Passion Struck with John R. Miles - David Rubenstein on Iconic America, Patriotic Philanthropy and Leadership EP 283

Episode Date: April 21, 2023

From modest beginnings, David Rubenstein has pursued a unique form of philanthropy - patriotic philanthropy - to preserve "Iconic America," America's iconic symbols and their stories, revealing a twist in history that has the power to foster a greater appreciation for our nation's past. What can we learn from David's journey, and what does the future of patriotic philanthropy hold? David Rubenstein Joins Me to Discuss "Iconic America, Patriotic Philanthropy, and Leadership On this episode of Passion Struck, I am joined by David Rubenstein, a billionaire businessman widely known as a "patriotic philanthropist," who is venturing into a new role as a television host. Specifically, he will be the presenter of "Iconic America: Our Symbols and Stories with David Rubenstein," an upcoming PBS series consisting of eight episodes. The show, which is set to debut on April 26 at 10 p.m. and air every Wednesday, aims to delve into the significance of American landmarks and symbols such as the Hollywood sign, the Statue of Liberty, Fenway Park in Boston, and the Gadsden flag. Rubenstein, who co-founded The Carlyle Group, will serve as the program's host and public face. Full show notes and resources can be found here: https://passionstruck.com/david-rubenstein-on-iconic-america/  Brought to you by Green Chef. Use code passionstruck60 to get $60 off, plus free shipping!” Brought to you by Indeed. Head to https://www.indeed.com/passionstruck, where you can receive a $75 credit to attract, interview, and hire in one place. --► For information about advertisers and promo codes, go to: https://passionstruck.com/deals/  Like this show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter or Instagram handle so we can thank you personally! --► Prefer to watch this interview: https://youtu.be/50cMgcF_mMo  --► Subscribe to Our YouTube Channel Here: https://www.youtube.com/c/JohnRMiles  Want to find your purpose in life? I provide my six simple steps to achieving it - passionstruck.com/5-simple-steps-to-find-your-passion-in-life/ Catch my interview with Lori Gottlieb on the importance of embracing self-compassion: https://passionstruck.com/lori-gottlieb-on-embracing-self-compassion/  Watch the solo episode I did on the topic of Chronic Loneliness: https://youtu.be/aFDRk0kcM40  Want to hear my best interviews from 2022? Check out episode 233 on intentional greatness and episode 234 on intentional behavior change. ===== FOLLOW ON THE SOCIALS ===== * Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/passion_struck_podcast * Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/johnrmiles.c0m  Learn more about John: https://johnrmiles.com/  Passion Struck is now on the AMFM247 broadcasting network every Monday and Friday from 5–6 PM. Step 1: Go to TuneIn, Apple Music (or any other app, mobile or computer) Step 2: Search for “AMFM247” Network

Coming up next on Passion Struck. We came up with the idea of getting people to learn about eight iconic American symbols of our country. They're not the official government symbol, but they have become in the minds of many people in some areas, symbols of our country. The first one is on Fenway Park. Other ones that we've done are Stone Mountain in Georgia, the Gadsden flag, which says, don't tread on me, which was a symbol used in the Revolutionary War by the Americans, the American cowboy, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Hollywood sign, the American Bald Eagle, and Statue of Liberty. Welcome to PassionStruck. Hi, I'm your host, John Armeils, and on the show, we decipher the secrets, tips, and guidance of the world's most inspiring people and turn their wisdom into practical advice for you and those around you.

Our mission is to help you unlock the power of intentionality so that you can become the best version of yourself. If you're new to the show, I offer advice and answer listener questions on Fridays. We have long form interviews the rest of the week with guest-ranging from astronauts to authors, CEOs, creators, innovators, scientists, military leaders, visionaries, and athletes. Now, let's go out there and become PassionStruck.

Hello everyone and welcome back to episode 283 of PassionStruck. Rated by Apple is one of the top 20 help podcasts. And thank you to each and every one of you who comes back weekly to listen and learn, how to live better, be better in impact the world. And in case you didn't know it, PassionStruck is also now on Ceticated Radio, and you can find us on the AM FM 247 Network, every Monday and Friday from 5 to 6 PM,

tune in on one of the radio stations that'll be in the show notes, or you can find it on tune in, Apple Music, or wherever else you listen to radio on. And if you're new to the show, thank you so much for being here, or you simply want to on Tune-in, Apple Music, or whatever else you listen to radio on. And if you're new to the show, thank you so much for being here, or you simply want to introduce this to a friend or family member. We have episode starder packs, which are collections of our fans' favorite episodes, that we organize in convenient topics to give any new listener. A great way to get acclimated to everything we do here on the show. Either go to Spotify or passionstruck.com slash starter packs to get started. And in case you missed it, earlier in the week, I interviewed,

number one, New York Times bestselling author, speaker, and top rated podcast host, Brechen Ruben. And we discuss her brand new book, which released on Tuesday, Life and Five Senses. I also had the opportunity to interview Julian Holt Lundsted, who's a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the Brigham Young University. Dr. Hunt-Lunsted's research is focused on the long-term health effects of social connection. Her work has been seminal in the recognition of social isolation and loneliness, as risk factors for early mortality. And this is such an important episode because loneliness is impacting over a third of all people globally.

Please check both those episodes out if you haven't had a chance to already. And we would have so appreciated if you liked them or today's episode, if you would give us a five-star rating and review. It goes such a long way in helping us with our popularity, but more importantly, bringing more people into our ever-growing passion-struck community

where we can bring weekly doses of hope, meaning, inspiration, and connection. Now let's talk about today's episode where I had the pleasure of hosting David M. Ruminstein, co-founder of the Carlisle Group, an avid student of history and a patriotic philanthropist. We will be discussing his new PBS series, Iconic America, Our Symbols and Stories, which delves into American history by closely examining iconic national symbols, including indelible artifacts, places and archetypes. Rubenstein, through this work, travels to various locations to converse with historical thinkers, subject matter experts and community members who explore each symbol's history and how its meaning has

evolved over time. Along with Rubenstein, Emmy Award production company, Show of Force, is also an executive producer of the show. The series, which will premiere Wednesday, April 26th on PBS at 10pm, comprises eight episodes that focus on Fenway Park, The Hollywood Sign, the Gatston flag, the American cowboy, the Statue of Liberty, the American bald eagle, Stone Mountain, and the Golden Gate Bridge. The series Shed's Light on how these icons were created, and how perceptions of them have evolved over time.

