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Episode 305-BACK TO BASICS Also Available OnSearchable Podcast Transcript Gun Lawyer — Episode Transcript Page – 1 – of 9 Gun Lawyer — Episode 305 Transcript SUMMARY KEYWORDS Gun laws, New Jersey, Machine guns, Handguns, Rifles, Shotguns, Assault firearms, Legal exemptions, Carry permits, Firearm ID, Second Amendment, Defensive use, CDC data, Gun rights, Application errors SPEAKERS Evan Nappen, Speaker 2 Evan Nappen 00:18 I’m Evan Nappen, and welcome to Gun Lawyer. So, my cohort in crime, Teddy, will not be joining us on the show today because Teddy is a brand new daddy. That’s right, he’s a father of a beautiful baby girl, which of course makes me a grandfather. Oh my God, I can’t even believe I’m saying that. She is just cute as a button, and I’m not just saying that because it’s my granddaughter. She really is. Her name is Alianna, and we are all so excited and happy about this. I can’t even begin to tell you. But Teddy has got his hands full with his beautiful wife and his beautiful new daughter, so I will be flying solo today with you. Evan Nappen 01:17 at I want to talk about is something important for gun owners in New Jersey to know, and even outside New Jersey. And that is the basics of how New Jersey bans all guns, and then creates a legal system that essentially allows and permits possession by exemption. I think this is why the entire foundation of New Jersey gun laws can eventually be completely wiped out because it takes what is a constitutional right and just reverses how that right is supposed to work. But nonetheless, the law is something you need to understand in New Jersey. And for those who don’t live in New Jersey, you want to understand this so you don’t ever see this happen in your jurisdiction. Evan Nappen 02:18 he place to begin is under New Jersey law, under N.J.S. 2C:39-5 (Unlawful possession of weapons.). Now, the 39-5. gun laws in New Jersey are where you see basically every firearm banned. Then the exemptions get created in two ways that essentially permit limited possession. It’s really insane when you think that a constitutional right is treated in this way, but yet it is. So, let’s take a look, beginning with 39-5., 2C:39-5. Now, subsection a. is a ban on machine guns, and what it says there is that any person who knowingly has in his possession any machine gun or any instrument or device adaptable for use as a machine gun, without being licensed to do so pursuant to (2C:)58-5, is guilty of a crime of the second degree. So, the only way to possess a machine gun in New Jersey is if you have a 58-5. machine gun license, and the machine gun license historically has been an impossibility to obtain. Page – 2 – of 9 Evan Nappen 03:51 But interestingly, I think we’re going to see some serious challenges because the way New Jersey structured this law, the machine gun license required you first to get a carry permit. At the time, virtually no one could get a (New Jersey permit to) carry. Now, over 100,000 Jerseyans and non-residents do have carry permits, and the standard that you’re left with the machine gun license is quite bizarre of having to show somehow it’s in the public interest for you to have it. And that’s absolutely contrary to Bruen, but for now, the number one thing to keep in mind is the machine gun prohibition does not have any other exemptions within New Jersey law. Only this license is the exemption. And when I say no other exemption, I’m talking about for an otherwise law-abiding citizen to possess. There are exemptions for certain military, police, etc. There’s exemptions even for dealers, but we’re not focused on that. We’re focused on other normal, law-abiding, average citizens. So, forget about it for machine guns. Evan Nappen 05:02 But let’s move now to the b. section of 39-5. Now that’s one that applies to a hell of a lot of folks in New Jersey. The b. section of 39-5 is handguns. Listen to how New Jersey bans handguns. New Jersey’s law says: Handguns. Any person who knowingly has in his possession any handgun, including any antique handgun, without having first obtained a permit to carry the same as provided in (2C:)58-4., is guilty of a crime of the second degree. Let that sink in, folks. The only way you can lawfully possess a handgun, possess. We’re not even talking about carry. The only way to lawfully possess that handgun on the face of the statute that prohibits the possession of a handgun is if you have a (New Jersey) permit to carry a handgun. Evan Nappen 06:06 Now I know there are a lot of folks out there that don’t have permits to carry that simply acquired a handgun with a permit to purchase a handgun. So, how can this be? How can you lawfully possess that handgun if you don’t have a carry permit when the statute requires you to have a carry permit? And if you don’t have a carry permit, you’re guilty of unlawful possession of a handgun right on the face of the statute, which is an extraordinarily serious offense. Unlawful possession of a handgun in New Jersey is a second-degree crime. New Jersey doesn’t use the term felony. They use the term crime, but it’s the equivalent of a felony. You can think of it in that way. It carries up to 10 years in State Prison, and it has a minimum mandatory three and a half years under what is called the Graves Act. Where if you’re convicted of unlawful possession of a handgun after a trial, a judge has absolutely zero discretion and must impose at least three and a half years as a minimum component of your sentence with no ability to be paroled. You do every day of that three and a half years before you’re even eligible for parole. Evan Nappen 07:31 So, since you have to have a carry to possess it, what about everyone who doesn’t? Well, the answer to that lies in the exemptions, and we’ll get to the exemptions in a moment because we’re going to talk about exemptions. But right now, we’re just talking about the statute itself that mandates a (New Jersey) carry permit in order to legally possess a handgun. Under subsection c., is rifles and shotguns, and there it says: any person who knowingly has in his possession any rifle or shotgun without having first obtained a firearm purchaser ID card in accordance with (2C:)58-3, is guilty of a crime of the third degree. So, that makes it a third degree crime, up to five years in State Prison, if you have a shotgun or Page – 3 – of 9 rifle without a firearm ID card. The law goes further to say, unless otherwise permitted by law, any person who knowingly has in his possession any loaded rifle or shotgun is guilty of a crime in third degree. So, what about those that possess rifles or shotguns without a firearms ID card? Well, on the face of this statute, you’re looking at up to five years in State Prison. However, we’re going to discuss the exemptions, and the exemptions are critical in understanding how these possessory laws actually work. Even though the exemptions are technically a defense that you, as a law-abiding citizen, can be put to the proofs where you have to prove the defense. Evan Nappen 09:03 Then there’s subsection d. of 39-5. Subsection d. is “other weapons”, and that says: any person who knowingly has in his possession any other weapon under circumstances not manifestly appropriate for such lawful uses as it may have, is guilty of a crime of the fourth degree. So, that’s up to a year and a half in State Prison for any “other weapon”, anything that may be construed as a weapon, if it’s possessed under circumstances not manifestly appropriate for such lawful uses as it may have. Look at that vague, ridiculous language there. So, anything that can be construed to be a weapon, and then the circumstances not manifestly appropriate become subject for a jury trial. So that 12 people who aren’t smart enough to avoid jury duty get to decide whether those circumstances were manifestly appropriate or not. Isn’t that cute? And you need to further know that New Jersey case law, through Kelly and Montalvo, they found that the so-called circumstance is not manifestly appropriate for such lawful uses as it may have. In Kelly, the court specifically found that self-defense was not a manifestly appropriate lawful use. Imagine that! You cannot preemptively arm yourself with a weapon under Kelly. Self-defense doesn’t cut it. But then Kelly got modified with Montalvo. If it’s in your home, if it’s in your home and you have it for self-defense, then the court actually finally came to its senses, at least on that, and said, yeah, self-defense possession in your home is manifestly appropriate circumstances, but not outside the home. So, we still need a case that says outside the home, where you’re lawfully allowed to use self-defense, where you have a right to self-defense. That even outside the home, it’s a manifestly appropriate use for any other weapon. We’ll talk more about that one in the future. Okay, but there you go. Those are the prohibitions. Evan Nappen 11:32 Then, of course, we have the infamous subsection f., and that’s where assault firearms are banned. It says: any person who knowingly has in his possession an assault firearm is guilty of a crime of the second degree. Again, that draconian Graves Act, up to 10 years, minimum mandatory three and a half. Except if the assault firearm is licensed pursuant to (2C:)58-5. And by the way, that’s the same license as a machine gun license, which virtually no one could ever get. Or rendered inoperable, and that render inoperable period went from May of ’90 to May of ’91. And you had to do a rendered inoperable form. If you didn’t do it then, you’re out of the box. You couldn’t do it. Or if it was registered. Again, that registration period expired back in ’90. It may have ’90 to ’91 as well. So, assault firearms became prohibited with no way of making them lawful after May of ’91, unless you could somehow get an assault firearm license, which was a de facto impossibility, a de facto ban. Evan Nappen 12:52 In fact, as determined in the federal court decision Coalition versus Florio that I brought, it was determined that it was a de facto ban. So, that license is known, you know, essentially it was viewed as Page – 4 – of 9 fake in so many words. You know, yeah, good luck. Like it was just structured to be an impossibility and even recognized as such by essentially by the court. So, if you had an assault firearm, there was nothing that could be done there. Exemptions that we’re going to discuss next do not apply to assault firearms. he exemptions only apply to B, C, and D. So remember, B. is the ban on handguns unless you have a (New Jersey) carry permit. C. is a ban on rifles and shotguns unless you have a firearms ID card, and D. is a ban on “other weapons” without manifest lawful purpose. Evan Nappen 13:52 However, what the statute in 39-5 does not reference, but you need to know, is that under N.J.S. 2C:39-6, you will find an entire host of exemptions. There’s exemptions for law enforcement, military, all kinds, tons of exemptions. But the exemptions that have the most bearing to the average, law-abiding citizen, they’re found in subsection e. and subsection f. of the exemptions. Let me read you what these exemptions say. The exemptions say that nothing in subsection b., c., and d. of 39-5, so that is handguns, rifles and shotguns, and other weapons under the 39-5 ban, shall be construed to prevent a person keeping or carrying about the person’s place of business, residence, premises or other land owned or possessed by the person, any firearm, or from carrying the same, in the manner specified in subsection g., which is unloaded and in a case or in the trunk, or in a securely wrapped package, from any place of purchase to the person’s residence or place of business, between the person’s dwelling and place of business, between one place of business or residence and another when moving, or between the person’s dwelling or place of business and place where the firearms are repaired, for the purpose of repair. For the purposes of this section, a place of business shall be deemed to be a fixed location. Evan Nappen 15:42 So, subsection e. of 39-6 exempts law-abiding citizens in New Jersey for possession of handguns, rifles and shotguns, and other weapons in their home, and you do not need a (New Jersey) carry permit. You do not need a firearms ID card. You do not need to have manifest lawful purpose, so-called. As long as you are simply possessing in your home, you are exempted from those requirements under 39-5. It is a law that allows possession by exemption unless one has licenses, and if you have licenses, then you’re exempt under the face of the statute. And if you have a license and you’re within exemption, you have double protection, essentially. And the exemption under subsection e. applies to home. It applies to place of business. Now that means a business you actually own. It’s not just the place you work. It’s got to be your place of business that you own. The courts have narrowly interpreted it to mean that. Not even a place you just manage. You’ve got to be an owner. It’s got to be your business. But if it is, then you have exemption there. You’re exempted for moving between your residences while moving, etc. That’s the exemption under subsection e. Evan Nappen 17:22 Then there’s an exemption under subsection f., and f. again exempts b., c., and d. of 39-5; handguns, rifles and shotguns, and other weapons under 39-5. ere the exemptions say that those prohibitions shall not apply to any member of a rifle or pistol club organized in accordance with the rules prescribed by the National Board for Promotion of Rifle Practice, in going to or from a place of target practice, carrying firearms necessary for target practice, provided the club has filed a copy of its charter with the superintendent and annually submits its list of members to the superintendent, and provided further that Page – 5 – of 9 the firearms are carried in a manner specified in subsection g., which is, of course, cased and unloaded. Evan Nappen 18:08 Here’s another exemption under f. under subsection (2). A person carrying a firearm or knife in the woods or fields, or upon the waters of the state for the purpose of hunting, target practice, or fishing, provided that the firearm is or knife is legal and appropriate for hunting and fishing purposes in the state, and the person has in the person’s possession a valid hunting license, or with respect to freshwater fishing, a valid fishing license. Number three, a person transporting any firearm or knife while traveling directly to or from place for purpose of hunting, fishing, provided you have a valid license, or directly to or from the target range, or other authorized place, for the purpose of practice match target trap skeet shooting expeditions. Provided during that whole time you’re transporting, you’re transporting pursuant to subsection g. Evan Nappen 19:18 So, the takeaway here is how New Jersey bans essentially all guns, and how the matrix is set up so that there are exemptions. Exemptions that we’ve just talked about. But keep in mind that the exemptions are a defense. The burden becomes on the defendant to have to prove that you’re within those exemptions. Otherwise you see bans. Bans that have only exemptions by way of licensing, unless you fall within those specific statutory exemptions. I think that structure is frankly disgusting as to how a constitutional right is and has been treated by New Jersey. But because of that structure, I also believe that we have a fantastic opportunity now as we see the empowerment of the Second Amendment to finally take out and take down the very foundation of New Jersey’s oppressive gun laws. Evan Nappen 20:36 By the way, I want to give you just a little heads up about a threat that is apparently lurking. This is weird and odd. I can’t hammer it down any more than what I’m going to tell you right now. But the news aggregate source called the Daily Caller, some of you may be aware of it, had an article that says “Anti-2A Group Plots New Gun Ban in New Jersey”. (https://dailycaller.com/2026/08/26/anti-2a-group-plots-new-gun-ban-in-blue-state/) This is August 26, 2026, by Harold Hutchison, who is a Second Amendment reporter that says the gun-control organization March for Our Lives, that’s the group headed up by that A one a hole of David Hogg. His group sent out an email fundraiser announcing plans to pass a weapons ban in New Jersey. And reading this is just bizarro. Remember Hogg has made his entire life and career over being a perpetual victim from the Parkland atrocity, and he’s an insane Left wing activist. By the way, if you’ve ever seen the stuff that he puts out. But anyway, this group uses this term “weapons of war”, “weapons of war”, and says, “The proposed weapons ban in New Jersey is a vital step toward getting weapons off our streets and protecting our neighborhoods from preventable tragedy.” This is a fundraiser being done by this group. Evan Nappen 22:49 When you look at the actual screenshot here from March for Our Lives, here’s what this screenshot says. From March for Our Lives. “We’re bumping this to the top of your inbox because we have a genuine, high-impact opportunity to push real gun safety forward — and we can’t afford to miss it. Right now, New Jersey lawmakers have a chance to pass critical legislation banning weapons of war from Page – 6 – of 9 our communities. When our generation first marched in 2018, people told us we were just angry kids who didn’t understand how politics worked. But together, we’ve proved that hope isn’t just a feeling — it’s an action.” And then it goes on to say, “From helping establish first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention to passing landmark federal legislation, we’ve seen what happens when young people organize and demand a better future. Passing this weapons ban in New Jersey isn’t just about one state — it sets a benchmark for the entire nation and proves that progress is unstoppable when we stand together.” Then it all says, “Will you take 10 seconds to add your name and show support for the NJ weapons ban today?” Evan Nappen 24:19 Okay. I’ve got to tell you, folks. I have no clue what the hell they’re talking about. First of all, New Jersey already has the most egregious assault firearm ban on the books and that has just taken a death punch by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals en banc with the magnificent decision wiping it out under the Second Amendment with both mags and guns. Now, granted, it is stayed at the moment because the Supreme Court has also taken up this issue. But what the hell are they talking about? New Jersey’s law is on its deathbed. It’s on life support, barely. Soon to die, and they’re talking about legislators in New Jersey promoting some weapons ban that they’re fundraising on. This is either complete fraud, which who knows with those people, or absolute mistake that they’ve confused states, I guess. Or maybe, just maybe, something else is cooking up in the New Jersey legislature. Maybe they’re tipped off to it, and I can’t find it anywhere. Maybe they’re going to try doing a kicking and screaming routine, just like they did after Bruen permitted carry and made it so New Jersey had to issue carry permits. And maybe now we’re going to see some evil plan after New Jersey’s assault firearm law bites the dust. So, this is maybe a load of B.S. nonsense. But then again, maybe it’s something out there, and we should be ready. hey may be trying to pull another Carry Killeresque maneuver on us. I don’t know, but stay tuned. As soon as we hear about anything that we can pin down, we’ll be sure in letting you know about it on the show. Evan Nappen 26:36 Hey, I want to tell you about our good friends at WeShoot. WeShoot is an indoor range in Lakewood, New Jersey. It’s the range where Teddy and I shoot, and where we train. You’ll love it at WeShoot. It is the greatest range in New Jersey. We just can’t get enough of WeShoot. I know you will really appreciate having a tremendous resource right there in Lakewood, where you can get your training, get your certificates, practice, have state-of-the-art range facilities, a great pro shop, awesome deals on guns and gear. As a matter of fact, they are offering, as we speak, the Canik Mete MC9LS, which is the 2026 Signature Series called “Drip”. It’s pretty cool. You’ve got to see the graphics on the Drip. They also have a Mossberg Silver Reserve Field. Now this is Mossberg’s over and under, very cool, and it’s a great way to get into an over and under shotgun. They also have Precision Firearms, PF15F. That’s your AR-type platform right there at WeShoot. You can go there, check out these guns and so many others. They’re also running their great programs. They have their range safety officers. They’re there with amazing skilled trainers. I’ve got to tell you, folks, make sure you check out WeShoot. You can find them online at weshootusa.com. weshootusa.com. And I know you’re gonna love their website. They’ve got beautiful photography. They really do take extra pride in what they post and how they make their website. You need to check it out and see what I’m what I’m talking about. And their instructors are just fantastic. I have always admired just the unbelievably great professionalism, courtesy, just the way they Page – 7 – of 9 treat their customers. You will be treated like gold at WeShoot. WeShoot is the best. o to WeShootUSA.com. Evan Nappen 29:22 Hey, I also want to not only shamelessly plug my book, which is New Jersey Gun Law, the Bible of Jersey Gun Law. The indispensable guidebook to helping you navigate New Jersey’s insane matrix of gun laws. It’s all set up in a question and answer format. I also want folks to know that the DOJ has opened up the Federal Relief from Disabilities Program. I’ve been waiting 33 years to be able to do this again, and that is be able to get people’s gun rights restored. That have had federal firearm prohibitors. This will restore your federal gun rights, and it is great. We really owe it to the Trump administration for reopening this program that was killed in ’93 by Chuck Schumer. For 33 years, people have been unable to regain their Second Amendment rights under federal law, if they had prohibitors. o, if you or anyone you know might be eligible, go to my website, go to EvanNappen.com. You can buy my book there. You can also read about the federal relief from disabilities. This is very hot, big stuff going on because the online portal is going to open shortly, and you want to be ready. You want to have counsel, and there’s a lot that has to get done so that we can get you in. They’re talking about probably a million people needing to get their rights restored, and it’s going to be quite a logjam. So, the sooner you’re in, the sooner you can get your rights back. I’d highly, highly recommend taking action and checking it out. Go to evannappen.com, and I’ll be happy to speak to you about your specific situation and if it’s applicable for you. Evan Nappen 31:40 Hey, I have some good news, and the good news is that the CDC, you know, the CDC, who’s currently headed by Robert Kennedy, and CDC that is now under the Trump administration. Well, guess what they did, folks? They restored defensive gun use data after Biden scrubbed it and covered it up because they didn’t want that really great important information being out there about how many lives guns save, so the corrupt Biden administration just said we’re not going to talk about it. We’re going to wipe it out. We’re not going to put that out there anymore. We’re only going to talk about guns are bad, and not ever talk about why guns are good. Well, it’s a new day. It’s a new administration, and that information has now been put back. I’m talking about an article here from Ammo and. (https://www.ammoland.com/2026/08/cdc-restores-defensive-gun-use-data/?utm_source=Ammoland+Subscribers&utm_campaign=b4aea4936c-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_6f6fac3eaa-b4aea4936c-21268623) Evan Nappen 32:56 We love AmmoLand, and this article is by John Crump, who is also one of my favorite authors at AmmoLand. John says that under the Biden administration they had removed the data, and the studies have shown that guns were used in self-defense between 60,000 times and 2.5 million times each year. Think about that, folks. 60,000 to 2.5 million times each year, guns are used in self-defense. So, even at the low range, that dwarfs the number of guns used in murders, which is approximately 15,000. Okay, dwarfs it at the lowest numbers. It approaches or exceeds the total number of gun deaths per year, which is around 40,000, according to Pew. The wide range of estimates is because of different methodologies used. So, the lower figure is drawn on the National Crime Victimization Survey, while the higher figures primarily stem from surveys conducted by criminologist Gary Kleck in the 1990s. Page – 8 – of 9 Evan Nappen 34:41 Now, a National Academies of Sciences report commissioned by the CDC itself in 2013, this is a CDC commission study. Referenced this range of 60,000 to 2.5 million defensive gun uses annually. But in 2022, with pressure from anti-gun groups such as the Gun Violence Archive, the Newtown Action Alliance, and GVPedia, in a private meeting, the CDC scrubbed the website of defensive gun use information. Through a Freedom of Information Act, they revealed that the removal was purely political, folks, and this is all according to emails that Senator Grassley obtained. One of these things here argued, and this is quoting from that email in the article by Mr. Crump, and it says. Get a load of this. This is from the antis here. “That 2.5 million number needs to be killed, buried, dug up, killed again, and buried again.” Mark Bryant, executive director of Gun Violence Archives, wrote to the CDC in one of his emails. See that? They don’t like it, man, when you’re showing that guns save lives. We can’t have truth out there. We can’t have the actual information about how people don’t want to be victims but would prefer to be defenders and live. Right? That’s Biden’s administration for you. That’s the corrupt, evil Biden administration for you, removing that information. Trump and his administration have put that data back public so you can see it and you can read it. Keep in mind that’s the CDC removing specific numeral range and the link from their own research, folks. But now, under Trump and Secretary Kennedy, the CDC is returning the statistics to its firearm injury and death page. The restored language again makes it clear, points it out that defensive gun use varies by studies, and it ranges from 60,000 to 2.5 million per year. That is awesome, and that information belongs out there. Evan Nappen 37:43 Hey, let me tell you about this week’s GOFU. GOFUs, as you know, are Gun Owner Fuck Ups. It’s where gun owners make expensive mistakes, real mistakes that I hear about and try to help them. But it’s a chance where you can avoid them for free, and this week’s GOFU has to do with references on your gun application. When you need references, please clear your references in advance. Make sure your references know you’re going to use them as a reference. I’ll tell you, we may have mentioned this before in the past, but it can’t hurt to mention it again. They’re going to get an email requesting to know how long they’ve known you and whether they have any issues with you owning guns. I get cases where people don’t bother to clear it, don’t realize the person is anti-gun and doesn’t think anyone should have a gun, or has some problem being a reference. You don’t want to have that problem. Evan Nappen 38:48 Yet recently, I’ve heard of even a worse problem, and this one is just mind-boggling. I’m still going to put it out there as a GOFU for folks because don’t ever do this. Don’t make up false references. Yeah, I’m not kidding. Do not fill out a gun application with fake references. I can’t believe I even have to say this. But do not fill out a gun application and make up phony references because your phony references are going to be contacted, and that’s called falsification of the application. It’s a crime to do that. Third degree. You’re looking at five years in State Prison. Plus, it’s really stupid, and you’ll get denied your gun license. I mean, okay, do you have to write that one down? Not to put fake references on your application? I hope not, but it’s a GOFU. Make sure you’re good about your references and clear them in advance. Only put real ones down, folks. Page – 9 – of 9 Evan Nappen 39:54 This is Evan Nappen reminding you that gun laws don’t protect honest citizens from criminals. They protect criminals from honest citizens. Speaker 2 40:05 Gun Lawyer is a CounterThink Media production. The music used in this broadcast was managed by Cosmo Music, New York, New York. Reach us by emailing Evan@gun.lawyer. The information and opinions in this broadcast do not constitute legal advice. Consult a licensed attorney in your state. Downloadable PDF TranscriptGun Lawyer S5 E305_Transcript About The HostEvan Nappen, Esq.Known as “America's Gun Lawyer,” Evan Nappen is above all a tireless defender of justice. Author of eight bestselling books and countless articles on firearms, knives, and weapons history and the law, a certified Firearms Instructor, and avid weapons collector and historian with a vast collection that spans almost five decades — it's no wonder he's become the trusted, go-to expert for local, industry and national media outlets. Regularly called on by radio, television and online news media for his commentary and expertise on breaking news Evan has appeared countless shows including Fox News – Judge Jeanine, CNN – Lou Dobbs, Court TV, Real Talk on WOR, It's Your Call with Lyn Doyle, Tom Gresham's Gun Talk, and Cam & Company/NRA News. As a creative arts consultant, he also lends his weapons law and historical expertise to an elite, discerning cadre of movie and television producers and directors, and novelists. He also provides expert testimony and consultations for defense attorneys across America. Email Evan Your Comments and Questions  talkback@gun.lawyer Join Evan's InnerCircleHere's your chance to join an elite group of the Savviest gun and knife owners in America.  Membership is totally FREE and Strictly CONFIDENTIAL.  Just enter your email to start receiving insider news, tips, and other valuable membership benefits.   Email (required) *First Name *Select list(s) to subscribe toInnerCircle Membership Yes, I would like to receive emails from Gun Lawyer Podcast. (You can unsubscribe anytime)Constant Contact Use. Please leave this field blank.var ajaxurl = "https://gun.lawyer/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php";

