Amplify Channel

Amplify HomeOdyssey Impact!E8: Helping Men and Women Leaving Prison

E8: Helping Men and Women Leaving Prison

Odyssey Impact! | Making a Positive and Permanent Return to Milwaukee

Mass incarceration robs communities across the US of their young men and women of color. When people have served their time and are released are they free to pursue life, liberty and happiness?

Speakers: Wendel Hruske Brian Osei

Topics: Incarceration Community Redemption Justice Poverty

Source: Odyssey Network

1 On the Street

E1: On The Street: What's So Great About Growing Old?

The needs of seniors are often ignored, but the seniors we talked to have definite opinions about the blessings and challenges of growing older, such as health,...

Various

E2: ON the Street: ON Giving

Americans rate #1 on the World Giving Index, an analysis of charitable giving around the world that factors in not only financial donations, but "helping a stra...

Various

E3: ON the Street: How We Pray

Odyssey Networks took to the streets to find out how people pray and what motivates their prayers.

Various

E4: On The Street: How Do You Want to be Remembered?

The fate of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 and the massive mudslide in Oso, Washington feature a staggering loss of life in circumstances that were sudden and une...

Various

E5: ON the Street: Wisdom

Wisdom continues to be the topic of extended scientific and scholarly research. Most agree that wisdom is something greater than its building blocks: data, info...

Various

E6: ON the Street: Immigration and Refugees

For the past year, we have seen an unprecedented mass migration of immigrants, asylum-seekers, and refugees. Odyssey asked people their opinions on how to best...

Various

E7: On The Street: Do You Believe in God?

According to the study, people in poorer countries are more inclined to feel this way, and people in richer countries do not link belief in God with morality. O...

1 year ago

E8: On the Street: Living with Stress

Stress is an accepted reality of everyday life. What stresses you out? How do you manage stress? We took ON the Street to Washington Square in New York City to...

1 year ago

E9: On the Street: Syrian Refugees

A wave of anti-refugee sentiment has permeated American politics and public discourse since the terrorist attacks in Paris on November 13, 2015. We asked people...

1 year ago

E10: On the Street: Do We Need A Miracle?

With so many problems in the world, violence, poverty, hunger and disease, we took to the streets to ask the people of New York, do we need a miracle?

1 year ago

E11: On the Street: Gig Economy

Today, one-third of U.S. Workers find employment in the new "gig economy"- piecing together a living from several freelance or gig jobs with little or no tradit...

2 views | 1 year ago

E12: On the Street: The Immigration Crisis

This month, national attention has been focused on the southern border of the US, which has seen an influx of unaccompanied children from Central America. Odyss...

1 year ago

E13: On The Street: Race in America

Ferguson, Missouri, is again in the news the subsequent shooting of two police officers as crowds gathered outside Ferguson Police Station Thursday March 12th, ...

11 views | 1 year ago

2 Racism

E1: Racism is Genocide

Race, says The Rev. Dr. James Forbes, is used to define who is worthy of existence; and racism is genocide; and a slow process of extermination.

Rev James Forbes

E2: The Talk, The Prayer, The Cry

Retired NYPD Chaplain Suzan Johnson Cook, speaks about the particular struggles of a mother preparing her sons to grow up as young black men in the United Stat...

Chaplain Susan Johnson Cook

E4: King's Faith to Believe

The Rev. Dr. Otis Moss, Jr., talks about his most profound memory of Martin Luther King, Jr. -- King's "faith to believe" as he waited, far from friends and fam...

Dr Otis Moss Jr

E5: Tri Robinson: Why the Environment Must Be A Christian Priority

Tri began writing and preaching about the environment and the Biblical mandate to be stewards of God's Creation over twenty years ago.Tri responds to the curren...

Tri Robinson

E6: Faith Activism and Martin Luther King's Legacy

How would Martin Luther King view today's faith activists? Professor Obery Hendricks, Professor Josef Sorett and Rabbi Steve Gutow say that King, the standard b...

