Anything BUT Politics
A groundbreaking new podcast, Anything BUT Politics, is redefining how we view political figures by focusing on everything about them—except their political careers.
Anything BUT Politics
The Life Beyond Politics: Jeb Bradley Unplugged
In our latest episode of Anything But Politics, we sat down with former NH Senate President Jeb Bradley—not to talk policy, but to explore the person behind the politics.
From performing street magic in Switzerland to summiting New Hampshire’s tallest peaks 576 times, Jeb's life story is full of surprises. He shares unforgettable stories, hiking adventures around the globe, and life lessons shaped by decades of public service—and even more shaped by stepping outside it.
🎧 Tune in to hear the unexpected side of one of NH’s most well-known figures.
Hi everyone, I am Tiffany Eddy and I am so pleased to be joined with my new co-host, tom Prezal from Demers and Prezal, and we are very excited to welcome you to our very first video podcast called Anything but Politics, and this is a new podcast where we're talking to political figures and esteemed leaders about all sorts of different things in their life that has to do with basically anything but politics.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and thanks Tiffany. And we're here today for our very first show with our very first guest, who is somebody who's really made of granite, right? I mean, this gentleman has had more titles, you know. I mean this gentleman has had more titles than the city of Boston in the early 2000s. And so you know, without further ado, I want to introduce our esteemed guest today, who is a former member of the Wolfboro Planning Board, jeb Bradley. Hey, how you doing, guys? And not only, obviously, is he a former member of the Wolfboro Planning Board, but he also was a member of the Budget Committee and, you know, a former congressman and former Senate president and former Senate majority leader.
Speaker 2:I thought we were talking politics, but you know, he certainly has been here, for been around the state for a while and has ingrained himself within the state. So, as Tiffany mentioned, we're here to learn more about folks, and so, jeb, I feel like we should start really at the beginning. And so one thing I think folks might not know is you were actually born in Maine, correct? I was In Rumford Maine, rumford Maine, which is a mill. Is that a mill town or a mill?
Speaker 3:city it was at the time my father went to Bowdoin and my father and mother were both from Connecticut same town and he decided. After he graduated from Bowdoin he took a job at I think it was Brown Paper Company in Rumford. My mother hated it.
Speaker 1:The smell of sulfur drove her nuts.
Speaker 3:And that didn't last long, but long enough that I was born and they went back to Connecticut for a year and my dad worked at a hardware store for a while, loved it and went to Wolfboro and bought a hardware store in the early 1950s and I've lived in Wolfboro ever since.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow, wow. What was the name of the hardware store?
Speaker 3:I think it was Brock's or Brocky's.
Speaker 1:Brocky Hardware.
Speaker 2:But that was a long time ago. Well, what made them choose Wolfboro? You know, coming from Connecticut had they vacationed there.
Speaker 3:So, my grandfather had a friend that had a cabin. Back in those days homes on islands in Lake Winnipesaukee really were cabins, and when my folks were dating Natty Goodhue of Goodhue and Hawkins, which is one of the biggest marinas on Lake Winnipesaukee, would take them out there to Keniston Island, and so they had some familiarity with Wolfburn. And when the hardware store became available several years later that's why I guess I can't ask them now They've both gone to greater pastures.
Speaker 1:But what a great place to grow up too.
Speaker 3:Yeah, wolfboro's a really nice town, really nice town.
Speaker 1:And you've been there for many years.
Speaker 3:With the exception of a couple of years that I lived in switzerland, I've lived in wolfborough um all my life wow.
Speaker 1:So switzerland now, switzerland now that's. I definitely want to get to wolfborough, but since you brought up switzerland, uh, what brought you there and and how did you find it?
Speaker 3:so I was hiking in the himalayas in Nepal and I met my former wife, and she was from Switzerland. One thing led to another and we found ourselves in Switzerland. How long were you there? For Three years. Yeah, three years, it was great.
Speaker 2:Anything interesting. What did you do while you were there? I knew you were going to ask that question. Is that leading the witness?
Speaker 3:You haven't read my Wikipedia page.
Speaker 2:Only a couple dozen times, yeah well.
Speaker 1:I know it verbatim.
Speaker 3:Somebody spent years trying to get that removed the citation of what I did. I was a street performer, I was a magician and had quite a bag of tricks and I couldn't get legal work papers. So that's what I did All right?
Speaker 2:Well, I want to know about these tricks. So was it card tricks? Was it sleight of hand?
Speaker 3:Didn't do any card tricks, some sleight of hand, rope tricks. You know I had a really good trick with a dollar bill. What's?
Speaker 2:the best trick in your bag of tricks.
Speaker 3:Most popular? Uh, the most popular was always the one where I would ask somebody to give me a piece of clothing that they were wearing and I would proceed to put a cigarette out on the clothing and then return the clothing to the person and, generally speaking, there were no burns or things like that. As long as I did it correctly, and then I'd pull the cigarette out of their ear.
Speaker 2:Oh get out Wow, still lit. What's that? Was it still lit when you pulled it out?
Speaker 1:No, Hopefully it didn't go out on them, but you know.
Speaker 3:No, no, I did pretty well most of the time, yeah, most of the time. I'm not going to tell you how, of course.
Speaker 1:So nothing that you could perform here.
Speaker 3:Nothing I could perform here, sorry, but you were earning a living.
Speaker 1:Was it enough to like earn a living?
Speaker 3:enough to like earn a living. Yeah well, I wasn't living very luxuriously by any means.
Speaker 1:But you were eating.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we managed. It was okay. So it was good. I had a lot of fun. I went in Luzern and Zurich and occasionally in Bern. Those were the three towns that I performed in, but mostly Luzern because we were maybe 10 minutes outside of the town, if you've ever been there. There's a beautiful lake, lake Luzern, and a river that comes right off the lake, and there are a couple of old I mean 14th century wooden bridges with beautiful paintings that go across the river, the Ara River, and there was one sort of square, if you could call it that, with some long stone steps that come down to it, and that was generally where I would perform. But further up the river, right by one of the bridges, was another big place that I would sometimes do it, but at the other place, by the other bridge, I could have better crowd participation. Just, I don't know why, but it just seemed to work that way.
Speaker 1:So I'm so curious because I've known you, generally speaking, for many, many years, when I first interviewed you, when I was at Channel 9 and you were running for Congress, and I never knew about you being a street performer or a magician ever until Tom told me about it recently. So now I'm so curious. Like what gave you the confidence and the skill to be able to go do that? Like when were you at some point in your life like, okay, I'm in Switzerland, I'm going to be a magician? Like how did you develop those skills?
Speaker 3:It's like anything else. You just do it. And if it comes naturally to you, it's okay, and you get a little positive and then you do it. And I didn't have much choice. I needed to eat. I mean, it's the same thing. How do you interview people on Channel 9 where you have to worry about the way you look, what you say, how you interact with people? You just do it. And it's like a lot of things in life. How do you talk to all the people that you have to talk to? You just do it. You got to jump in feet first right Feet first.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's fascinating, Sometimes head first yeah.
Speaker 2:So three years in Switzerland and then you moved back to Wolfborough. I did, and now your family was still there.
Speaker 3:Yep, my mother was there. My father had moved to Colorado, my parents got divorced and I bought a natural food store and Barbara and I had four kids and we were pretty sedentary for a while with four kids.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, keeps you busy.
Speaker 3:Then I first ran for well local office in the mid 1980s, and then the rest is history, but we're not supposed to talk about that.
Speaker 1:Well, we, we, we can talk about that we just don't want to talk.
Speaker 2:We can skirt around the edges.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, all right, all right, there are rules, so we get to make them yeah. But so what? What prompted like, what was like, what was that moment when you're like, you know what I want to give back to my community, I want to serve, what was it that prompted you to want to give back?
Speaker 3:So I think I had always, you know, going back to high school, when I was a senior in high school and the first Earth Day happened and that was kind of big. It's my birthday, just so you know, is it April 22nd, april 22, my birthday. Just so you know.
Speaker 2:Is it April 22nd? April 22nd every year.
Speaker 3:There you go, there you go, and it just. The environment's always been pretty special to me. I love to hike and do all sorts of crazy things, so Earth Day was pretty significant and I thought then that you know, see what happens. But I didn't have any real plan and just when opportunities presented themselves. It's pretty easy to run for elected office in New Hampshire. You know, $5 will get you on the ballot. But I always tell people be prepared for what you ask for, you might get it. So when you sign up for something, you might get elected. It's pretty cool up for something, you might get elected.
