A woman is eight minutes from delivery, screaming through a wheelchair ride, and a nurse is still asking about “live births.” That moment—followed by another mother turned away to give birth on the roadside—sparked a raw, necessary conversation about disbelief, danger, and the cost of bias on Black women’s bodies.
We trace the throughline from the labor ward to the comment section: how joy gets labeled arrogance, how visibility is framed as provocation, and how a simple hello on a dating app can trigger a stranger’s need to diminish. I share my own birth story and the memories that still burn twenty years later, then connect those memories to a nervous system shaped by chronic dismissal. Hypervigilance isn’t drama; it’s adaptation. When medical staff ignore pain or minimize symptoms, the body flips to survival mode, and over time that stress hardens into complex PTSD—one reason Black maternal mortality and Black infant mortality remain disturbingly high in the United States.
We also explore the political stage, where double standards make mistreatment for some a scandal and for others a baseline. Through it all, we honor the resilience of Black women—most educated demographic in America—who keep creating, parenting, leading, and loving in a culture that too often refuses to protect us. This conversation offers language, validation, and practical grounding for anyone who’s felt unseen, along with guidance for raising kids who know their worth and can claim their voice early.
If this resonates, subscribe, share with someone who needs it, and leave a review to help more listeners find the show. Tell me: where were you last dismissed, and what would believing you the first time have changed?
Episode Transcript
Did y'all see a video of the black woman who
went into labor?
This is just a few weeks ago.
This video went viral of herbeing in the wheelchair and a
white nurse asking her, How manylive births have you had while
she is letting out the mostguttural scream of pain?
And she says, What's your duedate?
And she yells in anotherguttural scream, Today.
She is eight minutes from givingbirth.
(00:25):
That video pained me and so manyother people to watch because as
a black woman, you know whatthat feeling feels like.
It felt like it encapsulated thefeeling of even when we are
breaking, we are still notbelieved.
Even when we are breaking, weare still not helped.
At some point she says, I feellike the baby is in my ass.
Which, if you ever gave birthbefore, and I have three times,
(00:46):
when it feels like it's in yourass, it is.
It really is.
And it's time to push.
What is so sad about that sceneis that the nurse looks at her
and basically decides that she'sworthy of being dismissed.
Maybe perhaps that she'sexaggerating.
I'm not sure.
I really wouldn't mind doing aninterview with her.
She disbelieved her pain.
(01:07):
She disrespected her.
And on top of all that, as anurse, she has no bedside
manner.
And then less than a week later,another video comes out of a
couple going in.
You see this black woman in awheelchair, she's breathing
heavily.
We know later she was 12 minutesfrom giving birth.
She's turned away, and then shehas birth in the car on the side
of the road 12 minutes later.
For those of us here who've hadchildren, we know that it is an
(01:29):
incredibly vulnerable feeling tobe pregnant just in general.
But when you are about to givebirth, there really is no other
feeling to describe howvulnerable you feel for yourself
and your child and knowingeither one of you could die at
any time.
It is a terrible feeling to feeldisregarded, disrespected, and
undone in that moment.
When I gave birth to my firstson, I had never had a baby
before.
I had no idea what contractionsfelt like.
(01:50):
You know, I'd done all thehomework, all the research, but
you know, you can never prepareyourself.
My water broke at home.
I hadn't experienced really anycontractions yet, just little
ones here and there.
But I had no idea what the fullstrength of a full contraction
felt like.
And in the car on the way there,he was driving and I had a real
contraction.
Like the ones where you're like,oh, now I know what this is.
(02:11):
Like, this is some fuck.
It's crazy.
The amount of pain.
It just took me off guard.
And I let out a very loud yelp.
And I remember my ex-husbandsaying to me, You're not gonna
be like this the whole time, areyou?
And I was just like, I will killyou.
I remember feeling sofrustrated.
(02:31):
So frustrated.
Again, this is his first babytoo.
Both of us are our first baby,but still.
And then we get to the hospital.
This is five minutes later,after that little interaction.
We get to the hospital, we're inthe parking garage, and I'm
like, okay, well, just let meout here.
I'll go inside and I'll wait foryou while you find a spot.
So I open the door, I put onefoot out the door, and I'm have
(02:52):
a backpack, and I'm getting outof the car.
I am hours away from givingbirth.
And my ex-husband starts todrive.
And I was like, bro, what the fare you doing?
I have one foot out the door.
And he was like, There's a carbehind me that really needs to
get by.
You need to hurry up.
And I was like, I will put aknife and a dagger through your
heart if you don't calm the fdown right now.
(03:15):
Now back then I didn't swear.
