This is Madeline Barron, most of the time and the host and lead reporter of an investigative

podcast called In The Dark. Our last season was about the case of Curtis Flowers, a man in Mississippi

who was on death row. His conviction got overturned after our reporting came out.

For the first time in 23 years Curtis Flowers will be out of prison. I'm so excited.

Our team was hard at work on a third season of In The Dark about a completely different story

when the coronavirus hit the United States and everything changed.

I stayed in touch with the people I met when I was living in Mississippi and I started

getting texts and calls not about Curtis Flowers, but about the virus.

When I looked at the news coverage that's out there about the coronavirus,

I didn't see the kinds of stories I was hearing from the people who are calling me.

The story is not just about numbers and supplies and death, but stories about people trying to

deal with a really hard situation in all kinds of unexpected ways.

And so for the past two months, The In The Dark team has been reporting on what's been happening

in the Mississippi Delta as the coronavirus spread. Of course we can't go there right now.

So we've been talking to people on the phone instead.

All right, I am recording. Hi, this is Natalie. Hi, this is Parker. Hi, this is Madeline Barron

calling from Minnesota. You've been talking to doctors. Well, we're surviving. And nurses,

you know, you take things the heart and people in prison. Is that a control you name them do

whatever they want to do? Football players and musicians and lots of other people too.

My husband's words to me were, you need to sit down. He says that we found out today we've been

exposed. We had 20 police cars on the church property trying to tell us we can't have service.

If y'all don't wake up America, our freedom can be revoked. How are you doing?

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