Aug 16, 2026 · 1 hr 4 min · 11 segments
Sarah and Diana were both groomed and sexually abused by the same English teacher in Iowa and Illinois. They came together to hold him accountable. Their podcast tracks their complex journey from…
Sally J. KenneyHost
Sarah HedlundGuest
Diana MondragonGuest
Hello everyone, I'm Sally Kinney and welcome to the second half of season two of Deconstructing Rape, the podcast for academics, survivors, and activists seeking to understand and mobilize to prevent sexual violence.
In season one, I spoke with survivor scholars about their experiences of sexual violence and their research findings.
In season two, I talked with scholar activists about public policies to hold perpetrators of sexual violence accountable, erode rape culture, and prevent sexual violence, and help survivors heal.
Sarah Hedlund is an illustrator, graphic designer, packaging designer, and all-around creative person with a BA in Fine Arts from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
Her work ranges from unforgettable beer labels as the in-house artist for Topling Goliath Brewing Company to three pages of her illustrations in Roller Derby Girl Gang to I Was 17, a graphic presentation of grooming and sexual abuse.
Diana Mondragon received her BA in Psychology, a Master's in Education from Northern Illinois University, and a Master of Science in Environmental Science from the University of Springfield.
She has worked as a school counselor with a youth advocacy program and with nonprofits to prevent child sexual abuse.
As high school students, the same English and journalism teacher abused them both, first Sarah in a small town in Iowa, then Diana after he moved to teach in Illinois.
After Sarah reached out to Diana, the two searchingly re-evaluated their shared experiences and strategized how to hold him accountable and prevent him from abusing others.
Season one of their podcast, Blooming After Grooming, documents their circuitous journey of aha moments as they differentiated between abuse and consensual romance and begin to understand grooming and sexual abuse.
Using only public documents, the two created a website so that anyone searching under his name, survivors, former students, or prospective employers would discover his pattern of abuse.
They reached out to former classmates and spoke publicly about their experiences to reporters and even testified before the state legislature.
While the patterns of abuse were eerily similar, and the two women themselves sound and look almost identical, it took me listening to many episodes before I could differentiate their voices.
Their story reveals how poorly educational authorities, the criminal justice system, licensing authorities, and civil law function to hold perpetrators accountable.
The less familiar story they reveal is how grooming works to create a Stockholm Syndrome-like effect on the abused, how widely the culture tolerates or even condones sexual relationships between older men and underage girls, but most importantly, how much more difficult it is for victims in Iowa to secure justice, accountability, and protection from pedophiles than in its closest neighbor, Illinois.
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Hello everyone, I'm Sally Kinney and welcome to the second half of season two of Deconstructing Rape, the podcast for academics, survivors, and activists seeking to understand and mobilize to prevent sexual violence.
In season one, I spoke with survivor scholars about their experiences of sexual violence and their research findings.
In season two, I talked with scholar activists about public policies to hold perpetrators of sexual violence accountable, erode rape culture, and prevent sexual violence, and help survivors heal.
Sarah Hedlund is an illustrator, graphic designer, packaging designer, and all-around creative person with a BA in Fine Arts from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
Her work ranges from unforgettable beer labels as the in-house artist for Topling Goliath Brewing Company to three pages of her illustrations in Roller Derby Girl Gang to I Was 17, a graphic presentation of grooming and sexual abuse.
Diana Mondragon received her BA in Psychology, a Master's in Education from Northern Illinois University, and a Master of Science in Environmental Science from the University of Springfield.
She has worked as a school counselor with a youth advocacy program and with nonprofits to prevent child sexual abuse.
As high school students, the same English and journalism teacher abused them both, first Sarah in a small town in Iowa, then Diana after he moved to teach in Illinois.
After Sarah reached out to Diana, the two searchingly re-evaluated their shared experiences and strategized how to hold him accountable and prevent him from abusing others.
Season one of their podcast, Blooming After Grooming, documents their circuitous journey of aha moments as they differentiated between abuse and consensual romance and begin to understand grooming and sexual abuse.
Using only public documents, the two created a website so that anyone searching under his name, survivors, former students, or prospective employers would discover his pattern of abuse.
They reached out to former classmates and spoke publicly about their experiences to reporters and even testified before the state legislature.
While the patterns of abuse were eerily similar, and the two women themselves sound and look almost identical, it took me listening to many episodes before I could differentiate their voices.
Their story reveals how poorly educational authorities, the criminal justice system, licensing authorities, and civil law function to hold perpetrators accountable.
The less familiar story they reveal is how grooming works to create a Stockholm Syndrome-like effect on the abused, how widely the culture tolerates or even condones sexual relationships between older men and underage girls, but most importantly, how much more difficult it is for victims in Iowa to secure justice, accountability, and protection from pedophiles than in its closest neighbor, Illinois.