July 22, 2025 • 17 mins
This recap episode provides a profound personal narrative from Shaka Senghor, detailing his experiences with incarceration and transformation. He recounts his journey from a challenging childhood in Detroit, marked by abuse and early involvement in street life, leading to his conviction and 19 years in prison, including extensive time in solitary confinement. Senghor emphasises the barbarity of the prison system and its lack of rehabilitation, highlighting the ingenuity and intelligence often wasted within it. Crucially, he shares how literacy, journaling, and a shift to a mindset of gratitude enabled him to redefine his life, becoming an author, mentor, and advocate for criminal justice reform, applying lessons learned in prison to corporate and non-profit settings.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Welcome to the Joe Rogan recap. Today we're embarking on a deep
dive into the extraordinary journey of Shaka Singh.
Or, as shared in his compelling conversation on The Joe Rogan
Experience, this isn't just a story of survival.
It's a powerful testament to resilience, transformation, and
finding, well, profound insightsin the most unexpected places.
It's truly compelling, isn't it?How shock is personal narrative,
(00:23):
I mean. Rooted in immense challenge
offers these universal lessons on overcoming adversity and
truly understanding what freedommeans.
Will unpack his early life, his decades in prison, and the
powerful wisdom he extracted to rebuild his life from the ground
up. Right.
Our mission today is to explore how a childhood dream of being a
doctor or artist sort of morphedinto this fight for survival,
(00:44):
and how a sentence of 17 to 40 years ultimately led to a life
dedicated to advocacy and understanding.
You'll hear about incredible moments, from daring prison
escape attempts to just the sheer ingenuity born out of
really desperate circumstances. Yeah, and Shaka's story prompts
us all to consider what truly incarcerates us and what allows
us to be free, regardless of ourphysical location.
(01:05):
It challenges our assumptions about justice, rehabilitation
and, frankly, the enduring strength of the human spirit.
OK, let's begin with the Shaka'searly life, then.
On the surface, his upbringing in Detroit seemed quite typical.
You know, working class, family,Air Force dad, homemaker, mom.
Yet beneath that veneer, he experienced A deeply abusive
household. And this foundational trauma is
(01:27):
undeniably critical. I mean, he ran away at just 13.
This was a scholarship student who harbored a dream of becoming
a doctor, driven by this desire to help people.
But his search for love and belonging tragically let him
down a very different path into the streets.
Yeah, it's difficult to imagine,but at just 13, Shaka's
innocence was just shattered. He found himself with a gun to
(01:48):
his head, robbed by a guy named Tiny, and despite witnessing a
childhood friend murdered and being nearly beaten to death
himself, he stayed entangled in that street culture.
He really paints A vivid pictureof that.
He does. He repounds vividly, navigating
a dangerous adult world as the crack epidemic was just
permeating the community. There's a striking image he
(02:09):
shares. The first time he made a
significant amount of money, he went to the store and bought all
the cereal he wanted. A simple luxury, right?
Only to return to the crack house shortly after.
Wow, that really underscores theperilous environment he was
forced to navigate. By 17.
He was shot multiple times on the West side of Detroit.
The ambulance, it never arrived,left him bleeding on a porch.
(02:31):
His friend, who had actually been shot the year prior, drove
him to the hospital, coaching him to breathe through the pain.
Just incredible. And this incident highlights
such a profound lack of support in his community, his father's
look of defeat. Shaka was the 3rd Sunshot.
It just underscores this systemic nature of the violence.
And with no psychological help for his trauma, he developed his
(02:53):
burning desire for revenge and the belief if I found myself in
conflict again, I would shoot first.
He began carrying a gun daily, even to bed.
So how did this escalating reality culminate?
About 14 to 16 months later, while D Jing a party, a verbal
altercation escalated into a full blown argument.
(03:13):
Shaka says he turned to walk away, took a couple of steps,
thought he heard someone trying to get out of a car, and then
turned and fired four shots, tragically ending a man's life.
He was just 19 years old, one month into being 19, and
immediately felt that crushing weight of his actions.
I messed up. You can't undo that.
