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PODCAST

Hidden Mirrors with Alan Huffman

In a maximum security prison in Mississippi, books are reshaping the conversation. Developed in collaboration with journalist Alan Huffman, Hidden Mirrors is a documentary-style podcast that explores the prison book club at Wilkinson County Correctional Facility. For men serving time, books become more than words on a page. They become a way to be seen. And in a place built to strip people of their voices, this club helps them be heard.

society & culture documentary

All Episodes

39:43

Hidden Mirrors with Alan Huffman — Writing Behind Bars.

Hidden Mirrors with Alan Huffman ·

2026/03/16

Our book discussions are on hold as we await more copies of the next selection, so today's meeting takes a turn toward writing. The club has no shortage of aspiring authors. Micharlos wants to organize a group book, each member writing a chapter about their life in prison – not about their crimes, but about transformation and hard-won lessons. He even has a working title: Trapped in a Mason Jar, an allusion to the capacity to preserve things of value, but with an everpresent risk that the results

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30:25

Hidden Mirrors with Alan Huffman — "One Simple Truth."

Hidden Mirrors with Alan Huffman ·

2026/03/09

The Bone Tree discussion deepens this week as most members have finished the book — and the conversation follows suit, growing sharper and more focused as the men dig into what the novel is really about. The biggest club news: Daquirius is nine days from release. He hasn't even gotten his copy yet, but the room lights up for him. He plans to take his small prison library into his new life on the outside. With more of the book under their belts, the members zero in on two interlocking themes: secrets

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40:57

Hidden Mirrors with Alan Huffman — "Searching for the...

Hidden Mirrors with Alan Huffman ·

2026/03/02

The first crack at The Bone Tree starts rough. Half the club members are missing due to delayed escorts from their cells, which leads to lots of interruptions and scraping chairs as the guys finally settle in. The book itself is no light read: 900 pages smack in the middle of Greg Iles' trilogy, thick with KKK vigilantes, mob ties, JFK conspiracy threads, and the haunting "bone tree," a secret spot where victims' bones were hung like trophies, rooted in slavery and secrets. There's a lot going on

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24:37

Hidden Mirrors with Alan Huffman — "Deciding What to...

Hidden Mirrors with Alan Huffman ·

2026/02/24

Ten new members join the book club at Wilkinson County Correctional Facility, and their arrival reshapes the room. As host Alan Huffman goes around the circle asking what each man likes to read — biographies, westerns, mysteries, Christian books, true crime — a portrait emerges of readers searching for something real, something that moves, something that might explain the choices that led them here. The selection process is rarely simple. In a club of 25, tastes range from vampire novels to Malcolm

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35:23

A Rare Record: Sebastian Junger, War, and a Prison...

Hidden Mirrors with Alan Huffman ·

2026/02/09

The book club gathers to watch Restrepo—and the room fills with the sound of sustained gunfire echoing through a maximum-security prison. In this episode, the men discuss the documentary Restrepo, co-directed by Sebastian Junger and the late Tim Hetherington, a visceral companion to Junger's nonfiction book War, which the club read earlier. Filmed during a year embedded with a U.S. Army platoon at a remote Afghan outpost, Restrepo won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and was later nominated for an

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33:03

Hidden Mirrors Episode 6: Why This Matters —...

Hidden Mirrors with Alan Huffman ·

2025/12/17

In this epilogue to Hidden Mirrors' pilot season, we hear from listeners about why these conversations matter — from bestselling author Sebastian Junger to combat veterans, readers across the country (and one from overseas), and people who never imagined they'd have anything in common with men serving long prison sentences. Their reflections reveal the power of literature to bridge seemingly impossible divides and show what rehabilitation actually looks like. But there's a complication: the

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20:17

Episode 5: Christmas Behind Bars—Finding Joy in the...

Hidden Mirrors with Alan Huffman ·

2025/12/10

For incarcerated men serving long sentences, the holidays bring a complicated mix of loss, memory, and unexpected moments of connection. In this final episode of Hidden Mirrors' pilot season, members of the Wilkinson County prison book club reflect on how Christmas feels when you can't be with family—and how they've learned to create meaning and community behind bars. Drawing on Jesmyn Ward's novel "Where the Line Bleeds," the men discuss childhood holiday memories, the painful distance from loved

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30:00

Episode 4: You Hear What I'm Saying?

Hidden Mirrors with Alan Huffman ·

2025/11/24

The Wilkinson County book club takes up Jesmyn Ward's Where the Line Bleeds and lands on something bigger than plot: how to listen. What starts as a debate about parenting, responsibility, and small-town pressures becomes a practice in hearing one another with patience and respect. The men weigh different views of Seeley's choices, talk honestly about their own families, and keep circling back to a shared theme: choices shape us, and listening helps us make better ones. Along the way, the group

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27:05

Episode 3: Listening.

Hidden Mirrors with Alan Huffman ·

2025/11/10

In this episode, the book club at Wilkinson County Correctional Facility connects over Zoom with veterans from Patrol Base Abbate, led by author and veteran Michael Plunkett, to explore how stories can bridge different worlds. With help from the prison's education department, the men gather in the visitation room to discuss War by Sebastian Junger, joined by the author himself for a rare and deeply engaging conversation. What begins as a discussion about combat and survival expands into a dialogue

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18:20

Episode 2: Hope.

Hidden Mirrors with Alan Huffman ·

2025/10/27

In this episode, the men of the Wilkinson Book Club unpack A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah — a memoir often described as harrowing, though for them, it was about hope. As they talk through Beah's story of being forced into war as a child and finding his way back to peace, the group keeps returning to that one word: hope. They see not only violence and loss, but endurance, compassion, and the possibility of change. For some, Beah's survival feels like proof that people can rebuild after unthinkable

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33:41

Everyone Knows Something You Don’t Know.

Hidden Mirrors with Alan Huffman ·

2025/10/15

Inside a classroom at Wilkinson County Correctional Facility in Mississippi, a book club meets every other Friday. Journalist Alan Huffman sits with the men and follows the conversation from the page to lived experience: isolation, imagination, brotherhood, survival, and hope. In Episode 1, Members share why stories matter inside, how books become mirrors, and how reading in community builds the habit of truly hearing one another. Recent reads include “A Long Way Gone,” by Ishmael Beah, and “War”

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01:40

Hidden Mirrors: Official Trailer | Inside...

Hidden Mirrors with Alan Huffman ·

2025/09/29

In a maximum security prison in Mississippi, a book club becomes something more: a mirror for the men inside. They read closely, see differently, and find hope in unexpected places. This preview introduces Hidden Mirrors, a documentary podcast series hosted by journalist Alan Huffman. Recorded inside Wilkinson County Correctional Facility, the series explores how literature reshapes conversations about freedom, identity, and resilience. Hidden Mirrors launches October 15, with new episodes released

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