Jimmy Carter's Fishing Life
Rods, Reels, and Peace Deals
It’s time for a critical reappraisal of Jimmy Carter’s presidency. For years we’ve heard the refrain “Great man, bad President” or “Much better as a former President.” And while I agree that James Earl Carter was indeed a great man and probably the best former President we’ve ever had, I’m not sure that I buy into the idea that he was a bad President. When we look at what the man encountered as President—crippling inflation, gas shortage, environmental crises galore, Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Iran hostage crisis, and a nation still reeling from the Nixon catastrophe—it is hard to imagine how any man or woman could have dealt with it all. In fact, when revisiting his term in office, I think the question we should be asking is not whether or not Carter was a good President, but whether or not anyone could have done better?
I’ve been wanting to talk about Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter’s lives for a long while and while there are no shortage of books on the two, nothing really stuck out at me. I wanted to get down to a personal story of the late President, a man whose connection to the outdoors and public lands was something I greatly admired.
Enter Jim Barger, Jr. Jim first met President Carter as a boy and knew the man as an adult. And he along with Dr. Carlton Fisk often fished with the man, leading to a different kind of presidential biography. Published by the Bitter Southerner, Jimmy Carter: Rivers & Dreams: Rods, Reels, & Peace Deals Plus the One That Got Away is a collection of 12 stories in 12 global locations that recounts how President Carter and his lifelong friends changed the course of world history, all while casting flies and pursuing the perfect strike.
Because of my lifelong love of fishing, when I first saw the book I knew I had to get coauthor Jim Barger, Jr. on the pod and he graciously agreed, talking with me over the weekend. We had a chance to talk about Jimmy Carter the man, Jimmy Carter the friend, Jimmy Carter, the Jimmy angler, and Jimmy Carter the President. Jim reveals in our conversation how angling informed Carter’s life, his relationships, and even his foreign policy.
And I think particularly relevant to the world we live in right now are Carter’s contributions to environmental protections. He doubled the size of the National Park Service, signed 14 major environmental bills into law, and should be probably be considered the greatest environmentalist since his idol Theodore Roosevelt.
I think also relevant is reengaging how we think about President Carter. I wonder if sometimes there’s a perceived softness about him because of his “just a peanut farmer” demeanor. Would we say the same of a nuclear engineer? Because Carter was that, too. He was a man of conviction and incredible moral integrity. And as Jim points out, he wasn’t always right but he admitted it when he wasn’t. I think Jimmy Carter is going to be a man that we look to more and more as the years pass.
About our guest
Jim Barger, Jr. is the author of the Bitter Southerner essays “Ahmaud Arbery Holds Us Accountable, “The Untold Story of Hibiscus Grandiflorus,” and “Unwavering.” He is the coauthor of Jimmy Carter: Rivers and Dreams: Rods, Reels, and Peace Deals, Plus the One that Got Away. He lives with his wife, Burch, and two sons on St. Simons Island, Georgia.
He is also a nationally recognized trial lawyer who handles complex government investigations, particularly qui tam whistleblower litigation under the False Claims Act. Straight out of law school, Jim won a ground-breaking $2 million settlement against a major health insurance company employing a then-novel legal theory under the tort of outrage; two years later, he set the record for the largest qui tam case in Alabama history, winning $24.5 million from Southerncare. Jim holds the records for the largest home health fraud case in U.S. history, securing $150 million from Amedisys in 2014, and the largest hospice fraud case in U.S. history, securing $75 million from Vitas in 2017. Jim has served as lead trial counsel in more than 100 qui tam whistleblower cases across the country, has testified as a healthcare fraud expert in federal court, and regularly consults with companies on healthcare compliance issues. He has been quoted by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, NPR, and CNN.
Get the book:
Find it on Bitter Southerner’s website
And without further ado, find the episode on Apple podcasts and Spotify below:
Alright, it’s Monday. We’ve got a big week ahead of us. Let’s do our best.
Jason
And if you like this work that I’m doing, there’s a way to help. We’re running a special on paid subscriptions right now by cutting the rate by 50%. So if you want to help, you can do so each month for as little as a $5 pledge, or support my writing and content with $40 or $75 subscriptions. It’ll really help out and you can do so at the link below. Either way, I’m just glad you’re here.