Speaker 1:That's pretty cool, that is, that's amazing, and you've been doing it for quite a while.
Speaker 2:So when you first started, was the planning board your first foray into local government, yep and I'll tell you this.
Speaker 3:I'll tell you this being a planning board member is probably one of the harder jobs for an elected official, because you're in everybody's backyard.
Speaker 2:That's right.
Speaker 3:The only job that might be harder, and I think local officials have the hardest job because they're so close to people. In New Hampshire, Everybody knows who you are and all that. New Hampshire, Everybody knows who you are and all that. The only tougher job is being a school board member or a select board member, because then you're at everybody's kitchen table. That's right when you're talking about their kids or you know whatever.
Speaker 1:So you know, it's an interesting point, though, and and one that I want to explore a little bit but do you think, in your opinion, do you think, new Hampshire is unique because of how we're set up, how anybody can get involved, and the fact that also, I think, in so many communities there's six degrees of separation? I feel like in New Hampshire there's like maybe one or two degrees of separation.
Speaker 3:Or zero, sometimes Right.
Speaker 1:You can pretty much pick up the phone and call anybody and get in touch with them.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, and I think that's a really good point about New Hampshire With 400 people in the House, you know it's almost a given that if you are in the state legislature, people are going to know you and they're going to know how to get in touch with you and you represent about 3,500 people people and that's not a lot compared to you know other elected offices. So you know you're. You know, as I always used to say, you pull your trousers on the same way as anybody else, one leg at a time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's what we all do. And do you think like we have a unique ability here to make a difference in New Hampshire, like anybody can decide, kind of like you did, I'm going to get up today and I'm going to run for planning board or I'm going to run for school board and I'm going to make a difference in my community.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's what makes New Hampshire great, as New Hampshire is rated for charitable giving. We're one of the more parsimonious states for charitable giving, but in terms of volunteering and serving on whether it's elected positions or not-for-profit boards or things like that people in New Hampshire do more volunteering than just about any other state, so it's actually pretty interesting. Yeah, new Hampshire people I've than just about any other state, so it's actually pretty interesting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, New Hampshire people I've always found have been very generous.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, especially with their time. I mean, we're not supposed to talk about the legislature, but we all know that everyone gets paid $100 a year and spend most of their Tuesday, wednesdays and Thursdays from January to June up at the statehouse. So that's quite a volunteer right there. But I want to go back real quick to the planning board because I served on Thursdays from January to June up at the statehouse, so that's quite a volunteer right there. But I want to go back real quick to the planning board because I served on my town planning board and hooks it for a number of years and I was curious because, as you said, you're in everyone's backyard what was the most controversial plan that came before you while you were on the board?
Speaker 3:Oh, there were a lot of them. And I was on the planning board in the mid-'80s and there was a real estate boom and I made the mistake of saying, oh, we should have a moratorium on any new building. And you know, the planning board voted for it from one day to the other, without a public hearing. It was outrageous, terrible, you know. So the next meeting we had to rescind it. The planning board voted for it from one day to the other, without a public hearing. It was outrageous, terrible. So the next meeting we had to rescind it and there were like 100 contractors in the rooms throwing things virtually at us and they were all right, we were wrong. So we rescinded it and then really tried to think about how you manage growth as opposed to just saying no.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I mean Wolfboro is such a quintessential New Hampshire and New England town, right, I mean, and the number of folks who flock to Wolfboro, I mean Mitt Romney, does he still own a home?
Speaker 3:there.
Speaker 2:Yep, and didn't the president of France?
Speaker 3:used to come visit. Yeah, he vacationed there. Yeah, actually, it may have been in Alton, okay, but there's still an autographed picture of him hanging on one of the. It's a local meat market and he shopped there and so he, you know, was pretty good yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, new Hampshire is so special with all we have to offer, including what we have the natural beauty, and I know you speaking of natural beauty, let's get into—.
Speaker 1:Are you going to get into his looks right now?
Speaker 2:Well, absolutely I mean— Not me, pal. Let's start right there.
Speaker 1:Let's be honest, You're not wearing any makeup and you look that good. That's right.
Speaker 2:It's really like and you know you should see him with you know the winter hat on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like magical.
Speaker 2:And the winter hat when he does all of his hiking. So let's get right into one of your biggest passions in life right, hiking. Now you have traversed all 48, 4,000 footers Every month, every month.
