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Sept. 17, 2024 - Doug Collins Podcast
35:23
Inside Voices United
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You want to listen to a podcast?
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I guarantee you, one day you'll be back in the minority and it ain't gonna be that fun.
Hey everybody, welcome back to the podcast.
I can't tell you how excited I am about this episode today.
We're going to talk about a group called Inside Voices United.
All of you know who's listening to this podcast for any length of time know my passion for criminal justice, criminal justice reform, working on the facts that we do have an incarcerated population that You know, is there paying their penalty, doing what the law has said?
But also, I think, as I've said before, but it's worth repeating again, 95% of all those who go to jail, whether they be from local, federal, state, 95% of them come home at some point.
There's a readmission to the society.
There's some who don't, of course, and they're meant to stay there.
But I think the question comes is, who are we as compassionate human beings to provide ways that can help individuals who are incarcerated to find skills, to find coping mechanisms, to get off of the things that in life that put them there to start with, so that when they come home, they can reenter the society as a productive member, not willing to be in the revolving door of the criminal justice system.
Now, that ought to always happen, but my faith teaches me and my life teaches me that thereby the grace of God go I. And for us, it's a willingness to help those who are incarcerated.
In fact, for any Christian believer out there, you're actually commanded to do that.
Let me just sort of say, you know, you're actually to visit those in jail and visit those who are in need.
So today's gonna be great as we leave this.
Greg Smith's with me and I'm excited to hear about this innovation because it blends also another passion of mine which you know about and that is music and the Music Modernization Act with our singers and getting the singer songwriter paid for their work instead of it going to the big tech conglomerates on all of your streaming systems by the way which I will just shout a shout out right now Spotify Time to start paying them again.
Quit playing games.
I mean, this is the games that we're playing.
The songwriters need their payday.
And I think that's, and it's not something they're asking for.
It's just being honest about what they do.
So all, you combine music, you combine criminal justice, you combine those compassionate.
You've got my attention for a great show.
In just a minute, right after the break, we're going to come back with Greg Smith and we'll have a great time.
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All right, we're back.
Greg, welcome to the show.
I am so glad to have you on.
I've been looking forward to this for a little while.
And as you heard, and we were sitting before you came on with my intro, this combines almost, you know, two of my largest priorities when I was a member of Congress and still are major priorities for me as we look at it.
So, Greg, I'm so happy to have you here.
What I always love to do with my guests, let you tell the audience a little bit about you and your story, and then we'll jump into the Inside Voices United.
Sounds a good play.
Well, first of all, thanks very much for having me.
I'm a longtime follower of your career.
I'm in Georgia.
I'm up in the North Georgia mountains, up near Blairsville.
And so your reputation precedes you, and I love your podcast.
So I'm very, very happy and very honored to be invited on.
Inside Voices, in a nutshell, I'll give you the brief deal.
I was a teacher for many years.
My last teaching assignment was down in Savannah, at the Savannah College of Art and Design.
Taught there.
And in, I think, 2022, I'd been teaching for 25 years.
I worked in the music industry.
Before that, I was a studio owner and recording person and worked in film for many years.
But it came time not to retire, but to step down from teaching.
I just felt like there was something else I needed to do.
And I had this idea of bubbling in my head for years.
And one day, it's one of those funny shower stories.
Doug, if I can call you Doug?
Yeah, definitely.
Okay, great.
So I'm in the shower, and the music's on, and I hear Johnny Cash in Folsom Prison.
And I'm in Savannah, and I think, you know, we got a prison here.
So I called over to the prison, you know, just cold call.
They got a phone number, and I got the chaplain.
I said, you know, I've got a little band here in Savannah.
We play out once in a while.
Would you like us to come and perform?
And he said, oh, we are starved for entertainment.
And then it led to a larger conversation where I asked him about The offenders there.
And I said, is anybody in there playing music or writing music?
He said, oh Lord.
He said, even the warden's got a band.
He said, everyone's writing music.
And I said, well, I'm a songwriter, and I'm very interested, Doug, in your music modernization deal there, because I'm actually on Spotify.
I have 14 albums of my own music, and we're not going to get off on that tangent, but I'm very glad you're carrying the torch for that.
Well, there might be repercussions for our charity as well.
Anyway, long story short, Let me just say this.
Spotify, you want somebody to come after, you know who to come.
It's me.
Yes, sir.
Well, I leave it in your very capable hands.
So this larger conversation turned into we did play a concert there.
And by design, he had preselected 15 offenders who were songwriters.
