9 episodes
You Didn't See Nothin USG Audio
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- True Crime
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4.8 • 11 Ratings
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The Pulitzer Prize and Peabody Award-winning “You Didn't See Nothin” follows Yohance Lacour as he revisits the story that introduced him to the world of investigative journalism. Part investigation and part memoir, Yohance examines how its ripple effects have shaped his life over the past quarter-century.
In 1997, Lenard Clark was beaten into a coma by a gang of older white teens simply for being Black in a white neighborhood. One of Lenard’s attackers was from a powerful Chicago family. The media quickly turned towards stories of reconciliation and racial healing, with cooperation by Black leaders and the attacker’s family.
Yohance wasn’t having any of it.
At the time of the attack, he was in his early 20s, writing plays, selling weed, and living at his dad’s house on the South Side of Chicago. Unable to stand by silently, he began working with a neighborhood newspaper to investigate the vicious hate crime. Reporting on the incident led him to grow increasingly disillusioned with journalism.
From USG Audio and the Invisible Institute – creators of the 2020 Pulitzer Finalist podcast “Somebody” – “You Didn't See Nothin” finds Yohance back in Chicago after a 10-year prison sentence, tracking down key players to examine how this story connects to our present moment.
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Young Black Male
When a 13-year-old Black boy is attacked in Chicago’s Bridgeport neighborhood, Yohance rallies his crew to avenge the beating.
Credits
Host: Yohance Lacour
Producers: Bill Healy, Dana Brozost-Kelleher, Erisa Apantaku, Sarah Geis
Sound Design/Mixing and Music Supervision: Steven Jackson and Phil Dmochowski at the Audio Non-Visual Company
Original Music: Taka Yasuzawa
Executive Producers: Alison Flowers and Jamie Kalven (Invisible Institute) and Josh Bloch (USG Audio)
Production Support: Jennifer Sears and Josh Laolagi
Fact-checking: Angely Mercado
Key Art: Kenneth L. Copeland, Jr.
Special Thanks: The Sebring Crew (Earl, Peewee, Willie, Ro, Jamaz) Kanesha Broadwater, Michael Clark
Archival audio in this episode include (in order of appearance): C-SPAN, CBS Evening News, NPR/All Things Considered, MSNBC/NBC News, WBEZ, Dateline, CNN, WTTW, Universal Pictures, Columbia Pictures, NBC Evening News, NPR/Weekend Edition, YouTube, CBS Chicago, The Today Show, WMAQ, and Conus.
For more information, go to usgaudio.com.
To learn about the Invisible Institute’s human rights reporting, visit invisible.institute.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. -
Holler If Ya Hear Me
Yohance begins to investigate the beating for a neighborhood newspaper, when his reporting gets some unwanted attention.
Credits
Host: Yohance Lacour
Producers: Bill Healy, Dana Brozost-Kelleher, Erisa Apantaku, Sarah Geis
Sound Design/Mixing and Music Supervision: Steven Jackson and Phil Dmochowski at the Audio Non-Visual Company
Original Music: Taka Yasuzawa
Executive Producers: Alison Flowers and Jamie Kalven (Invisible Institute) and Josh Bloch (USG Audio)
Production Support: Jennifer Sears and Josh Laolagi
Fact-checking: Angely Mercado
Key Art: Kenneth L. Copeland, Jr.
Special Thanks: Stacy Nzingha Hill
Archival audio in this episode include (in order of appearance): CBS Evening News; NPR/All Things Considered; YouTube; CNN; WMAQ; Sounds of Blackness; Twista, Faith Evans and Capitol Records; Mary J. Blige and MCA Records; The President’s Weekly Radio Address, WTTW, Dateline, NBC News, Fox Chicago, and Universal Pictures.
For more information, go to usgaudio.com.
To learn about the Invisible Institute’s human rights reporting, visit invisible.institute.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. -
Heartz of Men
News stories about the beating zero in on reconciliation and racial healing, as the attacker’s parents meet with prominent Black leaders.
Credits
Host: Yohance Lacour
Producers: Bill Healy, Dana Brozost-Kelleher, Erisa Apantaku, Sarah Geis
Sound Design/Mixing and Music Supervision: Steven Jackson and Phil Dmochowski at the Audio Non-Visual Company
Original Music: Taka Yasuzawa
Executive Producers: Alison Flowers and Jamie Kalven (Invisible Institute) and Josh Bloch (USG Audio)
Production Support: Jennifer Sears and Josh Laolagi
Fact-checking: Angely Mercado
Key Art: Kenneth L. Copeland, Jr.
Special Thanks: Mindy Pugh and The Progressive Community Church Archives at the Illinois Institute of Technology
Archival audio in this episode include (in order of appearance): The President’s Weekly Radio Address, CNN, Fox News, Fox Chicago, WMAQ, CBS Chicago, Getty Images NBC News Archives, Boys II Men UMG Recording Inc. and Motown Record Company, and NPR/All Things Considered.
