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The Jordan Harbinger Show

802: Michael Santos | Conquering a 45-Year Prison Term

The Jordan Harbinger Show

Jordan Harbinger

Education, Science, Business

4.8 β€’ 12.3K Ratings

πŸ—“οΈ 28 February 2023

⏱️ 78 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Michael Santos (@MichaelGSantos) survived 26 years as a federal prisoner, hosts the Prison Professors podcast, and is the author of Earning Freedom!: Conquering a 45-Year Prison Term.

What We Discuss with Michael Santos:
  • How Michael Santos got sentenced to 45 years in federal prison when he was just 23 years old β€” not for committing a violent crime, but for establishing himself as a cocaine entrepreneur at the height of the War on Drugs (and committing perjury just made things worse).
  • What this conviction meant to Michael's relationship with his family β€” and his wife.
  • The three-prong plan Michael applied to the sudden wealth of time he had on his hands to find a way to reduce his sentence and hit the ground running when he finally got out.
  • How the system is designed to trip up attempts inmates make toward self-improvement and rehabilitation.
  • How Michael made his first million behind bars.
  • And much more...

Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/802

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Special thanks to Peloton and Nissan for sponsoring this episode of the Jordan Harbinger Show.

0:05.0

Coming up next on the Jordan Harbinger Show.

0:08.2

I did not see myself as a criminal despite the reality that I broke the law every day

0:12.8

from the time I was 20 until the time I was 23 by presiding over an enterprise that distributed cocaine

0:18.1

across the country. I couldn't do this myself. There's no weapons, there's no drugs, I mean,

0:22.4

there's no violence, it's consenting adults. I wanted to dilute myself that says,

0:26.5

who's going to see me as a criminal? And then I really made it difficult when I went to trial

0:30.9

and I took the witness stand and lied. You know, you got your hand, you put your hand on the

0:33.9

Bible, swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, I'll help you God, and then everything I said

0:37.6

was a lie. That was a very bad strategy. And it wasn't until I was convicted of that crime,

0:45.6

facing life. That's when I had my epiphany and I realized how that I'd gone down a really bad

0:52.5

track and it's time to make amends and reconcile and that made all the difference in my life.

1:01.6

Welcome to the show. I'm Jordan Harbinger. On the Jordan Harbinger Show, we decode the stories,

1:05.9

secrets and skills of the world's most fascinating people. We have in-depth conversations with

1:10.0

scientists and entrepreneurs, spies and psychologists, even the occasional former cult member war

1:15.2

correspondent, undercover agent or gold smuggler, and each episode turns our guest's wisdom into

1:20.9

practical advice that you can use to build a deeper understanding of how the world works and become

1:25.6

a better thinker. If you're new to the show or you want to tell your friends about the show,

1:29.6

our episode starter packs are a great place to begin. These are collections of our favorite

1:33.5

episodes organized by topic that'll help new listeners get a taste of everything we do here

1:38.0

on the show. Topics like persuasion and influence, technology and futurism,

1:42.0

negotiation and communication, disinformation and cyber warfare and more. Just visit

...

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