Jeremy Corr

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https://media.blubrry.com/whenitmattered/content.blubrry.com/whenitmattered/When_it_Mattered_16_RD1.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Email | RSS Ep. 16 —  A God-fearing trauma surgeon struggles to cope with human atrocity in the wake of a mass shooting / Dr. Alan Tyroch, Chief of Surgery and Trauma Medical Director, University Medical Center of El Paso. His grades were so poor that Dr. Alan Tyroch almost didn’t get into medical school. But the stubborn Texan was not about to let something as mundane as bad grades get in his way. Fueled with frequent, sometimes heated, conversations with God and blessed with sheer grit and perseverance, Dr. Tyroch not only fulfilled his dream to become a trauma surgeon, but also helped develop University Medical Center of El Paso’s top-notch trauma program. Tyroch’s motto, “You play like you practice,” came true on August 3rd, when the medical center was flooded with victims of a mass shooting in which a gunman, armed with an AK-47, killed 22 and wounded more than two dozen people at a local shopping center. Fresh from a recent city-wide disaster drill involving mass casualties, Tyroch says everyone, including the housekeeping staff, worked as a unified team to save as many lives as possible. Tyroch says he’s acutely aware of and working to allay the post-traumatic stress that many medical personnel, including on his team, experience in the aftermath of these types of events. But despite his own nuanced understanding of “good” and “bad” deaths, developed over nearly two decades as a trauma surgeon, Tyroch says he still fights the outcome when a patient dies on his watch. Transcript Download the PDF Chitra Ragavan:   Hello and welcome to When it Mattered, a podcast on how leaders are forged in critical moments and how they deal with and learn from adversity. I’m Chitra Ragavan. This episode is brought to you by Good Story, an advisory firm helping technology startups find their narrative. My guest is Dr. Alan Tyroch Chief of Surgery, Trauma Medical Director and Chief of Staff at University Medical Center of El Paso. Dr. Tyroch also is professor and founding chair of the Paul Foster School of Medicine’s Department of Surgery. He’s an appointee on the governor’s emergency medical services and trauma advisory council. And an active member in the Regional Advisory Council on trauma and emergency healthcare. Chitra Ragavan:   Dr. Tyroch was in the unenviable position of helping to direct and manage the trauma care after the August 3, 2019 mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, in which a 21- year old gunman armed with an AK-47 killed 22 and wounded more than two dozen people in a local shopping center. Dr. Tyroch, welcome to the podcast. Dr. Alan Tyroch:   Thanks for having me. Chitra Ragavan:   Tell us a little bit about yourself. Dr. Alan Tyroch:   Sure. Well, first of all, I’m a fifth generation native Texan and extremely proud of it. I’m from Czech heritage. My families came here from either Moravia or Bohemia, which no longer exists, either in the 1850s or 1870s. Depends on what side of the line. Either my mom or dad side. So I grew up in Texas, and very proud of that. I grew up actually in Central Texas. I was born in Temple, Texas. Then when my father retired from civil service at the VA hospital there, he moved us to my great grandfather’s farm. The same farm that my mom was born at. She was actually born at home. Dr. Alan Tyroch:   That’s where I grew up. I went to Texas A&M for undergraduate. I got a degree in microbiology. I was interested in the sciences. I decided I wanted to be a doctor but actually before that I couldn’t decide. “Should I be a veterinarian, or a doctor. Do I want to take care of animals, which are easy to handle. They don’t argue or do I want to take care of humans.” That’s what I wanted to do. To be honest, my grades weren’t the best. I was not the worst in class, but I wasn’t the highest either. I struggled to get to medical school. It was clear I was going to have a super high battle to get into medical school at the time. I even decided at one point that this is just not going to happen for me. Dr. Alan Tyroch:   I went to apply for a PhD. I was still living in College Station at the time doing some research at the tech scene in a medical school in biochemistry, but I went to University of Texas in San Antonio to apply for a PhD program. I interviewed there and even then I sort of made the comment to the interviewers like, “Well, I want to get into medical school, but my grades aren’t that great.” And he said, “Well, your grades aren’t that great, but you probably shouldn’t say that when you’re trying to interview for a PhD. When you’re looking at something else.” Dr. Alan Tyroch:   I did my interview, they