When I learned that my good friend and our contributing RP, Jeff Smith, would be the featured guest on National Public Radio’s “This American Life,” I was thrilled. My favorite radio program was taking on the story that Jeff first wrote about here at this site in a series of provocative, hilarious and sometimes moving stories.
The program exceeded all of my highest expectations. In thirty minutes, the program provides a new, independent look at the career, scandal and recovery of Jeff Smith. And, while I am obviously biased, I think it demonstrates that despite his serious setbacks, Jeff’s voice will continue to educate, provoke and make us laugh for many years to come.
We are really thrilled to report that contributing RP Jeff Smith will be the featured guest this weekend on National Public Radio’s “This American Life,” the wildly popular radio program hosted by Ira Glass.
Jeff will be discussing his unique career trajectory — from rising political star, to federal prisoner, to college professor on the journey toward redemption. It’s a journey that he first discussed exclusive at The Recovering Politician. And soon, we will expect a bestselling book on the experience.
The show sounds very interesting:
MORTAL vs. VENIAL
Religion makes it pretty clear what differentiates mortal sins from venial ones. Mortal are the really bad sins and venial the lesser ones. But in our everyday lives, it can be really difficult to determine just how bad we’ve been. This week we have stories of people trying to figure out that question.
Check your local NPR schedules this weekend for “This American Life,” and/or the podcast will be available on Sunday at 7:00 PM EDT by clicking here.
By John Y. Brown III, on Tue Apr 24, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
I heard the most inspirational and insightful quotation the other day and have been trying to recall it specifically. It’s called “Our Deepest Fear” and goes something like this.
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate or will fail.
We may fail, we may be inadequate, or even a loser.
But that’s not the important point. Not by a long shot.
Something else–another point that is eluding me at the moment–is an even more important point. And it’s very inspirational too.
Oh yeah, it says we’ll succeed even if we fail.
Why?
Because to simply believe in yourself is …. while not technically “success” per se…. it is something we can all do that is positive and makes success more likely over time.
We should do this daily. And if we want to tell others, that’s probably OK too. But tell ourselves for sure. In the mirror each morning.
Most of all don’t fear failure because….it’s just wrong to. It’s wrong. Don’t even think about it. OK?
It’s not even important to know why you shouldn’t fear failure. Just know that you shouldn’t –and I remember that part of the message in the quote very clearly.
(If you have to know, email me and I’ll try to find out the answer. But for now please just go with it. This is the best I can do and I’m on sort of a roll now…and I do remember the last part verbatim.”
Main point: Don’t fail–or fear failure –because you are really afraid of success. That’s the absolute worst. Just terrible. Don’t do it.
And one last thing: The capacity we have for fearing failure because of fearing success even more—which is really true for a lot of people. really. I’m serious. Well, that fear is a powerful force beyond all measure.
I mean we have the ability to overcome that fear because of a powerful force beyond all measure. That’s inside of us or something.
OK, I didn’t remember the last part verbatim.
But you get the general idea, right?
Isn’t it great? Just what I needed this morning. And if you’ve read this far, probably what you needed too.
Don’t thank me. Just “pay it forward.” Share this with a friend. That’s thanks enough for me.
By Jason Atkinson, on Tue Apr 24, 2012 at 8:30 AM ET
Contributing RP Jason Atkinson was recently featured in an article in the Portland Mercury entitled “Bikepartisan Politics.” Enjoy this excerpt:
HERE ARE FIVE simple reasons why Jason Atkinson is more badass than you liberal dweebs: He’s an Oregon state senator. He’s a Republican. He’s a bike racer. He shaves his legs, which shows a profound sense of masculine confidence. And he once got shot by a gun while repairing a friend’s bike (there was a loaded gun in the saddlebag).
Now he’s (tentatively) back on two wheels after that 2008 accident—but even when he’s been kept off the roads, the Southern Oregon legislator has never quailed from a fight for bike rights statewide.
Senator Atkinson jumped into the absurd 2007 debate over requiring extra brakes on fixed gears and, more recently, tried to boost bike funding from its measly one percent of the state transportation budget.
MERCURY: How does bike advocacy jibe with your Republican ideals?
JASON ATKINSON: I fell in love with bicycles when I was a kid, long before I knew what Republicans or Democrats were. I was lucky in that I had a modest amount of talent in racing bikes, which took me all over the world to race. When I got into politics, I didn’t see bikes as a partisan thing at all. I’ve been very supportive of everything from velodromes for economic development to jumping into the middle of the fixie debate a few years ago. I think people don’t really understand what bicycle culture is.
What do your colleagues get wrong about bike culture?
Well, like, when we got around to doing the fixie bill, no one knew what a fixie was. I don’t think a lot of folks have a full grasp of the health benefits of biking. I’m not going to pick on my fellow politicians on either side of the aisle. If you ride a bike, you get it. If you don’t, you usually don’t.
By John Y. Brown III, on Mon Apr 23, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
Leave trail of bread crumbs
I used to love the message of this song as a young man. It seemed inspired.
I thought I even tried admirably to break on through to the other side. But after awhile I quit trying. And even forgot I ever tried.
Then one day I woke up on the “other side” and have no idea how I got there. It just happened. And now all I want to do is get back to where I started from.
Even if I have to break through something to get there. But I don’t know how to get back.
And Jim Morrison isn’t around to tell us how “get back to the other side.”
