Episodes

  • Beyond Perfect: The Cost of Compliance & the Power of Connection EP 17

    Beyond Perfect: The Cost of Compliance & the Power of Connection EP 17
    Nov 25 2025
    What happens when “being loved” means disappearing a little more each year?In this deeply honest conversation, Donna Simmons sits down with Julie Easley, a lifelong social worker and survivor whose story reveals how easily care can turn into control — and how love rooted in dependency can quietly isolate us from ourselves.Together, they unpack the slow erosion of self that comes from performance-based love, the subtle ways religious and cultural expectations teach compliance over authenticity, and what it takes to begin rebuilding trust — in others, and within.If you’ve ever rationalized red flags, mistaken control for care, or felt guilty for needing connection, this episode will remind you: you were never meant to earn love. You were meant to receive it freely — starting with yourself.🎧 Part 1 of Donna’s conversation with Julie Easley. Stay tuned for Part 2, where they explore recognizing toxic patterns in relationships and coming home to your true self. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    50 mins
  • When Justice is Only the Beginning EP 16

    When Justice is Only the Beginning EP 16
    Nov 4 2025
    ⁠Join the movement and access resources here. What happens after justice is served?For many survivors, the courtroom is not closure — it’s the opening of an entirely new chapter.In this powerful conversation, Laquisha Moore, CEO and Founder of LEVITATE, shares her journey from surviving childhood abuse to prosecuting her offenders — and how that fight for justice led her to become a trauma-focused Licensed Clinical Counselor and advocate for mental health awareness.Together, we explore the intersection of justice, healing, and purpose — what it means to reclaim your voice after years of silence, how trauma shows up in the body long after the verdict, and why real freedom begins when you decide to heal.Because justice is a moment.Healing is a lifetime.And purpose — that’s the legacy we build from the ashes. Get Donna’s Book: Ashes to Flames Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    42 mins
  • Roots & Rituals: Remembering What Oppression Tried to Erase EP 15

    Roots & Rituals: Remembering What Oppression Tried to Erase EP 15
    Oct 28 2025
    ⁠Join the movement and access resources here. For centuries, women, healers, and earth-centered practitioners were branded as dangerous—punished not for wickedness, but for wisdom. The witch trials may seem like ancient history, yet their shadow lingers in today’s culture of control, where fear and shame are still weaponized to silence truth and autonomy.In this episode, we journey from the ashes of persecution to the embers of remembrance. We’ll explore the ancient roots of Samhain—the original earth-based ritual of release and renewal—and how reclaiming these forgotten traditions can help us process grief, restore belonging, and heal the generational wounds of oppression.Because the same wisdom once feared as “witchcraft” is the medicine we need most today: connection, intuition, and the courage to live in rhythm with what is sacred and real.✨ Subscribe on our website to receive your FREE “Roots & Rituals Healing Guide” — a companion to this episode filled with practices for grounding, release, and renewal. Get Donna’s Book: Ashes to Flames Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    26 mins
  • From Survival Mode to Safety: Mental Health Lessons for the Next Generation EP 14

    From Survival Mode to Safety: Mental Health Lessons for the Next Generation EP 14
    Oct 21 2025
    ⁠Join the movement and access resources here. So much of our healing journey is shaped by how early trauma rewires the brain—and how those survival patterns follow us into adulthood. In this episode of The Last Generation: Transforming Trauma Into Purpose, Donna Simmons takes a bold look at the intersection of mental health, Complex PTSD, and attachment theory, breaking down how anxiety, depression, hyper-independence, and panic aren’t just struggles… they’re roadmaps.Drawing from the Cultivating Resilience for Youth training series, this conversation unpacks the brain science behind stress and safety, the role of secure, insecure, and disorganized attachment in both childhood and adult relationships, and why repair must always begin with connection before solutions. Listeners will learn practical tools—like the Rupture-and-Repair Protocol, Serve-and-Return, and Name–Frame–Coach—that turn lived experiences of struggle into blueprints of resilience for the next generation.Because resilience isn’t about perfection. It’s about how we rise, recover, and rebuild safety—together. Get Donna’s Book: Ashes to Flames Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    25 mins
  • Her Body, Their Rules: The Silent Erosion of Women’s Freedom EP 13

