Hey, through line listeners, we hope you're doing well.

We are currently at work on a new episode. It will be out this Thursday.

But this week, we wanted to bring you something extra.

It's part of a new podcast series from our friends at NPR Music.

It's called Louder Than a Riot, and it's about the relationship between hip hop and mass incarceration.

And the first episode is about the history of that relationship,

and the role of a conspiracy theory in shaping how people think about it.

We hope you like it, and if you do, check out the whole series.

It's really great.

Here's the first episode of Louder Than a Riot.

Head up before we begin. This podcast is explicit in every way.

Back in the spring of 2012, somebody took the time to generate a Gmail account.

Username John Smith, the address industry confessions at gmail.com.

They composed the message with the subject line,

the secret meeting that changed rap music and destroyed the generation.

And on April 24th at 1.30 p.m. it's sinned.

That unsigned letter claimed to document a secret meeting back in the 1990s

that joined two of America's most powerful forces.

The music industry and the prison industrial complex.

It described a closed-door meeting with a small group of industry inside,

as held at a private residence from the outskirts of LA.

Now the right other letter, he didn't know exactly why he was invited there at first.

...