By Jason Atkinson, on Fri Apr 20, 2012 at 2:00 PM ET
A great article from Oregon Live on contributing RP Jason Atkinson, and his decision to take a hiatus from politics:
Wearing rubber boots and faded jeans, Jason Atkinson shows off a bridge he built based on a Leonardo da Vinci drawing. Then there’s the horse he’s caring for that’s blind in one eye, a chicken he trained to sit and be petted, an extensive collection of racing bicycles and a YouTube video he made about fly-fishing on the Owyhee River.
And that’s just the first 15 minutes. He’s a classic never-sit-still Type A, with a cell phone that rarely quits beeping and a dozen jobs on the to-do list at his farm in the hills of southern Oregon.
For all that, Atkinson is about to “push the pause button,” as he puts it, on perhaps the most defining part of his life. After 14 years in the Oregon Legislature, including a run for governor in 2006, Atkinson is stepping out of politics and into an unpredictable future.
“I wasn’t at peace,” he says about his decision not to run for re-election this year. Under growing financial pressure at home, he also endured attacks from his own caucus for siding with the environmental lobby and became increasingly unhappy with his own party’s gamesmanship. It was time, he says, to take a break and, like thousands of other Oregonians, look for a better-paying job.
Under different circumstances, Atkinson, 42, would be entering the prime of his political career — an experienced, tested campaigner whose increasingly centrist views offer the kind of statewide appeal Republicans need to win. The fact that he’s heading for the exit ramp speaks volumes about not only his experience in Salem but also about the state of the party he says all but ostracized him.
By John Y. Brown III, on Thu Apr 5, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
Life advice at 11:30pm on a Monday when no one has asked for it.
Wishing I knew more answers at this point in life but glad I have so many left to try to figure out.
It’s nice to go through life feeling you have the answers to most everything important question and that those answers need not be questioned.
It’s secure and seductive.
And there are parts of life that aren’t complicated and where plain truths are all we need to know—and simply stick to them.
But life, to me, is a mystery and we can only see through a glass, darkly for now. But we should, in my view, look and think and imagine anyway.
If I hold all the same opinions at age 50 that I had at age 25, I can’t help but feel that I haven’t asked enough of myself. And if I hold the same opinions at age 75 I held at 25,
I’m afraid I’ll feel I learned nothing in this life. And maybe even insulted God by not paying closer attention.
Does this mean go buy some self-help books or CDs? If you want. Maybe take a course. Or talk to a friend who you haven’t met yet because they are too different and may challenge your beliefs.
Or do what I’m doing now, watch and listen to The Who’s “The Seeker”. And pretend you are being deep when you are really just relaxing and unwinding. And maybe preparing to imagine something new.
Whatever you choose. I do recommend being a seeker. It’s not as scary as it seems. Each day is as mysterious as it is predictable. You can come up with rambling Facebook posts. And, best of all, the music is awesome! ; )
By John Y. Brown III, on Wed Apr 4, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
Much ado about nothing.
This entire episode with Jason Russell (founder of Invisible Children) crusading to make international criminal Joseph Kony famous…has been misunderstood and blown way out of proportion.
At first I, too, was stunned to read that Mr Russell was discovered near San Diego running naked in the streets, shouting nonsensically, pacing, slapping the sidewalk and interfering with traffic.
But I kept reading.
Russell is a graduate of USC (University of Southern California).
I attended USC for over a year back in the early 80’s before returning home to Louisville (and Bellarmine College).
The kind of behavior exhibited by Mr Russell was NOT abnormal for many USC students and now seems perfectly sensible to me once it has been place in its proper context.
Sure, trying to make Joseph Kony famous can make anyone a little crazy. But trying to survive the social, cultural, economic and academic pressures at USC will lead even the strong among us to regularly meltdown publicly in the Southern California area.
Jason Russell wasn’t mentally, physically and emotionally exhausted from the success of having millions of supporters cheering him to capture the world’s most infamous criminal.
He was probably merely having a flashback from his freshman hazing at USC.
By Krystal Ball, on Wed Mar 28, 2012 at 8:30 AM ET
The chance of Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich forcing a brokered convention has become quite small. At this point, it is starting to come down to math, so forgive me for a bit of tedious delegate allocation arithmetic. After Illinois, Romney is estimated to have 560 delegates in his column, putting him about halfway to the 1,144 delegates he needs to win the nomination outright. While it is still theoretically possible for Santorum to do well enough to deny him that number, Governor Romney has a few things working in his favor.
First, the remaining states on the whole are more favorable to Romney. New York and California have large numbers of delegates at stake and are both very likely to go for Romney.
Other good Romney states like Maryland, Connecticut, and New Jersey are also among the remaining contests. Second, Romney’s key states tend to allocate their delegates using a winner-take-all method allowing him to quickly rack up delegates, while Santorum’s tend to use proportional allocation (and Gingrich’s key states are nonexistent).
For example, California’s 172 delegates are allocated using winner-take-all while the large state most favorable to Santorum, Texas, uses a proportional allocation process. Other potentially favorable Santorum states using a proportional allocation method include North Carolina, Arkansas, and Kentucky.
Read the rest of… Krystal Ball: Chances of a Brokered Convention Are Small
When I learned that my good friend and our contributing RP, Jeff Smith, would be the featured guest on National Public Radio’s “This American Life,” I was thrilled. My favorite radio program was taking on the story that Jeff first wrote about here at this site in a series of provocative, hilarious and sometimes moving stories.
