Aimee Mann and Actress Charlene deGuzman Talk Deep-Rooted ‘Trauma’ in ‘Staw Into Gold’ Audible Original (Exclusive Clip)

Grammy-winning singer-songwriter Aimee Mann is no stranger to exploring deep and complex emotions through her art, and now she’s doing it with a brand new Audible Original project. In Staw Into Gold, a new project under Audible’s Words + Music banner, Mann sits down with a number of creatives to discuss how their past and present traumas have impacted their art. In a PopCulture.com exclusive clip, Mann and actress/filmmaker Charlene deGuzman (Unlovable, 2 Broke Girls) discuss sexual and family traumas, with deGuzman revealing that she eventually discovered how all of her trauma is connected. Check out the full clip below.

The clip begins with Mann, 62, sharing what it was like for her growing up in the ’60s and ’70s and being inundated with feelings “that you as a woman were definitely a thing, an object.” She explained that much of it stemmed from “being around hardcore porn,” which was on the rise in that era. Mann confessed that the imagery “would really give you that idea in a more extreme form, that you have a particular use, and there isn’t any value in you outside of that use.” She added, “It’s terrible, because if you think men consider you a thing then you know you’re in danger because people don’t care about a thing.”

DeGuzman, 39, then opened up about her experiences with trauma, revealing, “That affected my whole life and the way that I saw myself, and men, and relationships.” She added, “It’s the reason why I ended up being a stripper and a sex worker for a period of time.” DeGuzman then explained that “the amount of sexual trauma” she “endured as an adult through that experience” led her to learn her seemingly separate traumas were “all connected.” Mann offered, “Your ways of trying to make sense of it become another thing that traumatized you.”

Going on to share about her childhood, deGuzman said, “I did grow up in a family who didn’t talk about anything. Very Filipino, very Catholic. We don’t talk about anything. We don’t show feelings. We don’t have feelings. We don’t express feelings. We don’t talk about anything that’s happening. You just act like everything is OK.”

The actress admitted, “I almost feel like that must have inspired me at some point.” She then added, “I always felt so different from them. It felt weird to me not to talk about things that were in our faces.” Sharing her own childhood experience, Mann said, “I instinctively knew I could not talk to my parents.” DeGuzman, relating to this, replied, “It wasn’t safe, and you would get nothing back. As an adult, I started to try. Those were failures every time. Add it to the list of trauma because it always backfired.” Straw Into Gold is now available on Audible.