September 29, 2025 • 38 mins
One night on a dark New Orleans street, Ashley was held at gunpoint. But instead of panicking, she did something unexpected—she hugged the mugger. That moment of compassion wasn’t random; it was the result of a life shaped by trauma and healing. Ashley had learned that unhealed pain often repeats across generations, and she was determined to break that cycle—for herself and others.
With a Harvard background in data and AI, Ashley could have chosen a traditional path. Instead, she built Persephone AI—a discreet, encrypted app that helps domestic violence survivors safely document abuse, create escape plans, and stay in control of their stories. It’s a lifeline for those with nowhere else to turn. Now, Ashley is calling on all of us—advocates, technologists, and everyday allies—to stand with survivors and bring real safety into the digital age. Join the movement. Share the message. Be part of the change.
Learn more: https://persephone.ai
Connect with Jen:
I Need Blue now has a new home at The Healing in Sharing! Visit thehealinginsharing.com to explore Round Chair Conversations, all relevant I Need Blue content, and ways to support the mission of sharing stories that inspire hope and resilience.
By sharing the hidden lines of our stories, we remind each other we are not alone — together, we step out of hiding and into healing.
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Memoir: Why I Survived, by Jennifer Lee on Amazon
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
I'm constantly reminded how powerful human
connection can be.
My guest today, ashley, is ashining example of what happens
when people lead with compassionand purpose.
Imagine being a 5'1 womanwalking alone to your car at
night, only to find yourself inthe middle of an attempted
(00:24):
mugging.
That was Ashley.
But instead of reacting withfear or anger, she responded
with something unexpectedkindness, and it changed
everything.
Ashley's story goes far deeper.
From a childhood shaped byunhealed generational trauma,
(00:46):
she learned early on that painhas a way of repeating itself
unless we face it head on.
She did just that, seekingtherapy and breaking cycles that
had lasted generations.
A brilliant mind, ashley studieddata analytics at Harvard and
worked in AI development,helping build systems from the
(01:09):
ground up.
But even with all that success,something was missing a greater
purpose.
She found it by listening tothe voices of women trapped in
domestic violence, women whocouldn't leave, who had no proof
, no safety, no way out.
In 2024, ashley launchedPersephone AI, a discrete,
(01:37):
encrypted app hidden within yourphone.
It allows survivors to safelydocument abuse, build a safety
plan and choose when and withwhom to share their story,
whether it's uploading evidence,identifying safe contacts or
exporting certified files forlegal use.
Persephone puts power back intothe hands of those who feel
(02:02):
powerless.
One in four women willexperience domestic violence.
Ashley wants them to know youare not alone and there are
tools to help you reclaim yourvoice.
She's driven by empathy, fueledby innovation and guided by
purpose.
Ashley, your courage islighting the way for so many
(02:26):
others.
Ashley, thank you for being myguest today and welcome to the I
Need Blue podcast.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Thank you, Jen.
You said that so beautifullyand I'm so delighted to be here.
I almost can't do it justice.
I wish you could introduce meeverywhere I go.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
No worries, I like to travel.
Why not?
Well, I have had the pleasureof talking with you before today
and getting to know a littlebit more about you and your
story.
I know we wanted to talk aboutthis mugging, but the reality
for you is it is not only onetime that you had somebody
actually point a gun at you.
(03:03):
It happened several times.
But today we wanted to focus onthe story back in 2012.
Because when you told me, I waslike oh my gosh, and I know
that the audience is going totake away that same reaction.
So, if it's okay, can we startwith that story?
Speaker 2 (03:26):
if it's okay, can we start with that story?
We can, absolutely so.
As you mentioned, it was backin 2012.
I was in my seventh year ofliving in New Orleans.
I was a up-and-comer in mycareer and a woman in my 20s,
and I'll admit I was out alittle late and I had parked my
car in a part of town.
That wasn't that common for me,but I'd lived in New Orleans
for almost seven years and Inever really had an incident,
(03:48):
though I'm aware that crimeexists, can exist anywhere.
And as I'm walking to my car,all of a sudden I hear from
behind me give me your money.
And I freeze.
I thought did I hear something?
And then I hear it again.
And so I turn around and I'mstanding face to face with a man
(04:09):
who's probably only six oreight inches taller than me and
I look up at him and I go I'msorry what?
And he repeats it for the thirdtime.
And I went.
I honestly, I kind of I fawned.
I did a fawned response, whichis not abnormal for people that
are seasoned in trauma when theyknow they're entering a high
(04:32):
stress situation, and I wentfull Southern belt.
I was like gripping pearlsgoing.
Are you speaking to me, just,and he said yeah.
And then I realized he had agun in his hand and he was
pointing it at me and he said,yes, you.
And I looked around and therewas no one else there and I
thought this isn't good, becauseI didn't have much on me in the
(04:55):
way of cash.
But it was my cell phone, itwas my car keys.
I was a block away from gettinginside my car keys.
I was a block away from gettinginside my car and if I truly
gave him everything that I hadon me, I was going to be on that
street with no transportationand no way to call for help and
no money in the short run, andit was dark but nonetheless,
(05:16):
fawn kicked in and I handed himall my things and for some
reason I just felt this strongurge to do something different.
And I looked at him and Ilooked in his eyes and I saw
that desperation, I saw hishumanity and I said look, don't
(05:36):
shoot me, but I'm going to hugyou.
And he froze and I grabbed himin the middle of the street and
gave him a hug and he didn'tmove right away.
But then he hugged me back andI said, while I was holding him
in a long hug.
I think you're having an evenworse day than me.
(05:58):
If you need the stuff, you needthe stuff, but do you want to
sit down and talk about it?
And he's got tears in his eyesand he said, yeah, I'd really
like that.
So we sat on the curb of thisdark road and we talked about it
.
His name was Alfonso.
He said he'd been trying andtrying to get a job and nothing
was coming through for him, thathe was working as a dishwasher
(06:20):
but he had kids at home and hewas desperate.
And I said, well, look, I'llhelp you any way I can.
I'll ask around for jobs,though we're not off to a great
start.
Let's work it from here.
I'll give you the cash that'son me.
It'd be great if you let mekeep my car keys, you know.
And he asked me for a ride, andso I gave him one to a place in
(06:45):
New Orleans called Mid-City.
But when he got into my Fiat500 convertible in the middle of
the night, I said, alfonso, youcan't get in my car with a
loaded gun, so let's solve forthat.
And that's when he pulled theslide back and a bullet flew out
of the top and landed on myfloorboard and I realized that
gun was absolutely loaded,cocked and ready to go, because
(07:07):
the next day I'd find thatbullet under my floor mat.
And I told this story first tomy mother, who was just beside
herself Like she was alreadyterrified.
Coming from a small town inLouisiana that I lived in New
Orleans, and to hear yourdaughter in her 20s tell you
this story, you just fear forher at all times.