I don't even know what I said,but whatever sentiment I just
gave you, that was the sentimentthat I gave him.
Like, bro, but you see how Iremember that?
That son, my first son, he'sjust turned 20.
It's been 20 years, and I stillremember how bad he pissed me
off with just those two littlethings, just because of how
vulnerable I felt.
But also, it's not wise to driveto push forward and drive when
(03:36):
you you got one foot out thedoor.
I mean, what if my foot had gotdragged under and I have failed
and I mean, he y'all, I'm madjust talking about it.
Mad just talking about it.
So within the last week, both ofthese stories went viral.
Not because they're surprising.
They're not a surprise to any ofus, but because they're familiar
and because they're filmed.
Because we know that this kindof thing happens all the time,
(03:57):
but occasionally things getfilmed.
The question about why are westill not believed when we go
into medical facilities comesup.
Why are we treated likeinconveniences still comes up?
It reminded me of a time, Ithink it was like three or four
years ago, I was dating a guywho was a vet and he had to go
to the hospital for something.
I was like, let me just take ashower and put in my makeup and
do my hair and stuff.
And he was like, What are youtalking about?
(04:18):
I just need to go.
Like he had a I think he had areally bad migraine.
And I was like, Well, I can't goto the hospital as a black woman
looking poor because we're notgonna get treated.
And he was like, What are youtalking about?
This is a black man, by the way.
I was just like, No, I'm let meput myself together.
Like, I'm not gonna go to thehospital in like sweatpants and
sweatshirt looking poor becauseI know how they treat black
women.
And it's sad that I think thatway, but I know that it's true.
(04:39):
Black women still have thehighest mortality rate of any
other developed nation, eventhose with fewer resources.
If you're a black woman inAmerica, there is a chance that
you will die in childbirth thatis a higher chance than any
other developed nation, evenpoorer countries.
That's fed up.
You are three to four times morelikely to die in childbirth here
in 2025 in the richest countryon earth.
(05:01):
We are still not making outalive, and our babies too.
The infant mortality rate forblack babies is
disproportionately high.
And this is not about biology,y'all.
This is neglect.
It's just pure, utter medicalneglect.
It's about bias, like everythingelse in this country.
It's about this lethalassumption that we are
exaggerating, that we are tooemotional, too dramatic, too
(05:22):
much, too little, that we arefine, that we are not in danger
even when we are quite literallybleeding out.
And that pattern is showing upeverywhere.
And I want to give some otherexamples today and talk about
some things that have happenedto me recently as well.
Today I want to talk about thisand our nervous system.
But before I do that, let meintroduce myself.
My name is Grace Sandra.
I'm a writer, activist,advocate, mom, and podcaster
here on how you're trying tosurvive.
(05:43):
Welcome to episode 35.
I want to talk a minute aboutwhat it means to live in a body
that is constantly ignored, notbelieved, manipulated, and
second-guessed.
And I want to talk about whatthat does to the nervous system
because we all know howimportant it is for our nervous
system to be aligned, to becalm, to be at peace, to be at
(06:04):
rest.
For most black women, not all ofus, but for most of us, we are
living in a constant state ofhypervigilance, living in
hypervigilance.
That's not your personality.
You were not born withhypervigilance.
This happened as a result ofconditioning of years and years
of being in an invisible or toovisible body.
It's how we've learned tosurvive.
We get called dramatic.
(06:25):
Hyper awareness is not dramatic.
It is our history of having tobe hyper-aware.
The same way women have to behyper-aware of men and what men
are around us at all times, evenin our home, in our family.
Black women have had to behyper-aware of both men and
white people at all times, evenat home, even within our family
for hundreds of years.
The type of tension that itbuilds up in us, in our chest,
(06:48):
in our shoulders, in our jaw,that's not just stress.
It is the residual effect ofbeing unprotected for most of
your life.
That's why I truly believe, Iknow not everyone agrees with
me, that most black Americanshave complex PTSD, which is when
you've experienced many traumasover the course of many, many
years as opposed to one bigtrauma.
Black women's ancestors weren'tbelieved, our grandmother wasn't
(07:09):
believed, our mothers weren'tbelieved, and now we are not
being believed.
And as a result of that, ourbodies have learned a very, very
sad lesson.
The lesson is if I don'tadvocate for myself like my life
depends on it, I will not besafe.
And my life might actuallydepend on it.
I might not be here no more.
Every time a nurse dismisses ablack woman like that, it's not
just disrespect.
(07:29):
It is a biological threat.
And not just to that blackwoman, but also to the next
generation too, who's being bornunder these circumstances.
That baby should not have beenborn on the side of a goddamn
road when she was in thehospital, contracting, damn near
ready to give birth.
