⚡MINI: The WILDEST THING Nick Yarris Saw While Locked Away On Death Row

A raw and moving interview with Nick Yarris, a former death row inmate who turned his life around after being exonerated. His story of finding purpose during immense suffering will inspire you.

In this episode of the Will and Wooden Show, hosts Will and Woody have an emotional and candid conversation with Nick Yarris, who spent over 20 years on death row before being exonerated for a crime he did not commit. Nick shares how he found purpose and meaning during his darkest days in solitary confinement and how the experience transformed him into a more loving, grateful, and wise person.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
My Heart podcasts, Anymore kids podcasts, playlists and listen live
on the Free.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
I had a look, the greatest challenge of my life
wasn't death row. It was freedom after death brow. Get it? Yeah,
this is really I've eight all right, here's a perspective.
Eighty percent of men who served more than twenty years
in solitary confinement try to kill themselves within the first

(00:38):
five years. Eighty percent try to kill themselves. Yeah. God,
God put me not only in jail, but he put
me on death row so I couldn't be in population
and get murdered.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
Wow are you? Are you grateful for your time on
death row?

Speaker 2 (00:54):
I'm just one of the greatest experiences of my life.
I'm so happy that I got to become a knowledgeable,
autodiactic educated men. Now, man, I'm I love the fact
that I have such an impact on people. I have
friends that all over the world to really relate to me,
and they love me and they care about me. And

(01:16):
that's because I keep putting out the positivity, you know
what I mean?

Speaker 1 (01:19):
Yeah? Yeah, what's the wallst thing that you've seen in
your in your time? What's the wadest thing you think?

Speaker 2 (01:24):
What's my screwdriver sticking out of the kid's head.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
Oh, did not see that coming.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Wow. My first week of prison, I was walking through
the block and I saw the curtain move in this
cell and they say, don't go near their celves, don't
look at them. But I couldn't help it, you know,
And I pushed the curtain back and I walked in
and there was a kid sitting there. He couldn't have
been more He's eighteen, and he's looked at me. He said,
he said, am I gonna be okay? And I said,

(01:50):
I'm gonna go get help. And he's slumped over and
I felt bad. I felt so horrible because I lied
to him, didn't I But did I do him right
or not? But that that really, yeah, I've had I've
watched so many people dye in prisons. Crazy.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
What's the most beautiful thing you've seen.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Man, I've seen myself. I hate to say this, but
I've seen myself find love. M I saw within myself
an ability to love myself when they told me I
was worthless and they were going to murder me. And
that was the most beautiful thing I could ever see.

(02:29):
Because it's something that has never left me.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
M that's so good, Nick, I'm so happy for you.
What's happy?

Speaker 2 (02:36):
What's the first thing you did when you when you
walked out of prison?

Speaker 1 (02:40):
Nick, So you've had twenty three years, you're in sultry confine.
What's what's the first thing you did?

Speaker 2 (02:43):
What's the first place you went? Well, they botched my release.
They told me goodbye, shook my hand, got me to
the last barrier, and said, oops, up on the piper work.
We gotta take it back.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
No, Nick.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
So five and a half hours later, when they finally
released me, Yeah, I walked out and it was crazy.
See my parents were there. My ex wife had left
me while I was on death row to die my
spiritual advisor, and we all went to the crocker barrel
but I couldn't eat. My father said, come on, let's

(03:19):
go outside. See we just calmed down because it was
an emotional day.

Speaker 3 (03:22):
They botched my release for me. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
So my father was sitting there and he said, you know,
money's changed. I said, what do you mean.

Speaker 3 (03:29):
He goes, money's got like secret things in it. And
he gave me a twenty dollars bill and to look
at and I looked at the security thing in the
note then I folded it up, I put it in
my pocket and I laughed at him.

Speaker 2 (03:40):
He goes, hey, hey, what are you doing? I say, hey,
see your little boy, you got to take care of me,
right And then he said, look, I'm dying to ask
you this. He goes, but what's the one thing You
can look around right now and everything like, it's the
one thing that's changed. And I looked around the parking
lot and I said, Poppy, it's hubcaps. There had no
more hub caps. Everything's all, he said, son of for bitch.

(04:05):
I didn't even pay attention. There you go. I've never
been to Australia, but I dream of coming down there. Man,
I would really love to experience that.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
Please reach it, Please reach out, if you'd love to
hang out, I'd love to.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
Nick.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
It's been a pleasure. I think we're all in awe
of you. You're You're inspiring, man, you really are. So
congratulations on finding yourself in a place where a lot
of people would lose themselves and turning it into something beautiful.
That is that will be a legacy for so many
people to admire.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
Here goes boys, you've been listening to the Will and
Wooden Show on iHeartRadio from Australia