- Today is all about second chances.

That's what's - Coming up.

Going to prison was the hardest thing I've ever done, but it was also the biggest blessing I've ever had.

- This was my goal.

My destiny.

Show to the to audience.

Look ordinary pets from the animal shelter.

But they're talented, they're smart.

And if after my show, someone from the audience adopt Kitty or doggy, I feel like my message reached out.

- I, I just knew that I needed to change and my wife knew that something was wrong.

The breakup of this thing that, you know, was very important to me, all of those things together just put me in a really dark head space.

I mean, I was struggling with alcohol.

- The Whitney Reynolds Show is supported by 10 West Real Estate Group providing multifamily investment and property management services.

Kevin O'Connor Law Firm.

When it comes to your personal injuries, we take it personally.

Respiratory Health Association, healthy lungs, and clean air for all.

Together at Peace Foundation, remembrance, resilience and Comfort, creating a hopeful space for those who are grieving.

Joe perillo.com where you can browse our selection of pre-owned vehicles.

Joe Perillo is based in Chicago and ships all over the country.

Children's learning Place, a school for our earliest learners dedicated to aiding every child with the power of learning Center for beautiful living.

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Additional funding provided by FE o Dr.

Stacey McClain, facial plastic surgeon, high five Sports Club, goldfish Swim School, and Girls Strong Empowerment Apparel.

- Hello and welcome to the Whitney Reynolds Show.

Today we're talking second chances where a new start takes center stage.

Awakening the soul of our stories.

Come for the stories, save for the heart where every journey you might recognize a new look.

We are ready to take things to the next level.

You'll see Whitney's - Here to share your dream.

- It's the I watching the Whitney Reynolds show Straight.

Be careful Your home.

- If you were to hear the words life in prison, you might feel hopeless.

And that things were over.

However, our next guest got her start behind bars.

Let's take a look.

- I didn't know he had another side to him.

- When did you uncover that something was terribly wrong?

- I uncovered something was wrong.

Whenever he started talking to me about a gentleman that owned a jewelry store.

And he said that he needed to meet with him.

He needed to talk to him.

He needed to get with him.

And I couldn't understand why.

And that's whenever everything just went crazy.

- Then the unthinkable happened In her new book, she details the day her life changed forever.

- Greg loomed over him.

Gun still raised Harry's please filled the air.

Desperate and raw.

Please don't.

I squeezed my eyes shut.

Another shot rang out.

When I opened them, Harry laid motionless.

The gunshots echo faded.

Leaving an eerie silence, Greg moved with mechanical precision rifling through Harry's pockets.

I stood frozen.

Unable to process what I just witnessed.

- I see.

Where he didn't even care.

He didn't care about me.

He didn't care what was going on with me.

I could have been laying there myself and him not care.

- When did the police start looking for you?

- That was media coverage everywhere.

Very high profile case.

We had the same attorney representing us both, which was a serious constitutional conflict of interest.

He knew what my defense was going to be and to ensure that it didn't involve him.

- So you were found guilty and he was not.

- He was not.

- The words life in prison shook her world in so many ways.

Yet it was behind those bars where she found her faith.

- Oh my gosh.

You know these volunteers, they actually really love us and care about us.

I knew about God, but I hadn't seen the love from people.

There's all different kinds of addictions.

My addiction was love.

- You started writing a new song back there.

You started helping women.

- Well, I became a certified paralegal.

I graduated with honors - From prison.

- From prison.

The law put me there.

So I had to figure out how the law is going to help me get out of there.

- Mm.

- People don't know how to have that hope.

They don't know how to get outta situations that they feel is hopeless, they're lost and they want to give up - When the light finds us.

Brings the hope that Judy found to her readers.

She also now advocates for women and even helped pass Missouri's first battered woman.

Bill.

- As I stepped beyond those gates, I held my head high.

I wasn't just leaving prison.

I was carrying with me a hard one truth.

No matter what life throws at us, we always have the power to choose who we become in the darkness.

