Every Life Is Interesting

Jim Axelrod may be best known for anchoring the CBS Evening News on Saturdays, or he may be best known as the long-time, first-rate reporter for CBS News. But I'm interviewing him here because he is the author of my favorite book of the past ten years, In The Long Run, the autobiographical story of his life and his relationship with his father, as told through the prism of running and training for a marathon, and growing up in a fairly standard family life in America. Jim's account of his life, and the way he articulates his life experiences, both on the campaign trail with Hillary and Obama, and in his relationships with his family, are nothing short of stunning. A deep look at a most interesting life. I loved partaking in this interview, or really, conversation with Jim.

Mitch Blank is well regarded as one of the pre-eminent archivists of Bob Dylan's music across the world. Mitch has over 180,000 recordings in his possession - many of which are Dylan's, but not all. Mitch is sought after for his breadth of knowledge about Dylan and his unmatched collection of the master's music. Interestingly, with tens of thousands of Dylan's live and bootleg recordings, Mitch still says he'd take Dylan's studio albums to the proverbial "island" rather than his trove of live recordings. Also interesting, while he saw Bob play around 30 times, he saw the Grateful Dead play almost 400 times in his life. He also attended Woodstock at the perfect age of 19. Interesting guy. Enjoy the interview.

Sol Gittleman is one of those legendary professors that you had in college... that you will always remember. I was fortunate enough to have him while I was Tufts for one class... Yid Lit. Yiddish Literature. He was and still is a tour de force. Sol is heading into his 50th year at Tufts, and is as responsible as anyone else in forging Tufts into the pantheon of top-tiered American universities. He served as provost for 22 years. But growing up in Hoboken, NJ, he dreamt of playing for the Yankees, played one week of minor league ball, and almost accidentally fell into the field of German studies on the advice of his college baseball coach. A truly inspiring human being.

Joanne has spent her life fighting for women's rights and gender equality across the globe. Over her 13 year tenure as the deputy director at the United Nations for Global Women's Issues, she helped raised dedicated budget from $18mm to over $200mm. She now writes books, and consults for agencies large and small, across the world, and continues helping oppressed women in every pocket of the globe. A fascinating woman who's lived a most extraordinary and important life.

John is host of Entrepreneur On Fire, the most popular podcast in the world about entrepreneurs and startups... and for good reason. He's a most passionate and generous host, but he's also the kind of host you love... because he doesn't let his guests evade his most important questions. John started his podcast only 9 months ago and already has over 250,000 monthly downloads. Prior to launching Entrepreneur On Fire, John spent 8 years in the armed forces, sold real estate, worked for John Hancock Financial, went to law school, relocated from Maine to San Diego, and spent 6 months in India figuring out his future path. Just my kind of guest! You're going to love his passion. It's infectious. Enjoy.

Cassandra is a double Stanford (undergrad and law) graduate, whose career path took her from Deputy County Public Defender in San Diego, to Legislative Aid in Sacramento, to boutique law firm in San Francisco, to City Attorney’s Office in SF, to in-house attorney at Morgan Stanley (first in SF, now NYC). She's a fanatical sports fan, and an incredible athlete. Oh, and she has 60 first cousins, most who live in Mississippi. AND... she comes from 4 or 5 generations of Mississippians!

Starting a new college is not for the faint of heart... so that makes this endeavor a good project for Matthew Abrams. Having traveled through 43 countries and 46 of these United States, Matthew got the idea to start a new college for entrepreneurs (The Mycelium School) while doing a residence in an underground Arts Collective in Havana, Cuba. Quote a bold vision, and quite a substantial project. But he started out as a relatively normal kid from Connecticut. Let's see what trajectory he followed from there to Mycelium School, which launches its first class of students in the Fall of 2013.

Charles is an "individual" under the purest definition of the word. A unique worldview, a magnanimous spirit, and a colorful and varied journey from Kingston, Ontario to New York City to the suburbs around it. He's worked at a law firm, made interesting independent films and big budget commercials, and has created his own job type, if you will... a "Community Developer"... not a housing developer but a true community developer... with a mission to improve the lives of people around him. Listen to the interview to understand his singular approach to his life and his community.

Keoki Flagg is a photographer, artist, and one of the most experienced and travelled travelers I have ever met in my life. His grandparents escaped Nazi Germany, and he grew up Jewish in Hawaii in the late 60’s early 70’s before his parents decided to take their 4 kids on a tour of Europe for 4 years, establishing residence in different countries each year so the kids could go to school. Now Keoki is a world-renowned photographer of the outdoors, of extreme athletes, of the most scenic places on earth, including the North Pole. One of the more extraordinary lives I’ve ever learned about.

Andrew Tedesco is a professional artist living and working just west of New York City. He's married with 3 daughters. And in this interview, Andrew tells the story of growing up on the Jersey Shore a talented athlete before transitioning to the artist's mindset in late high school and into college at the University of Maryland. He then moved to NY with his wife and began the hard but successful journey of becoming a working artist, one of the toughest careers you will find. A deep and interesting life.

This episode is not so much the first episode of the 'every life is interesting' podcast as it is an INTRODUCTION to the 'every life is interesting' podcast. In this "episode" I tell you a little bit about the podcast, why I created it, and what you can expect from it in the future. Enjoy! And please send me your feedback!