Episode 2 of United States of Sweat presented by Choose the Hard Way is live with my co-host Jonathan Kaplan and our special guest, Tom Perriello, formerly a Congressman, Special Envoy & executive director of Open Society Foundations.
Watch on YouTube, listen on Spotify & iTunes + on the podcast player here on Substack.
In 2008 Tom won the election to represent Virginia’s 5th Congressional district by fewer than 1,000 votes.
He later ran for governor of Virginia and he also served as Special Envoy for Sudan and Special Envoy for the Democratic Republic of the Congo & Great Lakes among many other acts of service.
Jonathan worked with Tom during his time as executive director at Open Society Foundations and what really struck me about this conversation was the unseen toll of running for office and being a diplomat.
Here’s Tom on what it was like to work 20 hour days as a Special Envoy during a humanitarian crisis:
“Trying to do some of the peace negotiation work that I've done, you are waking up in a hotel so you can have one very healthy meal in the morning, often like a brunch at the hotel. And then you kind coast off that and protein bars through the day. And then you can kind of jam out with a meal at night.
I was often in a different country every 36 hours, sometimes in different time zones, multiple times per week. And the first instinct is scarcity, which is to say, okay, well then I need to sleep every second I can possibly sleep.
And what I found was no, you actually need to prioritize the exercise to keep your metabolism up in those spaces. First time around I was doing it, there were literally marks on my legs from trying to pull out hair to stay awake during meetings with heads of state and foreign ministers, because it's generally not very diplomatically sound to be yawning and falling asleep in meetings about war and peace.
And what I found was when I would exercise, even if it was 3 in the morning, 4 in the morning, even if it was just briefly on a layover where you had two and a half hours instead of sitting in the lounge, go do the calls, walking up and down the hallways, you're just more likely to keep your body in a place where it has the kind of reservoir to draw from.”
This episode explores the extreme path that led Tom to run (smoking fast) marathons, get into Spartan Races, go on 10-day silent meditation retreats and more.
When Jonathan and I decided to give the United States of Sweat concept a shot, these are the kinds of stories I had the sense existed that we don’t hear about at all or very often.
As we continue to explore the United States of Sweat concept and rapid prototype tweaks to the format for new episodes, we want to hear what you think. You can message me here or DM me on Instagram @hardwaypod.
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Jonathan Kaplan runs WRITE CADENCE STRATEGIES, helping organizations navigate Washington, shape policy and manage reputational risk. He also writes Riding With, a newsletter and podcast exploring the intersection of pro cycling, media, business and politics. Find that at ridingwithkaplan.substack.com.
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