And I sat down with them since I have written so many songs.
I have well over 100 published and recorded songs that are up on Spotify and every other platform.
And so I spent time with those 15 after the big concert with several hundred of them.
I pulled these 15 together and I'm an old college professor.
So, you know, sat around with them and I said, okay, let's hear your song.
You first.
Okay.
Bob, let me hear your song.
And he would sing it and I would say, that's great.
Your verse is actually a chorus.
Let's change this here.
That's good.
Okay.
And then I listened to them one at a time as a group and worked with them as a group because I was making a connection with them as a musician.
And it was a wonderful session.
I said, okay, I'm going to give you a couple of months to work on these songs.
I'm going to come back in two months, which I did, and brought with me a couple of very talented folks that worked with me, Byron Childs and Bob Duncan, who were both formerly at SCAD. And we did field recordings.
And in the recording business, we called prison a hostile recording environment.
Because, not of the danger of prisoners, but because it's a terrible place to do any recording because it's all and linoleum.
But we brought in sheets and we piled chairs up and we put sheets up and sort of created our own little studio in one of their little rooms.
And we did a multi-track recording and I brought the recording back here to my studio.
We, you know, did our studio magic and we came up with some great recordings.
And we went from there to a woman's prison in Hartwell, Georgia, Whitworth women's facility in Hartwell, Georgia, and others after that.
We also now have our toe up in Tennessee and we're looking to expand.
So that's kind of how we got the ball rolling initially.
That is cool.
Greg, I noticed, you know, one, I have to share, one of some of my oldest remembrances of music, and I've shared this story with national songwriters and everybody else.
Some of Bert Herbson and them are great folks up there.
Oh, yeah.
But some of my earliest remembrances are of, I have old eight tracks of Johnny Cash live at Folsom Prison and Johnny Cash live at San Quentin.
And those were the things that just, you know, I mean, Boy Named Sue, you know, all these songs.
I mean, that's what I grew up on.
I mean, I'd play those things over and over and over again, you know, and it just made a difference.
And you could hear it in the prisoners' reaction at that time, the inmates' reaction.
So I think it really is interesting that you would bring that in and how that sort of started.
Curious question here, and I noticed one of the things that y'all do is in writing these songs, and I was so glad to see this information sheet.
By the way, folks, we're going to give you the information to get in touch with this group and help them financially or whatever you can do.
We want you to do that.
But they also, this was near to my heart, you also help them with copyright protection for their songs.
And that is so important when you're looking at this.
But we won't get into that.
Talk about how, and maybe a story or two of how you've seen These individuals who are working on these songs, if you had some that actually just sort of like, and I've used this moment before with dealing with some of my friends that are songwriters, you look at them and say, you know, my God, they're pouring their heart out.
I mean, this is a cry as much as it is an artistic endeavor.
Talk to us about what you've seen in some of these folks who've actually been recording with you.
Yeah, there are so many stories.
I'll give you two very quick, one from the women's prison, one from the men's prison.
And by the way, when you go to our website, we'll do the stuff at the end of our chat here, I'll give people the website.
But we put just two of the prisons we worked at up on the website, and you can go there and you can hear the songs.
One of the songs, We did in the Whitworth women's facility in Hartwell.
There was a wonderful person sort of at the end of the line.
There were nine women that I was dealing with.
And as I mentioned before, I deal with them as a group and I pull them together as a group.
I dismiss the guards.
I say, we just want to be alone.
I don't want anyone looking over our shoulder just so that they can feel safe within that environment.
And they can feel free to express themselves.
So one at a time, I call them down to a chair next to me and I say, you know, sing your song for the group.
And the women's group actually sang their stuff a cappella.
They didn't play instruments.
So it's amazingly beautiful stuff.
It is so moving.
And so I'm going down the line and each of the young women, mostly young women, And then there's one sort of older woman at the very end of the line there.
She looked to be maybe in her 50s and I guess the best way to describe it, Doug, is she looked like she had a lot of A lot of hard miles behind her and a lot of hard bark on her.
And she just, you could tell she had been- Well, you can't tell the songwriter comes out in you at all.
I mean, come on, baby.
I love it.
I love it.
I should write that down.
I'm going to just- Yeah, write that down.
I've got part of that one.
You're going to have to put me on the songwriting credit for that one.
Yes, sir.
A word for a third, we call that national.
That's exactly.
Right.
So anyway, so she's standing at the end of this group in front of me and I hear that the other eight and she's at the very end there and I say, okay.
And I, you know, I called her up and she went from this scowl.