When any random doctor gaslightsyour pain, it reopens every
wound your nervous system hasever had.
(07:51):
When a provider ignores yoursymptoms, your body enters an
instant survival mode.
Because somewhere deep down,there's a voice that black women
know.
And that voice says, if I don'tsee myself scream for myself,
fight and claw for myself,literally no one else will.
That is what generational traumalooks like physiologically.
That is why we age faster,y'all.
(08:12):
That's why we die sooner.
This is why childbirth,something that should be so
sacred and beautiful andlife-giving, has become a
battlefield for so many blackAmerican women, and that's
completely fed up.
So the other day I put up aYouTube short about how I was
graduating from my master'sdegree, which I am graduating on
December 15th, so very shortlysoon.
And I put up some graduationphotos that my son took from me.
(08:34):
He did such a great job.
And y'all, why did this whiteman come on the post and he said
that make you look stupid?
Not even that makes you lookstupid, that make you look
stupid.
Just out of curiosity, I askedhim why.
And he went on this whole thingabout how, as a white man, if he
were to wear a stole that saysstraight white pride, that he'd
be seen as racist and how nobodycares that I'm black and how it
(08:57):
ain't the 1950s no more.
And it was just a whole lot ofridiculousness.
But it just made me think abouthow often when black women
achieve something, how you canbe celebrating, you can be
living in your own excellencejust for a few minutes, right?
I'm just celebrating this.
I get this small window of timeto celebrate that I got my
master's degree through a reallyhard time of life, y'all.
Okay, I've been inperamenopause, I've been
(09:19):
struggling in a lot of differentways.
As a single divorced mom withoutany family, my both my parents
are dead with three childrenfacing very serious mental
health crises in these last fouror five or six years.
I mean, very serious.
Okay, very serious.
Like almost lost my life,honestly, almost unalived myself
in March of 2023.
(09:41):
Have been wrestling throughpoverty and through all of that,
still managed to somehow get adamn master's degree.
So let me have my little fiveminutes to celebrate myself.
And this random white man feltthe need to humble me in the
comments.
And then I posted a TikTok aboutit, sharing his comments, which
I then posted to YouTube, and Igot a lot of different comments
from people.
But one thing that was a threatof what everyone said and what I
(10:02):
believe too is that my joy isperceived as arrogance.
And he actually said that.
He actually literally said, Itmakes it seem like you think
you're better than everyoneelse.
By the way, the stole said blackgirl magic.
That's all it said.
And to him, my pride wasperceived as a threat.
My visibility was seen as aprovocation, which is insane if
you think about it.
Honestly, this is the same kindof entitlement that have white
(10:25):
women thinking or that nursethinking, oh, she's fine.
Oh, I'm sure she's justexaggerating.
Why is she too much?
And we see this over and overagain.
I had a friend recently onFacebook.
She posted a screenshot of heron Facebook dating.
So on Facebook dating, men canrespond to your picture without
matching with you.
On the picture, this guy wrotelike little heart eyes, like
(10:46):
three heart eyes.
And then she wrote back to himand said, Hey sir, how are you
doing?
Or something like that.
And then the next paragraph wasan insane, diabolical paragraph
about how she thinks she'sbetter than everyone else.
She is doing too much, carryingtoo much weight.
I mean, it was insane.
She didn't match with him, shedidn't flirt with him.
(11:06):
All she said was hello.
And he literally just matchedwith her to attack her about a
bunch of random stuff, includingher weight.
You know, you want to say, like,damn, I can't believe that, but
really, I can believe it becausewe've all seen it.
And then also, I'm not on datingapps anymore, but when I was on
dating apps, like, damn, I doremember how often men just go
insane.
Men will literally startaggressive conflict with you
(11:29):
with no provocation whatsoever.
So for some reason he attackedher, specifically about her
weight, but other things too.
For some reason, he felt theneed to establish dominance.
And I really think it just allties together.
It's the same impulse that makesthese medical practitioners
treat black women as if we'reunruly.
It really doesn't matter whatwe're doing.
We could be wearing a black girlmagic stole, we could be eight
(11:50):
minutes away from having a baby,we could just be on a dating app
saying thank you to a guyleaving heart eyes on our
picture.
And we're gonna be treated likewe are somehow dramatic or
wrong.
Because believing us or justletting us have our celebration
or our happiness or our baby orwhatever in peace would be
respecting us.
And for some people, that's justtoo much.
Another example is a guy who's afriend of mine on Facebook, and
(12:13):
this is really sad because wehave been actual friends.
But I saw him say that he's beenmatching with women just to tell
them they're cap.
