Speaker 1: My partner who's not here, but he wanted me to
Speaker 1: tell you that Isaac Shelby is one of his great
Speaker 1: great great grandparents, as is f from McDowell.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Isaac Shelby's candlesticks are in this room over here.
Speaker 3: Stop it now. Every governor leaves.
Speaker 2: Something in the mansion, and they were silversmith's and so
Speaker 2: his candlesticks.
Speaker 3: Are right in there.
Speaker 4: That's amazing.
Speaker 3: He's our first governor.
Speaker 2: And then he came back in the War of eighteen
Speaker 2: twelve because he was an actual.
Speaker 3: General and they needed a governor who was a general.
Speaker 4: How extraordinary. Well, there we are. So that's my Batucky connection.
Speaker 3: That's a good one.
Speaker 5: Hello, I'm mini driver. I've always loved Proust's questionnaire. It
Speaker 5: was originally in nineteenth century parlor game where players would
Speaker 5: ask each other thirty five questions aimed at revealing the
Speaker 5: other player's true nature. In asking different people the same
Speaker 5: set of questions, you can make observations about which appear
Speaker 5: to be universal. And it made me wonder, what if
Speaker 5: these questions were just the jumping off point, what greater
Speaker 5: depths would be revealed if I asked these questions as
Speaker 5: conversation starters. So I adapted Prue's questionnaire and I wrote
Speaker 5: my own seven questions that I personally think are pertinent
Speaker 5: to a person's story. They are when and where were
Speaker 5: you happiest? What is the quality you like least about yourself?
Speaker 5: What relationship, real or fictionalized, defines love for you? What
Speaker 5: question would you most like answered, What person, place, or
Speaker 5: experience has shaped you the most? What would be your
Speaker 5: last meal? And can you tell me something in your
Speaker 5: life that's grown out of a personal disaster? And I've
Speaker 5: gathered a group of really remarkable people, ones that I
Speaker 5: am honored and humbled to have had the chance to
Speaker 5: engage with. You may not hear their answers to all
Speaker 5: seven of these questions. We've whittled it down to which
Speaker 5: questions felt closest to their experience, or the most surprising,
Speaker 5: or created the most fertile ground to connect.
Speaker 1: My guest today on many questions is the Governor of Kentucky,
Speaker 1: Andy Busheer. Governor Vasher is currently serving his second term,
Speaker 1: and his father, Steve, was also Governor of Kentucky. Andy
Speaker 1: Busheer is an all too rare example of how the
Speaker 1: schism between left and right can actually be bridged. He
Speaker 1: is a Democrat in a predominantly Republican state. He is
Speaker 1: a deacon of his church with a strong faith, who
Speaker 1: is also pro choice, And in these challenging times where
Speaker 1: it feels like there needs to be a new, more
Speaker 1: extreme word for partisanship, it's encouraging to see leadership that
Speaker 1: holds on to its values whilst also speaking to and
Speaker 1: serving all the people that represents. Governor Basheer has steered
Speaker 1: Kentucky through COVID, the deadly tornado and flooding of twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one and twenty twenty two, respectively, and most recently
Speaker 1: the terrible flooding that happened in the state last week.
Speaker 1: I so enjoyed talking to him and was galvanized by
Speaker 1: the reminder that calm, strong leadership that listens and so
Speaker 1: still exists. Can you tell me when and when you
Speaker 1: are happiest.
Speaker 2: I am happiest when I'm with my kids and my wife,
Speaker 2: and that's saying something because my kids are now teenagers.
Speaker 2: I have a fifteen and a fourteen year old, but
Speaker 2: their births changed my life forever. I was a practicing attorney.
Speaker 2: We were doing well, but just looking at those two
Speaker 2: kids a year and three days apart. It definitely gave
Speaker 2: me motivation that what I leave to them has to
Speaker 2: be more than just financial support. It has to be
Speaker 2: a better world, a country that's not broken, and that
Speaker 2: really motivated me for the way that my life changed.
Speaker 2: They give me purpose every day. They're both so smart
Speaker 2: and such interesting human beings. Just being around them when
Speaker 2: they're willing to be around me, now.
Speaker 3: Even they're both teenagers, is pretty special.
Speaker 1: Do you find because I know I have this with
Speaker 1: my son, who is interested in theater and is a
Speaker 1: really good actor, but there's an interesting relationship between him
Speaker 1: and it because of what I do for the thing.
Speaker 1: And I wonder that when you see your children and
Speaker 1: you observe like who they are.
Speaker 6: Like, do.
Speaker 1: You see the lawyer in them? Do you see the
Speaker 1: politician in them? Do you go goodness? Or is it
Speaker 1: free wheeling and you're kind of letting them tell you
Speaker 1: who they are.
