Wallo267 spent 20 years in Prison for Armed Robbery. Now He's YouTube’s Cultural Advisor.

In this episode of The Hidden Third, we sit down with Wallo267 to unpack a story that starts in the harshest possible place: prison. Wallo caught his first conviction at just 10 years old. By 17, he was sentenced to adult prison, where he would spend the next 20 years locked away. Sometimes in the same facility as his own brother and stepfather. Instead of letting prison break him, he turned it into a classroom. Inside, Wallo started paying attention. He interviewed every newly arrived inmate about the outside world. Music, technology, culture, slang — tracking how everything was changing while he was gone. He filled notebooks, studied human behavior, and built a philosophy around one idea: your circumstances don’t get to decide your outcome. You do. Then everything changed. Wallo got hold of a contraband phone and began posting raw, unfiltered content from inside prison, building an audience before he ever walked out. By the time he stepped back into society, he already had a following and a blueprint for his new life. Today, Wallo267 is a Cultural Advisor at YouTube, co-host of Million Dollaz Worth of Game — one of the most influential cultural podcasts in the country — and a New York Times bestselling author whose books like Armed with Good Intentions and Yes to You, No to Them have inspired millions. This conversation dives into incarceration, transformation, cultural influence, and the mindset required to rewrite your story when the system expects you to fail. If you’re drawn to true crime, prison stories, personal transformation, or high-stakes comeback narratives, this episode is for you. Save 60% on Webroot when you go to http://webroot.com/MARIANA Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices