Mission Evolution with Gwilda Wiyaka - SCARLETT LEWIS - When the Unthinkable Happens: Choose Love

·48 min·4 clips

Scarlett Lewis explains how she moved beyond her son's murder at Sandy Hook to found a movement teaching kids to choose love.

The episode begins with host Gwilda Wiyaka introducing the topic of school shootings and the personal tragedy of guest Scarlett Lewis, whose son Jesse was murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary in 2012. Scarlett shares her journey from grief to founding the Choose Love Movement, focusing on post-traumatic growth rather than victimhood. She describes a key moment early on when she met another grieving mother and decided to forge a different path. Scarlett analyzes the epidemic of school shootings, attributing it to pain, disconnection, and fear exacerbated by social media and family breakdowns. She introduces the concept of locus of control, explaining how shifting personal power inward through love can prevent violence and suicide. The discussion turns to solutions, with Scarlett detailing her Choose Love for Schools program, which provides free social-emotional learning curricula to over 15,000 schools. She critiques modern distractions like cell phone addiction, citing research on its harmful effects on young brains and advocating for parental involvement. Scarlett emphasizes the importance of teaching children self-love and critical thinking to counter societal lies and media influences. She shares research on her program's effectiveness and offers practical advice for identifying at-risk youth. The episode concludes with Scarlett's mission to promote child safety through love and her call for adults to model introspection and service.

As heard by us

A grieving parent turns personal loss into a call for emotional skills, responsibility, and choosing love.

Scarlett Lewis takes the conversation into almost unbearable territory: how a parent lives after a child is murdered in a school shooting. She speaks about losing her six-year-old son at Sandy Hook Elementary School, then follows that grief toward a larger argument about…

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Why you'd press play

Press play when grief, school violence, and the work of choosing love feel impossible to hold together.

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