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This week I'm handing the feed over to Andrea Dunlop and her show, Nobody Should Believe Me. Andrea has spent years covering medical child abuse, and she came to the subject through her own family.

In 2019, Dr. John Cox, an ER physician at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, brought his adoptive infant daughter to her pediatrician with an injured arm. Within months, he was charged with abusing her. NBC News covered his case as a wrongful accusation. Andrea went back to the records, talked to the prosecutor who filed the charges, and found a much more complicated story than the one that made headlines.

This is part one of a four-part special report. Follow Nobody Should Believe Me wherever you get your podcasts to hear the rest, or subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Patreon to binge the full series ad free.

nobodyshouldbelieveme.com

Content warning: this episode discusses the abuse of an infant.
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When Gypsy Rose Blanchard announced she was pregnant, the internet opened an investigation. The woman who spent her childhood trapped inside her mother's medical lies was now raising a daughter of her own.

In this episode, I look at what the research actually says about the cycle of abuse, and at what happens when a mother is watched as closely as Gypsy is. Strangers called CPS over a livestream and a baby with colic. Someone pulled her daughter's shot records from a state database and put them on TikTok. I talk to one of the women who made a CPS report, I go looking for whoever put a baby's medical records on the internet, and I ask Gypsy where she thinks the line is between protecting a child and isolating one.

Content note: This episode discusses child abuse and contains strong language.

Sources and further reading

Cathy Spatz Widom, Sally J. Czaja and Kimberly A. DuMont, "Intergenerational transmission of child abuse and neglect: Real or detection bias?" Science (2015): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25814584/

Cathy Spatz Widom, "The Cycle of Violence," Science (1989): https://doi.org/10.1126/science.2704995

Fleming S. Pedroso et al., "The Diving Reflex in Healthy Infants in the First Year of Life," Journal of Child Neurology (2012): https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21881008/

Louisiana Children's Code, Article 609, Mandatory and permitted reporting: https://www.legis.la.gov/LEGIS/Law.aspx?d=73201

Written and hosted by Javier LeivaEdited by Puneeth Shenoy with The Podcast PunditsTheme music by Joe Basile, thechicken.net

©2026 Creative Babble, LLC

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How does a doctor actually decide that a parent is making their child sick? Dr. John Melville is a child abuse pediatrician, president of the Ray E. Helfer Society, and one of the people who helped write the board exam that certifies child abuse pediatricians.

In this bonus episode, he walks me through how medical child abuse is diagnosed. He explains the difference between Munchausen by proxy, factitious disorder imposed on another, and medical child abuse. And he answers the criticism that child abuse pediatricians are self-appointed experts who took a short course and now override the specialists who know the patient best.

He also talks about what happens when he's wrong, in either direction, and about the myth that a child who's been abused is broken forever.

Dr. Melville has cerebral palsy, which affects his speech. He asked me to mention it up front.

Note: I didn't ask Dr. Melville about Gypsy Rose Blanchard, and he hasn't studied her case. He speaks here only about his own work, and for himself, not for any organization.

Written and hosted by Javier LeivaTheme music by Joe Basile, thechicken.net

© 2026 Creative Babble
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Ken Urker, Gypsy Rose Blanchard's partner and the father of their daughter, Aurora, died on October 1, 2026, his 34th birthday. The sheriff is still investigating, and no official cause of death has been released. Gypsy has said publicly that she believes it was an overdose, and that she doesn't know whether it was intentional or accidental.

Throughout The Gypsy Rose Obsession, Gypsy told me that Ken was struggling with relentless online harassment. The night he died, she texted me three words: "They killed him." In this bonus episode, I talk about what we know so far, who Ken was to Gypsy, what the research says about online harassment, and why I'm worried about Aurora and Gypsy.

Whatever you think about Gypsy, a little girl lost her dad this week. Before you post about a real person, remember that a real person is reading it.

If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

Learn more:
https://thisispretend.com/blog/gypsy-rose-ken-urker-death/

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Gypsy Rose Blanchard thought no one was listening.

For years, everything she said from inside Chillicothe was being recorded. Now it's public. More than five hundred hours of it.

Some of those recordings broke through on social media, because on them Gypsy and her now ex-husband Ryan can be heard using racial slurs. She eventually apologized publicly for it.

But that's not the part that got me. It's what she says about her mother, when there's no camera on and no reason to give a polished answer.

Fair warning. This one is rough.

Content warning: racist language and racial slurs, child abuse, sexual content involving a child, murder, and self-harm.

Written and Produced by Javier Leiva

Edited by Puneeth Shenoy | Podcast Pundits https://www.podcastpundits.com/

Music by Joe Basile | thechicken.net

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