The Left Ear with Dakota Johnson
In September of 2018, Dakota Johnson took the stage at the Global Citizen Festival on behalf of the #SheisEqual campaign, a Global Citizen initiative to bring awareness and generate policy and financing commitments to support gender equality and women’s health, and put a spotlight on the magnitude of harassment and assault that women and girls experience around the world.
She shared her phone number and invited people to tell their own stories. Within 30 minutes, the voicemail was flooded with thousands of stories of abuse, assault, and harassment recounted firsthand by the people who experienced it and survived. Today, Dakota debuted The Left Ear at the 2019 Global Citizen Festival, exactly one year after releasing her phone number on the same stage.
In partnership with Spoke, The Left Ear is a podcast where Dakota shares these stories. The show functions as an introduction to non-judgmental listening, and a space of refuge and healing for the survivors who called in droves to finally share their stories. In an effort to respect and protect the individuals, the stories are anonymous and the voices slightly altered. This podcast encourages people to listen to these stories with the ear closest to their heart, the left. No judgments, no editorializing, just listening.
As Dakota was searching for a production partner she became connected with Spoke and after the very first introduction the alignment became clear. Spoke is a company made up of many women who are themselves survivors, and is thrilled to help see it come to fruition.
“I couldn’t be more excited and proud of our team for producing The Left Ear with Dakota,” said Alia Tavakolian, co-founder and EVP of content at Spoke. “These stories are difficult to hear, but necessary. They deserve to take up space. I have a lot of hopes for this project; I hope it can help us all learn to listen more clearly and with our hearts, and I hope it makes survivors feel less alone.”
The show features original music for each episode, composed especially for The Left Ear.
In the first episode, you’ll hear five stories from survivors around the globe including:
- A victim of childhood sexual assault by a family member
- A trans woman of color, sexually assaulted assaulted repeatedly throughout child and young adulthood
- An Australian woman who describes repeated violent experiences with men
- A highly emotional young woman who speaks about being sexually assaulted by her biological father at age three and not being believed.
- A middle-aged woman who, after 30 years, shares her story of sexual assault by a high school teacher. She ends her story by saying, “For all those girls who are right now enduring this, this is about people of power. People do these things because of violence and they get away with it because they’re powerful… we must ensure that we protect those that require us to protect them… go kick some ass, ok?”
