Ep. 45 - Prison-Industrial Complex & Fitness Against Fascism 2.0 ft. Coss Marte

BrownTown talks abolition, branding, and burpees with Coss Marte,
founder of CONBODY, a "prison-style" fully bodyweight fitness
studio that hires formerly incarcerated individuals. Using Coss'
experiences and SoapBox's Fitness Against Fascism series as
models, the team unpacks the connections between healthy
communities and the prison-industrial complex.


In this follow-up to Ep. 30 - Holistic Health & Fitness
Against Fascism ft. Mel Phillips, Coss joins BrownTown from NYC
to discuss his journey creating CONBODY, collaborating on
SoapBox's Fitness Against Fascism 3 (FAF3) event, and the effect
of the prison-industrial complex (PIC) on healthy communities.
Similar to the SoapBox event, the gang unpacks now-mainstream
views on criminal "justice" reform, the pros/cons of the current
narrative-shift, and the physical/mental health effects that mass
racialized incarceration has at the individual, familial, and
community level, all through an abolitionist framework (watch
Prison + Neighborhood Arts Project "The Long Term" video here).
The gang sifts through related topics including the cultural
impact of Ava DuVernay's 13th documentary, intentions in
branding socially-minded enterprises, Coss' CONBODY book, and
even SoapBox catching smoke on Twitter (1, 2).


Coss and BrownTown take an unusual turn and focus on New York
City: They touch on the escalation of NYPD's subway crackdown and
protesters (1, 2, 3) the movement to close Rikers Island Jail
(and what do do next), as well as Coss' brother Chris Marte's run
for City Council in District 1.


GUEST
The founder of CONBODY, Coss Marte developed his bodyweight
training style when he was incarcerated for four years at Rikers
Island Jail on drug charges. Coss lost 70 pounds in 6 months and
found his calling, ready for a new path. He founded CONBODY
fitness studio in New York City, where he hires other formerly
incarcerated folks who have turned their lives around through
fitness. Listen to more of Coss’ story on aSweatLife’s
podcast #WeGotGoals Episode 94! He has also been featured
in The New York Times, Buzz
Feed, Elle, Vice,The Startup podcast, and
more. (Bio sources: aSweatLife and CONBODY)


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CREDITS: Intro/outro song Love &
Prejudice by Young Toussaint. Audio engineered by Genta
Tamashiro. Episode photo by Andrew Merz.


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