Most people think it's a greatact of humanity.
(07:31):
My therapist asked me if I was,if she should be concerned for
my own well-being and sense ofpersonal safety, because most
people wouldn't jeopardizethemselves for that.
But again, for for me it wasreally.
I just saw his humanity andthought what does it take?
The things that flashed in mymind were what does it take in
(07:52):
your life that a five foot tallwoman walking down the street in
the night becomes the way yousolve your problems?
What had to happen to you?
Because I I do not believe.
For the vast majority I don'tbelieve people are bad people.
I think life is hard, I thinkpeople are desperate, I think
(08:12):
they're hurting, I think they'restressed, I think they're asked
for things that are hard todeliver on, and I don't think we
in a lot of ways, set upsociety to make that easier.
Um, and and we live in thisinvisible caste system, and
Alfonso and I are part of that.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Wow, you know, even hearing the story again, it
gives me chills every time, Like, obviously I'm glad that you're
safe and it is remarkable thatyou gave a hug because somebody
who literally was in the samesituation, where behind me I
heard give me all your money andturn around to a masked man
(08:51):
pointing a gun at me.
In that moment, for me itwasn't give a hug because I had
several other people that myactions were going to determine
the outcome of that situation.
But to be able to see beyondthe danger and to see the
humanity is amazing and I thinkthat can be applied to so many
(09:12):
situations in our life.
Like you said, you know we'rein unprecedented times.
It's like things just getharder and harder.
So many distractions, so manypressures.
The art of listening is likeyou said sometimes people just
want somebody that will sit downand listen to them.
Do you wonder where Alfonso is?
Speaker 2 (09:33):
today, even to this day, I do.
I know that that night had animpact on me that I will carry
with me for many years and thatI still think about him and I
wonder if I had a similarimprint on him.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
If that was a pivotal moment in his life or if it
helped at all, if it changedanything in him the way it
changed something in me, I wouldleave New Orleans not long
after that and, truthfully, ifI'm back in the city I'm a lot
more cautious.
You know, I certainly don'tthink that you get two of those,
but I do hope that I had apositive impact on his life by
(10:13):
showing him an act of kindnesswhile he was in an act of
desperation.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Yes, what did it change in you?
Speaker 2 (10:27):
get really solidified that it's okay to trust
yourself in a moment of distress, and something that I will say
about abuse and trauma is one ofthe cornerstones that it breaks
down in a person is you stoptrusting yourself and you start
looking outward for someone elseto tell you what to trust, and
so a big part of recovery fromthat is learning to trust your
(10:48):
own instincts, and so myinstinct on Alfonso was that
this was the right next thing todo, and that's what I did.
But at the same time, it was afawn response, and we have fight
, flight, freeze and fawn, and Ihad had years of practice
(11:11):
disarming volatile people.
It's an effective skill, but itis absolutely a way to
de-escalate someone.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Yeah, can you dig a little deeper into that for the
audience?
Speaker 2 (11:24):
in regards to de-escalating, yeah, I think
when you've had experienceswhere you need to navigate abuse
and you're living within it,you learn how to de-escalate the
abusive person and that is theFON response.
And that is the FON responseand you can hone that over time.
(11:47):
It can also extrapolate itacross your personality.
I would go on to therapy andlearn this.
I was not aware with Alfonso onthe street that night.
But people that you hearself-describe as a people
pleaser, desperately fearful ofjudgment of others, that look
for validation outsidethemselves, or so scared that
(12:09):
they're going to upset someonethat they might lose a person,
those things are likely tiedinto.
People pleasing is a strongcomponent of I want to be liked
by you, I want you to be happywith me.
If you're a people pleaser,you're likely very good at the
fawn response because you knowhow to make a difficult person
(12:32):
de-escalate or otherwise feelpleased with your actions.
Being a people pleaser can alsomean that you don't want to
lose people, and so you have anabandonment one.
So if we look back in your past, did you have a parent that you
became't want to lose people,and so you have an abandonment
one?
So if we look back in your past, did you have a parent that you
became estranged from?
Did you grow up without twoactive parents?
(12:52):
Is there a reason that you'reconstantly seeking to not lose
people in your life?
And all of those things cancome together into cultivating a
fawn response, and I would goto hundreds of sessions trauma
therapy to learn this aboutmyself.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Yes, I know, when you were telling us about the
mugging you mentioned, you werean individual with seasoned
trauma and that, because of whatyou had inside of you, it was
kind of dictating your response,like you just said in that
moment, and so I found thatfascinating.
And one of the things we'regoing to talk about also is the
(13:32):
generational trauma.
So what did your childhood looklike?
What experiences did you have?
That, as you were going throughall these therapy sessions,
there are layers, right, and asyou dig in the layers you were
like, oh, didn't know, that wasthere.
You know, can we explore that alittle bit from from the
(13:52):
childhood on, if you'recomfortable?
Speaker 2 (13:55):
I didn't understand that I should go to therapy or
that I even had a reason to doself-growth, until I became a
mother myself, and in part itwas because I realized that I
was.
My instinct was to reenact whatI knew from my own childhood,
(14:21):
which was likely theirreenactment of what they knew
from their own childhood.
And if you go back a fewgenerations in my family, my
grandmother was a beautifulwoman and it was a dark family
secret, but her parents, bothmother and father, committed
suicide.
(14:42):
Oh and mom when she was young,um, and dad when she was 18, and
she was bounced, essentially,from family member to family
member until someone stepped inand said we'll raise her as our
own, and I don't think a familyline just bounces back from that
(15:02):
.
That's going to require thatsomeone heal the underlying
causation of how those peoplecame to that point of
desperation.
And something that I stronglylive by as a mom of three little
boys now is what you don't heal, your children will feel.
(15:25):
That's very real for me in mylife and I think for many other
people, because we will reenactwhat we know to be true from
when we were little and ifsomething about that does not
sit right with you or if thatwas hard for you when you were a
child, it's really yourresponsibility as an adult to go
(15:47):
deep and understand how youcould alter that for little
people in your care.
That's how you begin todisintegrate the generational
trauma that we see runningthrough.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
That is powerful, the statement.
What you don't heal, yourchildren will feel Like.
I feel that, as a mom myself, Iwished I would have known that
20 years ago.
You know, when I gave birth.
I know I would have known that20 years ago.
You know, when I gave birth.
I know I only look 29.
But, yes, absolutely, and so Ido, because you know even me.
(16:32):
I look back I was like, wow,you know 49.
I wished I would have knowneverything.
I know now I would do itdifferently.
But the thing is we can't goback right, we can't have a
do-over.
But what we can do now is forother parents listening who are
hearing this and who are feelingthis like I am, is talk about
(16:54):
it.
Children are adults now.
Talk about it.
