You know those messages that you get all the time, the ones that pop up out of nowhere? They could be real, but something about them seems fishy. You likely dismiss these texts and emails as mere annoyances, thinking you’ve stopped some random stranger from ripping you off. But the shocking truth is, the person behind that message might be trapped inside a “scam factory” on the other side of the world and forced to scam others against their will. From Wondery, comes a new series about the brutal...
Feb 24, 2025•7 min•Transcript available on Metacast Get ready for a whole new vintage of true crime podcast with Blood Vines , available exclusively on Wondery+.Hosted by Chris Walker, this full-bodied series uncorks the never-before-told story of the Licciardi family - one of the most powerful wine dynasties in California history - who almost brought down the entire industry over a family battle for succession …that ended in murder. www.wondery.com/links/blood-vines See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at...
Feb 13, 2025•8 min•Transcript available on Metacast Vienna is working a delivery job when she hears about Cop City, a massive police training facility planned for Atlanta. She decides to join the activists trying to stop construction. When Vienna arrives in the South River Forest, she quickly finds a community, a cause and a love unlike any other. But the events of one morning shatters everything. Vienna and everyone connected to the forest begin to question what are you willing to die for? Wondery, Campside and Tenderfoot TV present: We Came to ...
Jan 27, 2025•6 min•Transcript available on Metacast Something Was Wrong is an award-winning docuseries about survivors discovery, trauma, and recovery from crime and abuse. To Listen: Wondery.fm/Something_Was_Wrong See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
Jan 13, 2025•7 min•Transcript available on Metacast The New York City Housing Authority is the biggest public housing program in the country. But with limited funding to address billions of dollars of outstanding repairs, NYCHA is turning to a controversial plan to change how public housing operates. Fanta Kaba of WNYC's Radio Rookies brings the story of how this will affect residents and the future of housing, as a resident of a NYCHA complex in the Bronx herself. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at h...
Dec 16, 2024•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sharing an episode from Scene on Radio's acclaimed Season 2 series, Seeing White, by John Biewen and featuring Empire City host and creator, Chenjerai Kumanyika. For centuries, white supremacist U.S. culture has raised the specter of the dangerous Black man. Biewen tells the story of a confrontation with a Black teenager, then he and Kumanyika discuss that well-worn narrative and its neglected flip-side: the harrowing history of white-on-Black violence. ...
Dec 02, 2024•47 min•Transcript available on Metacast New York’s Mayor Eric Adams has been indicted and charged by the federal government with corruption, wire fraud, bribery and more. Could we have predicted what kind of mayor Adams would become based on the culture he was a part of in the NYPD? Chenjerai and attorney John Teufel, who has investigated police misconduct, discuss the implications of the indictment and the significance of a former cop becoming the mayor. From Wondery, Crooked Media and PushBlack. Empire City is made with a commitment...
Nov 01, 2024•24 min•Transcript available on Metacast "Woop! Woop! That’s the sound of da police! Conscious and Frankie welcome Dr. Chenjerai Kumanyika – host of Empire City: The Untold Origin Story of the NYPD. Dr. Kumanyika’s podcast is a deeply personal tale of his relationship to policing, the history of the NYPD and its long reaching impact in police departments across the nation. Are the police truly functioning as designed? Does their origin begin and end as slave catching patrols? Today’s conversation brings humor and depth to the explorati...
Oct 23, 2024•42 min•Ep 9•Transcript available on Metacast The NYPD loves to show off its diversity, but it often hides how hard and long it fought that diversity. Chenjerai takes us back in time to the real story of how the NYPD got its first Black cop – and how decades later, Black cops went to war with the NYPD’s union to push for civilian oversight of the police. But how effective is reform if the police are still only accountable to themselves? From Wondery, Crooked Media and PushBlack. Empire City is made with a commitment to ensure the stor...
Oct 21, 2024•48 min•Ep 8•Transcript available on Metacast New York’s police start to realize that beating up and arresting immigrants is making them distrustful of cops. In response, a police chief has an idea, borne out of his time colonizing the Philippines: control the population by recruiting local community members to police their own people. From Wondery, Crooked Media and PushBlack. Empire City is made with a commitment to ensure the stories of those who were and are still impacted by the NYPD are always part of the stories we tell ou...
Oct 14, 2024•38 min•Ep 7•Transcript available on Metacast It’s like clockwork: every 20 years or so, a corruption scandal forces the NYPD into the hot seat. But how did this cycle begin? To find out, we go back over a century ago to the very first investigation into the police where the NYPD is put on trial like never before. From Wondery, Crooked Media and PushBlack. Empire City is made with a commitment to ensure the stories of those who were and are still impacted by the NYPD are always part of the stories we tell ourselves about the police, ab...
Oct 07, 2024•40 min•Ep 6•Transcript available on Metacast Officers in early New York didn’t just police the city’s vice economy; they profited from it. But when America’s first professional vice fighter Anthony Comstock strong-arms the NYPD into enforcing his vision of morality, he also transformed how and what we police. From Wondery, Crooked Media and PushBlack. Empire City is made with a commitment to ensure the stories of those who were and are still impacted by the NYPD are always part of the stories we tell ourselves about the police, ...
Sep 30, 2024•40 min•Ep 5•Transcript available on Metacast Horrific race riots erupt when New York City starts to draft soldiers into the Civil War. A mob of white people, who resent fighting for emancipation, direct their rage at the Black community as well as the police… and all hell breaks loose. The NYPD pushes for more firearms – but will they use them to protect New York’s most vulnerable, or subdue them? From Wondery, Crooked Media and PushBlack. Empire City is made with a commitment to ensure the stories of those who were and are still&nbs...
Sep 23, 2024•47 min•Ep 4•Transcript available on Metacast New York’s power-hungry mayor weaponizes the police to help him control the city – and bulldoze a thriving Black community for his own real estate profits. The state, fearing that the mayor and his police have become too strong, wage a war for control – and create their own rival force. From Wondery, Crooked Media and PushBlack. Empire City is made with a commitment to ensure the stories of those who were and are still impacted by the NYPD are always part of the stories we tell oursel...
Sep 16, 2024•41 min•Ep 3•Transcript available on Metacast Before the NYPD existed, New Yorkers strongly opposed the idea of an armed police force – until a powerful news publisher changed everything. After a grisly murder takes place, the city’s newspapers sensationalize the story, blame the cops, and a new force is born. But will these cops work to solve the case or will they spend their days hunting something–or someone–else? From Wondery, Crooked Media and PushBlack. Empire City is made with a commitment to ensure the stories of those who were...
Sep 09, 2024•43 min•Ep 2•Transcript available on Metacast Chenjerai takes us back to the summer of 1835, when Black New Yorkers are being kidnapped and sold into slavery in the south. But their friends and families can’t call the cops, because it turns out the kidnappers are the cops…can a group of Black resistance fighters stop it? From Wondery, Crooked Media and PushBlack. Empire City is made with a commitment to ensure the stories of those who were and are still impacted by the NYPD are always part of the stories we tell ourselves about t...
Sep 09, 2024•43 min•Ep 1•Transcript available on Metacast The police tell us they are here to protect us. But what if their original purpose was something else altogether? Peabody Award-winning host Chenjerai Kumanyika takes listeners on a journey to uncover the hidden history of the largest police force in the world – from its roots in slavery, to rival police gangs battling across the city, to everyday people who resisted every step of the way. As our society debates where policing is going, Empire City: The Untold Origin Story of the NYPD explores w...
Aug 26, 2024•3 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