22 views | 1 year ago

3 Immigration

E1: Sanctuary: Why Has This Word Been Criminalized?

Sanctuary has long been a foundation of religion. But recently, the word has become politicized and many cities and congregations who've declared themselves "sa...

Pastor Juan Carlos Ruis

E2: "First Time Voters" Democracy and Faith: New Citizens at the Queens Community Ce

Our final piece in our "First Time Voters" - ON Scripture visits Queens Community House in New York City and meets up with Alejandro Reyes, who just got became ...

Alejandro Reyes

E3: The Biblical Call To Welcome the Stranger

Dr. Eric D. Barreto (Assoc. Professor at Princeton Theological Seminary) and Dr. Jacqueline Hidalgo (Assoc. Professor of Latina/o Studies and Religion at Willia...

Dr Eric Barreto Dr Jacqueline Hidalgo

E4: Border Crisis: How the Faith Communities of Laredo Stepped Up to Help Immigrants

Laredo, Texas is just one of many border towns which have faced the mass migration of Latinos from Mexico and Central America over the last year, and it fell o...

Various

E5: Wankel's Hardware Store

Wankel's Hardware Store is a family owned business in New York's Upper East Side, open since 1896. This store has continuously made an effort to provide jobs fo...

1 year ago

E6: Reuniting Immigrant Families on Long Island

Sister Margaret Smyth, the Executive Director and founder of the North Fork Spanish Apostolate in Riverhead, NY, has helped thousands of immigrants navigate the...

Sister Margaret Smyth

4 Homelessness

E1: Midnight Run

Every few months, Shaykh Ameen Abdul Awal and members of the Islamic Educational Support Foundation take to the streets in an organized outing called Midnight R...

Shykh Ameen Abdul Awal

E2: Being Church In the World

North Lawndale College Prep has a high percentage of high school students who face the challenges of housing instability and homelessness. These challenges ofte...

Various

E3: There's A Better Way

Albuquerque, NM is inspiring an innovative solution to panhandling and the crisis of homelessness. While passing a man who was panhandling one day, Mayor Richar...

Mayor Richard J Berry Vicky Palmer

E4: Habitat for Humanity: The Theology of the Hammer

One organization working to end homelessness is Habitat For Humanity NYC, the faith-based nonprofit organization that enlists volunteers to help rehabilitate ol...

1 year ago

5 Economic Justice

E1: Working In America

How do we value work in America? How do we value the worker, the person behind the work? How does our work inform our life, faith and community? These are quest...

Various

E2: Teresa Ghilarducci on Economic Inequality in America and Why it is a Faith Issue

Teresa Ghilarducci, Professor of Economics at New School for Social Research and author of When I'm Sixty-Four: The Plot Against Pension and The Plan to Save Th...

Teresa Ghilarducci

6 Hunger

E1: Faith, Food Stamps and the Fight Against Hunger

Faith and political leaders united to call attention to the importance of the food stamp program, which may be at risk for cuts. For one week, clergy members an...

Rabbi Steve Gutow Rep Keith Ellison Rep Eleanor Holmes Norton

E2: God's Little Acre: Feeding the Hungry

In the last four years, with only $80,000 and a team of volunteers, God's Little Acre, a farm in Surrey, BC, Canada has given away 420,000 pounds of produce to ...

Jas Singh

E3: Breaking the Law to Feed the Homeless

The city of Ft. Lauderdale recently enacted an ordinance banning the feeding of the homeless in public places. 90-year-old Arnold Abbott has been doing just th...

Arnold Abbott

E4: The Simple Way: The Greening of Philadelphia's Concrete Jungle

In North Philadelphia, residents are taking a hands-on approach to address hunger in their community. They've grown gardens, turned vacant lots into mini-parks ...

1 year ago

7 Health

E1: The HIV Minister: A Faith Leader on Living and Fighting the Virus

Rev. Andrena Ingram is currently the only known Lutheran ordained pastor living openly with HIV. Her husband's death from an AIDS-related illness, and the shame...

