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Happy Wednesday and welcome to Cornhole Champions. Iowa Starting Line’s weekly podcast where we throw bags at the state’s biggest stories. I’m Zachary Oren Smith. If you’re reading this, it’s week three of my time off taking care of a new baby girl. Are the walls closing in? Have the smells overtaken me? Who’s to say? In the meantime…
There's something deeply unsettling about learning that justice can hinge on geography. That's what struck me most about my conversation with Sarah Hedlund and Diana Mondragon, co-hosts of the podcast "Blooming After Grooming."
Twenty years ago, both women were students groomed and sexually abused by the same high school teacher. When they found each other decades later—through a cold LinkedIn message that Hedlund described as "the most stressful" she'd ever sent—they discovered their paths to accountability looked completely different simply because of which state they lived in.
What stayed with me wasn't just the complexity of navigating different legal systems. How you think you're dealing with being abused by a teacher, but then you peel back layers and confront how your family, your school, and your state failed to protect you. "
Write in and let me know about a time you realized something important about your past that you couldn't see when you were living through it.
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Cornhole Champions is a weekly podcast powered by Iowa Starting Line. This podcast is produced by me and edited by Rebecca Steinberg. Our music is by Avery Mossman and our show art is from Desirée Tapia.
Your friendly neighborhood reporter,
Zachary Oren Smith
Political correspondent
Iowa Starting Line
