Hey again, and welcome to Episode 002 of The Brandon Sneed Show, where we’re telling stories about everything, with a loose eye on how to navigate the chaos of life.
I’m glad you’re here.
Today, I talk with journalist Graham Bensinger, host of “In Depth with Graham Bensinger,” his independent interview show watched by millions around the world. Bensinger has interviewed many of the world’s most recognizable people in sports and beyond: Mike Tyson, O.J. Simpson, Terrell Owens, Kelly Slater, Richard Branson, Tom Hanks, David Blaine, Travis Pastrana, Jake Paul, Lance Mackey, just to name a handful.
Now 36 years old, Bensinger tells us the story of how he survived going independent back in his twenties to tell stories the way he felt they should be told, and along the way went nearly half a million dollars into debt. Now that he’s on the other side of that, the show is a success, Bensinger’s won an Emmy, and in a lot of ways, he’s just getting started.
In this episode, we talk about:
landing interviews with O.J. Simpson back when Bensinger was just a teenaged high school kid, the second of which landed Bensinger on national television
getting hate mail and death threats from people over said interviews
taking sick days in high school to work on his internet radio show
dropping out of college to focus on his journalism career as he began working for ESPN
accidentally making Terrell Owens angry when clips from an interview with him were presented out of context
making up with T.O. in a followup interview later
going independent in his twenties in order to tell stories the way he thought they should be told: with proper time, space, and humanity
doing stunts and otherwise participating in his interview subjects’ crafts, from backflips with Travis Pastrana, to mushing with Iditarod champ Lance Mackey, to surfing with Kelly Slater, to boxing with Mike Tyson. (OK, I’m kidding about the last one — though Bensinger has a great story about nearly blowing the interview with Tyson, salvaging it, and that eventually winning him his Emmy.)
talking suicidal thoughts with social media celeb turned boxer Jake Paul
And much more.
Thank you for being here, and for bearing with how sometimes some of this might feel a bit like a rough draft. This is an independent passion project for me, and I’m learning a lot as I go. I’m planning to bring you many more great stories and conversations like this one, and if you’d like to support the cause, please subscribe to this newsletter, at least for free, and spread the word.
In the future, I’ll also have some other rad things for you to buy to support us more — original feature stories, books, and some swag.
For now, I hope you enjoy the episode as much as I did.
Thanks again for being here, and for listening.
More soon…
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