Rev Andrena Ingram

E2: Chemo Buddies

Two friends, Kimberly Washburn and Pamela Grossman, discuss finding out they have cancer at a young age, meeting one another and helping each other through the ...

Kimberly Washburn Pamela Grossman

E3: Night Ministry Bus Delivery's Holistic Health

By bringing health services, supplies, food and services directly to the people who need help in their own communities,the Night Ministry Community Health Bus i...

Various

E4: Sumter Faith Clinic

Nurse practitioners Mary Wysochansky and Anna Stinchcum founded and opened the Sumter Faith Clinic - a free clinic to treat the uninsured and underinsured in Am...

Anna Stinchcum Mary Wysochansky

E5: Five Things You Didn't Know About Depression

According to a new survey by the National Alliance on Mental Illness, over 60% of Americans with a diagnosed mental illness believe their condition worsens arou...

1 year ago

8 Ministry Profile

E1: Faith in Action: Power and Light

One group, Interfaith Power and Light has been working to mobilize a religious response to global warming, and promote energy conservation, energy efficiency an...

Various

E2: Comfort Dogs Aid Healing Process After Sandy Hook Shooting

Lutheran Church Charities K-9 Comfort Dog program landed in Newtown, Conn. less than 24 hours after a gunman killed his mother, 20 school children, 6 adults and...

Richard Martin

E3: Consciousness of Cooking

Hindu chaplain teaches students about his faith, spirituality and appreciation of the soul, through food.

Various

E4: Gospel Mama

Vy Higgensen, is the executive director and founder of the Mama Foundation for the Arts, and runs Gospel for Teens, that introduces youth ages 13 to 19 to the p...

Vy Higgensen

9 Religions and Cultures

E1: The Power of Interfaith Embrace

In the aftermath of a vicious anti-semitic attack on a northern New Jersey synagogue, the local interfaith community rallied around Rabbi Nosson Schuman and his...

Rabbi Nosson Schuman

E2: The Holy Month of Ramadan

Known as the Muslim month of fasting, Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar, and requires followers of Islam to abstain from food, drink and ...

Imam Shamsi Ali

E3: Rosh Hashanah: A Sweet New Year

Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, marks the first of the High Holidays. Celebrated ten days before Yom Kippur, it is a time of introspection, looking back at ...

1 year ago

E4: Yom Kippur: The Day of Atonement

Yom Kippur, the most solemn day of the Jewish year, marks the end of the High Holy Days. Rabbi Brad Hirschfield and Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster discuss the signif...

Rabbi Brad Hischfield Rabbi Rachel Kahn-Troster

E5: Diwali: The Festival of Lights

Anju Bhargava, founder of the Hindu American Seva Charities, explains the origins of the five-day Hindu festival Diwali.

1 year ago

E6: U.S. Army's First Hindu Chaplain

In May of 2011, Pratima Dharm became the U.S. Army's first Hindu chaplain. Chaplain Capt. Dharm says she spends most of her time reaching across faiths minister...

Pratima Dharm

E7: Common Values, Differing Faiths: A Muslim Marries An Evangelical

More than two-thirds of evangelicals in America share the same religion as their spouse. Not Frank Fredericks. Last month, Fredericks, a non-denominational evan...

Frank Fredericks Medina del Castillo

E8: Sunni and Shi'a: An Exploration of Two Branches of Islam

Yvonne Haddad, professor of the history of Islam and Christian-Muslim relations at the Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetow...

Yvonne Haddad

E9: Bringing the Hindu Faith to the Forefront

Anju Bhargava, a member of the Odyssey Networks' board of trustees, explains the increasing role that Hinduism is playing in the public sphere. Odyssey Networks...

Anju Bhargava

E10: How Passover Underscores a Jewish Identity

Passover is Judaism's most important holiday, says Rabbi Elyse Frishman, because it tells the master story. Passover, which commemorates the Jewish people's esc...

