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There are a lot of things that influencers can influence.
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But this next guess is influencing in a way that I can
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really support Meet Nicolas DiRado,
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the viral sensation, spreading a positive message.
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And despite facing tough times,
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he's making a difference in advocating for change.
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Hi, welcome, welcome.
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Thank you. Thank you guys for having me.
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So I know your story is a little complicated and you were
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wrongfully accused. Can you tell us about that?
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So I'm, I was born in New York City.
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My mom actually came to California first to find a better
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life, search for something new with my little brother.
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And I was kinda just like debating whether to go or not
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And finally I went and when I went to California,
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it was rough for us at first,
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it was really, really rough for us.
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We were really poor.
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And I ended up like,
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basically getting racially profiled when I was a little kid.
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I was probably like around 14.
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And because of the group I was hanging out with,
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they kinda like just thought I was a bad kid and just
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determined I was a bad kid.
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they were trying to say that I was breaking into cars in
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my apartment complex and I'm just like,
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Fresno, it was in the Fresno area.
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Once I got into juvenile hall,
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it was kind of like just a snowball effect and it was
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I had to protect myself,
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you know, and then you see,
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you see all the things in the movies and you're like,
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that's not gonna be me,
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you know, like I'm not gonna get,
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you know, punked or whatever.
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So I kinda had to put this mask on,
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and this shield to protect myself and I had that
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mask on and shield for probably like 15 years and like,
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it's for your own safety.
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But at the end of the day,
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like, it's just what,
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it's either that flight or fight syndrome and I'm just like,
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really like honing in on the Fight syndrome fight part of it
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that was like, that was my first introduction to,
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the system to my former gang.
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that stint in juvenile hall.
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Oh, so you were in juvenile hall for how I was
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in juvenile hall for probably like 50 days.
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And then from there I met my gang,
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one of my homies lived like,
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literally across the street from me.
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It was like, an everyday thing chilling with him,
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getting into trouble with him and if I could do nothing
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I might as well do something,
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you know. So that was my,
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that was like my stupidity and what I think and,
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my mom couldn't come get me at the time.
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We were dealing with the,
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issues and, addiction issues and that's kinda how I just
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like, say, you know what,
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like I had to take over the,
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the household, you know,
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cause I didn't have a dad,
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we didn't have a dad at the time.
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So I took over the household and I just kinda like
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ran with it and did what I could but it was
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all like in the negative aspects of my life and it just
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got more negative and negative.
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And and your older brother and younger,
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did they say anything or like were they involved?
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Oh, my younger siblings were too young.
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I had my baby brother and my older brother.
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They were, they were just too young and then my older
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brother, he kinda like he's kinda like he,
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he's like super smart,
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super smart and love him to death but he's just not
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that like parental, you know,
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figure that I was to my little brother.
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Yeah, like and he didn't know how to be so we
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don't know how to be men,
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you know yet. And we don't have nobody to follow
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I just followed my older homies and that was kinda like how
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I got led down that path and then you ended up in
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prison after, once you turn 18.
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running the streets. I got in and out of juvenile hall
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I, like, went on the run,
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about a year and then,
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my little brothers, we were all homeless and my mom was
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like, I can't take you to court.
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You know, we're gonna be moving from city to city and
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I was like, in like four different high schools when I
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was like 16, we're just bouncing from city to city because
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we were in homeless shelters.
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we went back to Fresno and,
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I ended up catching my case.
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I caught a couple of cases inside too.
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And how was that experience?
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are you involved in some programs in prison?
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Yeah. Yeah, I was definitely involved.
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I was involved with the anti recidivism Coalition.
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the way I got involved with the anti recidivism coalition is because
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I don't know if you ever heard of Pelican Bay?
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So Pelican Bay is literally like the last stop you're gonna get
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in the prison system.
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So you could go all the way up north,
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like by like Sacramento and San Francisco and drive a couple more
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hours. It's literally by Oregon.
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So it's like the worst of the worst prisons,
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whatever. So I was in Pelican Bay.
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I don't know if you know what the shoe is,
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Segre segregated housing unit.
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So basically, it's the,
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it's the prison within the prison.
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So I was in the prison within the prison for a couple
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years and I actually met the founder of anti recidivism Coalition.
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His name is Scott Budnick.
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So I found Scott Budnick.
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Well, Scott Bick found me and he was just like real
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really instrumental in my positive change when I was in
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prison and I got my high school diploma in prison.
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Appreciate that. I got my high school diploma.
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I did some creative writing classes.
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Yeah, I love poetry.
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I love anything creative.
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Yeah, I'm a really really solid poet.
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That's awesome because talking about being creative,
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you have a video that went viral,
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right? On Instagram.
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And did you post it on tiktok as well?
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Yeah, we posted it on tiktok.
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It didn't go as viral,
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but it definitely did numbers on Instagram.
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I'm your formerly incarcerated coworker.
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Of course, I don't like loud noises.
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I'm a former incarcerated coworker.
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Of course, I got a thing about keys.
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Hey, I gotta get some from the storage locker.
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Wait, what was I getting again?
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I'm your formerly incarcerated coworker?
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Of course, I'm distracted by any window.
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Nicholas. Did you hear what I just said?
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Hello? It's just so beautiful.
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So how's it been since you released that video?
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Tell us people, I mean,
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I'm handsome. I'm not,
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I'm not like, you know,
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I'm not dumb. I know.
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I look good. I know.
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I look good. So it's like I'm like,
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yo, but like people actually like love seeing me but like
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they love, I don't think it's just me but it's like
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I know it's not just me but it's like the actions
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behind it. You know what people really,
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I think gravitated towards the video is that is,
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is they're seeing someone formally incarcerated,
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they're seeing someone that's,
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you know, tattered up,
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they're seeing someone that's like,
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you know, just got out but they're seeing this person in
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a different light. They're seeing him like making fun of his
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stigmas, laughing at himself and his day to day job and
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yeah, a at actual office,
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you know, people get that,
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that feeling of like,
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well, if he could do it,
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You know, they just love to see like the success and
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the redemption stories and I think I gave that to him.
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Yeah. So tell us how can people work with the Anti
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Recidivism Coalition? And where can we follow you?
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OK. On on Instagram.
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I am a kid with the camera underscore free.
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the reason why I like that name is because every time I
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get a camera in my hand at any time,
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like I'm doing anything creative,
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I feel like a kid again.
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You know, you get that like kid feeling that kid love
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and with the anti recidivism coalition,
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you guys could just,
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you know, either DM me or you guys can go to
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their Instagram DM them.
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But at the end of the day,
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like, if you guys actually wanna like,
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do whatever you can for the population that's coming home.
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Like we're coming home and we're,
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we're like, right now in this like,
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era, we're coming home and we're really trying to make a
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change. So if you could just make it as easy as
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like, give people a chance to,
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you know, talk to you and like,
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actually hear people's stories because it's beautiful redemption stories and not,
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not everybody coming home is trying to recidivous story.
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