Book, Newsletter, Podcast, and Life Updates
TL;DR
I’m back in the U.S. :-)
My podcast, which is now called The Creativity, Education, and Leadership Podcast, is available on all the major platforms. You can access it on Apple Podcasts here and Spotify here (please let me know if there are issues with the links).
I’ve been working on a memoir about my experiences coaching basketball in Namibia. It’s almost done.
Hi Everyone,
I hope you are doing well. For those who don’t know, I am back in the United States, after having lived and worked for the past eight years in Namibia.
It feels good to be back and I’m glad to have missed the Trump presidency.
For the next few months, I’ll be spending time with family and friends in New York City and Martha’s Vineyard.
Here are a few updates…
Name Change
Both the newsletter and the podcast were previously called Benbo’s Newsletter and Benbo’s Podcast.
As many of you know, Benbo is a family nickname.
I’ve changed the name of the newsletter to The Creativity, Education, and Leadership Newsletter and the podcast to The Creativity, Education, and Leadership Podcast as these better reflect what I’m writing and podcasting about.
My family nickname, on the other hand, remains Benbo.
Book Update
I’ve been working on a memoir about coaching basketball in Namibia. It’s about the life lessons I learned and, hopefully, there will be a universal aspect to the journey that will appeal to sports fans and non-sports fans alike.
The writing process is enjoyable. There is much satisfaction in crafting a good sentence.
Once the book is finished I’ll publish it on Amazon’s Kindle platform.
I’m close to the finish line, editing the manuscript now with the help of a trusted editor (hi Annah), but the creative arts often resist timelines.
I know from making documentaries, at the moment when you think you are done, you’re actually only about sixty percent done.
A few weeks ago I interviewed the author and editor Peter Alson and, when I asked how long he likes to let a draft sit before he reads it again, he offered this gem:
However long it is, it’s never long enough.
I’ll keep you updated on my progress and may ask for feedback here on things like the title and cover design.
Podcast
Speaking of gems, I posted a couple of interviews this week that I recommend to you.
On Tuesday, MacArthur “Genius” Fellow Jerry Mitchell and I talked about his work as an investigative journalist, chasing down cold case murders from the Civil Rights era. Jerry’s work has helped put four klansmen behind bars for various murders.
On Thursday, Josh Smith, Head Coach of the Women’s Soccer team at Rogers State University, and I went deep on team building, how to coach leadership in young people, and best practices for dealing with intra-team conflict.
The natural rhythm of releasing podcasting episodes has settled to Tuesdays and Thursdays. I’ll likely keep to this schedule for awhile and, if any adjustments are made, it will likely be to release one podcast episode a week rather than two.
The podcast is now available on the major podcasting platforms, including Apple and Spotify.
Although the name-change is reflected in the listing and artwork, in the actual episodes themselves, for the next two weeks, you’ll hear me refer to the podcast as the Benbo Podcast. This is because I record and produce the episodes about two weeks in advance.
This Tuesday’s episode will focus on race relations in the Mississippi Delta. I interview a former student of mine, Ivory Johnson, who is now a teacher at the same school, Simmons High School, where I was his teacher twenty years ago.
Second Jab
Here’s a photo of me getting my second Pfizer vaccine jab.
Afterwards, during the fifteen-minute observation period, as I posted the pic to social media, tears streamed down my face. It has been such a hard fifteen months and I felt so much relief and gratitude getting the second shot.
Thank you to our doctors, nurses, and healthcare workers who did their best to keep us safe and who bore witness to the worst of this pandemic. Thank you to the scientists and researchers whose work developed the vaccine in record time. Thank you to the teachers, coaches, administrators, and school staff who continued to work under stressful, difficult, and, often, life-threatening conditions. Thank you to the front-line workers who are grotesquely underpaid and who were asked to take on more than they should have to bear.
Thank you to you. It’s been a hard fifteen months but… we’re here.
We’re here.