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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
Beyond the Stethoscope
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Dr. Jonathan Ballard takes us on a fascinating journey from his childhood on a Kentucky farm to his current role as New Hampshire's Chief Medical Officer. Growing up in Bardstown—the bourbon capital of the world—Ballard worked at his father's sawmill and raised white cattle to distinguish them from his father's black Angus herd. This early connection to rural life gave him unique insights into how environmental and social factors affect community health.
As the first person in his family to attend college, Ballard pursued an unconventional path to medicine. His curiosity took him from studying biology at the University of Louisville to examining wildlife in the Galapagos Islands, working with HIV/AIDS orphans in Ghana, and earning a master's in epidemiology from Cambridge University. These diverse experiences shaped his understanding of health beyond individual cases to population-level wellness.
Ballard's professional journey reveals how rural upbringing and world-class education combine to create an exceptional public health leader. His work as Kentucky's state epidemiologist during the opioid crisis prepared him for his current role, where he oversees medical services while collaborating with healthcare providers across New Hampshire. "It's not only about medical care these days," he explains, "it's also about well-being, in a sense of feeling good, having a strong mental health as well as our physical health."
Beyond his professional accomplishments, we discover Ballard's passion for surfing (first learned in Hawaii during a medical rotation), his love of 5K races, and his evolving role coaching his children's soccer teams. His approach to healthcare emphasizes collaboration and understanding different perspectives: "I think we have to assume best intentions when we approach individuals who have a different opinion." Listen now to discover how a farm boy from Kentucky became a surfing doctor leading New Hampshire's medical services.
Anything But Politics is a groundbreaking new podcast that is redefining how we view political figures by focusing on everything about them—except their political careers. Co-hosted by former journalist and media expert Tiffany Eddy and seasoned lobbyist and ex-politico Tom Prasol, this video podcast dives into the personal lives, passions, and pivotal experiences of notable figures, offering a refreshing and intimate look at who they are beyond the public eye.
Meeting Dr. Jonathan Ballard
Speaker 1Hi everyone, I'm Tiffany Eddy.
Speaker 2And I'm Tom Preysol.
Speaker 1And we are so pleased to welcome you to another episode of Anything but Politics. And today we've got a very exciting guest.
Speaker 2Yeah, we've got Now. All of our guests so far have been incredibly smart, tiffany, but today's guest I mean his resume is just something else and you know he currently serves as the state's chief medical officer. Without further ado, we'll introduce Dr Jonathan Ballard. Thank you, tom.
Speaker 3Thank you, Tiffany. It's a pleasure to be with you today.
Speaker 1May we call you John, or should we call you Dr Ballard? Just call me Jonathan, jonathan. Okay, thank you very much. Now we can officially say there's a doctor in the house. There is a doctor in the house.
Speaker 2Before we even get started, because I want to hear your story about how you came to New Hampshire and really got into medicine, given your interesting upbringing. But before we even get started, for our listeners at home, can you tell us a little bit about a chief medical officer and what you do and what that entails?
Speaker 3Sure, Tom happy to so. I work as the Chief Medical Officer at the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, and at the department I work with a very large team of professionals and I oversee, with those individuals, the medical services that the department has and offers to the state, whether that's in the Medicaid program or children or DCOF program or substance use services. We deliver a wide array of services and medical treatments. Payment for those services. The other component, though, is working with community partners such as hospitals and primary care providers, individuals across the state, to ensure that we have a high quality level of services and that individuals are able to access them.
Speaker 1That's a big responsibility.
Speaker 2It is a big responsibility and it makes a lot of sense working with all those different organizations to make sure there's, you know, cohesiveness across the board. So that's great and it's an important job. You know, having a healthy state is having a happy state, right.
Speaker 1Absolutely.
Speaker 3Sure, we also know that. You know, it's not only about medical care these days, it's also about well-being, in a sense of feeling good feeling, having a strong mental health as well as our physical health.
Speaker 2Yeah, no, that's fantastic and thank you for sharing. You know what you do for the state and thanks for being here. But I think you know to get started, I got a little bit of a hint of a twang there. I know you're hiding it really well, but let's start right at the beginning. So you're not originally from New Hampshire, you are from Kentucky.
Speaker 3Yeah, okay, bluegrass State originally.
Speaker 2So tell us a little bit about what that was like growing up. How did your family get to Kentucky? Were they always there?
Speaker 3No, I think. Other than Native Americans, our ancestors were not from the United States, and so I grew up in central Kentucky, in a little town, or outside the town, called Bardstown. It's called the bourbon capital of the world, and you left. And.
Speaker 1I left I did.
Speaker 3But I grew up on a farm. I had worked at my parents' family farm and my father ran a sawmill. I worked at the mill. So I grew up in a very different situation, I think, than probably a lot of future doctors did. I grew up in a very agrarian situation.
