Transcript
Into America
Where Are They Now, 2022 Edition
Trymaine Lee: 2022 was another wild year, and through it all, Into America was there to break down what was happening and how it impacted Black America. In the early months of the year, we witnessed history as it was made with the nomination of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court.
Ketanji Brown Jackson: My love of this country and the Constitution, and my commitment to upholding the rule of law and the sacred principles upon which this great nation was founded will inspire future generations of Americans.
Lee: Later, the court was in news for other reasons too, like voted to overturn Roe versus Wade, taking away the constitutional right to abortion. So far, 13 states have enacted total bans on the procedure.
Marva Sadler: But I don’t think that you’re ever prepared for your basic constitutional right to be stripped away from you, and to see the effects that it’s gonna take on thousands and thousands of lives not only today, but for years to come.
Lee: 2022 was also a year America tried to right some of its wrongs from the past. In the last half century, more than 200 anti-lynching laws were introduced in Congress, and none of them passed until this spring.
Joe Biden: Hundreds, hundreds of similar bills have failed to pass, but no federal law, no federal law expressly prohibited lynching, none, until today.
Lee: Shortly after that moment, we spoke with the Reverend Wheeler Parker, Emmett Till’s cousin, and one of the last living witnesses of his kidnapping.
Wheeler Parker: Because he still speaks from the grave, Emmett, he did more in death than he did if he had lived. He represents something in life, so it brought about a great change.
Lee: And when the Black Lives Matter national organization got into some hot water over allegations that it misused donations and funding it received in 2020 Patrisse Cullors, then the only original founder left, had a lot to answer for. Into America was one of the only outlets she opened up to.
Patrisse Cullors: We get to decide how these moments shape us. We can either decide that these moments shape us in a way that has us tearing apart of each other, or we say you know what, no, we’re not gonna let these people throw you away and we’re going to show up together. I don’t think we’ll really know how this has impacted us for a while. But my desire is that we are able to see through it.
Lee: This fall, we follow a hotly contested midterm election, talking with HBCU students across the south about what mattered most to them.
Jordan Roberts: You’re breathing. You’re affected by climate change. You’re affected by climate chaos. But if you’re Black and breathing, you’re disproportionately directly affected by climate chaos.
Lee: And we learned how they were harnessing the power of the Black vote.
Janiah Henry: I think that the power we hold is something indescribable. It’s just our ancestors’ wildest dreams and probably more than what they could ever thought of.
Lee: By the time the votes were counted, there wasn’t this massive red wave that pundits had warned us about.
Darrell Johnson: I have been saying for years now, Trymaine, these polls ain’t loyal.
Lee: But with a divided Congress, President Joe Biden will have his work cut out for him in 2023. Through all the social and political tensions, and all of the ups and downs, there were also fun moments from pop culture that transcended or at least distracted us from everything else.
Archival Recording: Wakanda Forever.
Lee: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever was released to critical acclaim and love from the people.
Kelley Carter: We’re talking about a comic book adaptation film, but I think it’s gonna be the kind of script that will be studied in film classes for decades, because it elevates what we’ve come to expect from comic book adaptation films.
Archival Recording: Black Panther King of Wakanda.
Archival Recording: Wakanda Forever.
Lee: I’m Trymaine Lee, and this is Into America. In 2021, we used the last show of the year to take a step back and reflect on all the people we talked with and all the stories we told. We checked in with some of our guests, the people whose stories are at the heart of our show, to see how they’ve been doing since their episodes aired. And you, our loyal listeners, made it clear how much you all loved hearing these updates. So as we head into the new year and leave 2022 behind, we’re doing it again.
One of the issues we tried to make sense of this year, and trust me, we really did try, was cryptocurrency.
Tavonia Evans: Here we are, we have all of the tools for the community to come and participate in building something, just like they built Bitcoin.
Jared Ball: The idea that this is a pathway towards Black liberation, or the liberation of any other community is an extension. It’s a rebranding of an old Black capitalist mythology.
Lee: Since that episode aired, the crypto space has been a little, okay, a lot crazy.
Archival Recording: Tonight, a massive sell-off of cryptocurrency, erasing more than $200 billion from the entire market in a single day. The number is sending some investors spiraling, fearing they can lose it all.
Lee: $2 trillion in market value has vanished. Crypto customer losses are in the billions, and several crypto exchanges have collapsed. The most recent and high-profile example is the bankruptcy of one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, FTX. Its creator and young CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried had been charged with a slew of federal crimes, including conspiracy to commit securities fraud and money laundering. He could face up to 115 years in prison.