She had a mohawk, purple mohawk.
I mean, she was just looking tough.
So I called her, you know, I said, come on down.
And the scowl suddenly turned to this, her face kind of dropped and she got real shy.
And her little voice went to this, like, little, almost a small girl's voice, just scared.
And I said, it's okay, come on, sit next to me.
And she started to sing, and she was singing real quiet, real quiet, like this.
And, you know, again, my college professor, I'm like, nope, you got to sing to the back row.
Come on, sing it out.
She opened up, and she poured out this song, and it's on the website there.
And it's an amazing song and she sang this thing with all her heart and at the very end of it slid out of her chair and hit the floor and curled into almost a fetal position.
And you've seen football games where somebody goes down and then players come up and they all put a hand on him, right?
Just to let them know that they're there, they surround him.
That's what happened in this room.
The other eight people came together and they put their hands on her, stroking her hair and saying, it's okay, baby, it's okay.
And she looked up at me through these tear-stained eyes and said, that is the first time I've been in this place that I felt like a human being.
Oh, wow.
And if that doesn't move you, and if that isn't, you know, a reason to do what I'm doing, then I don't know what is, so.
Oh, yeah.
I mean, that right there hits the essence, and I've talked about songwriters, and I've talked about musicians, but songwriters have, you know, I love my artists as well.
They do great.
I mean, if you haven't, folks, you today, you might be watching on Silver Vita.
I have my National Music Publish Association jacket on.
I'm working with them on some things, but I mean, yeah, I've always said this when I talk about music.
It's inherently valuable because it's inherently yours.
It's the closest thing you can ever have to something personal you're selling of yourself outside your body, so to speak, because it's what comes from the heart.
It goes to the mind.
It comes out of your mouth or through your hands, and it's actually inherently worth something.
And to see that kind of reaction is the most amazing thing to me going on.
Yeah, it was.
It was.
And then in addition, you have a podcast.
I also realized that while I was doing this project that I would pull them in after we recorded all the songs as a group.
Afterwards, I would then call them in one at a time in front of the microphone, and I would do a short interview with them because I used to work in television and radio, so I know how to do interviews here and there.
And these interviews became a podcast.
And there were many times, more often than not, when I had them one-on-one, and when I talk with them for the podcast that I do, and there's a link to it on our website, these are the stories behind the songs.
I don't talk with them why they're in there.
They're in there for a reason, and that's not for me to judge, it's not for me to explore.
But I'm always very curious as to where the music comes from.
So I would ask them all very similar questions.
Was music there as a child?
And very similar stories.
Grandma and Ma were always in the kitchen singing.
There was a piano, and at the end of the evening, sister would get up on the piano and play, or daddy was a preacher, and we would barnstorm the South.
Let's hear the children.
Bring the children up.
And the children would sing a hymn, and then he would preach, and they'd pass the hat.
More often than not in these things, as I was talking with them, as musicians, again, you know, not talking about why they're there, but I want to hear about the musicians.
Where does this song come from?
And these are deeply emotional things to these offenders.
They are still people.
And you mentioned that yourself, and I was glad you did, that, you know, they're in jail for a reason, but, you know, 95% of them come home.
So why are we throwing people away?
Let's work on the rehabilitation.
Sure, we can teach them a life skill, you know, carpentry or whatever, you know, education.
These are all really important things, and I support them 100%.
And that's kind of what we're trying to do, because in these podcasts, when they would tell me their stories, frequently they would cry.
They would just break down because these are such emotional moments for them.
And when we edit these things, I try not to edit out, you know, anything.
I try to leave these interviews as raw as I can so you can sort of hear where they're coming from.
So those are just two moments that I've had in dealing with the offenders as I've gone through this project.
Well, you mentioned something, Greg.
Just a question.
I know you talked about teaching in Savannah.
Where are you originally from?
What do you call home?
Well, see, you're old stomping ground.
I'm originally from Bethesda, Maryland.
I grew up just outside D.C. Okay, where I used to go.
And teaching brought you to Georgia?
Well, I worked at American University up in D.C. You're probably familiar with American.
Oh, golly, about 10 years ago, I decided it was time for a change, so I looked around the country.
I did 10 years of teaching at American and then found a position in the film and television department down at SCAD, they call it, in the College of Art and Design.
And I was there for many years and worked on television programs and film.
And I have a background in film as well.
I used to work at Lucasfilm and I used to work on, you know, some of the films there, like the Star Wars series and other things like that way back when.
