Ep. 138 - Jason Benetti
The Axe Files with David Axelrod
CNN
4.6 • 7.7K Ratings
🗓️ 13 April 2017
⏱️ 64 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Music |
| 0:06.0 | And now, from the University of Chicago Institute of Politics and CNN, the Axviles, with your host, David Axelrod. |
| 0:18.0 | If you like what we do here on the Axviles, go on webbyawards.com, look up the category that says, best interview and talk show, |
| 0:28.0 | and give us a vote. And if you're interested, you can go on best host as well and give me one. |
| 0:33.0 | I rarely have had the chance to ask for votes for myself before I generally ask for them for others. |
| 0:39.0 | There are a lot of great stories in sports, but not all of them are on the field. One of those great stories is Jason Benetti, |
| 0:45.0 | the television play by play man for the Chicago White Sox. |
| 0:49.0 | Jason overcame cerebral palsy and some of the physical deficits that came with it to become one of the great young voices in sports today. |
| 0:58.0 | But he's also a great voice for people who are going through similar challenges. I sat down with him recently on a visit to spring training. |
| 1:09.0 | Jason Benetti, great to see you down here in beautiful Arizona. |
| 1:16.0 | I want to obviously talk to you a little bit about baseball, but I'm really interested in your journey here, |
| 1:26.0 | because it's an unusual one, and to me an inspiring one. But tell me a little bit about the beginnings, your beginnings, and some of the challenges that you had to overcome to get here. |
| 1:40.0 | Well, it all started in a thousand watt radio station. Any time I answer that question, I sound like Ted Baxter. |
| 1:47.0 | But I grew up in Chicago for my first couple of years in the city, then my family moved to the South Suburbs of Chicago. |
| 1:57.0 | But you didn't have any, you're skipping over one part. Your birth was not an easy thing, and you've dealt with some deficits as a result of it. |
| 2:07.0 | Yeah, my recollection of certain aspects of it is not my own. It's my parents' recollection. But I was born premature, and I ended up getting sick while I was very young. |
| 2:19.0 | I have cerebral palsy. I had a couple surgeries when I was young, heel cord, hamstring, surgery on my eyes, and... |
| 2:30.0 | Explain what cerebral palsy is. |
| 2:33.0 | Yeah, it's such a varied disease or disorder, whatever you want to call it. But it's essentially that certain neurons in my brain don't fire the same way, don't match up essentially with the way the neurons that you would use for walking or whatever it might be. |
| 2:53.0 | Because of oxygen deprivation early in... |
| 2:56.0 | Right, right. So what I ended up with, I am not the world's foremost expert on CP in some part because I've never really wanted to identify only as that. |
| 3:12.0 | Of course. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from CNN, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of CNN and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

