Melissa Unfiltered
Melissa Unfiltered - a podcast where nothing is off limits. As a Mom with three adopted kids, I dive into foster care system failures, realities of Mom life, homeschooling, sexual abuse cover ups, domestic violence and any issues that get me fired up each week.
My perspective is unfiltered, fearless, and usually different from the mainstream narrative.
Join me as I question and expose our cultures “accepted” truths, shine a light on the uncomfortable, and explore topics through a lens that’s without boundaries and uniquely mine.
Episodes
28 episodes
Cornell Sexual Assault Case: The Details No One Is Talking About
The Cornell University fraternity sexual assault allegations, the Chi Phi fraternity controversy, and a reopened criminal investigation have sparked national debate. But what really happened that night in October 2024, and why are there questio...
Parents: This Sex Offender Loophole Should Terrify You
I thought I understood how the sex offender registry worked. Then I learned about a loophole in Illinois law that left me completely stunned.Someone can be convicted of certain unauthorized recording offenses involving a child and, under...
Trafficked in a Cult. Now She Hunts Predators.
What happens when a child trafficking survivor goes undercover online pretending to be a 12-year-old girl?What Kim Kelley told me about what happened next is something I think every parent needs to hear.Kim says she is a child tra...
What's Really in Your Beef? Inside America's Meat Industry.
Do you REALLY know what's in the beef you're feeding your family?Most of us walk into the grocery store, grab a package of ground beef or a steak, and never think twice about what happened to that meat before it reached the shelf....
Flock Cameras: The Real Surveillance Problem No One Is Talking About
Flock cameras, automatic license plate readers and police surveillance are facing massive backlash across America but I think we're blaming the wrong thing.Yes, Flock cameras can make mistakes. In this episode, I break down disturbing ca...
Exposing Toxic Travel Sports Culture
I love sports. My kids play sports. But I cannot stand what adults have done to youth sports culture.Somewhere along the way, playing a sport stopped being enough.Now your kid needs the travel team. The private lessons. The expens...
Republicans, We Need to Talk About Trump
I voted for Donald Trump. I’m still a conservative. My values haven’t changed, and I wouldn’t change my vote.But I’m also not going to pretend that everything happening right now is good just because the person in office is someone I vot...
Foster Kids Are Being Put in JAIL Without Committing a Crime
What happens when the government removes a child from an unsafe home to “protect” them...and then says there’s nowhere for them to go?In this episode of Melissa Unfiltered, I examine reports of foster children being held in juvenile det...
Are School Laptops Spying on Our Kids?
Your child brings home a school-issued Chromebook, MacBook, or iPad. But do you actually know what that device can see, track, collect, or flag once it's inside your home?I started digging into school-issued devices, and what I found lef...
Why Are Schools Prioritizing This Over Reading?
Our kids are falling behind in one of the most basic life skills imaginable: reading. According to the latest national data, millions of students are not reading at grade level. So why are schools spending so much time debating pronouns, gender...
What Are They Hiding?
Why Did Fauci Take the Fifth?Years after COVID changed our lives, millions of Americans are still asking the same question: Who is accountable?In this episode of Melissa Unfiltered, I break down Anthony Fauc...
Are We Healing Foster Children…or Drugging Them?
When I sat down with Mel Lambert, founder of Sunshine Farm Sanctuary in Massachusetts, I thought we would spend most of our time talking about horses and foster care. Instead, we uncovered mu...
Why Would Anyone Block This Bill?
When Illinois State Senator Darby Hills (R) introduced the Healing Through History Act, it seemed like common sense.The bill simply required that adoptive families and adults who aged out of foster care receive copies of their own case r...
Charlie Kirk Preliminary Hearing: What Doesn't Add Up?
Did we really hear the whole story?After spending days watching the Charlie Kirk preliminary hearing, I walked away with more questions than answers.In this episode of Melissa Unfiltered, I break down the testimony...
The Quiet War
For years, I thought the biggest battles facing our country were political. Left versus right. Conservative versus liberal. But the more I stepped back, the more I realized we've been distracted from something much bigger.In this episode...
My Grandparents Lost $50,000 From an Internet Search
This episode is personal.My grandparents lost $50,000. They weren't buying gift cards. They weren't responding to strange emails. They simply searched for their bank online because they needed a phone number during a home purchase.
A Dad Took His Daughters to the Bathroom. The Internet Lost Its Mind.
A father takes his young daughters into a women's restroom, someone calls the police, and suddenly millions of people are arguing online.In this episode, I dive into the viral bathroom video that sparked outrage across social media and a...
I Tried To Change Foster Care…Here’s What Happened
For years, I've been asking a question that should have a simple answer: Why can't adopted children have access to their own stories?When my husband and I adopted our children through foster care, we were given medical records...but almo...
Sharing a Really Difficult Part of My Personal Story
For years, I wasn't sure if I would ever tell this story publicly.In this episode of Melissa Unfiltered, I'm sharing one of the most difficult and personal experiences of my life. What started as fragmented memories eventually l...
Child Predators Are Hiding In Plain Sight
Child predators are not always strangers hiding in dark alleys.According to former Illinois Legislative Investigating Commission Chief Investigator Thomas Hampson, many are people parents already know, trust, and invite into their child...
The LIES Women Are Being Sold ABOUT MARRIAGE
Have we completely lost sight of what marriage is supposed to be?In this episode of Melissa Unfiltered, I open up about the modern lies women are constantly being sold about relationships, marriage, divorce, social media, porn, dating cu...
Asking My Former Foster Care Caseworker The HARD Questions
What REALLY happens behind the scenes in foster care?In this eye-opening episode of Melissa Unfiltered, I sit down with someone who saw the system from the inside - our family’s former foster care caseworker.Together, we ...
I Realized My ‘Mom Friends’ Weren’t Real…
What if the “mom friends” you thought you had…weren’t real?In this episode of Melissa Unfiltered, I sit down with Francesca (Marathon of Motherhood) to talk about the moment everything shifted - the realization that fitting into “...
I Refused to Send My Kids Back to School…Here’s Why
I never thought I’d be the Mom who homeschools…and honestly, I judged the ones who did.But everything changed.This is the real story of how we went from public school to private school to homeschooling…and why I made the decisio...
IVF FAILED…Then We Adopted 3 Kids in JUST 2 YEARS
I never planned this life.At 18, I moved out, quit college after one class, and took a job at a mall kiosk…not exactly the beginning you picture when you think about marriage, kids, and building a family.But that’s where I met m...