    Her Body, Their Rules: The Silent Erosion of Women’s Freedom EP 13
    Oct 14 2025
    ⁠Join the movement and access resources here. Across generations, women have fought for autonomy over their bodies, voices, and choices — yet today, that hard-won freedom is being quietly dismantled. In this episode, Donna Simmons sits down with global speaker and veteran, Angela Brokman to unpack how systemic control has shifted from overt restriction to covert erosion — through policies, cultural double standards, and even the language used to shame and silence women.From reproductive rights to the policing of female behavior, Her Body, Their Rules exposes the subtle yet powerful ways patriarchy still dictates who women are allowed to be. Donna explores the emotional and generational toll of having one’s body politicized, connecting personal stories of survival and resilience with the larger cultural forces that perpetuate inequality.This isn’t just a political conversation — it’s a human one. Because when women lose autonomy, entire communities lose their freedom.🎧 Tune in to reclaim the narrative — and remember that silence, too, is a form of control. Get Donna’s Book: Ashes to Flames Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    51 mins
  • Elevating Women: Leadership, Healing, and the Fight for Safety EP 12

    Elevating Women: Leadership, Healing, and the Fight for Safety EP 12
    Oct 7 2025
    ⁠Join the movement and access resources here. In this episode of The Last Generation, Donna sits down with Elizabeth Martin — President and Chief Empowerment Officer of The Center for Women and Families — for an intimate and powerful conversation about what it really takes to protect, heal, and uplift women and children affected by domestic and sexual violence. Together, they explore the realities faced by survivors across Kentucky and Southern Indiana, the deep roots of trauma that shape entire communities, and the critical importance of survivor-centered, trauma-informed leadership. Elizabeth shares how her decades of work in social services have taught her that healing is not just personal — it’s systemic, and it demands collective accountability. This episode is both a call to awareness and a call to action. Because when women’s safety, autonomy, and dignity are at stake, silence is not an option. 🎙️ Next week: Donna returns to unpack how this current administration’s policies are impacting women’s health, rights, and their very sense of safety in America today. Get Donna’s Book: Ashes to Flames Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    39 mins
  • When Officials Look Away - The Village Must R.I.S.E. EP 11

    When Officials Look Away - The Village Must R.I.S.E. EP 11
    Sep 30 2025
    Some truths don’t disappear—they’re buried. Buried under red tape, hidden behind bureaucracy, and silenced by those in power. In this episode of The Last Generation, host Donna Simmons—survivor of child marriage—uncovers shocking evidence that at least fifteen Kentucky counties have violated the state’s 2018 child marriage law.Through investigative digging and hard-won public records, Donna exposes how children are still being signed into marriages that never should have been legal. But this isn’t just about laws. It’s personal. Donna shares her own story of being forced out of school in 10th grade, and reflects on her mother’s life as a child bride married to a soldier after only completing 10th grade herself. Together, their stories reveal how child marriage writes poverty and trauma into family legacies, generation after generation.This episode isn’t theory—it’s truth. And it’s a call to action. Because when officials bury records, when silence protects predators, children pay the price.Stay until the end for an exclusive clip from Donna’s memoir, Ashes to Flame, and hear why this fight is about more than statistics—it’s about survival, legacy, and breaking cycles once and for all.Listen now to uncover what Kentucky officials tried to keep hidden—and why the silence must end here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    16 mins
  • Parenting on Broken Ground Part III - The Collision of Wounds and Egos Between Step Parents and Bio Parents EP 10

    Parenting on Broken Ground Part III - The Collision of Wounds and Egos Between Step Parents and Bio Parents EP 10
    Sep 16 2025
    ⁠Join the movement and access resources here. In this episode of The Last Generation, we dive into one of the hardest realities of blended families: when the wounds of the past and the egos of the present collide between step-parents and biological parents. From loyalty binds to power struggles, we explore how unhealed trauma shapes the way adults show up for their children—and how those dynamics can either fracture or foster connection. With raw honesty and practical insight, this conversation sheds light on the hidden battles of co-parenting and offers a path forward rooted in empathy, boundaries, and healing. Get Donna’s Book: Ashes to Flames Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    59 mins