Speaker 2: Well, they get asked about it a lot, because of
Speaker 2: course my dad was governor, and well of course first
Speaker 2: father son set of governors in Kentucky's history, and so
Speaker 2: they get that question. Maybe they even get that pressure
Speaker 2: from folks. But right now, it seems like they both
Speaker 2: want to pursue their own paths.
Speaker 3: I want to be supportive of whatever path they choose.
Speaker 2: My son, I think, has gotten a little more interested
Speaker 2: in it over time. He ran for Beta Club vice
Speaker 2: president for the state and one which was pretty incredible
Speaker 2: because in high school I ran for everything and lost
Speaker 2: every time. And I think part of it is I
Speaker 2: didn't have my why. You know, the why you're running,
Speaker 2: the authentic why that I think is so important, not
Speaker 2: just in politics, but in leadership. It was what I
Speaker 2: thought I was supposed to do, and so I would run,
Speaker 2: and if there were three people running, i'd come in fourth.
Speaker 2: But they always say you shouldn't peak too early.
Speaker 1: By the way, I think that being humbled early in
Speaker 1: your chosen field is actually integral to finding your way
Speaker 1: in it. I actually think it's necessary because you have
Speaker 1: to keep choosing it.
Speaker 4: I tell Henry that a lot.
Speaker 1: Actually, so there's no such thing as failure because it's
Speaker 1: all your journey to whatever it is that you are
Speaker 1: choosing to do.
Speaker 3: I think that's right.
Speaker 2: And I also think that it helps you to have
Speaker 2: a smaller ego and to not get eaten up by
Speaker 2: what your profession is. You know, you see a lot
Speaker 2: of people who are in elected offices that get in
Speaker 2: there and they get so eaten up by the partisanship
Speaker 2: that that becomes what they do instead of trying to
Speaker 2: come in every day and create that better world for
Speaker 2: your people.
Speaker 1: I know it's a really tough question, but in terms
Speaker 1: of happiness and kind of where we are, how do
Speaker 1: you approach that the schism between what someone else's happiness
Speaker 1: looks like and what someone else's happiness looks like and
Speaker 1: where sort of where we are in the world.
Speaker 4: You know, you're leading a.
Speaker 1: State of very very different people from eastern and western Kentucky,
Speaker 1: you know, from the urban areas to the deeply rural, Like,
Speaker 1: how do you speak to the schism of different happiness?
Speaker 2: Hey, you start with the recognition that when people wake
Speaker 2: up in the morning, they're not thinking about politics.
Speaker 3: They're not thinking about.
Speaker 2: Their party, and they're not thinking about the next election.
Speaker 2: They're thinking about their job and whether they make enough
Speaker 2: to support their family. They're thinking about their next doctor's
Speaker 2: appointment for themselves, their parents, their kids, and they're thinking
Speaker 2: about the roads and bridges they drive every day, and
Speaker 2: think about the school they drop their kids off at,
Speaker 2: and they're thinking about whether they feel safe.
Speaker 3: In their community.
Speaker 2: If you don't feel secure in those areas, now, it's hard.
Speaker 3: To be happy.
Speaker 2: It's hard to reach other things that people argue about
Speaker 2: that divide people. But those more areas are how I govern,
Speaker 2: and they speak to everyone. You know, the goal of
Speaker 2: governing shouldn't be to make Democrats better off or Republicans
Speaker 2: better off.
Speaker 3: It should be to make everybody better off.
Speaker 2: And when you provide opportunity, when you open a new hospital,
Speaker 2: when you open a road that saves somebody twenty minutes
Speaker 2: each way on a commute, now that gives them more
Speaker 2: time to make those memories with their families that improve
Speaker 2: their happiness. So what I've seen is being a Democrat
Speaker 2: in a state that typically votes heavily Republican, but having
Speaker 2: a really high approval rating is about, you know, first
Speaker 2: that focus that these are the things that matter the
Speaker 2: most in your life, and we're going to make sure
Speaker 2: that we spend eighty percent of our time there. But
Speaker 2: I think the second piece is you've got to talk
Speaker 2: to people and not at them. You've got to listen
Speaker 2: to make sure that we're all using the same vocabulary.
Speaker 2: I mean, we've gotten into sanitize advocacy speak in so
Speaker 2: many different areas, Like we use the term substance, use
Speaker 2: discory order for addiction. Right, everybody I know that's gone
Speaker 2: through addiction calls it addiction. People that are hungry are hungry,
Speaker 2: They're not food insecure. And so when we start using
Speaker 2: these terms, we lose the meaning and the emotion, and
Speaker 2: we're talking about folks that are going through something very
Speaker 2: difficult and emotional. And then I think the last pieces
Speaker 2: is sharing your why. And for me, that's my faith.
Speaker 2: And so when I make a decision that other people
Speaker 2: might disagree with, especially one of these hot culture war
Speaker 2: type issues, I try to tell people.
Speaker 3: Why and genuinely why I made the decisions.
