Brought to you by the award winning producers, Navigating Freedom Podcast (A.K.A The People's Podcast) features real people, incarcerated, formerly incarcerated, or who work to end the unjust carceral system. Through story telling and interviews we address topics that directly affect the freedoms, liberty, and quality of life of those marginalized having difficulties navigating what we perceive to be a free society.
This platform gives us a voice to reach out and reach back to prevent the prison industrial complex from stifling and reshaping our voices. Just because you have been freed, doesn’t mean that you are free.
Thanks for listening to Navigating Freedom. To support the group that made this show go to https://www.theuncuffedproject.org/ to learn more.
For more shows like this check out
AT NiGHT i FLY and A Year from Now...
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-year-from-now/id1655027662
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/navigating-freedom/id1575139484
27 Dec 2022
12 - DESERTS
Navigating Freedom’s final episode takes you to two different desserts. We go to Navigating Freedom producer Spoon Jackson’s home and see where it all started and then take a trip to Banning CA where a two daughters hope for their father’s return. This episode is all about the power and destruction that a family can impart on its members. The tragedy and beautify of family.
Featuring: Abe Jackson, Spoon Jackson, D’Avion Walton, Demetrius Walton, Kevin Randon, Ronnie Randon
Producers: Damon Cooke, Lisa Strong, Spoon Jackson
Lead Producer: Matthew Schneeman
This podcast is made by The Uncuffed Project, a nor for profit that works to help reintegrate people leaving prison. To learn more about the Uncuffed Project go to https://www.theuncuffedproject.org/
20 Dec 2022
11 - WATER
One newly freed man told us, “Getting out isn’t the finish, but the starting line.” This week’s episodes are all about those starting lines. What it’s like to do forty years in prison while close enough to see the tourists of San Francisco? And what do you do when you get out? The crushing irony of finally getting the freedom you need, but when you get it your mind and body still act as if you’re locked up? We also hear what freedom feels like about doing over forty years and then getting exonerated.
Featuring: Caesar McDowell, George ‘Rock’ Davis, Boston Woodard, Marvin Mutch
Producers: Damon Cooke, Lisa Strong, Spoon Jackson
Lead Producer: Matthew Schneeman
13 Dec 2022
10 - SCI-FI
Three stories today all about science fiction writers in CA’s prisons. The sci-fi is a blast, but the stories behind those stories aren’t as fun. We also hear about one man’s temporary and odd decent into Scientology and get an honest, too honest perhaps?, review of Navigating Freedom producer Bryan Mazza’s book.
Carol Hunter, Virgil Jason Clark, Jeffrey Aims, Talib Jones, Bryan Mazza
Producers: Bryan Mazza, Spoon Jackson
Lead Producer: Matthew Schneeman
This podcast is made by The Uncuffed Project, a nor for profit that works to help reintegrate people leaving prison. To learn more about the Uncuffed Project go to https://www.theuncuffedproject.org/
6 Dec 2022
09 - LAKE MERRITT
This week’s episode is about how close you can come to descending into violence and darkness while incarcerated. This episode has three stories about three men overcoming the odds to make it out of prison and while the stories have a, generally, happy ending, getting out wasn’t inevitable. There are many people we didn’t interview for this show who went the other way.
Featuring: Chanthan Bun, John John Pisalem, and Andre Gadson
Producers: Damon Cooke, Lisa Strong
Lead Producer: Matthew Schneeman
Horn player from intro on instagram @Gettaent
29 Nov 2022
08 - GARDENING
This week’s episode is a collection of stories about gardening in, and out, of prison. If that sounds about as entertaining as watching the grass grow, well, not all of us have access to lush grass. Maybe watching grass grow is worth doing every now and then? But, fear not, this episode is about much more than just green thumbs behind bars. It’s about the food people in prison eat and how plants and life can help those who have harmed others and themselves heal. Also, an odd story about double entendres and Facebook censorship in Buffalo NY.
Kep Asake Tuinono, Jerry Madriz, Thomas Lee Gleason, Elizebeth Licota, Bruce Davis
Producers: Spoon Jackson, Damon Cooke
Lead Producer: Matthew Schneeman
Special thanks to Garden Rant, gardenrant.com
22 Nov 2022
07 - ZODIAC
This episode is a bit of a departure from our normal format, just one main story that is Navigating Freedom’s take on true crime or conspiracy theory podcasts. We start with a wonderful man who did some time with less wonderful people, Charles Manson being one and then go to a larger story about a feuding friendship over an obsession and a 700plus page book on the ‘real’ zodiac killer.
Featuring: Boston Woodard, Bryan Mazza, Ken Gage, Ken Gage Jr, Paul Mazzie, Joe Gallo ,Marvin Mutch
Producer: Bryan Mazza
Lead Producer: Matthew Schneeman
This podcast is made by The Uncuffed Project, a nor for profit that works to help reintegrate people leaving prison. To learn more about the Uncuffed Project go to https://www.theuncuffedproject.org/
15 Nov 2022
06 - FORGIVING
This week’s episode is a big one. There's a weird thing I've noticed, the worse the hurt, the greater the need to forgive. It's strange. In this episode you'll hear people forgive those who robbed them of their mobility and even family members and one a rather large story involving coincidences, a web of violence, and the ability to forgive that is as touching as it is tragic.
Featuring: Cotton Jones, Dennis DeMario, Sam Metcalfe, Raheem Thompson-Banila, Dorothy Thompson, Derrick Hallaway
Producers: Spoon Jackson, Damon Cooke, Lisa Strong
Lead Prioducer: Matthew Schneeman
This podcast is made by The Uncuffed Project, a nor for profit that works to help reintegrate people leaving prison. To learn more about the Uncuffed Project go to https://www.theuncuffedproject.org/
8 Nov 2022
05 - RUNNING
Welcome to Navigating Freedom, a podcast about freedom. The show is made by journalist Matthew Schneeman on the outside with producers inside of Solano State Prison.
