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It's time to rewrite the "trauma plot"

It's time to rethink how we write our trauma narratives.
Shendart/Getty Images
It's time to rethink how we write our trauma narratives.

There are a lot of big subjects that our culture has trouble talking about: wealth, death, addiction, religion. But one of the toughest has to be sexual assault and rape. For how common sexual violence is – it affects over half of women and almost one in three men – it can be extremely painful and even stigmatizing to discuss. But in Jamie Hood's new book Trauma Plot, which contextualizes rape in her own life and in our culture, Jamie looks for new ways to speak the "unspeakable." It tells her story in experimental fragments and finds a unique way to discuss one of the most common violences we face. Brittany sits down with Jamie to discuss Trauma Plot, the contours of rape narratives in our culture, and how we can move beyond them to tell stories about sexual violence in new ways.

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Brittany Luse
Brittany Luse is an award-winning journalist, on-air host, and cultural critic. She is the host of It's Been a Minute and For Colored Nerds. Previously Luse hosted The Nod and Sampler podcasts, and co-hosted and executive produced The Nod with Brittany and Eric, a daily streaming show. She's written for Vulture and Harper's Bazaar, among others, and edited for the podcasts Planet Money and Not Past It. Luse and her work have been profiled by publications like The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vulture, and Teen Vogue.
Liam McBain
Liam McBain (he/him) is an assistant producer on It's Been a Minute with Sam Sanders. He's interested in stories at the margins of culture.
Neena Pathak
Barton Girdwood
[Copyright 2024 NPR]
Veralyn Williams
Veralyn Williams (she/her) is a Peabody and Edward R. Murrow award-winning journalist who has been asking hard questions about our world since she picked up her first microphone in 2004. Now she brings her skills (and ears) to her role as executive producer of programming at NPR.
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