Speaker 1:And that's the grid. That's the grid. Can you first explain to me what the grid is, because I heard about this for the first time?
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 1:Just what the grid. How does that work?
Speaker 3:So there are 48 mountains in New Hampshire that are 4,000 feet high or higher. Mount Washington is 6,288, and Tecumseh is 4,003, although some people think it's less than that it may disqualify as a 4,000-footer. So the grid is climbing all of them in every month. So all 48 in January, February, et cetera. So I love winter hiking. It's my favorite hiking.
Speaker 1:That's a lot of hiking.
Speaker 3:It's a lot of hiking. It's 576 peaks, 48 times 12. That's how he stays so fit Now it's not 576 different trips, you probably can do it in 400. Or if you're a really good, strong hiker, you could combine. You know other hikes and you know other hikes and you know some people could probably do six peaks in a day. But that's a lot. I never did that.
Speaker 1:I mean the whole grid sounds like a lot.
Speaker 3:It takes a while, although there are a couple of people who've done it all in a year amazingly so they've probably been able to get it down to 150 days of hiking. That's pretty remarkable.
Speaker 1:And you climb Mount Washington in the winter. You are an avid hiker, so I would imagine that you've seen some incredible beauty. But have you ever gotten into a situation where you've been a little apprehensive like, oh my gosh, that was a really close call.
Speaker 3:Never for me, thankfully Did get a bit of frostbite once, but I've gotten frostbite skiing. So you know I was with Karen, she recognized it and I just pulled a. It was on my cheek, so I pulled the buff up and, you know, just caught it right away, never, never got lost. There was one time I was with a very experienced hiker and we were on the back side of cabot, which is the northern most of the 48, and we were going to hit two other lesser peaks and it was Valentine's day and we were having a hard time finding the trail. And this was before GPS, so he was using a map and compass and I was going. Oh my God.
Speaker 1:Had we survived in those days, like seriously he had done it before.
Speaker 3:So he recognized some of the landmarks. But we were also looking for the you know, the paint on the trees, the marker, the trail markers, and so at one point we hadn't seen one in quite a while and we could have backtracked because we were on snowshoes. So we had a track and we could have gone back up over the summit and back down the way we came in. So I never felt like we were lost. It would have been quite dark if we had had to do that. And so we split up in a direction like this, and we probably had maybe I don't know, 100, 150 yards between us, until I found one of the marks on the tree, the blaze, and then we sort of were back on track.
Speaker 3:But nobody had hiked that trail for some time. So there was no snowshoe track, there was no indentation, nothing. And the woods were it, just there was no place or many places that did not look like a trail. Oftentimes you know you're on a trail just because it's cut six feet, eight feet wide, but most of the time, on most of the trails, even if there's, you know, a foot of snow, there will be a track, an indentation from the people who've gone before, so that happens. But now with GPS it's much easier.
Speaker 3:You just pull out your GPS or your phone, you know and you can realize oh, I'm 100 feet off the trail, or whatever.
Speaker 2:So that, yeah, that's one of my questions, Because so for me, you know, the idea of hiking is, you know, grabbing my cooler and beach chair and hiking from the car to the beach. So if I were to start hiking, what would be the one piece of advice you would give me, other than comfortable shoes, maybe?
Speaker 1:Maybe downsize the cooler.
Speaker 2:A tiny bit.
Speaker 3:Well, first of all, I guess I would recommend that you go with a group and, like the AMC has group hikes that they do out of the Highland Center in Upper Bartlett. So that would be one thing. I would definitely utilize the Fish and Game website and make sure I had the 10 essential gears Okay.
Speaker 1:Which are.
Speaker 3:Well, the proper clothing food map compass ability to start a fire you know, those things water.
Speaker 3:Probably the most important thing other than the proper shoes and clothing is a headlamp, because you just never know. Clothing is a headlamp because you just never know. I've actually run into people and ran into a lady on Owl's Head and this was in June and gave her my lamp, because I always carry two, because I learned the hard way when you go with people that you don't know and they don't have a headlamp. And so then one day, um, right around this time of year was in December, and we were doing Passa Conway and, uh, I, there were five of us and one guy had a headlamp and I had a headlamp, and so he went in the beginning, I went in the end and you know it was like, thankfully in the snow it's not too bad, but you kind of need a headlamp if you're out at night. So at any rate, I gave this headlamp to a woman. I said just send it back to Jeb Bradley, Care of the Statehouse.