said, “Well, we’ll get back with you.” I remember getting in the elevator. There’s like four medical students in the elevator with me and I looked at them, I’m like, “Dang it. That’s what I want to be. I don’t care. I want to do that.” So I drove home. It’s about 100 miles. It was raining cats and dogs. Typical spring thunder shower season in Texas. You could barely even drive. You couldn’t see despite the windshield wipers and there is lightning, thundering. I just started crying saying, “I want this. I got to do this. I got to figure out how to do this.” And I remember even praying to God saying, “God, if you can get me to be a doctor, I promise you I will be the best I can do to take care of the patients.” Chitra Ragavan:   A very dramatic moment. Dr. Alan Tyroch:   It was actually. It really was a dramatic moment. It might

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https://media.blubrry.com/whenitmattered/content.blubrry.com/whenitmattered/When_it_Mattered_15_RD3.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Email | RSS Ep. 15 — A big time political advisor returns to his small town roots and finds an urgent new cause / James Carville, Democratic political strategist, author, public speaker. James Carville earned the privilege of breathing what he describes as the “most rarefied air on earth,” when, as Bill Clinton’s campaign manager, he helped Clinton win the Presidency. Knowing that the only direction from that pinnacle of success was down, Carville made two life-changing decisions: He walked away from working on domestic political campaigns, although he remains a prominent advisor to the Democratic Party. And, when Hurricane Katrina ravaged his home state of Louisiana, Carville moved his family from the nation’s capital to New Orleans in a gesture of solidarity and to help rebuild the city. The decision to return home to his roots ignited a burning passion for an urgent cause: fighting the devastating impact of climate change on coastal communities. In doing so, the Ragin’ Cajun, as Carville is affectionately called, knows he has signed up for the most difficult campaign of his life. He’s raging against a dangerous, unpredictable, and uncontrollable adversary. The weather. Transcript Download the PDF Chitra:   Hello, and welcome to When It Mattered, a podcast on how leaders are forged in critical moments and how they deal with and learn from adversity. This episode is brought to you by Goodstory, an advisory firm helping technology start-ups find their narrative. My guest is the legendary James Carville. He’s an internationally recognized political strategist and media commentator. He’s a best-selling author, public speaker, sports commentator, lawyer, and a prominent advisor in the Democratic Party. Nicknamed the Ragin’ Cajun because of his spirited discourse and his Louisiana roots, Carville gained global recognition as the campaign manager who helped elect Bill Clinton President in 1992. He served as a long time CNN co-host and commentator. He currently teaches in the School of Mass Communications at his alma mater, Louisiana State University, home of his beloved LSU Tigers. James, welcome to the podcast. James Carville:   Thank you, this is a big honor to be on. It’s great. Chitra:   Is it fair to say that you are a bit of a late bloomer? You burst on the national political scene when you were almost 50 as the campaign manager who helped Bill Clinton win the Presidency. What were you up to before you found politics or before politics found you? James Carville:   A lot of stuff that’s not suitable for your podcast. Yeah, I got married when I was 49, and I’ve only been married once, and I’ve been married for almost 26 years now. I was 48 when President Clinton got elected, so I guess it’s safe to say I was a late bloomer, but bloom I did. Chitra:   You did. What was your first political campaign like? I guess you were a lawyer before you discovered politics and your natural affinity for it. James Carville:   I think I discovered politics before I was a lawyer. First campaign I ever worked on was at like 13-14 years old. A guy running for state representative in Louisiana, my job was to go tear the other guy’s signs off the telephone poles. Maybe I was 15, because I had to drive. So, when I was 15, I would go around every little place in Louisiana and tear the signs up of the political partner off the telephone poles. Chitra:   That’s great. A lot of our listeners may not know that your last name Carville is actually the name of the town where you were born and raised. Carville, Louisiana, named after your paternal great-grandfather and postmaster Louis Arthur Carville. So, you have deep multi-generational roots in Louisiana. Can you talk a little about that? James Carville:   By way of interest, my great-grandfather was actually a soldier