He was arrested a day later, charged with open murder,
(03:34):
eventually convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to
17 to 40 years in prison. He truly believed his life was
over. 19 Just imagine. At 19, Shaka entered the Wayne
County Jail, which he vividly described as a war zone, a place
where you had to prove yourself daily.
And early on, driven by sheer desperation, he attempted to
escape. Yeah, what's remarkable here is
(03:56):
the raw ingenuity born out of that desperation.
He and five other inmates, they devised this elaborate plant.
They used 60 to 70 bed sheets, which they got by bullying other
inmates out of their single allocated sheet.
Can you imagine? They tie a knot in a sheet,
slide it under a door, pull it up into the door jamb to pop
their cell doors open. Their audacious plan involved
(04:17):
busting a window from the rooftop gym and bending a beam
to get out. But they were caught right
perimeter checks. Exactly.
And this led to his very first experience with solitary
confinement. He would eventually spend a
total of seven years in solitaryacross 11 different prisons.
His longest continuous stint wasfrom 1999 to 2004 at Oaks
Correctional Facility. Seven years.
(04:39):
And this brings us to a criticalpoint about the profound impact
of solitary confinement. Shaka calls it the most barbaric
thing that we do to people in this country and he paints this
picture right. 23 hour lockdowns, five days a.
Week and full 24 on the other two, yeah.
Full 24 hour lockdowns on the other two days, all within the
most chaotic environment imaginable.
He recounts inmates banging steel foot lockers for hours,
(05:01):
just deliberately antagonizing each other.
And these disturbing shit wars where feces were thrown using
concocted weapons from toothpaste tubes or even
colostomy bags. It's just.
It's hard to even fathom. A truly disturbing display of
ingenuity in a desperate situation.
And the conditions he described were just horrendous.
Flooded cells, unclean showers, rampant self harm where inmates
(05:25):
would carve their skin with anything available, and even
inmates swallowing batteries which led to bans on music
players. His biggest fear wasn't even
physical safety, but losing his mind.
Watching normal guys completely change in that environment,
getting that glossed overlook starting to hallucinate.
Yeah, he talks about that, and he details 3 distinct reasons
(05:46):
for his solitary stance. 1 was an assault on a fellow inmate
during a robbery when he had no money on his books.
Another was slapping A disrespectful inmate with mashed
potatoes while serving as a chowhall foreman.
But perhaps most significantly, he describes beating up a
correctional officer who wouldn't let him use the
bathroom, breaking the officers trachea.
(06:07):
He recalls the officers radio flying over the railing and
landing downstairs, an incident he views as literally saving his
life by preventing a life sentence.
That moment was a stark, undeniable realization of his
Angers destructive power. And you have officer taunts
about never getting out, seeing others who had been in solitary
for 10 even it's 20 years. Yeah, like his neighbor who's in
(06:30):
for a decade or this con man in for two decades.
It just made him resign himself to dying in prison.
In a desperate moment, he even wrote a letter to his father
telling him to move on with his life.
But his father's response? Unwavering resolve.
I will never leave your side. Powerful stuff.
Really powerful. Amidst all this chaos and
despair though, a truly pivotal moment emerged, one that would
(06:52):
redefine everything for Shaka. He decided to structure his days
like he was at university, dedicated himself to studying
philosophy, world history, African history, devoured books
for pleasure, just focusing on keeping his mind moving forward
despite the intense isolation. And what's truly profound here
is his emphasis on literacy as atool for liberation.
(07:13):
Shaka states the average readinggrade in prison is about third
grade, and he credits his ability to read as the single
most important factor in his transformation.
He poured over books by Nelson Mandela, found immense insight
in James Allen's As a Man Thinketh, which taught him the
radical idea of mastering his thinking.
To master his environment also drew strength from the poem
(07:36):
Invictus. But the ultimate turning point,
the real emotional core of his transformation, came from a
letter from his two year old son.
Oh yeah. His son wrote Dad, don't kill.
Jesus watches what you do. After his mother explained why
Shaka was in prison, he said this struck him in the most
heartbreaking way and spurred him to turn his life around,
(07:57):
realizing that all his past attempts to do right were always
for someone else, never truly for himself.
And this raises that fundamentalquestion about how we truly find
accountability, right? Shaka began journaling with one
essential piercing question. How did I end up here?