- You need to look at your situation because there's something in it for you to learn with those things that happened to you.

There is a purpose.

- You look like someone I could meet in the grocery store and become friends with.

Yes.

Little do you know that you helped smuggle a lover - Out of prison That's right.

Out of a medium custody prison.

A maximum security prison too.

You were married at the time I was married.

Were you - Happily married?

- No, but I never admitted it to myself and I didn't realize that I wasn't happy until you were, until I met John Maynard and I was like, oh man, now I know what this should feel like.

We had a hundred mile an hour car chase on the interstate.

Yeah.

I wrote to the warden of the prison and he wrote back to me, I hope that you go on and do something great with your life because this is not who you are.

And so I've tried to live up to that.

- Toby do welcome back to our show.

Thank you so - Much, Whitney.

Yes.

I'm delighted to be back in Chicago.

Yes.

You flew in today.

I did.

And I'm flying out - Today too.

Oh my goodness.

That fast trip we're talking about resilience.

- Yes.

- And for our viewers that maybe didn't see you the first time.

We just showed that sizzle.

That was a lot to - Unpack.

It was a crazy story.

It still is.

Sometimes.

I can't believe it's my own story, but I started a prison dog program and fell in love with one of the dog handlers.

Helped him escape.

We went on the run for 12 days, got caught in a high-speed car.

Chase and I went to prison for 27 months.

- 27 months.

What was that like for you in that time when you weren't sure what your future looked like?

- You know, going to prison was the hardest thing I've ever done, but it was also the biggest blessing I've ever had because I never had time to do anything.

My life was so crazy busy.

But in prison all you have is time and absolutely nothing to do with it.

So I used that time to do a lot of self-healing and self exploring and kind of figure out where I wanted to go with my life.

- You know, our guest before you today, she also did the same when it came to her story behind bars.

But you won that also when you got out, decided you wanted to help others.

- Yes, I did.

And, and that is my mission.

In fact, this year I'm starting a nonprofit organization called Fierce Grace.

- Mm.

- And our mission is to put workbooks into women's prisons in every state in the country.

- It's wild because our last guest, again before you, is also encouraging people behind bars.

- Yes.

- What was it that really sparked that moment for you saying, I want to use my story because it's one that somebody, some other person might wanna say, okay, I'm out.

I don't want people to know.

Yes, but you're actually owning that.

- I was gonna get out, my plan was to change my name.

I was gonna be Sophie Martin and I was gonna go somewhere where nobody knew me and start over, but that's not me.

I can't do that.

And so on my darkest day in prison, I was on suicide watch and I truly was suicidal at that moment.

And I was praying really hard to God to just let me be done.

This is too much to ask of anybody.

I can't do it.

And instead of him answering my prayer, he told me that I would get through it and I'd be just fine.

And he'd be right there with me every step of the way.

And when I got out, I was gonna use my story to change the lives of women.

So how can you not do it?

I mean, you made a deal.

You made a deal, a deal of God.

- And when you heard that voice, it was very prevalent.

- It was undoubtedly just this voice that filled the whole room.

And it was very calm and very authoritative and very loving.

And the temperature of the room even changed.

'cause it's very cold in prison.

It's freezing.

And in suicide watch you're naked.

Ooh.

So it's cold.

You're really cold.

It's like 60 degrees and concrete floor and concrete walls and the room warmed up.

Wow.

And the light changed.

I mean it was just, it was a physical and an emotional and a spiritual and a mental connection.

- Oh my goodness.

All at - Once.

And it was, it was unbelievable.

- And you did Exactly.

- I did exactly that.

- You're doing it.

Let's talk about an update for our viewers, because as I said in that last interview, you look like someone I can meet on the bed aisle and become good friends with.

Yes.

But you actually, you've not only gone forward and helped women, you've gotten remarried.

- Yes.

- And you have an update about John.

- Yes, I do have an update about John.

So you know, John is the man that I helped escape from prison.

And, and John was always special in my life.

And my husband, my new husband and I actually went and visited him in prison.

So my husband met him and my husband talked to him on the phone.