Jamal Bryant called Nolan Wells' death a lynching on the boy's 19th birthday. He brought cake to the sanctuary. Ben Crump in the pulpit. Spike Lee in a pew. No charging document. Crump's independent autopsy still says undetermined. Jason Whitlock puts Pastor Jamal Bryant's Genesis shout and missing-throat line next to Jussie Smollett. Same empty file. Different pulpit. Parents asked what happened. Bryant sold a sequel. "Harmony." Culture, faith, and the plot hole they covered with hot rhetoric. Watch the three Bryant sound bites they cannot put on paper. ➢ Show Outline 00:00 - Jamal Bryant Calls It a Lynching 00:27 - Judge Denies New Trial in Austin Metcalf Case 01:58 - Jamal Bryant's Sermon on Nolan Wells 04:39 - Comparing Nolan Wells to Emmett Till 07:11 - The Jussie Smollett Comparison 08:02 - Ben Crump Compared to Thurgood Marshall 09:12 - The Scream for Nolan Moment 12:53 - The Church's Role and the Hustle of Death ➢ Follow Our GUESTS https://www.youtube.com/@TheShemekaMichelle  ➢ Subscribe to Jason's other channel https://www.youtube.com/JasonWhitlock?sub_confirmation=1 https://www.youtube.com/@JasonWhitlockHarmony?sub_confirmation=1 https://www.youtube.com/@JasonWhitlockBYOG?sub_confirmation=1 https://www.youtube.com/@JasonWhitlockClips?sub_confirmation=1 ➢ Connect with Jason on Social Media:  https://x.com/JasonWhitlock  https://www.instagram.com/realjasonwhitlock/ https://www.facebook.com/jasonwhitlock ➢ Send Jason an Email FearlessBlazeShow@gmail.com ➢ Support The Blaze Visit https://TheBlaze.com. Explore the all-new ad-free experience and see for yourself how we're standing up against suppression and prioritizing independent journalism. Support Conservative Voices! Subscribe to BlazeTV at https://www.fearlessmission.com and get $20 off your yearly subscription. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

