Nearly 30 years ago, James Bernard Belcher was sentenced to death for raping, strangling, and drowning 29-year-old Jennifer Embry. Recently, he was given a second chance: a resentencing, this time with new evidence unearthed by a mitigation specialist. These life-history investigators seek to contextualize a defendant’s violent crimes, often by surfacing childhood traumas. On the latest episode of Apple News In Conversation, host Shumita Basu spoke with Maurice Chammah, a reporter for the Marshall Project, about shadowing one specialist as she excavates Belcher’s past in a bid to spare his life.

What makes a murderer? These investigators might have the answer.

Apple News In Conversation with Shumita Basu brings you interviews with some of the world’s best journalists and experts about the stories that impact our lives. Join us every week as we go behind the headlines.

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An explosive lawsuit against hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs, filed by his former girlfriend Cassie Ventura, has prompted an avalanche of accusations and eyewitness accounts of his violent behavior. A new, deeply reported feature from Rolling Stone is one of the most extensive accounts yet of allegations against Combs — detailing decades of alleged physical and sexual abuse from his days in college to the heyday of his label, Bad Boy Records, and beyond. Guest host Sam Sanders talks with reporters Cheyenne Roundtree and Nancy Dillon about what they learned from witnesses — and how Combs’s accusers are seeking justice.

What we know about the allegations against Sean “Diddy” Combs

Guest-hosted by Sam Sanders: The new Apple TV+ series Dark Matter tells the story of Jason Dessen, a man who is abducted into an alternative version of his own life. The show is based on a book by best-selling science-fiction writer Blake Crouch. Apple News In Conversation guest host Sam Sanders spoke to Crouch and two stars of the show, Joel Edgerton and Jennifer Connelly, about regret, the existence of the multiverse, and how the internet has all of us leading multiple lives.

If you could choose another version of your life, would you?

This is an episode from our archives.Anderson Cooper is now the only living member of the family he grew up with. When he was 10 years old, his father died of a heart attack. His brother died by suicide about a decade later. And in 2019, his mother died at the age of 95. It’s only recently that Cooper has been able to talk about and process these deaths. For Apple News In Conversation’s Think Again series, he spoke with host Shumita Basu about what he’s learned by talking to people about death and grief on his podcast, All There Is — and the advice he has for those who are struggling with loss.

Rebroadcast: What losing family taught Anderson Cooper about grief and gratitude

Guest-hosted by Julia Carpenter: Whether you’re 30 or 50 years old, it can be difficult to know what your life in retirement is going to look like and how to best prepare for it. Wall Street Journal reporters Anne Tergesen and Veronica Dagher spoke to people with a wide variety of retirement experiences — from those retiring on almost nothing but Social Security to those with $5 million — about how they are each making it work regardless of the number in their bank accounts.

Retirement is daunting. Here’s how Americans are making it work.

Guest-hosted by Julia Carpenter: More and more people are becoming self-employed in the U.S. And when it comes to being your own boss, everything from your finances to your attitude can shape whether your business is a success. Paco de Leon is a personal-finance expert and host of the podcast Weird Finance. She sits down with Apple News In Conversationguest host Julia Carpenter to share some of the best advice she’s learned from her own experience, and from guiding clients to create their own businesses.

What makes a murderer? These investigators might have the answer.

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