HOST (Jennifer) (00:02):

Hello, welcome to this podcast called Finding Inspiration. It's a 20 or so minute weekly podcast where we interview someone with an amazing story. After the show, I know you're gonna feel energized, invigorated, and inspired. I'm Jennifer Weissmann. Welcome to Finding Inspiration.  The topic of this episode is a serious one. It's domestic violence. We are going to be learning about a campaign called Listen to My Voice and Listen to Your Voice. This campaign uses amazing AI or artificial technology. It takes AI and transforms a single photograph into an actual video. This technology has made the campaign Listen to My Voice and Listen to Your Voice an unbelievable success. Listen to My Voice and Listen to Your Voice is a website where there are five women who were murdered by their intimate partners. You click on the woman's face and you hear in her own chilling words, the story of her life, the warning signs that she missed, and how her life was taken by her intimate partner.

HOST (Jennifer)  (01:16):

That is the first part of this episode. The second part is a conversation with the woman, Shiran Melamdovsky Somech, who is the genius behind this campaign. Shiran is going to share how she got the idea, how she worked with the families, and how the stories of these women made a real social impact by addressing domestic violence using AI. Let's first learn a little bit about Michael Sela.  So just to give you a little background, Michal was a woman that seemed to have it all. She was a young 32 years from a loving family, a happy family. She was married and had a baby daughter.  However, two and a half years ago, her husband stabbed her to death in front of their eight-month-old baby girl. Her family and friends were completely shocked. Everyone thought this came from nowhere. Now, using AI, we will hear the campaign in which Michal shares her life story and message in her own words.

GUEST ON VIDEO (Michal Sela) (02:21):

I was Michal Sela in 2019, I was murdered by killer Eliran Malul the man who was my husband.  And today after I lost my life, I call on you, listen to my voice. If you are in a relationship where he is jealous and obsessive towards you, if you are afraid of his reaction to parting from you -- please share this with a close person and a domestic violence expert who will help you separate safely and return to your life. Listen to your gut feeling. Do it today. Listen to my voice, listen to your voice.

HOST (Jennifer)  (03:03):

Welcome, Shiran. How did you come up with the idea of the Listen to My Voice and Listen to Your Voice campaign?  

GUEST (Shiran) (03:09):

I come from the High-Tech industry and my whole career has been working with cutting-edge technologies and supporting both entrepreneurial women in the high-tech industry and women at risk. In my last role, as head of all creative at DriveTLV  -- it was an innovation center for smart ability and sustainability. I had the opportunity to with a company called D-ID which uses its Creative Reality™ technology to transform photos into videos by animating and dubbing in the audio. So while working with D-ID, I met a survivor of domestic violence. Her husband tried to kill her, but she survived and shared her story with the whole country. And by sharing her story, she dramatically increased the awareness of domestic violence. And in addition, I was exposed to the Michal Sela forum, which encouraged the use of technology to combat domestic violence. And her story got me thinking, what about the women who are murdered?

GUEST (Shiran) (04:04):

They cannot tell us the story.  Then I thought, what if they could. What if a murdered woman could tell us what's happened -- what would they say? What we can learn? And then the idea jumped into my head, and I thought murdered women needed a voice. This is how Listen to My Voice Listen to Your Voice campaign began. We would bring back to life women who were murdered by their intimate partners. We would use AI technology, take the still photos of these murdered women, animate them, and dub in their voices so they could speak again. And at that point, I wasn't sure if this idea was brilliant or totally insane. I brought the idea to D-ID. And luckily they didn't think I was crazy and they love it. And from that day I had a mission. I quit my job and together we created this life-saving campaign called Listen to My Voice Listen to Your Voice in Israel. 

HOST (Jennifer) (04:57):

Rewind for a second. You obviously had the families collaborate with you. So you could get a picture of the woman who was murdered and understand what her life was like.  So what was the exact role of the family?