Speaker 1What was that like as a kid?
Speaker 3Well, it was exciting. I had cows, I had responsibilities, I had chores outside each day, worked at the mill, whether it was stacking lumber or fulfilling orders with my father. So it was originally my grandfather's business. He worked and started the sawmill business back after Prohibition ended. So you know, the whiskey industry has been, you know, big in Kentucky for a few hundred years, grew over time for a few hundred years, grew over time, and so after Prohibition the whiskey distilleries grew tremendously and rapidly.
Kentucky Roots and Family Business
Speaker 3So I remember an old story that my grandfather said when I was a really young child that after Prohibition, one of the big distilleries, there was one called Heaven Hill Distillery.
Speaker 3Prohibition, one of the big distilleries, there was one called Heaven Hill Distillery and Mr Shapira who owned that distillery told my grandfather I want quantity not quality as far as the production of the lumber to build the warehouses, and then, and also you know, the lumber and such would go into the barrels. So my ancestors came to central Kentucky getting back to your question a few hundred years ago. Originally the first ballard that came to the United States came in about 1650s to Virginia. It was called Middle Plantation Virginia, which is now known as Williamsburg, and so my first ancestor ballard that came to the United States. He had a 300-acre farm farmed and he was actually in the legislature in Virginia before the United States was a country Yep, and then, several generations later, the first ballard that moved inland to Kentucky was in the Revolutionary War and he settled where my family currently lives today, near about, and so we've been on that land farming and being tenants of the land for a few hundred years now.
Speaker 1Wow, that's impressive. Now, when you were growing up and you were sawing lumber and raising cattle and running around, was medicine ever kind of a thought in your head? It just seems like such a unique journey to go from farming to you know now the chief medical officer.
Speaker 3Sure, it sounds like a stretch but it really wasn't. So I didn't know at the time, but I was interested in biology. I had that agrarian background, I was in raised animals. But the other thing that was interesting to me was when I worked at my father's sawmill and we had individuals coming in on a daily basis. It was all day long. People would knock on our door and want to speak about some type of a need. I met individuals from a wide aspect of life and I also lived in a community that was rural, high levels of life and you know, and I also lived in a community that was rural, high levels of poverty, and I could directly see the linkages between environmental factors, social factors, other factors that would lead to whether or not you had a healthy life, whether you had unnecessary suffering in life. And I think that that was sort of what led me down the path. I didn't know it at the time, I didn't ever as a child say I want to be a doctor when I grow up. But I knew I liked the science of biology and I knew I liked working with people, and so I think that's what so naturally progressed over that time period, as I, you know, pursued different aspects for college and eventually got into medicine.
Speaker 3Now, do you have siblings? I do. I have two older brothers Now. I am the first generation in my family, along with my brothers, to go to college, so I never had any ancestors that were college graduates. You know, growing up in agrarian situations and it wasn't the the you know the life that individuals pursued then. My oldest brother is 10 years older than me and my middle brother's five years older than me. My oldest brother became a pharmacist, I think you know I was a young child in late elementary school when he was already going off to college and pursuing a degree in the science field. My middle brother, he, was into business. He actually has gone into a similar field as my father, not the exact same business, but he's kind of keeping that family mantra of working in the lumber industry still going to this day and he lives at a home that's still on our family property, and so that provides me some peace of mind, at least when I'm here in New Hampshire and my parents are still wonderful and still alive and working today down in central Kentucky.
Speaker 2Well, that was going to be my question. Is anybody still?
Speaker 3you know, working the farm they are. So when I grew up we had my father had he was partial to black Angus cattle, so all his cattle were solid black. Okay, and I remember I was thinking I was in third or fourth grade, I had to we went on the back porch and we talked about what it would be like for me to contribute to the farm but also to start making a little money off the farm. And so we came up with a contract. Okay, it was a written contract, just you and your dad.
Speaker 2Yes, so, he's serious.
Speaker 3He's very serious, very serious. So I had to feed the cattle and I had to help when it was time to harvest hay, put it up and drive the tractor and, such as a child, that's hard work. And he would allow me in this contract to have my own cows. So I initially went out and I got white cows, I got Charolais cows, I'm sure he loved that. Well, I look, I love my father, but I you know, and I I trust him, but I wanted to verify.
Speaker 1I knew which were my cows and which were his cows.
Speaker 3That is funny, so I. So I got a few white calves and I raised them up by bottle and then they kind of joined the larger herd.
Speaker 1At any point did the cows co-mingle and did there end up being like Oreo cookie cows or anything?
Speaker 3No. So we always would bring in and barter with neighbors for access to a bull to come.
Speaker 1Okay, so you only had heifers? Oh, it was only cows. I only had heifers, oh, okay.