Speaker 3:Now it turned out that they listened to me and didn't go to the summit and just took off and went back to the car. But back to the car on Owl's Head is like eight miles, Wow. So and it was like five o'clock in the afternoon, so it was June, so you know it was about three hours. But if they had gone to the summit and back they would have been 10 o'clock and two hours in the you know, dark, no light.
Speaker 1:And that leads me to another question, like there's and I don't think we're getting into politics necessarily, but there's been press about the fact that, and I think, especially post-COVID, that more and more people are enjoying New Hampshire's natural resources. So my question, I guess, would be as an avid hiker, have you noticed the trails being more congested now, and are we doing enough to kind of manage that? I guess?
Speaker 3:The trails could use more maintenance, no question about that. When the trails were cut in the White Mountains, people just went up and there are not enough switchbacks. So because the trails are steep, they erode more readily, unlike out west where, because of the altitude, there has to be more switchbacks just to make it easier. And the soil is different, the terrain is different, so it's just a huge amount of erosion. So there are mitigating things that good trail smiths can do, but there's just not enough people that maintain trails, so they're getting, you know, a bit eroded and what happens then is the main trail might be a mess and so people then go off in the woods and you know, or if a tree falls across the trail and people go off in the woods, so suddenly you have, you know, ribbons of more erosion. So it is kind of an issue. But you know, overall I think it's really good that a lot of people want to enjoy, you know, being outdoors and they get cooped up in their day-to-day lives, and so it's it's worth it.
Speaker 1:It's like medicine for the soul, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely yeah, and you know you brought up something there that is making me think, which is very dangerous. But you know you brought up that about hiking on the West Coast, right, and then earlier you spoke about when you were hiking in Nepal, so I'm guessing you've hiked everywhere.
Speaker 3:Not everywhere, but I've hiked in a few places that are pretty cool yeah so what's the coolest hike ever?
Speaker 2:You don't have to stay in New Hampshire because I think, as of tomorrow at midnight, you're no longer the Senate president. But Kilimanjaro, have you ever done?
Speaker 3:anything crazy like that. Never been quite that high. I always say my favorite hike is the next one, okay, so, whatever it is, yeah, my favorite hike is the next one, okay, so, whatever it is, yeah, but there are. I think if I could only do one hike that I've done before, it would be Mount St Helens. That was just really cool.
Speaker 3:I was with my brother and we camped at the base of the mountain and it's like 9,500 feet, I think, and it used to be 11,000 until the top of the mountain was blown off in the volcano. And we got up real early and the trees there, the big spruce trees, I mean, they're humongous and they're tall, and so we started at, you know, four in the morning because you want to. He's a photographer and he wanted to get up on the mountain and take sunrise pictures, as we were above tree line. So that's why we started so early. And, um, you know, you're walking up and you, suddenly you leave the trees and you come into sort of lava fields and you got to put gloves on because it's so sharp, even though it was warm.
Speaker 3:Um, you, just, you know, because you're having a balance, it's pretty, the soil moves, you know, so you need to stabilize. And then we got through that section and then there was just a long, gradual but fairly steep climb, the last maybe 1,000 vertical feet to the summit. And you know, you're looking around and you can't really see anything that looks much like a summit. And the next thing, you know, from one step to the next you just crest over where you can see, over the edge, and there's Mount Rainier okay and Good mountain and it's like huge, it's a huge mountain and if you walk 15 more steps you'll fall into the caldera.
Speaker 1:Oh, no way, oh wow.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so you can sort of walk around a little bit in maybe I don't know 500 or 600 feet of the caldera, around where there's snow or stable, but you don't want to get too close because people have fallen in. So my brother had been there so he knew all this stuff. I didn't experiment.
Speaker 1:That's lucky. Yeah, you wouldn't want to go with, like Tom.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, not with me. And the cooler, yeah, the cooler. Would be fun, though, the cooler would be fun.
Speaker 1:You just have to get it up there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and so I know you've been to Hawaii a number of times, right? How is the hiking different there?
Speaker 3:just mentioned, you know, obviously. So there are some uh amazing hikes in hawaii. Um, very different. It's uh tropical, but when you get up high enough, you're above, you know the tree line, so you're in volcanic territory too and it's just, it's really beautiful. Um.
