Surviving Weinstein: Kaja Sokola’s Story of Strength

Barely Famous

PodcastOne

Talk Radio, Society & Culture

4.7 • 5.2K Ratings

🗓️ 1 August 2025

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Content warning: This episode discusses sexual assault, trauma, and abuse.

This week on Barely Famous, Kail speaks with psychologist and former model Kaja Sokola, one of the first women to publicly come forward against Harvey Weinstein. At just 16, Kaja endured assault while navigating the modeling industry alone in NYC. Now, she shares her journey of survival, healing, and advocacy.

Kaja opens up about the trauma, her battle with eating disorders, family betrayal during the trial and how becoming a mother gave her the strength to speak out. Her unique perspective as both a survivor and a psychologist offers powerful insight into abuse, resilience, and the long road to recovery.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is body.
0:01.6	Welcome to the shit show.
0:02.9	Things are going to get weird.
0:04.0	Get weird.
0:04.5	It's your fave villain, Kail Lowry.
0:06.4	And you're listening to Barely Famous.
0:12.4	Today's guest is Kaya Sikola, a former model, clinical psychologist, and one of the brave voices who came forward against Harvey Weinstein.
0:23.7	That has since dedicated her life to mental health advocacy using her experience and training to support survivors of trauma and abuse.
0:30.9	We're honored to have her here and share her story and insight.
0:34.0	All right, Kaya, thank you so much for joining us on Barely Famous Podcast.
0:37.2	Thank you for having me. You have a very powerful story to share, and for those who are not
0:44.0	familiar with it, you came over here from Poland to pursue modeling and acting. Is that right?
0:51.2	Yes, yes. Well, my dream was always acting, modeling.
0:55.0	You know, I started working when I was 14 and it happened very fast.
1:00.0	I did not love this industry, but, you know, I was working.
1:05.0	I had a good agency, so I was working.
1:07.0	But when I was 16, I came here for the first time and really wanted to proceed in acting.
1:15.9	Did your family come with you over here?
1:17.7	No.
1:18.2	You were here by yourself?
1:19.2	I was here by myself completely.
1:21.1	So what was that like?
	...

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