Speaker 3So through the years, Impressive.
Speaker 2I know that term. Huh Right, right.
Speaker 1Exactly had heifers, oh, okay.
Speaker 3Impressive. I know that term huh Right. Exactly. Good, tom, no. So through the years I grew my own herd. My cows grew up to be full-grown and then they had their own calves. When they had bull calves that we would turn into steer calves, we would raise them up and we would sell them off for beef cattle.
Speaker 2Okay.
Speaker 3And then we would cap the female calves, and then I grew my herd that way, and so when I became 16 years of age, I sold all my cattle.
Speaker 2How many are we talking about here?
Speaker 3It was enough for me to buy a truck.
Speaker 1Okay, I was going to say I was thinking like maybe a software company, but no, not that much.
From Farm Life to Medical Aspirations
Speaker 3Not in those years. Maybe beef cattle today would be that much. Beef prices are way up. But so no, I sold my calves and you know, and I worked at the sawmill and I never received any financial help from my parents to go to college. I kind of worked on my own and applied for scholarships all the way through. And certainly, to go to college, I kind of worked on my own and applied for scholarships all the way through and, of course, certainly took out loans and paid back medical school eventually.
Speaker 1Wow, good for you. And then back to the cows, though, or the Angus and the I forget the Charlemagne or Charle, charle, charle. So do you have a preference? I know so fancy Well.
Speaker 3I think the Angus cows are very popular because they're very stocky, beefy, they put on weight quickly and muscle mass. So I think for a beef cattle farmer those are the preferred ones. My Charolais were not so that much and my father. Since that time he's switched. I don't know why but he's switched to registered red Angus and he actually gets a magazine in the mail. It's something like American red Angus and six pictures of cows.
Speaker 2That's great. So then you decided. So you obviously developed this fascination and this love for science and you were applying to schools and you said we'll stay pretty close.
Speaker 3Went to the University of Kentucky, oh the archenemy Went to the University of Louisville.
Speaker 2Louisville. Oh my God, cardinals, yeah, okay, the arch enemy Went to the University of Louisville, louisville, oh my God.
Speaker 3Cardinals, yeah, okay, no, I mean, look, this is. I grew up in an environment that was a huge undertaking yeah, an exciting undertaking to go off to our largest city in the state and to go off to college. And I actually applied for a scholarship that required us, the scholarship recipients, to at least minor. We could major, but we had to at least minor in political science. Oh, get out.
Speaker 3Yeah, so I was a biology major with a political science minor pursuing not purposefully but, I think, naturally trying to bridge my desire and love for science and biology with understanding how there's impacts around community and there's political aspects around what makes a community happy and healthy.
Speaker 2Yeah, it also makes you a more attractive candidate for med school, right, I remember, because I originally wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon, but when I went to college I majored in politics and just went pre-med. But then I realized I hated chemistry and hence why I'm here today. But it does make you an attractive candidate, right.
Speaker 3Well, it probably did. You know you have to. I think medical schools look for someone interesting and maybe not so completely into just the science, without understanding the larger reason why you're interested in that. Yeah, but I wasn't thinking in those terms at that time. I was thinking this is just what's interesting, yeah, and a requirement. Time I was thinking this is just what's interesting, yeah, and a requirement. And a requirement to be able to finance college, yeah.
Speaker 1So then you, where did you do get your MD? What?
Speaker 3school. The same school, but I actually didn't go straight from undergraduate college to medical school.
Speaker 1Okay.
Speaker 3Throughout my undergraduate years I took part in that scholarship program.
Speaker 3It was founded by, and the funding was not provided by, but fundraised by, the Kentucky's US Senator still to this day US Senator Mitch McConnell. Oh yeah, so it was called the McConnell Scholarship for Political Leadership, us Senator Mitch McConnell. Oh yeah, so it was called the McConnell Scholarship for Political Leadership. And so through that program we had exposure to it was a completely nonpartisan program but we had exposure to international and national political leaders. We tried to recreate for you know, students in Kentucky who don't really have a lot of opportunities that in the Northeast may have at big-name schools and Ivy League colleges where you have that natural exposure to leaders. I think what Senator McConnell tried to do is recreate something of that experience in a state that doesn't typically have that type of experience. And so I was able to have a lot of those experiences, studying political leadership, reading a lot of the great works, the great books, and so it really, I guess, struck a chord in me to pursue something a little different than going straight on to medical school.
Speaker 1And was that when you were able to travel?