He revisited his entire life, recognizing not only the trauma
he'd endured, but also the hurt he'd caused others and this
(08:19):
consistent pattern of quitting. Right, never finishing anything.
High school job, core. So this self reflection led him
to challenge himself to finish one thing, write a book in 30
days, believing his very life depended on it.
And despite the flimsy plastic pens they give inmates, he
innovatively rolled them in paper to make them firm like a
regular pen. Amazing.
(08:40):
He poured his heart into it, completed a fiction novel in 30
days, feeling this immense senseof pride, the greatest he'd ever
known. He still keeps those original
notepads. And then he took another
ingenious step, using that fish line you mentioned earlier, made
from underwear strings and a toothpaste tube stuffed with wet
toilet paper. Unbelievable.
(09:01):
To pass his manuscript to another inmate who responded
with his powerful affirmation, calling it one of the best books
I've ever read that. Must have been huge.
Oh, absolutely. That initial validation, and
later a letter from his engineerstepbrother provided crucial
encouragement, gave him that much needed boost when he later
felt a deep depression while writing his third book.
Realizing his wasted talent, thedevastation of not actualizing a
(09:23):
dream, he returned to James Allen's philosophy about how
positive thoughts could transform negative outcomes.
And this profound shift led him to write a philosophical letter
to the warden, taking full accountability for his 34
misconducts. 34, yeah. But promising to mentor young
guys and become a writer if given a chance.
Stating he was a man of his word.
(09:44):
And the warden, despite hesitation because of the
assault on the officer, believedhim, advocated for his release
from solitary. Which still took another two
years. Bill took two years, yeah.
So when he finally got out of solitary after 4 1/2 years, he
described it as a George Jefferson stroll, that feeling
of triumphant upward mobility, you know, fighting for himself
(10:07):
and moving toward a higher purpose.
He immediately went to work, typing up his books, mentoring,
tutoring. Other inmates discovered that if
he gave them books with narratives similar to their own
lives, they'd engage and put in more effort.
And what's fascinating is how his ingenuity persisted even
from within the prison walls. He successfully self published
his first book in 2008, used a self help guide to
(10:29):
self-publishing, and worked withan outside partner who believed
in his vision. But then, just as he began to
find success, the system tried to pull him back down.
Always seems to happen. The prison sued him for the cost
of his incarceration, nearly $1,000,000, and demanded 90% of
his book earnings, clearly thinking he had some major book
deal. Wow.
(10:49):
But he used his hard won knowledge of contractual law
from the Prison Law Library to backdate a contract to himself,
stating he would only accept 10%of proceeds after production
costs. This ingeniously limited their
take to 90% of like $1.50 cent per book, ensuring he wouldn't
make significant money until after his release.
(11:10):
That raises such a critical point about our penal system,
doesn't it? The profound lack of genuine
rehabilitation it often presents.
Shaka explains how society, particularly 15 years ago, offer
virtually no second chances for individuals convicted of violent
crimes. At his first parole hearing
after 17 years, he was categorized solely as a
murderer. The parole board focused
(11:32):
exclusively on the act of killing, not acknowledging his
growth, his transformation. He powerfully states that the
scariest part about our penal system is that there's no
inherent rehabilitation. You have to find it.
Build it yourself. Yeah, and this really brings
into focus his critique of the waste of human talent With In
Prisons. He highlights the incredible
ingenuity inmates show making tattoo guns from tape player
(11:54):
motors and guitar strings or stingers to heat water from
extension cords and nail Clippers.
He even describes how MIT Media Lab students struggled to
replicate these prison hacks, validating the inmates
brilliance. He believes we literally threw
talented people away, and he would have been one of them if
he hadn't found his path throughwriting.
(12:15):
And he draws a powerful connection between the suffering
of inmates and that of correctional officers, too,
arguing that their brutal job forces them to wear this mask of
toughness, constantly dealing with people at their absolute
worst, which ultimately leads totheir own dehumanization.
That's a really important point.Yeah, and Shaka also offers a
critical examination of the prison industry, private
(12:35):
prisons, prison guard unions, articulating his perspective
that they're lobbying efforts tokeep certain drug laws on the
books are akin to people farmingfor profit.