8.13.2026 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: Nolan Wells Family Speaks At NABJ. Jeffries Lays Out Dem Agenda. ICE Spends $20M on Shock Gloves The parents of Nolan Wells, Attorney Ben Crump, and Rev. Al Sharpton discuss the death investigation of Nolan Wells at the National Association of Black Journalist Convention. We'll share the family's side of the story and what Crump says is the main objective is while pursuing justice for Nolan. An attorney general could make history as the first black person to hold statewide office in Nevada if he's successful at the polls in November. He joins us to make his case for governor. A white man threatens to kill black people in a mass shooting and walks away free with no charges. We'll tell you the technicality that got him off the hook. A candidate is running against a racist district attorney in Tarrant County Texas. Can she beat him to bring fairness and justice to the office? We'll talk to her as she tells us her plans on winning the position. Black Star Network Partner: ChapterChapter and its affiliates are not connected with or endorsed by any government entity or the federal Medicare program. Chapter Advisory, LLC represents Medicare Advantage HMO, PPO, and PFFS organizations and stand alone prescription drug plans that have a Medicare contract. Enrollment depends on the plan’s contract renewal. While we have a database of every Medicare plan nationwide and can help you to search among all plans, we have contracts with many but not all plans. As a result, we do not offer every plan available in your area. Currently we represent 50 organizations which offer 18,160 products nationwide. We search and recommend all plans, even those we don’t directly offer. You can contact a licensed Chapter agent to find out the number of products available in your specific area. Please contact Medicare.gov, 1-800-Medicare, or your local State Health Insurance Program (SHIP) to get information on all of your options. ____ Download the Black Star Network app at http://www.blackstarnetwork.com! We're on iOS, AppleTV, Android, AndroidTV, Roku, FireTV, and SamsungTV. The #BlackStarNetwork is a news reporting platform covered under Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Black America is in love with the lynching tree — not the history, the costume. Before the autopsy on Tasia Fortune, Ben Crump was already on X selling Calvary in Jackson. Trey Reed. Cory Zukatis. Same rope myth, different inventory. Tuskegee's own ledger shows the cliff: as America's laws and conscience moved, the rope died. The myth stayed on life support to feed the Crumps. Crump is easy. Our mentality is the problem. Idolatry on His tree. Full mono. ➢ Show Outline 00:00 The Idolatry of the Lynching Tree and the "Crucified" Narrative 0:59 Ben Crump and the Priesthood of the Passion Play 1:25 Case Studies: Selective Outrage in Crump's Cases 3:44 Historical Lynching Statistics and the Decline of the Practice 5:40 The Lynching Myth and its Perpetuation 6:43 The Customer's Appetite: Grievance as an Archetype 9:17 The Problem of Victim Identity and Idolatry 11:09 Christ's Sacrifice vs. Racial Branding 12:11 Rejecting Grievance for Freedom 14:17 Panel: The Tasia Fortune Case and Crump's Actions 16:46 Panel: The Cross, Victimhood, and Responsibility 21:16 Panel: Progress, Symbolic Gestures, and Closing Prayer ➢ Follow Our GUESTS https://www.youtube.com/@TheShemekaMichelle  https://x.com/VirgilWalker ➢ Subscribe to Jason's other channel https://www.youtube.com/JasonWhitlock?sub_confirmation=1 https://www.youtube.com/@JasonWhitlockHarmony?sub_confirmation=1 https://www.youtube.com/@JasonWhitlockBYOG?sub_confirmation=1 https://www.youtube.com/@JasonWhitlockClips?sub_confirmation=1 ➢ Connect with Jason on Social Media:  https://x.com/JasonWhitlock  https://www.instagram.com/realjasonwhitlock/ https://www.facebook.com/jasonwhitlock ➢ Send Jason an Email FearlessBlazeShow@gmail.com ➢ Support The Blaze Visit https://TheBlaze.com. Explore the all-new ad-free experience and see for yourself how we're standing up against suppression and prioritizing independent journalism. Support Conservative Voices! Subscribe to BlazeTV at https://www.fearlessmission.com and get $20 off your yearly subscription. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Fauci pled the fifht 111 times before congress. He's caught critism from several people since last week's Senate hearings. Also, more thoughts on the Nolan Wells case.

The incredible true story of the woman who changed horse racing forever.On this episode of Speaking of Writers, Steve Richards welcomes author Mark Shrager to discuss his compelling new biography, Diane Crump: A Horse Racing Pioneer's Life in the Saddle.Discover how Diane Crump became the first woman to compete in an official Thoroughbred race in America and the first woman to ride in the Kentucky Derby, overcoming discrimination, threats, and enormous obstacles to forever change the "Sport of Kings."A fascinating conversation about sports history, courage, women's rights, and one extraordinary athlete.Subscribe for more author interviews from the Keeneland Library Lecture Series.#SpeakingOfWriters #KeenelandLibrary #MarkShrager #DianeCrump #HorseRacing #KentuckyDerby #WomenInSports #SportsHistory #Biography #ThoroughbredRacing #HorseBooks #AuthorInterview #Podcast #BookPodcast #SteveRichards #WomenTrailblazers #HistoryPodcast #Equestrian #Books

Are you full of information but starving for the truth? In this powerful message, guest speaker Pastor Leonce challenges us to evaluate how we consume content in our modern world. We live in an age where podcasts, hot takes, and algorithms constantly fight for our attention, but information alone cannot spiritually form us. Pastor Leonce unpacks why the Bible isn't just an ancient playbook or an emergency parachute—it is essential for our daily survival. Whether you are brand new to faith, carrying hurt from how the Bible has been misused against you, or feeling numb after years in the church, this message is a profound invitation to come back to the table and hear God's voice.

Ben Crump put Nolan Wells on a National Urban League stage in Nashville the same week Mississippi pressure flipped from cable noise to lawyers. Three open files. One racial screenplay. Zero murder charges. Jason Whitlock breaks down what the Urban League is actually for — jobs, housing, schools — and why a Gulf Coast drowning doesn't need a convention hall. Clarence Thomas and Thomas Sowell vs. grief as inventory. Receipts from the full presser inside. ➢ Show Outline 00:00 Ben Crump's Lawsuits and the Grievance Roadshow 02:06 What the National Urban League Is Supposed to Stand For 03:36 The Nolan Wells Case and Crump's Grief Circus 05:07 Racial Gaslighting: Comparing Everything to George Floyd 08:37 Crump Profits From Black Pain 10:18 The Tables Turn: Defamation Lawsuits Against Crump 12:59 The Alex Jones Parallel and Civil Court Accountability 14:29 The National Urban League Has Hijacked Its Mission 16:46 Virgil Walker: Crump Is Damaging Black Communities 21:38 Could Crump End Up on the Supreme Court? 23:01 Black Leadership Is Failing the Discernment Test 27:07 The Feminization of Black Culture and Emotional Reasoning ➢ Follow Our GUESTS https://x.com/VirgilWalker ➢ Subscribe to Jason's other channel https://www.youtube.com/JasonWhitlock?sub_confirmation=1 https://www.youtube.com/@JasonWhitlockHarmony?sub_confirmation=1 https://www.youtube.com/@JasonWhitlockBYOG?sub_confirmation=1 https://www.youtube.com/@JasonWhitlockClips?sub_confirmation=1 ➢ Connect with Jason on Social Media:  https://x.com/JasonWhitlock  https://www.instagram.com/realjasonwhitlock/ https://www.facebook.com/jasonwhitlock ➢ Send Jason an Email FearlessBlazeShow@gmail.com ➢ Support The Blaze Visit https://TheBlaze.com. Explore the all-new ad-free experience and see for yourself how we're standing up against suppression and prioritizing independent journalism. Support Conservative Voices! Subscribe to BlazeTV at https://www.fearlessmission.com and get $20 off your yearly subscription. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ben Crump knew Nolan Wells had been drinking before he drowned off Horn Island near Ocean Springs, Mississippi — a July 5 government document said so. This week, ABC News and TMZ confirmed it. So why did Crump fly to Chicago and manufacture a race crime? Jason Whitlock exposes the Ben Crump playbook, from Trayvon Martin and Rachel Jeantel in 2012 to "hands up, don't shoot" in Ferguson and the Nolan Wells autopsy today. Crump is the Pusherman — selling racial grievance for profit. Booker T. Washington named him in 1911. ➢ Show Outline 00:00 Ben Crump Knew the Truth About Nolan Wells 01:20 Crump as the Pusher Man of Racial Grievance 03:28 The Product He Sells: Destruction of Trust 06:15 Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and the Hands Up Lie 09:35 Crump Can't Even Read the Autopsy Report 11:39 Who Pays the Real Price for the Pusher Man 13:21 Booker T. Washington Predicted Ben Crump 15:17 The Nolan Wells Racial Hoax 20:17 Is Ben Crump a Plant? ➢ Follow Our GUESTS https://www.youtube.com/@TheShemekaMichelle  ➢ Subscribe to Jason's other channel https://www.youtube.com/JasonWhitlock?sub_confirmation=1 https://www.youtube.com/@JasonWhitlockHarmony?sub_confirmation=1 https://www.youtube.com/@JasonWhitlockBYOG?sub_confirmation=1 https://www.youtube.com/@JasonWhitlockClips?sub_confirmation=1 ➢ Connect with Jason on Social Media:  https://x.com/JasonWhitlock  https://www.instagram.com/realjasonwhitlock/ https://www.facebook.com/jasonwhitlock ➢ Send Jason an Email FearlessBlazeShow@gmail.com ➢ Support The Blaze Visit https://TheBlaze.com. Explore the all-new ad-free experience and see for yourself how we're standing up against suppression and prioritizing independent journalism. Support Conservative Voices! Subscribe to BlazeTV at https://www.fearlessmission.com and get $20 off your yearly subscription. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

(This is a Replay)David Crump is a four-time KLF Referring Attorney (RA) in Tractor-Trailer, Premises, and Medical Malpractice, and has been involved in Edge since early 2020. He is a KTI Graduate, Masters Graduate, and teaches the Closing – Damages college.  David is here to share about The Many Benefits of Being an RA with the Keenan Law Firm.Contact David Crump atEmail: david@davidcrump.comPhone:  206.920.7815Fax:       206.971.1658 https://davidcrump.comTo learn more about the Keenan Case Presentation System, click on this link:https://www.keenancps.com/And on your Apple device you can download the KCPS App for FREE:https://apps.apple.com/us/app/case-presentation-system/id1541913706Want to listen to more episodes? Or did you miss out on last week's episode? We're now live on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. You can also find us on the Keenan Trial Institute website at https://keenantrialinstitute.com/podcast/

Nobody has to push someone off a boat for a death to become a crime. Prosecutors may be about to test that with the Nolan Wells case. Nolan was eighteen, a wide receiver at Southwest Mississippi Community College from Ocean Springs, Mississippi. On the Fourth of July, he and a group of friends took a boat out to Horn Island, an uninhabited barrier island roughly ten miles off the Mississippi coast. He was last seen there around three in the afternoon. His friends left without him. A National Park Service ranger recovered his body two mornings later, off the island's northwestern tip. Officials initially said they believed Nolan drowned and that they didn't suspect foul play, before the autopsy was even complete. That same office has since said investigators are working diligently to determine exactly what occurred, a statement that sits uneasily next to the first one. District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath has told the family the case will go to a grand jury once the investigation wraps. What twelve jurors do with a death that has never been formally classified, and whether leaving a person behind on an island can amount to a crime on its own, is the question at the center of this one. Attorney Ben Crump says Nolan's friends had his phone after leaving the island, and that messages had been deleted by the time the family got it back. Crump's experts and Jackson County investigators have agreed to examine the device together. The family has also arranged its own independent autopsy in Washington, D.C., separate from the one performed by the Mississippi State Medical Examiner's Office. Neither result has been released. Two autopsies, a missing chunk of texts, and a legal theory nobody has tested yet. Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePod This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. Hashtags #NolanWells #BenCrump #TrueCrimeToday #TrueCrime #HornIsland #GrandJury #JacksonCountyMS #MississippiNews #JusticeForNolan #IndependentAutopsy 

Nolan Wells' family's attorney Ben Crump announces preliminary results from the independent autopsy ordered by the 18 year-old's family following his death after disappearing on July 4th following a boating trip to Horn Island. Crump notes that Wells' organs were not all turned over for the independent autopsy following the initial autopsy. 

Monica Crump, Leabharlannaí Ollscoil na Gaillimhe, & Breda Ní Chonghaile maor sa leabharlann, ag labhairt faoin leabharlann nua atá le h-oscailt istigh ansin.

From the NAACP convention in Chicago: the cases of Nolan Wells and Karmelo Anthony have raised concerns about the treatment of Black youth and the narratives that shape public perception before due process can take its course. Black communities question whether the systems designed to protect them are working fairly and equitably. From the stage, Larry Hoover’s mother makes a plea for his clemency. Larry is a reformed man who served 50+ years in prison for his role founding the Gangster Disciples. Remember the church protest in Minneapolis that got Don Lemon and Georgia Fort arrested? They aren’t the only ones facing B.S. charges… We’ll hear from student activist Jerome Richardson. And civil rights attorney Ben Crump has represented the family of Nolan Wells, George Floyd, Trayvon Martin, and others. Crump pushes these cases forward even after national attention has moved on. Join hosts Angela Rye, Bakari Sellers, and Andrew Gillum for episode 141 of Native Land Pod, in conjunction with the 117th NAACP National Convention. GUESTS Derrick Johnson – NAACP President & CEO Ben Crump – Civil Rights Attorney Jerome Richardson – Activist Winndye Jenkins-Hoover – Community Activist LINKS AND RESOURCES Volunteer with the NAACP: https://naacp.org/volunteer Support Jermoe Richardson’s Legal Defense Fund: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-jerome-richardsons-legal-defense Learn more about Larry Hoover: https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/05/15/street-gang-leader-larry-hoover-clemency-bid-gov-jb-pritzker/ Learn more about the NAACP Convention: https://naacp.org/convention SUBMIT A QUESTION Have a question for our hosts? Send a 60-second video to @nativelandpod and they may answer it on the show! Tutorial video for submitting questions: http://www.instagram.com/reel/C5j_oBXLIg0/ We are 103 days away from the midterm elections. Welcome home y’all! —--------- We want to hear from you! Send us a video @nativelandpod and we may feature you on the podcast. Instagram X/Twitter Facebook NativeLandPod.com Watch full episodes of Native Land Pod here on YouTube. Native Land Pod is brought to you by Reasoned Choice Media. Thank you to the Native Land Pod team: Angela Rye as host, executive producer, and cofounder of Reasoned Choice Media; Andrew Gillum as host and producer, Bakari Sellers as host and producer, and Lauren Hansen as executive producer; LoLo Smith is our research producer, and Nikolas Harter is our editor and producer. Special thanks to Chris Morrow and Lenard McKelvey, co-founders of Reasoned Choice Media. Theme music created by Daniel Laurent.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Everyone assumes Nolan Wells' phone will prove his friends did something wrong. What if it proves they didn't?The phone and keys that came back from Horn Island without Nolan are headed for a joint forensic inspection — Crump's team, the DA's office, and the FBI all examining the same device. The results will show one of three things: someone manually deleted Snapchat messages, the phone sat idle because Nolan wasn't using it, or the app's built-in auto-delete functions ran on schedule.Two of those outcomes are innocent. Only one suggests tampering. And a forensic examiner can tell the difference at the data level — deleted files leave gaps, timestamp mismatches, and cached fragments that clean inactivity doesn't produce.This episode walks through the phone's full chain of custody, explains how cell tower cross-referencing works across multiple devices, and confronts the real possibility that the digital evidence supports the friends' account. If the location data matches their timeline and the Snapchat absence is just a teenager who left his phone on the boat, the phone tells that story too. The family is owed whichever answer the data contains — not the answer the internet decided on before the evidence was examined.END_LINKSJoin Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodDisclaimerThis publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.Hashtags#NolanWells #ChristineWonsley #HiddenKillers #TrueCrime #HornIsland #Mississippi #BenCrump #DigitalForensics #GrandJury #TrueCrimePodcast

Ben Crump heads to the NAACP conference in Chicago to disclose the independent autopsy report in the Nolan Wells case, no Mississippi. Crump continues to stoke racial tension without many real facts.