And that's kind of where I honed my field recording skills, the stuff that I use when I go into prisons now.
So that's kind of how I ended up at Skadden.
I did that for seven years and I had a blast and the students were awesome, but it was time for me to kind of, I've done this enough a long time, it's time for me to do something else.
So that's kind of why I kind of went into this.
Talk about SCAD has grown tremendously.
Oh my goodness.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
The Atlanta campus, you know, and a lot of with the Atlanta campus now, and I'm not sure about the Savannah.
I know Savannah is the traditional, you know, arts and textile, you know, I got a good dear friend who's down there and she went back to school later.
Now she's getting her master's or whatever in this art stuff.
And I mean, she makes some beautiful stuff anyway.
But the Atlanta campuses now, what you mentioned, a transition to You know, a lot of music, film, the part that we don't talk about a lot, and that's the gaming industry, the other industry where you have that.
And again, you know, we talk about folks coming back out of prison.
They need jobs.
Yeah.
And look, I mean, some of them realize by what they've done, they'll be limited in their ability.
But if you can take someone who had a drug problem, had an issue like that, and they have this artistic ability, they have the mechanical skills to write, to do music, those are what I call tree changers.
Those are the family tree changers that you see.
Are they skeptical at first, Greg, when you come in?
Yes.
Yes, they are.
Who's this guy?
What's he doing?
Blah, blah, blah.
Yeah, there's always a bit of that.
But honestly, I fall back on my teaching experience for that because it's very much like the first day of a new semester where you walk in and you get 20 students in front of you like, eh, who's this guy?
You know, what's he going to teach?
You know, I'm used to that.
And I tell them a couple things right away.
I say, first of all, we're going to bond together as a group.
I don't care if you had differences before you came into this room.
Now everybody in this room is equal.
No one knows more than anybody else except me, because I've done it a lot more than you have, and that's why I'm here, to give you the knowledge that I've got and help you with the stuff that you have.
So we are all musicians.
We have that in common.
Number two, you're going to support each other.
As I'm going to bring you down one at a time and sing a song, I want everyone to applaud at the end.
Because I need that positive reinforcement.
I need that vibe in the room.
And it starts to grow, and they start to relax, and they start to joke.
And as I say, you know, I clear the room of, there's always security around.
But, you know, I always ask the warden and the chaplain, can we do this alone?
And we'll be in this room.
And, you know, I don't worry about safety.
I always joke with my friends, I'm the safest person in the prison, because I'm Santa Claus, I'm bringing something they want, you know, so.
You know, it always works very well.
As to what they have and what they take outside, if I can tell one quick story.
With the skills, there is a woman as part of that group and she has an amazing song.
She's got two songs actually on the website that we recorded.
And she actually was released not long after, I think maybe the next day after we recorded, but very soon after.
And she went back home to South Carolina and took her song with her, the one that we recorded, and she told me, we talked to her in the podcast and I talked to her afterwards, and she said, I'm going to get out and I'm going back to South Carolina and I'm going to take this song and I'm going to get back into the music industry and I'm going to be a singer.
So, you talk about jobs.
I mean, we are actually giving them something they can take out with them.
And this also deals with the copyright you mentioned earlier.
Copyright, as you know, it's a complicated process.
You just have to sit on the website and enter all this information.
I've done it over and over again.
So, we offer that to them.
We cover the cost of the copyright.
We don't have any claim on copyright on any of these songs.
They own the songs 100%.
In fact, we have them sign a sheet, which is a limited use copyright agreement, where they sign a sheet that says they allow us To put their music on our website.
So we get permission from them to put it on the website.
It's their music, and some of them are not going to get out.
Some are there forever, you know, Life Without Parole.
Many will get out, 95% do.
And when they do, you know, this music has already made its way out beyond the walls.
So their friends, their family, or other maybe musicians, they can reach out and they can say, you want to listen to my music?
You can go to this website, and there it is.
Yeah, and I think that's the interesting thing is, especially for some of them, if they have the, you know, the music, they have the copyright, they have, you know, the thing, again, and others, again, and I love the way that y'all don't take any piece of it.
I think that is, you know, because look, I also, for those who don't know, and I'm, this is a personal sort of thing, I mean, Georgia is a When it comes to what we're talking about right here, and I know this can be a little wonky, but most of my listeners have understood.
We're a contract state.
We're not an agent state.
And I think that's an interesting part.
So you have a lot of people out here running around acting as, quote, agents.
And they're really, they're just a contractual.
And they're going into inner cities.
They're going into our country.
