Partnered with a Survivor Podcast
Hosted by Safe & Together Institute founder David Mandel, MA, LPC, and his partner and Safe & Together Institute co-owner Ruth Reymundo Mandel, who grew up in an institutional setting where she was subjected to family separation and abuse as a child, Partnered with a Survivor is a series of conversations. What started as intimate conversations between David and Ruth that ranged from personal to professional experiences around violence, relationships, abuse, and systemic and professional responses that harm, not help, has now become a global conversation about systems and culture change.
In many episodes, David and Ruth are joined by a global leader in different areas like child safety, men and masculinity, and, of course, partnering with survivors. Each episode is a deep dive into complex topics like how systems fail domestic abuse survivors and their children, societal views of masculinity and violence, and how intersectionalities such as cultural beliefs, religious beliefs, and unique vulnerabilities impact how we respond to abuse and violence. These far-ranging discussions offer an insider look into how we navigate the world together as professionals, as parents, and as partners. During these podcasts, David and Ruth challenge the notions that keep all of us from moving forward collectively as systems, as cultures, and as families into safety, nurturance, and healing. We hope you join us.
Note: Episodes contain sensitive topics and occasional mature language that may be difficult for some listeners.
Check Out All of Our Podcast Episodes
Season 6 Episode 22: Real Talk, Real Dads: From Brooklyn to Boyhood to Fatherhood with Kenneth Braswell
What happens when men are finally invited to speak from the heart? We sit down with Kenneth Braswell, founder of Fathers Incorporated and author of Too Seasoned To Care, to explore fear as a learned behavior, anger as a secondary emotion, and why safety and healing must stand side by side.
Season 6 Episode 21: David Challen on How Growing Up with Coercive Control Warps Childhood and Manhood
We sit with survivor, campaigner, and author David Challen to trace the shape of coercive control through a child’s eyes: a mother’s world shrinking, a father’s rules governing every room, and a son trying to earn love by molding himself to a script that never fit. This is not a tidy true-crime arc. It’s the long echo of control on identity, mental health, and the stories boys are told about how to be men.
Season 6 Episode 16: Centering Survivor Voices: How Scottish Services Shift Blame, Raise Fatherhood Standards & Heal Families
Blame doesn’t make families safer—clarity does. We sit down with Scottish survivors and practitioners from Equally Safe Falkirk to explore how a survivor-centered, perpetrator-focused, child safety–driven approach changes practice, confidence, and outcomes. You’ll hear how validation replaces tick-box culture, how naming protective parenting restores mothers’ confidence, and how raising standards for fathers reframes accountability as a set of concrete parenting choices.
