In this episode of Politics of Justice, I dig into Chapters 30–38 of Judged, where the case stops being about facts and becomes about leverage. As pressure mounts, institutional self-protection begins to override truth, and the cost of dissent becomes clear. We see how credibility is managed, consequences are unevenly distributed, and silence is rewarded more than integrity. This episode explores how systems don’t need overt corruption to cause harm—only compliance, hierarchy, and the quiet expectation that some people absorb the damage so others can remain untouchable..

Judged is currently free on all platforms. This series uses the book as a springboard to talk about justice, race, family, and the systems that fail us—and the ones we fight to change.

About Politics of Justice: Politics of Justice is a long-form video series where I revisit my novels and unpack the personal history, legal realities, and systemic issues woven into the fiction. These conversations explore justice, race, family, power, and the cost of survival—on the page and in real life.

About Aime Austin: I’m Aime Austin, a legal thriller author and former trial lawyer. I write the Casey Cort and Nicole Long series, stories centered on women navigating broken systems and the moral complexity of justice. My work blends fiction, lived experience, and legal insight.

Find Me Online: Website: https://aimeaustin.com Substack: https://legalthrillerauthor.substack.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/legalthrillerauthor/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@legalthrillerauthor TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@legalthrillerauthor Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/aime-austin Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/legalthrillerauthor

Listen & Subscribe: This series is also available in video form on YouTube.The Politics of Justice

OMG It’s Ines Johnson. When I saw her speak at a Romance Author Mastermind, I was inspired. She spoke on going from four to five figures a month by choosing a lane…and staying in it. This episode is sponsored by Audible. (Click my link for many great offers from Audible.) My recent audiobooks: At Midnight Comes the Cry and Greenwich Park.

Let’s chat. I have *so* many questions.

You can find Ines: Website/Blog: ineswrites.com Instagram: @ineswrites Facebook: inesjohnsonauthor

In chapters 25–29 of Judged, the child welfare system reveals its true mechanics. Foster children are subjected to relentless testing and layered diagnoses, while parents are handed case plans that require full compliance—and full-time availability. The result is a system that demands parents give up their jobs to prove fitness, quietly transforming “reunification” into an unattainable ideal rather than a genuine goal.

Judged is currently free on all platforms. This series uses the book as a springboard to talk about justice, race, family, and the systems that fail us—and the ones we fight to change.

About Politics of Justice: Politics of Justice is a long-form video series where I revisit my novels and unpack the personal history, legal realities, and systemic issues woven into the fiction. These conversations explore justice, race, family, power, and the cost of survival—on the page and in real life.

About Aime Austin: I’m Aime Austin, a legal thriller author and former trial lawyer. I write the Casey Cort and Nicole Long series, stories centered on women navigating broken systems and the moral complexity of justice. My work blends fiction, lived experience, and legal insight.

Find Me Online: Website: https://aimeaustin.com Substack: https://legalthrillerauthor.substack.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/legalthrillerauthor/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@legalthrillerauthor TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@legalthrillerauthor Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/aime-austin Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/legalthrillerauthor

Listen & Subscribe: This series is also available in video form on YouTube.The Politics of Justice

In this episode of Politics of Justice, I revisit Chapters 17–24 of Judged, where the focus shifts away from courtroom drama and into the quieter mechanics of power. These chapters trace Sheila Harrison Grant’s internal calculations as she manages appearances, alliances, and expectations within a tightly knit political ecosystem—one where nothing looks overtly corrupt, but very little is accidental.

We see how Sheila understands the system not as an abstract ideal, but as a set of levers: relationships to maintain, favors to remember, risks to anticipate. Her authority rests as much on perception and restraint as on formal rules, and the narrative lingers in her private justifications rather than her public actions.

In counterpoint, Casey Cort continues to operate on the margins of that same system, increasingly aware of how local politics shapes outcomes long before cases reach any formal decision point. The contrast isn’t between right and wrong, but between visibility and insulation—between those who absorb consequences and those who never have to explain themselves.

In the video, I talk about why these chapters matter, how Sheila’s self-concept as a “clean” actor sustains her power, and how local politics—more than ideology or law—quietly determines whose careers advance and whose stall.

