I Bounced Back

Today, Justin Paperny is a federal prison consultant, he prepares defendants for their time behind bars and after. But more than ten years ago, Justin was that person behind bars.

"From the first day to the last day in prison, I was two different people. I came to prison fat, miserable, angry at the world, and I left it optimistic and grateful".

Yeonmi Park grew up in the darkest place on Earth - North Korea. She was living next to the river separating her country from China. Yeonmi fled North Korea at the age of 13, crossing the partly frozen Yalu River into China in 2007. It took her two years to reach the long-awaited freedom in South Korea. Today, she lives in the United States; she is an internationally known human rights activist and a leading voice of oppressed people.

Jasvinder Sanghera was 16 when she decided to run away from her family home to escape a forced marriage. Her choice of freedom didn't come without devastating consequences: her family disowned her, and she has never met them again. However, this traumatic event did not break Jasvinder. She founded Karma Nirvana, a British charity that supports both men and women affected by honor-based abuse and forced marriages. Today she is a highly acclaimed international speaker, an expert advisor, and an author of the bestselling memoir Shame.

Izzy Posen grew up in London, one of the most vibrant and modern cities in the world. However, as a child, he has never experienced the true culture and colors of London. On the contrary, he grew up in London’s Ultra-orthodox Jewish community, and hardly had any contact with the outside world, he did not even speak English. With a growing feeling that the strict rules of the community do not fit his understanding of the world, several years ago, Izzy decided to embrace the unknown and leave the community.

Marc Lewis is a neuroscientist and professor of developmental psychology. Having been through addiction and come out on the other side, he has decided to research addiction to challenge the modern-day consensus on drug dependence as a brain disease, arguing that, in reality, it is a complex cultural, social, psychological, and biological phenomenon.