- Mm.

- And my husband really cared about John too.

And, and we both felt like John kind of got a raw deal 'cause he was serving a life sentence for murder when he didn't kill anybody.

He just happened to be there at the time when his buddy killed somebody.

And that's a felony murder rule.

And so my husband and I actually started a podcast to educate people about felony murder and how ridiculous it is.

And John was gonna be on our podcast.

And so I talked to him on Friday night and we were, made a deal that I was, he was gonna call me at six 30 on Monday and I was gonna start recording before six 30.

So that when the phone rang and it said, you have a call from an inmate, that I'd get that on the recording.

And instead on Sunday I got a text from John's girlfriend who told me that they had been found unresponsive in his prison cell.

Oh.

And it just was devastating.

It was devastating.

But you know, in the end, John's free, finally he's free.

And so he's better off.

But you know, in the last five months of our conversations through emails, they had kind of changed.

And he was really digging deep.

And he told me, you know, that if he anything else popped off in there was done, he was out of there.

And I just thought he meant he'd get in a fight and go to seg.

I didn't know he meant he'd go.

And then he asked me for a Bible.

He said he wanted to study the Bible.

So Chris and I sent him a bible, a really nice leather study Bible.

And, and John would email me and talk about different scriptures he was reading and, and I, you know, have discussions with him.

And it was a different John.

It was a John that was seeking, - How do you move forward with a loss like this that was a wound that had healed?

Did it reopen it?

- It reopened a different wound.

Yeah.

A whole different wound.

Because John's story was just heartbreaking.

But he's one of hundreds with the same heartbreaking story here in the country.

And something needs to change in our criminal justice system.

And so, you know, my husband and I are kind of on this mission, a grassroots effort to educate people about the unfairness of felony murder.

- Oh wow.

- And we're the only country that has a felony murder rule.

And so we're releasing a second edition of my memoir with an added chapter at the end.

Oh man.

So we'll have to check that out.

Toby, thank you again.

You're welcome.

You're welcome.

Thank you for having me.

- And now we turn to a singer, a boy band phenomena and a man who owned his story on national television Meet Cray Reap.

- I grew up in a small town in Virginia.

I lost my dad when I was 14.

That, that was a tough age to lose, you know, that, that figure in your life.

And he, he had always been supportive of me creating music and and pursuing that.

And - What did he pass away from?

- He had lung cancer.

Lung cancer at 14.

I was like, there's, of course he's gonna be around to see me graduate.

Of course he's gonna be around to see me get married.

Of course he's gonna be around to see all of these big moments in my life.

But six months later he passed away.

- Said music really got you through.

How did you channel that energy during that time?

- Well, I think early on it, it wound up being something else to focus on.

You know, having, I hate to call it a distraction because it was more than that.

It was a good way to, to redirect kind of my attention - And redirecting it.

Did you joined a boy band - Right out of college.

I was approached by this band who was looking for another member.

The kind of, the style of the music.

It was very like pop country and the harmonies, the harmonies is what really attracted me early on.

'cause I, I love big vocal groups like The Eagles and like Little Texas.

And we got to open for Tim McGraw.

That was in Monticello, Iowa.

That was 20,000 people.

That was the biggest show we ever played.

- Well, and then your band did breakup.

- We did, - Yes.

Yeah.

How did you handle, like, it's not like a breakup of a relationship, but it is, - We were together a lot and it did feel like, you know, the ending of a relationship at that point.

I just found myself in a really dark place because I had invested like all of my creative energy into this band for Wow.

You know, four years, five years outta college and thought that that was what I was gonna be doing for the rest of my life.

Like, I loved these guys.

I mean, I was stuck again.

And part of, you know, what was causing all of that inner turmoil was that I had never really truly confronted the loss of my dad.

That was part of it from a young age.

There was a lot of kind of like undealt with grief there.

And then, you know, this, here comes again.

The breakup of this thing that, you know, was very important to me.

All of those things together just put me in a really dark head space of not knowing what the future was gonna look like.