Educational Journey and World Travels
Speaker 3Yes, yes, through my undergraduate years I had that experience where I knew what life was like in central Kentucky and how I could see how lifestyle and factors, sometimes beyond your control, impacted whether you were healthy or not, or whether the community was healthy or not, or impacted poverty levels or your ability of a community to be more prosperous. But I didn't have that much worldwide experience. I never traveled abroad and so, through college, every single time there was an opportunity at the university to pursue some type of study abroad or a specialized honors program type of travel experience or course I tried to jump on it, and so I had some unique opportunities that really broadened my horizon beyond central Kentucky. A few of those were there was an opportunity to study again the science in South America. So in the biology program I pursued this program that allowed me to travel to the Galapagos Islands. Oh, my goodness, the giant tortoises and the different islands that Charles Darwin had, the voyage of the beagle that traveled around. Yeah, did you see any sharks? Yes, I actually swam with the hammerhead sharks.
Speaker 1Oh, we're going to get to the sharks, because you know I'm a shark nut. Oh, you love sharks. Oh, me too. Yeah, I'm petrified of them, yeah.
Speaker 2They eat people, but go on. You swam with them and lived, to tell the tale that experience?
Speaker 3That was a very science-y experience, but you know got to witness a little bit of history in real life. Then other opportunities were amazing. I wanted to. There was a program with our sister city of Louisville into our sister city in Africa, into our sister city in Africa the sister city was called Tamale in Ghana and northern Ghana at the time was having lots of turmoil. We were also in the midst of the worldwide spread of HIV and AIDS and the United States at the time invested heavily into PEPFAR, the program to provide financial support.
Speaker 2It's a big legacy of President Bush.
Speaker 3It was, and so I traveled to one of those communities. I visited and worked a little bit at an orphanage that took care of children with HIV and AIDS and was welcomed there by the chief of the town, and we stayed with the local chief, or the chief was named Zosimile Na. The kingdom of Dagbon Dagbon was the kingdom in northern Ghana, oh wow, and so I had that experience totally outside of my realm, but, you know, seeing those health impacts on a firsthand basis. You know it really writ large what I experienced in rural Kentucky in a different degree. You know. I had other opportunities at the time, though, than to see what almost the extreme opposite of that was. I had experience in traveling abroad, to Oxford University in England, studying political philosophy, political thought, and saw how so much world order and totally different experience.
Speaker 2Yeah, and is that where you got your master's too, in epidemiology?
Speaker 3Well, I wanted to go on to medical school and I applied to medical school, yeah, but I didn't think that it was exactly what I wanted to do, just go straight into medical school. I wanted to have a little bit more understanding of what causes diseases beyond just the diseases themselves, and so that's when I pursued a career, a degree in epidemiology, and I guess people these days know what epidemiologists are.
Speaker 1But explain it please.
Speaker 3Post-2020,.
Speaker 2I think yeah.
Speaker 3But not in those days and let me try to explain this to my family that I was deferring medical school.
Speaker 1To be this big word of like. What is that?
Speaker 3I thought it was something with skin or bugs Makes sense.
Speaker 3No, it wasn't epidermis or entomology, it was epidemiology and it's the study of diseases, the prevention of diseases both chronic diseases and infectious diseases and injuries and how to prevent them.
Speaker 3And so I think that experience, originally going to the Galapagos and seeing Charles Darwin I started learning about this university in England, cambridge University, and it was at the time one of the and still is to this day, one of the epicenters for epidemiology. And so I was encouraged at the undergraduate university to pursue a scholarship and I was able to receive a scholarship to go to Cambridge University and study epidemiology, get a master's degree and really understand how to conduct a scientific study, how to evaluate them, how to understand what can help make a community healthy or not healthy. So I had this really larger perspective than myself entering into medical school. So I think that really larger, larger perspective than myself, uh, entering into medical school, so I think that really gave me a leg up. So after that I came on back to back to the University of Louisville where I did medical school and then so you did your medical school there.
Speaker 2Now you had to do a residency, right, yes, and you did that well, that's what.
Speaker 3That's what brought me to New Hampshire, that's what brought you to New Hampshire.
Speaker 2Okay, that's what brought you to New Hampshire. Okay, I know there was a little bit of a detour. We'll go back there, it's fine. Well, no, because you went to Hawaii too right, didn't you do some work?
Speaker 3Well, that was in residency actually.
Speaker 2Okay.
Speaker 3Through Dartmouth.
Speaker 1So where haven't you been? Should we just pull out a?
Speaker 3map. I was not here. That's probably why I asked your question. It's interesting Growing up and never going too many places in the environment I grew up in and then, all of a sudden, having my horizon so broadened, it was a big juxtaposition for me.
Speaker 2Yeah. So you came to New Hampshire for part of your residency, and that was up at Dartmouth.
