The LRB Podcast Ordinary Abuse
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Mar 18, 2026 Susan Pedersen, historian at Columbia who studies institutions; Andrew O'Hagan, novelist and LRB editor-at-large. They probe the ubiquity and ordinariness of sexual abuse, how privilege and networks enable predation, the male gaze in coverage, institutional cover-ups and why systemic change and solidarity matter.
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School Grooming By A Trusted Teacher
- Susan Pedersen recounts being at the American School in Japan where teacher Jack Moyer groomed and later assaulted students, showing how trusted authority facilitated abuse.
- The school later commissioned a Ropes and Gray report confirming serial abuse and institutional cover-ups that affected decades of students.
Teachers Abused Pupils And Were Quietly Protected
- Thomas Jones and guests recall multiple personal schooling experiences where teachers abused vulnerable students and were quietly removed or protected.
- One teacher was quietly fired then later convicted for repeated sexual assaults at a boys' boarding school, showing routine cover-up.
Abuse Is Rooted In Class And Privilege
- Andrew O'Hagan links sexual exploitation to class and privilege, arguing abusers target vulnerable, working-class women who lack choices.
- He uses Virginia Giuffre's memoir to show trafficking depended on financial and social inequalities that give predators opportunity.
