A New Identity
Out There
Willow Belden
4.6 • 608 Ratings
🗓️ 13 October 2016
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Fresh out of college, Brendan Leonard was an alcoholic. A total mess.
And -- spoiler alert -- he got sober. But drinking had been his favorite thing; it was what defined him. After alcohol was taken away from him, he didn't know who he was anymore.
On this episode, he joins me to talk about the difficult process of creating a new life for himself. For Brendan, that new life came about in the outdoors, through rock climbing. And it happened completely by accident.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm Willow Belden, and you're listening to Out There. This is a podcast about the outdoors, from your window box and garden, to the fields on the edge of town, to the forests, prairies, seashores, and wilderness. |
| 0:29.6 | On the show, we explore our relationship with nature, through stories, interviews, essays, and even some fiction. |
| 0:36.6 | We travel around the U.S. and the world with tales of love and heartbreak, passion, and adversity, desperation, and triumph. I woke up in a jail cell again, I'd been in a jail cell again. |
| 1:11.6 | You know, I'd been in a bunch of jails at this point, just like getting arrested for things, waking up, and you're like, where am I? |
| 1:17.6 | And oh, here's where I am again. |
| 1:20.6 | This is Brendan Leonard. |
| 1:28.7 | He's a writer in Denver, Colorado, and his new book is called 60 Meters to Anywhere. |
| 1:34.4 | And this experience he just described, where he ended up in jail, happened because he'd gotten |
| 1:40.1 | a DUI. |
| 1:41.9 | It wasn't the first time he'd been arrested for drunk driving. Wasn't even the first |
| 1:45.5 | time he'd been to jail for drunk driving. If you saw Brendan today, you'd never guess that |
| 1:50.5 | alcohol had been a problem for him. He's trim and athletic looking, with kind eyes, and he's |
| 1:56.5 | got those healthy-looking creases on his forehead that come from years spent in the outdoors. |
| 2:01.6 | He's also well-respected as a writer. |
| 2:04.6 | But at the point when he ended up in jail, alcohol had almost ruined his life. |
| 2:15.3 | Like many of us, he'd had his first drink in high school, stole a can of Miller genuine draft light from his parents. |
| 2:21.3 | He didn't like the taste, but tried to choke it down anyway. |
| 2:25.3 | He was like any kid, he just wanted to fit in, didn't want to seem like a wuss around his friends. |
| 2:30.3 | And so he drank. |
| 2:32.3 | By the time he was 17, he would get drunk whenever he had a night off from his |
| 2:36.0 | dishwashing job and could manage to get some beer. In college, he was on a first-name basis with many of the bartenders in town. |
| 2:44.0 | Early on, he loved drinking. Going out to bars made him feel alive and excited. He met new people, bought drinks for strangers, did shots with the bartenders. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Willow Belden, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Willow Belden and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.