Join Dr Fiona M. Girkin, PhD from Tasmania (Australia) and learn all about the dark side of female behaviour, including psychopathy, narcissism and other dark traits. Dr Girkin is also on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/@DrFionaGirkin), X (Twitter) (https://x.com/drfionagirkin) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/drfionagirkin/). Contribute to her work through Buy me a Coffee (https://buymeacoffee.com/drfionagirkin)
Bad Mumma - Episode 8 : Bad Mothers and Dark Traits (Finale)
This is our final episode — a summary of everything we have examined across this series. Over seven episodes, we have looked closely at mothers whose actions shattered the most fundamental expectation we place on women: the instinct to protect their own children.
I have not told these stories for shock value. I have told them to understand the patterns. Each case reveals how dark personality traits — narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy, and sadism — can completely override maternal instinct. In some stories, religion was twisted into a weapon. In others, it was pure self-interest, addiction, ambition, or the desperate need to preserve an image. The common thread is the same: a profound failure of empathy and a prioritisation of self over the most vulnerable lives.
Today we will briefly revisit each case, then compare and contrast the dark traits that drove these women, and finally leave you with the key messages that matter most as we close this series.
8 Jul 2026
Bad Mumma - Episode 7: Neonaticide
In most episodes, we have examined one case in depth, but in this special and final episode, we will examine five neonaticide cases from three countries: Paris Mayo from England, Katarina Jovanovic from Germany, and Alexee Trevizo, Alexis Avila, and Melissa Drexler from the United States.
Through these stories, we will compare and contrast circumstances, methods, legal outcomes, and the role of dark triad traits — narcissism, sadism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathic detachment — in overriding the most fundamental human instinct: a mother’s drive to protect her child.
Watch on YouTube or listen on your favourite podcast app.
29 Jun 2026
Bad Mumma - Episode 6: Susan Smith
In this episode, we revisit one of the most infamous cases in American true crime: Susan Smith. A young South Carolina mother who, in 1994, strapped her two little boys into their car seats and rolled the vehicle into a lake, drowning them in cold water. Then she spent nine days lying to the world, claiming a Black man had carjacked her and kidnapped her sons. This is a story of manipulation and a mother who chose a new romance over the lives she had created.
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