And just consider the basic things like phone calls costing
$15.00 when inmates often make as little as $0.17 an hour.
Wow. That means it takes a full week
just to afford a single call, severely limiting vital family
(12:59):
connections. Yeah, he brings up the
compelling story of Freeway Ricky Ross, who learned to read
in prison and became a lawyer, and uses this to illustrate his
analysis that the crack epidemicwas, in his view, fueled by the
government to fund a war. He laments how that super
predator narrative of the 90s, that controversial term used to
describe young offenders disproportionately applied to
(13:21):
black males, has now, in his observation, shifted with the
opioid crisis, showing how we'reall the same exact human beings
and society's failure to invest in communities, instead
prioritizing incarceration. It's a really stark comparison.
So here's a profound shift in Shaka's journey that truly
stands out. Later on, he experienced this
deep moment of guilt and self reflection after his brother's
(13:42):
murder in July 2021. Watching his family mourn, he
was struck by the profound senseof guilt, realizing he had made
someone else's family feel that exact pain.
Wow, that must have been incredibly difficult.
Yeah, and this led him to the powerful realization that
gratitude is one of the greatestkeys to freedom.
He now practices daily gratitudefor things that might seem non
(14:04):
obvious to many of us with the simple luxury of cold orange
juice or just having a bar of soap.
Right. A stark contrast to a time in
solitary where he couldn't even afford $2.00 shower shoes.
Or in to the smell of the state issued soap that reeked of pine
Sol. His experience underscores that
profound truth. The true value of things is only
understood when they're taken away.
(14:24):
And he powerfully emphasizes that comparison is a thief of
joy. Arguing that many successful
people are psychologically, emotionally and mentally
incarcerated by things like heartbreak, shame or grief
points to individuals making a good living but feeling
miserable because they aren't the most successful, he argues
we must be truly present. Embrace vulnerability.
(14:46):
Which leads us to a crucial exploration of what true
vulnerability looks like. Right?
Shaka describes journaling as a game changer, a practice that
forced him to be brutally honestwith himself, even about his
deepest anger and fears. This raw honesty enabled him to
understand his own trauma and ultimately forgive his parents,
understanding their struggles, not attaching conditions to his
(15:08):
forgiveness and immense act of internal liberation.
And what's remarkable is how he applies his prison forward
skills, diplomacy, conflict resolution, even the business
acumen from loan sharking and running underground stores.
Right learning, cash flow and interest rates.
Exactly taught him cash flow management, interest rates.
He learned marketing in the streets, operations in prison,
he worked at MIT Media Lab on restorative justice, then became
(15:30):
head of DEI and sales and success culture at a tech
company. It just demonstrates how
leadership from unconventional backgrounds can bring unique and
valuable perspectives to any professional setting.
He draws that compelling parallel between athletes
overcoming injuries and his own resilience, asserting that the
hardest parts of life can becomebeautiful if approached with
(15:52):
honesty and acceptance. And he holds that profound
belief that he was incarcerated before he stepped foot in a
prison cell and free before he ever got out of solitary.
Yeah, highlighting that true freedom is an internal state of
freedom of mindfulness, an inside job that cannot be
contained by a box or a gate. So what does this all mean for
us? Listening to this, Shaka
(16:13):
believes men in particular need to cultivate vulnerability to
build stronger communities, a lesson he powerfully learned in
prison. He advocates for celebrating
other successes as fuel for onesown journey rather than
succumbing to jealousy or comparison.
He also emphasizes that truly getting real with yourself
through methods like journaling is the Super unlock for True
Grit and personal growth, enabling us to face challenges
(16:37):
head on. It's.
A powerful message. Shaka Singhor's journey is just
such a potent reminder that our past does not have to dictate
our future. His ability to transform, adapt,
and lead, all while holding on to this childlike curiosity for
life, is truly inspiring and offers profound lessons for
everyone. Yeah, and if we connect this to
the bigger picture, Shaka story challenges us to look beyond
(17:00):
labels, right? To question systemic failures
and recognize the inherent potential within every single
individual. It asks us to consider what we
truly value as a society and howwe genuinely support not just
rehabilitation, but human flourishing.
Appreciating that everyone has struggles.
