How I unlearned dangerous lessons about masculinity

The Work is a documentary filmed entirely in New Folsom prison, chronicling the circle work that saved my life during a weekend intensive training.

Inside Circle, a nonprofit organization created by inmates and ex-convicts, is dedicated to the personal growth of men in prison.

The legal and political and moral drive to reduce juvenile detention in America began before Bernstein wrote this book. But the tragic stories she compiled in it, the stories of young lives wasted by unreasonably harsh and dangerous justice policies, put a number of faces on the bipartisan push to recognize anew that children are different and must be treated differently in our justice systems.

This isn't just a good book because it explains how America became such a carceral nation. It's good because it explains why it has proven so difficult for even the most earnest reformers to begin to dismantle the infrastructure that entrenched interests have built up over the past few decades.

Out of nowhere, like a breeze in a marketplace crowded with advice, comes Byron Katie and The Work. "The Work" is four simple questions that, when applied to a specific problem, enable you to see what is troubling you in an entirely different light. As Katie says, "It's not the problem that causes our suffering; it's our thinking about the problem." Contrary to popular belief trying to let go of a painful thought never works; instead, once we have down "The Work," the thought lets go of us. At that point, we can truly love what is, just as it is.

Hosted by Eldra Jackson III, in conversation with leaders from all walks of life who have overcome some of life's greatest challenges, The Inside Circle Podcast aims to broaden our concept of personal transformation, "men's work" and what it means to "lead change from within." Beyond the manufactured constructs of race, class, gender and even criminal history, this deep dive exposes the heart of our shared humanity, revealing prison as an intensely personal state of mind that can be transcended at any time. Listen and follow on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.