And they're taking these young musicians and putting them in binding, you know, Wraparound contracts and everything else.
And they got no way, they can only sue on the contract.
They can't sue on the fiduciary duty of the agent.
And I think that's a problem.
So y'all coming in and doing this, because look, hopefully after this, you know, podcast and others, you know, you've got a lot of connections in Nashville and other places.
And they could actually, this could be something for their families.
This could be something, you know, that somebody might pick up one of these songs and put it on the next album.
Yeah.
Speaking of that, what is the genre that you...
I'm curious about this one.
What is the genre that you get most often?
Well, it's actually, we started in Georgia, and as I say, we now have our foot up in Tennessee as well.
And you get kind of, here in Georgia, you get kind of three kinds of songs.
They're in three general categories.
One is a religious song.
Jesus, don't forget me, I'm in prison.
You know, I'm sorry for the things that I've done, and like that.
The second is traditional country.
It's got a girl, a dog, a truck, and someone done me wrong.
God, you gotta love those songs.
And they are, and they're really good.
And the third are urban songs, street songs, rap songs.
We get a lot of rap stuff.
Actually, we had a lot of traditional rap stuff came out of the coastal prison in Savannah, but there's also one Spanish rap song.
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
So those are kind of the three categories.
We open it to everything.
In fact, at the end of our session, At Whitworth, at the women's facility, they all decided to do stuff acapella, as I said.
At the coastal prison, the men, actually in the two months that I was away, they were working on it.
By the time I got back, they had formed a band.
They said, oh, we got drums, we got two guitars, we got a bass, we got background singers, we got congress, we got keyboards.
I was like, whoa!
So we went from thinking we were going to do like a two-track recording, like a microphone on the voice and one on the guitar.
Luckily, we came with a bigger setup, a flexible setup, and we did a multi-track, a 12-track recording in there.
Oh, wow.
But in the prison, at Hartwell, at Whitworth, at the very end, I wanted to kind of bring them together as a group.
And I said, y'all know Amazing Grace, don't you?
And they were like, oh yeah.
And I said, good, we're doing Amazing Grace.
And we did a version of it with them.
I sort of arranged it very quickly and gave them various parts and oohs and ahhs.
And it was like sitting in church on Sunday.
I mean, it was like up in the choir loft.
It was a really wonderful moment.
And at the very end, one of the women said, you know, I'm actually from...
from Louisiana originally in the Bayou country and we have a different version of Amazing Grace so then I had her sing that Acapella as well.
Now, both of those are in the public domain, so I didn't have to worry about copyright.
That's one thing I did want to mention.
Part of what we do when we work with offenders is I want songs that are original, music and lyrics.
I don't want cover songs.
Cover songs for those in your audience are songs that somebody else wrote, like Linda Ronstadt doing Roy Orbison's Blue Bayou.
And she did a hell of a job on it, by the way.
Or Johnny Cash doing Wanted Man by Bob Dylan.
Absolutely.
There you go.
Or Johnny Cash doing...
Yeah, we could go on and on.
But I want songs that are original that they have written because, number one, it's a more personal story that they're telling us.
Rather than telling somebody else's story.
I want their stories.
And it also, and the music has to be theirs as well, because then dealing with copyright, I don't have to worry about going to the estate of so-and-so and getting permission, you know, to have somebody's song up there.
You follow up.
Right, right, right.
So that's a really important part of our process as well.
And the other thing, too, about our website, when we put the songs on the website, when you click on the songs, you're actually taken to SoundCloud.
You don't get money for putting stuff on SoundCloud.
Anybody can put stuff on SoundCloud.
When you put stuff on Spotify, you get paid.
Well, you're supposed to.
Another discussion.
There you go.
It's another discussion.
Or Pandora.
We have to have another podcast.
We can do that.
But I would love that.
Long story short, no one gets paid for the songs that are up On our website.
And that was an important part of what I discussed with my team before we, you know, ventured out on this because I don't want anybody, I don't want any of the offenders making money on anything that we do for them in the recordings.
Because you start to get into very dicey territory with You know, it would sort of be like a publisher publishing something.
Some inmates making millions of dollars, and that inmate, you know, wrongs somebody, and that somebody has a family.
Exactly.
Okay, you follow my line of thought.
So that's very important to us as well.
They own the copyright.
We make no money on it.
They make no money on anything that we do.
Now, they have the song, and if they want to sell it, Godspeed, go get them, because we see that as a positive.
Right.
They can then make something Of themselves as they re-enter society.
They can use that song.