Now you have an opportunity ofhey, let's rethink this.
Talk about it.
Children are adults now.
Talk about it.
Now you have an opportunity of,hey, let's rethink this.
Let's talk about a differentway that maybe, if your kids do
this, that we could handle itdifferently.
Let your children have a voice.
You know I grew up in the yearto be seen and not heard.
We had tape put over our mouthsif we talked back Like you
(17:20):
weren't given that opportunity,and nowadays, with everything
our children face, they needthat space.
Right, we talk about creatingspace for each other survivors,
adults, whatever it is but weforget about the little people,
that they need space too.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
So what you just said is so powerful thank you, thank
you, and you know I want tomake sure I cover the other side
of the spectrum, which is Iequally have found you cannot be
, at least in my experience.
We each get our own um anadequate if your entire
(18:01):
parenting modality is toover-please, placate and
accommodate your children.
So you were.
I feel like I was wasn't assimple as saying well, I never
want to hit my children or spankmy children or yell at my
children.
Therefore I'm just going to beso accommodating, I want them
(18:23):
spoiled, I want them happy allthe time.
If they're not happy, I'vefailed as a mother.
You can't go that extremeeither.
If you are people pleasingtowards your children, they grow
in entitlement.
They can't meet tasks.
They grow in entitlement.
They can't meet tasks.
They cannot acclimate correctlyinto society because they
believe that they are specialabove that, not required to do
(18:47):
those things.
If you have a desire toovercompensate in your parenting
, then look inside yourself, forwhat need is that filling?
Do you have a problem withdistress tolerance?
Are you capable of watchingthem struggle a little bit,
because our goal is really toraise them to be able to go out
on their own and live a healthy,functioning life that they can
(19:09):
feel good in.
I'd like to say that buildingcompanies and raising babies is
not all that different.
If I do my job well enough, youwon't need me to do it anymore.
That's the goal, yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
You know, going back to what you saw in Alfonso's
eyes, it's humanity.
You know, finding that balancein parenting to end up with, you
know, a child that is full ofhumanity and understanding.
So, yes, thank you so much forsharing that as well.
Parenting is not easy.
It's like this I don't knowcircle, you know thing and it's.
(19:44):
There's no manual.
There's no manual on people,because we're all different,
been through different things,so I love what you shared.
This episode is actually goingto come out September 29th and,
as we know, october is DomesticViolence Awareness Month, so I
love that we're having thisconversation now.
You determined that there was aneed for women who are in
(20:07):
situations they could not getout.
Can you tell us what led up toyour discovering this software
now to you're discovering thissoftware now that is going to
make a huge difference inwomen's lives and men as well,
absolutely so.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Persephone AI was really born out of my own
personal need and talking withothers that I knew had navigated
complex situations and needed asimilar packaged piece of
technology.
What most folks said to meearly on, when I was
(20:46):
constructing how it could allwork together, is, they said,
doesn't that already exist?
I feel like someone's alreadydone that.
Are you sure there isn't anyoneelse that's done that?
And what I would eventually findis, yes, the Australian
government did it and it didseem like there was a police
(21:08):
officer in America that did asimilar version for police, but,
truthfully, as far as justeveryday folks and I need this
and I need it simply no one haddone it, and it seemed really
important to me that, at theintersection of my skills with
my knowledge of what it can feellike inside of those situations
(21:31):
and what you may need to do toprotect yourself and your family
, coupled with my academicstudies around artificial
intelligence and innovation anddesigning systems and data, that
I felt almost obligated to givethis to people so that if
someone needed it next, theywould have it.
What Persephone is is pretty.
(21:53):
It is an app available to youin google play or on ios that
you can download and on ioseasily hide on your phone.
But even if you cannot hide it,once you open it it does not
look like what it is.
Once you are into the loginarea, you can make static
(22:15):
real-time notes, you can uploadaudio and video recordings, you
can upload files, you cantranscribe your audio and video
and you can do languagetranslation on everything.
You can add safe people thatyou could SOS your file to, or
you can download your body ofevidence to use now or later if
(22:35):
you were to need it, and so itis a culmination of a safe place
.
Think of it like a vault whereyou can get information off of
your devices, out of a journaland onto our servers so that we
can house it for you for thetime when you may be prepared to
take some type of step forward.
And in essence, it is thebeginning steps of what they
(22:58):
will tell you in therapy.
If you are trying to design asafety plan to exit an
escalating dangerous situation,they'll tell you to identify
people in your community one ortwo people and make them aware
of what's happening in yourprivate life.
They'll tell you to startdocumenting privately what is
(23:19):
happening to you and, if youfeel comfortable, obviously
share those experiences withsomeone you trust and all is
that people are in a dangeroussituation.
They know that they're beingabused.
(23:42):
It's harder with emotionalabuse, it's a little easier with
physical abuse, but in eithersituation an abuser is not
abusive every single day.
They are abusive and then kind,and it's confusing and you
believe they will change and youlikely are a loving, caring
(24:03):
person and maybe even in someways, if you have things that
you haven't quite gone deepenough on, you're contributing
and it becomes kind of back andforth and you're both a little
toxic and it can be messy, right, but you do normally have a
primary aggressor that iscreating the cycle and then you
(24:26):
may be reacting to the abuse.
So these situations, I've found, get incredibly complicated.
And what I always encouragesomeone to do is document anyway
, and if you want to do thatdiscreetly, you can do it at
Persephone, because the writingdown, the act of writing it
somewhere, the act of taking itout of yourself and putting it
(24:47):
in a location, is the first tinyact of rebellion.
It also might help you see thatthis is repeating for you that
this is ongoing and prevalentand if you ever are ready to
exit, you also have adocumentation history.
There's a lot of power in that.
(25:08):
Personally, I think peoplelegitimately so can be scared to
document no-transcript, butthat is your future cloak of
(25:34):
protection.
It is hard to navigate a crisisand keep a clear mind and know
what to do next or to thinkahead to.
How is this affecting me?
How is this affecting mychildren?
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Right.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
So I typically encourage people to document.
Use Persephone or use something, but start writing down your
lived experiences.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Number one great tool .
Like I said, the stats are onein four women, so there's a lot
of us.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Yes, and you're so right, though, about the whole.
When you write something down,it hits you a little bit
differently versus just talkingabout it, like you and I,
because you read it and you'relike, oh, you know, somebody
might find almost in likekeeping a diary right as a kid.
When you go back and read ityou might realize, oh, that's
(26:33):
not normal.
Yeah, or oh, he said this likefive times in a week to me.
You might see a pattern that,now that you've gotten it out of
your head and you've put in it,you might recognize the signs
and that might help you get outsooner, potentially right.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, but it is a very scarysituation and it is.
It can be very dangerous andvery scary to get out.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
So for you to have this tool for them exactly, and
you know, I think, things thatare housed locally just on your
cell phone.