Judged is currently free on all platforms. This series uses the book as a springboard to talk about justice, race, family, and the systems that fail us—and the ones we fight to change.

About Politics of Justice: Politics of Justice is a long-form video series where I revisit my novels and unpack the personal history, legal realities, and systemic issues woven into the fiction. These conversations explore justice, race, family, power, and the cost of survival—on the page and in real life.

About Aime Austin: I’m Aime Austin, a legal thriller author and former trial lawyer. I write the Casey Cort and Nicole Long series, stories centered on women navigating broken systems and the moral complexity of justice. My work blends fiction, lived experience, and legal insight.

Find Me Online: Website: https://aimeaustin.com Substack: https://legalthrillerauthor.substack.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/legalthrillerauthor/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@legalthrillerauthor TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@legalthrillerauthor Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/aime-austin Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/legalthrillerauthor

Listen & Subscribe: This series is also available in video form on YouTube.The Politics of Justice

It’s Caitlyn O’Leary! I think she’ll be my fourth SEAL author! Today, we finally find out what makes SEALs so arresting! This episode is sponsored by Audible. (Click my link for many great offers from Audible.) My recent audiobooks: Julie Chan is Dead, and Beautiful Ugly.

Let’s chat. I have *so* many questions.

You can find Caitlyn: Website/Blog: caitlynoleary.com Instagram: @caitlynoleary_author Facebook: @CaitlynOLearyAuthor FB Group: Caitlyn O’Leary’s Crew

OMG I’m *mortified* My November episode is in iris.fm processing limbo. As soon as I can get it out of the cloud and edited, I’ll have it up on the feed. In the meantime, I have 60 other episodes that you should listen to, if you haven’t already.

Some fan favorite episodes include:

Episode 34: A Time to Thrill – Conversation with Aime Austin – featuring Sharon Hamilton Episode 15: A Time to Thrill – Conversation with Aime Austin – featuring Theodora Taylor Episode 39: A Time to Thrill – Encore: Conversation with Aime Austin – featuring Synithia Williams Episode 17: A Time to Thrill – Conversation with Aime Austin – featuring Rachel Grant Episode 9: A Time to Thrill – Conversation with Aime Austin – featuring Elizabeth Decker

and many more….

This episode is sponsored by Audible. (Click my link for many great offers from Audible.)

Meet Sarah Vance-Tompkins. Though she was born in Michigan, she’s a local to Southern California. I can’t wait for you to hear our chat about weather that’s not weather and the path from fiction to mystery.

[Please support my sponsor, Audible. Check out mine and 1000s of books @Audible]

Let’s chat. I have *so* many questions. You can find Sarah: Website/Blog: sarahvancetompkins.com Instagram: @sarahvantom X/Twitter: @sarahvtompkins

Years ago, I tried to create a guide to the Casey Cort series—explaining what I was thinking as I wrote each scene, each chapter, each decision. The project collapsed under its own weight. I wasn’t ready to tell the deeper story yet.

Now I am.

The Politics of Justice goes beyond plot and into power: how justice actually works, who controls it, and why the outcomes so often feel uneven. Drawing from my background as an attorney and the fiction I’ve written over the last decade, this series explores the legal, political, and human forces shaping every case—on the page and in real life.

This is the story behind the story. And it’s long overdue.

About Politics of Justice: Politics of Justice is a long-form video series where I revisit my novels and unpack the personal history, legal realities, and systemic issues woven into the fiction. These conversations explore justice, race, family, power, and the cost of survival—on the page and in real life.

About Aime Austin: I’m Aime Austin, a legal thriller author and former trial lawyer. I write the Casey Cort and Nicole Long series, stories centered on women navigating broken systems and the moral complexity of justice. My work blends fiction, lived experience, and legal insight.

Find Me Online: Website: https://aimeaustin.com Substack: https://legalthrillerauthor.substack.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/legalthrillerauthor/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@legalthrillerauthor TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@legalthrillerauthor Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/aime-austin Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/legalthrillerauthor

Listen & Subscribe: This series is also available in video form on YouTube.