Some of these manifestations of our cultural history are highly disputed as different groups assign them different meanings. The symbols that endure, provide insight into society's values and how people see themselves through them, enabling us to contextualize a nation's shared past in the present moment. David M. Rumenstein is the co-founder and co-chairman of the Carlisle Group, which is a global investment firm. He holds the position of Chairman of the Boards of various prestigious institutions, including the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts,

the Council on Foreign Relations, the National Gallery of Art, the Economic Club of Washington, and the University of Chicago. Mr. Rubenstein is also an original signer of the Giving Pledge and has received the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy in recognition of his charitable contributions. In addition to his accomplishments,

Mr. Rubenstein is also a celebrated TV host, resending such shows as the David Rubenstein Show, here to peer conversations on Bloomberg TV and PBS, and Bloomberg Wealth with David Rubenstein on Bloomberg TV. He is also the New York Times best-selling author of the American story, how to lead the American story, How to Lead, the American Experiment, and How to Invest.

Thank you for choosing Passion Struck and choosing me to be your hosting guide on creating an intentional life. Now, let that journey begin. I am absolutely honored and ecstatic to have David Rubenstein on Passion Struck. Welcome, David. Thank you for having me.

Well, as we, I'm going to be a part of the I am absolutely honored and ecstatic to have David Rubenstein on Hashan Struck. Welcome, David. Thank you for having me. As we talked about before, this podcast is all about how you intentionally shape your life in a way that gets you closer to pursuing your dreams. And my understanding is you were raised in a modest, blue collar family in Baltimore, and when you were younger,

the idea of making large amounts of money wasn't even on your radar screen. And as we talked before, I'm an evil academy graduate, and President Carter is one of our most famous graduates. And I understand out of law school, you started working for him, and then you thought you would make a career as a Washington lawyer. However, your life didn't go that direction as you expected or intended. And I wanted to ask, how did you go about finding your purpose and what would be some of the key learnings you could share with the audience for them

following theirs? Yes, you're correct in the way you describe it. I came from a modest family and my father working at post office did not graduate from high school, nor did my mother. I was their only child. I got scholarships to go to Duke University in University of Chicago Law School. My goal was to be a lawyer, but to do it in Washington and be connected to politics is because I was very interested in politics. In the time that I grew up in the 1950s and 60s, there were no billionaires in the United States, and the idea of going to a private equity firm or hedge fund or a tech startup didn't exist

because they didn't really exist those kind of organizations. So if you wanted to go into business, you typically went into your father's company, or maybe if you were really adventurous, you might join IBM or Morgan Guarantee or a proctor and gamble, but those were difficult roots to move up in.

So I'd never considered that, and making money never really appealed to me that much. So when I left the White House after we lost the election in 1980 to Ronald Reagan, I practiced law. That's all I knew, but I really wasn't that good at it. So I later decided to start a private equity firm in Washington that became one of the largest in the world. And then when I made a fair amount of money, I signed a giving pledge to Bill Gates and Warren Buffett had put together and basically decided to give away the bulk of my money. I have free children, they're all well educated and they all have MBAs and they're all in private equity with their own firms, but they don't really need my money so much, so

I'm basically giving it away. One of the things I've spent a lot of time doing is giving it away to help people know more about the history of our country. And the pluses the minuses what I've called patriotic philanthropy. So that's a large part of what I've been doing. Today we're going to talk about your leadership in the area of philanthropy. But I understand when you were younger, you didn't think of yourself as a leader, especially not the leader that you've become. And you've written a couple books on leadership.

One of them, I'll hold here. This one is called How to Lead, and it's served as a constant guide to me that I use almost weekly. What did you learn about yourself and what did you learn from studying other leaders about what makes a person a good leader? Is it a craft? Is it a calling? What is it? Well, there are some people that say you're born as a leader, other people say you can grow into being a leader. I'm not sure it's easy to be born as a leader though, obviously if your parents have great athletic skills,

you might be born with pretty good genes for athletics, but you have to work at doing athletics. In my case, I was basically a nerdy kind of a student, not a great athlete, not a superstar student, but reasonable, and I didn't see myself as a leader. I was more of a follower. And then later in life, I got to be a situation where I could be more of a leader because I had the money to fund certain things or I had some initiatives I started that took off. But the key characteristics of leaders are generally people who have somewhere they want to take other people, they have certain communication skills to persuade people to follow them. They're willing to fail and get back on their feet and try again. They learn from their mistakes. They also learn how to have some humility

because they know what it's like to fail. So generally the leaders I admire have humility. And generally, I think they also have a lot of luck. You have to make your own luck. If you sit in your house all day and don't meet with anybody and don't do anything, you're not likely to meet people that could open doors for you, make contacts for you,

or give you some inspiration to do something. So make as many contacts as you can as I did and try to find something that is you're calling. We're only on this earth for a very short period of time, relatively speaking. And everybody should find something that they want to do with their life and enjoy it that. If you don't enjoy what you're doing, then you better find something else in my view or you have a very unsatisfactory life. Well, I understand from doing research before the show that you were around 54

when you decided that for this next chapter of your life, you wanted to make philanthropy a huge component of it. And you were one of the 41st signers of the Giving Pledge, as you alluded to before. I wanted to ask you, why is philanthropy so important to you? And why was it meaningful for you to sign that pledge? Well Bill Gates called me about the pledge, and at the time I had already resolved

to give away the bulk of my money. So I really wasn't doing anything I hadn't already decided to do. And the reason I think it's important is that when you born into this world, you're basically born with nothing. And when you die, you're basically leaving nothing and you're buried. In that interim period of time, between the time you're born and you die, you can accumulate a fair amount of wealth, but you really can't take it with you.

