Trigger warning. This interview discusses the specific person's experience with abuse, trauma, suicide, and violence.
If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic abuse of any kind, please reach out to the National Domestic Violence Hotline. Their phone number is 1 (800) 799-7233. Or you can visit their safe, secure website, thehotline.org.
If you or anyone you know is experiencing thoughts of suicide you can reach out to 988 Suicide and Crisis Hotline by dialing 988 (us) or by visiting 988lifeline.org.
In this inspiring and in-depth episode, Jaclyn speaks with Ernesto Rodriguez about how he went from a prison sentence in solitary confinement to the program developer for Kindful Restoration. They discuss how unkindness led him on a path to destruction and how shifting his life toward kindness set him free.
Ernesto Rodriguez was born into a life where poverty, violence, and addiction created a deep yearning to find acceptance, which eventually led to him to gangs. At age 18, Ernesto was arrested for attempted murder, carjacking, and assault with a firearm, and at age 27 found himself in solitary confinement for 8 years. It was there he began a transformation sparked by kindness. He enrolled in college, self-help, AA, and NA and spent his years paying the kindness he received forward. While in prison he became a certified counselor and earned a bachelor’s in science in Psychology. He was released from prison in 2023 and began working as the program developer for Kindful Restoration - a subdivision of the Choose Kindness Foundation.
This podcast is one of the many ways we live out our organization's mission to educate and inspire people to choose kindness. Visit our site kindness.org and sign up to become a part of our global community which spans more than 100 countries. It's free to join and when you do you'll be the first to get access to our latest research, tools, and even episodes of this podcast. Let's build a kinder world, together. Contact us at podcast@kindness.org or on social at @kindnessorg.
Sponsored by Verizon
Important links from this week's episode:
Credits
- Host: Jaclyn Lindsey
- Guest: Ernesto Rodriguez
- Producer: Melissa Malone
- Associate Producer: Becca Reed
- Music Composition: Chris Christiana
- Design: Ben Gibson, Christine Do, Smithfield Studio
Transcript available at this link.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!