Speaker 3It was an interesting program. So in New Hampshire I'm not sure individuals are aware of this too much, but we have at Dartmouth College and Dartmouth Health there is a residency called the Leadership Preventive Medicine Residency and that is a residency program that creates a specialist of people called preventive medicine doctors and they typically a residency program that creates a specialist of people called preventive medicine doctors and they typically work in public health and it's one of the recognized specialties. But what was unique was there is a combined family medicine and preventive medicine residency through Dartmouth and a partnership with actually Concord Hospital in our state capital. So I did the combined family medicine and preventive medicine program and I was based in Concord, new Hampshire. Okay, and you know I wanted to be a full-blown doctor that you know could take care of all ages children, persons who are pregnant, women Sounds like a town doctor. I wanted that experience, I wanted to be, you know, I wanted, I thought that would feel like a doctor, you know, not just yeah, I can take care of the.
Speaker 2I only you know well, there's a body travel around with your black bag and yes, uh but, our babies yeah, did that, yes, and so I wanted to have that skill set and knowledge.
Speaker 3I felt it, but at the same, I really wanted to be a doctor for a population of people, helping larger numbers of individuals have the care that they need, and it's sort of really what I do today.
Speaker 1So then you wrap that up and then you went back down to Kentucky. So I'm curious, because I know you met your wife at some point in New Hampshire.
Speaker 3That's right.
Speaker 1And I mean I might be jumping out on a limb here, but maybe that's part of what brought you back. Or did you come back and then meet her?
Speaker 3Oh, it's all factors in life. Everything is combined.
Speaker 1It's all women, it's all together. Let's bring it back to the women, yeah.
Speaker 3Yeah, yeah. So while I was in residency here in Concord, New Hampshire, I met my wife. She was an attorney practicing here in Concord. She got out of law school, I think during the big recession and around 08. Okay, and after that one of the areas of law that was still okay was the practice of bankruptcy, Yep. And so she got out of law school in Boston and found this job here in Concord, New Hampshire, and came here and I came here for my residency and the stars aligned.
Speaker 3And so we met each other here. How did you meet? How did we meet? Oh, I think we were just connected by a mutual friend or something I can't even remember exactly. And then we had our first date at the Beloco Burritos, oh yeah.
Speaker 2That doesn't exist anymore. No, but I remember it. It was good. Yeah, that's over on Fort Eddy it is. Is that where it was? That's right, actually, it's Fort.
Speaker 1Tiffany Eddy. It's Fort Tiffany Eddy.
Speaker 3It's really funny we originally were going to go to Starbucks, no Panera. We were originally going to Panera and we showed up at Pan can we do this? So we got both in our cars and agreed that we were going to go do a U-turn and go down to get the Mexican burrito, and I think we both loved it. I think that was the connection at first.
Speaker 2It was like oh, we both love Mexican food and good food.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 2No, that's great. So you met. Did you get married here? Did you get married here? Did you get married in Kentucky, or does she have?
Speaker 3somewhere we got married. So her family is from northern Massachusetts in the Lowell Mass area. And her undergraduate college was Merrimack College and we got married in the Merrimack College Chapel.
Speaker 2Oh yeah.
Speaker 3Oh, yeah, yeah. And then you know how do you know that we had true love. When we moved to Kentucky, my first job out of residency I took over a job as the medical director for family medicine, especially at the University of Kentucky. So we did switch and go to the Army. She retook the entire bar exam to be able to be licensed to practice law in Kentucky.
Speaker 1That is true love.
Speaker 3I thought so yeah.
Speaker 2Oh, go ahead.
Speaker 1No, I was just so. Now you're back in Kentucky with your New England bride, your northern bride, so how did she do down there? And then, what brought you back up?
Speaker 3She thrived, I thrived too. We had a great time. We were living in Lexington a different culture than the big city of Louisville, a little more rural and definitely a thicker accent there. Yeah, did you get any cows sent there, did you? Get any cows? No, but we did buy a home that had a wooden plank fence that backed up to horse farms in the area.
Speaker 2That's cool.
Speaker 3We were living in. Eventually, the town was called Please forgive me the town was called Versailles. Spelled the same as Versailles. I can say the word for you was called Versailles, versailles.
Speaker 1Spelled the same as.
Speaker 3Versailles, yeah, and I can say the word for you it's Versailles.
Speaker 2I can turn on my mic, yeah.
Speaker 3But we loved it and you know that was considered the horse capital of the world, where all the thoroughbred horses a lot of them, are.
New Hampshire Career and Family Life
Speaker 1Oh, that must have been incredible.
Speaker 3Beautiful area and I loved it. I enjoyed that work and I was transitioned over a few years later, kind of recruited over, still employee at the university but went over to work in state government. So that was my first taste of state government. Work was in Kentucky when I became the state epidemiologist for Kentucky and this was at the height of well, at least for Kentucky, including New Hampshire too, at the time, because we were early states to be faced with the opioid epidemic and so we had a lot of ramifications from the opioid epidemic, including outbreaks of hepatitis A, hepatitis C, hiv outbreaks, and in my job I was responsible for those disease investigations and trying to come up with mitigation techniques and how do we bring those outbreaks under control? Yeah, so that's what I did at the time. So how long were you in Kentucky? That's what I did at the time. So how long were you in Kentucky? Oh, it was about five years.