Not having a whole lot of hope.

Right.

I I just knew that I needed to change and my wife knew that something was wrong.

I mean, I was struggling with alcohol.

And so to get out of that, I just had a wake up call that, you know, I need to live for my family.

I need to be the dad that I want to be.

I need to be the spouse that I picture myself to be.

I had a true awakening in my faith that I had never had before.

It was a radical transformation unlike anything that I've ever experienced in my life.

And so the person that you're speaking to right now is a very, very different person.

Wow.

That, that existed.

You know, five years ago, - Cray Reap discovered a newfound courage to share his story with the nation.

Not only on our stage, but also on the voice.

Faced with a daunting task of owning his challenging chapters publicly, he transformed vulnerability into strength, revealing the depths of his experience through music.

You put your story out there.

How freeing was that?

- It was really cool.

'cause I, I had never done anything like that, that vulnerable, you know, aside from a one-on-one conversation in a closed room, it was very liberating and freeing to, to share that and, and to be comfortable doing it.

'cause I'd never been comfortable sharing anything that didn't paint me in a positive light ahead of that.

- What was it like for your daughter to see you on the national scale?

- Well, she was there for the blind auditions and so she, I was walking out the doors and I could see Sarah and Eliza and Florence and Florence.

She just waves and she goes, hi - Daddy.

- She was very excited - About it.

She had her little debut.

- She did.

- Okay.

So let's talk about what you're doing now.

You are writing more music.

How do you come up with what you're writing?

- I'm writing things that are not just important to me, but things that I hope will inspire some sort of life change in other people.

The greatest purpose behind what I'm doing now is to inspire life change for those people who are still living for themselves and have not had the eye-opening experience that I was blessed to have.

To see that I needed a, a radical change in my life to experience the goodness of this life that I know I was called to experience.

My goals are to be the best dad and the best husband, the best person that I can be, and to share my story with the world so that I can hopefully help other people change their lives for the better.

- Our next guest gives our four-legged friends a second chance les's.

Take a look.

Gregory Popovich, welcome.

- Hello.

- Hello.

You are full of tricks.

And I actually saw these firsthand.

I learned about Gregory when my family and I went to Vegas.

I have a son that wants to be a zookeeper.

And so when I saw your show and what you're doing, I thought, oh my goodness, this would be great for the kids.

But then when I learned about your story and how you incorporate all these animals and really give them a second chance at it, it's incredible what you're doing.

- Thank you.

It was my goal, my destiny Show to the to audience.

Look ordinary pets from the animal shelter, but they're talented, they're smart.

And if after my show someone from the audience adopt Kitty or Doggy, I feel like my message reached Target.

- Mm.

I love that.

So for the viewers, they saw a little bit of a sizzle reel of your show, but I wanna know, how would you describe it?

- It is not like a circus style show or not like a just variety show.

We try to build small story about character clown who has been kicked out from the circus and then he found on the street homeless pets and come back to the show business with success.

- His show is unique and so is his personal story.

He grew up in Ukraine with parents who were in the circus.

His dad known for his juggling and his grandfather also a juggler.

And even did this for the royal family, his mom working with him backstage, helping him learn passion and purpose.

You were one of the first in the Ringling Brothers Circus from the Soviet Union.

- Yes, yes.

It was after communism system collapsed and the Ringling Brothers agent came to the Soviet Union and they saw my act in the Circus festival.

I winner a lot of circus festival as a juggler and they invite me join to the Ringling.

I start train dogs, but then I decide, okay, let me try work with house cats.

Boom.

That was hit because before me, nobody in the United States train house.

And after maybe one month or two months, agents start calling me and say, Hey, ENA would like book you, Hey David Letterman would like invite you Greg Ferguson.

It's interesting the house gets, give me let's my ticket to the big media - For our viewers out there that maybe feel like they need that second chance, but to give it to themselves, what would you say?

- First of all, I think when you go on stage, you have to be honest.

You have to be show audience what you're feeling, what bother you as a performer, as a human.

