March 28, 2025 • 8 mins
We had the honor of being able to speak with Amanda Knox about her story and get to learn how she is going about life after this defining moment in her life
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
So you guys know me, I am a massive true
crime fan. I have seen all of Netflix. It's pretty crazy.
I mean there's nothing left. So I am well aware
of Amanda Knox's story. Yeah, it is one of the
crazier things, and I think it really touched a nerve
here in America. Obviously, you know, it was a pretty
(00:20):
crazy story. But anybody that travels abroad or lives abroad,
these things could happen to us and what we can't
do anything about it. And it did happen to Amanda
who was locked away in an Italian prison for four
years for a murder that she didn't commit and they
(00:40):
railroaded her and so it was I mean, she was
on trial forever. I mean it was insane and this
is pretty crazy. Amanda Knox joins us this morning. Right now.
How's it going to Amanda, Amanda, thanks for taking the
time of joining us this morning.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Absolutely. So I was just telling these guys, you know,
I'm a big true crime fan. So I watched all
these different true crime stories and you were one of
the original ones that really struck a nerve with the
American public, where you know, people were trying to solve
your case over here and you know, trying to figure
out who done it and all that stuff. Were you
even aware that people were talking so much about your case?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Only vaguely like I, I mean, I was in a
prison cell and I did not have access to American
news stations or anything like that. All I knew was
that my families told me that the media and the
attention on this case had just gotten out of control.
That's what I came to understand. And it was only
(01:43):
when I was on my flight home from Italy that
I realized just how big it was, because like I
turned on, you know, the TV, just to like watch
some TV on the plane, and every single bull channel
had my face on it, and I was just like,
oh my god.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Yeah, I can't even imagine. You know, you're you're locked away,
you have no idea what's going on. You're just trying
to get the hell out of there. And then next thing,
you know, you're a pseudo celebrity now and the world
knows about your case.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Yeah, yeah, you know. It's what's horrible about it is
I always knew that I was, you know, I call
it pseudo celebrity, but it was I was famous for
the worst experience of my life, and I was defined
as this the girl accused of murder, whether you thought
I was guilty or innocent, like I was. My entire
(02:39):
life and identity now was inextricably linked with the death
of my friend that I had nothing to do with.
And I was faced with this horrible dilemma of like, Okay, well,
now who am I? Everyone just associates me with this
horrific case, And now am I just like trapped in
in this identity for the rest of my life? What
could I possibly do that could ever come to define
(03:02):
me more than this worst thing that's ever happened to me?
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Yeah, and you sort of talk about it in this
article and this free my search for meaning, and you
kind of chronicle what does your life mean now? Because
you're right, I'm sure there are people when they hear
the name of Amanda Knox who are not familiar with
the entire case and things like that that may think
you're still guilty.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Oh yeah, absolutely, I mean, and I'm still remain wrongly
convicted of a lesser charge in Italy. So it's not
that like the injustice of the situation has gone away.
It's more that over the course of time, I have
realized what it means to be truly free. And being
truly free doesn't mean that you get what you deserve
(03:49):
and all of the things get worked out and you
don't have any more problems. It means that you just
see the world clearly for what it is, You accept
your reality for what it is. You live your best life,
and you make your best choices that will ultimately come
to define you. And that's what I'm doing today.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Really well, said Amanda.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Talk to bring me back to when you were convicted
and put in jail, and I would love to hear
your insight on the jail cell gets closed. You're wrongly convicted.
What keeps you going for four years? You don't know
the language, you don't know the people, your friend just
got murdered. You're in there and you can't get out
because personally, I don't know how I would handle that.
(04:29):
I'd probably have a mental breakdown. We put in a
psych ward. What was going through your mind? How did
you handle that?
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Well? It's interesting. So the first two years of my imprisonment,
I was just being investistigated and it was on trial,
and I had this idea that I was just in
a really dark tunnel, but there was a light at
the end of the tunnel, and if I just like
spoiled On, I would make it through. That was the
metaphor that my mom and my family we were all using.
(04:58):
But then, of course I get convicted and sentenced to
twenty six years, and I go back to my cell
and realize that I have not just been living in
limbo or living someone else's life by mistake and waiting
to have my life back. This is my life and
the truth doesn't matter. And now I have to get
(05:22):
up every single day and ask myself is this life
worth living? And I very seriously thought about like, well,
there is an ultimate escape hatch. I thought very trigger warning,
like I thought about killing myself, and I thought very
explicitly about how I would go about it. And I
(05:42):
think the good things that arose from that is as
soon as I acknowledged that that was an option, I
realized that I had to take responsibility for the choice
to live. And if I chose every morning to live,
then that meant it was on me to make my
life worth living, at least on a day to day basis.