Speaker 2: So when I was running for reelection, our legislature passed
Speaker 2: the nastiest anti LGBTQ plus bill that we'd ever.
Speaker 3: Seen, and I vetoed it.
Speaker 2: And I vetoed it because I believe that all children
Speaker 2: are children of God, and I didn't want anybody picking
Speaker 2: on those kids. And a whole general Assembly was picking
Speaker 2: on those kids that already far too many people pick on.
Speaker 2: I wanted them to know that their governor had their back.
Speaker 2: So I explained it that way, and the next day
Speaker 2: I remember somebody walking up to me and I thought, oh,
Speaker 2: I know what's coming, and instead he stuck out his
Speaker 2: hand and I shook it, and he said, I'm not
Speaker 2: sure I agree with you, but I know you're doing
Speaker 2: what you think is right. And so if we can
Speaker 2: get there as people, not just in politics, because sometimes
Speaker 2: right now just the background of politics is keeping people
Speaker 2: from speaking and being good neighbors. But if we can
Speaker 2: get to that, why at least we can understand each
Speaker 2: other a little bit better.
Speaker 4: Yes, I agree completely.
Speaker 1: The fundamental tenets of being a human being are fundamental
Speaker 1: regardless of your politics, for sure.
Speaker 2: And I think when you said human being, what's missing
Speaker 2: right now out of our federal government is humanity.
Speaker 4: I couldn't agree with you more.
Speaker 2: It's a lack of empathy or really even sympathy. I mean,
Speaker 2: to have people that are being laid off, veterans, people
Speaker 2: who have.
Speaker 3: Given service to the minds to this country.
Speaker 2: And then you can understand sometimes if you need to
Speaker 2: downsize something, but to be gleeful about it, to tell
Speaker 2: them it's their fault, to dance around on stage with
Speaker 2: the chainsaw during it, it's just mean and it's cruel,
Speaker 2: and that's not how our government should act.
Speaker 1: It is so extraordinarily in conflict in that none of
Speaker 1: it makes any sense. There's no follow through with the cruelty.
Speaker 1: It seems cruel for cruelty's sake. In the moment, I
Speaker 1: don't believe that that is sustainable. I think that it
Speaker 1: is taking a sledgehammer right now. But it's impossible to
Speaker 1: gut this many lives and for that not to be
Speaker 1: ramifications for that. So I hope the midterms are a
Speaker 1: reflection of the American people experiencing what everybody has been
Speaker 1: experiencing since this administration began.
Speaker 2: And it's not who people are. Yeah, we're absolutely we're
Speaker 2: not through flooding again. And what I see every time
Speaker 2: during and after our whole group of people inside someone's
Speaker 2: house helping the mucket out and dry it out. And
Speaker 2: most of those people haven't even started on their own house.
Speaker 2: They're going to start with their neighbor, showing that humanity.
Speaker 2: You're going to see people that have never had someone
Speaker 2: walk up and offer to help. You're going to see
Speaker 2: people take shifts in the public school that's open with
Speaker 2: cots for people to have a warm place to stay.
Speaker 2: If there is a bright side to having been through
Speaker 2: so many natural disasters. It's that you see people are
Speaker 2: fundamentally good kind that don't like cruelty, and I think
Speaker 2: the country's going to wake up and ultimately reject what
Speaker 2: we're seeing.
Speaker 4: I agree with you, I ready do.
Speaker 1: What is the quality you like least about yourself?
Speaker 2: I will admit I am pretty self critical, and I
Speaker 2: carry mistakes with me for decades.
Speaker 3: Sometimes they're funny, but I still carry them.
Speaker 2: During the pandemic, I remember having someone walk in who
Speaker 2: was helping us with unemployment because so many people needed
Speaker 2: the help and our system, which was older than I am,
Speaker 2: was getting overwhelmed. And he told me somebody had applied
Speaker 2: for benefits under the name too Pak Shakurt. And I
Speaker 2: heard that and I got all angry, and I went
Speaker 2: out to my daily update and I said, I can't
Speaker 2: believe this is happening. People are trying to take advantage
Speaker 2: of us at a time that's so difficult. I can't
Speaker 2: believe somebody filed for benefits under the name Tupac Shakurd.
Speaker 2: Well turns out there was a guy in Lexington and
Speaker 2: his name is court h and he's he's a good guy.
Speaker 2: And I found out about it that night right after
Speaker 2: I'd said it in front of millions of people.
Speaker 4: Wow. I mean I.
Speaker 2: Basically run over it. I hadn't intended to, but I
Speaker 2: still had. And so I called him that night and
Speaker 2: I said I'm sorry, and he was very graceful about it.
Speaker 2: It is very supportive, even with all of this and
Speaker 2: all the text messages and calls he'd been getting.
Speaker 3: So what did I do The next day?
