E81: Building a World Without Exploitation | Rachel Foster on Survivor Leadership, Human Trafficking, and Challenging Systems of Harm - Advocacy in Action

Send us Fan MailIn today’s episode of Aspire, hosts Katie M. Shipp and Chessy Prout are joined by student co-host Amyra for a conversation with Rachel Foster, a human rights attorney and co-founder and president of World Without Exploitation. Rachel shares how her career in law, community organizing, and survivor advocacy led her to build coalitions that challenge human trafficking, commercial sexual exploitation, and the systems that allow them to continue.The conversation explores Rachel’s survivor-informed policy work, including efforts to close legal loopholes that fail to protect 15, 16, and 17-year-olds from commercial sexual exploitation. Rachel also discusses survivor leadership, the importance of bringing survivors into rooms where decisions are made, and how collective action can transform isolation into power. The group reflects on the role of youth activism, peer-to-peer education, and the need to compensate survivors for their advocacy.Rachel and the hosts also examine the language surrounding “sex work,” pornography, OnlyFans, and online exploitation. They discuss how social media and algorithms can normalize exploitation, how financial privilege can create a false sense of consent, and why young people need the tools to pause, think critically, and recognize grooming and coercion. They close with a call to challenge systems that protect perpetrators and expose survivors, while building communities rooted in dignity, accountability, and support.To learn more about World Without Exploitation, please visit https://www.worldwithoutexploitation.org/To join I Have The Right To’s fight to create a world free of sexual violence, please visit https://ihavetherightto.org/take-action/Support the showAspire is produced by BenHudakProductions.com