And so I think the most important thing to do if you have wealth is to find useful things for it. And one of the things that I find most useful is giving back to society. I've involved in educational institutions, cultural organizations, medical research organizations, and try to do something so that my children will feel or maybe my parents felt that I was doing something useful with my life. Everybody wants to feel they I was doing something useful with my life.

Everybody wants a feel they're doing something useful or meaningful with their life. Otherwise, you're going to live a very, I think, unsatisfactory life. Yes, out of all that wide spectrum of organizations that you've given time, money, and dedication to, is there a core underpinning or meaning to where you dedicate your resources? Yes, I have four standards. One is I want to start something that otherwise wouldn't get started. Second, I'd like to finish something that otherwise wouldn't get finished. Third, I want to have an intellectual interest in it, so I'm willing to give more than money, but I'm giving my most valuable thing, which is my time.

Everybody's most valuable commodity is their time. You can't make more time. You can make more money. So I want to find something that I'm intellectually interested in. So I will stay involved with it. And fourth, I'd like to see progress in my lifetime. I am not chasing the greatest causes in the world, generally, because I don't think I'm going to make enough progress. I don't have the resources or time to do it.

I'll let other people do those kind of things. So I am interested in climate change, like everybody. but I don't have enough money, time, resources or other skills to make a big difference in that project. So I leave other that to others. I focus on things where I can see some real progress in my lifetime, and I'm going to be involved and have some meaningful impact. Well, I wanted to just talk if I could maybe about a couple of them. My younger sister was unfortunately diagnosed with pancreatic cancer about three years ago, and she is still living today, but fighting this terrible disease on a daily basis. And I wanted to highlight pancreatic cancer because it's a core area that you have focused in. And I was hoping you could tell me about your work

with the Memorial Sloan Kettering Organization. Memorial Sloan Kettering Organization is one of the two or three leading cancer hospitals and research organizations in the United States. The other is probably being MD Anderson and in Boston, there's another really good one. I think is also done at a terrific job. And I think that those organizations are at the cutting edge of cancer research and also

clinical work, which to help people that have that problem. Cancer is with us since man has been around. I'm interviewing tonight the man who won the Pulitzer Prize for a book called Cancer, the Emperor of All Malatites. And then that man, Sid Mukaji, did a credible story about the history of cancer and a through reveal that's been around for basically since recorded history. But we've made progress in the last 50 years since the time that President Nixon declared the war on cancer in the late 1960s early 1970s. We have made progress, but we still have a long way to go. I suspect another 50 or

a hundred years before we're really going to get eliminate all intensive purposes cancer. There are three types of cancers that I think are, I'm particularly interested in. They have deadly impact and you can live with them very short periods of time. Let me illustrate. If you get breast cancer in what's called stage one,

you have a pretty good chance of if you get treatment in stage one of having a recovery and 98 to 99% of those who are discovered in stage one and get treatment survive within five years, they survive, 98 to 99%. If you get one of three others within five years, you have a pretty good chance of not surviving because the survival rate is 5% or less.

Those cancers are pancreatic cancer, glial blastoma, which is a brain cancer, and liver cancer. All have very low survival rates. And that's been part because we're not able to detect them until you are in stage four very often. But at that point, it's very late. I am interested in pancreatic cancer,

not because I've had it or my family members have had it, but I thought it was a disease that wasn't getting enough attention, enough funding. So I created a pancreatic cancer center at the Sloan Kettering, which does research and clinical work as well, treating patients. I don't think that the impact has been that great yet of what I've done because we still have a very high fatality rate. Friends of mine have had it since I created the center. Some have gone there like Justice Ginsburg, but it wasn't able to arrest the problem because it's so deadly. And one of the problems whether you have a high likelihood of getting it or not or maybe you already have it. Whereas we don't have that with pancreatic cancer until you're in stage 4, you're not likely to know you have it. So I'm interested in it because there wasn't enough work being done on it. And I just thought I could put some resources to it.

And another one that caught my focus was your work with ALS. And one of my very good friends, Dr. J. Lombard, is a neurologist who has dedicated his life to trying to find a cure. And you tell me about what you're doing with target ALS? Yes. When I was a little boy, I remember reading about Blue Garrick at the age of 36, stopped playing with the Yankees and he later was diagnosed at the Mayo clinic with ALS, which was known to very few people. And later, in fact, it was so little known that it was later called Blue Garrix disease. ALS will strike one out of every 400 Americans. And one

is likelihood of living past two or three years after you get it is very small. A friend of mine, Dan Docteroff, who really created target ALS, one of his co-founders, but he's really the engine behind it. He had a father that died of it, and he and Uncle who died of it, and he had a college roommate who died of it. So he decided to put some money together to do research on it, and I helped him at the beginning. Sadly, and unamazingly, he has come down with ALS in the last year, and now he's on Target

to raise about $250 million with ALS in the last year and now he's on target to raise about $250 million for ALS research. It's a disease which doesn't strike the brain, your cognitive abilities, but it strikes your ability to function with your muscles. And so, typically within three to five years, if you live that long, you will lose control of your body and you might be able to communicate just by batting your eyelashes or do some other very modest way of communicating. It's a very, very serious disease, but we don't have as much progress in figuring out what causes it or how to treat it compared to where we should be. Well, thank you so much for your work on both of those because my

Well, thank you so much for your work on both of those because my observation has been very similar to yours that they don't get enough attention funding, et cetera, and both of them are rising in occurrence. So it's definitely something we need to focus on. Well, a big portion of your philanthropy has also led to the funding of the preservation of several of the United States' most historical documents, and the restoration and maintenance of some of America's most prominent historical memorials and monuments. You ended up pointing the term patriotic philanthropy, and I was hoping you could discuss what that is

and why it's so important to remind people of our history and our heritage. Okay, so awful anthropology is really patriotic it's so important to remind people of our history and our heritage. Okay, so awful, Anthony, is really patriotic in some respects, so you're really helping your country in almost all cases. But I thought that phrase was designed to convey an interest in reminding people of the history

and heritage of our country. The theory of civilization is that you make progress. And you make progress by making sure you learn the mistakes of the past and correct them and do better things in the future, or take advantage of the things that are done well in the past and try to do them again even better. But if you don't know the history of the past, how are you going to know what to avoid? So what I'm trying to do in my modest way is to remind people, in this case, of the history and heritage of our country, the good in the bad.

