Driving Awareness About Medical Child Abuse with a True Crime Podcast: A Case Study
Nobody Should Believe Me Podcast Engages True Crime Fans to bring Awareness to an Underreported Crime
By Carmen Elena Mitchell, Larj Media Marketing Director
Our Client: Andrea Dunlop, Author
Andrea Dunlop is a rising star in the literary world with four novels and a novella (all published by Atria /Simon & Schuster) under her belt. But when she came to Larj to discuss her idea for a podcast, fiction was the last thing on her mind.
Andrea Dunlop, author and host of Nobody Should Believe Me
Andrea approached us about making a podcast that would raise awareness about an underreported and often mischaracterized crime known as Munchausen by proxy. Or as it’s more accurately labeled, Medical Child Abuse, a crime in which a caregiver feigns, exaggerates, or induces illness in their child for the purpose of receiving attention and sympathy from medical staff, their family, and the community.
Andrea came to the project with more than your average true crime reporter’s passing interest in a shocking and bizarre phenomenon. Her older sister had been investigated twice for suspected Medical Child Abuse and the fallout had nearly destroyed her family.
The Challenge
Medical Child Abuse has the odd distinction of being both an under reported and sensationalized crime. Typically, perpetrators present as the saintly and sacrificial “mom next door,” so disturbing behaviors, when they begin to surface, are often dismissed. Pediatricians— the first line of defense in many of these cases—are not trained to look for signs of Medical Child Abuse and, of course, the victims of these crimes—children—are usually unable articulate what is happening. When perpetrators are caught it’s often too late; they are demonized as “monsters” and there’s no effort to understand the context in which these crimes occur. The typical narrative of Medical Child Abuse is that it is a relatively rare, that these perpetrators are outliers and that our only responsibly is to express our collective shock and condemnation.
Neither Larj Media nor Andrea had any interest in falling into the predictable narrative of Medical Child Abuse.
“It is a huge challenge to talk about this issue in a way that is compelling but also responsible. Larj Media is a women owned company with a reputation for journalistic excellence. I knew they’d be up to the task,” said Andrea.
Our Approach
The Three Questions:
We began by taking Andrea through our signature Jumpstart process. We start with three questions:
What do you want to say? Who do you want to hear it? What do you want to come of it?
We learned that Andrea wanted to educate listeners about Medical Child Abuse: to clarify what it is, what it’s not, that it’s more pervasive than people think and that the very nature of it makes it difficult to diagnose, convict and prosecute. Raising awareness, she hoped, would help bring survivors out of the shadows, help family members to recognize the signs and increase the opportunities for early intervention. Actionable goals included connecting people struggling with questions about Medical Child Abuse to resources.
We identified her core audience as:
Teachers, parents and childcare professionals who are in a position to identify the child victims of Medical Child Abuse.
Healthcare and child protective services providers who would benefit from more education and resources to diagnose and report abuse.
We found that the True Crime podcast audience (women in their 20s-30s) were not only already interested in the topic but included many members of these female dominated professions.
Format: How do we want to tell the story?
The thing that initially drew us to this story was not just the topic, but Andrea’s relationship to it. We asked, “what if the podcast is about Andrea’s own journey to understand what happened with her sister?
“When you think about what moves people - it’s story, and it’s a personal connection to a story,” said Tina Nole, Larj Media Founder & Chief Creative Officer. “I felt an audience is really going to connect with this investigation if they understand why Andrea is compelled by it.”
However, when Andrea first approached us, it was not her own story that she wanted to tell. For years she’d been fascinated by the case of Hope Ybarra, a women convicted of Medical Child Abuse who had served 10 years in prison – and whose behavior bore some uncanny similarities to Andrea’s own sister. Through her work as a Medical Child Abuse awareness advocate, Andrea had already met some of the key players in this case including Mike Weber, detective whose investigation ultimately put Hope behind bars.
Focusing on her personal connection to the topic was a bit more complicated. Because her sister had never actually been convicted of a crime, there were certain restrictions on what she could say legally. There was also the emotional toll to consider. When her sister was first investigated, the family had been thrust into the media spotlight. The idea of opening them up to that kind of exposure again was understandably difficult.