(06:03):
I didn't have this like grand vision for how it
was going to survive twenty six years in prison. But
I could wake up in the morning and go, I'm
going to write a letter to my mom. I'm going
to do a bunch of sit ups, I'm going to
read this book, and that's going to be Now I'm
going to be announced.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Yeah, that's very wow, that's pretty remarkable, Now, Amanda, I
don't know if there is a place for like survivors
like you and people that got out of their wrongfully
accused like things like that, or even like a convention
for true crime people like I don't know, Like, do
you guys ever talk? Do you hear these stories of
(06:40):
people who are wrongfully accused? And do you guys talk?
Speaker 2 (06:45):
You know, actually we do. I didn't know this until
I was brought to my first ever Innocence Network conference.
But there is a conference that happens once a year
where people who work on getting people out of prison,
Innocence Project explawyers things like that, scientists, but also exon
ree's people who have spent time in prison for things
(07:05):
they did to do. We get together once a year
and have a really big celebratory party. And it means
that's crazy a lot.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Time I went through Lune like, I was shocked to
find myself in a room full of a lot of
like older men of color who had spent a lot
longer in prison than I had. Sure just understood me
on this deep level. And you know, now a lot
of us work for these innocents organizations. I'm on the
board of an organization called the Innocent Center that works
(07:35):
to help get people out of prison for crimes they
didn't commit. And it's very meaningful.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Wow, Manda, Well, I'm so glad you're free. Yeah, I'm
so glad it finally worked out. I know they robbed
a lot of time from you, but thankfully you're free
and out and in the clear. And what a pleasure
it was to talk to you this morning.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Yeah, thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Absolutely there you go. Thanks so much, Amanda Knox joining
me this morning, unbelievable. St Honestly, they're fire the questions,
but you know, she's she's doing other stuff this morning.
But uh, but man, I'm telling you, if you guys
are not that familiar with her story, there's plenty of
documentaries out there that you that chronicle what happened to
her and everything it's it's pretty unbelievable.
So you guys know me, I am a massive true
crime fan. I have seen all of Netflix. It's pretty crazy.
I mean there's nothing left. So I am well aware
of Amanda Knox's story. Yeah, it is one of the
crazier things, and I think it really touched a nerve
here in America. Obviously, you know, it was a pretty
(00:20):
crazy story. But anybody that travels abroad or lives abroad,
these things could happen to us and what we can't
do anything about it. And it did happen to Amanda
who was locked away in an Italian prison for four
years for a murder that she didn't commit and they
(00:40):
railroaded her and so it was I mean, she was
on trial forever. I mean it was insane and this
is pretty crazy. Amanda Knox joins us this morning. Right now.
How's it going to Amanda, Amanda, thanks for taking the
time of joining us this morning.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Absolutely. So I was just telling these guys, you know,
I'm a big true crime fan. So I watched all
these different true crime stories and you were one of
the original ones that really struck a nerve with the
American public, where you know, people were trying to solve
your case over here and you know, trying to figure
out who done it and all that stuff. Were you
even aware that people were talking so much about your case?
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Only vaguely like I, I mean, I was in a
prison cell and I did not have access to American
news stations or anything like that. All I knew was
that my families told me that the media and the
attention on this case had just gotten out of control.
That's what I came to understand. And it was only
(01:43):
when I was on my flight home from Italy that
I realized just how big it was, because like I
turned on, you know, the TV, just to like watch
some TV on the plane, and every single bull channel
had my face on it, and I was just like,
oh my god.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Yeah, I can't even imagine. You know, you're you're locked away,
you have no idea what's going on. You're just trying
to get the hell out of there. And then next thing,
you know, you're a pseudo celebrity now and the world
knows about your case.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Yeah, yeah, you know. It's what's horrible about it is
I always knew that I was, you know, I call
it pseudo celebrity, but it was I was famous for
the worst experience of my life, and I was defined
as this the girl accused of murder, whether you thought
I was guilty or innocent, like I was. My entire
(02:39):
life and identity now was inextricably linked with the death
of my friend that I had nothing to do with.