For example, I bought a only copy in private hands of the Magna Carta, which was the inspiration for the Declaration of Independence. And I put it on permanent loan to the US archives, where people can see it. I've done the same thing with an original copy of the Bill of Rights, the Declaration of Independence, the Emancipation Proclamation, the 13th Amendment,

which freed slaves. And that was designed to get people to look at them and then learn more about the history. Now, what's the point of it preserving the magnet card or the Declaration of Independence? We know it's in it. You can look on a computer slide and know what the words are.

So what do you care about the historic document itself? Well, it turns out the human brain has not yet evolved to the point where if you see something on a computer slide, it has the same impact on getting you to be interested in it or getting you to do something about it as if you see the original. So if you go see the original of the Magna Carta at the National Archives, you're likely to read about it before you go there.

You're likely to hear a curator explain it to you and you're likely to read about it afterwards. That's why we preserve them. The same with buildings. Buildings like the Washington Monument, the Jefferson Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, Mount Vernon, Montpelier, James Madison, Thomas Chela Thomas, Jefferson's home. If you go visit those sites, you're likely to learn

more about what those individuals did and their importance to our country, and they go to the bed. So for example, and Monticello and Montpelier, when I help restore them, I wanted to make certain that the fact that they were slave owners, Jefferson and Madison, would be known. They did some wonderful things. They're responsible for the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, great documents, but they also were slave owners and we should learn

the good in the bad of history. And that's really what I've been trying to do. So I hope that this effort is designed to get people no more about our history and our background and let me just tell you how bad it is right now. When you are a foreigner and you want to come to this country, you take a citizenship test, 91% of the people that take it pass and the citizenship test basically says you take 10 questions, you study 100 potential questions, you get 10, you have to get six right. Questions are how many branches of government are there who is the first president of the United States, things like that. The same test was more or less given to about two to three million Americans a few years ago who are native born. And in all 50 states with the exception of one, I should say in 49 states, the majority of

citizens who took that test who were born, could not pass the basic citizenship test, only Vermont, did a bare majority of citizens pass it. So that means that people born here don't know more about our history or much about our background and our government. So I think it's a worthwhile cause. Well, I think that's a great introduction to what we're going to spend the bulk of today talking about, which is this new show that you have coming out called Iconic America, which premieres this coming Wednesday, April 26th, on PBS. And can you tell me about the show and why you thought it was so important

to as part of your patriotic philanthropy explore this history and meaning of these symbols? Well, you've only can get people to learn about the history of you find a way to get people to read or watch television or do something else, visit a site. So you have to get something that's going to be reasonably appealing. And I work with some producers who have really good experience in producing shows that people want to watch. And we came up with the idea of getting people to learn about eight iconic American symbols of our country. They're not the official government symbol, but they have become in the minds of many people in some areas, symbols of our

country. And so I spent the much of 2002 filming this around the country and in some parts of outside the country. And we now are going to begin it on April 26th. The first one is on Fenway Park, the oldest ballpark in the United States. Other ones that we've done are Stone Mountain in Georgia, where Confederate symbols are carved into the mountain side of this very important granite piece of geology that does in Atlanta. Another one is the Gadistan flag, which says, don't tread on me, which was a symbol used in the Revolutionary War by the Americans, but also now used by people who were opposed to things on January the 6th. Also, the American cowboy, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Hollywood sign, the American Bald Eagle,

and the Statue of Liberty. Those are the ones we've chosen. We could have picked many others. And if we do another eight, we'll pick other ones. Well, one of the questions I did wanna ask is, why did you pick those eight and what were close to being on the list, but then make it? Well, I'm the chairman of the Kennedy Center and every year we have Kennedy Center honors

and every year we pick five people to honor. And it's a winnowing down list. You want to have a balance, a genres and personalities and backgrounds and so forth. Same is here. So we wanted to have a cross section across the country. So we have some from the west coast, some you could argue from the south, some from the east coast, and some from the Midwest. So that was a geographic balance.

We wanted some things that everybody would recognize are important symbols. So the Statue of Liberty is seen as a symbol, but some things that people don't know much about, like the gadgets and flag, but they're in some respects are symbols. So we negotiated among ourselves and the producers and I and others who are involved, picked these eight. We could have picked others. Obviously, other ones we considered were ones like the Alamo, Smoky the Bear, Leapark, and a whole variety of other ones that maybe in some other time we will do things on them, the star spangled banners and other good symbol of our country.

So things like that are what we considered and we came up with these eight and I'm sure some people say we could have picked a different eight, but generally I think it's a good cross section and the show is done pretty well. I am not a TV broadcaster by background in the sense that I don't know how to put together award-winning shows, but I work with a group called Show of Force, which has a lot of experience in it. So I was the moderator and helped put the financing together for it, but I wasn't really the person who was in the film room editing it. Okay, and I'm going to go into some of the individual ones, but I just had a couple more overarching questions. And one of those was, can you talk to me about some of the leaders who created these iconic monuments and why their passion led them to do so?