in the Union army and was a Republican member of the Louisiana legislature doing reconstruction. He died and his wife, my great-grandmother became the postmaster and then my grandfather took over and then my father took over. So, we are a family of postmasters. Chitra:   That’s wonderful, and you’re the oldest of eight children, right? James Carville:   Yes, correct. Chitra:   And your mother was a school teacher and then she sold encyclopedias, and your dad came from that long line of postmasters and he also owned a general store. James Carville:  Yeah, he was a postmaster and ran a general store. My mother, she taught school for a little while and when she had a lot of kids to educate, she sold World Book Encyclopedias to supplement the family’s income. Chitra:   So, how did you go from your Louisiana roots to a national and global thinker? What was the most important factor in that evolution as a leader? James Carville:   You know, Chitra, t’s very interesting. I was working in Baton Rouge and without the necessity of detail, I decided one day that I was about to go crazy or go out of town, and I kind of thought the second was the best option, and a couple of friends of mine that I worked with in national politics said, “Well, maybe you should try this.” I got a job running a campaign in Virginia in 1982, which we lost. Then, I ran a campaign in Texas in 1984, which we lost. So, I was kind of off to a bad start. I started getting hot in a winning streak and life turned out different and better for me. Chitra:   Helping Clinton win the presidency must have then been an extraordinary moment in your family when the Carville name suddenly was globally known. James Carville:   Yeah, it was. It’s quite extraordinary. Not very many people would have a chance to, as we say in our profession, the night when a presidential election is, you breathe the rarest air on Earth. I got a chance to do that, and I’m

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https://media.blubrry.com/whenitmattered/content.blubrry.com/whenitmattered/When_it_Mattered_13_RD2.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Email | RSS Ep. 13 — Uncovering a pre-Civil War era will takes an estate lawyer deep into his family’s history with slavery and helps him come to terms with his sexual identity / Terrence Franklin, Sacks, Glazier, Franklin & Lodise, LLP. For nearly a quarter century, Terrence Franklin practiced trust and estate litigation, not knowing how his expertise would reshape his own life some day. Then, a family reunion took Franklin deep into his family history.  At that event, Franklin noticed snippets of names and words taken from what appeared to be the last will and testament of a slave owner named John Sutton, freeing Franklin’s fourth great grandmother, Lucy Sutton, and her children and grandchildren. Franklin made note of it and then got on with his life. But he could never forget those cursive words. Years later, Franklin traced the original will and found the poignant and untold story of his family’s emancipation from slavery, nearly two decades before the end of the Civil War. Uncovering his family history transformed Franklin’s mission as a trust and estate lawyer and in the most unexpected way, also helped him reconcile with his sexual identity. Transcript Download the PDF Chitra Ragavan:   Hello and welcome to When it Mattered, a podcast on how leaders are forged in critical moments and how they overcome adversity. I’m Chitra Ragavan. This episode is brought to you by Goodstory, an advisory firm helping technology startups find their narrative. My guest today is Terrence Franklin. He’s a partner at the law firm, Sacks Glazier Franklin & Lodise. Franklin is a seasoned attorney with more than two decades of experience handling trust and estates litigation. His depth and breadth of expertise on estate matters became of great importance when he found and traced the last Will and Testament that freed his fourth great-grandmother and her children and grandchildren. The will helped Franklin uncover the poignant and untold story of his family’s emancipation from slavery nearly two decades before the end of the Civil War and it transformed his mission as a litigator. And in an unexpected twist, that story of emancipation also helped Franklin come to terms with his own journey as an African American gay man searching for his identity. Terry, welcome to the podcast. Terrence F.:   Thank you, Chitra. It’s a pleasure to be here with you. Chitra Ragavan:   Your moment of adversity came at a relatively young age in 1983. How old were you and what happened? Terrence F.:   I was just about almost 20 years old, but I had studied abroad and I came back and I’d had a relationship with someone in France and my brother found a letter that suggested to him that perhaps I was gay. And