This episode starts with running. Some fellas in Solano State Prison are organizing a half marathon. What’s it like to train for a long distance race in a prison yard in 100 degree heat? We have stories about firefighting before prison and after. And an incredible story of how to host at wedding in prison, in spite of everything— dancing, real flowers, and certain clothing, being banned.
Produced by Bryan Mazza, Lisa Strong, Damon L Cooke
Lead Producer: Matthew Schneeman
Featuring: Joe Mantenin, Kyle Fletcher, Blaine and Christina Bowker.
This podcast is made by The Uncuffed Project, a nor for profit that works to help reintegrate people leaving prison. To learn more about the Uncuffed Project go to https://www.theuncuffedproject.org/
1 Nov 2022
04 - RABBITS
Welcome to Navigating Freedom, a podcast about freedom. The show is made by journalist Matthew Schneeman on the outside with producers inside of Solano State Prison.
This weeks episode is about animals. Rabbits on the yard, cats knocking coffee cups of tables, the pigeons and hawks flying over the fences and the people that live among them in Solano State Prison. A native man connects to his ancestors, a Tongan American has a barbecue on the yard, and I visit producer Spoon Jackson’s home in Barstow CA and look for lizards. Feature Sonny Wolf, Cotton Jones, Kep Asake Tuinono, SaraMarie Bottaro, and Spoon and Abe Jackson.
Producers: Spoon Jackson, Lisa Strong
Lead Producer: Matthew Schneeman
Special thanks to Abe Jackson for showing us Barstow
This podcast is made by The Uncuffed Project, a nor for profit that works to help reintegrate people leaving prison. To learn more about the Uncuffed Project go to https://www.theuncuffedproject.org/
25 Oct 2022
03 - COVID
Welcome to Navigating Freedom, a podcast about freedom. The show is made by journalist Matthew Schneeman on the outside with producers inside of Solano State Prison.
This episode is about that thing you've heard too god damn much about. Covid. But Covid in prison is a completely different thing. We have people trying to hide that they have Covid, people trying to prove that they don't, and what Covid did to those trying to get out of prison. Featuring Ceasar McDowell, ChanThon Bun, Spoon Jackson, and Damon L Cooke.
Producers: Damon L Cooke, Lisa Strong
Lead Producer: Matthew Schneeman
This podcast is made by The Uncuffed Project, a nor for profit that works to help reintegrate people leaving prison. To learn more about the Uncuffed Project go to https://www.theuncuffedproject.org/
25 Oct 2022
02 - MUSIC
Welcome to Navigating Freedom, a podcast about freedom. The show is made by journalist Matthew Schneeman on the outside with producers inside of Solano State Prison. This episode is all about music. Making music in prison, make music with someone on the outside, breaking the rules and doing it legit. Featuring Spoon Jackson, Nicholas Synder, Michael Tennison, and Eric Monty Willson.
Producers: Spoon Jackson, Lisa Strong, Damon L Cooke,
Lead Producer: Matthew Schneeman
Thanks to Die Jim Crow and Fury Young, Nicolas Snyder, and Iron City Houserockers
This podcast is made by The Uncuffed Project, a nor for profit that works to help reintegrate people leaving prison. To learn more about the Uncuffed Project go to https://www.theuncuffedproject.org/
25 Oct 2022
01 - FOUR FRIENDS
Welcome to the first episode of Navigating Freedom, a podcast about freedom. The show is made by journalist Matthew Schneeman on the outside with producers inside of Solano State Prison. This first episode is about two groups of friends: MC Hammer and his high school buddy and two hustlers who rubbed shoulders with big names from hip hop. The similarity between these two groups of friends is, in both cases one gets locked up while the other remains close and waits for them on the outside.
Producers: Damon L Cooke, Lisa Strong
Lead Producer: Matthew Schneeman
This podcast is made by The Uncuffed Project, a nor for profit that works to help reintegrate people leaving prison. To learn more about the Uncuffed Project go to https://www.theuncuffedproject.org/
1 Jul 2022
Cain and Abel
Do you believe in coincidence?
In a world with so much out of our control, it is easy to get caught up in our powerlessness to face up to the tragedies occurring around us.
16 Jun 2022
Forgiveness
George “Rocc” Davis was one of the first newly-freed that The Uncuffed Project helped, he had to face the parole board 4 times before he was deemed suitable for release. He felt like he was in a cycle of hopelessness, but soon gained more “insight” into how he could correct his behavioral patterns.
1 Jun 2022
Come Home
We learn about Kep’s greatest struggles during his time incarcerated, which includes the loss of his father and separation from his children. He missed much of their developmental period, but they are now some of his best friends and he’s excited to continue building a relationship with them over time.
24 May 2022
True Friends
MC Hammer and Vincent "Paps" Rones are childhood friends who stuck together through all the highs and lows. From world tour concerts to the American Prison System, MC and Paps share their stories of what life is like growing up and pursuing their dreams in Oakland, California,
4 Jul 2021
Teaser
Producer Spoon Jackson calls Matthew to record introductions for the upcoming season of Navigating Freedom but a fight breaks out.
Navigating Freedom is a podcast that tells stories about freedom. Those incarcerated, those recently freed, and those who have it and don't know what to do with it. A show about how freedom isn't as simple as you may think.
https://www.theuncuffedproject.org
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