Sure. Take the Statue of Liberty. Many people think the Statue of Liberty is designed to welcome immigrants. That had nothing to do with what the Statue of Liberty was about. It was initially a project conceived in France by some people who wanted to improve Franco-American relationships and also in effect congratulate the United States for eliminating slavery. And later it became a symbol of immigration as many people passed it before they went to Ellis Island. So it was really created by Frenchmen who thought it was a good gift to the

United States. Another one would be, let's say, the Golden Gate Bridge. The Golden Gate Bridge, that's one of the most beautiful bridges in the world, and a symbol of many way of the majesty of American construction and architecture. It was bitterly opposed by people in San Francisco and Marin County because they thought it would ruin both San Francisco and Marin County. And a number of people in San Francisco thought it was essential and it would got done but it took there were 4,000 lawsuits against it and it took four years to build or take the famous Hollywood sign that had nothing to do with saying Hollywood is where we make movies it was actually a land promotion effort there was a company called Hollywood Land that was building

houses in the Hollywood Hills and to attract people to buy those houses, they put a big sign up on Hollywood land. And the other people to come there and look at the houses. Later when the houses were all sold, they took the land part down in the Hollywood part state and was seen as a symbol of Hollywood. Those that turns out Hollywood is not a place for movies are really made.

They're made in Burbank or other parts of Los Angeles for most part. So there are different stories to all of these. Take Fenway Park is the oldest ballpark using the major leagues, but it was thought to be old and run down and many times people thought about pairing it down and building a new stadium. But the current owners of the team, when they bought it at the beginning of the century, I think it was, they basically kept it and restored it and modernized it a bit, but it's basically the same field that was built, I I think in 1912.

Thank you for that. And across the eight episodes, did you find any commonalities in them in common social or societal values or how we see ourselves through them? Sure. In each of these cases, people in the United States take a lot of pride in these things. People are very proud. If you're a New Yorker, you might take a visitor to see the Statue of Liberty. If you are living in in Texas or Colorado or Oklahoma or Wyoming, you might take pride in what the cowboy does. So I went to a lot of rodeos, which were the modern day version of cowboys often appear. So people take pride in these symbols. What is a symbol? Why do people, I'd say, look at symbols and have a pride in them. Well, I'll take the American flag. What is the American flag?

It's a piece of cloth, but it's a symbol of our country's beginning and our country today with 13 stripes symbolizing the 13 original colonies and 50 stars symbolizing the 50 states we have. So when we wave the flag, what are we waving? Well, we're waving something that represents United States. That's what a symbol is all about. And so I wanted to explain to people why symbols are important and why you should learn the history of these symbols before you actually get involved in certain areas, for example.

I remember growing up, some of these symbols were not only icons of America, but also how other parts of Udice as well. And I found over the past decades that much of the esteem that was bestowed on the United States when I would travel overseas in the 80s and 90s has changed. Do you find that true when it comes to how people view these iconic symbols as well? Well, sure, things change over a period of time. For example, Stone Mountain is the largest piece of granite

that extrudes from the surface of the earth. It's a gigantic mound granite. And presumably for years, people looked at it who lived in that area. They didn't know what to make of it. They often worshiped it and so forth. But in the early part of the 20th century, it was used as a meeting grounds for the Ku Klux Land.

And it was a place that obviously, African Americans were not generally welcome. Today, we face a situation where we have we're coming to some racial recognition in this country, but we didn't have it so much earlier in the part of the 20th century. So in the early part of the 20th century, it was thought that it would be a good idea to memorialize the slavery and the lost cause of the Confederacy by carving into the face of the Stone Mountain three Confederate leaders, Jefferson Davis, Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee. It didn't actually get done into the early 1970s and amazingly the vice president of the United States, Spiro T. Agnew, from my hometown of Baltimore came to dedicate it. Now can you imagine the vice president of the United States coming

today to dedicate a symbol of the Confederacy? It would be something we wouldn't think of. So they do change in time. And now interestingly there's like a Disneyland at the foot of Stone Mountain and blacks and whites go there and they have a nice time with their families. But they're staring up at three Confederate symbols. And the question is today, is that a good thing for us or not a good thing for us? Should we keep that there as a symbol of what people thought was good a long time ago, or should we move it and get rid of it because it's really inappropriate today? And interestingly, in the interview that I did there, the man who is designed to promote and has been appointed by the governor of Georgia to promote Stone Mountain and the park there is an African-American minister.

And I asked him, how does he do that? And he basically explained it and it's seen in the show. So symbols do change, for sure. Take the Gadsden flag, which that says don't tread on me. Well, that was invented by Mr. Christopher Gadsden a slave owner in South Carolina. He invented that flag, put don't tread on me and was used in the Revolutionary War to say to the British don't tread on us leave us alone. When we had the events of January 6th and other kinds of things like that protest against the US government, the protesters today used this symbol as a symbol not against a foreign country, but against

their own country, saying, don't tread on me, federal government. So it's amazing how these things change. Well, it's interesting because I read that Benjamin Franklin actually called the Gadson flag something that was originally designed to intentionally not convey a racist message, but a patriotic one, like you just explained, but as time goes by, how do we decide what the Gatson flag or any symbol really means?

Well, of course society changes to make the lost cause of a nominate in the South as change the fair bit. It used to be something that the Souther's took great pride in that the Confederacy was doing some really great things in their view and they were trying to say that slavery wasn't so bad and

actually slaves were better off before we got rid of slavery. That was a view of many people who focused on the lost cause phenomenon. I think today we have generally a different point of view. Take the Statue of Liberty. It was designed really to thank America for ending slavery and improving US-Franco relationships. But because the Ellis Island was created nearby, when immigrants

came into the country, the Statue of Liberty was seen as a welcoming sign of liberty and became a symbol of immigration and welcoming immigrants. And then when Emma Lazarus's poem was put there later after it was already constructed and effect welcoming people to the United States, the symbol changed. So, symbols change, I think everything changes. You and I have changed our views on things probably over the lifetime that we've had and our perspectives on life changes and so these symbols change as well. Well, last night in preparing for today I was able to watch the episode that you did on

Fenway Park and I just went to see Tampa Bay rays play the Red Sox last week, which is a huge rivalry for us here in this town. Now, as big as obviously the Red Sox versus the Yankees. But I found the story to be very intriguing and actually at the end of it, I wanted to learn more.

