When Failure is Not an Option
Host, Ken Harbaugh, interviews political leaders, influencers, and other history makers about the choices we confront when failure is not an option. Choices like Alexander the Great made when he landed his troops on the shores of Persia and ordered his men to burn their boats.
Latest Episode
“Diversity can be captured in a snapshot, in a photograph. But inclusion is all about finding that authenticity and bringing it fully to the table, and that is not an easy thing to achieve when you've built hundreds of years of culture around normalizing and equalizing people's character traits.” - Mary Beth Bruggeman
Mary Beth Bruggeman, the president of The Mission Continues, talks about her experiences as a woman in the Marine Corps, about the responsibility of teaching military leadership in wartime, and about the work TMC does to harness the energy and skills of veterans to work on social issues in their communities.
Find The Mission Continues on Twitter at @missioncontinue and Mary Beth herself at @mb_bruggeman. Watch Mary Beth’s TED Talk on YouTube. You can learn more about The Mission Continues on their website, https://missioncontinues.org/.
Join in the discussion! Participate in Episode 7 of Burn the Boats with Bill Kristol by leaving a voicemail at 216-245-5461 or sending a voice memo to burntheboats@evergreenpodcasts.com. Tell us your first name (or anonymous, if you prefer) and tell us what you think is the biggest obstacle our country faces to having balanced and responsible political parties.
Adam Frankel: Healing Family Trauma through Honesty
Burn the BoatsJoe Sestak: Individual Rights and the Common Good
Burn the Boats
More about the name of the show...
In 334 BC, Alexander the Great led Greek troops across the Dardanelles Straits and into Asia Minor, landing on the shores of Persia. He hoped to finally vanquish his greatest enemy, Darius III - the King of Persia. But Alexander was badly outnumbered. The Persian army assembled to attack and Alexander’s troops began to speak openly of retreat. So he gave an order: "Burn the Boats." He told his men, “we either return home in Persian ships, or we die here.” There would be no turning back.
By burning his boats, Alexander hoped to galvanize and motivate his troops. They needed to fully commit to defeating Darius and the Persians. There was no other way - failure was not an option.
This podcast explores decisions our guests made when they fully committed to something because failure was not an option.
The Team
Ken Harbaugh