Maybe they can, you know, get somebody to record it.
So if there are any, you know, people out there who are managers or agents and you're looking for good music, you know, check out our website or, you know, check out my Spotify page too.
Yeah, there you go.
Why not?
You know, we're all looking for that break and this would be maybe some way that they could get their stuff out there.
Well, and I think that's an interesting way.
And you make a great point there.
And because I've dealt, like I said, in criminal justice for prison reform and all for years now.
And folks, look, you'll never hear me say the safe communities are Matthew Charles, who was the first person released under the First Step Act from up and just outside of Nashville.
Now, he's a dear friend of mine.
But he will tell you right up that the criminal justice reform is not And working with people in prisons is not letting them off.
It's not giving them something.
True reform holds you accountable for what you did and gives you a chance when you get out.
And we've got to have that.
And so, look, not making, you know, letting them learn, letting them do it.
They can get out.
You know, many of them will get out.
They can send those music, you know, they can go to Nashville.
They can, you know, play the circuit.
They can do the stuff, call, you know, Bart and them up to Nashville songwriters or call the others.
And they can put those under a package of somebody.
Who knows?
A Chris Stapleton may actually record.
But again, that's not dealing with Letting them or making judgment on why they were there.
I mean, that's a whole thing.
You know, and I go back from a real faith perspective in my own life.
It says, look, you know, I never saw in my scripture where Jesus told me to go visit somebody.
Did you visit anybody in prison?
And he said, did you only visit the nonviolent ones or did you only visit the good ones?
You know, no, he just said visit them and, you know, or help them.
And I think that's the way we've got to look at it.
As we get ready to close up here for this one, and we can do this again and do some other stuff with this, but I wanted everybody to know about what you do.
It's just such an interesting work, especially so close to home for me here in Georgia.
But folks, if you're looking at it, it's InsideVoicesUnited, all one word,.org.
InsideVoicesUnited.org.
And you can go and hear these songs and listen to the stories and see what they're doing.
And if you can and you want to help them, I'm sure they will welcome your help in this endeavor.
A lot of stuff going on right now.
And music is a wonderful outlet for that.
Music is therapy in many ways.
And I say that in a good way.
Because with so much problems with mental health issues, with so many problems with things going on right now, if you find a way to express yourself, Greg, I think you know and you've seen this in the prisons, It makes...
And here's what's going to be done.
A prisoner who is focused on writing a song is not going to be focused on trying to get drugs or liquor or get in a fight or fight the guards.
They're not going to do that.
They're going to be focused on something outside of the prison and getting themselves better.
And I think that helps our guards and our workers who work in these prisons.
Yes.
100%.
100%.
And that's really our goal.
That's our goal.
And there's so much stuff that needs to be done.
And we've just scratched the surface and we're very excited to keep going.
But if I can share one quick thing as we wrap up.
There was an inmate in Coastal.
He was of Navajo descent.
And we got to talking a little bit.
And he said about our charity, he said, well, you know, he said, I'm glad you're walking the path, he said to me.
And he said, he said these words, he said, walk in beauty way.
And I just thought it was a really interesting thing.
And you can interpret that in a number of different ways.
It's about how you walk through the world.
It's a sort of a subjective nature of beauty.
But here's what I think.
I think it's about finding the good in the world.
And giving back.
And I've worked all my life in various careers.
I've had as a teacher, musician, a writer, perhaps the most important job that I've ever had as a father to two wonderful boys.
But I realized it's a good time in my life to give back and to help others the ways that we're talking about.
And that's why I formed this charity.
And I hope in some small way that the work that we do with offenders in prisons is a proper way for us to give back.
And I encourage others to do so.
I agree, folks.
You've heard it.
This is a great day, a great podcast, blending so many of the things that I think are so important.
They definitely are important to me and in the way this goes.
But again, go to insidevoicesunited.org, all one word, and you can find out more about them and what Greg, the wonderful work Greg has done.
Greg, thanks for being a part of the podcast today.
We appreciate it so much.
It was my pleasure.
Thanks so much for having me.
Thanks.
Alright folks, next time on the Doug Haas Podcast, we'll delve more into different topics.
We've got a great one coming up.
I'll preview it, especially for our farmers around the country.
We've got a great one coming up soon.
About the old, some of you don't even know this, the actual farmer strike back in the 70s in the tractor caves to D.C. You're going to want to hear about this.
Lee Lancaster is going to be with us.
It's a great time to do it.
So just some things coming up here in the future you won't want to miss here on the Doug Collins Podcast.
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