Speaker 3:So most of the hiking I've done in Hawaii is on the island of Kauai and there's some really small hikes, but there's all over the island but they're on the sort of the northwest side of the island. There's a long hike along the ocean side of the island. There's a long hike along the ocean and I've only done part of it because I did not have the ability to spend the night. It's 11 miles in and 11 miles back, so I did maybe half of it came back, and then you can drive around to the other side of the island and walk up to the top of what's called Waimea Canyon and so it's called the Grand Canyon of the Pacific, and I'd say it's probably 3,000 feet down to the base of the canyon. So canyon hiking is very different. You start at the top, obviously, and you walk down. It's not like climbing Mount Washington, where you walk up and the hard part is behind you. So canyon hiking, you got to have enough energy to get back up, and so that's pretty cool, but I love hiking in Hawaii.
Speaker 1:So that sounds amazing. I did Mount Washington. I've done hiked Mount Washington twice in my my hiking career. Uh, both times with my daughter, but I always found coming down to be harder than going. It actually is harder because your, your, your, your thighs are just kind of shot.
Speaker 3:And, uh, you probably pretty stiff the next day.
Speaker 1:Oh my goodness, don't even get me, so yeah.
Speaker 3:So that's why switchbacks are so much easier, because you know you're going like this, so you're not going down or up as much. But you know, usually, like in Colorado, I've climbed a couple of the 14ers and that's impressive. The climb is easier but the altitude's pretty. You got to be able to deal with the altitude.
Speaker 2:I remember one time I was golfing at Copper Mountain in. Colorado, and this was back when I was in like peak fitness shape.
Speaker 1:Like last week.
Speaker 2:Several years ago and I was behind everybody else and they were up at the tee box and so I just jogged maybe 15 yards up to them and I was winded. I'm like what is going on? I'm so winded and I saw a sign the highest elevated tee box in North America I was like, oh, this is great, my ball is going to go further. But unfortunately it went about 50 yards and took a hard right into the woods. But you're absolutely right as far as the altitude and being, it doesn't matter how good a shape you are here, because it's completely different up there. So how do you train for that?
Speaker 3:You just have to go hike so, if you like, when you go to Colorado my kids live in steamboats, so that's at about 6,500, 7,000 feet and if you're there for a couple of days you start to get used to it. You go up to eight or 9,000 feet and you, you know, after a couple more days you can go higher. But, um, you know you go slow. You don't try to do too much, you know.
Speaker 1:And I'm curious too, because I understand you used to a while ago on a health food store. And I'm curious too, because I understand you used to, a while ago, own a health food store. How much emphasis do you put in what we put in our bodies? Like, what did you learn from that experience? Like that's another thing about you. I had no idea. So do you have any advice and guidance for people who want to become more physically active? Is there actually something to supplements, nutrients, organic? What's your opinion?
Speaker 3:So I think eating a good, healthy diet of a broad range of foods, but focused on fruit and vegetables as the primary Not that I do it, but that's what you should do- Tommy wants special supplements.
Speaker 2:Yeah, any special supplements that are out there, that, like you know.
Speaker 3:No, I've taken some of these juice pills in the past, but I don't know, they don't seem to do too much. But I eat pretty well for the most part. I like my chocolate chip cookies a little bit too much though.
Speaker 1:I should have brought you in some. That would have been fun. Just made a bunch of chocolate chip cookies, yeah.
Speaker 2:But you know. So you mentioned your kids live in. Do all of them live in Colorado?
Speaker 3:My daughter lives in Washington State outside of Seattle. She's in a really nice spot too, okay yeah.
Speaker 2:And you've got a place in Florida, yep. And you've got a place in Florida, yep, and you've got Wolfboro. And you've got some unfinished business on Kauai to finish the hike. Well, I don't know about unfinished business To finish the hike right.
Speaker 3:So one of the I will tell you one of the coolest hikes I've ever done is the Alakai Swamp Hike.
