BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) - Norman Lear, age 94 and a native New Yorker, thought he knew a little something about the obstacles of housing in the Big Apple. But when he began exploring the subject for "America Divided," Lear said he was "horrified at how little I knew. Someone making a reasonable living with two children can no longer afford to live in New York City."
Racial discrimination also remains a problem despite the fair-housing law that makes such a thing illegal. On his episode, Lear goes incognito to expose real-estate agents who give preferential treatment to him, as a white man, over a black man seeking the same apartment.
Those were the insights Lear helps bring to viewers in his chapter of "American Divided," an eight-story, five-part series that premieres on the Epix channel on Sept. 30.
Lear joins seven fellow stars who explore their own chosen issues of inequality that, in each case, was close to their heart. These A-list correspondents also include Amy Poehler, Zach Galifianakis, Common, Rosario Dawson, Peter Sarsgaard, Jesse Williams and America Ferrera. Other issues they tackle include inequality in education, health care, labor, criminal justice and the political system.