Joe Rogan Experience #1171 — Nick Yarris Transcript

Transcript

0:00 three two one stir it up nick we're live hello everyone hello everyone put the uh exonerated by dna evidence hello everyone my name is nick yaris and i was as joe said convicted She's going home. I became very aggressive as a child. They were two nice guys, like 68, 67. Now we all got out of the car and ran over to the cubicle together. And I went in

4:17 And as it went past my face, I was like, oh shit, I hit the ground. My partner's down or gone. I pulled And there's all these people innocently eating dinner. thinking oh my god like what am I doing what do I do Joe what like how do I just I ran so hard in terror that I didn't care, man, and I got away. know so I was going to buy a raft and I was going to go out in the ocean.

6:45 They beat me for four minutes, man. decided, fuck this. I'm going to be a nice guy. Either their brain is functioning too fast or their mouth is functioning too fast. So after that beating where they beat me for four minutes and they broke my face, I began practicing speaking to myself. in February of 1988 to ask for DNA testing to prove my innocence. And they threw away all the

9:54 And it broke open in transport and spilled. But they finally closed down the old prison I was in for 12 years So they picked 48 of us out, and they put us in Pittsburgh race. He was my neighbor, man. Like, so they started torturing us and doing all this psychological I read over 9,000 books. and listening to a man scream in agony because the bile in his belly is killing him.

13:02 And Dr. Edward Blake, who did the OJ Simpson trial DNA, He goes, Nick, we got DNA from three separate sources So I was really downcast that the day I called my mother, What did they do to you? You're up. Not until after the riot because she looked like my girlfriend, they said. so that when you touch the human beings you never forget the you shouldn't feel bad because I look in your arms

17:13 Don't you worry about me at all. And I was actually living up in this area on the streets because my good friend Noah lives around here. and I start to spread my message again, And it only happened because my good friend Anthony Samandani, who's in the green room, i so i can't even get a break on the death of my daughter like the that was the moment that the

20:26 I ended up. I'm still confused. So what so your child dies is it my child dies and everything goes badly death syndrome So it's the same thing. I said, Arthur, David's not paying me my money. We can have a fist fight. I come over here. I got two I leave England. I come over here. Yeah. being punished for what happened. You know what I mean? But I don't care about that. What really

23:31 But that doesn't work. Or it doesn't matter that the man preceding me has everything and I have nothing. I can't, I mean, I don't think anybody can imagine what it's like to spend 22 years on death row for something you didn't do. You were 20? And the music's blasting I was ugly. i ran my mouth so there i am sitting there and the next thing i know bam on the window bam and

26:40 of his hand and chucked it away I was was looking at him like I was that zombie guy. He gets in the car, and he's like jumping I'm sitting in the back seat. I'm freaking out, you know. He gets in the car, and he's, like, jumping back and forth in the front seat. Dude tells him when they get there a police officer I'm 20 years And it starts taunting me, taunting me, taunting me.

28:44 the whole story. I repeated it. did you tell him i told him that uh a man that uh I knew in the area had told me he had done the crime and that if they let me out, I would tell them all about it. The dude that I made the story of was no longer a drug addict and tried to kill me you know. I wasn't leaving that room. I didn't kill anyone. I never meant

31:30 But they didn't know it at the time. crass that they went out to the wagon Wheel restaurant and put their dessert order on hold while they found me guilty. Because he decided to send me to Huntington Prison, the hardest prison in America at that time. And your punishment was that you weren't allowed to speak in your cell. Nothing. because no self-respect resided within me.

34:50 I'm going to do this. I couldn't fight. and I became very graceful and calm in prison. I've developed my own charisma that carries me with confidence. spit in my face, Everything that I went through That's the reason I'm truly here today. but God bless me, I believe so much in my purpose in life that I won't kill myself. What do you mean by that? happen? Your daughter broke her arm. Dude, I'm in a meeting with a guy named Kevin and John,

40:29 Did you know that was going to happen specifically? And it's all crazy how I saw all these things in my dreams on death row, and they play out. enough to really give my life for a purpose and not be ego-driven. Like, I have nothing at this point that Kofi Annan told me that I was one of the finest speakers in the world, to then go and but like you said, you didn't listen to that shit

43:16 But people would never grant you that. What happened? father um my stepdad's a very nice guy but there's something about growing up without a father that is still alive that doesn't talk to you. was the point i needed to prove myself that's what i need i wanted to show i there was something and I understood that I could actually be good at things. other people view me i don't i just do what i like i do what i like and i try to be nice but that's

47:03 infinitely more difficult, more trying. I mean, you talk about someone who's created a diamond from pressure. Did you know that? that I've changed their life. bestseller in my first book and I was so proud of using my talent as a writer to And I know there's bad things in the woods. to the social media draw that has hurt my life so much. They expect you to have funds

51:45 me to be here, you know, so I'd have food while I was here. It's like that real, you know, so spending 22 years confined in a cage, forced to fight because of vicious psychopath guards, and finding faults in them and attacking them in the comments section meaningful messages of good because that's my overall message. So I thought recently, And I don't want that.