Earlier this month, we got an email from a listener, asking about our guests from the crypto episode we’re doing in light of everything going on. So we checked in on one of them.
Evans: Well, we’re doing great because, you know, we’re doing what we’ve been doing since day one, and that’s like the work.
Lee: Tavonia Evans is the creator of the cryptocurrency Guapcoin, whose stated mission is to, quote, “amplify the economic voice of the Black community.” Tavonia said she wasn’t affected by the collapse of FTX because she wasn’t using that exchange. The value of Guapcoin has decreased. But that’s the case with cryptocurrencies across the board, and it’s not a big concern to her right now. She’s in it for the long haul.
Evans: The only thing that we have to deal with is a more cynical attitude towards crypto, and that’s fine because we’re used to that.
Lee: But the uptick in news coverage has created an interesting opportunity for her. Tavonia is committed to using crypto to eventually bring real equity to marginalized populations. She hopes these high-profile intimates might spark new conversations.
Evans: I had responded to a tweet from an influencer on Twitter and she was, like, crypto is a scam. Well, guess what? It gave me an opportunity to talk to her about the benefits of crypto and why it isn’t a scam, and also to show that there are others of us in this space. And this space is just not composed of Silicon Valley type, you know, white guys. I hate to say it. And that’s the problem.
And that’s the problem that we’re talking. Like, when there’s a single solitary type of person that’s pushed as the face of crypto, there’s already enough, you know, questions to whether or not this really could be fair and have equity, right? And they don’t even know that there’s other people that exist in this, so they’re thinking that, oh, this is just another extension of Wall Street craziness and stuff like that. This is just another extension of it. People don’t understand it’s not the crypto itself. So it’s a perfect opportunity to educate.
Lee: The crypto news was a big deal in financial circles. But it pales in comparison to the many life and death matters we faced this year; an ongoing pandemic which turned into a tripledemic, a rise in hate crimes and persistent gun violence. But there was one story that shook us more than any other.
Archival Recording: Tonight, authority say the alleged shooter planned it all.
Lee: I remember feeling anger mostly as I watched the news unfold, that a white gunman drove three hours from his home in upstate New York to a Tops supermarket in East buffalo, with the sole purpose of inflicting violence and terror on a Black community.
Archival Recording: It started around 2:30 Saturday afternoon in the parking lot of this Tops Friendly Markets store, in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Buffalo. The alleged shooter wearing full body armor and tactical gear, targeting people of color.
Lee: One of the people in the store that day was Fragrance Harris Stanfield, who worked as a shift supervisor.
Fragrance Harris Stanfield: I literally gave up for a moment. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe I was gonna die.
Lee: Fragrance is a mother of seven. Her grown daughter, Yahnia, also worked at Tops and was there that day. Fragrance said the moments that they were separated were some of the worst of her life.
Stanfield: I was literally screaming. I’m screaming. Now, how crazy is that? You’re trying to get away from the danger. You hear the danger getting closer and I’m literally screaming at the top of my lungs, where’s my baby? Where’s my baby?
Lee: We spoke with Fragrance in July, just two months after the shooting, when the Tops supermarket reopened. Back then, she told me she hadn’t really begun to process what happened to her.
Stanfield: The first month really wasn’t that hard for me. I was very disconnected from everything. It’s almost like it didn’t happen to me.
That day that you guys were with me, I did attempt to walk in the store. I made it into the store and across the front end, and I was just traumatized.
Lee: We recently caught up with Fragrance to see how she’s doing. She told us she’s been back the Tops just once since then.
Stanfield: I went in, and I was able to walk across the back end of the store. Of course, someone was with me the whole time. I wasn’t alone. But I got back to the front. In that particular day, there was a threat to the store. Someone had called and threatened the store. And so the police cars came and lots of police officers started to come in, and I immediately left the store. I ran to my car and left.
Lee: Fragrance doesn’t think she’ll be able to return to her old job at the supermarket. Her daughter Yahnia has gone back to work, but it’s been hard.
Stanfield: She struggles with it. But that is her sense of somewhat normalcy. She doesn’t know how to heal from it. She’s been in and out of counselling. I have been in counselling consistently, that has helped me to deal with the healing process.
Lee: But even as she’s been suffering, Fragrance said she doesn’t feel like others take her experience as a survivor seriously.