They're cap, this, they cappingabout this, they capping about
that.
And so I had to go on thiswoman's page and tell her she's
cap, she's cap.
She's the cap of Capperton.
Basically, he was doing whatthis other woman said that a guy
(12:36):
did to her.
He was just matching with womento tell them that they're lying.
I was going to say somethingback to him, but I just decided
to leave it alone.
It made me respect him so muchless because he's a man on
Facebook I've been friends withand I previously respected.
The pathology of entitlementtowards black women just mind in
a black business, and the menthat seek us out just to put us
(12:56):
in our place.
I'm tired.
And what place is that exactly?
The place where we're small, theplace where we're quiet, the
place where we have noaccomplishments, the place where
we're not sexual, the placewhere we're not educated, the
place where we quietly givebirth without bothering you or
your schedule, the place wherewe're just grateful, the place
where we are alwaysnon-confrontational, the place
(13:16):
where we are easily dismissed.
Again, same story, differentarena, different hunger games.
And in the political arena, wehave Marjorie Taylor Green and
the fact that she is resigningfrom Congress, I guess, on
January 5th.
Marjorie Taylor Green, let'sjust call her Marge.
So I've gotta say her whole asslong name.
She has created so much dramaover I don't even know how many
(13:39):
years.
Now she has been against thepresident for one month.
Just one month.
And she compared herself to anabusive wife.
When she said that she wasresigning, she said, I no longer
want to be an abusive wife tothe president's antics and that
she feels afraid for her life.
And so she resigns.
Now look, y'all, I know that theorange demon is evil AF.
(14:00):
I wouldn't put it past him if hefaked the whole ear shooting
thing and let the guy behind himdie just so he could win the
election.
I wouldn't put it past him if heorganized and arranged for the
unaliving of Mr.
Kirk.
Okay, I would not be surprisedat any number of evil things
knowing this man has grapedseveral young girls.
(14:22):
I wouldn't be surprised at anypoint if he really did put a hit
out on merge.
Okay, I wouldn't at all.
But all I'm saying is, oh, to bea white woman and only have to
experience one month of reallyfeeling truly scared for your
life because of the situationsyou've gotten yourself in.
Because I'm just like, girl, youcould never, you could never be
(14:43):
black.
Like never.
Never.
So anyway, Jasmine Crockett, Isaw a little clip of her on a
news doing an interview, and shejust said, like, wow, like I
have been receiving deaththreats and experiencing
everything you've beenexperiencing for years.
And the fact that you cannoteven take it for one month is
crazy.
The difference is for someonelike Marge and white women in
general, mistreatment isoutrageous.
(15:04):
Just grab your pearls.
Outrageous.
Outrageous.
Whereas for black women, it'skind of expected.
And then we're just really like,damn, I got treated really well.
Like, wow, I'm surprised at goodtreatment.
It's sad.
Our disrespect has become sonormalized and predicted.
It's really, really, really aterrible place to be in.
And then somehow we are stillalways expected to respond with
(15:27):
grace and dignity.
It's the same story over andover and over across every
institution, politically,medically, parasocially,
spiritually, sexually.
I mean honestly, all the ways.
These stories really do createan emotional composite of what
it looks like to be a blackwoman in America.
We are unprotected when we arevulnerable.
We are disbelieved when we arein danger.
(15:48):
We are punished when we areconfident.
We are targeted when we arevisible.
We are harassed when we arejoyful.
We are humiliated when we setboundaries, and we are blamed
when we survive.
Yet it's okay for the world tocritique our attitude, our tone,
our strength, our independence,and never really check in on the
type of psychological toil thatthat creates for us.
But look, here's the thing.
(16:09):
I love us so much.
I think we are such a beautifulgroup of humans.
That's why I talk about us allthe time.
Because we still show up, westill push through, we still
giving birth to beautiful blackpeople.
We still creating culture,raising family, leading
movements, surviving systems,softening when we can, and still
getting advanced degrees.
(16:30):
Because let me remind y'all, theblack American woman is the most
educated demographic in all ofAmerica.
We have the most advanceddegrees than any other
demographic.
And we fight when we must.
And that's why I was notexaggerating when I put it on,
when I shared what Jasmine saidon my story.
I literally said she could neversurvive being black.
I wasn't being dramatic.
(16:50):
I'm just being accurate.
I wasn't being a jerk.
It's just true.
The type of resilience thatblack women have to have to
survive what's constantly comingat us when the world is
unbelievably inhospitable.
It really is a beautiful thing.
And unless you're a black woman,you just don't get it.
Sorry.
So if you're a black womanlistening to this right now,
your survival is not apersonality trait, an accident,
(17:14):
or a default setting.
