As the launch period for Chained Birds winds down, so has the flurry of my podcast appearances. I’ve been on a dozen since the book’s release, and here’s a recap of the latest shows, complete with all listening and viewing links. This was such a great bunch of hosts, all armed with terrific questions — I can’t thank these folks enough for featuring me and Chained Birds on their shows 😊
Online for Authors with guest host Carole O’Neill
Author and podcaster Carole O’Neill picked Chained Birds from a long list of books for her guest-hosting episode of Teri Brown’s Online for Authors. It was an honor and delight to talk with Carole about not just the harrowing aspects of my true crime memoir but about the writing process itself.
Carol’s broadcast career spans decades, going back to her days as a TV director and producer in Boston. So of course she honed in on one of Chained Birds‘ most infamous characters: Boston Mobster Whitey Bulger. Kevin met Whitey in 2015 on a tarmac in Orlando, where they boarded the same prison bus headed for their new maximum security prison at Coleman II. Not everyone who reads Chained Birds is familiar with Whitey, a convicted murderer/FBI informant who escaped to California with his girlfriend and remained on the lam for 16 years. Kevin and Whitey became friends and the notorious crime boss is mentioned in several chapters of the book.
Carole and I discussed that fact that it took me ten years to write the book and what was behind my initial — and then on-again-off-again — hesitation to get Kevin’s story published. The reason is simple: two different prison gangs tried to kill Kevin, and both my attorney friend Scott and I became imperiled by association. Carole truly appreciated this predicament and mentioned it in a bonus book review:
Two different federal prison gangs made no secret of their desire to rid themselves of the man on trial, continuously threading their way through a ten-year struggle to avoid justice. Fear was spread at every level, and it became obvious that not only was the prisoner, Kevin, at risk of being killed, but everyone working on his behalf, including Carla when they heard she was planning to write a tell-all book. She came very close to walking away from the entire project. But, in the end, with the security of a pen name to protect her real identity, the story is on these pages for all of us to see. Time well spent on a shocking tell-all.
You can catch my episode with Carole on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and iHeart Radio.
Darkness Radio with Tim Dennis
Tim Dennis, host of Darkness Radio, was so moved by my book and drawn into the story that he kept asking if Chained Birds was real, which, of course, it is! Tim and I talked for nearly an hour on his talk radio/YouTube show, and he was laser-focused on the inmate at the heart of the story, Kevin Sanders. He was fascinated by all of Kevin’s trials (literal) and tribulations as Kevin navigated the criminal justice system, various prisons, and his eventual release. Tim asked about Kevin’s motivation in wanting to have his story told and suggested it was largely ego, to which I couldn’t disagree. But I also told Tim that Kevin truly wanted to bring to light the horrors of Lewisburg Prison’s Special Management Unit, which operated from 2009 to 2018 until it was shut down. Both things can be true.
Tim is a seasoned broadcaster who, along with other Darkness Radio hosts, primarily focuses on all aspects of the supernatural, from ghosts and aliens, to monsters, mysteries, myths and legends with their guest experts. But true crime is Tim’s feature each Tuesday. Tim’s True Crime Tuesday and the other Darkness Radio productions are available on their website, YouTube, and your favorite pod catcher.
Crime Beat with Ron Chepesiuk
Ron Chepesiuk is legendary in the true crime space, not just as host of Crime Beat since 2011, but as a world-traveling investigative journalist and award-winning author of two dozen true crime books, several of which have been optioned for films. (He’s also a screenwriter and documentary producer — check out his impressive bio here.) Ron and I share a publisher, WildBlue Press, and it was a pleasure to chat with him about Chained Birds.
Ron was particularly interested in my book’s prison theme, as he traveled to a prison in Columbia multiple times to interview the subject for one of his most recent books, THE REAL MR. BIG: How a Colombian Refugee Became the United Kingdom’s Most Notorious Cocaine Kingpin. Ron understands the need for criminal justice reform more than most, and we talk about life behind bars and the everyday challenges plus death threats that Kevin Sanders, the inmate at the heart of my book, faced.
Crime Beat, which covers “issues, controversies, and personalities from the dark side,” appears live on Thursdays at 8 p.m. EST. You can listen to the archived show featuring Chained Birds and me here.
Vlogging Pod with host Eri Nelson
Author and podcast host Eri Nelson and I had a great chat about Chained Birds and my role as a journalist storyteller for her live Vlogging Pod show. Once upon a time, I was a police beat reporter who also covered criminal court proceedings and trials. This work naturally led to my interest in true crime, as it does for many journalists already writing about the genre mainstays of murder and mayhem.
And though I had covered plenty of criminal trials as a reporter, I had practically no knowledge of life behind bars and incarceration conditions. Eri and I discussed the eye-opening prison abuse horrors I discovered while researching Chained Birds, and the importance of criminal justice reform. As I mention in the book’s prologue, Chained Birds is infotainment — a means to an end. I.e. folks will care more about a message if you entertain them along the way.
Eri produces regular video and audio blogs on PodBean, where her three-year-old podcast is hosted. In between those opinion vlogs (including up-to-the-minute hot takes on politics), she interviews a variety of guests on topics related to writing, publishing, entrepreneurship, creativity, and personal growth.
You can listen to our discussion of Chained Birds on PodBean, Apple Podcasts, and ListenNotes.
Carla Conti is a true crime journalist, storyteller, and prison reform advocate. Her debut book, Chained Birds: A True Crime Memoir of Justice, Survival and Redemption Behind Bars, is out now with WildBlue Press.