Stanfield: I’ve been to event after event after event, where they’ve mentioned the 10 names of those who were killed. Every now and then they’ll mention the names of the three people who were shot, but never, not one time, not once that they mentioned us. And the sad thing is they will say, will the survivors please stand. And I always get ready to stand up until they say, these are the family members of those who were killed. And I sit down because I’m not one of the family members.
Lee: Fragrance feels like she’s being pushed to just get over everything.
Stanfield: There’s a condition that is known in America and around the world that African Americans are considered to be resilient. We’re considered to be strong. We’re considered to not need as much help, or not experience pain like other people. It’s these assumptions and stereotypes about Black people that we can just take pain and just kind of move on with it. And most of that is coping and that’s what we, as Black people, are expected to do. And I feel that it has been something that has been exacerbated over the last four months, and it’s not okay.
Lee: But with the pain and the lasting trauma, there’s also been healing for Fragrance in unlikely places. In the weeks after the shooting, the supermarket hosted counselling sessions for store employees that included bingo nights, a tradition that has continued.
Stanfield: There’s one worker, in specific, who goes to bingo regularly and it happens that we all live fairly close in the same neighborhood. When I found out that there was this bingo going on Thursdays, I was like, oh, I want to come. So we started going, and it just reminds you of taking the heaviness off and you just enjoy it. You enjoy laughing and talking. I mean, we’re not all back at work together. We don’t get to see each other as often as we used to. So it was just a way for us to get together, laugh, have a good time. And hey, if you win, that’s a cherry on top.
Lee: We’ll be right back.
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Lee: It’s only been a few months since that racist attack in Buffalo. And as we know, these attacks aren’t new. But in the same way that white supremacist violence never lets up, neither does our sense of perseverance and a refusal to let any of it diminish Black humanity or hope.
In the early 20th century, Tulsa, Oklahoma was home to one of the wealthiest Black communities in the country. The Greenwood District, also known as Black Wall Street, was a thriving neighborhood with banks, hotels, supermarkets and hair salons, until May 31st, 1921, when a white mob descended on the community. They murdered as many as 300 people and burned hundreds of buildings. After two days, 10,000 were made homeless and $200 million of wealth was stolen or wiped away.
Tori Tyson Bagby: I think it was traumatizing to wake up and see your city thriving, your parents working, your cousins, your grandparents working, and then you wake up and it’s up in smoke.
Lee: In 2020, after decades of pressure from survivors and their families, the city of Tulsa began excavation in search of graves of people who had been killed in the massacre. Last year, around three dozen unmarked coffins were recovered. And just this fall, archaeologists unearthed 21 more. They believe that 19 of them were for adults, and the other two for children.
Back in 2021, I also met Bobby Eaton, Sr.
Bobby Eaton, Sr.: Today, there are only four structures left standing in the whole of North Tulsa that were Black-owned business buildings.
Lee: Is yours one of them?
Eaton Sr.: Yes.
Lee: The family had a grocery store and a barber shop. And holding on to this land help the Eatons whether the threat of so-called urban renewal in a way that few Black families in Tulsa or in America have been able to. Last time we spoke, Mr. Eaton said he was preparing to sell the property with the hopes of helping his family financially.
We talked with one of Mr. Eaton’s children about this, Bobby Eaton, Jr. Bobby Jr. had left Tulsa as a young man to become a musician but returned almost a decade ago. He moved into the family property and opened a radio station called KBOB.
Charlie Wilson: Listen, you all. This is Charlie Wilson, and you’re listening to 89.9 FM Bobby Eaton Show.
Lee: Bobby Jr. didn’t agree with his father’s plan to sell the land. But at the end of last year, Bobby Jr. took the Facebook with some difficult news.
Bobby Eaton, Jr.: Hey, everybody, hey, this is Bobby Eaton. I’m over here at the Eaton property here on Norfolk, you know, where the radio station is housed, and I just want to let you guys know that it’s up for sale. The property is up for sale, and I’ve got certain feelings about it, you know.
Lee: One of our producers recently caught up with Bobby Jr. to see how he’s dealing with everything.
Eaton: Since we spoke last time, we, me and my son, Trey, we moved off of the property and it’s still up for sale. So my dad and my Uncle Jerry, they’re selling it, so still trying to get a buyer to buy it.
Lee: Bobby was able to find a new spot for KBOB, and in some ways, it’s been a good move.
