Far too often, we hear about sexual assault after it happens. But what if we could stop it before it begins?

 

This week on ROAR, Danielle is joined by two women working at the forefront of an effort most people don't talk about nearly enough: prevention. Jess Ladd and Kristin Hatcher are the co-founders of the Fund to Prevent Sexual Assault, an organization with a bold public health vision—to reduce rape in the United States by 70% by the year 2050.

 

They're funding ambitious research, breakthrough prevention ideas, and innovators who are reimagining what safety could look like for women and girls. We talk about why prevention has been chronically underfunded, what real progress could look like, and why this work has to be led by people committed to women's safety and agency. We also get into the Epstein files, the role of porn and gaming culture in shaping teen behavior, why a perpetrator-led organization might actually be the most powerful model, and a whole lot more.

 

This one will make you think. And leave you with some unexpected hope. 

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WHAT WE TALK ABOUT

• Why the field has historically focused on response over prevention—and why that has to change

• Why prevention isn't just school assemblies and consent lectures—it's a full public health approach, like what worked for teen smoking

• The driver's ed analogy: why we've built so many guardrails around getting in a car, and almost none around a teenager's first sexual experience

• The role of porn, TikTok, gaming culture, and the manosphere in shaping teen norms around consent

• Their three funded grantees—and what each one is doing

• Why some people—including some in the sexual assault field—believe prevention is impossible, and what the research actually says

• The Epstein effect: how high-profile cases shape public understanding—and complicate the work

• Why the best-positioned organization to prevent perpetration might be perpetrator-led (yes, really)

• The book South of Forgiveness—written by a perpetrator and his victim, together

• Male allyship, the movie Moxie, and what it looks like in practice

• The 5% statistic that should change the way every parent thinks

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RESOURCES & LINKS MENTIONED

• 🔗 Fund to Prevent Sexual Assault—PreventSA.org 

• 📚 South of Forgiveness by Thordis Elva & Tom Stranger—a perpetrator and his victim write about the journey of accountability and repair, together

• 🎤 TED Women Talk with Thordis Elva & Tom Stranger: Watch here

• 🔗 Callisto—the survivor support platform where Jess and Kristin first worked together: callistocampus.org

• 🎬 Moxie (2021)—directed by Amy Poehler, available on Netflix. A fantastic depiction of female allyship and male allyship in a high school setting. Highly recommend watching with your teen.

• 🚭 The Truth Campaign—the anti-tobacco campaign Jess references as a model for what culture-level change can look like: thetruth.com

• 🎙️ Alex Robbie, sex therapist in Philadelphia—mentioned in context of this episode; featured in ROAR Season 3 and Season 4

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HOW TO SUPPORT THIS WORK

• Donate: PreventSA.org

• Sign up for their newsletter to follow the grantees' progress—demo day is in June

• Reach out with ideas, connections, or marketing/tech expertise 

• Ask your school about evidence-based consent programming