Sending Messages: The Podcast

This year the students in Sending Messages tried to make a holiday podcast, but didn't really get too far. Instead, enjoy poetry and letters about loss, lockup, and love from AktivE, Tina, Static, Scar, and C-Dot, as well as conversations featuring Virtuosity, AktivE, Static, Phoenix, C-Dot, G-Man, and Ruthless. This episode was mixed and hosted by Phoenix. Happy Holidays.

Join us on this house tour. Walk through the halls, peek in the rooms, and climb the stairs. This isn't just any house. This is a house made of memories. Bricks carved out of trauma, doors cracked by anger and floors worn by fear. But all of the locks are open, and the stories these walls are ready to tell are desperate to be heard. So come in. Poetry and interviews for this episode by the following: The kitchen - Virtuosity The Closet - Star The Bathroom - Tina Posole What Home Means - Waffles & Answer The Bedroom - K One The Basement - Icarus The Elevator - Kenzo The Rooftop - Ghetti Guiding us through this tour of the house is our resident Real Estate Agent, Scarr.  Stay close and don't wander off. She is the one with the keys. Thanks for listening. TW: references to self-harm, drug addiction, suicide, sexual abuse, physical abuse

What has been stolen? Who has been lost? Are there times they are the same things? This episode the Sending Messages girls discuss the things that have been taken away in their lives. Both tangible items, identities, time, and sometimes, people. Stories and interviews by Tina Posole, Star, Icarus, Skarr, and Ghetti. Thanks for listening.

This episode, Bhetti, Skarr and Tina Posole talk with their producer Adam about what perfection is like as a young girl in Secure Care, with everyone watching.  this episode also features poetry by Star and Icarus, as well as a flashback piece by Alias. Thanks for listening.

Happy Halloween! This episode, the youth from Decker Lake bring you stories, poetry, interviews and music all themed all about monsters, nightmares, and fear. Virtuosity, Dawn Breaker, Rambollo, K-One, and Liu Kang share their insights on both the fun of the holiday, as well as their own experiences growing up celebrating Halloween and thinking about the difference between childhood fear and the fear they experience now. This episode is hosted by Dopey. Thanks for listening!

This episode is a compilation for a research project about how the true stories and recollections by incarcerated youth can change attitudes about their situations to the public at large. While this episode is used for this purpose with a particular audience, we also wanted to share it with our larger podcasting audience as it represents some of the most impactful and interesting pieces from the last 12 years. Thanks for listening.

The mischeif we get into as kids has a way of spinning out of control. The same behaviors that once seemed innocent now echo very real consequences. Freeway DK, N. and P sit down and discuss everything from playing with legos to the first time their parents caught them with a gun. Featuring music by Liu Kang and Sosa, Goofy and BabyKing. Thanks for listening.

When have you felt trapped? What did you do to overcome it? How did you escape? In this episode, our host Dawn Breaker shares stories from his peers about moments of weakness, feeling stuck and backed up against a wall, and what tools they used to find a way out. Poetry, prose and interviews from Stuck Soul, Saskia, Twitch, Answer, Dawn Breaker, Traumatized Young One, Virtuosity, and Kenzo. Thanks for listening! T.W. - child abuse, drug use, self harm, themes of suicide, 

What does it mean to hear someone's story? To understand what they were going through or to compare their story with your story? It could lead to greater understanding, but that’s up to the listener. In this episode, our host Lobster shares stories from his peers about struggles, despair, the paths that we travel and the journeys that we take. Poetry, prose and interviews from Saskia, Virtuosity, Dawn Breaker, Lobster and Twitch. T.W. - self harm, themes of suicide, 

Defeat is like loss, in that you end up missing something. But unlike loss, defeat feels like your own fault. Eight pieces about the being stuck in cycles, escaping through the wrong doorways, and searching for meaning in the dark. Original pieces from Kemi, Yung Skrrrt, Phoenix, D., A., Q-Bee, Peter Quill, and Starr. Hosted by Sending Messages contributor B9. Thanks for listening! 

In celebration of Valentine's Day, Sending Messages contributors share stories of the ups and downs of love and relationships. Original pieces from Silent, Yung Skrrrt, Sapphire, Betty, S.L.S, Little Pineapple and Quinn. Hosted by Yung Skrrrt. Thanks for listening!   *LATE RELEASE* 

The new year is a time when people plan for the future, make resolutions, and prepare for change. Pieces from Sapphire, Four Eyes, Yung Sponge, Cue, and Silent. Hosted by Sending Messages contributor Lil Pineapple. Thanks for listening!

Utah’s juvenile justice system has gone through a lot of change in the past couple of years. As part of an effort to implement restorative justice practices, our state is trying to lessen the amount of kids in the system by placing those of us struggling with violence, addiction, and mental health issues into treatment instead of incarceration. In celebration of Youth Justice Awareness Month, today’s episode features five pieces about shifts in the system from the perspective of the young people within it.

Sending Messages contributors make individual pieces in a process of self reflection, often speaking on their own lives and experiences. Heard together, however, these pieces can paint a broader picture of what young people in the juvenile justice system are going through in general. Today on the podcast, young women housed in facilities and treatment centers around the Salt Lake Valley share their struggles with addiction and social isolation, the hard path toward change, and their visions for their futures.

Utah is a unique actor in the movement toward restorative justice. While being a conservative hub, we've been working toward reform in ways that inspire efforts around the country. Nonetheless, many of the young people who contribute to Sending Messages have been in and out of the system for much of their lives. On this episode of Sending Messages, stories from BG, P. City, N. and Bru the Mac, reflecting on their paths to incarceration and considering how different resources and responses to their behavior in the past could have impacted the present. Hosted by mentor Gabriella Huggins. Thanks for listening! 

Living is a series of transitions. Today on the episode we bring you seven stories about changes in scenery, loss of loved ones, new perspectives and broadened horizons. Pieces from Y.T. Swizz, Harles, Bucks, Fozzy, P.City, Kode Ice, and Cash. Hosted by Sending Messages contributor BG. Thanks for listening!

Money makes the world go 'round. But when you're left out of rotation, what are you willing to do to get in on the goods? On this episode of Sending Messages, five pieces from Y.T. Swizz, Shotsky, B.G., P. City, and Bucks sharing about how the pursuit of money has made them do their worst and influenced them to work for the better. Hosted by B.G. Thanks for listening!

One of the exercises that begins every session of Sending Messages is the challenge for participants to bust out a short piece of original media; a poem, a stream of consciousness, a simple response to an open-ended prompt, a letter they could never send. Today on Sending Messages, a collection of the first short pieces created by residents in Utah's secure care facilities, from conception to edited audio. Hosted by Wasatch Youth Center resident P. City. Thanks for listening!

Angels and demons; the battle between good and evil, the choice between the good and the bad. Today on Sending Messages teens at Decker Lake Youth Center share stories of their saviors and explore the causes of their sorrows. Pieces from Junior, Smasher, Kash Money Kellz, Sebas and G. Money. Hosted by Junior. Thanks for listening! 

Every year, Dignity in Schools runs a campaign to raise awareness around school push out, educational disenfranchisement that disproportionately impacts youth of color, the endemically poor, and youth living with physical and developmental challenges. On this episode, five young men from Wasatch Youth Center share their experiences in the education system, and the challenges that led them to end up in the justice system instead of in high school and college. Hosted by mentor Gabriella Huggins. Thanks for listening!