Hello everyone,

I find the process of putting together these podcasts immensely satisfying, and never more than when I have beautiful material to work with. It’s like woodworking with good timber. That’s the situation I found myself in this week with this week’s conversation with Paul Henry, a New Zealand broadcaster of long experience and great skill.

This podcast is a companion piece to my interview with Michael Anderson, which was published at the end of last year. In both I have used a list of 10 encouragements drawn from the work of Alfred Adler as a framework for the conversation. Please have a look at the note that accompanied Michael’s podcast for a written list of the encouragements.

Paul’s an interesting guy. You will probably find his statements about poor people to be offensive, and his attitude entitled. I don’t have that reaction, because I have found that underneath his elitism is a basic decency and humanity, and a great deal of vulnerability. In the podcast, Paul says he spends a lot of time “waiting to live” and that the times he has been happiest is when he is alone. We didn’t work together long - Paul told me he was quitting the same week I started as a news director in NZ - but we stayed in contact and I always enjoyed our discussions.

If you are interested in going deeper on the Henry psyche, have a look at his books, the last of which was written about Trump’s America.

On the podcast: it takes quite a bit of time to put together, and I would love more people to be sharing it. Please pass on if you are enjoying it!

Have a great week,

Hal

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit halcrawford.substack.com