Into America

In March of 2019, Morgan Cooper dropped a video on YouTube that quickly went viral. It was a short film that he made as a passion project, after he was struck with a flash of inspiration: What if the 90’s classic The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air were updated for the 21st century? 

Three years later, Bel-Air premiered on Peacock to record-breaking numbers, with Cooper as director and executive producer. The season two finale drops on Peacock on April 27th, and the show was recently renewed for a third season. 

For Into America, host Trymaine Lee spoke with Morgan Cooper about Bel-Air, the creative decisions he’s making with the show, and his lightning quick rise in Hollywood. Trymaine also spoke with actress Cassandra Freeman, who plays Aunt Viv in the new show, as well as hip hop icon DJ Jazzy Jeff, who played Jazz on the original Fresh Prince, and who hosted Bel-Air: The Official Podcast. 

(Original release date: March 10, 2022)

For a transcript, please visit https://www.msnbc.com/intoamerica. 

Thoughts? Feedback? Story ideas? Write to us at [email protected].

For More:

• Stream Bel-Air on Peacock
• How a Viral Video Turned Into Bel-Air
• They're Back – See Which Original ‘Fresh Prince' Stars Are Reuniting on ‘Bel Air'

In March of 2019, Morgan Cooper dropped a video on YouTube that quickly went viral. It was a short film that he made as a passion project, after he was struck with a flash of inspiration: What if the 90’s classic The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air were updated for the 21st century? 

Three years later, Bel-Air premiered on Peacock to record-breaking numbers, with Cooper as director and executive producer. The season two finale drops on Peacock on April 27th, and the show was recently renewed for a third season. 

For Into America, host Trymaine Lee spoke with Morgan Cooper about Bel-Air, the creative decisions he’s making with the show, and his lightning quick rise in Hollywood. Trymaine also spoke with actress Cassandra Freeman, who plays Aunt Viv in the new show, as well as hip hop icon DJ Jazzy Jeff, who played Jazz on the original Fresh Prince, and who hosted Bel-Air: The Official Podcast. 

(Original release date: March 10, 2022)

For a transcript, please visit https://www.msnbc.com/intoamerica. 

Thoughts? Feedback? Story ideas? Write to us at [email protected].

For More:

• Stream Bel-Air on Peacock
• How a Viral Video Turned Into Bel-Air
• They're Back – See Which Original ‘Fresh Prince' Stars Are Reuniting on ‘Bel Air'

Into America with Trymaine Lee is nominated for two Webby Awards! The show is nominated for best overall News & Politics podcast, and our Reconstructed series is nominated under best Limited-Series.

We need your vote to win!

To vote, click HERE. (Or type in your browser: vote.webbyawards.com)

Click on General Series, then News & Politics to cast your vote for us in this category. 

Next, head over to Limited-Series & Specials. You can vote for our Reconstructed series under the News & Politics section. 

Once you’ve voted, share the news! You can tag the show on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, using the handle @intoamericapod.

Voting closes on Thursday, April 20th. 

Thanks for supporting Into America!

As a preview for Into America listeners, here’s a sneak peek from a special new episode of Truthers: Tiffany Dover Is Dead*, an NBC News podcast about misinformation and conspiracy theories. Nine months after the series ended without landing an on-the-record interview with its subject, Tiffany Dover speaks out for the first time. In this clip, she shares her side of the story and why we haven’t heard from her until now. Follow the podcast to listen to this episode or catch up on the whole story: https://link.chtbl.com/ttdisbe_fd

In 2015, a police officer shot and killed LaKeith Smith’s friend, A’Donte Washington, during a burglary gone wrong. But years later, LaKeith is the one behind bars for murder. 

LaKeith was originally given a sentence of 65-years, after beingc onvicted of burglary, theft, and something called felony murder. 

In certain criminal cases, the felony murder rule allows a person to be charged with murder even if they’re not the one who did the killing. Experts say it’s a legal charge that disproportionately hurts young, Black and brown men. 

In a March resentencing hearing, a judge ruled that LaKeith’s sentences could be served concurrently, thus reducing his overall time; but LaKeith’s family and supporters were still left heartbroken, because even with this reduction, he’s facing a 30-year sentence.

Trymaine Lee spoke to LaKeith’s mother, Tina Smith, about her family’s continued fight for justice. And we talked to lawyer Leroy Maxwell and activist Daniel Forkkio, along with Andre Washington, the father of A’Donte Washington, about what true justice for his son would look like. 

Follow and share the show on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, using the handle @intoamericapod.

Thoughts? Feedback? Story ideas? Write to us at [email protected].

For a transcript, please visit our homepage.

For More: 

• Sentence reduced for man convicted after friend killed by officer
• Felony Murder: An On-Ramp for Extreme Sentencing

When toxic chemical spill from a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio last month led to health concerns in the area, the disaster attracted widespread media coverage, action from Environmental Protection Agency, and a bipartisan push to enact stricter regulations on rail safety.

Yet for residents of so-called "sacrifice zones," this kind of environmental disaster is everyday life. These communities, which are disproportionately Black, are close to industrial plants that emit carcinogens and other dangerous pollutants. 

