Former Inmates Reveal Life Inside American Prisons with David Campbell and Jarrod Shanahan

Factually! with Adam Conover

Headgum

Comedy

4.4 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 2 April 2025

⏱️ 84 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

EXCLUSIVE NordVPN Deal ➼ https://nordvpn.com/adamconover Try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee!

The American prison system isn’t just designed to keep inmates locked up—it’s built to keep the rest of us from truly seeing what happens inside. Rikers Island, New York City’s largest jail, has long been notorious for its inhumane conditions, including mistreatment, sexual abuse, and inmates being held in solitary confinement for hundreds of days. But understanding the full extent of these horrors is nearly impossible without firsthand experience. Today, Adam speaks with David Campbell and Jarrod Shanahan—criminal justice reformers who were incarcerated at Rikers after protesting—about their time inside and their new book, City Time: On Being Sentenced to Rikers Island. Find Jarrod and David’s book at http://www.factuallypod.com/books

SUPPORT THE SHOW ON PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/adamconover

SEE ADAM ON TOUR: https://www.adamconover.net/tourdates/

SUBSCRIBE to and RATE Factually! on:

» Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/factually-with-adam-conover/id1463460577

» Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0fK8WJw4ffMc2NWydBlDyJ

About Headgum: Headgum is an LA & NY-based podcast network creating premium podcasts with the funniest, most engaging voices in comedy to achieve one goal: Making our audience and ourselves laugh. Listen to our shows at https://www.headgum.com.

» SUBSCRIBE to Headgum: https://www.youtube.com/c/HeadGum?sub_confirmation=1

» FOLLOW us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/headgum

» FOLLOW us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/headgum/

» FOLLOW us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@headgum

» Advertise on Factually! via Gumball.fm

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is a Headgum podcast.
0:06.0	Audible brings your wildest adventures to life, delivering heart-pounding thrills at the touch of a button.
0:12.4	Take Richard Osmond's The Thursday Murder Club, where four retirees turned amateur sleuths
0:17.3	solve crimes in the most unexpected ways, brilliantly performed by Leslie Manville.
0:22.6	Ready to unleash your adventure aside, from pulse racing suspense to epic quests,
0:27.5	from supernatural chills to far-off romances, every story comes alive through world-class narration.
0:34.1	Explore exclusive audible originals, chart-topping new releases, and unforgettable bestsellers that transport you from the very first word, because the next great adventure is just a listener away.
0:46.4	Start your free 30-day trial at audible.com slash Wondery UK. That's audible.com slash Wondery, UK. That's all right. That's okay.
1:13.5	I don't know anything.
1:16.6	Hey, everybody.
1:17.5	Welcome to Factually.
1:18.4	I'm Adam Conover.
1:20.2	Thanks so much for joining me on the show again.
1:21.3	You know, I'm on tour right now.
1:23.8	And a little while back, I was in San Francisco.
1:31.0	And in the San Francisco Bay, I saw Alcatraz, the notorious island prison that is now a tourist trap. I didn't visit it, but, you know, it's famously one of the most visited tourist attractions in all
1:36.5	of California. You can go with school kids and think about Al Capone or Sean Connery in the
1:41.5	rock. But the reason you can visit it is because everything about Alcatraz is way back in
1:47.4	the past.
1:47.9	The prison is closed.
1:49.9	Now, in New York, where I grew up, the shitty island jail never actually shut down.
1:55.2	It is still fucking there.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 1 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Headgum, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Headgum and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.