Watch now | This episode is the first of a two-part series called A Long Road Home, looking at the hurdles placed before those those who leave prison and struggle to reenter society.
I have read most of your books, Chris, my two favorites being "War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning" and "Wages of Rebellion", and I have listened to many of your speeches, but none of
these has moved me as deeply as following your work with the prisoners you've taught, from the
story of the play they wrote to their going on to Rutgers. It's their stories in their own words that
cut so deeply. I can only comprehend what they have endured as a triumph of the human spirit.
Thank you for sharing their stories and your relationship with them. Olenka Folda
Thanks Olenka. I think you would like my latest book Our Class: Trauma and Transformation in an American Prison as it deals with these issues and my students. Chris
Great reporting on an insane situation. Invest in lower income areas so people actually have a chance to escape poverty and crime, novel idea. And yet our Politicians on all sides have setup a system so Corporations get deferred prosecution of major felonies every year and make billions off of their deviousness. Then just pay off the govt with million dollar fines. What a country!!
Even jobs where we pay folks to do anything instead of caging them like animals at many time the cost of productive employment. Here in NYC we pay $95,000/year per inmate for squalid conditions. We can pay 3 people $30,000 per year for every one we jail but like wars, nobody asks if the money spent is benefiting the citizens.
Chris Hedges, Thank you for working with the incarcerated, to help improve their lives and share their stories with the public. I have read your book Our Class, and found it to be excellent, and the best of your books that I have read. We live in a very sick country where people in need are ignored, treated badly and not given the help they need. The people who are most helped are the people who need the least help, the wealthy and the corporations. Our country is heading in a very wrong direction.
I watched the wonderful, eye-opening Powell's Books (can be found on YouTube) conversation with you and Boris and read the great Our Class, the topic of conversation. Thank you so much for bringing the prison experience and aftermath out for our view. Incarceration, and the affects, is one of the great issues of our time. Thank you, thank you.
It's so powerful hearing their own words. The trapped elevator anecdote was such a nice illustration of so many of the emotional conflicts and FDNY rescue a nail biter for everyone. Hats off to anyone who stand with the elevator alarms and radios and the jumpy jolts, by minute four I'm in a corner, curled up like a toddler until there's a fireman's hand to grab.
Gotta love FDNY who do serve and protect. It's heartbreaking that America's promise we carry in our hearts and lives in the spirit of our firemen and EMTs is the virtual opposite of the cruel, corrupt exploitative Banana Republic we live in with the best propaganda money and technology can buy. We the People deserve better in the form of more self rule less carnivorous corps and their pay to play minions. Can't wait for part two and so happy we have you at Substack!!
I have read most of your books, Chris, my two favorites being "War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning" and "Wages of Rebellion", and I have listened to many of your speeches, but none of
these has moved me as deeply as following your work with the prisoners you've taught, from the
story of the play they wrote to their going on to Rutgers. It's their stories in their own words that
cut so deeply. I can only comprehend what they have endured as a triumph of the human spirit.
Thank you for sharing their stories and your relationship with them. Olenka Folda
Thanks Olenka. I think you would like my latest book Our Class: Trauma and Transformation in an American Prison as it deals with these issues and my students. Chris
speaking
of Moving
Chris & Joe Sacco
wrote/illustrated a brilliant graphic
guide to America's Sacrifice Zones which
oughtta be required reading in high schools
Days of Destruction Days of Revolt
corporate greed
meets manifest destiny
where We the People are
merely the collaterally damaged
and are as Disposable as dirty diapers
God bless you Chris Hedges
Great reporting on an insane situation. Invest in lower income areas so people actually have a chance to escape poverty and crime, novel idea. And yet our Politicians on all sides have setup a system so Corporations get deferred prosecution of major felonies every year and make billions off of their deviousness. Then just pay off the govt with million dollar fines. What a country!!
Even jobs where we pay folks to do anything instead of caging them like animals at many time the cost of productive employment. Here in NYC we pay $95,000/year per inmate for squalid conditions. We can pay 3 people $30,000 per year for every one we jail but like wars, nobody asks if the money spent is benefiting the citizens.
Chris Hedges, Thank you for working with the incarcerated, to help improve their lives and share their stories with the public. I have read your book Our Class, and found it to be excellent, and the best of your books that I have read. We live in a very sick country where people in need are ignored, treated badly and not given the help they need. The people who are most helped are the people who need the least help, the wealthy and the corporations. Our country is heading in a very wrong direction.
So powerful; thank you for allowing us to share in their stories Chris.
great!
I watched the wonderful, eye-opening Powell's Books (can be found on YouTube) conversation with you and Boris and read the great Our Class, the topic of conversation. Thank you so much for bringing the prison experience and aftermath out for our view. Incarceration, and the affects, is one of the great issues of our time. Thank you, thank you.
And here's the link to the interview: https://youtu.be/JtEvGi5UGqo (hope it works!), my favorite Powell's Books interview.
It's so powerful hearing their own words. The trapped elevator anecdote was such a nice illustration of so many of the emotional conflicts and FDNY rescue a nail biter for everyone. Hats off to anyone who stand with the elevator alarms and radios and the jumpy jolts, by minute four I'm in a corner, curled up like a toddler until there's a fireman's hand to grab.
Gotta love FDNY who do serve and protect. It's heartbreaking that America's promise we carry in our hearts and lives in the spirit of our firemen and EMTs is the virtual opposite of the cruel, corrupt exploitative Banana Republic we live in with the best propaganda money and technology can buy. We the People deserve better in the form of more self rule less carnivorous corps and their pay to play minions. Can't wait for part two and so happy we have you at Substack!!