Moms Against the Machine

Truth vs. Power: Epstein Survivors, Gaza, and the Cost of Silence

Chelsey Hockett & Jennifer Wisniewski Season 1 Episode 17

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This episode of Moms Against the Machine doesn’t do “short news week.” Chelsey and Jenn dig into two stories that powerful people would rather you scroll past: the continuing revelations from the Epstein files, and the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.

Part I: Epstein
Chelsey traces the story through the voices of survivors — Marina Lacerda, Haley Robson, Liz Stein, Lisa Phillips, and others — who are standing on Capitol Hill, demanding that America stop pretending their trauma is a hoax. She walks listeners through decades of institutional betrayal: the FBI ignoring Maria Farmer in 1996, Alex Acosta’s 2007 sweetheart deal that protected Epstein’s network, the Department of Justice giving Ghislaine Maxwell yoga classes and interviews while survivors were silenced, and Congress burying real transparency under political stunts. Survivors call it what it is: a cover-up. And Chelsey doesn’t hold back on naming names — from Cornyn’s silence to Cruz’s selective outrage to Gooden’s cowardly disappearance.

Part II: Gaza
Jenn turns the mic toward Gaza, where famine is official, children are starving, and siege is being enforced with bullets, bombs, and silence. She tells the story of the Global Sumud Flotilla — ordinary people from 40+ countries sailing flour and medicine straight into danger, carrying a moral conscience world leaders abandoned. She describes Palestinians etching “We Are Waiting” and “Sumud” into the sand, American veterans dragged out of Senate hearings for demanding accountability, and journalists killed in record numbers to erase the witnesses. Jenn’s message is urgent: silence is not neutral. AIPAC money, U.S. complicity, and political cowardice are fueling this atrocity, and it will only end if people refuse to look away.

Together
This episode is about survivors — of trafficking and of siege — standing in their truth when every institution failed them. It’s about the systems that protect the powerful, silence the vulnerable, and rely on public exhaustion to keep their secrets. And it’s about refusing that silence. Because whether it’s a teenage girl in Epstein’s mansion or a starving child in Gaza, the question is the same: who will be brave enough to keep telling the truth when power demands you shut up?

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