31: The Words We Use, The People We Judge: A Conversation on Incarceration with Marcus Bullock
Do you know someone who's been incarcerated? Have you ever actually asked them their story, instead of judging them on that one fact?
Because 95% of incarcerated people eventually leave prison and come home. They are our neighbors, our coworkers, our family members.
Here’s why this is relevant to you today: This administration has made "tough on crime" the centerpiece of its second term - among other things, reviving the federal death penalty, pushing back against cashless bail reform, and pressuring prosecutors nationwide to seek harsher sentences (when, of course, it benefits them and/or the MAGA agenda). The message from Washington is loud and clear: punishment first, everything else second.
But here's a question nobody in Washington seems to be asking: what happens after?
How we treat people when they come home - whether we see them as people, or permanently as their worst mistake - says as much about us as any policy coming out of Washington.
So today we're going straight to a conversation that is one of our favorites, with someone who's lived both sides of this story: Marcus Bullock, CEO of Flikshop, who was incarcerated as a teenager and built a company helping formerly incarcerated people stay connected to their families and rebuild their lives. This is a conversation about what "law and order" actually looks like on the ground and in people - not just in the abstract.
What to listen for:
Marcus's origin story for Flikshop: how his mother's daily letters and photos during his eight-year sentence became the blueprint for a company that now keeps families connected to incarcerated loved ones
The moment Marcus, at 15, stood before a judge and didn't grasp what "concurrent" and "consecutive" sentences meant; he just wanted to know if he'd be home for Christmas.
Why Marcus resists the word "felon" (and "inmate" and "convict")
What it was like to go through adolescence and puberty inside an adult maximum-security prison, and the moment - a conversation with a friend serving 31 years - that broke him out of denial about his own situation
The "class system" Marcus describes inside prison - from commissary money to medical care to solitary confinement - and how closely it mirrors inequities on the outside
His reflection on perspective as "better than courage and hope," and how prison reframed what counted as hardship
The emotional toll on his mother - isolation, cost, fear - as a reminder that incarceration ripples through entire families
Applying to 41 jobs and getting rejected every time before the 42nd said yes - and what that reveals about resilience versus a broken system
The real cost of the "have you been convicted of a felony?" checkbox - from job and housing applications to a story about being flagged by TSA at his own construction site
How Flikshop Angels grew from a gesture by John Legend into a way for kids with incarcerated parents to send selfies to their moms and dads
His challenge to listeners: change the dinner table conversation first - humanizing returning citizens starts there
About Marcus:
Marcus Bullock is an entrepreneur, justice reform advocate, and TED speaker. Following his 2004 release from prison, he launched a construction business that grew to employ other returning citizens. Bullock is the Founder and CEO of Flikshop, Inc., a software company that builds tools to help incarcerated people stay connected to their families and build community. He also founded the Flikshop School of Business, a program that teaches returning citizens life skills and entrepreneurship via computer coding and software development.
Marcus is an inaugural cohort member of Techstars Anywhere 2018 and John Legend's Unlocked Futures business accelerators. He was selected as one of The Root's 2019 100 Most Influential African Americans in the U.S. He is also a member of the Justice Policy Institute's board of directors, Advisory Board member for Princeton University's Prison Teaching Initiative, and serves as an advisor to the Georgetown University McDonough School of Business and Aspen Institute's Opportunity Youth Incentive Fund. Married with two children, Marcus' story has received coverage from Forbes, CNN, Washington Post, Black Enterprise, and NPR.
Venture: Flikshop is the tech platform that allows family members to connect easily with their incarcerated loved ones. The Flikshop app is famously known as the Instagram for prisons, allowing users the ability to send personalized pictures and messages delivered as postcards to any person in any cell in the US.
Website: http://ww.flikshop.com/