In this compelling talk, public interest lawyer Bryan Stevenson discusses the deep racial and economic disparities in the U.S. justice system and emphasizes the importance of addressing these injustices with compassion and understanding.

A disturbing study of a struggle between prisoners and their captors, waged not with fists or weapons but with deliberately disorienting rules and impossible tasks. Guards mess with the prisoner’s heads. Those incarcerated try to keep their grip on reality by clinging to details—days until parole, prices of items in the commissary, the minutiae of routine. Guards escalate, inflicting arbitrary transfers or random stints in isolation. 

In the Adam Ruins Everything segment titled "The Shocking Way Private Prisons Make Money," Adam Conover exposes how private prison companies profit by maintaining high incarceration rates rather than reducing crime. He reveals that these corporations often secure contracts guaranteeing high occupancy rates, incentivizing policies that keep prisons full. The episode also critiques the lack of effective rehabilitation programs, highlighting how the system prioritizes profit over genuine efforts to reduce recidivism (the tendency of a convicted criminal to reoffend) and support inmate reintegration into society. 

Our lives, our cultures, are composed of many overlapping stories. Novelist Chimamanda Adichie tells the story of how she found her authentic cultural voice -- and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.