Eaton: I’m located on Lansing 1216 in the heart of Black Wall Street. We moved into this new facility which is beautiful. It’s an upgrade for us. And you know, Lansing as a street, I call it the Forgotten Black Wall Street because no one never really talks about what happened here on Lansing. Because Lansing have hotels, barber shops, cool halls, restaurants, movie theaters, and you know, skating rinks and all kinds of stuff on Lansing. But nobody never really talks about Lansing at all.
Lee: But he’s still grieving the loss of that brick-and-mortar family legacy.
Eaton: The old place really has a lot of memories. And if the walls can really talk over there, where they have a lot of memories, I just hate to see us lose that family property.
Lee: Leaving the old place was bittersweet, but he still takes pride in being an Eaton.
Eaton: Well, what I like to see for Black Tulsa is some economic development. We are still lacking some much-needed resources and things in our community. I mean, something just as simple as cleaners and some washeteria, some things for young people to get involved with, maybe a roller-skating rink somewhere, or a movie theater, or some more restaurants, things of that nature, right here in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Black Tulsa. And as long as we’re still in a fight and trying to help our people improve a better way of life, then that’s what I’m going to do.
Akeem Brown: Yeah, you know, I’ve always had and I’ve always been inspired since childhood to open my own school. I remember my teachers, the principal, the assistant principal and what it did to inspire me to learn.
Lee: That’s Akeem Brown, founder of the Essence Preparatory Public School, a new charter school in Texas.
Brown: So I wanted to build a school that had a proven track record of success, with students who live and will ultimately improve the east side of San Antonio.
Lee: We first met Akeem at the end of the summer, while chronicling the first day of school.
Brown: Good morning.
Archival Recording: Good morning.
Brown: Good morning. Good morning. How you feel?
Archival Recording: I’m good.
Brown: You’re good? You’re ready?
Archival Recording: Yeah.
Brown: All right. All right. All right.
Archival Recording: Thank you.
Lee: Akeem walked us through the process of getting to that momentous first day, how when he was trying to open the school, everything was going smoothly, until it wasn’t.
Brown: We got an email from the state of Texas with 68 corrections, things like remove words like black and brown. They felt like we just used the word black and brown too much to describe our community.
Lee: In the charter application, Essence Prep had made a point to outline an anti-racist teaching philosophy. But that quickly drew backlash from lawmakers concerned about how race was being taught in schools, all part of a nationwide battle over what people were twisting as critical race theory. Akeem and Essence Prep were drawn into a legal battle that resulted in months of delays and thousands of dollars in legal fees. In the end, Akeem was still able to open his school. But the first day of school was just that, a beginning.
Brown: You know, I want to see those same smiles as our students are exiting for the summer, as I saw them enter this morning.
Lee: We recently spoke with Akeem again, on another special first day.
Brown: Man, I’m grinning from ear to ear if you could see me right now ‘cause I’m so excited. Yeah, today we broke ground on our seven-and-a-half-acre parcel, where we plan to build our 65,000 square foot facility for our scholars.
Lee: Akeem says for the most part, the controversy around the school’s anti-racist mission has died down. But sometimes Akeem says, those conservative lawmakers return to their old criticism of Essence.
Brown: Some of them have been re-elected, so they feel energized that their constituencies really want that to be the narrative.
Lee: But Akeem has tried to take that scrutiny and turn it around.
Brown: We’ve utilized that attention to showcase the story of who we are and what we’re doing. So we’re just making sure that we get rid of that myth, right, tell the real story. K through 12 schools don’t teach CRT. But furthermore, it’s not happening at Essence Prep.
Lee: And really, Akeem isn’t too worried about all that. He’s got a lot on his plate in a good way. At the start of the school year, there were about a hundred kids enrolled at Essence, which was lower than he’d hoped. Today, there are 167 kids in class. It’s been a journey.
Brown: So that first beginning of the year assessment, it was abysmal, right? It made me almost cry. But looking at our middle of the year, we’ve seen 42 percent of our students increase their grade levels, right, both on Reading and Math. And so that in itself makes me proud.
Lee: But Akeem knows his work is far from over, and he’s ready to keep moving and improving in 2023.
Brown: I’m just looking forward to working with my scholars and getting my hands dirty in a way that only supports their academic gains.
Nola Lee: Every day is a new day.
Lee: Our last update comes from my daughter, Nola.
N. Lee: Every day is a new day to rock out.
Lee: Ooh.
N. Lee: Every day is a new day.
Lee: Her first appearance on the podcast was back in 2020 during an interview with toymaker, Yla Eason.
Yla Eason: Do I hear your daughter?
