Dirty Laundry: The Divorce Podcast

Send us Fan Mail In this encore episode, Michelle joins Alex and Amanda to talk about what dating actually looks like as a single mom in New York, the impossible time math of fitting dating into a life that already includes a daughter and a comedy career, why she gave up hiding who she was for men a long time ago, and what three things automatically make someone a red flag. Funny, honest, and deep...

Send us Fan Mail Jessica Frew's first marriage looked like a great fit from the outside. Then she found something on their computer. Her husband Steve was gay — and couldn't yet admit it to himself. In this encore episode, Jessica shares the seven years of gradual mourning that followed, the affair that finally ended the marriage, and how she and Steve built a co-parenting relationship s...

Send us Fan Mail Betsy Pake is a master coach, speaker, and founder of the Navigate Method. She has also lived this question herself for nearly a decade before finally getting clear. In this episode she talks about what keeps women stuck, why taking accountability for where you are is actually empowering rather than letting anyone off the hook, how to calibrate for action rather than words when yo...

Send us Fan Mail Emotional intelligence isn't something you either have or you don't. It's a skill. And it might be the most important one you can build when you're navigating divorce, co-parenting, and figuring out who you are on the other side of a relationship. Kristen Harcourt — business coach, speaker, podcast host, and emotional intelligence expert — joins Alex and Amanda...

Send us Fan Mail The engagement ring meant everything when he gave it to you. Now it's sitting in a drawer and you're not sure what to do with it. Sell it? Save it for your kids? Or turn it into something that finally feels like yours? Jessica of Jessica Jewellry joins Alex and Amanda to walk through every stage of the post-divorce jewelry journey, from the woman who calls fresh out of a...

Send us Fan Mail After the most difficult experience of his life, Chris Coulter spent a decade speaking with more than 2,000 parents who were struggling to understand what was really going on with their teenagers. What he found was a consistent gap — parents dismissing warning signs as normal adolescent behavior, and teenagers who wouldn't open up to the people who loved them most. In this ep...

Send us Fan Mail She spent 27 years married to her abuser. She was a domestic abuse counselor the entire time. And she still didn't recognize what was happening to her until year 20 of her marriage. Dr. Christine Cocchiola — licensed social worker, professor, therapist, survivor, and protective mom — joins Alex and Amanda to talk about coercive control as the foundation of all abuse, not just...

Send us Fan Mail Over half of all criminal cases in Canada involve intimate partner violence or sexual assault. And those are the exact cases being quietly pushed to the bottom of the pile when courtrooms run out of time and resources. In part two of her conversation with Alex and Amanda, Kathryn Marshall breaks down how trial stacking is working against abuse survivors, what the Hockey Canada tri...

Send us Fan Mail Hundreds of domestic violence and sexual assault cases are being thrown out before they ever get to trial. Abusers are walking away with no criminal record and nothing on their file. And survivors are being silenced in the process. Kathryn Marshall of Marshall Law is suing the federal government over it. In this episode she breaks down exactly how the justice system is failing abu...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Alex and Amanda get candid about the reality of Mother's Day — why it so often becomes the most exhausting day of the year, why divorced moms are doing something categorically different from married moms who think a solo weekend qualifies as the same experience, and why giving yourself permission to skip the celebration entirely is not only valid but sometime...

Send us Fan Mail Stepmoms are expected to show up like a parent, step back like a stranger, and never complain about any of it. Jamie Simkins — licensed therapist, stepmom coach, and stepmom twice over — has been there herself. In this episode from the vault, she gets into the real dynamics of blended family life: navigating a high conflict bio mom, connecting with stepkids before ever trying to d...

Send us Fan Mail One in three Canadian girls has experienced childhood sexual abuse. One in eight boys. These aren't abstract numbers — they're children in classrooms, on hockey teams, in families across the country. Ismena Toscan is 15 years old. She is a survivor, the founder of the Hula Hoop Initiative, the author of two children's books on body autonomy and personal safety, and...