1 year ago

E11: Syrian Peacemaker: Hind Kabawat

Hind Kabawat discusses the conflict in Syria, what it means to be a peacemaker, and how her faith inspires her actions.

Hind Kabawat

10 Justice System

E1: I Had A Dream Last Night (Muhibb)

Spoken word artist Muhibb Dyer, performs his recent powerful piece. He is featured in the new documentary MILWAUKEE 53206 that chronicles the lives of those aff...

Muhibb Dyer

E2: Walk with them: The God of Second Chances

Rev. Dr. Harold Dean Trulear, the National Director of Healing Communities, inspires congregations and faith leaders to live God's message of second chances.

Rev Harold Dean Trulear

E3: A Life Behind Bars: Transformation Through Education

Antoinne Murphy is serving a 25-year-to-life sentence for homicide at Sing Sing Correctional Facility. Through his studies and reflection, Murphy has chosen a p...

Antoinne Murphy

E4: Engaging Evangelicals to Fight the Death Penalty

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, there are 3,035 inmates in the U.S. on death row. Heather Beaudoin, at Equal Justice USA, is working to aboli...

Heather Beaudoin

E5: 20 to Life: Prisoners Find A Purpose at Sing Sing

Odyssey Networks spends the day with a dozen inmates trying to turn their lives around at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison in N.Y. Se...

Various

E6: Race and the Death Penalty

Texas is the first U.S. state to reach a grim milestone- they recently executed their 500th prisoner since the U.S. Supreme Court lifted a moratorium on the dea...

12 views | 2 years ago

E7: A Bridge Through Troubled Waters: A Police Chaplain's Mission

Retired NYPD Chaplain Susan Johnson Cook speaks on being a bridge between police and communities in crisis and pain.

1 year ago

E8: Helping Men and Women Leaving Prison

Mass incarceration robs communities across the US of their young men and women of color. When people have served their time and are released are they free to p...

Wendel Hruske Brian Osei

11 Women

E1: Faith Response to Domestic Violence

Safe Havens, an interfaith organization that promotes hope and justice for victims and survivors of domestic violence and elder abuse, travels the country to ed...

Safe Havens

E2: Until You Love Yourself: Prostitutes Reclaim Their Lives After Years of Violence

Rev. Becca Stevens, who founded Nashville, Tennessee's Magdalene and Thistle Farms, a residential program for women who have survived lives of prostitution, add...

Various

E3: How Women Are Breaking the Church's Glass Ceiling

Jesus treated women differently than others would have treated women during his time, serving as a sort of early feminist, says the Rev. Susan Sparks, senior pa...

Rev Susan Sparks Rev Serene Jones

12 Violence

E1: Newtown: Searching for Forgiveness

As residents of Newtown continue to recover from the December school shooting, religious leaders address the role of forgiveness in the healing process. "F...

Rev Crebbin Rev James Forbes

E2: Prayer Flags - Carla Shapiro

Photographer and teacher Carla Shapiro recounts her experience on 9/11

Carla Shapiro

E3: Newtown: A Healing Journey

Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California unveiled new gun-control legislation. Feinstein noted the difficulty in pursuing such legislation, even after the...

Rev Crebbin Rev James Forbes

E4: Why Shane Claiborne Began Turning Guns into Garden Tools

As debates over gun control continue we need to completely reimagine the way we live in the world, says Shane Claiborne, author and activist who lives in Philad...

Shane Claiborne

E5: Bringing Healing and Hope to Police and Communities

Police Chaplain Mary Glenn from Alhambra, CA speaks about healing, hope and walking through trauma with officers and community members in times of crisis.

1 year ago

E6: Easter: Facing Violence to Understand the Power of the Resurrection

The Easter story is more challenging than the tales of fluffy bunnies. "I think that the challenge of Easter is, is you donâ€™t understand the power of the...

1 year ago

13 Sexuality

E1: My Journey As A Lesbian Pastor

Rev. Barbara Lundblad reflects on her experiences as a lesbian pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America.

Barbara Lundblad