I've had plenty of people tellme I had evidence and they took
my phone and broke it.
I had and they took my phoneand broke it.
I had evidence and they took myphone and made me delete it in
front of them.
(27:21):
So we know that there's powerin moving it to a secondary
location.
We know that there's a lot ofvalue in having it secure.
Think of it like a bank lockbox, how we used to.
Maybe they can still do that.
I just know my grandparents didthat many years ago.
(27:42):
It's a secret vault where youcan put these things in in case
you ever do need them, and Ifind that people should have the
security of that, the peace ofmind of that.
When I was working to get thislive last year, google Play
accepted the app immediately andallowed it to publish to their
(28:06):
app store.
Ios would take three moremonths and more developers to
get it live.
They actually initially wroteme 12 pages of objections about
letting this app live on theirapp store, and one of the big
reasons was well, you aren'texplaining what it really is and
you need to let people clickfrom within the app and
(28:28):
immediately delete their account.
And I was like absolutely not.
I'm going to have to argue withyou, apple, I don't want to do
that, because it's not that Idon't want people to have the
authority over their own data.
Absolutely, I care about thatand if it is legitimately the
person that Persephone isprotecting, then we can delete
(28:50):
your data.
But what I don't want is to makeit too easy from within the app
if it were to be found to say,push the button and delete your
file.
So we compromised at a holdwhere there would be a brief
hold before we would permanentlydelete anything so that someone
could come back around and sayyou know what?
Actually I think I'll keep that, but it's meant to be
(29:13):
thoughtful with these fail safesin mind of real-world scenarios
.
What happens if they find it onthe phone?
What happens if they tell youto delete it?
(29:56):
And our job, once you are a userof Persephone, is to do
everything want to release yourfile to them.
We can also package it and giveit to police if you need us to
do that.
Really, just you control whereit goes in.
That I think we will likely doin the next iteration is hard to
(30:17):
talk about, but some version ofwhat they call a dead man
switch, which would be at theuser's discretion if I'm not
logged in after this amount oftime, release my file, because
the presumption is, somethingmay have happened and we don't
want it to go unknown that youare storing evidence.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
And that would be an optional feature to our users
that I have been thinking aboutimplementing, as people have
brought it up.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Yeah, I was just going to ask you what's next and
so, interestingly enough, youshared that.
So you have a background indata analytics, ai and whatnot,
in data analytics, ai andwhatnot.
So how did that influenceoutside of?
Speaker 2 (31:02):
experience.
How did that influence?
Like man, I gotta do something.
I think it was a hugeinfluencer.
I actually initially studiedrisk management and insurance in
undergrad, and I went on tolearn how to build insurance
companies.
I have always worked inunderstanding the dynamics of
(31:23):
risk pooling, data capture, howto design systems to capture the
right data so that you canlater better understand what
you're doing and how it'saffecting people and how to
price those things, and so Iwanted to go back to school
mid-career and receive a moreformal training in the data
analytics space, and that's whatI did, which exposed me to just
(31:46):
an entire world of case study,learnings, innovation, how some
of the big household names thatyou know designed their
companies and made theminnovative and forward-thinking,
and it was there thatPersephone first started to come
to life for me, so I actuallyvetted it for multiple years
inside of academic arenas, longbefore it ever reached the
(32:09):
public.
I think what really matters isthat we're always thoughtful
about what we do with theinformation we hold, and so
Persephone is specificallydesigned so that no one reads
your entries and no one should.
One problem that I personallyhad with the way things are set
up is, especially if you havechildren.
(32:30):
If you disclose that in therapyand the children are impacted
in some way, there is anobligation to report you to CPS.
Now I'm not going to take anystrong stance on if that's good
or bad.
I'm merely going to say thatwhen we tell abused women that
(32:51):
if they talk they might now haveCPS wanting to get involved or
in relationship to theirchildren, and those same people
may or may not have access tomoney to change their
circumstances overnight We'veessentially trapped you there.
We've said it's not safe totell people there's no money to
get you out.
(33:11):
Get you out.
(33:38):
And so, from my own learnedexperiences, I thought if it's
this hard and I have a career,what are other people going
through?
There's got to be a better way.
And so Persephone big pictureis an entire suite of products,
and the ones that I'm the mostexcited I think and build
include relationship insurance.
So insurance is my backgroundand there are ways to price it
so that if you needed a certainstarter capital to exit, you
could make a claim for that andthen it could reset your life so
that you would not be held in asituation due to the financial
implications of leaving.
(33:58):
I've also in that same modalityas sexual assault insurance for
people to buy for theirfamilies and protect.
Let's say you have a childgoing off to college.
Let's say that in general, youjust know the risks of moving
through this world and that theincident rates are high.
These are products that shouldexist and I would love to see
(34:20):
them come to life.
Then the final one is body camtelematics jewelry.
You're allowed first-partyrecord in 38 states, which means
as long as you're aware of it,it's likely legal to do that
without notifying the otherperson.
It's likely legal to do thatwithout notifying the other
person, and I've met withengineers here in Houston on
what it would take to prototypethis type of technology, because
(34:42):
it is far and far long and theconcept would be that we could
embed this in jewelry.
It would be discrete and itwould live stream to Persephone
servers.
Then when you're on your app,you can say reject the footage
it was no big deal or keep thefootage.
I've just caught somethingreally important on the record,
and so I just think all of thesethings allow innovation and
(35:03):
tech to start working for us.
And when you think about thesenumbers one in four women in
their lifetime will experienceabuse.
There is no reason let'selevate beyond a poster inside a
bathroom stall.
There is a lot more we could bedoing with tech to lessen the
(35:27):
impact of those numbers, and Iwould love to be a part of
bringing that to life.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Yeah, absolutely Like everything you said.
It's just kind of going throughmy head.
I'm thinking about thedifferent insurances.
That's fascinating.
Never would have thought ofthat.
There are people who don'tbelieve in life insurance to
begin with.
You know what I'm saying.
So how do you get them torecognize?
Here's what the statistics sayand here's why I'm not saying
(35:57):
that it's going to happen to you.
But what if it does?
Like at least you're a littlebit prepared, or prepared in a
certain way?
Speaker 2 (36:06):
Well, yes, exactly, and we insure against many
things at this time, but at thesame time, folks will tell you
that the biggest decision you'llever make is who your partner
is.
So how do we recognize thatprenups aren't for everyone, but
you still need to be thoughtfulabout protecting your future,
(36:31):
and that this would be a way tonormalize that and equalize
among people as they choose arelationship?
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Interesting.
It'll be really interesting tosee how that's going to evolve
and manifest itself, sodefinitely got to keep me posted
on how all of that progresses.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
Is there a website where they can learn more?
Speaker 2 (36:53):
There is.