Speaker 3:And you start at the top of the canyon, kind of at the end of the road, and you have to drive on a dirt road for a couple of miles past the and you park and you're at a semi-tropical jungle at 4,000 feet in altitude and you walk, and you walk, and you walk and I tried to do this walk three times before. Karen and I did it successfully. So we were there in November, so it's a little cooler even in Hawaii in November, and at 4,000 feet it was probably 50 degrees, and the further in we got, the more foggy it became. The further in we got, the more foggy it became and it was pretty easy to follow the trail. And then we get to the swamp and there were like boardwalks and they were kind of I don't know they hadn't been maintained all that well and we didn't fall in and you wouldn't have gone too far, probably, hopefully. And we got to the end and we couldn't see a thing. We couldn't see more than 10 feet and we were on the verge of being hypothermic.
Speaker 3:Oh geez, we didn't carry a lot of clothes. We did have a change of clothes and neither one of us had put on a windbreaker, so we were just sopped from a little bit of sweat. And a one of us had put on a windbreaker, so we were just sopped from, you know, a little bit of sweat and a lot of fog and 50, 55-degree weather, so we weren't really in any danger, but it was great to put on a windbreaker. And then you know that was waterproof. So the way back was a lot easier and we knew, okay, this is going to take us an hour and a half or whatever two hours to get back to the car. It wasn't like how much further is the end? Because we can't see a thing.
Speaker 1:But I think that, and so this is I want to switch gears a little bit because I think that speaks to you as a person, because you didn't give up and you've been on a lot of hikes where you didn't give up speaks to you as a person, because you didn't give up and you've been on a lot of hikes where you didn't give up and you know, shifting a tiny bit to politics, you were in congress and then and then lost um and you didn't give up and I always thought that that was really fascinating.
Speaker 1:You know just you as a person and spoke um so much as to who you were is that? Then you got involved and became a state senator and you know arguably not because you're right here in front of us, but one of the most highly esteemed Senate presidents that there has been. So I guess my question for you is how is it that you have continued to go forward and still found a way, or have found a way, to provide this incredible value and service to your community and state, because your guy doesn't give up.
Speaker 3:Well, that's funny that you would say it, because I am retiring and my term ends tomorrow night.
Speaker 1:But that's your decision. Yeah, that was my decision. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean I always wanted to leave on my own terms and I was able to do that. As Tom knows, I lost twice when I was in Congress, so that you know, but you learn more from your losses than you do your wins. But you're lucky if you can learn from your wins, too how to be better. But you're lucky if you can learn from your wins, too, how to be better. And I've been fortunate. Just, things seem to have come pretty naturally and I felt that being a member of the New Hampshire Senate was really I mean, it was a tremendous honor.
Speaker 3:But because there are only 24 of us, you have to figure out how to get along with people and you can't let differences of opinion get in the way all the time. Some of the time they happen, but not all the time. And I think the New Hampshire Senate is kind of unique in terms of certainly anything else that I've been a member of, which is two of the largest English-speaking legislative bodies in the world the New Hampshire House and US Congress, the British Parliament's the other one. So 24 people. You've got to figure out how to make it work. It's not always easy, but you know when you only get paid $100 a year. There is a little bit more mutual respect of people that you are on opposite political fences on.
Speaker 1:And you probably bought a new Porsche with that money.
Speaker 3:No, I have a nice Jeep though.
Speaker 2:So two very different experiences, right, congress and the New Hampshire House. Would you indulge us in two of your favorite stories from each that may have happened?
Speaker 1:Not to put you on the spot or anything.
Speaker 3:Well, I thought it was when I was a member of the Congress. It was pretty cool when the shipyard was taken off the closure list, yeah, so that was pretty cool. That was in 2005. And I think you know just Medicaid expansion has been very successful and I had a little bit to do with that here. So those are probably the two.
Speaker 2:So I remember when I interned for you in Congress, we did a road race and the only job I was given as the intern was make sure you beat John Sununu, and I didn't. Well, I trailed him. I was, you know, behind him, and that guy is so fast. He took off at the halfway point and I think I mean he blew me out of the water.
Speaker 3:But I beat Mike Licata and everybody else on our team.
Speaker 1:And Mike Licata is a fast guy when I blew by him.
Speaker 3:He couldn't believe it, but I was training to run a marathon at that point and I ran a half marathon, I don't know two or three weeks after that road race that you talked about, and I remember crossing the finish line and saying to myself you got another 13 miles in you? And the answer was no, and I gave up running two or three months later and started hiking.
Speaker 2:And you used to swim a lot too. Right, you live on a lake, right?