Speaker 2Five years, okay. And then were you recruited to New Hampshire. Did your wife make the decision that you're coming back?
Speaker 3Well, we were blessed with our first child in 2016. Congratulations, thank you. Thank you, yeah, thank you. Um and uh, you know, working away and new father and relatively new husband at the time and, um, we came up with some really unique ways to approach the opioid epidemic. We had some mobile overdose prevention units and different approaches, and I was asked to come up to New England. I was asked to present at a lecture at Harvard College about what we were doing in Kentucky. You know some unique aspects and when I was that and at the time, the commissioner of health and human services here in New Hampshire was Commissioner Jeffrey Myers he attended that little mini conference, a summit, because I think it was a summit that they organized to think about best strategies, strategies that were working in some of the states that were hardest affected.
Speaker 3Back in. This would have been about 2017, going into 2018. And I struck conversation with him and the position was open at the time. For the current position, I have the chief medical officer position and my wife was from this area with a new child and you know the stars aligned again and it just made a good fit. I love New Hampshire, you know. I loved Kentucky too, and I still love both places, but I felt like I could make a real difference in this position, and I think it was great for our young family as well. My wife's parents are a lot younger than my parents and I think that was a factor too.
Speaker 1So and and if you had to like, as far as how it impacts like your, your, your family's life, biggest differences. I mean, obviously I know there's some obvious ones, but biggest differences between raising your kids here versus raising your kids down there.
Speaker 3Well, I think education is a little different. Where I grew up there was really not a lot of educational choices and I think we were also in a very rural environment, which I loved, but wide open spaces and the travel distances obviously are much further to go anywhere compared to new england you know you can pop in to have resources and, and you know, go to museums or have events and such um.
Speaker 3You know there's lots of differences. I don't think we made that choice consciously at that time for any of those reasons. But I know today that my children are very happy, they're healthy and growing, and so I think that you know New Hampshire is particularly a great place for kids and we see that on, you know on rankings and consistently, that child welfare in New Hampshire is among the best in the country. So I knew that and so I knew that they would get great educations here. It wasn't that I was leaving anything badly, but it was a good fit.
Speaker 2Yeah, you're just growing as a professional, and your wife didn't have to retake the bar, that's also an added benefit, right?
Speaker 1Good bonus. It's not like you're moving to.
Speaker 3Michigan. Right, this was obviously a conversation that you know is mutual.
Speaker 1It wasn't my decision.
Speaker 3We came to decisions together, and I think that's important in life when you're a partnership.
Speaker 2Yeah, and you thought where can I surf?
Speaker 1I was just going there.
Speaker 3The surfing part.
Speaker 1So it kind of ties all the way back around to sharks. But, how does a guy from Kentucky learn how to surf? I mean, was it here? Was it there? Do you think about the sharks when you're in the water?
Speaker 3So when I was in family medicine residency, you have to do a certain number of electives you're required to that are not in your program. You go out somewhere in the country and have an experience that's totally different than what you do normally every day. I had some family that lived in Hawaii and there was a native Hawaiian health clinic at one of those fairly qualified health centers. That was happened to be at a really beautiful beach on the island of Oahu, on the opposite side from Honolulu and near where my family lived at, and so I contacted the clinic director and said can I come out and do my required rotation at your clinic and learn about what is it like to take care of native Hawaiians? Yeah, and so it did align that it happened to be beautiful surfing, so I learned there.
Speaker 1Are you good?
Speaker 3No, I'm not good, but I can get up.
Speaker 1You can get up on the board, I can get up and I can ride all the way in and have a good time.
Speaker 3I don't want to go, take too much risk, so I did that in Hawaii during my rotation and then I came back to New Hampshire and then I was really hooked by that point. Yeah, how long were you in Hawaii?
Speaker 2Oh, it was a few months or so A few months, ok, not a really long time, but enough to get a few sessions in yeah, enough to get you hooked.
Speaker 3Yeah, if I wasn't working there, I was surfing. Yeah, get you yeah yeah, if I wasn't working there, I was surfing, yeah, and so I came back here and obviously it turned out New Hampshire has wonderful surfing. Is it that good? It's really good, especially compared to Hawaii.
Speaker 1I mean, you have to wear a wetsuit, it's frigid and you look like a seal when you put on those black wetsuits. I mean you just yeah, it's like ringing the Digger bell isn't it?