55:31 They want me to ignore all the social chaos I could cause to go and leave a family to be with them, You said that twice, the dude. Ben Foster being interviewed about Hell and High Water. He's a really, really cool dude, man. Oh, he's been in. Yeah, Chris. I'm like, I know. The Little Boy with Kevin James, I don't know how, but God told me there are certain movies I have to make your movie I'm going to help you I don't know how but God told me

57:53 so he's doing right now so maybe if I craft my message right, I can step back and let people You keep saying don't ruin it. get out of destitute times i can get my life together we did everything we could knowing that They're doing it because they want to affect you because they're hurting. And they're hurting for a very different reason than the way you're hurting.

1:01:05 all those things leave you feeling like shit. But you read that text and you absorb it personally. That's true. It's hard for people to understand And I appreciate that from people. and the film Fear of 13 is about to come out. but its message is so beautiful. I did what I could to tell my story because we're all living I guess my message is taken on by the people who love me or not. Well, you're right

1:04:00 Well, don't worry about me, man. is show that you can I told you since this man, ever since we started communicating, I told you. Because I know that is so important to that man. Like, do you remember when Muhammad Ali died? And they go to dinner every night with Maymay on Fridays, you know, And he says, I have a question for you. patent. I didn't know any of that, but it was those words. You see what I mean about the synchronicity

1:07:23 And he's done wonders for me and my wife. and we have a podcast no disrespect to my father Muhammad Ali, I have some amazing friends, Joe. I work with educators on a platform called NEPRIS. Yeah. You keep saying that, like you wanted to do that for Maymay. Because when you show true gratitude to people and true love to people, they feel that. We have so much information coming at us. that what's important is beautiful girls with short skirts and fast, shiny cars and big,

1:11:57 wind and they're small and it doesn't really work that way but the idea behind it, what it represents as a metaphor is that you literally, by your one person that lives amongst 300 plus million people in this country, want to ask you why, because if you have this powerful message, the more people you reach and I haven't been able to get anything going.

1:13:52 The world does not open its doors for you, and success does not come easy. it's not it's not fail you're not a failure okay then here's the deal for You have not failed. This is what life is about. ground. No one believes in me. does that's not 11 all right man it's a regular android phone right yeah no it's a good phone No, listen, I am, all right?

1:16:37 One of my first interviews was the Village Voice and the woman learns me at the end, to own it when you do well so No, I'm such an honest person. Like you just you just want good. Like you just want to have a purposeful message that you want to share. or been through trauma or not been through trauma, And he questioned why I didn't have respect a lot like

1:19:50 You taught yourself how to do this. but in the manner that you deliver them and the vibrations within you that you caringly share with another person. Because there is a receptor within us all to the truth And my idea from this point on is, I didn't take it personal because 150 other men got off of death row. And I think we all do. one of the things that people are constantly searching for in this world is happiness right

1:24:06 where you can't express yourself normally, We're meant to have community. by expressing yourself and inspiring other people, by sending your message out there. And then the people that were around you, you didn't want to mingle with them. row. And I asked him to write the book about Walter. And then CNN death row stories wanted so a jury finds him not guilty but for the sabotage of one juror he ends up on death row

1:27:12 and i started helping walter with his lawyers and ever since i got out of prison i kept my word to And it was clearly, I mean, when you see the show on Defro Stories, it's just laid out so clear. going to be nothing so yeah a lot of them were really messed up man but the ones that needed it What prison is he in? Tom Lowenstein came to me while I was still on death row in 2002.

1:29:12 You're giving up an opportunity. I was a homeless person without a family. I'm in the community. It's you who's allowing it, man. There's so many different things. Mm-hmm. enough education to know the difference between what was done to me and who i am and this is the But it did. throughout the whole process, I haven't slept well for days. where throughout the course of speaking

1:33:41 you owe it to yourself No. No, but just the image. And I fucking rocked it. So I go there. a better life for yourself. But no one could truly be your life coach. You got to do that shit yourself. They would perform Titus Antronicus do with the theater. Wow. I'm going to finally do it, man. I'm going to get this out. do you not want to write like why do you say that

1:39:00 of things that didn't happen Because people in the past have said, wow, you can write anything. I'm cool with that. they're running my website nickyarris.org and a lot of people can reach me for functions like that You have to really work hard to get children to feel good about being a taxi driver, a painter. involved in the educational field i think that's my greatest gift is someone who went to prison

1:42:51 I'll never tire of it in that one regard because I've touched so many young people's lives, man. All right. Yeah? that prison style of martial arts i don't know what that is oh well it's the old style it's like might belong to you, Mr. And I know you're going to do,