It is P-E-R-S-E-T-H-O-N-E, dotA-I.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
All right, ashley, thank you for your heart, thank
you for your humanity, thank youfor being willing to come and
share, thank you for addressinga need and creating something
for others, so I trulyappreciate you.
I'm so excited to be able toshare this again.
This is going to be great, butanyway, thank you so much for
(37:22):
being here and being my guest onthe I Need Blue podcast.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
I really appreciate the opportunity to come on and
talk about my own life and whatI've done with Persephone AI.
Thank you for the support.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
Oh, you're so welcome .
I'm constantly reminded how powerful human
connection can be.
My guest today, ashley, is ashining example of what happens
when people lead with compassionand purpose.
Imagine being a 5'1 womanwalking alone to your car at
night, only to find yourself inthe middle of an attempted
(00:24):
mugging.
That was Ashley.
But instead of reacting withfear or anger, she responded
with something unexpectedkindness, and it changed
everything.
Ashley's story goes far deeper.
From a childhood shaped byunhealed generational trauma,
(00:46):
she learned early on that painhas a way of repeating itself
unless we face it head on.
She did just that, seekingtherapy and breaking cycles that
had lasted generations.
A brilliant mind, ashley studieddata analytics at Harvard and
worked in AI development,helping build systems from the
(01:09):
ground up.
But even with all that success,something was missing a greater
purpose.
She found it by listening tothe voices of women trapped in
domestic violence, women whocouldn't leave, who had no proof
, no safety, no way out.
In 2024, ashley launchedPersephone AI, a discrete,
(01:37):
encrypted app hidden within yourphone.
It allows survivors to safelydocument abuse, build a safety
plan and choose when and withwhom to share their story,
whether it's uploading evidence,identifying safe contacts or
exporting certified files forlegal use.
Persephone puts power back intothe hands of those who feel
(02:02):
powerless.
One in four women willexperience domestic violence.
Ashley wants them to know youare not alone and there are
tools to help you reclaim yourvoice.
She's driven by empathy, fueledby innovation and guided by
purpose.
Ashley, your courage islighting the way for so many
(02:26):
others.
Ashley, thank you for being myguest today and welcome to the I
Need Blue podcast.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
Thank you, Jen.
You said that so beautifullyand I'm so delighted to be here.
I almost can't do it justice.
I wish you could introduce meeverywhere I go.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
No worries, I like to travel.
Why not?
Well, I have had the pleasureof talking with you before today
and getting to know a littlebit more about you and your
story.
I know we wanted to talk aboutthis mugging, but the reality
for you is it is not only onetime that you had somebody
actually point a gun at you.
(03:03):
It happened several times.
But today we wanted to focus onthe story back in 2012.
Because when you told me, I waslike oh my gosh, and I know
that the audience is going totake away that same reaction.
So, if it's okay, can we startwith that story?
Speaker 2 (03:26):
if it's okay, can we start with that story?
We can, absolutely so.
As you mentioned, it was backin 2012.
I was in my seventh year ofliving in New Orleans.
I was a up-and-comer in mycareer and a woman in my 20s,
and I'll admit I was out alittle late and I had parked my
car in a part of town.
That wasn't that common for me,but I'd lived in New Orleans
for almost seven years and Inever really had an incident,
(03:48):
though I'm aware that crimeexists, can exist anywhere.
And as I'm walking to my car,all of a sudden I hear from
behind me give me your money.
And I freeze.
I thought did I hear something?
And then I hear it again.
And so I turn around and I'mstanding face to face with a man
(04:09):
who's probably only six oreight inches taller than me and
I look up at him and I go I'msorry what?
And he repeats it for the thirdtime.
And I went.
I honestly, I kind of I fawned.
I did a fawned response, whichis not abnormal for people that
are seasoned in trauma when theyknow they're entering a high
(04:32):
stress situation, and I wentfull Southern belt.
I was like gripping pearlsgoing.
Are you speaking to me, just,and he said yeah.
And then I realized he had agun in his hand and he was
pointing it at me and he said,yes, you.
And I looked around and therewas no one else there and I
thought this isn't good, becauseI didn't have much on me in the
(04:55):
way of cash.
But it was my cell phone, itwas my car keys.
I was a block away from gettinginside my car keys.
I was a block away from gettinginside my car and if I truly
gave him everything that I hadon me, I was going to be on that
street with no transportationand no way to call for help and
no money in the short run, andit was dark but nonetheless,
(05:16):
fawn kicked in and I handed himall my things and for some
reason I just felt this strongurge to do something different.
And I looked at him and Ilooked in his eyes and I saw
that desperation, I saw hishumanity and I said look, don't
(05:36):
shoot me, but I'm going to hugyou.
And he froze and I grabbed himin the middle of the street and
gave him a hug and he didn'tmove right away.
But then he hugged me back andI said, while I was holding him
in a long hug.
I think you're having an evenworse day than me.
(05:58):
If you need the stuff, you needthe stuff, but do you want to
sit down and talk about it?
And he's got tears in his eyesand he said, yeah, I'd really
like that.
So we sat on the curb of thisdark road and we talked about it
.
His name was Alfonso.
He said he'd been trying andtrying to get a job and nothing
was coming through for him, thathe was working as a dishwasher
(06:20):
but he had kids at home and hewas desperate.
And I said, well, look, I'llhelp you any way I can.
I'll ask around for jobs,though we're not off to a great
start.
Let's work it from here.
I'll give you the cash that'son me.
It'd be great if you let mekeep my car keys, you know.
And he asked me for a ride, andso I gave him one to a place in
(06:45):
New Orleans called Mid-City.
But when he got into my Fiat500 convertible in the middle of
the night, I said, alfonso, youcan't get in my car with a
loaded gun, so let's solve forthat.
And that's when he pulled theslide back and a bullet flew out
of the top and landed on myfloorboard and I realized that
gun was absolutely loaded,cocked and ready to go, because
(07:07):
the next day I'd find thatbullet under my floor mat.
And I told this story first tomy mother, who was just beside
herself Like she was alreadyterrified.
Coming from a small town inLouisiana that I lived in New
Orleans, and to hear yourdaughter in her 20s tell you
this story, you just fear forher at all times.
Most people think it's a greatact of humanity.
(07:31):
My therapist asked me if I was,if she should be concerned for
my own well-being and sense ofpersonal safety, because most
people wouldn't jeopardizethemselves for that.
But again, for for me it wasreally.
I just saw his humanity andthought what does it take?
The things that flashed in mymind were what does it take in
(07:52):
your life that a five foot tallwoman walking down the street in
the night becomes the way yousolve your problems?
What had to happen to you?
Because I I do not believe.
For the vast majority I don'tbelieve people are bad people.
