Philadelphia experienced a tragic surge in gun violence in 2020, with 499 of our fellow residents killed and another 2,200 shot.

In February of last year, The Citizen started trying to understand the causes, effects and fixes for gun violence in Philadelphia and around the country. We spent the year reporting on the issue, while both Covid-19 and shootings devastated neighborhoods around the city.

The resulting seven-episode podcast is part of that reporting. In it we tell the stories of Philadelphians intimately affected by the city's gun violence, those working to end it, those who have found solutions here and elsewhere—and those who have failed to step up to this moment when we most need them.