And I was faced with this horrible dilemma of like, Okay, well,
now who am I? Everyone just associates me with this
horrific case, And now am I just like trapped in
in this identity for the rest of my life? What
could I possibly do that could ever come to define
(03:02):
me more than this worst thing that's ever happened to me?
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Yeah, and you sort of talk about it in this
article and this free my search for meaning, and you
kind of chronicle what does your life mean now? Because
you're right, I'm sure there are people when they hear
the name of Amanda Knox who are not familiar with
the entire case and things like that that may think
you're still guilty.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Oh yeah, absolutely, I mean, and I'm still remain wrongly
convicted of a lesser charge in Italy. So it's not
that like the injustice of the situation has gone away.
It's more that over the course of time, I have
realized what it means to be truly free. And being
truly free doesn't mean that you get what you deserve
(03:49):
and all of the things get worked out and you
don't have any more problems. It means that you just
see the world clearly for what it is, You accept
your reality for what it is. You live your best life,
and you make your best choices that will ultimately come
to define you. And that's what I'm doing today.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Really well, said Amanda.
Speaker 3 (04:09):
Talk to bring me back to when you were convicted
and put in jail, and I would love to hear
your insight on the jail cell gets closed. You're wrongly convicted.
What keeps you going for four years? You don't know
the language, you don't know the people, your friend just
got murdered. You're in there and you can't get out
because personally, I don't know how I would handle that.
(04:29):
I'd probably have a mental breakdown. We put in a
psych ward. What was going through your mind? How did
you handle that?
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Well? It's interesting. So the first two years of my imprisonment,
I was just being investistigated and it was on trial,
and I had this idea that I was just in
a really dark tunnel, but there was a light at
the end of the tunnel, and if I just like
spoiled On, I would make it through. That was the
metaphor that my mom and my family we were all using.
(04:58):
But then, of course I get convicted and sentenced to
twenty six years, and I go back to my cell
and realize that I have not just been living in
limbo or living someone else's life by mistake and waiting
to have my life back. This is my life and
the truth doesn't matter. And now I have to get
(05:22):
up every single day and ask myself is this life
worth living? And I very seriously thought about like, well,
there is an ultimate escape hatch. I thought very trigger warning,
like I thought about killing myself, and I thought very
explicitly about how I would go about it. And I
(05:42):
think the good things that arose from that is as
soon as I acknowledged that that was an option, I
realized that I had to take responsibility for the choice
to live. And if I chose every morning to live,
then that meant it was on me to make my
life worth living, at least on a day to day basis.
(06:03):
I didn't have this like grand vision for how it
was going to survive twenty six years in prison. But
I could wake up in the morning and go, I'm
going to write a letter to my mom. I'm going
to do a bunch of sit ups, I'm going to
read this book, and that's going to be Now I'm
going to be announced.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Yeah, that's very wow, that's pretty remarkable, Now, Amanda, I
don't know if there is a place for like survivors
like you and people that got out of their wrongfully
accused like things like that, or even like a convention
for true crime people like I don't know, Like, do
you guys ever talk? Do you hear these stories of
(06:40):
people who are wrongfully accused? And do you guys talk?
Speaker 2 (06:45):
You know, actually we do. I didn't know this until
I was brought to my first ever Innocence Network conference.
But there is a conference that happens once a year
where people who work on getting people out of prison,
Innocence Project explawyers things like that, scientists, but also exon
ree's people who have spent time in prison for things
(07:05):
they did to do. We get together once a year
and have a really big celebratory party. And it means
that's crazy a lot.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
Yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Time I went through Lune like, I was shocked to
find myself in a room full of a lot of
like older men of color who had spent a lot
longer in prison than I had. Sure just understood me
on this deep level. And you know, now a lot
of us work for these innocents organizations. I'm on the
board of an organization called the Innocent Center that works
(07:35):
to help get people out of prison for crimes they
didn't commit. And it's very meaningful.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
Wow, Manda, Well, I'm so glad you're free. Yeah, I'm
so glad it finally worked out. I know they robbed
a lot of time from you, but thankfully you're free
and out and in the clear. And what a pleasure
it was to talk to you this morning.
Speaker 2 (07:53):
Yeah, thanks so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Absolutely there you go. Thanks so much, Amanda Knox joining
me this morning, unbelievable. St Honestly, they're fire the questions,
but you know, she's she's doing other stuff this morning.
But uh, but man, I'm telling you, if you guys
are not that familiar with her story, there's plenty of
documentaries out there that you that chronicle what happened to
her and everything it's it's pretty unbelievable.
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