From KCRW, I'm Bob Carlson, and this is Unfictional.

Unfictional is a program of true stories, personal documentaries, and radio movies.

And all this season we've been featuring stories about perception

and the way two people can see two completely different views of reality

from the same set of facts. On this episode, a story of denial.

When we're exposed to an experience that's just too far outside our

understanding of the world, too upsetting to process correctly, let's say it's

some information that someone close to you, someone you trust,

has done something shocking and wrong.

Well your brain might create a defense mechanism and just bypass, not deal with it. Maybe just forget it ever happened.

Meanwhile, from your perspective,

the fact you didn't make a big deal of it

makes you feel open-minded, generous, flexible, and loyal.

That's denial.

And almost everyone is in denial about something.

And a warning that this episode does have some adult themes and language.

This is the story of Janie Williams, who is sexually assaulted by a longtime member of her friend group.

But when she talks to her friends about it, years later, and she tries to uncover the truth

about what happened, her friends want to cover it right back up again.

It's a story produced by unfictional managing producer Carla Green.

From KCRW, it's unfictional.

Can you just like tell me what your friend group around high school and after high school was like?

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