In the most recent episode of the Black Light Mass Incarceration Show, host Cierra Cobb interviews Timothy Smith about how experiencing the death of his daughter while incarcerated profoundly changed him.
By its nature, this podcast does not deal in light topics. A theme running through many of the episodes is how those who are incarcerated struggle to find meaning to carry on — in the face of loss, life sentences, and more. They transform themselves out of that struggle. And, the show’s guests also make clear that our carceral system of punishment — with its solitary confinement, lack of investment in actual rehabilitation, and more — only makes reaching that point more difficult.
Tim is yet another of the voices on this show that remind us how it’s possible to work with grief and evolve who we are, to confront inherited trauma and begin to interrupt it, even with the system stacked against you. Can’t we then transform society in the same way?