Trump and Beyoncé are the reigning champions of followers. When a young Black Man dies, people think Benny Crump. Todays episode I discuss how to gain a following. Listen and subscribe

Megyn Kelly begins the show by breaking down the latest developments in the death of 18-year-old Mississippi teen Nolan Wells, the evidence that points to drowning, the major questions that are still remaining about what may have happened, the introduction of race into the story through Benjamin Crump and Al Sharpton, and more. Then Caitlyn Becker, host of "NY POSTcast," joins to discuss the release of Nolan Wells' family's private autopsy results, why the cause and manner of death remain undetermined, the contemptible way Crump and Sharpton are pushing a racial narrative, social media posts and a key image connected to the Nolan Wells mystery, why investigators are still awaiting a full autopsy and complete investigation, and more. Then Dave Aronberg, host of The MK True Crime Show, Matt Murphy, host of In The Well, and Arthur Aidala, host of The Arthur Aidala Power Hour, join to discuss how Ben Crump and Al Sharpton are undermining the Nolan Wells case, the total lack of evidence of a crime, Karmelo Anthony's lawyers' attempt at getting him a new trial, their claims about an "off the record" gentleman's agreement that prosecutors violated, the crucial question of why Anthony didn't testify in his defense, new exclusive reporting about why Sunny Hostin's son was handcuffed after allegedly trespassing on railroad tracks, Hostin was using her "privilege" to get him out of trouble, Timothy Busfield's strange comment in court about his potential misconduct with young boys, whether prosecutors will and should drop the charges, and more.   Subscribe to MK True Crime to find ALL the shows: Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mk-true-crime/id1829831499 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4o80I2RSC2NvY51TIaKkJW YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MKTrueCrime?sub_confirmation=1     Becker- https://nypost.com/ny-postcast/ Aidala- https://am970theanswer.com/radioshow/the-arthur-aidala-power-hour Aronberg: https://substack.com/@davearonberg Murphy: https://www.instagram.com/mattmurphylaw   Supersure Insurance: Upgrade your business insurance to a year-round SuperAgency at https://Supersure.com/Megyn Relief Factor: Reclaim your mobility and celebrate your freedom from aches this year by grabbing your $17.76 3-week QuickStart at https://ReliefFactor.com or by calling 800-4-RELIEF. Birch Gold: Text MK to 989898 and get your free info kit on gold Byrna: Go to https://Byrna.com or your local Sportsman's Warehouse today.     Follow The Megyn Kelly Show on all social platforms: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/MegynKelly Twitter: http://Twitter.com/MegynKellyShow Instagram: http://Instagram.com/MegynKellyShow Facebook: http://Facebook.com/MegynKellyShow Find out more information at:https://www.devilmaycaremedia.com/megynkellyshow Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Three days after Nolan Wells' body was found, Ben Crump flew to New York for a press conference with Al Sharpton. Then the circus moved to Mississippi, where Sharpton eulogized a boy he never knew. And this morning it landed in Chicago — where Crump announced the autopsy HE paid for from the stage of the NAACP Convention. Along the way, he has picked up a band: Tyler Perry, Spike Lee, Terrell Owens, Hakeem Jeffries, and Stephen A. Smith. Jason Whitlock breaks down how a family's tragedy became a three-city traveling road show — and why the louder the circus gets, the farther justice slips away. ➢ Show Outline 00:00 - The Emmett Till Playbook 01:00 - The Circus Begins 01:46 - What We Know About Nolan Wells 03:18 - The Tour Dates of the Circus 05:17 - Following the Money Trail 06:14 - The Assembled Band 07:20 - Stephen A. Smith's Misstep 08:13 - The Machine and the Narrative 10:07 - The Parents at the Center 11:49 - The Biblical Perspective 12:25 - Truth Versus the Circus 13:12 - Justice for Nolan Wells 14:08 - Ben Crump's Press Conference 15:28 - Ben Crump's Speech 20:56 - Shamika's Reaction 22:57 - Virgil's Disgust 27:38 - Grief and Ministry 35:20 - The Parents' Search for Meaning 37:26 - Shamika on the Mother's Actions 39:44 - The Mother's Faith Walk 40:56 - Virgil's Final Thoughts ➢ Follow Our GUESTS⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@AnthonyWalker1 https://www.youtube.com/@TheShemekaMichelle  https://x.com/VirgilWalker ➢ Subscribe to Jason's other channel ⁠https://www.youtube.com/JasonWhitlock?sub_confirmation=1⁠ ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@JasonWhitlockHarmony?sub_confirmation=1⁠ ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@JasonWhitlockBYOG?sub_confirmation=1⁠ ➢ Connect with Jason on Social Media:  ⁠https://x.com/JasonWhitlock⁠  ⁠https://www.instagram.com/realjasonwhitlock/⁠ ⁠https://www.facebook.com/jasonwhitlock⁠ ➢ Send Jason an Email FearlessBlazeShow@gmail.com ➢ Support The Blaze Visit ⁠https://TheBlaze.com⁠. Explore the all-new ad-free experience and see for yourself how we're standing up against suppression and prioritizing independent journalism. Support Conservative Voices! Subscribe to BlazeTV at https://www.fearlessmission.com and get $20 off your yearly subscription. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Al Sharpton and Ben Crump flew into Mississippi, hijacked 18-year-old Nolan Wells' funeral, and launched a shakedown targeting the state of Mississippi — and Jason Whitlock is calling it exactly what it is. This is the Jesse Jackson playbook, documented in Kenneth Timmerman's 2002 book "Shakedown," now being run by carpetbaggers who never knew Nolan Wells a single day in his life. Sharpton compared Wells to Emmett Till, Ben Crump is manufacturing a racial crisis, and Tyler Perry is already writing checks. The goal? A government contract for Sharpton's National Action Network. Jason Whitlock exposes the Mississippi looting, confronts a false prophet hiding behind a collar, and delivers the biblical reckoning Rev. Al Sharpton deserves.  ➢ Show Outline 00:00 - Mississippi Burning to Mississippi Looting 01:13 The Jesse Jackson Playbook 02:57 Sharpton and Crump's Upgraded Formula 04:49 The Death of Nolan Wells 05:57 The Emmett Till Comparison 06:58 Sharpton's Actions from a Biblical Perspective 10:18 Tyler Perry and the Broader Narrative 10:49 Why Mississippi Is the Target 12:25 The Wells Family Deserves Answers 14:13 The Narrative of Systemic Racism 17:27 Oppression, Culture, and Biblical Values 18:23 The Civil Rights Industry and Narrative Control 21:24 Will Sharpton and Crump Apologize? 22:48 The Bounty for Lies 26:02 The Deception of the Civil Rights Movement 29:41 Infantilism in the Black Community ➢ Follow Our GUESTS https://www.youtube.com/@ChadOJackson ➢ Subscribe to Jason's other channel https://www.youtube.com/JasonWhitlock?sub_confirmation=1 https://www.youtube.com/@JasonWhitlockHarmony?sub_confirmation=1 https://www.youtube.com/@JasonWhitlockBYOG?sub_confirmation=1 https://www.youtube.com/@JasonWhitlockClips?sub_confirmation=1 ➢ Connect with Jason on Social Media: https://x.com/JasonWhitlock https://www.instagram.com/realjasonwhitlock/ https://www.facebook.com/jasonwhitlock ➢ Send Jason an Email FearlessBlazeShow@gmail.com ➢ Support The Blaze Visit https://TheBlaze.com. Explore the all-new ad-free experience and see for yourself how we're standing up against suppression and prioritizing independent journalism. Support Conservative Voices! Subscribe to BlazeTV at https://www.fearlessmission.com and get $20 off your yearly subscription. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Everything in the Nolan Wells case is now stacked behind a grand jury, and that grand jury is waiting on findings nobody has released. Two examinations exist. One from the Mississippi State Medical Examiner's Office, one arranged by the family's attorneys, who sent the eighteen-year-old's body to Washington, D.C. Neither has been made public. Cause and manner of death remain undetermined.Tony Brueski takes the mailbag on the back half of this case — the procedural half, which the audience has turned into something more personal than procedure.The questions go straight at what a grand jury can do with a death that has never been formally classified. Whether leaving somebody behind on a barrier island ten miles offshore is a crime in Mississippi or simply a thing everyone involved has to carry. What happens on the day two examinations of the same young man say two different things.Then the credibility problem: why officials said they believed Nolan drowned and didn't suspect foul play before a completed autopsy existed — and why that same office has since emphasized that investigators are working diligently to determine exactly what occurred.Attorney Ben Crump has said Nolan's friends took his phone with them when they left Horn Island and that messages had been deleted by the time the family got it back. Crump's team and Jackson County investigators agreed to inspect the phone together.District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath has told the family the case goes to a grand jury once the investigation is complete.Until then, a family in Ocean Springs is waiting on paperwork.END_LINKS:Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodDisclaimer:This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.Hashtags:#NolanWells #BenCrump #TrueCrimeToday #JusticeForNolan #JacksonCountyMS #MississippiNews #GrandJury #TrueCrime #TrueCrimePodcast #IndependentAutopsy

A second autopsy is supposed to be a backstop. In the Nolan Wells case it has become the whole argument — because the family arranged one, sent their eighteen-year-old's body to Washington, D.C. for it, and still doesn't have an answer.Neither examination has been released. Not the one done by the Mississippi State Medical Examiner's Office, and not the one the family paid for. Cause and manner of death remain undetermined. Attorney Ben Crump initially suggested the independent findings would land quickly, then said he hoped to share them soon.Tony Brueski takes the mailbag on the credibility collapse in this case. Investigators signaled early that they believed Nolan drowned and did not suspect foul play — before there was a finished autopsy to point at. The sheriff's office has since underscored that the work of determining exactly what occurred is ongoing.Then there's the device. Crump has said Nolan's friends carried his phone off Horn Island and that when the family received it, messages had been deleted. Crump's specialists and county investigators agreed to inspect it jointly.The questions in this episode go where nobody official will. What if the two examinations disagree. Who wins that fight. Whether a grand jury can indict anyone for a death that has never been formally classified. District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath has said the case goes to a grand jury once the investigation is complete.And the harder question under that: whether anything that happened on that island is chargeable at all, or whether the worst outcome here is a young man dying and the law having nothing to say about it.The family already answered one question by shipping their son out of state.END_LINKS:Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodDisclaimer:This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.Hashtags:#NolanWells #BenCrump #HiddenKillers #JusticeForNolan #JacksonCountyMS #MississippiNews #GrandJury #TrueCrime #TrueCrimePodcast #IndependentAutopsy

There are two examinations of Nolan Wells and nobody outside a very small circle knows what either one says. The Mississippi State Medical Examiner's Office handled the first. The family's legal team arranged the second, sending his body to Washington, D.C.Live, Tony Brueski works through the mailbag on that split — and the biggest question is the collision nobody wants to name out loud. If those two examinations don't match, what happens next? Whose science gets believed? Who decides?Neither result has been released. Cause and manner of death for the eighteen-year-old Ocean Springs athlete remain undetermined. Attorney Ben Crump indicated early on that the independent results would come quickly, and later said he hoped to share them soon.Underneath it all is the credibility problem. Officials said they believed Nolan drowned and did not suspect foul play at a point when no completed autopsy existed. The same sheriff's office has stressed that investigators are working diligently to determine exactly what occurred. Those two positions have been sitting side by side for weeks.There's the phone, too — carried off the island by his friends, according to Crump, and returned to the family with messages deleted, also according to Crump. His experts and county investigators agreed to a mutual inspection of the device.District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath has told the Wells family the case will be presented to a grand jury once the investigation wraps. What charges look like when nobody will officially classify the death — and whether leaving someone behind on a barrier island ten miles out is a crime or just a regret — is what the mailbag keeps circling.Bring your questions. This one is about what's in those two envelopes.END_LINKS:Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodDisclaimer:This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.Hashtags:#NolanWells #BenCrump #HiddenKillersLive #JusticeForNolan #JacksonCountyMS #MississippiNews #GrandJury #TrueCrime #TrueCrimePodcast #IndependentAutopsy

An eighteen-year-old went to Horn Island with friends on the Fourth of July. His friends came home. He didn't. When his body was found two days later, the questions started — and the answers from the people who were with him kept shifting.Nolan Wells' family alleges his Snapchat accounts were wiped clean after his death. The FBI is examining digital evidence. More than sixty witnesses have been interviewed. And the friends who left Nolan on a federally protected barrier island without a phone, water, or any way off are providing investigators with accounts that don't match each other.Retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer breaks it down with Tony and Robin. She digs into why conflicting accounts from witnesses this early in an investigation are a red flag, what the FBI's involvement actually looks like when the local sheriff maintains primary jurisdiction, and whether the public's polarization — some calling it a tragic accident, others pointing to something deliberate — is helping or hurting the search for truth.Attorney Ben Crump has launched an independent investigation after his team identified contradictions in the case. Crump announced the findings will go before a grand jury. Meanwhile, the cause and manner of Nolan Wells' death still have not been released.The friends who were there that day hold the answers. The question is whether their answers will ever match.Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodThis publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.#NolanWells #HornIsland #HiddenKillers #JenniferCoffindaffer #FBI #OceanSprings #Mississippi #TrueCrime #Justice #FourthOfJuly

Doom & gloom? Nolan Wells speculation. Trump address: Elections. "Deep state"? Stories in Baltimore, Newark, Charlotte.