Speaker 3Yes, it is so. For the years after that, and even to this day, I love going over to Genest Beach renting a wetsuit from Summer Sessions or any of those other places through there.
Speaker 3Cinnamon rainbows Grabbing a board and going out, I like to take something called the inside waves out. Now I'm, I like to take something called the inside waves. So there are, we call it the green waves, which are the big waves a little further out, where there's more current, uh, more sharks, more sharks, especially in, you know, new england, um and I, but I like to ride the inside waves just enough, where I, you know, see the wave pop up on ride 100 feet or so get back down and sort of just walk myself back out instead of having to.
Speaker 3You know, I've got short arms. It's really hard to paddle and so anytime I can take a. You know, if we go on a trip somewhere where there happens to be a beach, you know I'll try to rent a surfboard and get on the waves.
Speaker 2That's awesome. I love Genesee Beach too, but I don't do the surfing that's too dangerous for me.
Speaker 1This is Tom on Genes Beach.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 1Catching sun rays.
Surfing, Sports, and Work-Life Balance
Speaker 3Right, but New Hampshire look, we can go to the beach here in central New Hampshire. We can go to the beach, we can go to the mountains, go to big city Boston, go over experience, vermont all in an hour's time. That's a really unique experience.
Speaker 2It's so true and I always say this about like why New Hampshire is so great for the first in the nation primary not to get into politics. But you know, you fly into Manchester, you're an hour's distance. You know from everything. Right, you can be the lakes in an hour. You can be on the seacoast in an hour. You can be down on the border of Massachusetts in an hour, over Keene in the border of Vermont in an hour. It's really I love central New Hampshire.
Speaker 1I think it's great. Yeah, and we have one media market and a candidate can go all the way across the state in less than a day and meet all sorts of different potential voters. It is a magical place.
Speaker 3It really is. I mean, the opportunities really are endless for outdoor activities. If you're an outdoors enthusiast, I mean, really, is there a better place? I really are endless for outdoor activities. If you're an outdoors enthusiast, I mean, really, is there a better place? I?
Speaker 2don't think so. Well, I did want to get into that because I mean, obviously you've been through like everywhere I feel like. But you know, and you have a lot of work being the state's chief medical officer. I'm sure that's not an easy job. We were talking earlier how, like you know, there is no do not disturb button on your phone, right, because you're probably on call all the time and that's also part of being a doctor. But what else do you do for fun? I mean you've got two young kids. You're probably teaching soccer.
Speaker 3Yeah, well, I try to be. That's my really outside of my job. That's really job number one is being a dad to my two children and a good husband, and so I try to integrate what I do for fun into family activities.
Speaker 2Yeah makes sense.
Speaker 3I try to, and a few things I do for relaxation, for good mental health. For me, personally is, one thing I did initially was I coached my kids soccer, like the classic experience many dads have. Now I have a little bit of a truth to tell you, though, so I coached my daughter for a couple of years and I coached my son. I sort of had to do that when the original coach didn't start showing up to practices or to the games.
Speaker 1That's a problem, yeah.
Speaker 3Well, it's life. And so my kids told me one day Daddy, I don't want to play soccer because I already know everything about soccer. I was like what do you mean? Well, you've taught me everything about soccer, I don't need to do it anymore. I'm like what Did?
Speaker 2you play soccer.
Speaker 3Yes, I played soccer, soccer. I loved it, you know, and I I you know played on the, on the, on the soccer team at cambridge, on the yeah, oh wow, that's real soccer, yeah yes, in england, I loved it. I was. My nickname was yank yeah that was the you know the football yeah um, I'm like I'm at college there, but anyway. Um. So I realized, though now I'm not the coach, I'm dad.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 3And I'm a good spectator cheer on no matter what. But now my kids are learning a lot more. They're not just learning what dad knows. I think I'm adjusting to that and it's a life lesson for me. Sometimes they have a lot more fun when I back off. Other fun things to do is I've just started the last couple of years taking up golf. I'm learning. Most doctors actually are not golfers these days. It seems like that was a cliche back when doctors would be in private practice and close the practice on Friday afternoons and take off to the course Dr.
Speaker 1Pieper.
Speaker 3Right, that's not how it is these days. Most doctors are employed physicians and I think that contributes a little bit to their burnout. Is they don't have necessarily the control over their lives, and so I've learned there's not very many doctors on the course. But what I try to do is take my children out with me, and that's how I can get out and have a little bit of downtime. Is I'll take one child with me and you know what they do they get to drive the cart.
Speaker 2It's no tractor, but you know it's close. Oh, it's fun. It's not a side-by-side, but you know it's fun, it's not a side by side, but in their mind it's a side by side.
Speaker 3Yeah, and you know, we'll stop a little shy of the green and they'll hit it onto the green and play, and it's a great time for us to bond. I'm also secretly having a great time too, because I get to play a round of golf and be outside.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah, with your kids, that's awesome.