And as Shaka says, we're all thesame exact human beings.
(17:20):
So true. OK, here's a provocative thought
for you to consider as we wrap up.
If true freedom is ultimately aninternal state, how might
embracing radical honesty and cultivating daily gratitude
fundamentally change your own understanding of what's
possible, regardless of your current circumstances?
Welcome to the Joe Rogan recap. Today we're embarking on a deep
dive into the extraordinary journey of Shaka Singh.
Or, as shared in his compelling conversation on The Joe Rogan
Experience, this isn't just a story of survival.
It's a powerful testament to resilience, transformation, and
finding, well, profound insightsin the most unexpected places.
It's truly compelling, isn't it?How shock is personal narrative,
(00:23):
I mean. Rooted in immense challenge
offers these universal lessons on overcoming adversity and
truly understanding what freedommeans.
Will unpack his early life, his decades in prison, and the
powerful wisdom he extracted to rebuild his life from the ground
up. Right.
Our mission today is to explore how a childhood dream of being a
doctor or artist sort of morphedinto this fight for survival,
(00:44):
and how a sentence of 17 to 40 years ultimately led to a life
dedicated to advocacy and understanding.
You'll hear about incredible moments, from daring prison
escape attempts to just the sheer ingenuity born out of
really desperate circumstances. Yeah, and Shaka's story prompts
us all to consider what truly incarcerates us and what allows
us to be free, regardless of ourphysical location.
(01:05):
It challenges our assumptions about justice, rehabilitation
and, frankly, the enduring strength of the human spirit.
OK, let's begin with the Shaka'searly life, then.
On the surface, his upbringing in Detroit seemed quite typical.
You know, working class, family,Air Force dad, homemaker, mom.
Yet beneath that veneer, he experienced A deeply abusive
household. And this foundational trauma is
(01:27):
undeniably critical. I mean, he ran away at just 13.
This was a scholarship student who harbored a dream of becoming
a doctor, driven by this desire to help people.
But his search for love and belonging tragically let him
down a very different path into the streets.
Yeah, it's difficult to imagine,but at just 13, Shaka's
innocence was just shattered. He found himself with a gun to
(01:48):
his head, robbed by a guy named Tiny, and despite witnessing a
childhood friend murdered and being nearly beaten to death
himself, he stayed entangled in that street culture.
He really paints A vivid pictureof that.
He does. He repounds vividly, navigating
a dangerous adult world as the crack epidemic was just
permeating the community. There's a striking image he
(02:09):
shares. The first time he made a
significant amount of money, he went to the store and bought all
the cereal he wanted. A simple luxury, right?
Only to return to the crack house shortly after.
Wow, that really underscores theperilous environment he was
forced to navigate. By 17.
He was shot multiple times on the West side of Detroit.
The ambulance, it never arrived,left him bleeding on a porch.
(02:31):
His friend, who had actually been shot the year prior, drove
him to the hospital, coaching him to breathe through the pain.
Just incredible. And this incident highlights
such a profound lack of support in his community, his father's
look of defeat. Shaka was the 3rd Sunshot.
It just underscores this systemic nature of the violence.
And with no psychological help for his trauma, he developed his
(02:53):
burning desire for revenge and the belief if I found myself in
conflict again, I would shoot first.
He began carrying a gun daily, even to bed.
So how did this escalating reality culminate?
About 14 to 16 months later, while D Jing a party, a verbal
altercation escalated into a full blown argument.
(03:13):
Shaka says he turned to walk away, took a couple of steps,
thought he heard someone trying to get out of a car, and then
turned and fired four shots, tragically ending a man's life.
He was just 19 years old, one month into being 19, and
immediately felt that crushing weight of his actions.
I messed up. You can't undo that.
He was arrested a day later, charged with open murder,
(03:34):
eventually convicted of second degree murder and sentenced to
17 to 40 years in prison. He truly believed his life was
over. 19 Just imagine. At 19, Shaka entered the Wayne
County Jail, which he vividly described as a war zone, a place
where you had to prove yourself daily.
And early on, driven by sheer desperation, he attempted to
escape. Yeah, what's remarkable here is
(03:56):
the raw ingenuity born out of that desperation.