Before the autopsy was finalized, before the FBI finished examining the digital evidence, before the investigation reached any conclusion, one of Nolan Wells' friends went on Good Morning America and then sat down with Rolling Stone to publicly tell his story. Defense attorney and former prosecutor Eric Faddis asks the question that matters: does an innocent person do a national media tour during an active investigation, or does that tell you something about what they're trying to control?The friends have attorneys. The family has Ben Crump. The family is running its own parallel investigation with private forensics examiners and a commissioned autopsy. And one detail that Crump has highlighted shifts the entire frame: the friends didn't voluntarily disclose that they had Nolan's phone and keys after his death. The family tracked the phone with Life360 and recovered it themselves.Faddis walks through every decision being made by every person connected to this case — what the friends should be doing if they genuinely want the truth, what the family's shadow investigation helps and hurts, and what everyone should be preparing for if the investigation ends without charges and a civil lawsuit follows. The Lauren Agee case provides the roadmap. Tony Brueski, Robin, and Eric Faddis on True Crime Today.—Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodThis publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.#NolanWells #HornIsland #TrueCrimeToday #TrueCrime #EricFaddis #OceanSprings #Mississippi #JusticeForNolan #FourthOfJuly #Investigation

An eighteen-year-old went to Horn Island with friends. He never came back. And before the investigation was complete, one of those friends appeared on national television and then sat down with a national magazine to tell his version of what happened. Defense attorney and former prosecutor Eric Faddis weighs in on whether that decision helps the truth or buries it — and what it costs when a witness starts building a public record of statements while the evidence is still being processed.All three friends lawyered up. The family has Ben Crump and a full parallel investigation running — their own autopsy, their own phone forensics, private investigators pulling dozens of witness calls a day. Crump has pointed to one detail that cuts through everything else: the friends had Nolan's phone and keys and didn't tell investigators. The family had to track the phone using Life360 and go get it themselves.Faddis breaks down the behavior of every party in the case through a former prosecutor's lens. What the friends should be doing if they're innocent. What the family's shadow investigation means for the official one. And what the Lauren Agee case — where friends invoked the Fifth Amendment in civil depositions after no criminal charges — tells us about what everyone connected to this case should be preparing for. Tony Brueski, Robin, and Eric Faddis break it all down live.—Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspodX Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodThis publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.#NolanWells #HornIsland #HiddenKillersLive #TrueCrime #EricFaddis #OceanSprings #Mississippi #JusticeForNolan #Investigation #FourthOfJuly

Ben Crump started the fire around Nolan Wells' tragic death, and now Crump is pouring gasoline on it with unverified claims and a documented history of going silent when the facts don't cooperate. Jason Whitlock isn't buying it. When powerful men exploit tragedy for profit and politicians weaponize grief for leverage, someone has to tell the truth. The Bible calls it bearing false witness. Jason calls it a grievance business model that destroys communities and corrupts justice. Who's really fighting for Nolan Wells? And who's just fighting for the cameras? Jason walks you through Crump's sordid history of race-baiting. ➢ Show Outline 00:00 - Sarah Fields, Ben Crump & the Nolan Wells Case 00:56 - Reading Sarah Fields' Thread on Ben Crump 03:11 - The McKay Bryant Case and Disputed Claims 04:13 - Michael Brown, Trey Reed & a Repeated Pattern 06:04 - Jacob Blake, Jalen Randle & Daniel Holtzclaw 07:29 - Ben Crump's Involvement in the Nolan Wells Investigation 09:13 - Why Whitlock Says Crump Avoids Accountability 11:33 - Tamir Rice's Mother Criticizes Ben Crump 13:45 - What the Tamir Rice Interview Reveals 15:48 - Replaying Ben Crump's Courtroom Reading Clip 17:31 - Media Figures, Racial Division & the “Plant” Argument 19:09 - Stephen A. Smith, BYU & Don Staley 22:17 - Why Whitlock Says Division Is Intentional 23:06 - GhostBed Sponsor Message 24:12 - Closing Remarks ➢ Follow Our GUESTS https://www.youtube.com/@KTVwatch https://www.youtube.com/@dapopebfrank2265  ➢ Subscribe to Jason's other channel https://www.youtube.com/JasonWhitlock?sub_confirmation=1 https://www.youtube.com/@JasonWhitlockHarmony?sub_confirmation=1 https://www.youtube.com/@JasonWhitlockBYOG?sub_confirmation=1 https://www.youtube.com/@JasonWhitlockClips?sub_confirmation=1 ➢ Connect with Jason on Social Media:  https://x.com/JasonWhitlock  https://www.instagram.com/realjasonwhitlock/ https://www.facebook.com/jasonwhitlock ➢ Send Jason an Email FearlessBlazeShow@gmail.com ➢ Support The Blaze Visit https://TheBlaze.com. Explore the all-new ad-free experience and see for yourself how we're standing up against suppression and prioritizing independent journalism. Support Conservative Voices! Subscribe to BlazeTV at https://www.fearlessmission.com and get $20 off your yearly subscription. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Three friends left Nolan Wells on an uninhabited barrier island and came home with his phone. Their version of what happened doesn't match the only other witness. And every detail that's surfaced since points the same direction — people protecting themselves, not a teenager who chose to stay behind.The phone was at the house of the family that owned the boat. Both Snapchat accounts were wiped. The Life360 data didn't match the Snapchat locations his friends were showing that night. A video went viral that millions assumed showed Nolan in an altercation — but his best friend says he's not sure it's Nolan, and another friend went on record claiming it's his own voice, not Nolan's. Crump disagrees. The video is disputed. The phone is not.The Coast Guard got a missing person report at 11 PM on July 4th and said it "did not require assistance." The formal search didn't start until after noon the next day. The sheriff said "no foul play" before any autopsy. Nolan's father and his football coach were out searching the island on a borrowed boat hours before anyone with a helicopter decided to look.Hundreds marched through Ocean Springs demanding answers. Both autopsy results are still pending. And the phone that could tell everyone what happened that day is sitting with the family's lawyers because they don't trust the investigation to handle it.Join Our SubStack For AD-FREE ADVANCE EPISODES & EXTRAS!: https://hiddenkillers.substack.com/ Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video? Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8-vxmbhTxxG10sO1izODJg?sub_confirmation=1 Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/ Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod X Twitter https://x.com/TrueCrimePodThis publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice.#NolanWells #ChristineWonsley #HiddenKillers #HornIsland #OceanSprings #BenCrump #Mississippi #JusticeForNolan #FourthOfJuly #TrueCrime

Jason Whitlock plays the receipts. Ben Crump can't read basic English. Jasmine Crockett is spewing anti-white bigotry. Comedian Damona Love is on video telling black kids to shoot police. And all three are using the death of Nolan Wells to fan the flames of racial violence. The racial grievance machine doesn't care about Nolan Wells. It cares about the narrative. Whitlock and the Fearless Soldiers break down why these low-IQ influencers are more dangerous to black America than any of their manufactured targets. ➢ Subscribe to Jason's other channel https://www.youtube.com/JasonWhitlock?sub_confirmation=1 https://www.youtube.com/@JasonWhitlockHarmony?sub_confirmation=1 https://www.youtube.com/@JasonWhitlockBYOG?sub_confirmation=1 https://www.youtube.com/@JasonWhitlockClips?sub_confirmation=1 ➢ Connect with Jason on Social Media:  https://x.com/JasonWhitlock  https://www.instagram.com/realjasonwhitlock/ https://www.facebook.com/jasonwhitlock ➢ Send Jason an Email FearlessBlazeShow@gmail.com ➢ Support The Blaze Visit https://TheBlaze.com. Explore the all-new ad-free experience and see for yourself how we're standing up against suppression and prioritizing independent journalism. Support Conservative Voices! Subscribe to BlazeTV at https://www.fearlessmission.com and get $20 off your yearly subscription. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump and the family of 18-year-old college football player Nolan Wells are challenging official narratives and leading an independent investigation into his mysterious death. Wells went missing during a Fourth of July boat outing with friends on Horn Island, Mississippi. While local authorities initially stated they suspected no signs of foul play and pointed toward accidental drowning, Crump and the family argue the timeline and details "do not add up."

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump and the family of 18-year-old college football player Nolan Wells are challenging official narratives and leading an independent investigation into his mysterious death. Wells went missing during a Fourth of July boat outing with friends on Horn Island, Mississippi. While local authorities initially stated they suspected no signs of foul play and pointed toward accidental drowning, Crump and the family argue the timeline and details "do not add up."

On today's show, Civil rights attorney Ben Crump and the family of 18-year-old college football player Nolan Wells are challenging official narratives and leading an independent investigation into his mysterious death. Wells went missing during a Fourth of July boat outing with friends on Horn Island, Mississippi. While local authorities initially stated they suspected no signs of foul play and pointed toward accidental drowning, Crump and the family argue the timeline and details "do not add up." Millions of Americans are using credit cards or dipping into savings accounts to afford groceries.  Is this happening to you or someone you love? Have you cut out buying anything you really like because of the increase in prices? House Speaker Mike Johnson declined to answer questions and reserved judgment during a press briefing regarding the fatal Immigration and Customs Enforcement shooting of a man in Maine. When pressed by reporters on whether Congress should demand accountability from the Department of Homeland Security over the agents' lack of body cameras, Johnson stated, "I don't know anything about this event, OK? I was a little busy yesterday so I'm going to reserve judgment". He explained that he had worked 22 hours over the last few days and had not yet received a briefing on the matter. Research shows an increase in the population of sharks in the Gulf.  And the increase includes bull sharks, which are one of the most aggressive sharks.  Does this change your mind about swimming in the Gulf waters this summer?  What do you remember about seeing "JAWS" for the first time?  Did it affect your desire to swim in the Gulf? 

My guests include Sarah Carpenter, a community and education advocate. She has been at the forefront and a passionate voice for the education of our children. I ask her how she feels about the new oversight management board and what she expects as they try to turn things around. Next, 1-year old Kohen Wiley was laid to rest after being shot and killed by police at a Senatobia Walmart. Many people including myself are wondering the why of it all. Attorney Van Turner who has joined the Crump legal team will join me to discuss this tragic case. Finally, many our youth face difficult challenges and at times head in the wrong direction. Co Pastors of the WORD Church Aaron and Lakisha Litzsey join me to discuss their program Urban Promise 901 and how honoring the role of fathers can make all the difference in a child's life. That and more both on air and online Monday, 6pm on 91.7 FM WYXR. Also, the wyxr app, Tunein, Facebook Live, YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.It's time to talk!

The Author Events Series presents Ben Crump | Worse Than A Lie First 100 people to arrive onsite receive a free copy of the book. It's the night of November 4, 2008. America's first Black president has just been elected. And fifty-three-year-old Hollis Montrose-a Black ex–police officer from the suburbs of Chicago-has become the latest victim of a brutal attack. As the result of a traffic stop gone wrong, Hollis is shot ten times in cold blood, by four white men who could have been his colleagues back in his police days. Beau Lee Cooper was born serious, as if on an urgent mission with little time to waste. Raised in the tumultuous world of 1970s Texas, he always dreamed of becoming a lawyer and fighting for what's right, ever since he was a little boy reading To Kill a Mockingbird. And now, ten years into running his own law firm with his best friend and partner in crime, Nelson ''Nellie'' Rivers, and his suave right-hand-man, Brent ''Cape'' Capers, he feels he's finally making a difference. When Beau Lee learns about Hollis's situation, he's determined to help. Miraculously, Hollis survives the encounter, but the Chicago police department has already spun the narrative in its favor, and Hollis is given a wrongful prison sentence with an unreasonable bail. What really happened that night the car was pulled over? Was it random or was Hollis targeted? Beau Lee knows he's treading in dangerous waters, and finding evidence of the truth will be his biggest challenge yet, but with troubling powers at play, one innocent man's life hangs in the balance. Named to the TIME100 list of the 100 most influential people in 2021 and The NNPA Top Black Newsmaker of the 21st Century in 2026, Attorney Ben Crump is known as "Black America's Attorney General" and has established himself as one of the nation's foremost lawyers and advocates for social justice. He has represented families in the most high-profile cases in the country, including Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Tyre Nichols, and Henrietta Lacks in a landmark medical reparations case. Crump is co-founder of DreamFi, a financial empowerment platform, and author of Open Season: Legalized Genocide of Colored People and debut novel Worse Than a Lie. As founder of Ben Crump Law, he continues fighting for justice nationwide. Because you love Author Events, please make a donation when you register for this event to ensure that this series continues to inspire Philadelphians. All tickets are non-refundable. (recorded 3/10/2026)

Rylee Knoll is the winningest driver in Michigan right now with a fifth win from Saturday night at Merritt Speedway. Then, hear from Van Gurley, Jr during the MadMax Moment Presented by Williams Sealcoating & Paving. Finally, we talk to Kyle Crump after his win in the Joy Fair Memorial 100 on Saturday at Flat Rock Speedway.

