Maya Shankar

So this guy he encounters cares for the younger prisoners.

He teaches them how to box.

And Dwayne had thought, oh, you have to be ruthlessly self-interested in prison.

This guy wakes up an hour early before count time and does 250 push-ups.

He irons his prison clothes, right?

Dwayne says...

this man was making a point to say, this is who I am, right?

He was transcending what Dwayne thought was possible for a prisoner.

And it was with that empowered mindset that when Dwayne encounters a book of poetry and reads a poem that speaks to the experience of young boys in the prison system, Dwayne for the first time thinks, well, maybe I could be

a poet.

I can't care for the younger boys by teaching them how to box because I'm not strong and that's not my lane, but I can record and dignify their experiences.

And fast forward, Dwayne today is a Yale Law School graduate, MacArthur Genius winner.

He writes some of the most stirring poetry I've ever heard.

And it's all thanks to this one encounter of moral beauty.

And so I

I would urge everyone to try to invite these moments into their lives because they can actually be life-changing.

Another thing that people can do actually is to read fiction.

So researchers call fiction an identity laboratory.

And that's because when you're reading about someone else, the mind effortlessly blends

that character and you into a single entity, and you're able to freely try on new ways of being or new personality types or take risks or make decisions that you might not have felt the courage to do in real life.