Trymaine Lee
Trymaine Lee
Trymaine Lee is a Pulitzer Prize and Emmy Award-winning journalist, author, and podcast host whose work explores the intersections of race, power, justice and trauma, and the enduring power of narrative. Over the course of more than two decades, he has reported from the frontlines of some of the most defining moments in recent American history. From the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to the killing of Trayvon Martin, the Ferguson uprisings, the nationwide reckoning following the murder of George Floyd and recent racially charged election cycles.
As a professional communicator, Trymaine has delivered keynote addresses, commencement speeches, moderated national policy forums, and led community-centered conversations across the country. His appearances include engagements at the Aspen Institute, the Harvard Institute of Politics (where he served as a Resident Fellow), and high-profile gatherings such as the Ideas We Should Steal Festival, the Gathering of Leaders, Comcast RISE events, and various scholarship luncheons. His talks blend down-to-earth personal narrative with keen investigative insight, offering audiences a powerful lens through which to understand Black life (and death) in America.
Trymaine is the author of book A Thousand Ways to Die: The True Cost of Violence on Black Life in America (St. Martin’s Press, September 2025), which informs much of his current speaking and thought leadership. He is also the executive producer of Hope in High Water: A People’s Recovery Twenty Years After Hurricane Katrina, a 2025 documentary on the 20-year legacy of Hurricane Katrina, premiering on Peacock. Whether speaking to students, corporate leaders, educators, or grassroots organizers, Trymaine brings a distinctive blend of lived experience, hard-earned wisdom, professional accolades and a journalist’s eye for the truth. Through it all, he continues to live by the mantra instilled in him by his mother as a boy: “I Am Somebody.” It’s a message he now shares from every stage he steps onto.
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A deeply personal exploration of the generational impact of guns on the Black experience in America
A few years ago, Trymaine Lee, though fit and only 38, nearly died of a heart attack. When his then five-year-old daughter, Nola, asked her daddy why, he realized that to answer her honestly, he had to confront what almost killed him—the ...Read More
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A Thousand Ways to Die: The True Cost of Violence on Black Life in America
Rooted in Trymaine’s forthcoming book, this keynote explores the historic, emotional, and generational costs of gun violence heaped on Black America, and more broadly, America itself. From personal loss to systemic injustice, he reveals what’s truly lost in violent death, and what it means to survive.
Blood Clots and Bullets: Facing Mortality, Healing, and the Work of Being Well
After a near-fatal heart attack, Trymaine was forced to confront the emotional weight he’d carried for years. From finding young men who look just like him shot down at crime scenes, to newsrooms who find such acts “garden variety,” to an emergency room facing his own near-death experience. This deeply personal talk explores the connection between trauma, stress, and health—especially for Black men—and offers a powerful call to work through the silent violence of stress and trauma.
I Am Somebody: Breakthrough and Becoming
From a working-class upbringing in South Jersey to the Milton Hershey School and beyond, Trymaine shares the personal journey that led him to a Pulitzer Prize and an Emmy Award. He reflects on early struggles, identity, and the words —I Am Somebody—which carried him to personal and professional heights. An inspirational talk aimed at those who dream of achieving more than their circumstances.
Journalism as Justice: Bearing Witness, Carrying the Weight
This speech explores the role of journalism in chronicling truth, exposing injustice, and shifting national conversations. Drawing from his reporting on Hurricane Katrina, Trayvon Martin, and George Floyd, among other major moments of the past two plus decades, Trymaine reflects on the personal toll of storytelling, and the power of protecting your peace when things fall apart.
Daddy, Why?: Fatherhood, or How to Talk to Your Daughter about Death
When Trymaine’s young daughter asked how he almost died from a heart attack at 38, just as she was getting curious about why people who look like “us” keep dying on the news, he realized he had to answer not as a fact-finding, truth loving journalist, but as a fact-finding, truth loving father. This talk explores the emotional complexity of Black parenthood, generational fear of American violence and racism, and the radical hope that pushes Black parents to believe the truth shall set us all free.
When the Cameras Leave: The Real Work of Recovery
What happens after the headlines fade and the world stops watching? From Hurricane Katrina to everyday violence, this talk highlights the community leaders and quiet heroes doing the hard, human work of rebuilding. It’s a meditation on endurance, dignity, and the power already inside us.
“The staggeringly high cost the United States pays for easy access to guns”
“The Most Important Story I’ve Never Told”
“20-Years After Hurricane Katrina, Trymaine Lee Highlights ‘Hope In High Water’”
“‘Hope in High Water’ looks at New Orleans 20 years after Katrina”
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