mother back, he received the phone call that shattered e...

2. 

   16 Sept 2026

   The One Time I Couldn't Save Him

   A father can memorize medication schedules, spot a respiratory decline before a monitor catches it, and still face the moment when love and skill cannot stop loss. Valerie sits down with Jason Tuttle, a stay-at-home dad who spent 15 years as a primary medical caregiver to his son Zachary. Zachary lived with complex medical needs and died suddenly at 15 from complications later listed as sepsis and cardiac arrest. This conversation holds the medical trauma of his death honestly while keeping t...

3. 

   26 Aug 2026

   Forensic Nurses - We Believe You

   You may have heard the term forensic nurse on TV and assumed it's all about swabs, paperwork, and courtrooms. The truth is quieter—and far more human. In this special panel episode, Val is joined by Dr. Nancy Downing, forensic nurse researcher, educator, and faculty member at the University of North Texas; Stacey Henley, a pediatric forensic nurse with more than a decade of experience caring for children and families at Cook Children's; and Rachael Reynolds, forensic nurse examiner and return...

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

8 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

3 ratings