Our survival and our resilienceis a skill and a legacy and a
nervous system that has beencalibrated through centuries of
harm, hope, loss, brilliance,pressure, and love.
And we honestly deserve morethan just survival.
We deserve safety and softness.
We deserve to be believed thefirst time we speak.
We deserve to be held,supported, and protected in
(17:35):
every room that we enter,including the damn delivery
room.
And one day, I pray the countrywill catch up to this, although
I doubt they will.
Because the truth is we don'tsurvive because we're strong.
We survive because there is noother choice.
We have never been given anotherchoice.
Literally.
And no matter what, we keepbringing life into this world.
Spiritually, culturally,politically, creatively.
(17:57):
I mean, America is riding ourcoattails of creativity all the
way to the bank.
Everything black women do isrepackaged and monetized.
All of the way that we talk, ourcultural mannerisms, hell, even
having fuller lips has somehowbecome monetizable and the world
continues to take life from us.
So if you're a black woman, Ijust want to say you're not
(18:17):
imagining the weight, you're nottoo sensitive, you are not
overreacting, your body is justtelling you the truth about what
the world is denying.
That's called being gaslit.
And here in this community, youwill always be believed the
first time.
I know a fair amount of blackwomen who were raised by black
mothers who really taught themhow to move into the world and
really own who they are andprotect themselves.
(18:37):
But I know many, many more whoare raised like me without a
mother who poured into them inthat way.
I was also raised by a whitewoman and definitely she did not
give me any sort of identity asa black woman, even though I
always presented as a littleblack girl.
There was never any confusionabout what I was, except from
white people who knew I wasmixed with something.
But I was never taught to beproud of my blackness or who I
(19:00):
was or how I'd be perceived inthe world.
Certainly not my culture.
And as a result, I moved throughthe world really skittish.
It's taken me the last, I wouldsay, probably 10 or 15 years to
really decide how am I going toapproach this?
How am I going to approach lifeas a black woman in a way that
really honors who I am, whereI'm from, where I've been, and
honestly just sticks up formyself.
(19:22):
And as your elder auntie, I justhave to say that has been a
journey.
That wasn't an overnight thingfor me.
So if you're listening to thisand you're a lot younger than me
and you're not there or youweren't raised in that way, let
me try to pour into you for aminute, sis.
You can get there and you canadvocate for yourself in a very
powerful way.
And you should.
And now as a black mother to myblack daughter, I'm trying so
(19:44):
hard to let her know that she isstrong, that she's beautiful,
that she's smart, that she'swise, that she can take up
space.
As a matter of fact, just theother day, someone told her that
she was too young to understandpolitics and that she shouldn't
have a voice at all because shedoesn't even understand.
And I looked her in her eyeballsand I was like, listen, you are
incredibly smart.
(20:05):
You know what's right fromwrong.
You know that it is evil thatthere are children and people,
innocent children and peoplebeing rounded up violently and
sent off to detention campswhere they're sleeping on the
floor within small tiny cages,like Reverie.
Her name is Revy.
You are old enough to know thatis evil.
And that is what I'm teachingyou.
(20:26):
You have to claim that you aresmart enough and you have a
voice.
It doesn't matter how young youare, don't let nobody ever tell
you that again.
And I feel like she got it.
But it took me till I was likein my late 20s to really feel
that way.
And I pray that my daughterfeels that way so much sooner
because she's nine.
And I have let her know she hascomplete control over her body,
over her mind, and don't letnobody try to control her in any
(20:49):
way.
I am trying my damnedest to giveher the education that I did not
get at all when I was growingup, and that I have fought so
hard for now.
So please, please, please fightfor yourself and fight for
others.
Would you do me a favor?
Would you check to see thatyou're subscribed?
If you're not, please subscribe.
If you're watching on YouTubeand please give this video a
like.
If you're on Apple, go to Appleand follow this podcast.
(21:12):
If you're on Spotify, go toSpotify.
If you're on iHeart, thispodcast is all over.
Wherever you listen to podcasts,whatever you're listening on,
please go ahead and subscribe.
If you're on YouTube, pleaseleave me a comment.
Let me know what really set outto you.
And by the way, for my booklovers, I do have a book called
Grace Actually Memoirs of Love,Faith, Lost, and Black
Womanhood.
This is available on Amazon.
(21:33):
You can get it in Kindle or HardCopy.
It's pretty good if I do say somyself.
If I don't see y'all forThanksgiving, but don't get this
edited before Thanksgiving orafter, I hope you have or had a
wonderful Thanksgiving.
And I'll see y'all on the nextepisode.
Bye.
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The Burden
The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run “Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.