One of the things I didn't realize about the Red Sox was that through a long period of time as segregation was happening in the leagues, it seemed like the Red Sox resisted bringing people of different cultures onto the team for a very long time. And I found that very surprising and in some ways linked to the curse

that plagued the team for so many years. The curse you're referring to is well known as the curse of the BamBino. When Babe Ruth, from my hometown of Baltimore, was a star picture before it became a famous home run-hitter. He played for the Boston Red Sox, and they famously traded him because the owner needed the money, and they traded him for $100,000 in New York Yankees. In the ensuing 86 years, the Boston Red Sox did not win a World Series, and people began to call it the Curse of Bambeenow, which is the mean,

how could you have been so stupid as to sell Babe Ruth? Suppose they kept Babe Ruth, maybe they would have won more World Series. But it turns out that the curse of Bambino probably didn't relate so much to selling Babe Ruth as the fact that the owner of the Red Sox Tom Yolkey refused to integrate. So they gave a try out to Jackie Robinson and said, well, he's not quite good enough. Then they gave a try out to Jackie Robinson and said, well, he's not quite good enough. Then they gave a try out to a man named Willie Mays, who they said, well, it wasn't good enough. Willie Mays, a totus friend, I'm going to the Red Sox and then they wouldn't hire him.

So if they had integrated earlier, they probably would have won World Series a lot sooner than the 86 years that ensued from between the time that they won with Babe Ruth and the time they won later with the current owners. And just another question on Fenway Park. As you said earlier, it was built in 1912. Why is it the most unique Major League ballpark? Well, it's unique because it's old, but it's unique because it's relatively small. So you're relatively close to the field. It reminds people what history looks like. The building, the outside of the building doesn't look like a big modern stadium. It looks like an office building really from the outside, because it was built by an architect who had built a lot of office buildings in Boston.

It also has a lot of obstructed views, which people had in those days, so it reminds you of how architecture was done. It also is famous for the big green wall, which is designed to make it more difficult to hit a home run out of the short left field area. It's also famous because people who go to the game there and if you've been there, you would know. When you get in Boston, they say, I'm going to the Fenway. People don't say, I'm going to go see the Red Sox. They say, I'm going to Fenway Park. In fact, if you look at the advertisement, it says, come to Fenway and Tampa Bay, for example, where you live. I don't know if it says come to the Tampa Bay Stadium as much as it says come to see the Tampa Bay baseball team, because the Fenway Park is as much an

attraction as the Red Sox. Who doesn't want to go to Boston and not see the Green Monster? So it's interesting how many people from that New England area, even if they're not a baseball fan, have actually gone to the stadium. And I think it's something that's similar with Wrigley field as well. Correct. And in Boston, they still have young men and women, I believe, putting what the scores, other games and so where they do it by hand. And I asked why is the green wall? Why not the red wall? It's a red socks. And basically, I think it was more readily available to get green paint at the time. Well, another one of the episodes I wanted to talk about was that of reader as well as the power of myth by Joseph Campbell. And myths are popular methods for learning and understanding our history. And in American culture, the cowboy story is a particular note because the cowboy's doings and goings, real and imaginary,

include a significant portion of our national ethos. And the Cowboys' quality is both good and bad, consistently receive attention in film and television and other cultural forms, because the Cowboys often synonymous with the American identity. Why are myths like the Cowboys' still relevant today? Well, everybody, I think, Liza, think about the past. I mean, generally, not always.

People have fun memories of their childhood. And in my childhood, and maybe you're younger than me, but maybe in your childhood, you had missed by watching television of Cowboys. So when I was growing up, they had hop-along Cassidy and people like that on television. And you had this identical view of what Cowboys were. They were saving the West.

They were killing the Indians, making that sound like that was a good thing, which obviously wasn't. But it turns out that cowboys were really cowboys. They were not really fighting Indians. They were not really doing the kind of things we saw on TV. Cowboys were basically people who heard it cattle to trains, so they could go to slaughterhouses. That's really what they were doing. And it turns out they weren't all white.

A large percentage of them were black. You don't see a lot of black cowboys on television, but turns out a large percentage of them were Latino or from Mexico. And so you don't see that. And also, it was a very difficult kind of thing. It was, you could be on a cowboy ride for three or four months with no showers, very little food and so forth. It was a difficult life be on a cowboy ride for three or four months with no showers,

very little food and so forth. It was a difficult life, but we've made a myth out of it that is more than it is, for example. When a television, when I advertising executive, one of the sell of Marboro cigarettes, what was the symbol they used? What was a cowboy, the Marboro man? You may remember that. And it was the most successful television ad ever. And why? Well, people presumably thought what could be more manly than sitting there on a horse with a cowboy hat smoking a cigarette.

And for some reason, nobody thought it was likely to kill you by smoking cigarettes or nobody was mentioning that at the time. In fact, the cowboys were such a good symbol, was recognized by the advertising agency, which created the Mar-Berro Man. Well, the other side of this is that if you look at the University of Wyoming Cowboys slogan, it's run backlash from critics, including faculty and Native American groups who call it a sexist racist and counterproductive because they feel

that the cowboy image excludes women and people of color. How has that symbol turned into something that signifies who is a real American and who isn't? Well, people are correct. There were women cowboys, not that many of them, cowgirls, not that many for a lot of reasons, but they were not all white. That's for certain. I think that it's very difficult to come up with a team mascot named these days because so many of them have racist overtones in Washington, DC where I live. The redskins were named that have been around for a long time and people more recently thought that was inappropriate name. Cleveland Indians thought to be inappropriate, so names changed. I think this is evolving

kind of part of our history, but I recognize the concerns that some people have about Cowboys, but I think people watch this show, they'll learn a lot more about what Cowboys really were and were not, and maybe some people will be offended by what they learn. I don't know. Okay, well, the Golden Gate Bridge is one of my favorite places to visit. Anytime I go to San Francisco, and I was just there this past October, and it still amazes me every time I see it, how incredible an engineering marvel it is, symbolizing the American Can-Do spirit. And we're in desperate need of infrastructure projects like this. Right now, our infrastructure across the United States and many parts is significantly lacking.

