The Kurty D Show

042 - Interventions with Clay Johnson

Episode Summary

This week I'm excited to share my conversation with my friend, Clay Johnson. Clay co-founded Blue State Digital a company that provided technology services and online strategy for Democratic campaigns, including the 2008 Barack Obama Presidential Campaign. Clay went on to have other high-profile assignments in DC, including as a Director at the Sunlight Foundation, as well as a Presidential Innovation Fellow. But all was not well, 2018, HuffPost reported the stories of several women who alleged Johnson engaged in serious sexual misconduct. This article exploded Clay’s life- including ending his career working in progressive politics. This is the first public interview since Clay has re-emerged. Clay has rebuilt his life into a deep practice of reflection and service. Clay's shame, hurt, and regret is one of the topics of this conversation. But what I wanted to explore in this show was the transformative power of recovery and the work. Clay is now helping other families with his innovative approach to intervention. When I was in college, I staged an intervention for my Dad- who was addicted to drugs and alcohol. It was scary and almost didn’t work. Fast forward to now, My Dad has been sober for over 20 years and is a bright light to his family and community. Episode 1 of my podcast features my Dad and my family’s miraculous recovery story. This interview does not excuse Clay’s past behavior, but attempts to shine a light on the power of truth-telling, the healing that time well-spent offers, and the hope that there are new methods to help the large numbers of people struggling with addiction. Every family seems to have a loved one battling addiction and mental health- and the problem seems to worsen. But there are solutions and evidence of societies like Portugal that have transformed their addiction problems w progressive policy- and this show stands that we get to choose- and make choices that can make our lives- and the lives of others better.

Episode Notes

What we covered:

Learn more about addictions and sobriety as a whole.
Get to ask yourself the questions that you need to know yourself better.
The importance of interventions and sobriety in the long run
Why trauma can lead to substance abuse
Why it’s essential to give out second chances to people who are recovering from addiction
The importance of creating a safe space for people who aim for sobriety.

Tweetable Quotes:

“If your definition of success is going into rehab, it works. But it takes a lot more to get somebody into recovery. You can’t trick someone into a program of rigorous honesty.”
“People are greater than the sum of their faults.”
“If there’s someone I’m a victim of, it’s myself.”
“When you think you’re smart and larger than life and have a successful career, the idea of being an alcoholic is preposterous. How would you not be able to control this? You can control everything else.”
“It took me ten years to stop drinking and recognize my problem.”
“I can’t undo what I’ve done. I can’t undo what he has done, either. But what we can do together is face forward and fix the future. Create healing. But we’re not going to do that while we’re wallowing in our despair. We have to find out how to recover from that. Find ourselves and make that a place of power.”

Links Mentioned:

Kurt’s Twitter

Kurt’s Instagram

Kurt’s LinkedIn

Stop, Pause, Play website

Clay Johnson’s LinkedIn

Clay Johnson’s Twitter

The Sunlight Foundation