In 2024, there were 220 fatal shootings in Philadelphia, a sharp decline from 375 such deaths the previous year. While city leaders celebrated this improvement, professor and writer Julien Suaudeau, 49, wondered how the community could be satisfied with that number.
“The fact that it was almost hailed as a miracle — like it was an indication that the policies are working — is mind-blowing for me,” says Suaudeau.
One in five American adults knows or cares about someone who was killed with a gun. In Suaudeau’s new podcast, “The People Left Behind,” he features the stories of these survivors and co-victims (surviving loved ones of victims) — the Philadelphians who are coping with long-term grief due to gun violence.
Suaudeau is a professor of French and film at Bryn Mawr College. Originally from Paris, Suaudeau has lived in Philadelphia since 2006. When he moved to his first home in the city, he began to understand the extent to which Philadelphia is plagued by gun violence “right away,” hearing gunshots and seeing crime scene tape in his own neighborhood.
It’s devastating that [gun violence] feels like the norm.”
— Julien Suaudeau
Suaudeau also quickly noticed that while traditional media coverage of shootings tends to focus on the crime scene, the victims, the perpetrators and the police investigation, news narratives typically move on quickly from the people who have lost a loved one and the trauma that they experience for months and years afterwards.
“The People Left Behind” features the stories of parents, siblings, children, neighbors and community members whose lives have been affected by a fatal shooting. In each episode, Suaudeau asks these survivors and co-victims the question: “What are you going through?”
Suaudeau says that this single question goes a long way. “It recognizes that, yes, they are still coping with the trauma, even though the crime scene has become invisible to the rest of the community. The flowers are gone, the posters are gone, the police tape is gone, but they’re still dealing with it and they’re still reliving that trauma.”
Of the city’s 375 fatal shooting victims in 2023, 161 were under the age of 18. A father of two teenagers himself, Suaudeau hopes that the podcast helps to create empathy for young survivors and co-victims, whose loss has become normalized.
“The idea that it is so common and happens to so many families in our communities is literally unbearable to me, as someone who cares for Philly,” Suaudeau says. “It’s devastating that it feels like the norm.”
With each episode, Suaudeau aims to share a “micro-history” of a person’s life. By weaving in victims’ voices “at a graduation ceremony or at a birthday party or at a middle school musical,” he hopes that he makes listeners stop and think about — and become less desensitized to — gun violence. In this way, he sees the podcast as a way to hold the community accountable.
“I think that this ecosystem of stories is a way to make Philly a more welcoming, sustainable and, yes, a better place.”
New episodes of “The People Left Behind” will be released by Grid in 2025.