Speaker 2: I walked out, looked at the same cameras and said,
Speaker 2: I'd made a mistake. And even though that made some
Speaker 2: late night TV shows, that's not how I thought I'd
Speaker 2: be on Jimmy Kimmel. I still to think about the
Speaker 2: fact that I cause that individual pain, and I just
Speaker 2: wish I could go back in time and have taken
Speaker 2: an extra breath. Knowing that that's a human being who,
Speaker 2: at least for that period of time, probably felt pretty
Speaker 2: bad about what his governor had said about him.
Speaker 1: Well, I think that that's all any of us can
Speaker 1: do right is own our errors. I was having a
Speaker 1: conversation with my son the other day and saying, it
Speaker 1: really is, if you do it with your whole heart
Speaker 1: and you really are sorry, it doesn't need to go
Speaker 1: any further. You don't have to keep on fighting, and
Speaker 1: you don't have to keep on carrying it with you
Speaker 1: if you've really said that you're sorry.
Speaker 4: I think I.
Speaker 2: Think that's true personally. I also think it's true politically.
Speaker 2: I mean, we've seen, whether it's this administration or some others,
Speaker 2: make some real mistakes, but you rarely see somebody come
Speaker 2: forward and say we messed up another weren't.
Speaker 1: When we're talking about the tariffs and the president is
Speaker 1: saying that they are negotiable, and then his chief of
Speaker 1: staff or his pressure is coming out saying they are
Speaker 1: absolutely categorically non negotiable. There's no follow through, there's no accountability,
Speaker 1: and that, as I said before, I just don't believe
Speaker 1: that that is sustainable. And I think we have to
Speaker 1: keep trusting in the American experiment and that it is
Speaker 1: an experiment, and that the pendulum has just swung very
Speaker 1: far to the right.
Speaker 2: Well, and I think a lot of people out there
Speaker 2: feel that the pendulum maybe was too far to the
Speaker 2: left and now is too far to the right.
Speaker 3: Now most of them just wanted to stop.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I agree, to.
Speaker 2: Be able to go on vacation with their family and
Speaker 2: not have to turn on the news.
Speaker 3: And say what happened now?
Speaker 2: And I think the way that we pushed through this
Speaker 2: faster isn't some voice from the Democratic Party.
Speaker 3: It's everybody's voice together.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: It's taking a picture of how much more your bill
Speaker 2: is at the grocery store and posting it with your story.
Speaker 2: If you've been laid off from the federal government, you
Speaker 2: were doing a great job. You were serving your country,
Speaker 2: telling your story. It's all those collective voices together that
Speaker 2: I think can make such a difference.
Speaker 6: Groundswell, I agree.
Speaker 1: Can you tell me about something that has grown out
Speaker 1: of a personal disaster.
Speaker 2: This one's a hard one for me because tomorrow is
Speaker 2: the two year anniversary that I lost my friend.
Speaker 3: Tommy in a shooting. So it was sorry.
Speaker 2: It was hard and to have to be governor when
Speaker 2: you're headed to the scene instead of being a friend.
Speaker 2: To have to call his widow because no one else would.
Speaker 2: Once I got the information, and actually tell somebody you
Speaker 2: know and care about that their husband is gone. It's
Speaker 2: one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life.
Speaker 2: I can still see in my head where I was
Speaker 2: standing when I made that call. There's a room in
Speaker 2: the hospital that we went to where she was that
Speaker 2: I just can't walk in it just it is too painful.
Speaker 3: And this was such a great friend.
Speaker 2: Remember how we met, which was funny in and of itself.
Speaker 2: We'd gone up to something and Frankfurt, we were both
Speaker 2: living in Louisville, hadn't met, but we're on the same trip,
Speaker 2: and somebody came in and just blasted my dad, not
Speaker 2: knowing I was in the room, and he left and
Speaker 2: we all burst out laughing because it was so uncomfortable,
Speaker 2: and started a conversation.
Speaker 3: Ended up saying we want.
Speaker 2: To get everybody together to go to dinner the next week,
Speaker 2: And it turned out we lived four houses away, and
Speaker 2: we didn't find that out until we were at dinner.
Speaker 2: I became my banker, I became his lawyer. We built
Speaker 2: a lot of all of this together. But what I'll
Speaker 2: say is I get to take the best parts of him,
Speaker 2: which were kindness and acceptance. I've formed a stronger relationship
Speaker 2: with his kids, and maybe a little more sympathy and
Speaker 2: empathy for others that have gone through tragedy and have
Speaker 2: lost people, especially under really difficult circumstances.
Speaker 3: The thing about.
Speaker 2: Grief is it can creep up on you so fast.
Speaker 2: I mean, there are some days where this feels like
Speaker 2: it happened twenty years ago and some days where it
Speaker 2: feels like it happened twenty minutes ago. You know, trauma
Speaker 2: and grief, you can be taken right back to the
Speaker 2: moment that you got the first text that something was happening,
Speaker 2: that you got in the car going as fast as
Speaker 2: you could that on the tenth time that you're trying
Speaker 2: your friend and they can't pick up that, you start knowing.
