‘Black Box’ podcast goes beneath the surface of Mississippi’s opioid epidemic and settlements ...Middle East

Eleven years and one day after his son Jeffrey died of an opioid fentanyl overdose, James Moore stood in a purple-lit Hattiesburg auditorium and welcomed hundreds of people to his annual celebration called “A Tribute to Courage and Recovery.”

Moore didn’t center the event around himself or his family. He only shared a couple quick stories about Jeffery, lasting about three minutes. And he told stories that carried deep, universal messages.

The recovery advocate and bike shop owner talked about giving his then-6-year-old son a small Schwinn, one that had grown rusty over decades. At first, Jeffrey didn’t want the bike. But then, he and his father repainted the frame, replaced the wheels and added a little glitter. After two days, the child learned to love it.

“Sometimes, we need to look beyond the surface to see the value in something,” he said to the audience, which included dozens of people in addiction treatment and recovery. “And to see that value, we have to invest ourselves into finding that value.”

Those lines could have been advice for Mississippi politicians, had they attended, as they manage hundreds of millions of national opioid settlement dollars for the state: Invest the money for, and with the perspectives of, the overlooked Mississippians who’ve suffered most from the opioid epidemic. I’ve spent the last year trying to figure out whether that’s actually happening.

Now, we’re sharing some of that reporting through an exciting new project. Deep South Today, Mississippi Today’s parent company, is launching its first narrative podcast series, one that tells a comprehensive story of the settlements. It’s called “Black Box.” The podcast is a collaboration the audio production company Goat Rodeo.

The story’s origins start years ago. In the late 2010s, as the country’s top doctors were calling the epidemic the public health crisis of our time, every state and the District of Columbia filed lawsuits against over a dozen companies. The states accused the companies of using dangerous business practices around prescription opioid painkillers, catalyzing the worst drug epidemic in American history. Jeffrey was one of the over 10,000 Mississippi victims who lost their lives to the epidemic.

Many lawsuits the states filed reached settlements. As the companies’ penance for this public health catastrophe, they are expected to pay over $58 billion to address the epidemic they contributed to. Mississippi is receiving about $430 million of that, in periodic payments throughout this decade and the next. The payouts are split between the state government and many of the state’s towns, cities and counties.

I first called Moore in May 2025, roughly three years after Mississippi received its first payment. Because of the tragedy that struck Moore’s family and the recovery activism he’s done in the community, I thought he would know what’s going on.

But he didn’t. Moore asked me to look into it. A few weeks later, I learned and told him that supervisors of his home Forrest County had quietly already used a big chunk of that money – some for a court addiction treatment program, and some for police surveillance equipment. They didn’t advertise this spending or ask people like Moore what they thought.

Within a few months, I learned Forrest was one of the few cities or counties that tried using settlement money to address addiction. And as of last summer, state lawmakers hadn’t spent any of the money they controlled on anything other than attorneys’ fees. Money was in Mississippi, but despite hard-fought legal battles, less than 1% was being spent to combat the ongoing public health epidemic. Every other state has done more to address addiction with their settlement share.

As a health reporter at Mississippi Today, I’ve tried to learn how Mississippi’s been managing its opioid settlement dollars. I’ve written dozens of stories about who controls the money, how it’s being used and what’s going to happen next.

Each story is a small piece that can start to answer these broad questions. But by themselves, they’re only fragments of a bigger story. Goat Rodeo partnered with Mississippi Today to help stitch these pieces together and bring them to life.

We focus on how Mississippi is making spending decisions. Those who’ve struggled with opioid addiction, as companies profited from prescribed painkillers, aren’t in the driver’s seat. State and local elected officials get the final say, even as some of them have said they don’t know how to use the money responsibly.

Victims of the opioid epidemic and their families have thoughts about how to spend this money responsibly. We feature a lot of their ideas in the podcast series. In March, Drew Hawkins led a great project with Gulf States Newsroom to spotlight their perspectives, as well. Research says many of the ideas we both heard could prevent more deaths. But no one is making the powerful people managing Mississippi’s money listen to the victims.

Moore found that out recently. Following the advice of Attorney General Lynn Fitch, the Legislature stopped short of requiring for more Mississippi opioid settlement money be spent to address addiction. He then invited the lawmakers most involved with the bill to “A Tribute to Courage and Recovery.”

It was uncomfortable to bring politics into the event, Moore told me. But he thought it was important for the decision makers to hear from some of the Mississippi opioid epidemic victims they represent.

The politicians didn’t show up. One said he never got the invite. I don’t know why the others didn’t attend. The service was beautiful and heartbreaking, and few of us made it through the end with dry eyes.

It won’t be the last opportunity to hear the perspectives of people who’ve struggled with opioid addiction. “Black Box” will offer that opportunity. I hope those same powerful Mississippians Moore invited to his tribute take some time to listen to our series.

That said, “Black Box” isn’t made specifically for politicians. Mississippi Today and Goat Rodeo wrote it with Mississippi’s opioid epidemic victims in mind. We want to honor the over 10,000 people who will never be able to listen to it. While working on episodes, I’ve often reflected on the Mother Jones quote, “Pray for the dead, and fight like hell for the living.”

For those who’ve lost loved ones or struggled with addiction themselves, I hope you like “Black Box.” It’s for you. 

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