Motive

By WBEZ ChicagoSociety & Culture

Motive episodes

May 01, 2023 Introducing - You Didn't See Nothin
Here's another podcast we think you'll find interesting. Twenty-five years
ago in Chicago, a little boy named Lenard Clark was beaten into a coma just for
being Black. Almost overnight, the news stories turned to racial reconciliation and
forgiveness. From writer Yohance Lacour, You Didn't See Nothin is an investigation
into how that happened, and a memoir of coming-of-age in Chicago. Full series
available now.
3 min
March 02, 2023 6: Aftermath
Host: Patrick Smith
Producer: Marie Mendoza
41 min
February 23, 2023 5: Collateral Damage
A 14-year-old boy whose father was wounded in a gang shooting faces down
threats of violence and the temptations of joining a gang. Meanwhile, a person who
killed one woman and wounded another will avoid criminal charges.
38 min
February 16, 2023 4: Getting In And Getting Out
The gang murder of 7-year-old Jaslyn Adams shook Chicago and affected many
of the anti-violence workers on the West Side. As former gang members they
sympathized with Jaslyn’s dad, Jontae, his desire to spend time with his daughter
and how that put her at risk of violence. Jontae still struggles with the guilt. And
when he decided to help police catch his daughter’s killers his gang friends turned
on him.
**Content warning: This episode contains uses of the n-word.
33 min
February 09, 2023 3: Underpaid And Underappreciated
Host: Patrick Smith
Producer: Marie Mendoza
36 min
February 02, 2023 2: De/Escalation
Host: Patrick Smith
Producer: Marie Mendoza
36 min
January 26, 2023 1: After The Gunfire
Host: Patrick Smith

Producer: Marie Mendoza
37 min
January 17, 2023 'Motive' Season 5 Podcast Trailer
Producer: Marie Mendoza
Host: Patrick Smith
2 min
December 14, 2022 Bonus: Prisoncast
In this bonus episode of Motive, we bring you some excerpts from a special
project we created.
After a years-long investigation into prisons, we wanted to make something that
wasn’t just about people in prison, but also for them. In August of this year we
collaborated with radio stations across Illinois to create a broadcast that was
heard in prisons statewide.
We played sounds incarcerated people requested to hear from the other side of the
prison wall, and dedications for sounds that family members thought would be
important to their loved ones. People requested simple sounds from the outside
world, like babies laughing, rain on a tin roof, the waves of Lake Michigan.
We also played people’s music requests and even an original song, “Bring It Back”,
created by some students of the Rebirth of Sound program, inside Stateville
Correctional Center in Joliet, Illinois.
30 min
June 02, 2022 Motive Presents “Through the Cracks”
From our friends at WAMU and PRX. When 8 year old Relisha Rudd disappeared
from a homeless shelter in Washington, D.C. in 2014, nobody noticed. By the time
authorities formally declared Relisha “missing,” 18 days had passed since she’d been
spotted at school or the shelter where her family lived. Seven years later, Relisha
has never been found. Through The Cracks investigates gaps in our society and the
people who fall through them, and in this first season, host Jonquilyn Hill asks if
Relisha’s disappearance was, as the city later claimed, unpreventable
35 min

About Motive

From the publisher's feed

Chicago gangs: Real people. Real stories. A way forward. The new season of Motive explores violence on the streets of Chicago and the former gang members working to stop it.