*CHICAGO — Chicago-based journalism nonprofit Invisible Institute, Topic Studios, and The Intercept in association with Tenderfoot TV, teamed up to co-produce and launch a new investigative podcast series “Somebody,” set to premiere March 31.
The new seven-part series documents Shapearl Wells’ quest to find out what happened to her son, Courtney Copeland, a 22-year-old man who wound up with a bullet in his back outside a Chicago Police station in 2016 and died.
Copeland was a high school friend of musician and activist Chance the Rapper (Chancelor J. Bennett) who was interviewed for the podcast and performs the series’ theme song.
“He was very loved by everybody,” Bennett said of Copeland. “I just wish that he was respected as a human life on the level that he should have been.”
Disrupting the genre of investigative journalism podcasts, “Somebody” is narrated by Copeland’s mother Shapearl Wells, who guides listeners to explore questions of police accountability and public trust.
“The dead can no longer speak, so it’s up to the living to speak for them –– especially in the face of an abysmally low murder clearance rate for Black people in Chicago like my son,” said Wells, a mother of six from Cicero, Illinois. Wells is the vice president of the Courtney Copeland Memorial Foundation which works to reduce violence, strengthen education and build rapport between the community and police.
Chicago police data shows that six out of 10 murders go unsolved in the city, and the rate is even lower when the victim is African American.
In the series, Wells is joined by Chicago journalist Alison Flowers, who leads investigations at the Invisible Institute on the South Side of Chicago, and Bill Healy, an independent radio producer.
Over three years, the “Somebody” team sought answers in Copeland’s death, uncovering new evidence and calling the police to account along the way for their actions.
“Somebody” will premiere on March 31, 2020, with new episodes rolling out weekly for the seven-episode podcast, in addition to a number of bonus episodes. Subscribe to the podcast here, and listen on iHeartRadio and everywhere podcasts are available. To learn more about the making of “Somebody,” visit somebodypodcast.com.
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