Speaker 2: And then when you look at the officer that you
Speaker 2: know there and you ask the question, you can just
Speaker 2: you can see it in their eyes. It can grab
Speaker 2: you again pretty quickly. But also now being able to
Speaker 2: recognize that and other people you know, Sydney Clove that
Speaker 2: ever wanted to be a part of. But when you are,
Speaker 2: your ability to be there for other people that are
Speaker 2: going through tough times is maybe you're just a little
Speaker 2: bit better at it because you're going through it.
Speaker 4: Absolutely.
Speaker 1: I think that is the great gift of grief, is
Speaker 1: that there is someone who can walk with you through it,
Speaker 1: who has been through it as well, and that once
Speaker 1: you've experienced it yourself, you can offer that grace and
Speaker 1: that service and that love to someone else because you're right.
Speaker 1: Grief it no, it has no sense of time. It
Speaker 1: can feel just like yesterday or twenty years ago. It's
Speaker 1: interesting I wrote about when losing my mum, and I
Speaker 1: learned about how to show up for the pain through
Speaker 1: writing about it, and have definitely passed that on to
Speaker 1: friends of mine, just the little things of how do
Speaker 1: we accommodate the agony of unbearable loss. So again I
Speaker 1: feel like Feather, you had to show up for your
Speaker 1: friend under terrible circumstances, but also as a leader, and
Speaker 1: you can give good counsel, you know, as a result
Speaker 1: of that, which is truly amazing and truly when I
Speaker 1: ask this question, the idea of things that grow out
Speaker 1: of our agonies are personal agonies.
Speaker 4: There is growth.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's the blessing and that's the gift.
Speaker 2: Well, it's always really important to me that someone's life
Speaker 2: is not defined by their death.
Speaker 3: That we don't let.
Speaker 2: One horrible moment cloud all the incredible memories, the fun
Speaker 2: memories that you had of your mom or I had
Speaker 2: of my friend. I want to make sure that ninety
Speaker 2: nine percent of the time I'm thinking about Tommy, I'm
Speaker 2: thinking about all those great memories and just teaching me
Speaker 2: to treasure every single one of them because life's short
Speaker 2: and our job is to be kind to each other
Speaker 2: and to do good things.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree, be kind to each other and do
Speaker 1: good things. Can you tell me what relationship, real or fictionalized,
Speaker 1: defines love for you?
Speaker 3: Well, i'd say too.
Speaker 2: First, my wife and I just celebrated our nineteenth anniversary.
Speaker 4: Oh congratulations, Wow, thank you.
Speaker 2: I could not be more blessed. She is is incredible,
Speaker 2: She is patient. She has gone through this entire journey
Speaker 2: at my side, or I've gone through this entire journey.
Speaker 3: At her side.
Speaker 2: She fights harder for me, and I fight harder for
Speaker 2: her than anybody else in this world. When we had
Speaker 2: our kids, two kids very quickly. Her parents live in California,
Speaker 2: so a long way from Kentucky, and my parents were
Speaker 2: serving as governor and first Lady at the time, So
Speaker 2: it was just us trying to make it in the
Speaker 2: very first house that we'd own. But having to go
Speaker 2: through that together, having to build out our lives together,
Speaker 2: make all of our friends together, has been so special,
Speaker 2: and I think why our relationship is so strong. We
Speaker 2: don't like being a part even we have to take
Speaker 2: trips with one of the kids, or to go somewhere
Speaker 2: more than a couple of days is.
Speaker 3: Just too much for me. She's kind of my anchor
Speaker 3: in this.
Speaker 2: World and what keeps me stable and able to process
Speaker 2: all the difficult things we're dealing with right now.
Speaker 1: Sure, so when you decided to run for a second term, like,
Speaker 1: is that a conversation because essentially you're doing it together,
Speaker 1: you're both She's coming back to the governor's mansion, like
Speaker 1: your family is going to be there again. Like do
Speaker 1: you sit down at the kitchen table and go, Okay,
Speaker 1: I want to do this again, And where do you stand?
Speaker 2: Yes, these decisions you make together from the start. Yeah,
Speaker 2: if you don't, you're going to have a very unhappy
Speaker 2: life at home. But the sacrifices that Brittany and my
Speaker 2: kids make are greater.
Speaker 3: Than the sacrifices that I have to make.
Speaker 2: How their lives are impacted, how some kids or people
Speaker 2: will look at them just because of me or our party.
Speaker 2: There's no question that they give up a lot and
Speaker 2: then they go through a lot just to be a part.
Speaker 2: But they do feel like a part. They're proud of
Speaker 2: the things we've done together. I mean, we've created more
Speaker 2: jobs than any other administration in history, more private sector investment.
