WITNESS DOCS ANNOUNCES NEW INVESTIGATIVE PODCAST TOXIC: THE BRITNEY SPEARS STORY, COMING JULY 2021
Hosted by Tess Barker and Babs Gray, the series takes a deep dive into the beloved singer’s life and legal struggles, and the lead up to the #FreeBritney movement.
LOS ANGELES — May 5, 2021 — Witness Docs, a unit of the pioneering podcast company Stitcher (a subsidiary of SiriusXM), today announced the title and new details for their new investigative series Toxic: The Britney Spears Story. The details were first revealed by the hosts, Tess Barker and Babs Gray, in a Clubhouse conversation with fans.
In 2017, comedians Tess Barker and Babs Gray launched their comedy podcast Britney’s Gram. Each week they’d take a light-hearted yet deep dive into Britney Spears’ cryptic Instagram posts. At the time, their biggest dream was for Britney to repost one of their memes. The more they examined her stock photos of roses and inspirational quotes, the more curious they became about the machinations limiting Britney’s rights and finances. They never imagined they’d be sucked into a years-long investigation of the pop princess’s legal rights, and help launch a movement to #FreeBritney.
“Look, only Britney can really tell her own story,” Babs said to the Clubhouse participants. “But we feel we can tell a version of the story of how she got into her conservatorship because we’ve studied the hell out of it.”
With Toxic: The Britney Spears Story, the pair revealed in the Clubhouse conversation, Tess and Babs lay out everything listeners need to know about Britney Spears, the controversial conservatorship that gives her father complete control of her career and finances, and the movement of fans trying to end it. They’ll talk to exclusive sources, sift through the conspiracies, and uncover disturbing truths about the conservatorship system that go way beyond Britney.
“This system is built on the idea that anybody who wants to be a conservator is operating from a good place,” Tess told the Clubhouse participants. “Unfortunately, based on what we know about humanity at large, that’s not a good policy.”
Listeners can subscribe now via Stitcher, Apple Podcasts and wherever podcasts are available.
More information on Toxic: The Britney Spears Story will be announced soon. To stay connected, please follow us on Twitter at @WitnessDocs, @TesstifyBarker, and @BabsGray.
About the Hosts
Babs Gray can be seen guest starring on two seasons of Comedy Central’s Corporate, and has written for TruTV’s Billy on the Street, Netflix’s Justin Willman’s Magic for Humans, and Rachel Dratch’s Late Night Snack. Her standup has been featured on Comedy Central’s Standup Featuring and Hulu’s Coming to the Stage. She and Tess also co-host Britney’s Gram, a comedy-turned-true-crime podcast that expelled the #FreeBritney movement into the limelight.
Tess Barker is a Los Angeles-based standup comedian and writer. Her editorial work has appeared in a number of outlets including The Guardian, Vice, and MTV News. She’s written for TV shows Funny or Die’s Throwing Shade and TruTV’s Billy on the Street; and has appeared on the History Channel’s How the States Got Their Shapes and Ovation TV’s Broadway Bash. Tess’s work as a playwright includes a Time Between Us, which earned the Backstage Critic’s pick in its New York debut.
About Stitcher
Stitcher is the best place to listen to, produce and monetize podcasts. The Stitcher app is one of the world’s most popular podcast listening platforms, with a growing network of original content and a premium subscription service. Stitcher is also parent to Midroll, the leading podcast advertising network representing over 300 of the world’s largest podcasts. And, it is home to top-ranked comedy podcast network Earwolf. With offices in Los Angeles, New York City and San Francisco, Midroll was founded in 2010 and is a wholly owned subsidiary of SiriusXM.
Media contacts
Ron Gaskill, Blake Zidell & Associates, 609–780–2924, ron@blakezidell.com
Amber Booth, Allison+Partners, Stitcher@allisonpr.com