How do we continue to execute bold and ambitious projects like the Golden Gate Bridge in the future? Well, recently I interviewed a couple of days ago, Mitch Landrue, who's overseeing the infrastructure bill that Congress passed about a year or so ago, where more than a trillion dollars was appropriated for improving infrastructure in the United States. It's going to take a while for some grand projects like the Golden Gate Bridge. But I think people should recognize that all infrastructure

takes time and it has some controversy to it. As I indicated earlier, the Golden Gate Bridge was controversial then. And I the golden gate bridge work for some terrible reason to collapse and fall apart. Building it again today would be very difficult would take a long time to get all the approvals and out because we have more environmental concerns and other kinds of things like that than we did when this was built and then you have plenty of concerns then. Interestingly, the bridge is one which sadly, and we pointed out in the show, about 125 people a year try to jump off of it. Now, changes have been made that reduce the possibility that you can jump off of it and netting is now there and there are all kinds of telephone's there saying if you're thinking of, call us and we'll come right out and so forth. But still, about

25 people a year do jump off of it and commit suicide, a very sad situation. And because it's in a very windy area, golden gate area, the bitch had to sway. And so they had to design it so that it could sway without cracking. And so it actually can sway as much as 27 feet either way. So you think about him, you're walking across as I did, which is a little intimidating, you're going to be swaying as well. You probably can't detect the swaying that much on generally, but it is designed as sway by 27 feet. Yeah, I know it is pretty incredible. And we have another bridge here, the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, which is pretty iconic as well. And unfortunately, the setting of a huge bridge disaster that occurred before it. Well, David, I did want to ask you just a couple follow on things outside of the show. And one of those is you have a great podcast called the David Rubenstein show. One of those is you have a great podcast called The David Rubenstein Show. And I listened to one that you did with Dr. Vivek Murthy, the US surgeon general.

I think it came out in November where you covered the mental health crisis facing not only America, but it's really facing people worldwide. And based on that and other discussions that you've had, what do you think is at the root cause of this rise of mental health issues? And what do you think is at the root cause of this rise of mental health issues? And what do you think are the most pressing issues we can do to focus on it? Well, that's a tough question because

the mental health is something that people don't probably like to talk much about. There's a certain stigma to it. When I work in the White House or President Carter, Rosen Carter, the first lady took one as her cause, mental health, and people said at a time, how can you take that on? That's not appropriate for a first lady,

but she knew a fair bit about that disease, and now people are willing to talk more about mental health than they did before. It's a serious problem, and the surgeon general's case, this is one of the areas he's focused on, particularly adolescent mental health. And as we now know, we now hear of cases of 12-year-olds, 13-year-olds, 14-year-olds committing suicide.

When you were growing up and I was growing up, the idea that age 12-year-old or a 13-year-old, 14-year-old person would be so disillusioned with light that he or she would commit suicide was unthinkable. But today, the unthinkable is occurring. And we've had a lot of isolation recently because of COVID, and isolation does tend to produce a mental health challenge as well. We also have a lot of

pharmacological problems as well. People taking drugs, some of them induce probably predisposition to suicide. It's a big challenge, and I don't have the answer for it, but I'm glad that people are working on it, and I just recognize it. It's something that people have not been willing to talk about very much historically, but now we are doing more to talk about it. Yeah, thank you for that. And I know philanthropy is something that tends to be done by the minority, not the majority. If someone out here is listening and they feel somewhere compelled to do more of this. What have you found

are some of the best starting points to get more involved in doing something to help others? Well, I'd like to remind people that philanthropy is derived from an ancient Greek word that means loving humanity. It doesn't mean rich people writing checks. And so we've bastardized the word philanthropy by saying here are the biggest philanthropist in the country and looking at how much money people gave away. The most valuable thing that anybody can do is give your time. You can't make more time. You have a finite amount of time on the surface of the earth. You can make more money if you're disposed to do, but you can't make more time. So giving your time is very valuable. If you have

money, you can give that as well. But giving your time, your intellectual capabilities is very valuable. If you have money, you can give that as well. But giving your time, your intellectual capabilities is very valuable. I tell people, find something you're interested in. Something you think can make a difference in your life or the life of people in your community. You don't have to be doing national things that deal with symbols of the whole country. Find something in your neighborhood,

something in your city, something in your county, something in your state, and something you want to make a difference in. Something that if you do it after three, four, five years, you can see an impact and be proud of it. And I tell everybody, you want to do something with your life that gives back to society. And so that your parents will say, look what my child did. I'm proud of my child. And you would want your own children to do something that they could do that would make you proud

of what they've done. And you'd like to could do that would make you proud of what they've done and you'd like to do something that your children be proud of what you've done. So think about what you can do to give back to society in some way and volunteering giving your time is probably the most important thing. I want to remind people as well that in the United States, we're the most philanthropic country in the world, but we still give roughly 2% of GDP to philanthropy. 2% of GDP, which is still, it's a small number. It's more than any other country, but 40% of that 2% is really going to fill out religious organizations. Nothing wrong with that, of course,

but it's a little different than to traditional philanthropy. And if you eliminate that 40%, you'd have about a little bit more than 1% of our GDP is going to philanthropy, relatively small percentage. And just to follow on to that, since you and your peers sign the giving pledge, in case people don't realize some of the major impacts that have resulted from it, can you discuss a few of those and how this has benefited so many people worldwide? Yes, the giving pledge conceived by Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates basically says,