Speaker 3: We broke our ex sports record. You know, we're.
Speaker 2: Booming here, and so we as a family get to
Speaker 2: be that there's a better life not just for my kids,
Speaker 2: but everyone else's kids in Kentucky right now, more opportunities
Speaker 2: than we've ever seen before, and so I try to
Speaker 2: encourage them all to be a part of that, but
Speaker 2: also got to give them the space to choose what
Speaker 2: they want to do, what public events they want to
Speaker 2: be a part of, to make sure that that's working for.
Speaker 3: Their life as well.
Speaker 2: But the other place that I see that love, and
Speaker 2: we just talked about it, is love for your neighbor.
Speaker 2: And to me, that's that golden rule, and I just
Speaker 2: see it playing out. Whether it was after tornadoes in
Speaker 2: twenty twenty one nearly wiped out my dad's hometown of
Speaker 2: Dawson Springs entirely hit Mayfield in a way that I
Speaker 2: think the country had never seen before. After flooding took
Speaker 2: forty five lives six months later in eastern Kentucky. Just
Speaker 2: to see other Kentuckians, the rest of the country and
Speaker 2: the world pour out their hearts, give dollars to try
Speaker 2: to help bring resources in at a level that we
Speaker 2: never seen before. I mean that love that you show
Speaker 2: to someone that you don't know. That's pretty incredible. That
Speaker 2: you're willing to take your time and or your resources
Speaker 2: and help a fellow human being solely because they're suffering,
Speaker 2: And that's really special.
Speaker 1: It is incredibly special, And it must also really hit
Speaker 1: maybe harder for you who lives in a world of
Speaker 1: partisanship in the country with really a two party system,
Speaker 1: to see what makes politics subordinate, which is the best
Speaker 1: of who we are as people, The kindness, the compassion to.
Speaker 4: Be reminded of that as you lead.
Speaker 1: That's what gives me faith better parts of our humanity
Speaker 1: is what will eventually lead us back to a hope
Speaker 1: being more together in this world, less separate, less disparate.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's nice to hear a leader talk about
Speaker 1: that kindness.
Speaker 3: It grounds your leadership too.
Speaker 2: It's pretty easy to brush off the political attack of
Speaker 2: the day when you're standing with someone looking at what
Speaker 2: you see to be their house and they're trying to
Speaker 2: figure out what's the first step to take. But when
Speaker 2: you've been through a number of these I'm now in
Speaker 2: the position where I can put my arm around them
Speaker 2: and say, you're going to make it, but you're not
Speaker 2: going to do it alone. You're going to have so
Speaker 2: many people that you know and so many that you don't.
Speaker 2: They're going to rally around you and help rebuild this life,
Speaker 2: this building, this business. We've seen it over and over
Speaker 2: and I wish my people didn't have to go through
Speaker 2: it over and over. But that's also love. I mean,
Speaker 2: it's an incredible expression of love. After the tornadoes, we
Speaker 2: opened a fund and people gave fifty two million dollars
Speaker 2: to help rebuild, so we were.
Speaker 3: Able to pay for every funeral.
Speaker 2: We were able to give people help right away on
Speaker 2: top of FEMA, and now we're building new neighborhoods in
Speaker 2: eastern Kentucky.
Speaker 3: We are almost through every.
Speaker 2: Family that lost their home, every family that's in need,
Speaker 2: and that's only because of the love of so many
Speaker 2: people pouring out to help our communities.
Speaker 4: Wow, amazing. So what would be your last meal?
Speaker 6: Oh?
Speaker 2: So right now, I've developed a little bit of an
Speaker 2: allergy to red meat that I'm working through. You know,
Speaker 2: I live in Kentucky and so I miss Dake and
Speaker 2: Hamburger so much. But I'm trying to do that healthy
Speaker 2: thing and get through it. I think it's going to
Speaker 2: take about another year. But if it was my last meal,
Speaker 2: I think that would be okay.
Speaker 4: Yes, I agree.
Speaker 3: But if it's your last.
Speaker 2: Meal, do you want just one thing or do you
Speaker 2: want like a steak wrapped in pizza which may sound gross,
Speaker 2: But if it's the last time you're going to get
Speaker 2: a chance, then then maybe you do that and then
Speaker 2: you fry it.
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, steak wrapped in pizza and then you
Speaker 1: fry it.
Speaker 3: It's last meal. You don't have to worry about the
Speaker 3: calories at all.
Speaker 1: If it's still very Scottish in Scotland deep for our year,
Speaker 1: elbow and make it taste good.
Speaker 3: It must be Scotch and bourbon exactly.
Speaker 4: There you go.
Speaker 3: That's that's the connection and the connections with both.
Speaker 2: And you know a lot of Scotch is now being
Speaker 2: aged in bourbon barrels, so a really strong connection.