Lee: Yeah, she came. School is over, so she came in and she’s, like, who is that?
Eason: Can I ask her what’s her favorite toy?
Lee: Okay, Noly, come here a second, baby.
We ended up giving her a whole segment on that episode, where she talked about the importance of representation in toys.
So you have Tiana, she’s the first Black princess.
N. Lee: Yeah.
Lee: What do you like about Tiana?
N. Lee: First off, she’s in New Orleans. She’s not like all the other princesses that were born a princess, blah, blah, blah, something happens. She was like a working woman.
Lee: And last year, she came on our show with children’s author, Jerry Craft, about banned books, and why she likes to read stories about kids that look like her.
N. Lee: I think it’s really important that people can see themselves. And really, if you don’t see yourself, who are you seeing?
Lee: That was deep.
N. Lee: Yes, I’m deep like that.
Lee: She will always, always, always and forever be my little girl. But she’s growing up and growing up fast. This year, she had a big birthday. How are things going with you? How’s like life in general? You’re 10 years old now. That’s a big deal. That’s a big difference. How are you feeling?
N. Lee: I’m good. I mean, Ben Gerrard, my (ph) Hamilton, Beyonce, all that stuff. I feel like the same person in a new skin.
Lee: Yeah?
N. Lee: Yeah.
Lee: In a new skin? You feel like you’re in a new skin?
N. Lee: Yeah. Yeah.
Lee: How does it feel to be 10?
N. Lee: Well, I feel, of course, like more responsibility, like, okay, I rather go back and want my Doc McStuffins and my Mickey Mouse, and all that type of stuff. But besides that —
Lee: Would you really want to go back? I mean, you’re like —
N. Lee: No. I mean, yes, actually, I would. I just like, wake up at 7:00, but I still have a lot of stuff. So definitely, it’s kind of like a non-stop schedule. I’m in dance (inaudible). I’m in choir. I’m in game club. I’m on the student representatives. Honestly, it’s kind of just like a lot.
Lee: But even though Nola has a lot on her mind, one activity she says she’ll never give up is Girl Scouts. This year, she went to a Girl Scouts Sleepaway Camp. It was her first time away from mom and dad for extended period.
N. Lee: Honestly, you’re learning like good fundamental about everyday life. As a Girl Scout, you get out there, learning about businesses and stuff or —
Lee: And leadership stuff, right?
N. Lee: Yeah. Leadership, as I’m teaching you about kind of breaking the ways (ph) as a lot of old people tell us so. Not all old people, but still a lot —
Lee: But first of all, old to you is pretty young. Like, I am young, right? And you feel, like, I’m old.
N. Lee: You say you’re growing on Instagram so —
Lee: Listen, first of all, ‘cause I am growing. First of all, I didn’t say I wasn’t growing.
Nola Lee: I mean —
Lee: I said I’m not old. I’m old?
N. Lee: I see those gray hairs.
Lee: Listen, that’s wisdom. First of all, that’s wisdom.
Nola Lee: Seasoned wisdom.
Lee: That’s right. See? I’m seasoned.
N. Lee: Seasoned chicken.
Lee: Wow. Daddy is chicken. Okay, okay.
N. Lee: No.
Lee: Let’s move right along.
And speaking of these, quote, “old people,” Nola has some thoughts about how we could improve Into America.
N. Lee: I feel like one thing that I would absolutely love for you to do is to really get the voice of young people. Like, I understand that you kind of are aimed towards history.
Lee: Mm-hmm.
N. Lee: And a lot of people who experienced history, or the real tough ones are a little bit on the more seasoned side.
Lee: The mature? I appreciate this. Okay.
N. Lee: A little bit more Turkey seasoned side, right?
Lee: Okay.
N. Lee: And other times I feel like you have your whole entire like college episodes, like that.
Lee: That was aimed towards young people?
Nola Lee: Yeah. You can definitely have like episode —
Lee: Like sixth graders? Like young, young people?
N. Lee: Yeah. High school, younger kids, because sometimes I honestly, truly, absolutely my whole heart, I feel like younger people are not really counted their voice.
Lee: Mm-hmm.
Even though Nola seems to think the HBCU students featured in our Power of the Black Vote series don’t fully count as a young people, it turns out the series made a big impact on her.
N. Lee: I’ve always had my eyes on HBCUs.
Lee: Why do you think you want to go to an HBCU? It got your eyes somehow. But why do you think you might want to —
N. Lee: There are so many different reasons like, for example, that FAMU episode you guys did, the sense of community there just looks so cool.
