We decided early on that we would not try to re-enact the hearing; we would not hire actors to read the transcripts. The fear was that actors would naturally add their own emphasis that might not accurately depict what took place in 2007. But simply putting the words onscreen wouldn’t convey the emotion of that day. So instead, we invited many of the 19 witnesses who had testified to visit recording studios near their homes and read the transcript of their words themselves.

In many cases, contacting them was easy, since a lot of families have stayed in touch with each other over the years. Ed Bisch is a man whose son died from taking OxyContin at a party back in 2001. As an IT worker, he had the know-how to start a website early on, OxyKills.com, to organize families around the country with similar experiences. To this day, he maintains an email chain with many of the parents and loved ones who testified in 2007.

For those whom we could not reach, we relied on the research desk at The New York Times. Their expertise is in using public records, social media and other sources to track down individuals who are hard to find. Once they received our request, we had phone numbers and email addresses within a few short hours.

Fortunately, all the witnesses we contacted were willing to participate — though for many of them it meant revisiting an emotionally wrenching day.

The process of recording their words unfolded over about a week. At each session, I would call or Skype in to a recording studio somewhere in America. On the other end of the line would be a sound engineer and one of the original witnesses. Our team had provided them with a copy of their original testimony as transcribed by the court stenographer, but asked that they not read it until they were in the recording booth — for fear they might rehearse it and affect the authenticity of the read. I also asked that the recording engineer test the audio levels beforehand by having the witnesses talk about what they’d had for breakfast. Given the emotional drain of their testimony, I didn’t want them to have to do more takes than necessary.