Lies Between Us, podcast episode #19

Charles, aka Pops, at his camp inside Madison, Wisconsin’s Reindahl on the east side, November 2021

Charles won conference three times as a wrestler in high school and went on to wrestle in college. He graduated with a management degree from University of Wisconsin and achieved success in corporate America before getting divorce and experiencing homelessness.

Charles, aka Pops, is an amazing thinker and speaker, explaining how he was always a planner in life but after twice incarcerated and then living outdoors, he had to learn to just roll with it.

My mother was clinically insane and homeless most of her life. I was a drug addict for 13 years in Baltimore City so I have a slight perspective to speak with Charles candidly, about trying to maintain his sanity amidst the 100-person homeless tent city encampment in Madison, Wisconsin.  

As an educated, outspoken, and travelled black man in America, Charles offers incredible insight into the absolute love for his daughters, his commitment to mindfulness, and a person trying to lead by example despite the local powers to be taking advantage of him.

Charles speaks of his need to try and do better and rise above the Jim Crow laws of racial injustice, trying to control his behavior and his response to an incessant challenge from the mass incarceration system of the black man in America.

We touch on how Dane County Wisconsin makes it illegal to be homeless and despite most everything taken away from him, Charles has remained sober for 10 years and has not surrendered to the hardcore drug use running wild in the local homeless community.

We also speak of Charles saving three lives this year, his self-appointed role of first responder in his homeless community and how his attempt to help save lives by trying to prevent drug overdoses is also illegal. A great conversation and one I am honored to be part of.