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I don't I. There's a rock out, you know, a hundred yards or so from our beach and I swim out there, but I don't consider myself a swimmer.
Speaker 1:Got an odd question for you. Um, we've talked about you, but I'm just wondering like Tom was an intern, what was he like when he was younger? Was he was?
Speaker 3:he a good intern. He's no different than he is today.
Speaker 1:Really good guy and we and put it on. He's a really good guy.
Speaker 2:We found talent.
Speaker 3:Of course I'm going to embarrass him now.
Speaker 2:Oh, please do. I knew this was bound to happen.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, Tiffany asked the question. Don't tell me it wasn't set up, but that was good.
Speaker 1:We're unrehearsed here.
Speaker 3:So in the parades that we used to do, tom was Captain America, so I always called him Captain, and he made a shield you know Captain America shield and a sword out of duct tape duct tape and cardboard and he would carry them in the parade. So we always called him.
Speaker 2:Captain, and let me tell you something as a 21-year-old walking in a Saturday morning parade in 90-degree heat, I think that suit has been burned. No one wants to wear that or smell that. Right, but you kept the shield. I do have the shield.
Speaker 1:We'll have to bring that out at some point. So best piece of advice that was ever given to you.
Speaker 3:My mother always told me, if you're not moving ahead, you're falling behind. So I'd say that was pretty good advice.
Speaker 1:And for those who that might want to come up behind you, what advice would you say to somebody who's you know thinking? You know what? Senator Bradley's now not in the Senate anymore. He's not our Senate president. Maybe I should get involved.
Speaker 3:So I always tell people several things. First of all, they've got to like you to vote for you. So if you're a jerk, it makes it a lot harder to get elected. I already used one of them Be prepared for what you ask for, you might get it. So I always, when people ask me, I said, well, you better be prepared to win, because you're going to have to do the job People expect you to do the job. You can't, you know, blow it off or take it, you know, anything other than very seriously. And then, um, I guess the other big thing I always try to tell people is that honey catches more flies than vinegar, which is sort of a codicil, for they got to like you to vote for you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that makes sense and it's nice. I remember Tom Bergeron used to always tell me when I interviewed Tom Bergeron, who I have incredible respect for and such a good human both in front of the camera and off, but he would always just talk about seeing other celebrities and they maybe weren't so nice behind the camera. Same kind of thing, like it's much easier to be a nice guy than it is I won't use the word he used, but to be unpleasant, and it can make all the difference in the world.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I guess you know, as you mentioned, tomorrow at midnight you're no longer Senate president Bradley, what's next?
Speaker 3:Karen and I are going to Florida on Thursday and, who knows, take it one day at a time. At this point I want to do a book about some of my hiking with some of my pictures. We'll see.
Speaker 1:But we'll see you in New Hampshire, right.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, I'm not leaving.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 3:Yeah, just temporarily.
Speaker 1:Just warm weather. Yeah, a little bit All right.
Speaker 3:I like the cold, though, because we like having you. Karen likes the warmth and we have a condo in a really nice spot, and yeah, we love walking on the beach With Napoleon. He's not allowed on that beach. It's too hot anyway for him Napoleon's the dog.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, senator Bradley Pleasure. Thank Senator Bradley.
Speaker 3:Pleasure.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much. I've known you for so many years and really feel like I got to know you quite a bit more today during this session. So thank you for being our very first guest. On anything but politics, I think we adhered to the rules. We really didn't get into politics.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that's fair, and just you know. One final question I have for you. I think that's fair, and just you know. One final question I have for you. So you've been Congressman, planning board member, senator, representative, majority leader, president Bradley, what do you want to be? What should people say to you when they see you on the street moving forward?
Speaker 3:Don't call me any of the titles, just Jeb Will do. Don't call me a Yankee fan, never, never.
Speaker 1:No, we didn't even get to that Avid Red Sox fan.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but well again, thank you very much. You know, consummate gentleman, consummate Granite Stater, the state has been lucky to have you.
Speaker 1:I've been lucky to be a part of it.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you very much for your time and you know we want to thank the audience.
Speaker 1:This was our first episode of Anything but Politics, and Tom and I will be back with more episodes. We have some other political leaders coming up and you know want to thank you for your time and your support.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you very much.
Speaker 1:And we'll see you soon. Take care.