I think life is hard, I thinkpeople are desperate, I think
(08:12):
they're hurting, I think they'restressed, I think they're asked
for things that are hard todeliver on, and I don't think we
in a lot of ways, set upsociety to make that easier.
Um, and and we live in thisinvisible caste system, and
Alfonso and I are part of that.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Wow, you know, even hearing the story again, it
gives me chills every time, Like, obviously I'm glad that you're
safe and it is remarkable thatyou gave a hug because somebody
who literally was in the samesituation, where behind me I
heard give me all your money andturn around to a masked man
(08:51):
pointing a gun at me.
In that moment, for me itwasn't give a hug because I had
several other people that myactions were going to determine
the outcome of that situation.
But to be able to see beyondthe danger and to see the
humanity is amazing and I thinkthat can be applied to so many
(09:12):
situations in our life.
Like you said, you know we'rein unprecedented times.
It's like things just getharder and harder.
So many distractions, so manypressures.
The art of listening is likeyou said sometimes people just
want somebody that will sit downand listen to them.
Do you wonder where Alfonso is?
Speaker 2 (09:33):
today, even to this day, I do.
I know that that night had animpact on me that I will carry
with me for many years and thatI still think about him and I
wonder if I had a similarimprint on him.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
If that was a pivotal moment in his life or if it
helped at all, if it changedanything in him the way it
changed something in me, I wouldleave New Orleans not long
after that and, truthfully, ifI'm back in the city I'm a lot
more cautious.
You know, I certainly don'tthink that you get two of those,
but I do hope that I had apositive impact on his life by
(10:13):
showing him an act of kindnesswhile he was in an act of
desperation.
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Yes, what did it change in you?
Speaker 2 (10:27):
get really solidified that it's okay to trust
yourself in a moment of distress, and something that I will say
about abuse and trauma is one ofthe cornerstones that it breaks
down in a person is you stoptrusting yourself and you start
looking outward for someone elseto tell you what to trust, and
so a big part of recovery fromthat is learning to trust your
(10:48):
own instincts, and so myinstinct on Alfonso was that
this was the right next thing todo, and that's what I did.
But at the same time, it was afawn response, and we have fight
, flight, freeze and fawn, and Ihad had years of practice
(11:11):
disarming volatile people.
It's an effective skill, but itis absolutely a way to
de-escalate someone.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Yeah, can you dig a little deeper into that for the
audience?
Speaker 2 (11:24):
in regards to de-escalating, yeah, I think
when you've had experienceswhere you need to navigate abuse
and you're living within it,you learn how to de-escalate the
abusive person and that is theFON response.
And that is the FON responseand you can hone that over time.
(11:47):
It can also extrapolate itacross your personality.
I would go on to therapy andlearn this.
I was not aware with Alfonso onthe street that night.
But people that you hearself-describe as a people
pleaser, desperately fearful ofjudgment of others, that look
for validation outsidethemselves, or so scared that
(12:09):
they're going to upset someonethat they might lose a person,
those things are likely tiedinto.
People pleasing is a strongcomponent of I want to be liked
by you, I want you to be happywith me.
If you're a people pleaser,you're likely very good at the
fawn response because you knowhow to make a difficult person
(12:32):
de-escalate or otherwise feelpleased with your actions.
Being a people pleaser can alsomean that you don't want to
lose people, and so you have anabandonment one.
So if we look back in your past, did you have a parent that you
became't want to lose people,and so you have an abandonment
one?
So if we look back in your past, did you have a parent that you
became estranged from?
Did you grow up without twoactive parents?
(12:52):
Is there a reason that you'reconstantly seeking to not lose
people in your life?
And all of those things cancome together into cultivating a
fawn response, and I would goto hundreds of sessions trauma
therapy to learn this aboutmyself.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
Yes, I know, when you were telling us about the
mugging you mentioned, you werean individual with seasoned
trauma and that, because of whatyou had inside of you, it was
kind of dictating your response,like you just said in that
moment, and so I found thatfascinating.
And one of the things we'regoing to talk about also is the
(13:32):
generational trauma.
So what did your childhood looklike?
What experiences did you have?
That, as you were going throughall these therapy sessions,
there are layers, right, and asyou dig in the layers you were
like, oh, didn't know, that wasthere.
You know, can we explore that alittle bit from from the
(13:52):
childhood on, if you'recomfortable?
Speaker 2 (13:55):
I didn't understand that I should go to therapy or
that I even had a reason to doself-growth, until I became a
mother myself, and in part itwas because I realized that I
was.
My instinct was to reenact whatI knew from my own childhood,
(14:21):
which was likely theirreenactment of what they knew
from their own childhood.
And if you go back a fewgenerations in my family, my
grandmother was a beautifulwoman and it was a dark family
secret, but her parents, bothmother and father, committed
suicide.
(14:42):
Oh and mom when she was young,um, and dad when she was 18, and
she was bounced, essentially,from family member to family
member until someone stepped inand said we'll raise her as our
own, and I don't think a familyline just bounces back from that
(15:02):
.
That's going to require thatsomeone heal the underlying
causation of how those peoplecame to that point of
desperation.
And something that I stronglylive by as a mom of three little
boys now is what you don't heal, your children will feel.
(15:25):
That's very real for me in mylife and I think for many other
people, because we will reenactwhat we know to be true from
when we were little and ifsomething about that does not
sit right with you or if thatwas hard for you when you were a
child, it's really yourresponsibility as an adult to go
(15:47):
deep and understand how youcould alter that for little
people in your care.
That's how you begin todisintegrate the generational
trauma that we see runningthrough.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
That is powerful, the statement.
What you don't heal, yourchildren will feel Like.
I feel that, as a mom myself, Iwished I would have known that
20 years ago.
You know, when I gave birth.
I know I would have known that20 years ago.
You know, when I gave birth.
I know I only look 29.
But, yes, absolutely, and so Ido, because you know even me.
(16:32):
I look back I was like, wow,you know 49.
I wished I would have knowneverything.
I know now I would do itdifferently.
But the thing is we can't goback right, we can't have a
do-over.
But what we can do now is forother parents listening who are
hearing this and who are feelingthis like I am, is talk about
(16:54):
it.
Children are adults now.
Talk about it.
Now you have an opportunity ofhey, let's rethink this.
Talk about it.
Children are adults now.
Talk about it.
Now you have an opportunity of,hey, let's rethink this.
Let's talk about a differentway that maybe, if your kids do
this, that we could handle itdifferently.
Let your children have a voice.
You know I grew up in the yearto be seen and not heard.
We had tape put over our mouthsif we talked back Like you
(17:20):
weren't given that opportunity,and nowadays, with everything
our children face, they needthat space.
Right, we talk about creatingspace for each other survivors,
adults, whatever it is but weforget about the little people,
that they need space too.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
So what you just said is so powerful thank you, thank
you, and you know I want tomake sure I cover the other side
of the spectrum, which is Iequally have found you cannot be
, at least in my experience.