Speaker 2Yeah, I think that's where we first met was the golf course.
Speaker 1Oh, really, you were at a golf course.
Speaker 2Shocker right. Oh my gosh. No, dr Ballard and I I think we're in the same Thursday night league.
Speaker 3Yes, so I'm probably the worst person in the league.
Speaker 2I have the highest handicap.
Speaker 1Hey, listen, oh you two, stop it. It's all about finding the right partner, right, I mean that's what it's all about.
Speaker 3Yes, but I get a handicap, so I get extra points awarded to me, the other thing I find that I enjoy doing and sometimes I'll take my kids with me is just to the local 5K races. There are a ton of them in New Hampshire all across the state. That is a really accessible sport for individuals. You don't have to be competitive or run it. You can walk them, but they are just all over the state really all throughout the year.
Speaker 3And you're fast, so it doesn't take you that long to run it. So sometimes I bring my kids with me and they'll run the kids' race beforehand a few hundred yards or longer, and it's a great way for us to get out. And it's also you know, there's not it it's very stress relieving to to exert yourself to what is safely within your, you know your abilities so what's uh, your 5k?
Speaker 1time? 5k time my best time, my best 5k time, so it was.
Speaker 3So I ran about 10 races this year. That's a lot. It was something called the Capital Area Race Series was the bulk of them, and I think my best race was called the Joe Casper Over the River and Through the Woods race. It was over. First we went over I-93, over the Merrimack River and through the woods in East Concord and back To grandmother's house. We go Exactly.
Speaker 2I think that was the theme.
Speaker 3And my time was, I think, 21, 27.
Speaker 2Yeah, that's quick.
Speaker 3That was my best ever.
Speaker 2That's impressive. I run quick, but it's only because I hate running and I just want to get it over with.
Speaker 1And there's a beer. Someone like dangling a beer Somewhere. At the end there's always a beer.
Speaker 3Well, that first mile, every single race I go through that. I don't know if it's cathartic, but that first mile I'm thinking why am I doing this? Why am I never going to do this again? I'm never going to. Then the body starts to relax, the muscles get a little looser. Honestly, at the end of the races, when I'm finally feeling good, have you ever thought about?
Speaker 2going further, like a half marathon or a marathon.
Speaker 3I'm like everybody else. You know we all have developed aches and pains and bad knees and bad back.
Speaker 2Sleep with a pillow under my legs now.
Speaker 3Yeah, I think 5K is probably where my safe number is. Yeah, limit without being hurt, that's fair.
Speaker 1But you're young.
Speaker 3Well, that's.
Speaker 2And he's a doctor, thank you. And he's a doctor, he can fix himself why not, don't treat yourself.
Final Thoughts and Perspectives
Speaker 1Make mistakes. Is there anything about you that we haven't gotten into that we should know about?
Speaker 3Well, you know, I just try to do the best I can. As you know, a professional represent the field of medicine, as a husband, as a father, you know, a granite stater. That's, that's. I think that's the essence of what many of us try to do, you know, daily in our lives. Yeah, no.
Speaker 2And I and I know that you do have to get going because you did tell us earlier you do have soccer practice. You have to pick your son and drive him to. But, um, I just wanted to say you know, thanks. I mean it sounds like you really did some great work when you were the state's epidemiologist and uh in Kentucky and obviously led to you being recruited here. And I know you've done a lot of great work here. I've seen it over at the Statehouse and the way you're willing to collaborate with others right and I think you bring a lot of that rural right, rural health that you talked about and that you really got you kind of jazzed up in the first place in this field, and we have rural parts in New Hampshire.
Speaker 3So it's important that you bring that here. I think it's important for us when we have different opinions on different topics, and certainly in medicine, public health. There is room to have different opinions and I think we have to assume best intentions when we approach individuals who have a different opinion. That's what I really try to do is understand where you're coming from and try to see it from your lens. I think in most situations that's what works, yeah super smart.
Speaker 1We appreciate that too, because that's kind of I think the basis of the podcast is really getting to know all sorts of different individuals and getting to know them as a human being and understanding them and their motivation, and it's fascinating and I think it's helpful to just get to know who our neighbors are.
Speaker 2Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1Well, thank you so much for coming on, Dr Ballard. It's been a pleasure having you on the podcast and getting to know you, and I do want to get deeper into the shark thing.
Speaker 3But hear more about the Galapagos and the sharks. Tell you all about the animals. They don't fear humans there.
Speaker 2Yeah that's scary, but no, thank you and thanks to everybody for listening to our latest episode of Anything but.
Speaker 1Politics. Thanks so much. We really appreciate your time and we've got a lot more coming your way.