He and five other inmates, they devised this elaborate plant.
They used 60 to 70 bed sheets, which they got by bullying other
inmates out of their single allocated sheet.
Can you imagine? They tie a knot in a sheet,
slide it under a door, pull it up into the door jamb to pop
their cell doors open. Their audacious plan involved
(04:17):
busting a window from the rooftop gym and bending a beam
to get out. But they were caught right
perimeter checks. Exactly.
And this led to his very first experience with solitary
confinement. He would eventually spend a
total of seven years in solitaryacross 11 different prisons.
His longest continuous stint wasfrom 1999 to 2004 at Oaks
Correctional Facility. Seven years.
(04:39):
And this brings us to a criticalpoint about the profound impact
of solitary confinement. Shaka calls it the most barbaric
thing that we do to people in this country and he paints this
picture right. 23 hour lockdowns, five days a.
Week and full 24 on the other two, yeah.
Full 24 hour lockdowns on the other two days, all within the
most chaotic environment imaginable.
He recounts inmates banging steel foot lockers for hours,
(05:01):
just deliberately antagonizing each other.
And these disturbing shit wars where feces were thrown using
concocted weapons from toothpaste tubes or even
colostomy bags. It's just.
It's hard to even fathom. A truly disturbing display of
ingenuity in a desperate situation.
And the conditions he described were just horrendous.
Flooded cells, unclean showers, rampant self harm where inmates
(05:25):
would carve their skin with anything available, and even
inmates swallowing batteries which led to bans on music
players. His biggest fear wasn't even
physical safety, but losing his mind.
Watching normal guys completely change in that environment,
getting that glossed overlook starting to hallucinate.
Yeah, he talks about that, and he details 3 distinct reasons
(05:46):
for his solitary stance. 1 was an assault on a fellow inmate
during a robbery when he had no money on his books.
Another was slapping A disrespectful inmate with mashed
potatoes while serving as a chowhall foreman.
But perhaps most significantly, he describes beating up a
correctional officer who wouldn't let him use the
bathroom, breaking the officers trachea.
(06:07):
He recalls the officers radio flying over the railing and
landing downstairs, an incident he views as literally saving his
life by preventing a life sentence.
That moment was a stark, undeniable realization of his
Angers destructive power. And you have officer taunts
about never getting out, seeing others who had been in solitary
for 10 even it's 20 years. Yeah, like his neighbor who's in
(06:30):
for a decade or this con man in for two decades.
It just made him resign himself to dying in prison.
In a desperate moment, he even wrote a letter to his father
telling him to move on with his life.
But his father's response? Unwavering resolve.
I will never leave your side. Powerful stuff.
Really powerful. Amidst all this chaos and
despair though, a truly pivotal moment emerged, one that would
(06:52):
redefine everything for Shaka. He decided to structure his days
like he was at university, dedicated himself to studying
philosophy, world history, African history, devoured books
for pleasure, just focusing on keeping his mind moving forward
despite the intense isolation. And what's truly profound here
is his emphasis on literacy as atool for liberation.
(07:13):
Shaka states the average readinggrade in prison is about third
grade, and he credits his ability to read as the single
most important factor in his transformation.
He poured over books by Nelson Mandela, found immense insight
in James Allen's As a Man Thinketh, which taught him the
radical idea of mastering his thinking.
To master his environment also drew strength from the poem
(07:36):
Invictus. But the ultimate turning point,
the real emotional core of his transformation, came from a
letter from his two year old son.
Oh yeah. His son wrote Dad, don't kill.
Jesus watches what you do. After his mother explained why
Shaka was in prison, he said this struck him in the most
heartbreaking way and spurred him to turn his life around,
(07:57):
realizing that all his past attempts to do right were always
for someone else, never truly for himself.
And this raises that fundamentalquestion about how we truly find
accountability, right? Shaka began journaling with one
essential piercing question. How did I end up here?
He revisited his entire life, recognizing not only the trauma
he'd endured, but also the hurt he'd caused others and this
(08:19):
consistent pattern of quitting. Right, never finishing anything.
High school job, core. So this self reflection led him
to challenge himself to finish one thing, write a book in 30
days, believing his very life depended on it.
