John Frohnmayer on polarization, ethics, and why third party candidates fail | EP 120

John Frohnmayer served as the fifth chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), appointed by President George H.W. Bush in 1989. He has held numerous civic leadership roles and briefly ran as an Independent candidate for the United States Senate in 2008 (the election where Jeff Merkley defeated incumbent Senator Gordon Smith). Frohnmayer is the author of seven books, including memoirs from his saga leading the NEA during a particularly turbulent time that still impacts contemporary politics ("Behind the right’s loathing of the NEA: Two ‘despicable’ exhibits almost 30 years ago" from the Washington Post). His latest book is a novel, Blood and Faith, and a sequel will be released shortly.

 

In this episode, we talk about what it was like growing up as Frohnmayer alongside his brother (future Attorney General Dave). We talk about the role of athletics in his life (and his thoughts on the PAC-12 shake-up), and the confusion of being a young person who isn't quite sure what they want to do. We also talk about him getting "canned" from the NEA, the first amendment, polarization, ethics, and what we might do to make our politics work better.