The audio documentary serial AFTER LIFE was produced over four years by the three-member team of Gray Area podcast journalists Julie Reynolds Martínez and Mara J. Reynolds with former life prisoner Gilbert Bao, under stressful circumstances and an extremely limited budget.
The team was strengthened by a belief that incarcerated people can and should take a lead in telling their stories. As a co-producer, Gilbert recorded much of his audio and interviewed family and friends.
The Story and Challenges
In 2018, Gilbert was more than two decades into serving a life sentence for a crime with no clear victim, and nobody knew if he’d ever get the chance for parole. Gilbert entrusted Julie, a longtime investigative reporter, to collaborate and co-produce a podcast documenting his experience serving time.
The project changed dramatically. That year, California lawmakers gave Gilbert an unexpected chance to parole as a “Youth Offender.”
As he waited to hear if he was going home, Gilbert’s brother was shot and killed by an L.A. County Sheriff’s deputy who, we uncovered, was later quietly convicted of criminal corruption in another case but never served time or lost his job.
Gilbert was released after more than 20 years inside. Less than six months later, COVID-19 forced the world into lockdown, keeping him from connecting to the men and restorative justice programs he’d developed in prison. In 2021, one of his closest mentors and collaborators died from COVID.
But Gilbert’s drive and focus has only gotten more focused. AFTER LIFE traces his path from cell to happily settled married life in the suburbs, and back full circle to work with prisoners, honoring the memory and living legacy of his brother and mentors that have shaped his remarkable life.
In April 2023, 300 incarcerated men at the state prison in Norco joined Gilbert, Julie and co-reporter George Sánchez for in-person workshops about trauma and the power of telling our stories. During these inspiring and powerful conversations, one participant said through tears:
“It gives us the ability to reflect on the ripple effect of violence. I was a victim. I‘ve victimized people. That shit hurts.”
Former life prisoner Frank DeLeo described his listening experience:
“I was a part of this in real life, but you took me on a whole ‘nother journey that was so engulfing, it felt completely new.”
This project was made possible with support from California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Visit calhum.org.
AFTER LIFE is the winner of the Institute for Nonprofit News’ 2023 Breaking Barriers Award and a finalist for the 2023 Media for a Just Society awards.
S2 Episode 0 | Trailer
Four years in the making, our 10-part audio documentary reveals the untold story of how Gilbert Bao helped lead a group of incarcerated men who reshaped rehabilitation in California prisons — before and after serving a life sentence.
Listen to our trailer below.
S2 Episode 1 | The Neighborhood
Gilbert Bao was sentenced to life in prison but found a new life after life. In our first episode, Gilbert takes us through his old neighborhoods as we explore the many factors and reasons why a frightened 8-year old from East Los Angeles grows up to become a man facing a life sentence.
S2 Episode 2 | Doing Life
It’s the late 1990s. Although no one was injured in the shoot-out he took part in, Gilbert is sentenced to 24 years to life in prison under California’s strict gang sentencing laws. While he technically has a shot at parole, almost no one with “life” in their sentence goes home, and he expects to die behind the walls. As he starts his term, Gilbert has to decide if he’ll play along with prison gang “politics” or find a way to stay —somehow, some way — in his 3-year-old daughter’s life.
show notes
S2 Episode 3 | Career Change
Gilbert realizes he has a lot to learn when he meets a man who changes his outlook on the world. As he struggles to stay close to his young daughter in prison visiting rooms, he also discovers he has a gift for working with “at-risk” kids. Soon he and a handful of incarcerated men are starting to change not only themselves but the entire California prison system.
show notes
S2 Episode 4 | The Penpal
Gilbert’s younger brother Manny, who is also in prison, isn’t doing well. He’s deeply involved in prison gang “politics” and has spent years in the SHU — full-time solitary confinement. It’s taking a severe toll on Manny’s mental health. Saddened but knowing how dangerous isolation can be, Gilbert decides to do something about his own loneliness. He puts his name and picture on a prison penpal site, and wonders if anyone will write back.
show notes
S2 Episode 5 | Heart Strings
Gilbert’s penpal Rebecca flies to California from Texas so they can meet face to face. Even though Gilbert might not come home for years or even decades, a small piece of string in the prison visiting room changes the course of their relationship. Then a phone call to After Life producer Julie Reynolds Martinez shatters Gilbert’s world.
S2 Episode 6 | Under Color of Law
SPECIAL EPISODE – Gilbert grew up in the shadow of the LA County Sheriff’s Department — ever since the day he was taken from home in a deputy’s patrol car at eight years old. This investigation looks at the darker side of that department’s legacy, and digs into a culture of criminality by law enforcement that still haunts the region today. Warning: This episode contains detailed descriptions of violence.
S2 Episode 7 | Freedom Calls
California lawmakers start paying attention to what neuroscientists are saying about the adolescent brain. Changes in the law now mean Gilbert suddenly has a chance for parole — years before he thought he would.
S2 Episode 8 | The New World
Free at last, Gilbert has to find his way through a world that’s changed dramatically over the 21 years he’s been in prison. Though he feels joy reuniting with loved ones, he also panics over the littlest things. Yet he sees this new world in ways the rest of us might take for granted.
show notes
S2 Episode 9 | Lockdown
It’s 2020. Just as Gilbert is adjusting to his new world outside prison, that world shuts down. Gilbert goes online during a year of joy and sorrow, until he and Marlena take to the streets to honor Manny. Soon, there’s a new development in the case of the deputy who killed him.
show notes
S2 Episode 10 | Full Circle
In our final episode, Gilbert settles into a new home while he continues to work on solutions to violence and injustice. Then, just as he gets comfortable with his new normal, he ends up in a place he thought he’d left for good.
show notes