PTSD, Post-Traumatic Growth, and Prioritizing Mental Health with Jason Kander

Being Well with Forrest Hanson and Dr. Rick Hanson

Being Well

Health & Fitness, Education, Self-improvement, Mental Health

4.8 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 3 October 2022

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 2016 Jason Kander was a rising star in the Democratic Party. After narrowly losing the race to become one of Missouri’s Senators, he began laying the groundwork for a Presidential run. Jason unexpectedly pivoted to declaring his candidacy for the 2019 Kansas City mayoral election, and quickly became the clear favorite. Three months into that campaign he ended his candidacy and stepped back from public life after revealing that he had suffered from PTSD and depression after serving as an intelligence officer in Afghanistan in 2006 and 2007 On today’s episode of Being Well, Jason joins Forrest to talk about his personal journey recovering from PTSD, the impact of his time serving in Afghanistan, imposter syndrome and shame, having a mental health challenge in public, and what we can do to better support veterans.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everyone, welcome to Being Well, I'm Forrest Tansen.
0:10.5	If you're new to the show, thanks for joining us today and if you've listened before,
0:13.9	welcome back.
0:14.9	Today, I'm joined by a very special guest, a former army captain, almost presidential
0:19.5	candidate, best-selling author and fellow fan of the West Wing, Jason Cantor.
0:25.0	Jason served as an intelligence officer in Afghanistan in 2006 and 2007 and was elected
0:30.6	to the Missouri State Legislature in 2008 and as a Missouri Secretary of State in 2012.
0:36.4	In 2016, he was the Democratic nominee for Senate in Missouri and in President Barack
0:42.1	Obama's final Oval Office interview, he was asked who gave him help for the future of
0:46.8	the country and Jason was the first person he named.
0:50.1	He began laying the groundwork for presidential run in 2018 and then he pivoted to declaring
0:54.5	his candidacy for the 2019 Kansas City mayoral election, which took a lot of people
1:00.1	by surprise.
1:01.4	Then three months into that campaign and as the clear favorite in the race, he ended
1:05.5	his candidacy and stepped back from public life after revealing that he had suffered
1:09.8	from PTSD and depression since coming home from Afghanistan.
1:15.3	Today, Jason's the President of National Expansion at Veterans Community Project, a nonprofit
1:20.0	organization dedicated to fighting veteran suicide and homelessness.
1:23.9	He's also the host of Majority 54, a popular political podcast and he's the author of Outside
1:29.4	the Wire, 10 Lessons I've Learned in Everyday Courage and his most recent book Invisible
1:34.4	Storm, A Soldier's Memoir of Politics and PTSD.
1:38.9	So Jason, thanks for doing this, how are you doing today?
	...

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