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, is that true. That's really interesting. Oh
Speaker 4: I would like to try that.
Speaker 2: You know, these tariffs don't just cause the price of
Speaker 2: the product to go up, but ultimately they cost the
Speaker 2: price of that barrel to go up. It makes the
Speaker 2: costs on making Scotch that much higher.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I'm quite apart from what will happen
Speaker 1: for the consumer in America, what happens with the rebouncing
Speaker 1: of like the economic topography of the world with China
Speaker 1: now joining with Japan and South Korea. Like what he
Speaker 1: has set in motion is without precedent and without thought
Speaker 1: for any kind of collective future.
Speaker 2: It feels in what it does to our global security.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: You look at Canada, which.
Speaker 2: Has been more of the closest allies and friends of
Speaker 2: the United States, has followed us into every every situation
Speaker 2: we've been in, even when maybe they shouldn't have, and
Speaker 2: this president is kicking them and is demeaning them. You
Speaker 2: look at Europe and how critical that relationship is for
Speaker 2: global security. And you've got a vice president on signal
Speaker 2: talking badly about Europe, and then you just gave an
Speaker 2: incredible example. Two of our most important allies are Japan
Speaker 2: and South Korea, and to drive them to China first,
Speaker 2: that's very difficult to do, but he just did it exactly.
Speaker 4: That's what's extraordinary.
Speaker 1: It's you know, again, unprecedented. But what will that mean
Speaker 1: for global economic security?
Speaker 2: It may go back to that same thing, that lack
Speaker 2: of sympathy, empathy, or humanity, because we are safer and
Speaker 2: better off when our allies are also doing well too. Yes,
Speaker 2: so a strong America is better with a strong Europe,
Speaker 2: a strong Japan, a strong South Korea. I mean that
Speaker 2: makes us all better off. And the idea of global
Speaker 2: security is based on alliances where you actually have.
Speaker 3: To be nice to each other, exactly work together. You
Speaker 3: have to want good outcomes for everyone.
Speaker 1: We've gone full circle back to the idea of being
Speaker 1: a good neighbor, of being a kind neighbor. And I
Speaker 1: mean how this administration is treating Canada is a fair
Speaker 1: indication of how they see being neighborly. I know I've
Speaker 1: repeated this is the third time I've said it, but
Speaker 1: I simply don't believe that that kind of incoherent thinking
Speaker 1: and follow through with insane policy is sustainable. I don't,
Speaker 1: And I think that people are better than that and
Speaker 1: kinder than that in their hearts. Can you tell me
Speaker 1: what person, place, or experience most altered your life.
Speaker 2: Well, I have incredible parents, and I was really lucky
Speaker 2: and blessed growing up.
Speaker 3: I think about the things that pushed.
Speaker 2: Me even when you asked me the earlier question about
Speaker 2: what is the thing about yourself?
Speaker 4: Yeah, your quality like least Well, I.
Speaker 2: Think I got the self critical for my dad, and
Speaker 2: I got some stubbornness from my mom, and both have
Speaker 2: helped me succeed. And both my parents are still with us,
Speaker 2: which is a blessing, and they're still together, going strong.
Speaker 2: But just to be lucky enough in this world to
Speaker 2: be raised in a household with two loving parents that
Speaker 2: want to invest in you, that want you to have
Speaker 2: the best education, and are supportive of you even now,
Speaker 2: Even now, when something happens, when I've got something challenging,
Speaker 2: I call my parents and I listen to their thoughts.
Speaker 2: It doesn't mean that that's what I'm ultimately going to do,
Speaker 2: but just to have that relationship, and they do the.
Speaker 3: Same with me.
Speaker 2: I actually never intended to get into politics. My dad
Speaker 2: had lost a governor's race in nineteen eighty seven.
Speaker 3: I was ten years old, and it was just devastating.
Speaker 2: This is superman in your life, and how could people
Speaker 2: not want to vote for him.
Speaker 3: He'd been the rising star.
Speaker 2: He's younger than I am right now, and I just
Speaker 2: I still remember in that hotel room sitting on that
Speaker 2: bed and my dad looking over.
Speaker 3: And sant it was going to be all right.
Speaker 2: This was the toughest moment of his professional career, and
Speaker 2: he spent it telling me that everything was going to
Speaker 2: be all right. And then that moment still sticks with me.
Speaker 2: Nineteen eighty seven, he lost a race that he should
Speaker 2: have won. In two thousand and seven, he decides to
Speaker 2: run because no one else will in a race he
Speaker 2: should have no shot at winning.
Speaker 3: And I went to work.
