Oct 15, 2026 · 11 min · 11 segments
Bradley Akihito from Bully Pulpit International joins us to discuss Crisis Management and how it can be learned and could help others during a trying time.
And, uh, first of all, first and foremost, 'cause, you know, we have some friends and colleagues in common, uh, before we get into you and your career, like, what are you doing in Connecticut?
I was here for the PRSA, Public Relations Society of America, Greater Connecticut chapter, at the state capital talking a little bit about crisis communications.
Uh, you know, Patty LaShane and some of the group out there invited me to come and talk about this 'cause it's on folks' mind right now, and we had a great conversation yesterday.
You know, I, I'm curious 'cause you basically, did you go to Medill thinking you were gonna be a journalist?
And so what, what brought you, like, what steered you in this direction? You just felt like you had great instincts for these situations?
Well, interestingly enough, I kinda fell into it, and I think a lot of people in crisis management do.
You don't wake up in the morning thinking, "I wanna go and help people in their hardest moments," 'cause that feels a little bit, I don't know, maybe sociopathic.
But, you know, [laughs] the thing about it is, you know, you end up in one situation that's kinda like it, and then all of a sudden people say, "Hey, don't you know how to do this?" And even if you try to run from it, you get pulled back into it.
And so that's kinda how it happened for me, and I started off, uh, working for Reverend Jesse Jackson.
And just really briefly on this, at the time, Roxana Saberi, who was a BBC reporter who had gone to Medill, was taken political, uh, prisoner in Iran.
And Reverend Jackson had been the first person she'd interviewed for her BBC career, and so he planned to go and advocate for her release.
And, uh, first of all, first and foremost, 'cause, you know, we have some friends and colleagues in common, uh, before we get into you and your career, like, what are you doing in Connecticut?
I was here for the PRSA, Public Relations Society of America, Greater Connecticut chapter, at the state capital talking a little bit about crisis communications.
Uh, you know, Patty LaShane and some of the group out there invited me to come and talk about this 'cause it's on folks' mind right now, and we had a great conversation yesterday.
You know, I, I'm curious 'cause you basically, did you go to Medill thinking you were gonna be a journalist?
And so what, what brought you, like, what steered you in this direction? You just felt like you had great instincts for these situations?
Well, interestingly enough, I kinda fell into it, and I think a lot of people in crisis management do.
You don't wake up in the morning thinking, "I wanna go and help people in their hardest moments," 'cause that feels a little bit, I don't know, maybe sociopathic.
But, you know, [laughs] the thing about it is, you know, you end up in one situation that's kinda like it, and then all of a sudden people say, "Hey, don't you know how to do this?" And even if you try to run from it, you get pulled back into it.
And so that's kinda how it happened for me, and I started off, uh, working for Reverend Jesse Jackson.
And just really briefly on this, at the time, Roxana Saberi, who was a BBC reporter who had gone to Medill, was taken political, uh, prisoner in Iran.
And Reverend Jackson had been the first person she'd interviewed for her BBC career, and so he planned to go and advocate for her release.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.