Mar 20, 2026
Matthew Vernon Whalan joins the show to discuss Bullock: Chronicles of Deprivation and Despair in an
American Prison, an interview-driven, investigative
journalistic, and collectively narrated portrait of life inside
Bullock Correctional Facility in Alabama.
Through the words of incarcerated people themselves, we explore the
everyday realities that rarely make it into public view: mental
health crisis and predation, sewage and infrastructure collapse,
cruel and unusual punishment, sleep deprivation, violence, drugs
and overdose, and the informal social orders that take shape when
official protection fails. This book is truly an act of witness --
and a demand that we look directly at what incarceration actually
does to human beings. Once examined, we can see the U.S. prison
system as a disturbing microcosm of the pathologies infecting and
eating away at the broader American society.
Support Matthew and his work directly on Venmo @Matthew-Whalan-1
Get 15% off any book at Left Wing Books HERE
Check out our previous episode with Project Hope t0 Abolish the Death Penalty HERE
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