The Last Generation with Donna Simmons

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...

⁠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-focus...

⁠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...

⁠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, depressio...

⁠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, cultura...

⁠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...

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 expos...

⁠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...

⁠Join the movement and access resources here. Parenting is hard enough—but blending families adds a whole new layer of complexity. In Part II of Parenting on Broken Ground, Donna opens up about the real challenges of step-parenting in a blended home, raising her 8-year-old alongside her husband’s 18-year-old. Through the lens of Internal Family Systems (IFS), she unpacks how old wounds, protector...

⁠Join the movement and access resources here. Parenting while carrying trauma can feel impossible—but what if your mistakes became your greatest teaching moments? In this episode, Donna dives into the sacred work of breaking generational cycles. Learn how to respond instead of react, repair ruptures, and reparent yourself—so your children can feel truly seen, safe, and loved. This is real-time hea...

⁠⁠Join the movement and access resources here. They raised me to obey. To keep quiet. To accept whatever life — and authority — handed me. For years, I believed that obedience was love and silence was survival. Until one day, I realized the truth: those lies were killing me. This is the story of how I learned the most powerful word in the English language: No. In this raw and unfiltered episode, I...

⁠Join the movement and access resources here. You’ve been praised for being strong. Independent. The one who always figures it out. But what if your self-reliance isn’t a personality trait—what if it’s a trauma response? In this episode of The Last Generation, we dig into the truth behind hyper-independence—how childhood trauma, emotional neglect, and attachment wounds can wire us to believe we’re...

⁠Join the movement and access resources here. Jealousy is often dismissed as a toxic flaw—but what if it’s actually a trauma response? In this deeply honest episode, we uncover the roots of jealousy in childhood neglect, complex PTSD, and insecure attachment. Donna and her husband share a vulnerable conversation about how trauma can distort perception—like mistaking a simple kind gesture for a thr...

⁠⁠Join the movement and access resources here. In this deeply personal episode, Donna sits down with her husband for an honest conversation about what it’s like to love — and be loved — after trauma. They explore the resistance survivors often feel toward healthy relationships, how they navigate conflict and emotional triggers, and the slow, powerful process of building trust as a survivor of comp...

Join the movement and access resources here. When love feels unsafe is a deeply personal conversation about how trauma doesn't just affect our past, it follows us into the most intimate corners of our lives. If you've ever found yourself pushing someone away, misreading a partner’s tone, or feeling panicked by something as simple as a delayed text, you are not alone. We dive into why love can feel...

Join the movement and access resources here. In this episode we’re talking about something that lives in the shadows for so many of us: complex post-traumatic stress disorder or C-PTSD. If you've ever felt like your pain runs deeper than one event, or like you've spent years trying to fix yourself but never quite feel whole this conversation is for you. C-PTSD isn’t always loud. It doesn’t always...

Join the movement and access resources here. Welcome to the very first episode of The Last Generation , a podcast born from truth, healing, and the unwavering belief that we can be the last generation to carry the weight of generational trauma. I’m Donna Simmons and in this episode, I share my story, not just the trauma I’ve lived through, but the patterns I’ve uncovered, the pain I’ve inherited,...

Welcome to The Last Generation, the podcast where lived experience meets lasting change. Host Donna Simmons, author, survivor, and advocate dives deep into the stories we rarely tell but desperately need to hear. From surviving childhood trauma and breaking free from generational cycles of abuse, to reclaiming identity, purpose, and power, Donna brings raw truth and hard-won wisdom to each episode...