CHARLES SHAW is an award-winning journalist, editor, author of the critically-acclaimed memoir, Exile Nation: Drugs, Prisons, Politics & Spirituality (2012, Counterpoint/Soft Skull Press), and Director of the documentary films, The Exile Nation Project: An Oral History of the War on Drugs & The American Criminal Justice System (2011),  The Plastic People (2013) and Visurreality (2013).

Charles serves as Editor for the open Democracy Drug & Criminal Justice Policy Forum and the Dictionary of Ethical Politics, both collaborative projects of  Resurgence, openDemocracy, and the Tedworth Charitable Trust. Charles’ work has appeared in Alternet, Alternative Press Review, Conscious Choice, Common Ground, Grist, Guardian UK, Huffington Post, In These Times, Newtopia, The New York Times, openDemocracy, Planetizen, Punk Planet, Reality Sandwich, San Diego Uptown News, Scoop, Shift, Truthout, The Witness, YES!, and Znet. He was a Contributing Author to the 2008 Shift Report from the Institute for Noetic Sciences, and in Planetizen’s Contemporary Debates in Urban Planning (2007, Island Press). In 2009 he was recognized by the San Diego Press Club for excellence in journalism.

ABOUT The Exile Nation Project: An Oral History of the War on Drugs & The American Criminal Justice System - A film by Charles Shaw

The Land of the Free punishes or imprisons more of its citizens than any other nation. This collection of testimonials from criminal offenders, family members, and experts on America’s criminal justice system puts a human face on the millions of Americans subjugated by the US Government’s 40 year, one trillion dollar social catastrophe: The War on Drugs; a failed policy underscored by fear, politics, racial prejudice and intolerance in a public atmosphere of “out of sight, out of mind.”

The United States has only 5% of the world’s population, yet a full 25% of the world’s prisoners. At 2.5 million, the US has more prisoners than even China does with five times the population of the United States.

8 million Americans (1 in every 31) languish under some form of state monitoring known as “correctional supervision.” On top of that, the security and livelihood of over 13 million more has been forever altered by a felony conviction.

The American use of punishment is so pervasive, and so disproportionate, that even the conservative magazine The Economist declared in 2010, “never in the civilized world have so many been locked up for so little.”

The project will unfold over a two year period, beginning with the release of this feature-length documentary and then continuing on with the release of short films and complete interviews from each of the 100 participants in the project, meant to represent the 1 in 100 Americans that are currently sitting behind bars.

Julian is a champion of organic farming, and a hands-on President of the International Coalition to Protect the Polish Countryside.  He and his partner co-launched a highly successful ‘Campaign for a GMO Free Poland’ while leading a high profile defense of peasant farmers who he holds-up as the true guardians of biodiversity throughout the world.  Regular listeners to BBC radio 4′s Framing To-Day will have heard Julian’s 2007 series of once monthly “Letters from Poland” passionately highlighting the crisis provoked by forcing ‘corporate globalization’ onto traditional family farming communities.  As a result, there are now GMO FREE zones established in Poland, leading the way throughout the global community.

Additionally, Julian is a brilliant author whose articles pierce to the very core of one’s being:  “Reverse-Engineering the Illuminati”  and "Learning from indigenous wisdom and knowledge– To change society a cultural revolution in activism is needed".  His first book is called Changing Course for Life.  His new book is available at Amazon Books this month: “In Defense of Life:  Essays on a Radical Reworking of Green Wisdom.  You can find all of his material, books, research and thoughts on his website:

www.julianrose.info

Email: sshane@kovr.com
Twitter: @samshane

Sam Shane graduated from the University of Minnesota with a B.A. in journalism. He’s spent more than 20 years traveling across the country working for TV stations and covering major news events. He started in Duluth, Minn., and later in his career he worked at KCRA-TV in Sacramento, KGO-TV in San Francisco, at the Fox affiliate in Seattle and as an anchor at MSNBC.

Sam has covered major stories like the L.A. riots, the Oklahoma City bombing, and the capture of the Unabomber. He’s interviewed a variety of political figures and leaders including a president and a number of U.S. senators. In addition to reporting international, national and local news stories throughout his career, he also written and produced an award-winning investigative series on the failures of government officials during the 1997 floods in Northern California.

Sam has also written a children’s book called “Rocky The Mudhen.”

Sam is married and is the father of two kids – a boy and a girl. In his spare time, Sam enjoys golfing, skiing, reading, writing and cooking.

Tony Ventrella is an iconic sports media name in the Seattle area.

His signature keynote called “Smile in the Mirror,” is based on his book of the same title. His practical ideas for living a better life along with a mix of humorous and memorable stories will delight your audience.

Tony’s media career spans 40 years from his days as a sports reporter at the Wilton Bulletin in Connecticut to radio sportscaster and later television anchor in Fort Wayne, Indiana and finally Seattle.

Tony Ventrella was sports director at KING-5 and Kiro-7 television for 22 years.

During his career he has covered two Olympic games, several World Series, Super Bowls, International Figure Skating events, Final Four basketball and three Rose Bowls. His favorite people in sports include Frosty Westering, Lou Pinella, Marv Harshman, Steve Largent, Jim Zorn, Bobby Engram and wrestler George” The Animal” Steele.

After high school and a stint in the U.S. Army,Tony worked for his dad at Ventrella’s Barber Shop in Norwalk, Connecticut before opening his own business at the age of 24.

At one time Tony ran his shop, did play-by-play of high school football and wrote the entire sports section of his home town newspaper while acting in community theatre and playing softball in two leagues.

Tony also has a background in theatre directing and acting in dozens of productions back east and here in the Pacific Northwest. He is currently a board member of the Evergreen Family Theatre in Redmond and played “Scrooge” in a 2009 production of “A Christmas Carol.”

Dawson Church, PhD, has edited or authored many books, and collaborated with leading authorities including Larry Dossey, MD, Bernie Siegel, MD, Christiane Northrup, MD, and others. He founded Soul Medicine Institute to research and teach emerging psychological and medical techniques that can yield fast and radical cures. His award-winning book, The Genie in Your Genes, pioneers the field of Epigenetics, explaining the remarkable self-healing mechanisms now emerging at the juncture of emotion and gene expression. He has authored numerous scientific studies through the Foundation for Epigenetic Medicine, and is the editor of Energy Psychology, a peer-reviewed journal. He shares how to apply these breakthroughs to health and athletic performance through EFT Universe, one of the largest alternative medicine sites on the web.