Everyone has a story and often they'll surprise you.

Stories that will cause you to smile or

feel your eyes with tears.

Stories that will change how you think about public figures you thought you knew.

This is David Axelrod, host of the Axfiles podcast,

where I sit down each week with some of the most interesting folks in politics and beyond.

Like Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor,

on living life to the fullest.

The one thing I took out of the lesson of my diabetes and that fear of dying young

was that I had an obligation and that is to squeeze out of life every minute that I could.

To make every moment in my life meaningful in some way.

Or Steve Kerr, the NBA coach on his father's stunning assassination in Beirut.

And I think about him all the time because what's happened in my career is so far-fetched.

It really is. I was just hoping I could actually get in the rotation at Arizona and play,

maybe for a couple of years and earn some playing time and to end up having this career and not

being able to share any of it with him. He would have just loved every second of it.

And I would have loved sharing it with him.

On the Axfiles, we hear the inspiring personal stories that helped shape our guests.

It's conversation, not debate.

For more of this show, go to luminarypodcasts.com.