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People in Common asks: what do we have in common that we're forgetting? Shaka's answer is clear. We all have hidden prisons. Not just people who've been incarcerated. All of us carry grief, anger, shame, trauma, self-doubt. These invisible barriers hold us back more than any external circumstance.
During the pandemic, investors and athletes alike called Shaka asking for help navigating isolation. He told them what he'd learned through seven and a half years in solitary confinement - and that we all face versions of this struggle. He doesn't see his experience as extreme. The experience is shared. And when we recognize this truth, it changes how we treat ourselves and each other.
"I was incarcerated before I ever was arrested and I was free long before they let me out of prison. Freedom really is an inside job." This is the foundation of everything Shaka teaches. After his second parole denial following 18 years behind bars, he faced a choice: surrender to despair or transform from within. He chose hope.
Through daily practices of journaling, meditation, and creative expression, Shaka discovered that his greatest barriers existed in his own mind. "The most important is the conversation I have with myself," he explains. That internal dialogue shapes everything. We have more control over it than we realize. But here's the thing we don't talk about: we never say out loud 'I want to connect more deeply with my friend.' We keep the most important desires locked inside. And yet when those connections happen? 'My God, that was the greatest experience ever'."
When people say they're too busy for the practices that would end suffering, Shaka pushes back. "Intention creates the time." He journals whether for 10 minutes or an hour. The practice matters more than the duration. These are the specific tools that sustained him through solitary confinement and now guide everyone from corporate executives to grassroots organizers.
The unhealed part of us is always causing harm. Men who were never hugged by their fathers. Women with emotionally unavailable mothers. Children who grew up without hearing "I love you" or "I'm proud of you." That childhood version of ourselves shows up everywhere "until people are courageous enough to say, I'm going to break the cycle."'
From Oprah Winfrey to Joe Rogan, Shaka approaches every conversation with respect and curiosity. He doesn't assume people's views. He'll have a conversation with anyone, as long as it's not "performative." He shifts his perspective when women show him things he's never dealt with. "I would rather us be completely disagreeable and authentic," he says. "That's an interesting conversation."
This practice of genuine curiosity creates bridges where others build walls. He's worked with both political parties on criminal justice reform. Once you get into real conversations about saving kids dying from opioids, making sure taxes are allocated well, taking care of the community? "Those conversations without a doubt are always the same. We really want the same thing. We just don't know how to get there."
On February 3rd, 2026, the Shaka Senghor Literary Lounge opened at Michigan Central Station in Detroit, a beuatiful train station that sat abandoned since the eighties. After a $700 million restoration, Shaka's excitement about the space is palpable. Technology labs. Music studios. Fashion and robotics programs. And at the center: the Literary Lounge, with Shaka's actual handwriting on the walls. His journals from prison. His first piece of fiction. Written on Michigan Department of Corrections correspondence paper.
"It's the most surreal," he says. "Just to have something named after you in a public space is crazy." But more than that, it was books that helped set Shaka free. Now he's creating infrastructure where over 1,000 young people annually can discover that freedom. Transformation is collective work.
Shaka Senghor is a New York Times bestselling author, resilience expert, and founder of the Shaka Senghor Literary Lounge at Michigan Central Station in Detroit. His latest book "How to Be Free" provides practical frameworks for breaking out of the hidden prisons we all carry. After spending 19 years in prison including seven and a half years in solitary confinement, Shaka chose hope over despair and discovered daily practices that transformed his life. He now advises organizations from Apple to Google, helping executives, entrepreneurs, and organizers build sustainable resilience. His TED Talk has been viewed 1.8 million times and Oprah Winfrey calls him a "Soul Igniter."