This week, Into America heads to Institute, West Virginia, a Black town that has long dealt with toxic air from nearby chemical plants, to talk with resident and activist Katherine Ferguson, interim director of the community group Our Future West Virginia, about the town’s fight for justice. Trymaine Lee also talks with Dr. Sacoby Wilson, a public health professor at the University of Maryland, about why Black communities like this one are hit hardest by environmental concerns, and what can be done to prevent further disaster.

Follow and share the show on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, using the handle @intoamericapod.

Thoughts? Feedback? Story ideas? Write to us at [email protected].

For a transcript, please visit our homepage. 

For More: 

• Climate Denial is Racist
• The Power of the Black Vote: Tackling Our Climate Crisis
• Into Dirty Air

Retired Florida professor Marvin Dunn has been dismayed at recent efforts to battle so-called critical race theory and limit the way educators can talk about race. Last year, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law the Stop WOKE Act, which mandated that public schools teach race in a manner where students would not “feel guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress for actions, in which he or she played no part.”

Like many educators, Dr. Dunn feared this would create an environment where teaching hard truths about history is discouraged. He decided to start the Teach the Truth tour.

This week, Trymaine Lee hops on the tour bus with Into America to speak with Dr. Dunn and students about what’s at stake when it comes to learning the truth about American history. They visit historic sites related to the Ocoee Massacre, the lynching of Willie James Howard, and the Black town of Rosewood, which was destroyed a hundred years ago by a white mob.

Follow and share the show on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, using the handle @intoamericapod.

Thoughts? Feedback? Story ideas? Write to us at [email protected].

For a transcript, please visit our homepage.

For More: 

• Professor slams DeSantis for quashing Black history education
• Know Your History
• ‘We need to hear it.’ This tour explores Florida’s horrific history of racial violence

The Louisville Metro Police Department has engaged in sweeping civil rights abuses against Black people, women, and people with disabilities, according to newly released findings from a Department of Justice investigation.

“Shortly after we opened the investigation, an LMPD leader told the department Breonna Taylor was a symptom of problems that we have had for years,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a press conference last week. “The Justice Department's findings in the report that we are releasing today bear that out.”

This week, which marks three years since Breonna Taylor was killed, Into America returns to Trymaine Lee’s conversation with Hannah Drake, a Louisville activist Hannah Drake who helped elevate Breonna’s story on social media, and was part of an effort to push the city council to pass Breonna’s Law — a ban on “no-knock” warrants.  

We also check in with Hannah about the investigation’s findings, Louisville’s rotating police chiefs, and her hopes for the future. 

(Original release date: September 24, 2020)

Follow and share the show on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, using the handle @intoamericapod.

Thoughts? Feedback? Story ideas? Write to us at [email protected].

For a transcript, please visit our homepage.

For More: 

• Rev. Sharpton, Ben Crump, and the Pursuit of Justice
• Reconstructed: The Book of Trayvon
• After George Floyd

Jean-Michel Basquiat was an iconic American artist who rose to fame in the downtown New York City cultural scene of the late 1970s and early 80s. Today, Basquiat’s legacy looms over us, larger than ever. His images and symbols grace Uniqlo t-shirts and Tiffany & Co jewelry campaigns. In 2017, Jean-Michel Basquiat’s powerful 1982 painting of a skull was purchased for $110.5 million, becoming the sixth most expensive work ever sold at auction.

But has Basquiat’s pop cultural significance eclipsed the artist’s place in art history? 

For Into America, Trymaine Lee spoke with Basquiat’s former bandmate and friend, Michael Holman, about the young artist’s coming of age in 1980s New York and the crisis of Basquiat’s archive with American art historian Dr. Jordana Saggese. And finally we take a trip to Basquiat’s childhood and speak with Basquiat’s younger sisters, Jeanine Heriveaux and Lisane Basquiat, to unfold their early relationship and an exhibition King Pleasure they have curated in honor of their late brother.

(Original release date: April 28, 2022)

The exhibition will be on display at the Grand in downtown LA starting March 31st. "Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure" features over 200 works, and includes recreations of the Basquiat family home in Brooklyn, Jean-Michel's studio on Great Jones Street, and the VIP room at Palladium nightclub, as it was in the late 1980s.

Special thanks to Dr Mark Anthony Neal for his research support.  

For a transcript, please visit msnbc.com/intoamerica. 

Follow and share the show on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, all with the handle @intoamericapod.

Thoughts? Feedback? Story ideas? Write to us at [email protected].

For More: 

• Street Disciples: The Concrete Jungle
• Street Disciples: Broken Glass Everywhere
• Healing Tremé

Trymaine Lee reflects on the direction of hip-hop over the last decade: through the Trump and Biden administrations, the rise of Black Lives Matter, and the spread of COVID-19. He surveys the state of the culture in 2023, 50 years after the birth of the artform; and he looks ahead to what the next 50 years could hold. 

Plus, guests from our “Street Disciples” series tell us how their lives have been shaped by half a century of politics, power, and the rise of hip-hop. 

Follow and share the show on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, using the handle @intoamericapod.

Thoughts? Feedback? Story ideas? Write to us at [email protected].

For a transcript, please visit our homepage.

Editors’ Note: an earlier version contained an incorrect time period for the death of Michael Stewart. The story has been updated.

For More: 

• Street Disciples: The Concrete Jungle
• Street Disciples: Broken Glass Everywhere
• Street Disciples: America’s Most Wanted
• Street Disciples: If I Ruled the World