In his debut novel, the civil rights attorney Ben Crump imagines a horrific crime that feels all too real. In Worse Than a Lie, a Black ex-police officer is shot 10 times by white officers in Chicago. The book's hero Attorney Beau Lee Cooper must find out what actually happened in order to seek justice. In today's episode, Crump joins NPR's Ayesha Rascoe for a conversation about writing a “legal thriller wrapped in Black culture.”To listen to Book of the Day sponsor-free and support NPR's book coverage, sign up for Book of the Day+ at plus.npr.org/bookofthedaySee pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Vernon Crump   Arch Enterprise, Inc. is a nationwide IT infrastructure and field services company headquartered in the Atlanta area. Founded in 2009, the company provides technology deployment, maintenance, and support services for organizations across both the public and private sectors. Its core offerings include network cabling and infrastructure installation, telecommunications and VoIP solutions, network […]

The Doubtful Sounds choir is all about making beautiful noise. Directed by RNZ's very own Bryan Crump, the award-winning community choir performs live for Saturday Morning.

You worship words: Overcome words. Incident with nun in Israel. Black cemetery vandalism. Love your enemy.

The term premium — investors' compensation for holding longer-term Treasuries instead of T-bills — fluctuates with inflation uncertainty, federal deficit worries, and central banks' balance sheets. The New York Fed's Adrian, Crump, and Mönch model estimates the 10-year Treasury term premium is higher than before the pandemic but substantially lower than it was pre- GFC. The post-pandemic term premium will shape the path of longer-term Treasuries as bond investors consider what the new normal looks like. In this episode, we talk with Emanuel Mönch, Professor of Financial and Monetary Economics at the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management, about the models estimating the term premium, what's driven changes over the last forty years, and how it could shift under a Warsh-led Fed.