Lee: Yeah.
N. Lee: And like Jordan Roberts.
Lee: Big shout to (inaudible).
N. Lee: You can see how much she was like so passionate about the school, how —
Lee: Mm-hmm.
N. Lee: — even after she graduated, she came back to teach there.
Jordan Roberts: It is heaven on earth. There’s so many species in the water. There’s so many species in the land. There’s so many species in the air. You see so many different kinds of birds, so many different kinds of wildlife. We’ll be out here. Sometimes dolphins will come up and swim up around. It’s beautiful.
N. Lee: And honestly, it just seemed like such a great sense of community and —
Lee: It feels like togetherness.
N. Lee: Yeah. Like —
Lee: All, like, students were together.
N. Lee: I feel like I would be able to connect with other Black people in general, when I go there.
Lee: And so what do you want to be when you grow up?
Nola Lee: A few different options, but I definitely am leaning towards being a journalist —
Lee: I think you got what it takes.
N. Lee: — or a writer.
Lee: I think you got what it takes.
N. Lee: Something of that sort.
Lee: Mm-hmm.
Nola Lee: For a second there, I was very incipient historian because of my absolute love for Hamilton. And honestly, like my die hard need (ph) for it, I called it like —
Lee: Your die hard need (ph) for it?
N. Lee: — a Hamilton cult one time ‘cause I use —
Lee: First of all, let’s say you’re not a part of any kind of cult. Hamilton did not have any weird hold (ph) on you.
N. Lee: There were no heretics (ph) involved in the making of this podcast.
Lee: But before she gets to college, or becomes a journalist, or join some sort of Hamilton acting troupe, Nola has another big milestone to conquer, middle school, which in New York, is a process. So middle school was coming up.
N. Lee: Oh, right.
Lee: Right. It’s been a whole bunch. We’ve been on tours. We’ve taken tests. We’ve had interviews.
N. Lee: Oh, it’s —
Lee: How are you feeling? How are you feeling about this whole middle school thing?
N. Lee: Truthfully, it’s both extremely aggravating and empowering.
Lee: Okay. How so?
N. Lee: Part of me is, like, I’m so happy to have the opportunity to be in schools, apply here. A part of me is, like, another essay? You want me do what? A three hour and 10-minute test? It’s just like a mixed feeling.
Lee: Has this been a stressful thing for you? Are you nervous or concerned about the future?
N. Lee: Honestly, I’m feeling a little bit nervous, like new place. But, in general, like, looking at my future is kind of not really scary. I’m more excited for it, to be honest. I’m excited to meet new people, new backyard, new perspectives.
Lee: Mm-hmm.
N. Lee: And very excited to meet new people. Yeah.
Lee: I absolutely love doing these conversations with Nola in front of a mic every single year. I feel like I can really hear and feel how much she’s growing. But, of course, some things never change.
N. Lee: Yup. Yeah. I’m hungry.
Lee: You always hungry. I feel like every time you do this, you like a snack time.
N. Lee: Yeah.
Lee: As 2023 begins, we hope you have a chance to rest, reflect and take stock. In the meantime, we’ll be hard at work on some new episodes that we’re really excited for you to hear. Be sure to follow the show and keep an eye on your feed so you don’t miss anything.
You can catch us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook using the handle @intoamericapod. And please take a moment to let us know what you think of the show by rating and reviewing Into America on Apple podcasts or wherever you’re listening right now.
This episode of Into America was produced by Sojourner Ahebee, Isabel Angell, Allison Bailey, Mike Brown, Aaron Dalton, Max Jacobs, and Janmaris Perez. Original music is by Hannis Brown. Our executive producer is Aisha Turner.
N. Lee: So I just want to say thank you guys for, like, making this episode happen ‘cause you all like absolutely slay. It’s like vibes. And yeah, like, because he’s incapable of editing, so it would be very —
Lee: Wow. You know what?
N. Lee: It would be like a very like stressful —
Lee: You don’t know what I’m capable of (inaudible).
N. Lee: — and as the producers, like, you got like big questions and if —
Lee: Guess who’s not getting any cookies? Guess who’s not gonna be —
N. Lee: No.
Lee: Guess who’s not gonna have phones? No playing with your friends, no nothing. It’s a wrap for you, your punishment.
N. Lee: What?
Lee: Wow. All right, y’all, that’s a wrap. I’m Trymaine Lee. See you in the new year.