We each get our own um anadequate if your entire
(18:01):
parenting modality is toover-please, placate and
accommodate your children.
So you were.
I feel like I was wasn't assimple as saying well, I never
want to hit my children or spankmy children or yell at my
children.
Therefore I'm just going to beso accommodating, I want them
(18:23):
spoiled, I want them happy allthe time.
If they're not happy, I'vefailed as a mother.
You can't go that extremeeither.
If you are people pleasingtowards your children, they grow
in entitlement.
They can't meet tasks.
They grow in entitlement.
They can't meet tasks.
They cannot acclimate correctlyinto society because they
believe that they are specialabove that, not required to do
(18:47):
those things.
If you have a desire toovercompensate in your parenting
, then look inside yourself, forwhat need is that filling?
Do you have a problem withdistress tolerance?
Are you capable of watchingthem struggle a little bit,
because our goal is really toraise them to be able to go out
on their own and live a healthy,functioning life that they can
(19:09):
feel good in.
I'd like to say that buildingcompanies and raising babies is
not all that different.
If I do my job well enough, youwon't need me to do it anymore.
That's the goal, yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:23):
You know, going back to what you saw in Alfonso's
eyes, it's humanity.
You know, finding that balancein parenting to end up with, you
know, a child that is full ofhumanity and understanding.
So, yes, thank you so much forsharing that as well.
Parenting is not easy.
It's like this I don't knowcircle, you know thing and it's.
(19:44):
There's no manual.
There's no manual on people,because we're all different,
been through different things,so I love what you shared.
This episode is actually goingto come out September 29th and,
as we know, october is DomesticViolence Awareness Month, so I
love that we're having thisconversation now.
You determined that there was aneed for women who are in
(20:07):
situations they could not getout.
Can you tell us what led up toyour discovering this software
now to you're discovering thissoftware now that is going to
make a huge difference inwomen's lives and men as well,
absolutely so.
Speaker 2 (20:25):
Persephone AI was really born out of my own
personal need and talking withothers that I knew had navigated
complex situations and needed asimilar packaged piece of
technology.
What most folks said to meearly on, when I was
(20:46):
constructing how it could allwork together, is, they said,
doesn't that already exist?
I feel like someone's alreadydone that.
Are you sure there isn't anyoneelse that's done that?
And what I would eventually findis, yes, the Australian
government did it and it didseem like there was a police
(21:08):
officer in America that did asimilar version for police, but,
truthfully, as far as justeveryday folks and I need this
and I need it simply no one haddone it, and it seemed really
important to me that, at theintersection of my skills with
my knowledge of what it can feellike inside of those situations
(21:31):
and what you may need to do toprotect yourself and your family
, coupled with my academicstudies around artificial
intelligence and innovation anddesigning systems and data, that
I felt almost obligated to givethis to people so that if
someone needed it next, theywould have it.
What Persephone is is pretty.
(21:53):
It is an app available to youin google play or on ios that
you can download and on ioseasily hide on your phone.
But even if you cannot hide it,once you open it it does not
look like what it is.
Once you are into the loginarea, you can make static
(22:15):
real-time notes, you can uploadaudio and video recordings, you
can upload files, you cantranscribe your audio and video
and you can do languagetranslation on everything.
You can add safe people thatyou could SOS your file to, or
you can download your body ofevidence to use now or later if
(22:35):
you were to need it, and so itis a culmination of a safe place
.
Think of it like a vault whereyou can get information off of
your devices, out of a journaland onto our servers so that we
can house it for you for thetime when you may be prepared to
take some type of step forward.
And in essence, it is thebeginning steps of what they
(22:58):
will tell you in therapy.
If you are trying to design asafety plan to exit an
escalating dangerous situation,they'll tell you to identify
people in your community one ortwo people and make them aware
of what's happening in yourprivate life.
They'll tell you to startdocumenting privately what is
(23:19):
happening to you and, if youfeel comfortable, obviously
share those experiences withsomeone you trust and all is
that people are in a dangeroussituation.
They know that they're beingabused.
(23:42):
It's harder with emotionalabuse, it's a little easier with
physical abuse, but in eithersituation an abuser is not
abusive every single day.
They are abusive and then kind,and it's confusing and you
believe they will change and youlikely are a loving, caring
(24:03):
person and maybe even in someways, if you have things that
you haven't quite gone deepenough on, you're contributing
and it becomes kind of back andforth and you're both a little
toxic and it can be messy, right, but you do normally have a
primary aggressor that iscreating the cycle and then you
(24:26):
may be reacting to the abuse.
So these situations, I've found, get incredibly complicated.
And what I always encouragesomeone to do is document anyway
, and if you want to do thatdiscreetly, you can do it at
Persephone, because the writingdown, the act of writing it
somewhere, the act of taking itout of yourself and putting it
(24:47):
in a location, is the first tinyact of rebellion.
It also might help you see thatthis is repeating for you that
this is ongoing and prevalentand if you ever are ready to
exit, you also have adocumentation history.
There's a lot of power in that.
(25:08):
Personally, I think peoplelegitimately so can be scared to
document no-transcript, butthat is your future cloak of
(25:34):
protection.
It is hard to navigate a crisisand keep a clear mind and know
what to do next or to thinkahead to.
How is this affecting me?
How is this affecting mychildren?
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Right.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
So I typically encourage people to document.
Use Persephone or use something, but start writing down your
lived experiences.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Number one great tool .
Like I said, the stats are onein four women, so there's a lot
of us.
Speaker 2 (26:11):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Yes, and you're so right, though, about the whole.
When you write something down,it hits you a little bit
differently versus just talkingabout it, like you and I,
because you read it and you'relike, oh, you know, somebody
might find almost in likekeeping a diary right as a kid.
When you go back and read ityou might realize, oh, that's
(26:33):
not normal.
Yeah, or oh, he said this likefive times in a week to me.
You might see a pattern that,now that you've gotten it out of
your head and you've put in it,you might recognize the signs
and that might help you get outsooner, potentially right.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, but it is a very scarysituation and it is.
It can be very dangerous andvery scary to get out.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
So for you to have this tool for them exactly, and
you know, I think, things thatare housed locally just on your
cell phone.
I've had plenty of people tellme I had evidence and they took
my phone and broke it.
I had and they took my phoneand broke it.
I had evidence and they took myphone and made me delete it in
front of them.
(27:21):
So we know that there's powerin moving it to a secondary
location.
We know that there's a lot ofvalue in having it secure.
Think of it like a bank lockbox, how we used to.
Maybe they can still do that.
I just know my grandparents didthat many years ago.
(27:42):
It's a secret vault where youcan put these things in in case
you ever do need them, and Ifind that people should have the
security of that, the peace ofmind of that.