being from an African American family on the South side of Chicago, Christian family, we really didn’t believe in homosexuality or that it was appropriate. And my brother told my parents, doing what he thought was the right thing to do for which was best for us as Christians. And they confronted me and asked me about that. And I had to take a moment to try to understand what I could be and how I could move forward with my life. And in that moment of trying to figure out how I could succeed and be a person of substance because I didn’t really have any role models who were African American and gay who were successful. I chose to say that I was bisexual. Terrence F.:    Looking back on it today, I understand that bisexuality is something different. But for me in that moment, this was sort of my way of acknowledging some truth to what my family was saying to me, and also preserving the possibility that I could somehow move forward, continue with my education and be successful. Chitra Ragavan:   So that intervention really was a really transformative moment in your life. What happened after that? Terrence F.:   It was a transformative moment because without really setting out to do so, I then sort of was in the process of trying to figure out who I was and what I could become. And without attempting to do it on a formal basis, I think what I started to do then was I would sort of date a man and date a woman to try to prove to myself, I think that I really was bisexual. And I started Harvard Law School in 1986. And at that time I was still going through this process of trying to understand my sexuality and how I could be the full person that I was. And it happened at the very first day of Harvard Law School, the icebreaker question for the Black Law Students Association orientation was, what’s your birthday? And as it turns out, there was a young woman there who was also a fellow African-American law student who was starting at the same time and who happened to have the same birthday that I did. Terrence F.:   And we decided we should celebrate our birthdays together. And I was fortunate that she was a beautiful, smart, intelligent woman with much . . . a very similar background to my own and we fell in love. It was kind of a magical thing that we were meant to be together and that sort of moved me forward in terms of where I was going to be and helped me to understand what was going to be the next step in my life. Chitra Ragavan:   So I guess it felt almost as if destiny had intervened, right. The fact that you even had the same birth date. Terrence F.:   Exactly. There was sort of a weighty symbolism and meaning to it that said, this is the person for you, you were meant to be together. And in fact we were, and we remained together for many years. We were

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https://media.blubrry.com/whenitmattered/content.blubrry.com/whenitmattered/When_it_Mattered_12_RD4.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Email | RSS Ep. 12 — A brain cancer diagnosis leads a 27-year old mental health worker to use photography to help parents of critically ill children reconcile with death and dying /  Caroline Catlin, writer, photographer. Caroline Catlin knew something was really physically wrong with her after she graduated from college in 2015. But despite repeatedly reaching out to multiple doctors about her daily fevers, joint and muscle pain, fatigue, memory loss and cognitive issues, no one believed her. After numerous incorrect diagnoses and only because of her persistence, Catlin finally got an MRI and the bottom fell out of her life. She was told she had Grade 3 Anaplastic Astrocytoma, the same class of cancers as Glioblastomas, which killed Senator Edward Kennedy, Senator John McCain, and Beau Biden, son of presidential candidate and former Vice President, Joseph Biden. Catlin was devastated and had a difficult time wrapping her head around her serious illnesses. Since then, the artist and mental health expert has volunteered to photograph families with critically ill children, including shooting end- of-life photos, in order to help them and herself come to terms with death and dying. Transcript Download the PDF Chitra Ragavan:   Hello and welcome to When it Mattered, a podcast on how leaders are forged in critical moments and how they deal with and learn from adversity. This episode is brought to you by Goodstory, an advisory firm helping technology startups find their narrative. My guest today is Caroline Catlin. She’s a writer and photographer, and a brain cancer patient and survivor. Caroline’s research and work in behavioral health and developmental trauma has inspired her to incorporate art into the process of caregiving and therapy, and reforming the way health, illness and disability are portrayed in the media. