The podcast The Editor explains the story of Robin Woods who was sent to prison for an extended period of time and came out as a completely changed individual. The podcast was done as an interview in which Daniel A. Gross asked Robin questions about life in prison and what changed him. In the very beginning of The Editor, Robin began by describing the place in which he committed the crime that sent him to jail for a long time. That crime being that he had stolen over $20,000 worth of office equipment. Robin then started to sell the equipment until someone he knew ratted him out. He was then arrested and sentenced to sixteen years of incarceration for not only that crime, but as a result of other charges as well that had built up over the years. Robin expressed that this was a significantly harsher punishment than he should have received because his other charges were minor, but he quickly moved on. Robin then goes on to report how abusive the guards in the prison were. He claimed that they would find any reason—including looking at the guards the wrong way—to beat the prisoners brutally. Robin describes an incident when some of the prisoners decided that they were not going to leave their cells. Because of this, a group was sent in to harshly beat the inmates. The next day, when other prisoners heard about what had happened, they were so angry that they worked together to attack a group of guards and steal their keys. Daniel Gross then claims that Robin was charged for starting the riot. As a result, 7 years were added onto his sentence, he was moved to a different prison and classified as one of the most dangerous prisoners.

After this, Robin admits that he was put into Special Education when he was in grade school. Therefore, during school, he would collect attendance sheets and stack milk crates in the cafeteria. He was told that a kid like him didn’t need to learn things like math. They made him think that he couldn’t learn like the other kids at school. So, by the time he got to prison, he could barely read. However, his life began to change when he was in prison and decided to borrow two books. When he read he realized he didn’t understand half the words and was only able to understand the basic gist of each book. Next, he explained that he got a dictionary and wrote down the words he didn’t know as he read so he could then study them. Reading made him feel free and he realized he wanted to learn everything he could about the world. He eventually built up his own library in his cell and read hundreds of books. Eventually, he decided he wanted to try a Merriam-Webster encyclopedia. He began to read through and soon came across something he believed was an error. After reading it several times, he knew he was right. So, he decided to write a letter and send it to the editor of the encyclopedia, Mark Stevens. Shortly after he received a letter back in which Mark thanked and congratulated him for finding this error. Robin claims that he soon realized that people had lied to him as a child. They told him he was never going to be able to do things so they didn’t even bother teaching him. Robin knew at that point, however, that not only could he learn all these things, but he was able to teach everything to himself. As Robin continued to read, he found more than a dozen errors and wrote many more letters to Mark Stevens.

Later on, Robin was transferred to another prison, but they refused to return his belongings to him. This included his library that he had built up over time, and most importantly his encyclopedia. Robin insisted that he was so distressed about this that he refused to eat until he was able to meet with the Maryland Commissioner of Corrections. Once Mark Stevens heard about this, he wrote to a warden at the prison claiming that what they were doing to Robin was cruel and unnecessary. Robin explains that soon after this he had his meeting with the Commissioner of Corrections. During this meeting, Robin explained his relationship with Mark Stevens. Not much later, Robin was told that he was on the path to freedom and ended up being released several years early. Upon being released, Mark began to send Robin money as a gift. Then, after ten years of writing letters back and forth, Robin finally met Mark at his house.

Nowadays, at the age of 54, Robin admits that he doesn’t read very much. He explains that he read in prison because it connected him to the outside world, but he no longer needs to do so.