Send us Fan Mail Mae Scott joins Alex and Amanda to share the full story of escaping her abusive, narcissistic ex‑husband, a respected lawyer who was eventually sentenced to 12 years to life in prison. This episode goes inside the escalating violence, the therapist who warned her she had to leave immediately, and the five felony charges that finally led to his conviction. Then we walk through the...

Send us Fan Mail In part two of this conversation, Philip breaks down the legislation that came out of that loss — Keira’s Law Law, passed unanimously across all party lines — and what it actually does to change how judges are trained on domestic violence and coercive control. He also gets into why reunification therapy has no standardized training, no governing body, and no consistent methodology...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Alex and Amanda sit down with Philip Viater, a family lawyer with 17 years of experience at VP Family Law Group, for one of the most candid conversations about the failures of family court we've ever had. Philip breaks down why parental alienation is predominantly used as a defense against abuse rather than a genuine diagnosis, why he views it as junk science...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Alex and Amanda sit down with family lawyers Sean Valentine and Ryan Osbourne — co-creators of I Do Prenup, an app that lets couples generate a real marriage contract in hours for a fraction of traditional legal costs. They break down who actually needs a prenup and why the answer is basically everyone, what three things must be included in any agreement, why coup...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Alex and Amanda sit down with Dale and Annabel, the duo behind We Are More Than Moms, to talk about why the postpartum identity shift is so disorienting, how they built a thriving community for career-driven women who refuse to shrink themselves after having kids, and why the early parenting years are such a genuine test of a relationship. Dale also shares what it...

Send us Fan Mail Most couples don't fall out of love dramatically. They just slowly stop paying attention to each other — until one day they look up and realize they're running a household with a stranger. In this episode, Alex and Amanda sit down with marriage coach Monica Tanner to talk about why the advice you've been given — don't sweat the small stuff, compromise, just let...

Send us Fan Mail If you're in a controlling relationship, start writing everything down — today. Not someday. Today. Family lawyer Maryam Manteghi explains exactly how a journal becomes the foundation of a coercive control case, why abusers follow a predictable playbook, and what women can do right now to protect themselves whether they're ready to leave or not. Coercive control isn&apos...

Send us Fan Mail Coercive control and family violence finally have a legal price tag in Canada — and the Supreme Court decision that could make it permanent is coming any day. For the first time in Canadian history, a judge looked at twenty years of coercive control inside a marriage and said — that has a dollar amount. Family lawyer Maryam Manteghi breaks down the Alawalia case, the new tort of f...

Send us Fan Mail Anger makes you call your lawyer over nothing. Guilt makes you waive spousal support you're owed. And everyone walks into family court thinking they're about to win something — which is precisely when things go sideways. In this solo episode, Alex and Amanda get into the mechanics of emotional sabotage in divorce: how guilt leads to lopsided concessions, why anger turns...

Send us Fan Mail MP Melissa Lantsman breaks down Bailey's Law (Bill C-225) and why making intimate partner murder automatic first-degree murder could save lives. From shocking statistics to the emotional Parliament vote with Bailey McCourt's family in the gallery, this conversation reveals the reality behind Canada's intimate partner violence epidemic and what we can actually do abo...

Send us Fan Mail In this special re-run episode, hosts Alex Howard and Amanda Silver step out of the interviewer chairs and into the spotlight. They share the personal stories and professional philosophies that shaped Dirty Laundry , from Amanda’s "Golden Rule" for high-conflict communication to the surprising thrill-seeking hobbies they hide behind their professional veneers. This is an...

Send us Fan Mail Anna Sonoda returns to detail the Four Stages of Grooming : Flattery, Favoritism, Forbidden Fruits, and Fear. We examine the clinical hallmarks of "Relate and Elevate"—tactics used by predators to bypass boundaries by acting as a peer or a confidant. We also address the sobering reality that 82% of child sexual abuse occurs in the home of either the child or the individu...

Send us Fan Mail Licensed clinical social worker Anna Sonoda discusses the clinical and practical realities of childhood sexual abuse prevention. Moving beyond the "stranger danger" myth, we explore the psychological tactics used to target families and the unique challenges of parenting in a digital age. This is a factual, dignified look at how parents can recognize predatory patterns be...