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Huffington Post, and other media outlets. Caroline, welcome to the podcast. Caroline Catlin:   Thank you. I’m so glad to be here. Chitra Ragavan:   Tell us a little bit about yourself and when and how you first realized that you had cancer. Caroline Catlin:   So I graduated from college in 2015, and by that August, I was very sick. I woke up with fevers every day for two weeks. I had joint pain, and muscle pain, and intense fatigue, and that sort of started the process of trying to figure out what was going on for me. I went to urgent care, I went to local doctors, and everyone dismissed me and said, “We think you have a mild cold.” I eventually was diagnosed with acute Lyme disease and pneumonia and began treatment for Lyme disease that we believed had continued and kind of become chronic. And that continued for three years, of trying to figure out what was wrong and treating me with antibiotics and different things, until my cognitive symptoms, so memory loss and word finding issues, became worse. And I asked multiple doctors and finally got one to agree to do an MRI, and that was when they found the tumor. Chitra Ragavan:   And how old were you then? Caroline Catlin:   I was 27, and I am 27. It was right after my 27th birthday actually, that the first doctor agreed to do an MRI. Chitra Ragavan:   And what was the tumor and where was it? Caroline Catlin:   So the tumor was in my right parietal lobe. It was about golf ball sized, and it is an anaplastic astrocytoma, a grade three out of four. It’s in the same class as glioblastomas, which quite a few people that have been in the news have passed away from, and it is the type of cancer that will likely return as a glioblastoma. Chitra Ragavan:   Glioblastoma is the same cancer that killed Senator Edward Kennedy, Senator John McCain, and also Beau Biden, son of former Vice President and now presidential candidate Joseph Biden. Caroline Catlin:   Yeah, that’s correct. Chitra Ragavan:   The right parietal lobe is one of the four major lobes in the human brain, and it regulates sensory processing and language among other things, which probably explains why you were having difficulty finding words and things like that. Caroline Catlin:   Yeah, exactly. And they didn’t exactly know … A lot of my symptoms were nontraditional with the type of cancer I have, and the area of the brain it was in. But when I started having more word finding issues and a few headaches, they started to be concerned. Most people who are diagnosed with my type of cancer, and in this part of the brain, have seizures, and for some reason I never had a seizure. So that kind of made it more difficult to diagnose. Chitra Ragavan:   And what was that moment like for you, when you were told that you had cancer, given that you’d had quite a bit of difficulty getting people to take you seriously? Caroline Catlin:   Yeah. You know, it was both incredibly crushing and ultimately relieving. I think I had felt like I was crazy and that I was making up all these things, because there wasn’t any clear indication of what was going on. I had had my blood work done many times, and because brain cancer doesn’t often show up on your blood work, there was nothing. There was nothing that was indicating how sick I was. And so when I learned, I was devastated, and I also was really grateful that I now knew what was going on. Chitra Ragavan:   To have something this serious at so young an age, you said it was crushing. How did you wrap your head around something like this, and your heart? Caroline Catlin:   Yeah. You know, I don’t think I did at first. I think I really grieved. I remember leaving the hospital and just being absolutely devastated. I would wake up every morning with panic attacks, just trying to feel out how

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https://media.blubrry.com/whenitmattered/content.blubrry.com/whenitmattered/When_it_Mattered_11_RD1.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Email | RSS Ep. 11 — A reluctant beauty pageant winner finds a unique path to a Harvard education and develops a passion for public service / Erin Walczewski, Attorney, Cooley, LLP. When Erin Walczewski first entered the Miss Iowa beauty pageant, she never expected to win. Her goal was simply to win some scholarship money for college. To her surprise, the skeptical contestant won the Miss Iowa crown. Walczewski wouldn’t realize for a long time what the true prize was from that competition. Still a reluctant participant, Walczewski went on to the Miss America contest, which she lost. But it would prove to be the best loss of her life, giving her the opportunity to do a year of public service in her home state and develop confidence, poise, and invaluable public speaking skills plus enough scholarship funds