Dax Shepard interviews Chris Young about his childhood in Clarksville, Tennessee, living with sickle-cell disease and growing up amid addiction, violence and extreme poverty. Young describes his mother’s crack addiction, periods without electricity or running water, and the impact of family instability, including the death of his brother Robert by suicide. He recounts moving into drug dealing as a teenager and frames it as incremental decisions shaped by survival pressures rather than a single choice.
Young gives a detailed account of a 2010 federal operation that he says led to his conviction, including allegations about how charges were applied and how school-zone laws were used. He describes spending four years in custody awaiting trial and turning to intensive self-education in jail, including reading encyclopaedias and practising self-directed cognitive behavioural techniques.
A major thread is sentencing policy: Young says he received mandatory life sentences under federal rules, and credits then-judge Kevin Sharp with later resigning and becoming an advocate against mandatory sentencing after presiding over his case. He recounts post-conviction litigation led by attorney Britney K Barnett, including a successful §2255 motion that he says reduced his sentence to 14 years, alongside advocacy efforts involving high-profile figures. Young also describes harsh confinement conditions during Covid-19, including being held in solitary in a flooded cell. He says he was ultimately released through presidential action on 20 January 2021, later enrolling in higher education and graduating from SMU in 2026.
Young says Brittany won a rare post-conviction 2255 motion, which he describes as a habeas corpus petition, and that it led to his sentence being reduced from life to 14 years.
Read this moment →Young describes being held in solitary confinement during the Covid-19 period, despite saying he had been reclassified to a lower security level. He alleges he was placed in a single cell that was flooded, and says he continued exercising in the standing water to maintain a routine.
Read this moment →Discussing sickle-cell disease and gene editing, Young says current CRISPR-based treatments are priced in the $2–3 million range and that trials focus on the SS form of sickle-cell, not his SC subtype. He links that exclusion to ongoing disability, including prior hip replacements and the prospect of further joint surgery.
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