Mosaic Minds Podcast

09/03/2026

She was fifteen when her high school teacher was killed by her husband over Thanksgiving break. Heidi Mikac carried it for years before it turned into Wherein Lies Continue — a film about a psychic who knows when murders are coming.

Full episode — link below.
https://dub.sh/94MPgCt

09/02/2026

Heidi Mikac writes every single day.

Ninety-seven pages of a slasher script in four days. Two films in
production at the same time, and a third one already lined up behind
them. Almost all of it funded by people who have never met her —
including one stranger who sent a thousand dollars out of nowhere.

Nick and Jason sat down with her to talk about where the work comes
from: the true story behind her psychic-serial-killer feature, and the
film she's making now, which is the one story she never planned to
tell out loud.

Watch the full episode:

Heidi Mikac writes, directs and stars in her own films — and funds ...

09/01/2026

It doesn't get sold as abuse. It gets sold as a favor.

Misti Spencer describes the pitch: I'm giving you a loan in life. I'm teaching you how to have a better one — the nicer car, the shoes. By the time you understand what the loan cost, you're already in debt to the person who gave it to you.

Full episode: https://dub.sh/VHlcbC6

08/31/2026

Abusers don't target every child in a house. They usually target one.

Misti Spencer explains why: the first child is the gateway to the others. And the way they choose is by looking for what a kid is short on — money, resources, food. Whatever is missing is the opening.

Full episode: https://dub.sh/v9lQk4v

08/30/2026

It doesn't happen all at once. That's the part people miss.

Misti Spencer was between twelve and fourteen the first time, and it was someone her family trusted. She describes how grooming actually begins — small incidents over time, each one building a little more trust.

Full episode: https://dub.sh/oEH4yYH

08/29/2026

The traffickers aren't the buyers. That surprised me.

Misti Spencer researches this for a living — and explains how it's moved onto the platforms your kids already use.

Full episode: https://dub.sh/IH1bQTp

08/28/2026

"I can't tell you how many lettuce sandwiches I've eaten in my life from lack of money."

Misti Spencer on the thing traffickers actually look for. It isn't what most people picture.

Full episode: https://dub.sh/1Wghm5p

08/28/2026

"All three of the times that I was trafficked, I loved the person that did that to me."

That's the line that stops you. Not a stranger, not a van — someone she loved. Three separate times.

Misti Spencer spent forty minutes walking us through how that actually happens, and it's nothing like what most of us picture.

Full episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUC4WgU5DxY

08/26/2026

Almost everything I thought I knew about how this happens was wrong.

Misti Spencer was between twelve and fourteen the first time she was trafficked. The person who did it was someone her family trusted.

What stayed with me is how ordinary it all sounds. It's not a van and it's not a stranger. It's slow, it's small pieces, and it looks like kindness right up until it doesn't.

If you've got a daughter, a sister, a niece, a granddaughter — this one's worth forty minutes.

Misti is an author, speaker and advocate, and she serves on the advisory board of the University of Central Florida's Center for the Study of Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery. Her memoir is Drinking Beauty and the Seven Narcissists.

It's up now. Full conversation below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUC4WgU5DxY

Misti Spencer was between twelve and fourteen the first time she wa...

08/26/2026

It wasn’t a stranger. It almost never is.
Misti Spencer was between twelve and fourteen the first time. The person who did it was someone her family trusted.
She walks us through how it actually starts — slowly, in small pieces, long before anyone would have called it abuse. That’s the part I didn’t understand before this conversation, and it’s the part I think every parent should hear.
I’ll be straight with you: this one isn’t comfortable. Watch it anyway.
New episode Wednesday, August 26 at 6 PM ET — https://mosaicmindspodcast.com