Welcome back to another episode of the unSeminary podcast. Today we're joined by Dr. Derwin L. Gray, co-founder and lead pastor of Transformation Church. Since launching in 2010, Transformation Church has become a multi-ethnic, multi-generational movement impacting thousands locally and globally. In this conversation, Derwin tackles one of the most pressing—and often avoided—questions facing church leaders today: what are we actually multiplying? Are we forming disciples of Jesus—or unintentionally shaping people more through culture, politics, and media than through the gospel? Derwin challenges leaders to examine the deeper currents shaping their churches and to recover a bold, Christ-centered vision for discipleship. What are we actually multiplying? // Derwin raises a provocative concern: many churches are focused on growth, expansion, and multiplication—but not always clear on what is being multiplied. Are we producing disciples rooted in the gospel, or consumers attracted to experiences? He warns that without intentional focus, churches can unintentionally replicate shallow faith, cultural Christianity, or even ideological distortion. The goal of multiplication must not simply be more campuses or larger attendance, but deeper, more faithful discipleship. A discipleship crisis beneath the surface. // The issue isn't that churches lack discipleship. It's that many people are being discipled by the wrong influences. Social media, political ideologies, and cultural narratives are shaping beliefs and behaviors, often more powerfully than Scripture. This creates a “wrong discipleship” problem, where people identify as Christians but reflect values that are inconsistent with the teachings of Jesus. The challenge for leaders is to re-center discipleship around Christ, ensuring that people are being formed by the gospel rather than the surrounding culture. The danger of ideological captivity. // Derwin speaks candidly about the ways the church can become entangled in political ideologies—whether on the right or the left. He specifically critiques the rise of Christian nationalism, defining it as the fusion of the church's identity with the identity of a nation-state. This, he argues, distorts the gospel by elevating political allegiance above allegiance to Christ. At the same time, he acknowledges the influence of secular progressivism. Both extremes, in different ways, can pull believers away from the centrality of Jesus. The call is not to disengage from society, but to engage from a distinctly gospel-centered perspective. Recovering a gospel-shaped identity. // At the heart of Derwin's message is a call to rediscover what it means to be shaped by the gospel. The good news of Jesus is not merely about individual salvation—it creates a new family across ethnic, cultural, and social lines. This vision is central to Transformation Church's identity as a multi-ethnic community. Derwin emphasizes that the gospel reconciles not only vertically (between people and God), but horizontally (between people and one another). When churches lose this vision, they lose their witness in a divided world. Courageous and compassionate leadership. // Leading in this cultural moment requires what Derwin calls “courageous compassion.” Pastors must be willing to speak truth clearly while loving people deeply. This means addressing difficult issues without fear of losing people, while also avoiding harsh or divisive rhetoric. Derwin acknowledges that this approach can lead to criticism from multiple sides, but he emphasizes that faithfulness to Christ must take priority over maintaining comfort or approval. Practical steps for leaders. // For pastors who feel their churches have been shaped more by culture than by Christ, Derwin offers simple but powerful starting points: pray, repent, and refocus on the gospel. He encourages leaders to equip themselves through study and to guide their teams in rediscovering a biblical framework for discipleship. Most importantly, leaders must model what they teach, demonstrating lives rooted in Christ rather than captured by cultural narratives. A renewed vision for the church. // Ultimately, Derwin calls the church back to its prophetic voice. The church is not meant to mirror the divisions of the world but to offer a compelling alternative: a community shaped by love, unity, and truth. When the church remains rooted in Jesus, it becomes a powerful witness to a watching world. To learn more about Transformation Church and Dr. Derwin L. Gray, his teaching, and resources, visit transformationchurch.tc and derwinlgray.com. Plus, pre-order his book, It’s Time to Heal: Four God-Given Steps to Restore What Life Has Shattered. Thank You for Tuning In! There are a lot of podcasts you could be tuning into today, but you chose unSeminary, and I'm grateful for that. If you enjoyed today's show, please share it by using the social media buttons you see at the left hand side of this page. Also, kindly consider taking the 60-seconds it takes to leave an honest review and rating for the podcast on iTunes, they're extremely helpful when it comes to the ranking of the show and you can bet that I read every single one of them personally! Lastly, don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, to get automatic updates every time a new episode goes live! Thank You to This Episode’s Sponsor: Portable Church Your church is doing really well right now, and your leadership team is looking for solutions to keep momentum going! It could be time to start a new location. Maybe you have hesitated in the past few years, but you know it's time to step out in faith again and launch that next location. Portable Church has assembled a bundle of resources to help you leverage your growing momentum into a new location by sending a part of your congregation back to their neighborhood on Mission. This bundle of resources will give you a step-by-step plan to launch that new or next location, and a 5 minute readiness tool that will help you know your church is ready to do it! Click here to watch the free webinar “Launch a New Location in 150 Days or Less” and grab the bundle of resources for your church! Episode Transcript Rich Birch — Hey friends, so glad that you decided to tune in to today’s episode of the unSeminary podcast. Really looking forward to this. I had a fragment of a conversation with a dear friend at the Exponential Conference and I want to have more of that today with you listening in. And this is a conversation that I know is impacting people. I think 100% of our church is in the country today. It’s something that we all are seeing. It’s impacting us. We’ve got to be thinking about this. Rich Birch — Honored to have Dr. Derwin Gray with us, incredible leader from Transformation Church. He and his wife, Vicki, co-founded the church in 2010. It’s a multi-ethnic, multi-generational, mission-shaped community community with two locations in South Carolina, as well as Church Online. He’s an award-winning author of multiple books. He’s been on the podcast in the past and is one of the people who, he’s called me out on the podcast before, and I have taken those lessons with me. And so I’m I'm hoping that happens with you today. Derwin, welcome to the show. So glad you’re here.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — Hey, man, thank you. So good to be with you.Rich Birch — No, it’s it’s honest. You know, been multiple times you’ve been on the show and I I’ve walked away being like, man, okay, Derwin just, he’s just pushed me and and got me to think different, which I really appreciate that. So for folks that don’t know about Transformation, kind of tell us a little bit about the church and give us the context you’re in, that sort of thing.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — Yeah, man. So ah my wife and I co-planted Transformation Church in 2010 in the Charlotte, North Carolina area. And so neither my wife and nor I grew up in church, and both of us came to faith in our mid to late 20s, and primarily through people at work. There was a woman at my wife’s job who shared Christ with her. I had a teammate named Steve Grant, with the Indianapolis Colts, where I played in the NFL. We called him the naked preacher because after practice, he’d dry off, take a shower, wrap a towel around his waist, and he’d share the gospel. And over five years, I came to faith. My wife came to faith before me. Dr. Derwin L. Gray — And all we knew was this. If Jesus is this incredible, this forgiving, this gracious, this is the greatest news there is in the world. And so we didn’t know what words like evangelism and discipleship meant. All we knew was this. I want to know him. I want to make him known. I want to know his word.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — And so that was in 1997, 1998. We moved to Charlotte, North Carolina to play for the Carolina Panthers, and I got injured. And so all I could do was read my Bible, rehab my knee. And the following year, both my wife and I said, you know what? I think my NFL time is done.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — What are we going to do? We don’t know. So I got an invitation to speak at a youth event to share my testimony. And I said, well, what is that? They were like, a testimony is where you share your story of how you met Christ and what what took place. So I did that. People started calling me.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — And in 1999, other Christians says, you guys need a nonprofit organization. You know, we’re like, what does that mean? So we started a ministry called One Heart at a Time. I would travel and speak. She would organize everything. We served at our church. Well, the longer we did that, we saw incredible fruit, but we also saw that wherever I would preach, it was ethnically segregated. It was it was really weird, right?Dr. Derwin L. Gray — I’m like, wait a second. America is integrated, but the church is basically segregated. And so I began to ask questions and I got lousy answers. But as we read the Bible, it was like the early church was Jews and Gentiles. That’s what it was. It was a multi-ethnic church. Jesus not only forgave sins, but he created a family with different colored skins. Not only is that the future of the church in Revelation 7:9, but that’s the present reality of the church that intrinsic to the gospel is ethnic reconciliation. What good would it be Jesus forgives you but don’t love your brother and sister? So the cross is vertical and horizontal. Dr. Derwin L. Gray — So we were frustrated. And then we just sense God say, well, you can criticize or you can create. And so ultimately that led to planting Transformation Church in the south area of Charlotte, North Carolina, where actually physically in what’s called Indian Land, South Carolina, and our other campus is in Lake Wiley, South Carolina, but it’s really the greater Charlotte area.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — And our church is more ethnically diverse than our community. And I want to be very, very clear. One of the reasons why we are ethnically diverse is because of the good news of Jesus. Like I explained, Jesus not only forgives sins, but he creates a family with different colored skins. And so for us, ethnic unity in Christ not only enhances our discipleship, but it enhances our witness to a looking and watching world which is filled with so much division. Dr. Derwin L. Gray — And over the last 16 years, God has done miraculous things. We’ve seen 9,000 people come to faith, thousands be baptized. God has given us massive influence. We also have what’s called the Multi-Ethnic Church Roundtable, where we’ve equipped 800 leaders from around the world to do gospel-centered multi-ethnic ministry. We’re also in the process, Leon’s Crump and I, of launching what’s called the Promise Collective, which is going to be an intentionally multi-ethnic gospel-centered church planting network.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — So a lot of wonderful things are taking place. And we think it’s pretty cool that God planted us in the state of South Carolina where the first shots of the Civil War were fired. And God has used this church here to influence not only the church in America, but even around the world. Rich Birch — Yeah, absolutely Dr. Derwin L. Gray — So we’re grateful.Rich Birch — Well, I, yeah, there’s I respect you on so many levels. And, and, you know, they these issues around being a multi-ethnic church are, you know, at the core of that. And just to respect you on for lots of what you’ve done. and And we ended up at this in this conversation, just to kind of bring everybody up to speed, we ended up in this conversation at Exponential that I leaned forward as just declaring my, ah you know, a little bit about me for folks that are listening in. So I am Canadian, don’t hold it against me.Rich Birch — But I’ve served mostly American churches in the churches I work with. And most of the 95% of the listeners of this podcast are in the States. I was in the States for a bunch of years. And that may become a little more obvious as we’re talking here why that’s why I’m talking about that context. But one of the things in this conversation that I heard you, the question you asked, which made me lean forward and then where it kind of unfolded from there is you asked the question, what are we actually multiplying? Exponential is obviously the global conference for multiplication, but you were pushing us to think about what are we actually multiplying? What is the the core of that? Can you unpack that for us?What were you thinking of when we started talking about that that day?Dr. Derwin L. Gray — Yeah, sure, sure. Just to provide either even a little bit more context is it was a gathering of of very large churches. Rich Birch — Right.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — And the question is what’s going well, what’s not going well? And so typically in those types of rooms, I like to listen. And so as I was listening, I was hearing no disrespect, but a lot of the same.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — And so I kind of waited for everybody to to finish what they were saying. And I said, here’s something that Transformation Church does well, is we are equipping our people to stand against secular progressivism and Christian nationalism. And I said, what are we exactly multiplying? Because the state of the church the United States America is not good. It’s not healthy. It is divided. In many cases, it is it’s mean. Shallow theology, not loving our neighbors as God commands us to be loved. Dr. Derwin L. Gray — So so my question was, are we just putting up more boxes for consumers to come in and consume because we have good music, good human-centered preaching. You know, we’re not going to mess with your idols. We’re not going to topple your idols at all. And yeah, you can invite your friends when we get more campuses. Because if that’s just what we’re doing, don’t sign me up for that. I don’t I don’t I don’t want any parts of that. That’s how we got to where we are now. And so you as a Canadian, here in America, the witness of the church is not very good. Like when I talk to people who are unbelievers, I have to untangle…Rich Birch — Right.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — …politics from the gospel because unfortunately there’s been an unholy wedding, particularly on the far right with aspects of Christianity, which has distorted and deformed. I think the secular progressivism is pretty easy to see, but I think the Christian nationalism is a lot harder. Dr. Derwin L. Gray — Now, let me define what I mean by that. So first of all, Loving your country is a good thing. That’s called loving your neighbors. You love yourself. So my fourth grandfather, Moses Davis, fought for the Union, the colored cavalry of Virginia… Rich Birch — Wow. Dr. Derwin L. Gray — …against the treasonous Confederate whatever it was. So in my blood is patriotism for my nation. America’s my home. But to love my neighbors, I love myself means not only do love America, but I love the entire world. And then as a Christian, we have a global body that we love. There are more followers of Jesus of color outside of America than the United States of America.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — Now, what do I mean by Christian nationalism? This is what I mean. Christian nationalism is the attempt to fuse the identity and mission of the church with the identity and power of a nation state, treating the nation as a primary vehicle of God’s purposes rather than seeing God’s kingdom as a global Jesus-centered reality that transcends all nations.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — By that definition, Christian nationalism is a heresy. Because it basically says, if you don’t think like us, you can’t be a follower of Jesus. And so you’re adding to the works of Christ. And so Christian nationalism has infiltrated much of what I would say the majority culture, Caucasian church in America. Not all, but a lot. Where Christians, what what it means to follow Jesus has turned into a far right, almost authoritarianism versus, no, no, you have the right to vote in the United States of America. But as Christians, we don’t have a right to idolize nor demonize those who vote differently than us.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — I’m not sure Americans know this, but most people in the world are not Republican or Democrat. Rich Birch — Right.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — So if you say your faith is based on what you vote for, you’re adding to the work of Christ.Rich Birch — So, so Derwin, I appreciate you. So I’ve not heard a lot of people talk about this. This seems to be, I don’t know, it seems like something happened post COVID and the church in general, there was this like shakeup in the church in general where, you know, lots of people ended up in different places and it was like, we’ve become more divided than ever before. And I do think that there’s a significant dividing line at or close to what you’re talking about here, that it’s like, there’s a, there’s a new voice around Christian nationalism that seems to be gaining influence. Is that, is that, is that ah a false perception or is that the way you see it as well?Dr. Derwin L. Gray — No, you are 100% right. And it is a well-orchestrated, well-funded plan. With social media and the rise of social media influencers, paid propagandists can go on and infuse their propaganda into people immediately.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — And here’s and here’s the thing. Populism does not require much intellect. All it requires is somebody to be angry at who’s taking from you. So the more divided we are as people, the more the oligarchs have power and the money that they make.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — They own the social media. They own the algorithms. I mean, for goodness sakes, Elon Musk promised people a million dollars to vote in Pennsylvania for the election. How is that even legal? Right. Rich Birch — Right.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — So people are being inundated. Like we have family members that don’t even talk to each other anymore because they have red hat or a blue shirt, right? And so it has been in increasingly effective. But here’s the thing, Rich, that’s so wild to me. The admin the the Trump administration greenlit the FDA approval of an abortion pill. And I don’t hear any evangelical saying anything about it.Rich Birch — Right. Right.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — And even when you look at the Supreme Court now saying states can choose whether you do abortion or not, that’s pro-choice. You know, what used to be the Republican Party, small government, family values, those things are way gone. Rich Birch — Right. Right.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — And so not only has Christian nationalism changed like, or not only has this current administration changed what the Republican Party was, but in many cases, it’s changed even so much of the church. And it is wild to listen to people in 2016 who said one thing, who say a totally different thing now.Rich Birch — Yeah.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — It’s hard.Rich Birch — Well, yeah. And I so I think the thing you’ve, you’re putting a finger on and it’s, I appreciate you being willing to talk about and unpack it is there’s definitely like a broader cultural conversation that’s happening around these issues. That is for sure. We’re seeing that. And that’s having an impact on our ability to disciple the people in our churches or our people are being discipled by social media, by the algorithm, by YouTube And that can create or is creating a discipleship crisis in many of our churches. How do you try to find the line between those two to say, hey, we’re going to talk about the discipleship stuff… Dr. Derwin L. Gray — Yeah. Rich Birch — …without getting dragged in on the you know the exterior? How do we how do we draw those lines in a way that makes sense?Dr. Derwin L. Gray — Yeah. Yeah. So, so, so what I would say is we don’t have a discipleship problem. We have a wrong discipleship problem. Rich Birch — Okay, that’s good. Dr. Derwin L. Gray — Because somebody is making students out of somebody.Rich Birch — Right, sure.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — And so are we becoming students of Jesus? that’s That’s the issue. And so what I say is this, how a person votes, that’s their conscience. But how do you treat the people who don’t vote like you? Dr. Derwin L. Gray — So for example, research shows black Americans are more socially conservative, more biblically committed than white Americans. But 90%, I’m sorry, but black American Christians, but black American Christians, 90% vote for Democrats. So how can you be more socially conservative, more biblically committed, but you vote for Democrat?Dr. Derwin L. Gray — Well, because they don’t take everything that’s in the Democratic Party, just like most people who voted for Trump don’t take everything with him. And so we have to give each other the latitude and the grace. And there’s also pro-life Democrats. And not everybody who voted for Trump is evil. Not everybody who votes Democrat is evil. But the powers that be want us divided. Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s true. Dr. Derwin L. Gray — And when I and when I talk to my friends from Canada, when I talk to my friends that are pastors from around the world, Norway, different parts of Europe, Australia, England, and they’re going, what has happened to you guys?Dr. Derwin L. Gray — I can tell you what’s what’s taken place is our faith is being distorted and driving it is fear and hatred.Rich Birch — Yeah. So I would echo that. The joke I’ve made, both with American leaders and leaders from other parts of the world, is there is a segment of the body of Christ that seems very angry about the love of God. Like they’re and they’re very fearful. Like it’s all it’s all anger and fear driven. And I don’t know whether, and it probably is related to the algorithms, but like we’re hearing from these people so much more than, than we used to. It used to be an echo chamber of people that lived in so much fear, but now it’s just out there. It seems to be in, in our, you know, in our feeds all the time.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — Yeah, what used to be on the fringes is now on the main street, right? And so we need to re-gospel ourselves. We need a greater commitment to Christ. So, for example, life in the womb is precious and sacred. That’s not conservative. That’s gospel. That’s biblical.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — Caring for the dignity of undocumented people in America is not liberal. That’s gospel. Wanting border control is not conservative. That is understanding that a nation has to have borders to flourish. Dr. Derwin L. Gray — Believing that marriage is between a man and a woman, we believe that’s biblical. But loving and respecting LGBTQ people is not liberal. Loving my neighbors as I love myself. And if I have any hope of anybody ah coming to Jesus, they’re not going come to Jesus because I’m yelling at them and I’m angry. I’m going to love them and pursue them just like we’ve done here at our church.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — And so I feel like what we’ve done in in in the church is we’ve taken a 250 year old country called America. And then specifically the last 10 years, we’ve made that the hermeneutic to understand the gospel.Rich Birch — Yeah, right.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — We’ve made that the lenses that we look through to determine the gospel. Whereas what I’m saying, let’s go back to the text. Let’s go back to the early church, the book of Acts, Paul’s letters, the gospels. That’s where our faith comes from. Dr. Derwin L. Gray — Like I have lobbied on Capitol Hill with Republicans and Democrats about immigration reform. We need border security, but we can also secure the dignity of human beings, especially human beings who are undocumented and don’t have a record against them. Right. So there has to be a process to have strong borders, but also to hold to people’s hearts.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — But but at the end of the day, right at the end of the day, we are people of the Lamb, not the elephant or the donkey.Rich Birch — So good. So good. So what’s the hardest part about leading in a church that really refuses to be captured by either side? I feel like there’s pressure on from both political parties to they, you know, I think somewhere along the line, they realize, wow, there’s a lot of power in these churches. And how do we you know, how do we kind of infiltrate or how do we gain that? What’s it like to lead a church that’s trying to, that’s refusing to be captured by both sides is wants to keep Jesus ahead. What does that cost? How is that, you know, what are some of the pressures of that? What have been some telltale signs for you as you’ve led at Transformation in this front?Dr. Derwin L. Gray — Yeah, um i would i would I would say, Rich, sometimes I’ll get a critical email and a eventually those people will leave. But but but but for the most part, I mean, we’re 16 years in, it’s our ethos, it’s our character. People know who we are. They know why we are. And so like we’re flourishing, we’re growing. It’s beautiful. Dr. Derwin L. Gray — There’s a matter of fact, I got some messages earlier today just saying, hey, thank you. Like I was just about done with Christianity and I found Transformation Church, right? I mean, this Jesus, you’re this is what I want to be a part of. So I think respecting and loving all people, even though you disagree with them. And the thing that I said, I did a series in 2024 in the fall before the election on on the Beatitudes.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — And my whole thing was how you vote is up to your conscious. How you treat people is not up for debate. We’re called to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. And so in our church, I’m sure we got people all over the political spectrum. I’m a registered independent myself.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — But something that I think really landed well with our people is this: 99.9% of all followers of Jesus for 2,000 years and even now have never voted Republican and have never voted Democrat.Rich Birch — Right. Right. That’s good.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — Our faith is in Christ and Christ alone. And America is what’s called a constitutional republic democracy. It is not a theocracy. It is governed by a constitution, not the Bible. And so, yes, I want believers in place not to do some kind of spiritual Sharia law, but to make sure that the Constitution is upheld, which gives life and liberty and justice, not for some, but for all.Rich Birch — What would you say, you know, I’ve often thought around this, these, this issue and we’re kind of related issues. I have to think back to Billy Graham and I think like, man, we don’t know what, don’t what he’d be doing today. Like what would, I’ve heard this story that and in the fifties he gathered a group of what at the time, they you know they self afflicted they gave themselves the title of fundamentalist and they said, hey, we gotta stop calling ourselves fundamentalist because that word is so loaded in our culture. It feels like evangelical is like that today. Dr. Derwin L. Gray — Yeah.Rich Birch — It is when people ask me, are you evangelical? I’ll say, well, it depends on what you mean by evangelical because it has so much freight behind it. Do you think there is a place for kind of a broader discussion? How, how can we continue to try to create a middle here that where people can actually try to shed these, like you say, the Lamb and the donkey and, or the, the, the elephant and the donkey and, and focus on the Lamb. How do we do that going forward? How do we create those kinds of places where those kinds of conversations can continue to happen?Dr. Derwin L. Gray — Yeah, you know, so let me answer the first question first is when I preached in Norway a few years ago, the people said, thank you for being so evangelical. And it had nothing to do with politics. So the term evangelical comes from the Greek word, which means good news. So it’s never meant to be a political voting block. Rich Birch — Right.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — It’s never meant to be an ethnicity. It is good news people. So in Europe, I say I’m evangelical because it goes well. Here in America, I say I am shaped by the gospel. I’m a Christian that’s shaped by the gospel. Rich Birch — That’s good language.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — I love God and I love my neighbors. I love myself. So I think we have a fundamental gospel problem in the American church. If you simply think the good news is Jesus died for your sins, now you don’t go to hell, then your discipleship is going to be very reductionistic. It’s going to be very individualistic.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — So the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, his ascension and then sending the Spirit, is not only do we spend eternity with him, but as brothers and sisters, we’re equally righteous, equally redeemed, equally the temple of the Holy Spirit, equally God’s children. So if all those things are true equally, then by definition, we are the body of Christ. So if you hurt, then I hurt, but we don’t think that way.Rich Birch — Right.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — So we have to change the way we think. Paul says in Philippians 2.3, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but consider others better than yourselves. Verse five is “for you have the mind of Christ”. And so what we’ve been able to do here at Transformation Church is really move people deeper to the gospel. If you listen to one of my messages, you will hear gospel. That’s why we are the way we are. And the gospel challenges idols.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — When President Obama was president, I would get emails, “Oh you must be a Republican.” And then when President Trump, “You must be a Democrat.” I’m like, no, I’m an independent, but I’m called to be prophetic and to equip us to not be captivated by the zeitgeist…Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s good.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — …the spirit of the age. When the church loses her prophetic witness, we’ve lost everything.Rich Birch — That’s good.Rich Birch — Yeah, that that that names something that you put a finger on there, on something that I’d love you to unpack a little bit more. How do you do that as a pastor? Because I’ve seen you do that consistently. It’s like, how how do we be that prophetic voice, speak with clarity to ultimately point people back to Jesus, not be captured by just the winds of the day?Dr. Derwin L. Gray — Be courageously compassionate. Rich Birch — That’s good.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — Be courageously compassionate. I believe, you know, so I have, I have, I have talked to pastors who lead churches that may be, you know, center a little bit left. And well, if I talk about this issue too much, people may leave. Then I’ve heard other people like, well, if I talk about about this, the MAGA people may leave. And it’s like, well, Are you concerned about people leaving or are you concerned about honoring the call that God has given you? Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s good. Dr. Derwin L. Gray — And one day you have to face him and you’re going to say, well, you know, what Lord, I was afraid people were going to leave. Like you can be courageous and compassionate simultaneously.Rich Birch — That’s good.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — So I, there are people on both sides of the aisle that passionately and deeply love Jesus, but have different perspectives politically. Now, Christian nationalism, that is a whole different species that that has to be lovingly challenged. And my job at Transformation Church is to equip our people and to be a shepherd because there are false prophets and wolves that are coming.Rich Birch — There’s a ton here. I really appreciate that. For a pastor that’s listening in today that’s thinking, man, I look at my people and I think maybe I they have been discipled more by cable news than by scripture. And I maybe haven’t done everything I could could have done. I haven’t been clear with compassion. I’ve just been, I’ve just kind of let this happen. What would you say some of the first steps that you would say for a for a leader like that?Dr. Derwin L. Gray — Yeah, pray, repent, pray, repent. Take your elders and your staff through a book by Preston Sprinkle called “Exiles in Babylon” or the book by Michael Byrd and N.T. Wright. Both of them deal with you know how to be a faithful witness in this time of political division. But before you go out and share, make sure that you are equipped. But also choose not to be partisan.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — Rich, the Epstein Files is one of the biggest cover-ups in American history. We’re talking about precious kids who were taking advantage of. And I mean, where is the prophetic voice that this is wrong, regardless of who’s in it? This is wrong and it demands justice. We as God’s people are going to be held accountable to equip this. Like, this is serious. Like, I’ve heard people say, well, there’s bigger problems in the world. No, there’s not.Rich Birch — Yeah, that’s good. Derwin, this has been fantastic. I want to point people towards, you’ve got a new book that’s coming out. That’s like like a huge left-hand turn here, but just looking at it, I think this could is is connected, obviously, to what we’re talking about in today’s conversation. It comes out this fall.Rich Birch — It’s called it’s a time or “It’s Time to Heal: Four God-Given Steps to Restore What Life Has Shattered”. Tell us a little bit about this book, and I and I want to get people to you know actually pre-order this thing.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — Yeah, man. So basically the last seven years, what I have seen from followers of Christ is we’re the walking wounded. We are, we are just stuck. We have allowed our traumas, our histories, our pains, our failures, the way we’ve been hurt to keep us in a position of hurt. And we’ve just circled and circled. And then, a lot of preaching deals with behavior modification and doesn’t get to the root. And so I’ve just been like, you know what, God, I want to help God’s people. Right. And it starts with helping myself.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — And what I do is I really take a theology of who we are in Christ. I take neuroscience and psychology and marry them in spiritual formationRich Birch — Love it.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — And it’s by far the best book that I’ve ever written. I can’t wait for people to see the endorsements from people like Dr. Daniel Amen, Craig Groeschel, Christine Caine. It’s by far the most important book I’ve ever written and the best book I’ve ever written. And I believe that it can really help people heal. Like really understanding that trauma gets in our nervous system. It’s not just think harder, do more. Like we have to learn how this is embodied inside of us. Dr. Derwin L. Gray — And so, man, it transformed me writing it. And what I do is I walk the people through an acronym. The the book is in four parts and the acronym HEAL. H stands for honest about what what happened. E, expect hard. A, accept what happened and L, live from love, not for love. And I share some incredible stories in there. And so, yeah, I’m really, really looking forward to people healing.Rich Birch — Well, yeah, I would encourage people to, we’ll link to that in the show notes and all that. But I think it’s connected in that I think I think the extremes on both ends politically, they’ve picked up on kind of the pain in the zeitgeist. And they’ve they’ve said, hey, the solution is is is the other side is the enemy and we got to do something to tear them down. And we know that just won’t work. At the end of the day, it’s Jesus transforming our lives. It’s him restoring us to who we are. And I think this could be a great tool for folks as they’re wrestling with that. So I’m excited for that book to come out. Looking forward to that. And we’ll we’ll link to all that. Rich Birch — Any kind of final words as we wrap up today? I really appreciate you unpacking this a bit more and taking some time to, you know, kind of let us chat a little bit about it.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — Yeah, two thoughts. Jesus said in Matthew 5:44 and 45, bless those who persecute you. And I said, love your enemies. And then Jesus said, you will know my disciples because they love one another. Refuse to let anger and hatred and division guide you.Rich Birch — That’s good. So good. You said two things. You had two you that and one other thing.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — Well, yeah, it was it was Matthew 5 and you’re on…yeah.Rich Birch — Oh, I see. Right, right, right. Yep. Okay. That’s good. Nice. Where if people want to track with you or with the church, where do we want to send them online? Just as we wrap up today’s call conversation.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — Yeah, just go to derwinlgray.com, derwinlgray.comRich Birch — Nice. That’s great. Dr. Derwin, I just want to honor you. You’re an incredible leader. Thank you for being here today and helping us think through these issues. Thank you.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — Thank you, my friend.Rich Birch — Take care.Dr. Derwin L. Gray — Appreciate you.

