Episodes

In this episode of True Crime, Authors and Extraordinary People , David McClam takes a deeper look at the Karmelo Anthony case through one central question: What if this was self-defense? This is not an episode about repeating every headline, racial talking point, or argument already made around the case. Instead, we step back and examine the details that continue to raise serious questions. Was Karmelo Anthony trying to leave the situation? Was he pulled back into the confrontation? Did the phy...

n this follow-up episode of True Crime, Authors & Extraordinary People , we break down the verdict in the Karmelo Anthony case and ask the questions that still refuse to go quiet. Karmelo Anthony has been found guilty and sentenced to 35 years, but for many people watching this case closely, the verdict does not erase the concerns surrounding what happened that day, what was presented in court, and what may have been ignored. This episode takes a hard look at the testimony, the self-defense argu...

In this episode of True Crime, Authors and Extraordinary People , David McClam takes a detailed look at the Karmelo Anthony case as the trial reaches day 3. At the center of this case are two young men: Austin Metcalf , a 17-year-old student-athlete who lost his life after a stabbing at a Texas high school track meet, and Karmelo Anthony , the young man now standing trial for murder. This episode breaks down what has come out in court so far, including witness testimony, the self-defense argumen...

Episode Summary Join David McClam for a deep dive into the extraordinary life and tragic death of Selena Quintanilla Perez, the “Queen of Tejano music.” This episode explores Selena’s unparalleled rise to global superstardom, the heartbreaking betrayal by a trusted employee, and her enduring legacy that continues to inspire millions. In This Episode: 00:00 Introduction and Podcast Updates 01:05 Selena’s Global Impact and Legacy 03:11 Selena’s Early Life and Family Band 07:04 Breaking Barriers in...

Join David McClam and Randy E. Barnett, a Georgetown University Law Center professor and author of “Felony Review: Tales of True Crime and Corruption in Chicago,” as they explore the complex world of criminal prosecution. This episode offers an inside look into grisly police confessions, legal corruption, and the moral dilemmas faced by a prosecutor in 1970s Chicago. In This Episode: 00:00 Introduction to Randy E. Barnett 03:50 Criminal Justice is Better Than TV 08:08 From Prosecutor to Constitu...

Liz Rizzo introduces Liz, an author and close friend of comedian Rusty Warren, noting that the interview takes place on Rusty’s birthday, March 20th. Rusty Warren was a pioneering female comedian known for her “naughty” but clean comedy, achieving seven gold albums starting in 1958. Her work, which discussed intimate topics, was ahead of its time and laid the groundwork for future female comedians like Ellen DeGeneres and Lily Tomlin, who acknowledge her influence. Despite her success, Rusty nev...

David McClam discusses the high-profile legal battle of rapper Afroman against the Adams County Police Department, exploring themes of artistic freedom, privacy, and the justice system. This episode highlights how a police raid transformed into a viral musical saga and a significant First Amendment case. In This Episode: 00:00 Welcome & Host’s Personal Updates 03:39 Afro Man’s Police Raid 06:14 Raid, Music, and Racism Claims 12:47 The Lawsuit and Privacy Debate 17:05 Defamation Claims and Court ...

Some stories rearrange how we see predators, survivors, and the slow work of becoming whole. This conversation with psychotherapist and survivor Nikki Eisenhower does exactly that. She breaks down how grooming hides inside everyday kindness—bedtime rituals, small errands, gentle touch—especially when a child is starved for warmth. That’s what makes it so dangerous and so easy to miss. Nikki also opens a window into repressed memory, explaining how the body sealed off what a child couldn’t bear a...

A request for edible food, basic medical care, and protection from abuse should not be radical. Yet at Attica in 1971, those simple demands collided with a system built for control, and the result was deadly. We walk through the facts of the uprising with clear eyes—from the roots of overcrowding and neglect to the stalled negotiations and the order to retake the prison by force. The outcome was catastrophic: 39 people were killed, including 10 hostages, and autopsies later proved the hostages d...

Panic can make a city certain, and certainty can turn a theory into a conviction. We revisit the Central Park Five—now known as the Exonerated Five—to unpack how five teenagers were funneled from marathon interrogations to headlines that branded them predators, and how DNA evidence and a prison confession finally cracked the story New York believed. Along the way, we trace the mechanics of false confessions, the power of media framing, and the political voices that amplified fear over facts. I w...

A prison built on a former plantation. Three men who dared to organize for dignity. A system that answered with isolation instead of justice. We take you inside the story of the Angola Three—Herman Wallace, Albert Woodfox, and Robert King—and trace how solitary confinement became a weapon used to silence voices that challenged abuse, corruption, and racial terror behind bars. We unpack how thin evidence, recanted testimony, and contradictory forensic reports produced swift convictions that endur...

A voice that could quiet a room—and a business mind that unsettled an industry. We dive into the life and legacy of Sam Cooke, exploring how a singer famed for smooth, intimate delivery became a blueprint for artistic power through ownership, entrepreneurship, and a fearless civil rights stance. From gospel roots to pop stardom, Cooke didn’t just cross over; he rewrote the rules by controlling his masters, launching his own label, and refusing to perform for segregated audiences, proving that cr...