to get her into college. Competing in those early beauty pageants continued to have a profound effect on Walczewski’s life and career. She won a prestigious scholarship with powerful mentoring, which eventually got her into Harvard Law School; later, a job on the 9/11 Commission’s Public Discourse Project (PDP) where her public speaking skills from her beauty contest days helped her play a key role in educating the American public about the terrorist attacks; and the opportunity to teach law at Georgetown University and later at Harvard. As a pro bono counsel at Cooley law firm, Walczewski recently had the chance to go to the U.S. Mexico border to provide legal advice to women seeking asylum. There, in the process of counseling these emotionally, physically, and psychologically traumatized women, Walczewski truly understood how the Miss Iowa and Miss America contests, in teaching her to communicate with and help those less fortunate than herself, had become gifts that keep on giving. Transcript Download the PDF Chitra:   Hello and welcome to When it Mattered, a podcast on how leaders are forged in critical moments and how they deal with and learn from adversity. This episode is brought to you by Goodstory, an advisory firm helping technology start-ups find their narrative. Chitra:  My guest today is Erin Walczewski. She’s a former Miss Iowa who competed for Miss America and went on to earn a law degree from Harvard Law School. She works as an attorney and a lecturer on law at Harvard. Before law school, Walczewski worked in national security notably on the 9/11 Public Discourse Project and she also taught high school English in Japan. Chitra:   Walczewski currently serves as pro bono counsel at Cooley where she counsels non-profits and earlier this year traveled to the US/Mexico border to provide legal counsel to women seeking asylum. She also is a frequent public speaker and presenter. Erin, welcome to the podcast. Erin Walczewski:   Hi Chitra, thanks so much for having me. Chitra:   It’s great having you. What led you to compete for Miss Iowa? Erin Walczewski:   It’s a funny question. I was just thinking about that in preparation to do this interview with you. And it almost, the fastest way to explain it is that I accidentally won a beauty pageant. We don’t actually call them that. The Miss America organization is very clear that it’s not a beauty pageant, it’s a scholarship competition. That’s actually a joke in the movie, Miss Congeniality, if you ever saw that, which I found hilarious. Erin Walczewski:   But really I was looking for scholarship money. And at the time I was looking for ways that I could help finance my own college education and found out, found out through a recruiter about the, a local competition for Miss Iowa. And in a nutshell, I said, “No, no, no. I don’t do pageant things.” And they said, “Well, if you compete all five phases of competition, you win a minimum scholarship of $50.” Erin Walczewski:   And I thought, “Well, I could complete five phases of competition.” And I did. And very surprisingly to me, I ended up winning the local competition. And they said, “So now you have qualified and you’ll go on to Miss Iowa.” And I said, “No, no, no, no, no. That’s a real thing. I’ve heard of Miss Iowa before. I can’t compete there.” And they said, “Well, if you compete all five phases of competition at Miss Iowa, you win a minimum scholarship of $500. Erin Walczewski:   So I went to Miss Iowa and I competed. And again, very much to my surprise, because I was a novice at this, I won Miss Iowa. So I won closer to $10,000. And then they said, “Now you have won the right to compete at Miss America.” And there I really dug in my heels. And I said, “No, that’s an actual thing. You know, that’s on TV. I don’t think I can do that.” Erin Walczewski:   And they said, “Well, just for completing all five phases of the Miss America competition, you’ll get $5,000.” So I went to Miss America. I did not win. That’s where the pattern ends. But I got $5,000 for being a non-finalist and another 5,000 for winning what they call the Miss America Scholar, which is an academic award there. So, altogether I got about $20,000 for college. Erin Walczewski:   But more importantly, be that everyone who loses Miss America goes back to their home state and serves their state for a year of public service promoting a social impact topic that they really care about. So at the young age of 19 and 20 that gave me the opportunity to run a Children’s Literacy Program in Iowa and raise money for that. Which was the entree to so many things now that I can see in my career in terms of public speaking and teaching and a lot of those things. Chitra:   It’s not often that you hear someone say that they accidentally won a beauty pageant. Erin Walczewski:   Well, it’s funny because my current