GUEST (Shiran) (05:07):

The collaboration with the families was a key part of the campaign and their involvement and motivation made the campaign stronger and more effective. We accomplished this together with them. So through the interview and hands-on participation with the families, we created the script, they were with us during the actual filming and even helped the actresses fine-tune the voices. And on a personal note, when we presented the complete video of the victims for the first time to the families, after everything we had been through.  The family could see their loved ones talking and sharing the story as if they were alive. It was a super emotional moment. And no one had a dry eye. And I think even more special the families told us it was comfort for them to know that their loved ones talk like this to help other women survive.

HOST (Jennifer) (06:11):

Have you gotten any feedback from the campaign?

GUEST (Shiran) (06:15):

Wow. Yes. I would love to share with you both the reactions and the impacts we created. So let's start with the impact. I think that campaign was an outstanding success by every measure.  We reached almost every household in Israel with 4 million views in only three days, it went widely viral. The campaign was on the national news, commercial TV, billboards, and radio, and went overdrive on social media. It was presented in the classic committees was covered by the international press like BBC, and has been viewed in the UN in Geneva.  Our content engagement rate was extremely high.  Ten times higher than the average. I think it's even more impressive that a third of the viewer and almost half of the website visitors were men.  Also, men and women spend the same amount of time on our videos and website which is around two minutes. And this is a great achievement since the main audience for a campaign such as this is generally women.

HOST (Jennifer)  (07:23):

What was the attraction for men in this campaign?

GUEST (Shiran) (07:29):

I think for all genders, not specifically men but both women and men, by putting the women now dead in front of people and telling their own stories, we took people out of their comfort zone.  From this campaign, people could look those women in the eyes and hear their chilling firsthand stories, and no one could ignore this video. And this is how we increased awareness about dangerous relationships and the importance of safe separation. And in order to create a real change, we need to bring together both genders. So this is why I think the achievement is very impressive and important.

HOST (Jennifer)  (08:08):

So currently this campaign is based in Israel. Do you have plans for a global expansion?

GUEST (Shiran) (08:13):

So we are now working to expand this campaign to more countries and to the United States, of course, by presenting domestic violence as a global pandemic.   The prevalence of domestic violence worldwide is much higher than ever imagined. And it's rarely talked about.  We want to share stories of local women (in the USA for example) and spread this campaign worldwide. It's important. Part of our message is that domestic violence can happen to anyone and anywhere. We know it's critical to find victims from different backgrounds. As we roll this domestic abuse awareness campaign out worldwide, we want the different backgrounds such as age, race, and socioeconomic status in each country.  

HOST (Jennifer)  (09:02):

Violence I think of as a physical act.  Do you have a distinction between abuse and violence?

GUEST (Shiran) (09:14):

It's a very important question. In this campaign, we work closely with leading domestic violence experts.  We tried to avoid the word violence because the main association is physical violence. It was important for us to have a spotlight on other types of violence, such as mental, economic, verbal, and many times they are much more dangerous than the physical. And we try to avoid the obvious and let more women stay true to themselves. So the main warning was against controlling and obsessive behavior.   In the campaign, each of the five women shares her experience which generally included: being closely supervised with their social relationships and financial expenses, outbreaks of rage, living in fear, feeling of stress, and more. We then talk about the safe separation. A breakup from a controlling partner is very dangerous and can end in murder. One should leave only with help of domestic violence expert and a close friend or family member assisting.

HOST (Jennifer)  (10:28):

What statistics do you use for global domestic violence?

GUEST (Shiran) (10:32):

So according to the UN data, one and three women globally, experience violence in a lifetime. And 50,000 women are killed each year by their intimate partners.

HOST (Jennifer)  (10:45):

What??? 50,000 women die each year from domestic violence -- 50,000?????

GUEST (Shiran) (10:50):

Yes. And, this is a bit creepy but two women will be murdered by the end of this podcast. Think how crazy it is.