A freight train stop in 1931 Alabama turned into one of the most consequential legal battles in American history. We revisit the Scottsboro Boys case—nine Black kids, no physical evidence, and death sentences—and unpack how rushed trials, media frenzy, and racial bias created a blueprint for injustice that echoes into the present day. We walk through the facts: the arrests on the rails during the Great Depression, contradictory testimony, medical exams that didn’t match the accusations, and all-...

A thriving Black city was once a beacon of self-made prosperity—until lies, fear, and sanctioned violence turned it to ash. We revisit Greenwood, Tulsa’s Black Wall Street, to understand how a community built by doctors, lawyers, shopkeepers, and teachers was not only destroyed overnight but then buried beneath decades of silence. From the false accusation against Dick Rowland to newspapers stoking rage and authorities deputizing civilians, we unpack how a spark became an onslaught, including ae...

A single decision can redraw the boundary between loyalty and liberty. We pay tribute to Jesse Jackson’s life and then turn to Muhammad Ali’s defining stand—his refusal to be drafted for the Vietnam War—and how that choice reshaped the conversation about patriotism, race, faith, and the cost of conscience. Ali’s path from Olympic glory to public scorn shows how a nation can celebrate Black excellence while resisting Black self-definition, and why a name, a belief, and a sentence said aloud can s...

A dream of concert halls and sonatas collided with America’s color line—then transformed into a soundtrack for resistance. We explore how Nina Simone, trained for the classical stage, became a voice that refused to soften the truth, and why the cost of honesty still echoes through music today. We start with the shattering moment many believe was racially motivated: her rejection from the Curtis Institute of Music. That wound forced a shift from the promise that talent could defy racism to the re...

Power doesn’t always fear chaos; sometimes it fears unity even more. We dive into the story of COINTELPRO, the FBI’s covert program that set out to disrupt, discredit, and dismantle Black movements that threatened the status quo. From the explicit mandate to prevent “the rise of a Black messiah” to the playbook of infiltration, forged letters, internal feuds, and manufactured raids, we trace how state power turned suspicion into a weapon—and why the fallout still shapes organizing today. We lay ...

A life can be rewritten by rumor, but a legacy is forged in evidence. We dive into the hard truths behind Malcolm X’s evolution—from a childhood marked by terror and a system that broke his family, to a prison library where rage became discipline, to a stage presence so precise it shook power. Along the way, we follow the paper trail of surveillance, the quiet choices that shape public memory, and the uncomfortable fact that clarity, not chaos, made Malcolm dangerous to the status quo. We walk t...

A bomb in a church should have shocked a city into action; instead, it exposed a system that hesitated when lives depended on speed. We revisit the 1963 Birmingham church bombing at 16th Street Baptist, not as a distant tragedy, but as a live case study in how extremism feeds on inaction and how justice, when delayed, can wound generations. We lay out the hard context behind Bombingham, where threats against Black homes and churches were routine, and explain why this attack targeted a community’...

A single biopsy changed modern medicine—and revealed a fault line that still runs through healthcare today. We dive into the story of Henrietta Lacks, a young Black mother whose cervical tumor cells were taken without her knowledge in 1951 and became the first immortal human cell line, known as HeLa. Those cells powered the polio vaccine, advanced cancer research, informed gene mapping, and helped unlock IVF and HIV treatments. Yet the breakthroughs came with a moral debt: the Lacks family was l...

Truth can heal, but only after it cuts. We explore how James Baldwin learned to wield language as both refuge and scalpel, carving through America’s favorite myths to expose the structure beneath. From a childhood in Harlem shaped by poverty and strict religion to a self-imposed exile in France, Baldwin chose distance not to escape responsibility but to survive long enough to bear honest witness. That choice forged a writer who refused to soften his critique, rejected euphemism, and insisted tha...

A cure existed—and they withheld it. We dive into the Tuskegee syphilis study to unpack how a government-backed experiment in Macon County, Alabama turned 600 Black men into data points, concealed diagnoses behind the phrase “bad blood,” and continued for 40 years even after penicillin became the standard treatment. What happened was not a misunderstanding or a relic of distant history; it was deliberate policy that traded human lives for papers, promotions, and a twisted idea of progress. We wa...

Courage is easy to praise once it’s safe. We rewind to the moment Ida B. Wells made it dangerous—when a teacher-turned-writer chose evidence over comfort and forced a country to look at what it preferred to hide. From a first-class train car to the ashes of her newspaper office, we trace how humiliation as policy sparked a lifetime of investigation that documented lynching with names, dates, locations, and motives, and exposed it as a tool to crush Black economic power. We walk through the Memph...

A 21-year-old organizer taught a city how to feed children, build trust, and link struggles across race and class—and power answered with a hundred rounds. We revisit Fred Hampton’s short life and long echo, focusing on the programs he built, the alliances he forged, and the state machinery that moved to silence a rising voice. This is not a story about celebrity politics; it’s a story about breakfast lines, study groups, and a calm, disciplined kind of courage that turns neighbors into a moveme...