Jeff Grant on The Rich Roll Podcast

From Addiction & Incarceration To White Collar Prison Ministry

An epidemic of colossal proportions, millions struggle with substance addiction. Suffering in silence, they too often slip through the cracks, desperate and alone.

As a society, it’s incumbent upon us to better address the problem. Improve our collective understanding of its underlying causes. And enhance access to the resources required to heal the decaying hungry ghosts among us.

It is for these reasons I felt compelled to share the story of Rev. Jeff Grant — a former well-respected New York City attorney who got hooked on painkillers and started making decisions so bad, he lost everything.

Like so many, Jeff’s using started rather innocently in the aftermath of a basketball injury. But it didn’t take long before the tectonic plates of his ethical landscape began to shift. Under the influence, he perpetrated a series of financial misdeeds that led to losing control of his law firm. A suicide attempt prompted sobriety, but the long shadow cast by past actions revisited Jeff with a felony fraud conviction and a federal prison sentence.

Video on YouTube:

After serving 18 months, Jeff was faced with re-entry. His old life was no longer an option. He had to create an entirely new one.

Searching for a meaningful spiritual life line to help make sense of his transgressions and inform his trajectory moving forward, Jeff entered the Seminary, earning a Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in New York, with a focus in Christian Social Ethics.

Upon graduation, he began serving at an inner-city church in Bridgeport, Connecticut as Associate Minister and Director of Prison Ministries. It is here that Jeff finds his calling assisting convicted felons and their families to navigate the treacherous waters of civilian re-entry.

Now an ordained minister with 16+ years of continuous sobriety, Jeff is the co-founder of Progressive Prison Ministries, the world’s first ministry created to provide confidential support to individuals, families and organizations with white collar incarceration issues. He has been profiled in a variety of media outlets including Inc., Forbes and Business Insider, has graced the stage at The Nantucket Project(where we first met) and hosts the Criminal Justice Insider Podcast.

This is his story.

It’s a conversation about the perils of addiction and the joys of sobriety. It’s about the the opioid epidemic and the prison industrial complex it supports. And it’s about how spirituality and divinity can pave the road to redemption.

Not just a cautionary tale from the perspective of a white collar felon, this is also discussion about what happens to the by-standing family members and loved ones, often overlooked casualties in the perpetrator’s wake.

But ultimately this is a story about absolution. It’s about confronting past misdeeds. Making amends. Finding grace. And giving back to those in need by sharing the experience and wisdom procured along the way.

Click here to listen and peruse the show notes or you can watch our entire conversation on YouTube (please subscribe!) and the podcast is of course available on Apple Podcastsand Spotify.

I sincerely hope you enjoy the exchange.

Peace + Plants,

Listen, Watch & Subscribe

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Note: One of the best ways to support the podcast is to support the sponsors. For a complete list of all RRP sponsors and their respective vanity url’s and discount codes, visit my Resources page and click “Sponsors”.

SHOW NOTES

Background, Context & Reference:

• Connect With Jeff: Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Linkedin
• Radio Show: Criminal Justice Insider | Facebook | Twitter | SoundCloud
• Blog: Prisonist.org — The Blog
• The Nantucket Project: Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube
• New York Magazine: How to Survive in Prison As a Hedge-Fund Millionaire
• Forbes: A New Class Of White-Collar Victims: The Family
• Forbes: Starting A Discussion On White Collar Crime And Recovery
• Inc.: What Successful Entrepreneurs and Successful Criminals Have in Common
• Business Insider: This is what it’s like when the 1% go to jail, according to a couple that ministers to their families
• Greenwich Sentinel: The Jeff Grant Story: A Worldly Fall, A Spiritual Ascent
• Greenwich Time: Greenwich white collar criminal shares journey back to the board room
• Prisonist.org: (VIDEO) Jeff’s Main Stage Presentation, “The Art of Surviving Prison,” at The Nantucket Project
• Prisonist.org: (VIDEO) Neighborhood Project at the Barn in Greenwich, Jan. 12, 2018 — Powered by The Nantucket Project

Notable People Discussed

• Tom Scott: co-founder of The Nantucket Project, former CEO and founder of Nantucket Nectars. creator & producer of The Neistat Brothers with 3x podcast guest Casey Neistat and podcast guest
• Nadia Bolz-Weber: Lutheran minister, public theologian, two-time New York Times bestselling author and podcast guest
• Tom Hardin: aka “Tipper X”, former trader, felon, FBI informant and podcast guest
• Steve Case: entrepreneur, investor, businessman best known as the former CEO and chairman of America Online and podcast guest
• Viktor Frankl: Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist, Holocaust survivor and author of: Man’s Search For Meaning*
• Dietrich Bonhoeffer: was a German pastor, author, theologian, anti-Nazi dissident, and key founding member of the Confessing Church.
• Reinhold Niebuhr: was an American Reformed theologian, author, ethicist, commentator on politics and public affairs, and professor at Union Theological Seminary for more than 30 years
• Michael Phelps: Most decorated Olympian of all time, with a total of 28 medals

Related Podcasts You Might Enjoy:

• RRP #428: Nadia Bolz-Weber Is Shameless — Reconciling Sex & God With Grace
• RRP #251: Faith Provocateur Rob Bell On God, Divinity & Why Love Always Wins
• RRP #354: Rob Bell Is ‘The Heretic’ — Filmmaker Andrew Morgan & Christianity’s Most Polarizing Voice
• RRP #404: Music Mogul Jason Flom On Reforming Criminal Justice & Resurrecting Rock ‘N Roll
• RRP #146: The Plight Of “Tipper X”: How Tom Hardin Became The Most Notorious FBI Informant In The Biggest Insider Trading Case In Decades — And The Long Run To Redemption
• RRP #360: Tom Scott On Curiosity, The Power Of Story & The Lost Art Of Conversation

Thanks to Jason Camiolo for production, audio engineering, interstitial music and show notes. Video, editing and graphics by Blake Curtis and Margo Lubin. Theme music by Ana Leimma.

*Disclosure: Books and products denoted with an asterisk are hyperlinked to an affiliate program. We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Originally published at https://prisonist.org.