More To The Story: When Trymaine Lee began writing his first book, he didn’t realize that the gun violence he was reporting on was such a central part of his own story. But then he began digging into his family history, only to fully learn about a series of racially motivated murders involving his ancestors. Lee’s book, A Thousand Ways to Die: The True Cost of Violence on Black Life in America, soon became more personal than he’d planned. On this week’s episode of More To The Story, Lee sits down with host Al Letson for part 2 of a conversation about generational trauma, the challenges of being a Black journalist in America, and how learning about his family’s history has changed how he writes and reports on Black Americans killed by violence.

Producer: Josh Sanburn | Editor: Kara McGuirk-Allison | Theme music: Fernando Arruda and Jim Briggs | Copy editor: Nikki Frick | Deputy executive producer: Taki Telonidis | Executive producer: Brett Myers | Executive editor: James West | Host: Al Letson

Listen: Mississippi Goddam (Reveal)

Listen: Being Black in America Almost Killed Me Part 1 (More To The Story)

Read: Trump Prepares to Wipe Out Years of Progress on Gun Violence (Mother Jones)

Read: A Thousand Ways to Die: The True Cost of Violence on Black Life in America (St. Martin’s Press)

Watch: Hope in High Water: A People’s Recovery Twenty Years After Hurricane Katrina (Peacock)