This weekend, the popular This American Life podcast aired an episode entitled “Tarred and Feathered.” It featured stories of public shame. Particularly interesting was a story titled “Help Wanted,” which discusses a young man’s struggle with pedophilia and child pornography.
Here is a description of the story:
There’s one group of people that is universally tarred and feathered in the United States and most of the world. We never hear from them, because they can’t identify themselves without putting their livelihoods and reputations at risk. That group is pedophiles. It turns out lots of them desperately want help, but because it’s so hard to talk about their situation it’s almost impossible for them to find it. Reporter Luke Malone spent a year and a half talking to people in this situation, and he has this story about one of them. More of Luke Malone’s reporting on this topic will appear next month on Medium.com. (27 minutes)