And despite the flimsy plastic pens they give inmates, he
innovatively rolled them in paper to make them firm like a
regular pen. Amazing.
(08:40):
He poured his heart into it, completed a fiction novel in 30
days, feeling this immense senseof pride, the greatest he'd ever
known. He still keeps those original
notepads. And then he took another
ingenious step, using that fish line you mentioned earlier, made
from underwear strings and a toothpaste tube stuffed with wet
toilet paper. Unbelievable.
(09:01):
To pass his manuscript to another inmate who responded
with his powerful affirmation, calling it one of the best books
I've ever read that. Must have been huge.
Oh, absolutely. That initial validation, and
later a letter from his engineerstepbrother provided crucial
encouragement, gave him that much needed boost when he later
felt a deep depression while writing his third book.
Realizing his wasted talent, thedevastation of not actualizing a
(09:23):
dream, he returned to James Allen's philosophy about how
positive thoughts could transform negative outcomes.
And this profound shift led him to write a philosophical letter
to the warden, taking full accountability for his 34
misconducts. 34, yeah. But promising to mentor young
guys and become a writer if given a chance.
Stating he was a man of his word.
(09:44):
And the warden, despite hesitation because of the
assault on the officer, believedhim, advocated for his release
from solitary. Which still took another two
years. Bill took two years, yeah.
So when he finally got out of solitary after 4 1/2 years, he
described it as a George Jefferson stroll, that feeling
of triumphant upward mobility, you know, fighting for himself
(10:07):
and moving toward a higher purpose.
He immediately went to work, typing up his books, mentoring,
tutoring. Other inmates discovered that if
he gave them books with narratives similar to their own
lives, they'd engage and put in more effort.
And what's fascinating is how his ingenuity persisted even
from within the prison walls. He successfully self published
his first book in 2008, used a self help guide to
(10:29):
self-publishing, and worked withan outside partner who believed
in his vision. But then, just as he began to
find success, the system tried to pull him back down.
Always seems to happen. The prison sued him for the cost
of his incarceration, nearly $1,000,000, and demanded 90% of
his book earnings, clearly thinking he had some major book
deal. Wow.
(10:49):
But he used his hard won knowledge of contractual law
from the Prison Law Library to backdate a contract to himself,
stating he would only accept 10%of proceeds after production
costs. This ingeniously limited their
take to 90% of like $1.50 cent per book, ensuring he wouldn't
make significant money until after his release.
(11:10):
That raises such a critical point about our penal system,
doesn't it? The profound lack of genuine
rehabilitation it often presents.
Shaka explains how society, particularly 15 years ago, offer
virtually no second chances for individuals convicted of violent
crimes. At his first parole hearing
after 17 years, he was categorized solely as a
murderer. The parole board focused
(11:32):
exclusively on the act of killing, not acknowledging his
growth, his transformation. He powerfully states that the
scariest part about our penal system is that there's no
inherent rehabilitation. You have to find it.
Build it yourself. Yeah, and this really brings
into focus his critique of the waste of human talent With In
Prisons. He highlights the incredible
ingenuity inmates show making tattoo guns from tape player
(11:54):
motors and guitar strings or stingers to heat water from
extension cords and nail Clippers.
He even describes how MIT Media Lab students struggled to
replicate these prison hacks, validating the inmates
brilliance. He believes we literally threw
talented people away, and he would have been one of them if
he hadn't found his path throughwriting.
(12:15):
And he draws a powerful connection between the suffering
of inmates and that of correctional officers, too,
arguing that their brutal job forces them to wear this mask of
toughness, constantly dealing with people at their absolute
worst, which ultimately leads totheir own dehumanization.
That's a really important point.Yeah, and Shaka also offers a
critical examination of the prison industry, private
(12:35):
prisons, prison guard unions, articulating his perspective
that they're lobbying efforts tokeep certain drug laws on the
books are akin to people farmingfor profit.
And just consider the basic things like phone calls costing
$15.00 when inmates often make as little as $0.17 an hour.