Speaker 2: You know, I was thirty at the time, and my
Speaker 2: wife and I were the campaign in the largest city
Speaker 2: in Kentucky. That's where we started in our one and
Speaker 2: a half bedroom home, trying to build out that part
Speaker 2: of the campaign. And he won, and he achieved this
Speaker 2: dream that he thought was dead. And so to just
Speaker 2: I thought the thing that I would do most important
Speaker 2: in politics was help a dad achieve a dream he
Speaker 2: thought was dead. Wow. And then I got to watch
Speaker 2: him in office. I got to be in those meetings
Speaker 2: and he had a chance that he took to expand
Speaker 2: Medicaid and about four hundred thousand Kentuckians got healthcare coverage
Speaker 2: for the first time ever. I'll never forget being in
Speaker 2: an elevator with him, and somebody walks in and just
Speaker 2: starts crying, and I look at her and I say,
Speaker 2: what are you okay? And she says, I'm alive because
Speaker 2: of your dad. That I could not get coverage, that
Speaker 2: people would not cover the conditions that I had until
Speaker 2: Medicaid was expanded. It just such a powerful moment that
Speaker 2: showed that even though the news often does the back
Speaker 2: and forth about politics, in these jobs you can make
Speaker 2: a real difference.
Speaker 1: Do you believe in divine timing? Does your dad not
Speaker 1: winning in nineteen eighty seven but then going ahead in
Speaker 1: two thousand and seven, like, do you filter it through
Speaker 1: that lens?
Speaker 3: I do?
Speaker 2: I mean, I look back in nineteen eighty seven, and
Speaker 2: in that moment, while crushing for him, ended up being
Speaker 2: incredible for our family.
Speaker 3: I got my dad back.
Speaker 2: He had been probably overly involved in the job, and
Speaker 2: I make sure that I carve out time for my
Speaker 2: family because I lived through that at a young age.
Speaker 3: But I got him back.
Speaker 2: He coached baseball with me. I'm not going to say
Speaker 2: I played baseball because that's an operative verb.
Speaker 3: I was on a team and just.
Speaker 2: To have him there, and even though he pushed so hard,
Speaker 2: in school work.
Speaker 3: To have him there pretty special.
Speaker 2: So I do believe in divine timing, both for our
Speaker 2: family and how it ultimately worked out. And he served
Speaker 2: eight years. He guided us through the Great Recession. I
Speaker 2: think about being the governance created the most jobs and
Speaker 2: the most private sector investment.
Speaker 3: Guess who's second?
Speaker 4: He is? Wow?
Speaker 3: And I get to call and tell him that every night.
Speaker 4: He must love die wait for that. Cool. I can't
Speaker 4: wait for Andy to tell me I'm second.
Speaker 3: But also thank you. I mean to go through the
Speaker 3: tough times. That gives us a chance to hopefully have
Speaker 3: the better times.
Speaker 1: Yeah, gosh, it's the most extraordinary thing that your father
Speaker 1: was governor and that you were governor. It must be
Speaker 1: like staring up a mountain.
Speaker 4: For your kids.
Speaker 1: They must be like, whoa am I supposed to be
Speaker 1: the governor too?
Speaker 3: And we try to tell them every day.
Speaker 2: Now, you know, I'm going to wrap our arms around
Speaker 2: our kids to make sure that they know that they
Speaker 2: are loved and cared for, that they have an opportunity
Speaker 2: to pursue whatever pathway they choose. I just want them
Speaker 2: to be them. I want them to be happy, I
Speaker 2: want them to be successful. At some point, I want
Speaker 2: to close the Royal Bank of Dad, but I know that,
Speaker 2: I know that's further in the future.
Speaker 1: Please, I would like to close the Royal Bank of
Speaker 1: Mom as well.
Speaker 4: Great.
Speaker 2: I remember at our wedding, Brittany's dad said that and
Speaker 2: he meant it because it occurred the next day.
Speaker 6: That was It's all on you now.
Speaker 1: I cannot thank you enough for giving your time coming
Speaker 1: on the show, particularly in this moment for Kentucky that is.
Speaker 4: Once again suffering.
Speaker 1: So we just send so much love to the great
Speaker 1: Stay of Kentucky and so much thanks to you for
Speaker 1: showing up today.
Speaker 2: Thank you now, thank you, And it's been a good experience.
Speaker 2: We actually just dropped the first episode of the Andy
Speaker 2: Basher podcast Aha, trying to get out there and communicate
Speaker 2: directly with folks and to do a little bit of
Speaker 2: what we've done here. It's to process a difficult world
Speaker 2: with a conversation with friends.
Speaker 4: Great.
Speaker 1: We can't have enough of those conversations, I don't think.
Speaker 1: So that's fantastic. I'll definitely be checking out your podcast.
Speaker 3: Thank you very much.
Speaker 4: Oh, thank you so much, Guvnor. I really appreciate your time.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 5: Mini Questions is hosted and written by Me Mini Driver
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Speaker 5: from Jennifer Bassett, Zoey Denkler and Ali Perry. The theme
Speaker 5: music is also by Me.
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