When Raymond Cobb last made an appearance on “The State of Things,” it was from Tillery Correctional Center in North Carolina’s Halifax County where he was serving his sixth prison sentence. Cobb, who is listed as a “habitual felon” by the state corrections system, was released in May. He says he will make good on the claims to stay out of prison that he made on the show in 2009. Cobb’s transition back into society has already proven smoother than ever before. He has found work, strengthened his relationship with his son and reunited with an old love named Pelvia Harris. Cobb and Harris join host Frank Stasio to talk about Cobb’s re-entry and his plans to mentor recently released inmates like himself.
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.