For more information, go to usgaudio.com.
To learn about the Invisible Institute’s human rights reporting, visit invisible.institute.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. -
Point the Finga
As the trial approaches, a key witness goes missing and another is murdered.
Credits
Host: Yohance Lacour
Producers: Bill Healy, Dana Brozost-Kelleher, Erisa Apantaku, Sarah Geis
Sound Design/Mixing and Music Supervision: Steven Jackson and Phil Dmochowski at the Audio Non-Visual Company
Original Music: Taka Yasuzawa
Executive Producers: Alison Flowers and Jamie Kalven (Invisible Institute) and Josh Bloch (USG Audio)
Production Support: Jennifer Sears and Josh Laolagi
Fact-checking: Angely Mercado
Key Art: Kenneth L. Copeland, Jr.
Special Thanks: James Cutler, Steve Bogira, Elizabeth Smith and the Cook Clerk of the Circuit Court
Archival audio in this episode include (in order of appearance): WMAQ, Fox Chicago, Dateline, and WBEZ.
For more information, go to usgaudio.com.
To learn about the Invisible Institute’s human rights reporting, visit invisible.institute.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. -
Who Do You Believe In?
The Black community becomes deeply divided over some of its leaders supporting the family of the attacker.
Credits
Host: Yohance Lacour
Producers: Bill Healy, Dana Brozost-Kelleher, Erisa Apantaku, Sarah Geis
Sound Design/Mixing and Music Supervision: Steven Jackson and Phil Dmochowski at the Audio Non-Visual Company
Original Music: Taka Yasuzawa
Executive Producers: Alison Flowers and Jamie Kalven (Invisible Institute) and Josh Bloch (USG Audio)
Production Support: Jennifer Sears and Josh Laolagi
Fact-checking: Angely Mercado
Key Art: Kenneth L. Copeland, Jr.
Special Thanks: Brother Randy Evans, Steve Bogira, the family of Joe Lattimore, Mindy Pugh and The Progressive Community Church Archives at the Illinois Institute of Technology, and Bob Berlin
Archival audio in this episode include (in order of appearance): CNN, Dateline, WBEZ, NPR, WMAQ, C-SPAN, and WTTW.
For more information, go to usgaudio.com.
To learn about the Invisible Institute’s human rights reporting, visit invisible.institute.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. -
Never Had a Friend Like Me
Yohance speaks to the Black minister about the notion that the attacker and his victim have become friends.
Credits
Host: Yohance Lacour
Producers: Bill Healy, Dana Brozost-Kelleher, Erisa Apantaku, Sarah Geis
Sound Design/Mixing and Music Supervision: Steven Jackson and Phil Dmochowski at the Audio Non-Visual Company
Original Music: Taka Yasuzawa
Executive Producers: Alison Flowers and Jamie Kalven (Invisible Institute) and Josh Bloch (USG Audio)
Production Support: Jennifer Sears and Josh Laolagi
Fact-checking: Angely Mercado
Key Art: Kenneth L. Copeland, Jr.
Special Thanks: Mindy Pugh and The Progressive Community Church Archives at the Illinois Institute of Technology
Archival audio in this episode include (in order of appearance): CNN, NPR/All Things Considered, WMAQ, Paramount Pictures, and WBEZ.
For more information, go to usgaudio.com.
To learn about the Invisible Institute’s human rights reporting, visit invisible.institute.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Customer Reviews
Having a complex narrator adds so much more!
You Didn’t See Nothin’ is an intriguing podcast about the 1997 racist attack of 13-year-old Lenard Clark. Yohance Lacour is a complex narrator – at the time of the attack he loved literature and was a rookie journalist, but was also dealing weed, then heroin. Eventually he got a much longer sentence for his dealing than Lenard’s attacker, even though Lenard was left in a coma.
Yohance is unapologetic about his anger and desire for retribution, even when much of the black community back then was focused on reconciliation. But he wonders if, like those community leaders, he was equally a ‘sell-out’, only for dealing to his community, not for being bribed by white mobsters. And he wrestles the fine line between being a journalist and being a snitch. These internal tousles are as fascinating as the bigger picture look at racism and everybody having a price.
Side note 1: Yohance is v. good at visual descriptions of scenes, making this really immersive. Side note 2: Was Lenard’s story part of the source material for Showtime’s Your Honour, starring Bryan Cranston? There are so many similarities!
Jenny Valentish, Spirit Levels podcast.
Brilliant
I couldn’t love the voice more! The story is original and wonderful.
Truth about ‘reconciliation’
This podcast raises an important point. The term ‘reconciliation’ implies that two or more parties will restore what were previously good relations. This is a fatally flawed notion in the context of black and white relations which have been characterised by white people’s fierce domination, oppression and violence against black people. How can this be reconciled? Truth, apology, reparation and equality are required before we can even begin any reconciliatory dialogue. Excellent Journalism!
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