Today we’d like to introduce you to Shaun Mollica & John Mattos.
Hi Shaun and John, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Shaun & John are a married couple living in Las Vegas. Shaun has a background in victim services and criminal justice, while John, a tech consultant, has a passion for educating people on safety and crime prevention.
After Gabby Petito was murdered, both of us became focused on how exploitative the true crime genre can be and how it can hurt families. We attended the True Crime Podcast Festival in 2023 to learn more about the work podcasters are doing to produce true crime content that promotes empathy and respect for victims and families.
While at the festival, we had the privilege of hearing from families of the missing and murdered, and we picked up on a common thread. Domestic violence was very often a factor in these tragedies. Shaun has a background in domestic violence work, so producing a podcast that dug into those issues when discussing crime & prevention seemed like a natural fit.
In October 2023 — Domestic Violence Awareness Month — we launched Sins & Survivors, a victim-centric true crime podcast focused on domestic violence, missing persons, and unsolved cases. We aim to raise awareness about the often overlooked issue of domestic violence while validating victims and ensuring their voices are heard. We focus on the survivors who are left to pick up the pieces after someone they love is murdered or goes missing.
We release new episodes every Tuesday. Currently, we have more than 80 episodes available to download.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
We had a lot of passion for making true crime better & for helping families, but we didn’t have the equipment and skills to record and release a podcast. This was a whole new world for us. We had a lot to learn. John did extensive research on hardware needs — the best microphones, booms, mixers — to make sure the podcast sounded great & he also learned how to edit and mix the podcast for the best listener experience. Both Shaun & John enrolled in research courses to be able to dive deep into cases.
Producing a show with such detail and care does take a lot of time, and there’s been a challenge in balancing our other hobbies and interests with the amount of work it takes to research, write, and produce the podcast.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Sins & Survivors: A Las Vegas True Crime Podcast?
Sins & Survivors is an independent podcast that is completely researched, written, and produced by the two of us, Shaun & John. We do all the work ourselves. We are one of the few true crime podcasts focused on the issue of domestic violence and the only Las Vegas true crime podcast focused on recent crimes (not historical crimes involving the mob or casino heists).
We were able to combine Shaun’s knowledge of criminal justice, law, and victim services with John’s tech expertise & passion for crime prevention into an ethical true crime podcast that puts victims and their families front and center. We don’t glorify violence; we only discuss the gruesome circumstances of a crime if it is relevant to the case. Instead, we focus on the victim, justice, and prevention. We aim to share as much as we can about the victim to honor their memory. We also share what the family needs and how we all can help. If it’s a missing person, you can help by sharing their photo. Sometimes families ask to sign a petition. Some families need help paying for mental health care after a tragedy. We try to get as many people involved as we can in supporting these families.
We also discuss what individuals can do if they or a loved one is experiencing domestic violence, and what we can do as a community to help prevent crimes.
We are most proud of the fact that our very first paid subscriber was a survivor whose story we had covered in one of our episodes. She reached out to us to thank us for how we had covered her story & to share how much she appreciated our work.
We want your readers to know that the cases we cover are more than likely stories you’ve never heard, but they need to be told. There are so many families seeking answers. Also, while we do focus on Las Vegas, we cover cases from throughout the country, including Utah, in particular the St. George area. We are also more than happy to take case suggestions, so please contact us if there’s a case you want to see covered.
Our podcast tagline is What Happens Here, Happens Everywhere.
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
Do not be afraid to get started. If you have a message or a mission, or a passion to discuss, you can make it happen. There is a lot of information out there that can help you get started with your own podcast.
First, decide how often you want to release your podcast: Weekly, every other week, monthly.. And then, the best thing you can do for yourself is record 3-5 episodes before you launch, so you have a little bit of a backlog. That way, you’re not scrambling to produce content every week on a tight turnaround schedule.
We recommend you don’t get discouraged if your downloads are low to begin with. Stick with it. Consistency is key.
Pricing:
- New episodes each Tuesday are free (with ads).
- $1 a month you get all episodes ad-free.
- $4 a month you get all episodes ad-free plus a weekly bonus episode, Swing Shift, where we go behind the scenes to discuss the making of the episode & share details we left out.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sinsandsurvivors.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sinsandsurvivors
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sinsandsurvivors/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@sinsandsurvivors
- Other: https://sinspod.co/subscribe and sinspod.co/listen
