Victor Rios was a high school dropout, Oakland gang member, and three-time felon by age fifteen—and an award-winning professor, author, and mentor by the age of thirty-five. Filmed over more than twenty-five years, The Pushouts weaves Rios’s inspiring narrative with stories of YO! Watts, a youth center serving sixteen-to-twenty-four-year-olds who are out of school and out of work. A then-and-now tale of unusual intimacy and depth, The Pushouts trades narratives of tragedy and victimization for true stories of grit and resilience, highlighting the vast potential of young people to thrive when given access to meaningful opportunities and connections to adults who care.