Wow. That means it takes a full week
just to afford a single call, severely limiting vital family
(12:59):
connections. Yeah, he brings up the
compelling story of Freeway Ricky Ross, who learned to read
in prison and became a lawyer, and uses this to illustrate his
analysis that the crack epidemicwas, in his view, fueled by the
government to fund a war. He laments how that super
predator narrative of the 90s, that controversial term used to
describe young offenders disproportionately applied to
(13:21):
black males, has now, in his observation, shifted with the
opioid crisis, showing how we'reall the same exact human beings
and society's failure to invest in communities, instead
prioritizing incarceration. It's a really stark comparison.
So here's a profound shift in Shaka's journey that truly
stands out. Later on, he experienced this
deep moment of guilt and self reflection after his brother's
(13:42):
murder in July 2021. Watching his family mourn, he
was struck by the profound senseof guilt, realizing he had made
someone else's family feel that exact pain.
Wow, that must have been incredibly difficult.
Yeah, and this led him to the powerful realization that
gratitude is one of the greatestkeys to freedom.
He now practices daily gratitudefor things that might seem non
(14:04):
obvious to many of us with the simple luxury of cold orange
juice or just having a bar of soap.
Right. A stark contrast to a time in
solitary where he couldn't even afford $2.00 shower shoes.
Or in to the smell of the state issued soap that reeked of pine
Sol. His experience underscores that
profound truth. The true value of things is only
understood when they're taken away.
(14:24):
And he powerfully emphasizes that comparison is a thief of
joy. Arguing that many successful
people are psychologically, emotionally and mentally
incarcerated by things like heartbreak, shame or grief
points to individuals making a good living but feeling
miserable because they aren't the most successful, he argues
we must be truly present. Embrace vulnerability.
(14:46):
Which leads us to a crucial exploration of what true
vulnerability looks like. Right?
Shaka describes journaling as a game changer, a practice that
forced him to be brutally honestwith himself, even about his
deepest anger and fears. This raw honesty enabled him to
understand his own trauma and ultimately forgive his parents,
understanding their struggles, not attaching conditions to his
(15:08):
forgiveness and immense act of internal liberation.
And what's remarkable is how he applies his prison forward
skills, diplomacy, conflict resolution, even the business
acumen from loan sharking and running underground stores.
Right learning, cash flow and interest rates.
Exactly taught him cash flow management, interest rates.
He learned marketing in the streets, operations in prison,
he worked at MIT Media Lab on restorative justice, then became
(15:30):
head of DEI and sales and success culture at a tech
company. It just demonstrates how
leadership from unconventional backgrounds can bring unique and
valuable perspectives to any professional setting.
He draws that compelling parallel between athletes
overcoming injuries and his own resilience, asserting that the
hardest parts of life can becomebeautiful if approached with
(15:52):
honesty and acceptance. And he holds that profound
belief that he was incarcerated before he stepped foot in a
prison cell and free before he ever got out of solitary.
Yeah, highlighting that true freedom is an internal state of
freedom of mindfulness, an inside job that cannot be
contained by a box or a gate. So what does this all mean for
us? Listening to this, Shaka
(16:13):
believes men in particular need to cultivate vulnerability to
build stronger communities, a lesson he powerfully learned in
prison. He advocates for celebrating
other successes as fuel for onesown journey rather than
succumbing to jealousy or comparison.
He also emphasizes that truly getting real with yourself
through methods like journaling is the Super unlock for True
Grit and personal growth, enabling us to face challenges
(16:37):
head on. It's.
A powerful message. Shaka Singhor's journey is just
such a potent reminder that our past does not have to dictate
our future. His ability to transform, adapt,
and lead, all while holding on to this childlike curiosity for
life, is truly inspiring and offers profound lessons for
everyone. Yeah, and if we connect this to
the bigger picture, Shaka story challenges us to look beyond
(17:00):
labels, right? To question systemic failures
and recognize the inherent potential within every single
individual. It asks us to consider what we
truly value as a society and howwe genuinely support not just
rehabilitation, but human flourishing.
Appreciating that everyone has struggles.
And as Shaka says, we're all thesame exact human beings.
(17:20):
So true. OK, here's a provocative thought
for you to consider as we wrap up.
If true freedom is ultimately aninternal state, how might
embracing radical honesty and cultivating daily gratitude
fundamentally change your own understanding of what's
possible, regardless of your current circumstances?
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