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It’s toxic

Updated on: 21 August,2021 08:14 AM IST  |  Mumbai
Gayathri Chandran | gayathri.chandran@mid-day.com

Amid pop singer Britney Spears’s ongoing conservatorship battle, a new podcast explores how the legal system failed the star

It’s toxic

Britney Spears has been in a conservatorship for 13 years. Pic/Getty Images

In 2017, comedians and close friends Tess Barker and Barbara Gray got together to create the podcast Britney’s Gram, a light-hearted and silly analysis of their favourite pop star Britney Spears’s infamous Instagram account. 


After receiving an anonymous tip in 2019 with disturbing details of the singer’s ongoing conservatorship, the series took a turn to launch the #FreeBritney movement, a full-scale examination into the legal battle. Now, in the aftermath of her most recent open-court hearing, the duo has launched a new podcast series, titled Toxic: The Britney Spears Story, dedicated entirely to fact-finding, exploring and understanding what went on in Spears’s 13-year-long conservatorship.


We chanced upon this podcast recently, and were hooked from the first episode. As the #FreeBritney movement becomes an increasingly active online effort dedicated towards this cause, there’s a lot to be learnt from the podcast, not just about the case of Spears, but also about the concept of conservatorships in the US and what happens when they go sour. At several moments throughout the series, the two have enlisted the help of experts as well, like in episode six, where they speak to retired LA County judge Mary Thorton House to understand what goes on in the courtroom during a proceeding like this. The series opens up conversations surrounding the judicial system and its limitations, serving as a reminder that even the most capable individuals can be rendered helpless before the law, and that Spears’s case is just one among the many such unjust guardianships.


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