So the situation with pets bother me personally because as a pet lover, I find out so many different story how those poor pets come to the shelter.

Not many people know after three months, if nobody adapt those pets go to the sleep.

- When did you come up with this idea of going to the shelter and getting your performers - In Soviet Union?

We doesn't have shelters.

And when I start build my show, I ask American friends, Hey, where can, do you have any pets?

I can, would like to have it if anybody, - You literally ask people, do you have any pets?

That could be a nutshell.

- Yeah.

And they recommend me visit local animal shelter.

Then I start talk with shelters worker, and they told me story.

So that's start bothering me.

And from that point I decide in my show I'm gonna use pets, not use, I gonna participate with pets only from the shelter.

- Gregory Popovich brought the energy to our studio.

We originally saw his act in Vegas, but just like today's topic, he offered me a second chance.

There we go.

And we got it.

Just like that.

Today's topic is on second chances and our next two guests remind us how their characters pulled through to their fresh start.

Even in the throes of chaos, - My mom's awaiting for murder trial and everyone at school is looking at me like I'm in the circus.

It's fun.

Your college essay writes itself, - The well-known Netflix mother and daughter duo and and Georgia are navigating challenges like never before.

Brianne Howie and Antonia Gentry explain how their characters navigate it all in the fresh start of season three.

Well, this new season really had me like on the edge of my seat because I relate so much with your character.

Not that I've like actually done some of the things you've done.

What is your favorite part about your role this season?

- Oh my gosh, so much.

I think it was really fun to see how much Georgia changes this season.

I, it was, she was almost unrecognizable at times.

She changes so much from the first episode to the last episode.

And it's a hard heavy season, particularly for Georgia, I mean for everyone.

But Georgia really has her breakdown so she could get to her breakthrough.

- And in the breakthrough, when you were reading through the lines and seeing how this would go, were you so happy for your character?

- Yes, to an extent.

I mean, I'm happy that she's growing and changing and you know, starting to become a little bit more aware of what she's put her children through and the ramifications of all of that.

- I've always known my mom was different.

There's more to her that people don't see.

- Everyone thinks I'm a violent, unhinged monster.

You can't give up place.

You can't get any worse.

Right.

Except if I go to prison, that would be worse.

- This comedy dives headfirst into life's chaos.

Breakthroughs do happen and this family's resilience to stay together is tested something most families can relate to.

What do you hope viewers take away from this season?

- I think that this season really does just sort of take the relationship of these characters and takes it to the next level.

And I guess for me it really is just about sort of the impacts and consequences that parents make and how those choices and actions that impact their kids.

And for me, if it's just about opening up conversation between a parent and a child about things that maybe their parents are doing that affects their child that they don't realize, like things like that.

Having those kinds of conversations, I think.

Right.

It's very important.

- I've had people come up to me for better or for worse and it helped them work through their relationship with their mom.

Right.

I - Love it.

Well, thank you both so much for coming on.

Thank you.

Having us.

Thank you for having us.

Every story today reminds us it's never too late to rewrite your narrative.

Remember, your story matters.

- The Whitney Reynolds show is supported by 10 West Real Estate Group providing multifamily investment and property management services.

Kevin O'Connor Law Firm, when it comes to your personal injuries, we take it personally.

Respiratory Health Association, healthy lungs, and clean air for all.

Together at Peace Foundation, remembrance, resilience and Comfort, creating a hopeful space for those who are grieving.

Joe perillo.com where you can browse our selection of pre-owned vehicles.

Joe Perillo is based in Chicago and ships all over the country.

Children's Learning Place, a school for our earliest learners dedicated to aiding every child with the power of learning center for beautiful living, empowering people to live rich, robust, and beautiful lives.

Additional funding provided by FE o Dr.

Stacey McClain, facial Plastic Surgeon, high five Sports Club, goldfish Swim School and Girls Strong Empowerment apparel.

- Want to stay connected to all things.

Whitney Reynolds will follow us on social media and you'll get exclusive content and updates from the show.

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Hi.