Jason Beem was only 23 years old when he had his first panic attack, but still remembers it in great detail to this day. “I studied law at Gonzaga University. I was taking constitutional law class and I didn’t know what it was, walked out of class and rolled in the hallway.” That episode was the beginning of more than a decade and a half of struggling with anxiety and depression that kept him out of racing for a while and hospitalized multiple times. Popular podcast host and racecaller talks openly about mental health on the TDN Writers Room podcast, presented by Keeneland, with hosts Joe Bianca, Bill Finley and Jon Green, as Green group Guest of the Week.
At one point, he said, the depression was so severe that he had to lie down on an air mattress in the broadcaster’s booth in the River Downs because of the overwhelming effort to keep his back straight. “My second year at River Downs, I really struggled,” he said. “And it was like the first time I had real depression and I didn’t know what it was. One day, I was in line at Chipotle, just crying and didn’t know why. So I hadn’t done a lot of therapy until then, so I started doing that and learned what I had to deal with and it wasn’t strange either. I think that for me was one of the biggest helps early on is realizing that mental health issues are things that a lot of people struggle with. ”
Currently a broadcaster at the Tampa Bay Downs, he was talking about not being in the race for a year and a half and working as an Uber driver when BetAmerica saw his “Beemie Award” on Twitter and reached out to watch. Does he want to do something with them? “I said I would love to do a daily podcast,” he recalls. “And it was really like Christmas and we were prepared and gone two weeks later. It actually came together pretty quickly and you know, just taking the model from what a lot of podcasters are doing; 20 minutes chat, 25 minutes interview and then you’re out. And we were really lucky. “
In other segments of the show, also sponsored by Coolmore, the Pennsylvania Thoroughbred Horse Breeders, Purebred West Point, Legacy Bloodstock and XBTV, writers discuss the week’s news, including: California vet Jeff Blea’s ongoing story, 2021 handling figures, and what percentage of it could be from bookers computer bets, and legal battles continued between Bob Baffert and Churchill Downs.
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This story was posted in Top News and tagged Bill Finley, Bob Baffert, Green Team Guest of the Week, Jason Beem, Jeff Blea, Joe Bianca, Jon Green, Medina Spirit, TDN Podcasts, TDN Writers ‘Room Podcast.