you, if you sign it, it's a voluntary kind of thing. There's no legal constraints, but you're basically volunteering to give up to 50% or as much as 50% or no less than 50% of your net worth to philanthropic causes at your death or during your lifetime. Now we don't disinterpre people that don't do this if they die and they haven't given away 50%. It's a voluntary kind of thing. There were 40 people who did it initially. We now have probably a little bit closer to 230 people. The biggest challenge has been outside the United States. I would suspect 80% or more people have signed it from the United States. When Bill and Melinda and Warren Buffett try to get people in China or in other countries

to give 50% of their net worth away at some point in their lifetime, they met with some resistance. Because 50% is just a very high percentage in other countries where the tradition of philanthropy doesn't really exist as much as it does in this country. It's had some impact, but I like to remind people as well that a bunch of very wealthy people, and you're supposed to have a net worth of a billion dollars to be part of this pledge, what wealthy people do is only the tip of the iceberg. We should think about what people who don't have a billion dollars or five hundred million dollars or a hundred million dollars or a million dollars, what they're doing with their time and their energy and their money. And so I'd like to encourage everybody to be involved with philanthropy

even if you're not going to be signed the giving pledge. The giving pledge is for a finite number of people honestly. And it's relatively small percentage of people in the face of the earth and they don't have enough money to make the difference in the world that we'd like to make. So we have to have everybody try to do more. difference in the world that we'd like to make. So we have to have everybody try to do more. Okay, and I just wanted to jump back to how to lead for one question. And that is one of the stories I liked the most in the book was the one with Colin Powell and I happened to meet the general on one or two occasions and I was just hoping you might share what were some of your biggest takeaways that you learned from him. Colin Powell came from very modest circumstances. He was not a stellar student. He

barely graduated from City College of New York. In fact, to graduate, he had to switch to a major that was relatively easy geology, I believe it was. He grew up in modest circumstances. Parents were immigrants from the Caribbean, pulled himself up, went into the military, even though there was a lot of racism there at the time. When he was in the military sometimes serving our country, when if he would go in the south, he couldn't get a dinner at a restaurant because he was African-American, even while he was still in uniform, he couldn't get served sometimes. He is a person who rose up to our highest levels in our country, Secretary of State, chairman

of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, but he retained his humility. He also retained his great sense of humor. He also retained his willingness to help younger people. And I asked him as a friend if he would make a speech at the Kenny Center where I've been the chair for a number of years at the 20th anniversary of 9-11. And he had been isolating himself for a bit because of concern about COVID. He had some other health issues at the time, but he did come. He made the speech. It was an riveting speech. Sadly, I came down with COVID a month or two later and passed away relatively quickly,

but it was a great privilege of my life to get to know Colin Powell. Yes, I have just found him such an inspiration as well. So thank you very much for sharing that. And David, last question I wanted to ask you is you have written a couple books on leadership, you have experienced working with CEOs across your portfolio companies, et cetera. If a listener could take a piece of advice away

from today's interview with you, what would be one of the biggest pieces that you can give them if they feel stuck in their life or they want to achieve greatness in pursuing what their purpose or meaning is? Well, anything is possible. I look at my background. I came from modest background.

I think what you need to do is network with people, get to learn about what other people are doing, find something that inspires you, something that makes you want to get back to society, try to do something that perfects some of your skills, your writing skills, your communication skills, try to think about how you can allocate your time more efficiently, try to think less about personal pleasure and giving back to society, which I think can be a personal pleasure But it might evolve over a period of time But don't feel that you're a second-class or third-class citizen because of your background or because you don't have certain skills

You can develop these skills, but try to find something that makes your life meaningful So that you can feel when you get to the age that I am now 73 you can look back and say to the age that I am now 73 you can look back and say I've done something meaningful with my life and I feel that I've made my parents proud and I children proud and you can feel like you've done something useful and you're sure time on the period on the face of the earth. Well I'll end on that question and thank you David so much for doing this interview and I highly encourage

the listeners to watch this series. I found it very intriguing and I really enjoyed the way that you narrated and went to each one of these locations to interview people about each one of them. So please go out there and watch it and thank you again for doing this. Yeah, my pleasure to be here. Good day. You too. I thoroughly enjoyed and was honored to have David Rubenstein on the show today. And I wanted to thank David and Christopher Alman for the honor and privilege of interviewing

him. Links to all things David will be in the show notes at passionstruck.com. Please use our website links if you purchase any of the books that we featured from the guests here on the show. All proceeds go to supporting the show. Evertiser deals and discount codes are in one convenient place at passionstruck.com slash deals. Videos are on YouTube both at John Armiles and also passionstruck clips. As I mentioned before, you can also now find us on syndicated radio on the AMFM 247 radio broadcast network. I'm on LinkedIn and you can also find me at

John Armiles on both Instagram and Twitter where I provide daily doses of inspiration. And if you want to know how I book amazing guests like David Rubenstein, it's because of my network. Go out there and build yours before you need it. You're about to hear a preview of the PassionStrike podcast interview I did with Dory Clark, who has been named one of the top 50 thinkers in the world by thinkers 50 and was recognized as the number one communication coach in the world by the Marshall Goldsmith leading global coaches award.

She is the Wall Street Journal best-selling author of the long game, entrepreneurial you, reinventing you and stand out, which was named the number one leadership book by Inc. Magazine. I think is incumbent upon us as early as we can, as soon as we can, to really ask ourselves, what do I want? What is going to be the way that I want to spend my days? Now it is true that whatever you come up with may not be possible in the short term, you

may have debts, you may have obligations, you may need that lucrative job or that source of revenue, and it's not like everybody can immediately pivot and go become an actor. But it is true that if we are honest with ourselves about the things that light us up, there are ways, sometimes small ways, but there are ways that we can begin to reorient ourselves so that our life can begin to reflect more and more what we want. Remember, we rise by lifting others, so share the show with those that you love and care about. And if you found today's episode useful, then please share it with somebody who could use the advice

or would be interested in learning more about David's show. In the meantime, do your best to apply what you hear on the show so that you can live what you listen. And until next time, live life, Ash and Strack. you