Boston - like many cities around the US - has begun to wrestle with the notion of paying reparations to Black people to make up for 400 years of enslavement and economic exclusion. But in Boston, this debate is layered in history. It was here that slavery was first legalized in the American colonies; it was here that founders of American independence are buried alongside the Black people they enslaved; and it was here that legislation was introduced in the 1980s that became the model of a national bill calling for reparations - a bill that is still on agenda in the U.S Congress. In “What Is Owed?”, a new 7-part podcast, GBH News political reporter Saraya Wintersmith seeks to understand what reparations might look like in one of the oldest cities in America, uncovering the lessons for a successful reparations framework through the stories of its architects, past and present.

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Credits:

Host, Producer and Writer: Saraya Wintersmith 

Senior Producer: Jerome Campbell 

Editor: Paul Singer

Editorial Assistant: Mara Mellits 

Production oversight: Lee Hill 

Mixing and Sound Design: David Goodman & Gary Mott 

Theme Song and original music: Malik Williams 

Artwork: Mamie-Hawa Bawoh & Matt Welch 

Project Manager: Meiqian He 

Consulting Producer and Head of GBH Podcasts: Devin Maverick Robins