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E75: Fighting Back | Meg Stone on Self-Defense Myths, Intuition, and Evidence-Based Prevention - Advocacy in Action
Description
In this episode of the Aspire, Advocacy in Action, Chessy Prout and Ray Epstein are joined by student co-hosts Amyra Basu and CJ La Mar, for another conversation with Meg Stone. Meg is the executive director of Impact Boston and author of The Cost of Fear, and recently released Don’t Fight Back And 10 Other Myths About Crime, Personal Safety, and Gender-Based Violence. Together they explore empowerment self-defense, survivor-centered advocacy, and the evidence-based strategies that challenge fear-based myths about safety.
Meg explains how years of teaching self-defense and working as a court advocate showed her that many common “safety tips” are based more on stigma and control than on research. The conversation covers myths about intuition, victim-blaming, resistance, and how media narratives often erase survivors’ agency.
They also dive into the dangers of fear-based advice online, and why fact-checking matters in prevention work. Throughout the conversation, Meg reinforces her principal message: that safety should be grounded in evidence, agency, and community, not fear.
For Meg's books, visit https://megstone.org/books
To learn more about Impact Boston, visit https://impactboston.org/
To join I Have The Right To's fight for a world free of sexual violence, visit https://ihavetherightto.org/take-action/
Aspire is produced by BenHudakProductions.com