You get the best of both worlds this week on a brand new TVPL looking back on 20 years of Hannah Montana! Joining us this week is returning guest J. W. Crump (Pod Ledom) to discuss our favorite pop music from artists both fictitious and real, the acting prowess of Billy Ray Cyrus and so much more! Hannah's concert may be sold out but you've got a front row seat to all the action as we recap one of Disney's biggest hits! Thanks To Riverside For Sponsoring The Pod! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Click this link to learn more!With:Geoff KerbisMax SingerGuest: J. W. Crump

This podcast episode features a momentous gathering at MahoganyBooks, where civil rights attorney Ben Crump presents his debut legal thriller, "Worse Than a Lie," the inaugural entry in the Boley Cooper series. Central to Crump's narrative is the harrowing tale of Hollis Montrose, a Black police officer unjustly shot and falsely charged on the night of Barack Obama's historic election in 2008. Crump highlights his motivations for writing the novel, emphasizing the need to portray a heroic Black trial lawyer and to educate readers about the ongoing struggles for justice faced by marginalized communities. Throughout the discussion, Crump articulates the emotional toll of his legal work and the imperative for the youth to engage with civil rights issues and to champion their own narratives. The episode culminates in a profound dialogue about the significance of representation in literature and the relentless fight against systemic oppression.Takeaways:Ben Crump's debut novel, 'Worse Than a Lie,' casts a Black trial lawyer as a superhero to inspire future generations.Crump emphasizes the importance of education and perseverance in the fight for civil rights, urging youth to read and engage in justice work.The emotional toll of Crump's legal battles is profound, reflecting the struggles marginalized communities face in seeking justice.Crump draws parallels between real-life cases of police violence and the fictional events in his novel, highlighting ongoing societal issues.The podcast serves as a reminder of the importance of preserving Black narratives and affirming the worth of Black children.Hosts & Guests:Attorney Ben CrumpDr. Illyasah ShabazzPodcast Credits:Audio & Production: Christian Jones (https://www.instagram.com/cjthegenesis)Mentioned in this episode:...But Make it Books promo Hey, y'all. It's Niccara, host of ... But Make It Books, a podcast where we're bookishly healing through life. In this podcast, we use fiction and nonfiction as a doorway into the deeper parts of life. Think ambition, healing, identity, the questions you didn't even know you were carrying. Every episode, we let the book lead us somewhere real. Because the best stories don't just entertain you, they help you understand yourself. So go ahead and find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen. Subscribe now and bring your whole self to the conversation. Peace, y'all.African AncestryWe are the pioneers of genetic ancestry tracing for Black people globally, reconnecting you to your specific African roots–the country and the people. Our scientists compare your DNA markers to the largest African reference database in the world in order to find your African origin up to 2000 years ago.African Ancestry

On a recent wintry afternoon in Manhattan, Stephan Crump was doing what he has done countless times in the city—toting his upright bass, clad in a heavy black bag, along the sidewalk, as if he had a baby that was also a bear.  Finding his car, Crump shimmied the instrument through the minivan's side, climbed into the front seat, exhaled, and then grinned. In less than 24 hours, he would fly to Portland to teach “On Magnetism,” a long-accreting class on connecting more deeply with yourself and others through your instrument, and to play solo at the city's jazz festival. But he knew he first needed to make the 40-minute trek from Brooklyn to Finlay + Gage, the legendary bass shop in Tribeca, to have his bass adjusted, so that he could make that connection himself. The sound post—that stout wooden dowel inside the bass that keeps it from collapsing on itself, and that the French call l'âme, or the soul—wasn't sitting quite right. “It's so personal, elusive, and mysterious. Yes, it's a mechanical thing, but it has so much mojo to it. That's why it's called ‘the soul,'” Crump explained several days later from Portland, noting that the hassle of the errand had been worth it. The bass felt good in his hands again. “It's this combination of sound and feel.” For a quarter-century now, pairing sound and feel have become Crump's ambit and expertise. A bassist and composer, collaborator and bandleader, Crump has become one of New York's most steadfast and experienced instrumentalists. He was the anchor of Vijay Iyer's foundational trio for 20 years, even as he developed a slew of imaginative ensembles of his own—the two-guitar Rosetta Trio, the Borderlands Trio alongside Kris Davis and Eric McPherson, the Secret Keeper duo with Mary Halvorson, just to sample. In all of these contexts, the act of bringing the rest of his life to the bass—the trauma and hope, the frustration and delight—remains Crump's primary motivation. It is, if you will, the soul of his playing. “All art is an expression of the artist's presence in that moment. Musicians need our evolving physical capabilities on the instrument and technical knowledge—how notes interact harmonically and melodically, transcribing our heroes, learning all that,” Crump said. “But in the act of making music, we need to allow that stuff to fall away, to not impose it on the music, to relinquish our defenses. We are sculpting energy as we make music, shaping magnetism.” In some ways, Crump's career is the fulfillment of his father's own youthful ambition. His dad toyed with turning pro as a jazz drummer, but he pursued architecture instead. (That's also how he met Crump's mother, who comes from a long line of French architects.) His devotion to jazz, though, didn't waver, and he would constantly play jazz classics—Monk, Miles, Coltrane, MJQ—in the family's Memphis home. Crump thinks that's where he fell for the bass, especially when the low-end would creep through old wooden walls at night. At his mother's behest, though, Crump's training started with piano, the Suzuki Method leading him through the classics and eventually to his all-time musical hero, Stevie Wonder. But at 13, Crump finally got his first bass, a MapleGlo Rickenbacker 4001 like that of another hero, Yes' Chris Squire. He joined a crackling power trio with his brother, later enlisted in a larger band, and then started his own group; they all gigged hard. Backpacking through Spain by himself after high school, however, he encountered an epiphany by the name of Dave Holland, playing in his mighty and future-facing quartet. The upright bass: That was Crump's future. His first was a dilapidated plywood model, collecting dust in a corner of Amherst College, where he'd in part gone to escape family turmoil down south. He'd intended to study physics and music, but he soon realized that his energy and enthusiasm belonged with the latter. That was helped along by a guitarist pal Crump met during his first few weeks at Amherst. He had connections in the West Village. Crump had the car. (“The bassist,” he half-joked, “always has the car.”) Most every week, they would drive the four hours south, link with high-caliber New York pros they'd hired, play until 2 a.m. or so, and head back to school. “That was really powerful and clarifying. It was thrilling to be 18 and gigging in New York. I got a taste for that level of musicianship, and I was doing more than just cutting it,” he said, smiling. “By the end of my first semester, I knew I was moving to New York as soon as I graduated.” That is precisely what Crump did. He used his paycheck from a month-long, fresh-out-of-college stint with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra to rent his first Brooklyn apartment in 1994. He dove right in, roving the West Village with his bass, listening, and joining late-night jams that ended with the sun's arrival. He'd seal his shades with tape, sleep, and repeat.  Crump, though, bristled at the scene's pervasive machismo, how some of the city's most vaunted players would put up walls to prevent revealing too much of themselves through their music. That's actually what he craved. Crump found others who shared his ardor, earnestness, and a belief in what jazz could show of and to a person. Those people, like saxophonists Chris Cheek and Miguel Zenón, helped shape his first albums. There was film score work and sessions and stages alongside singer-songwriters. In these concentric creative circles, he met a young singer, Jen Chapin, and fell in love. They got married in September 1999.  After five years, the existence Crump had imagined for himself as a New York musician was happening. “My goal from the start was to come to New York and make a life in music—to make music that I loved, to learn and grow with amazing musicians,” said Crump. “I never set out to be a rock star, a jazz star. I just wanted to make music—real, deep, honest shit, you know?” Actually, Crump flirted with something at least like “jazz stardom” during a 20-year stint in Vijay Iyer's trio. Iyer cold-called Crump soon after moving to New York in 1999, on a friend's recommendation. They spent the next 20 years building the band into one of modern jazz's most successful units. It was a tremendous trip, of course, but it was again clarifying for Crump, revealing the sorts of bands he wanted to build outside of the Iyer orbit. He steadily realized that traditional jazz ensembles were not his preferred vehicle. The bass could get lost, its role restricted. And the power dynamics with such a clear and visible leader created an environment of dominance (again, often masculine) that he hoped to avoid. “Control and bravado keep you from deeper layers of experience and expression,” he said. “When you find yourself with a group of people who are willing to at least attempt ego dissolution and real communion, you have the opportunity for transcendence. You open a portal for each other and the audience—that's a service to society.” Crump has found those connections in so many contexts, emptying his feelings into his diverse ensembles. Rosetta Trio's bittersweet groove, for instance, emerged from little Fender Rhodes fragments he compiled in the months after watching 9/11 unfold with Jen from their Brooklyn roof. Open Wide, his 2002 set of duets with her, are intimate and entangled portraits of marriage's first few difficult, delightful years.  The music of Rhombal—his celebrated quartet with Tyshawn Sorey, Adam O'Farrill, Ellery Eskelin—unfolded after the death of his brother, Patrick, the one who first brought him into a band back in Memphis. And Slow Water, his latest project built with a drum-less sextet of fascinating New York artists, hinges on the Memphis native's experiences with bodies of water around the world, his lifelong love of nature, and his worry about and hope for our collective future.    “The acoustic bass is almost infinite as an instrument, sonically and expressively, but so much of that can get covered up in a traditional ensemble,” he said, turning toward his duos with saxophonist Steve Lehman and guitarist Mary Halvorson. “Those experiences gave me so much more room to explore the terrain of the instrument, its possibilities. That pushes you. It's the kind of scary environment you want to put yourself in.” When Crump talks about and teaches music, he doesn't discuss notes. Or rather, they are only the beginning, the technical basis for something that can and should be something much richer. Notes are vessels that the player then fills with their experiences, their ideas, their emotions, their essence.  These are gestures, at least as he has put it for many years now, the basis of the music he wants to put into and get out of the world. In some significant ways, this echoes his childhood in Memphis, where his Southern grandmother instilled the value of a story well told, and where he worked alongside his uncle building furniture—really, sculptures of wood—that they would sand until the material seemed somehow to shimmer. (Crump's music stand was made by his uncle, Stephen.) It wasn't just an object or a story; it was a piece of work you invested yourself in until it became art. “A note is an abstract notion, meaningless without all of the human, spiritual stuff you can channel into it,” Crump said. “A gesture has the physical element, a sense of offering, a reflection of our presence through each unfolding moment.” 

Press On - Pastor Léonce Crump

Enjoy this feed drop of UGH I GUESS! A cavalcade of passionate guests attempt to convince Lex Basile Price -- host of top-ranked, niche podcast POD LEDOM -- to appreciate the micro-specific obsession they love. Can they overcome Lex's signature blend of knee-jerk judgement and playful intractability to flip their initial disinterest into newfound fandom?Tangents include: Temperance, Mangoes, Promposals, and Sweet'N Low.Connect with our guest at ⁠@jw_crump⁠You can find your wonderful host, Lex Basile Price, anywhere ⁠@YetCharming