In today’s episode of The Homeboy Way, Tom Vozzo and Fr. Greg Boyle, S.J. delve into the hidden weight of the labels society places on people. They revisit pivotal moments in Homeboy’s history, recalling times when homies were swiftly branded as “bad” or “evil,” and how those judgments shaped everything that came after. Through these reflections, Father Greg illustrates how behaviors rooted in trauma, addiction, or mental illness are often misread as fixed character traits, creating barriers that keep individuals shut out from opportunity, understanding, and compassion.
Tom presses into these memories, asking why the world is so quick to judge and so slow to understand. Father Greg reflects on what decades at Homeboy have made unmistakably clear: people act from pain long before they act from choice, and when we reduce them to their worst moments, we lose sight of the human being still trying to surface beneath it all.
Together, they explore how demonizing language stalls progress, why accountability needs compassion to truly work, and how healing begins when we stop treating people as categories and start meeting them as individuals.
Key Takeaways
Real transformation begins with how we see people.
Father Greg makes it clear that the moment we divide the world into good and bad, we lose the ability to create solutions. Healing only happens when we refuse to label and instead look underneath the behavior to the wounds, trauma, and mental health struggles that shaped it.
Goodness is always present, even when it is buried.
At Homeboy, people learn to reclaim their dignity because the community holds up a mirror that says you are noble, you are worthy, you belong. When people access that truth, violent behavior evaporates because they stop living from fear and start living from their inherent goodness.
Health replaces judgment.
Instead of asking who is bad or who is evil, the better question is who is hurting and how can we help them heal. Father Greg shows that demonizing language ends conversation, but curiosity opens a path toward understanding.
In This Episode:
00:00 – Introduction to The Homeboy Way
00:44 – Why the "good vs. bad people" myth prevents progress
02:16 – The L.A. County Jail as the world's largest mental institution
03:00 – The difference between explaining behavior and excusing it
04:10 – Moving from "good vs. bad cops" to "healthy vs. unhealthy cops"
06:17 – Why Father Greg doesn't believe in "evil"
08:18 – How the label "pure evil" almost cost a man his future
09:37 – Re-interpreting biblical concepts of demons and evil through a modern lens
12:30 – Generational and cultural differences in language (The Pope, the Devil, and Satan)
15:27 – Finding heaven in the present moment through kinship
Notable Quotes
"As long as you think that there are good people and bad people, then we're stuck in the mud. It's why we don't make progress." — Fr. Greg (00:51)
"Everybody is unshakably good and that we belong to each other." —Fr. Greg (01:03)
"The minute you call it evil, it ends all discussion.."— Fr. Greg (07:33)
Resources and Links
Homeboy Industries
Homeboy Media
Father Greg Boyle
Books: "Tattoos on the Heart," "Barking to the Choir," "The Whole Language"
Thomas Vozzo
The Homeboy Way: A Radical Approach to Business and Life: https://www.amazon.com/Homeboy-Way-Radical-Approach-Business/dp/082945456X
Credits:
Hosted by: Tom Vozzo
Produced by: Podify, and Alexa Rousso and Melody Carter of Homeboy Media