We proposed a scenario in which Andrea could be transparent about her own motivation to explore the topic and use it as a jumping off point to examine other cases, without directly focusing on details of her sister’s investigation.
Through conversations with Hope’s family members, the detective that had broken the case, experts in the field and ultimately Hope herself, Andrea would attempt to find answers to her own unresolved questions. We would intersperse this main narrative, with short investigations into other Medical Child Abuse cases in order to explore all the different facets of this complex story.
This personal angle would give her credibly as a host and allow her to explore the story with authentic curiosity.
The Role of the Host
In her role as producer, Tina mentored Andrea throughout the process, collaborating on pre-interviews to make sure she was asking questions that would take her below the surface.
“The coverage of these cases can go so bad… we were really deliberate about what questions we asked, what we included and what we left out,” Andrea explained.
Host Andrea Dunlop interviews Hope Ybarra’s sister, Robin Putscher
Tina also coached Andrea on how to “hold space” during emotional exchanges, and how to allow her own vulnerability to guide her while still getting answers to the hard questions.
“Going into this I had no experience as an interviewer, so Tina really helped me build my confidence on the fly,” said Andrea.
For Tina, an award-winning veteran of news radio, the relationship between the producer and the host is nothing less than sacred, “It takes a good deal of trust on both parts. It really all came together, when Andrea interviewed Hope Ybarra – a master manipulator who had spent 10 behind bars for her crime. It was an incredibly emotionally charged interview, but Andrea was able to draw on her own experience and be compassionate with Hope. She drew her out in a way that blew us all away.”
Conclusion
With episodes averaging 45,000 downloads, we knew we had reached a substantial audience (putting Nobody Should Believe Me in the top .5% of all podcasts), but was it the right audience?
“The numbers of downloads only tell part of the story,” said Tina, “With an episode completion rate of 98%, we know that the True Crime audience—likely to be mothers and/or women who work with kids professionally—is highly engaged with this material. This is particularly important as this population is often the first line of defense in these complicated cases.”
By dialing into her goals, the audience she wanted to reach and her desired call-to-action, we managed not only to attract a considerable number of devoted listeners but challenge the conventional narrative of Medical Child Abuse.
“My goal with this podcast, initially, was to put a human face on people impacted by Medical Child Abuse, so we could look past our collective shock and start actually addressing ways to intervene before it’s too late,“ reflected Andrea, “but the response I’ve gotten has gone way beyond that. Since the show aired last October, I’ve gotten regular correspondence from listeners who are reaching out – some for the first time – for support.”
The podcast’s success has also elevated Andrea reputation as an expert on the topic and has led to invitations from a variety of media outlets (including NPR and ABC News).
“The show has become a catalyst for community building and resource sharing. And what’s more, it’s raising awareness about Medical Child Abuse among the general public,” continued Tina, “It’s an incredible feeling to know that a podcast can make such an important difference in people’s lives, especially the lives of vulnerable kids.”
Season 2 of Nobody Should Believe Me premieres June 8th and will center around the case of Brittany Phillips.
Ready to Jumpstart your podcast? Contact us today!
Reviews for Nobody Should Believe Me
“Thanks for thus exceptional series. So well done in both content and style. Exposing the insidious damage of this kind of abuse.I appreciate the personal stories that are supported by the evidence as well as how those stories tell the impact on so many lives.”
““Great story. I thought the author and her colleagues did a fantastic job talking about this crime as well as the underlying reasons why someone might do this. I can tell you that this particular crime is looked past when it comes to many prosecutors/district attorneys/CPS/law enforcement. Hopefully this podcast will bring this crime to the eyes of those that can help to stop it.””
““This podcast takes on such a challenging and complex topic with great professionalism, respect, and care. The intimate look at the lives of those impacted is truly fascinating. Anyone who marvels at human psychology or loves true crime stories, should check this out! You will not be disappointed!””
“The situations, background, and future impact of this disease as told by various real-life individuals will upset you, challenge you to want make court/healthcare changes, and break your heart. Truly an excellent podcast!”
“Andrea does a phenomenal job walking the listener through her lived experience and the experiences of others who are family members to those who are medical child abusers. This was very well done and informative. This is a must for all who care about the well-being of children.”