HOST (Jennifer)  (10:57):

The real impact of this campaign is in the video, looking directly into the eyes of the women who were murdered and seeing them speak, hearing their chilling stories. It's unreal. It's really unnerving.

GUEST (Shiran) (11:13):

Unfortunately, the podcast formats do not allow us to share the video of Michal Sela.  It isn’t a regular video. So let me tell you about it. If you had a chance to see the video, you would be surprised because it's created an impression that Michal is telling the story of herself. In fact, it is a cleverly mastered illusion empowered by Artificial Technology or AI. This technology can turn a still photo into a video by animating it. 

HOST (Jennifer)  (11:41):

Did you hear from women? Did they connect the dots and think, wow, controlling obsessive behavior? That's a theme in my life. Can you share any kind of feedback you've gotten?

GUEST (Shiran) (11:53):

We got direct inquiries from women. Most of them were young women.  After they saw the campaign, they understand they are in a dangerous relationship. They didn't feel comfortable calling the hotline numbers. However, they started a conversation with us but didn't ask for help. They just need someone to talk to. And most of them were young women and even teenagers. I think this is a very good example.  After you see the Listen to My Voice Listen to Your Voice campaign and you see an indication or warning sign in your own relationship-- don't keep it to yourself.  Please share it with a close person or family member or with a domestic violence expert.

HOST (Jennifer) (12:36):

I would imagine there are many teenagers who are in relationships that they don't realize could lead to actual physical violence. Again, your mention of controlling obsessive behavior, young girls or teenagers could just think, it just means he really loves me, or he really likes me. So these warning signs are really important to share. And I'm going to share this with my daughter and her friends as well.

GUEST (Shiran) (13:02):

One of the most required that I remember was a young woman, a teenager.  She's 17 years old. She is in a physical violence relationship and she sends pictures of what's happened to her. And she didn't understand until she saw the campaign that she is in a dangerous relationship. Thanks to our collaboration with the local authorities we know how to assist her.   We got many inquiries over Facebook and over Instagram.

HOST (Jennifer) (13:27):

A very common and important cautionary tale. You're absolutely right

GUEST (Shiran) (13:31):

To all of us. I can share with you that after all this awareness with this campaign, and even before I was talking to my friends, we are in our 30s and all of us were dating someone. When we were teenagers, we were with obsessive partners,  and stalkers, but we didn't know back then that we are in dangerous relationships.  It can happen to anyone anywhere.

HOST (Jennifer)  (13:57):

Today we heard the audio of Michal sharing the story of her life and how she was murdered. You went back and you spoke to her friends and family.   In hindsight, did you dig up any possible clues that there could be violence?

GUEST (Shiran) (14:14):

Michal’s close family and friends were completely shocked by her murder. It seems it came from nowhere far as I understand it.  Maybe the murder itself was a complete shock, but there were indications and warning signs before her murder.

HOST (Jennifer) (14:35):

Shiran, I'm assuming COVID made this bad situation horrible. What was the impact of COVID on domestic abuse?

GUEST (Shiran) (14:43):

The awareness definitely is increased. So this is something good that came out of the COVID because domestic violence COVID makes everything much worse. And also according to the UN, one in two women suffer from domestic violence.

HOST (Jennifer)  (15:14):

Shiran, thank you for creating this incredible campaign. Listen to my voice listen to your voice.  Words of wisdom to pay attention to obsessive and controlling non-violent behavior. Shiran, working with this technology is creating a real social impact.  Using AI, you are changing the conversation around domestic violence. I wish you continued success as you roll this campaign out globally.

GUEST (Shiran) (15:36):

Thank you, Jennifer, for the opportunity.

HOST (Jennifer)  (15:39):

One final mention again, podcast audio format does not do this campaign justice. You must go to the website, and go check the show notes for the link.  Check out Listen to my voice Listen to your voice and spread this message. Thank you for joining us this week on Finding Inspiration. Hey, I would appreciate it. If you would click on that subscribe button and share this podcast with a friend, see you next week. I'm Jennifer Weissmann.