Dakota Johnson launches podcast for sexual assault victims

LOS ANGELES - Hollywood star Dakota Johnson has launched a podcast for victims of sexual assault. The 29-year-old actress gave out her phone number at the Global Citizen Festival last year as she encouraged women and girls to call her to share their experiences with her, and now she has launched 'The Left Ear' as a platform for the stories to be heard.

Taking to Instagram, she said: "One year ago I asked women and girls around the world to call me and leave a voicemail telling their stories of sexual violence, harassment, and gender-based inequalities. I didn't want to speak on their behalf, I wanted to listen to them.

"This is 'The Left Ear'. A podcast where you will find the voicemails I listened to. To protect anonymity the voices have been slightly pitched, and any identifiers have been removed. "Other than that, they have not been edited. These are real stories from real people around the world."

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The 'Fifty Shades' star urged listeners to "take care" if they chose to listen to the podcast, as she admitted the stories shared can be "very intense". She added: "Listening to these stories can feel very intense. So please take care of yourself if choose to listen. And I hope you do choose to listen because listening is the most important thing you can do for someone."

Dakota revealed the name of the podcast comes from the idea that people can "save someone" by "listening with your heart". She continued: "In this podcast, I want to create a space where the listener is listening just as honestly and bravely as the speakers who had the courage to call.

"Your left ear is the ear closest to your heart. And by listening with your heart, you can save someone even just a little bit," stated Johnson.

The first episode of 'The Left Ear' is now live, with a new podcast to follow every Monday from October 7.