When I was working to get thislive last year, google Play
accepted the app immediately andallowed it to publish to their
(28:06):
app store.
Ios would take three moremonths and more developers to
get it live.
They actually initially wroteme 12 pages of objections about
letting this app live on theirapp store, and one of the big
reasons was well, you aren'texplaining what it really is and
you need to let people clickfrom within the app and
(28:28):
immediately delete their account.
And I was like absolutely not.
I'm going to have to argue withyou, apple, I don't want to do
that, because it's not that Idon't want people to have the
authority over their own data.
Absolutely, I care about thatand if it is legitimately the
person that Persephone isprotecting, then we can delete
(28:50):
your data.
But what I don't want is to makeit too easy from within the app
if it were to be found to say,push the button and delete your
file.
So we compromised at a holdwhere there would be a brief
hold before we would permanentlydelete anything so that someone
could come back around and sayyou know what?
Actually I think I'll keep that, but it's meant to be
(29:13):
thoughtful with these fail safesin mind of real-world scenarios
.
What happens if they find it onthe phone?
What happens if they tell youto delete it?
(29:56):
And our job, once you are a userof Persephone, is to do
everything want to release yourfile to them.
We can also package it and giveit to police if you need us to
do that.
Really, just you control whereit goes in.
That I think we will likely doin the next iteration is hard to
(30:17):
talk about, but some version ofwhat they call a dead man
switch, which would be at theuser's discretion if I'm not
logged in after this amount oftime, release my file, because
the presumption is, somethingmay have happened and we don't
want it to go unknown that youare storing evidence.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
And that would be an optional feature to our users
that I have been thinking aboutimplementing, as people have
brought it up.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Yeah, I was just going to ask you what's next and
so, interestingly enough, youshared that.
So you have a background indata analytics, ai and whatnot,
in data analytics, ai andwhatnot.
So how did that influenceoutside of?
Speaker 2 (31:02):
experience.
How did that influence?
Like man, I gotta do something.
I think it was a hugeinfluencer.
I actually initially studiedrisk management and insurance in
undergrad, and I went on tolearn how to build insurance
companies.
I have always worked inunderstanding the dynamics of
(31:23):
risk pooling, data capture, howto design systems to capture the
right data so that you canlater better understand what
you're doing and how it'saffecting people and how to
price those things, and so Iwanted to go back to school
mid-career and receive a moreformal training in the data
analytics space, and that's whatI did, which exposed me to just
(31:46):
an entire world of case study,learnings, innovation, how some
of the big household names thatyou know designed their
companies and made theminnovative and forward-thinking,
and it was there thatPersephone first started to come
to life for me, so I actuallyvetted it for multiple years
inside of academic arenas, longbefore it ever reached the
(32:09):
public.
I think what really matters isthat we're always thoughtful
about what we do with theinformation we hold, and so
Persephone is specificallydesigned so that no one reads
your entries and no one should.
One problem that I personallyhad with the way things are set
up is, especially if you havechildren.
(32:30):
If you disclose that in therapyand the children are impacted
in some way, there is anobligation to report you to CPS.
Now I'm not going to take anystrong stance on if that's good
or bad.
I'm merely going to say thatwhen we tell abused women that
(32:51):
if they talk they might now haveCPS wanting to get involved or
in relationship to theirchildren, and those same people
may or may not have access tomoney to change their
circumstances overnight We'veessentially trapped you there.
We've said it's not safe totell people there's no money to
get you out.
(33:11):
Get you out.
(33:38):
And so, from my own learnedexperiences, I thought if it's
this hard and I have a career,what are other people going
through?
There's got to be a better way.
And so Persephone big pictureis an entire suite of products,
and the ones that I'm the mostexcited I think and build
include relationship insurance.
So insurance is my backgroundand there are ways to price it
so that if you needed a certainstarter capital to exit, you
could make a claim for that andthen it could reset your life so
that you would not be held in asituation due to the financial
implications of leaving.
(33:58):
I've also in that same modalityas sexual assault insurance for
people to buy for theirfamilies and protect.
Let's say you have a childgoing off to college.
Let's say that in general, youjust know the risks of moving
through this world and that theincident rates are high.
These are products that shouldexist and I would love to see
(34:20):
them come to life.
Then the final one is body camtelematics jewelry.
You're allowed first-partyrecord in 38 states, which means
as long as you're aware of it,it's likely legal to do that
without notifying the otherperson.
It's likely legal to do thatwithout notifying the other
person, and I've met withengineers here in Houston on
what it would take to prototypethis type of technology, because
(34:42):
it is far and far long and theconcept would be that we could
embed this in jewelry.
It would be discrete and itwould live stream to Persephone
servers.
Then when you're on your app,you can say reject the footage
it was no big deal or keep thefootage.
I've just caught somethingreally important on the record,
and so I just think all of thesethings allow innovation and
(35:03):
tech to start working for us.
And when you think about thesenumbers one in four women in
their lifetime will experienceabuse.
There is no reason let'selevate beyond a poster inside a
bathroom stall.
There is a lot more we could bedoing with tech to lessen the
(35:27):
impact of those numbers, and Iwould love to be a part of
bringing that to life.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
Yeah, absolutely Like everything you said.
It's just kind of going throughmy head.
I'm thinking about thedifferent insurances.
That's fascinating.
Never would have thought ofthat.
There are people who don'tbelieve in life insurance to
begin with.
You know what I'm saying.
So how do you get them torecognize?
Here's what the statistics sayand here's why I'm not saying
(35:57):
that it's going to happen to you.
But what if it does?
Like at least you're a littlebit prepared, or prepared in a
certain way?
Speaker 2 (36:06):
Well, yes, exactly, and we insure against many
things at this time, but at thesame time, folks will tell you
that the biggest decision you'llever make is who your partner
is.
So how do we recognize thatprenups aren't for everyone, but
you still need to be thoughtfulabout protecting your future,
(36:31):
and that this would be a way tonormalize that and equalize
among people as they choose arelationship?
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Interesting.
It'll be really interesting tosee how that's going to evolve
and manifest itself, sodefinitely got to keep me posted
on how all of that progresses.
Speaker 2 (36:50):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
Is there a website where they can learn more?
Speaker 2 (36:53):
There is.
It is P-E-R-S-E-T-H-O-N-E, dotA-I.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
All right, ashley, thank you for your heart, thank
you for your humanity, thank youfor being willing to come and
share, thank you for addressinga need and creating something
for others, so I trulyappreciate you.
I'm so excited to be able toshare this again.
This is going to be great, butanyway, thank you so much for
(37:22):
being here and being my guest onthe I Need Blue podcast.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
I really appreciate the opportunity to come on and
talk about my own life and whatI've done with Persephone AI.
Thank you for the support.
Speaker 1 (37:35):
Oh, you're so welcome .
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