Army veteran Robin Phoenix Johnson, Hoover's Veteran fellow from the class of 2024-2025, shares her journey from enlisted soldier to officer, mom, stand-up comedian, and mental health advocate. After a 26-year military career, Robin found her new mission: helping others heal through humor. She discusses the origins of her comedy journey, the science behind laughter as therapy, and how her program Hilarious helps veterans and frontline professionals reframe stress and trauma through a comedic lens. Her message is clear: laughter isn’t just medicine, it’s a leadership skill, a survival tool, and a powerful connector in a divided world. Robin also reflects on overcoming imposter syndrome, applying to the Hoover Fellowship, and encouraging other "Mustangs" and non-traditional leaders to claim their seat at the table.
ABOUT THE PODCAST
Frontline Voices is part of the Veteran Fellowship Program at the Hoover Institution. Applications to join the 2025 Cohort of the Veteran Fellow Program is closing on July 31, 2025. Click here to apply now.
ABOUT THE GUEST
Robin “Phoenix” Johnson is a 26-year Army veteran, certified humor professional, and Hoover Institution Veteran Fellow. After serving in both enlisted and officer roles, she discovered her post-military mission at the intersection of leadership, mental health, and comedy. Robin is the founder of Hilarious, a humor-based therapy program that helps veterans and frontline professionals reframe stress through laughter. A TEDx speaker and passionate advocate, she’s on a mission to prove that resilience isn’t just about grit, it’s about wit.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
>> Mike Steadman (00:10):
Welcome to Frontline Voices, a podcast brought to you
by Stanford University's HooverInstitution, where we explore leadership,
service, and real-world solutions to someof our nation's most pressing issues.
I'm your host, Iron Mike Steadman,a member of the inaugural class of
Hoover Veteran Fellows anda Marine Corps veteran.
What happens when a 26-year armyveteran trades the uniform for
(00:32):
a microphone and finds healing and humor?
That's exactly what we explore in today'sconversation with Robin Phoenix Johnson,
a fellow veteran and VFP alumni whodeveloped the comedy-based mental health
program that helps veterans andFrontline professionals reframe stress and
trauma through laughter.
Robin shares her story of transitioningout of the military during the height of
(00:55):
the pandemic,navigating identity shifts, and
rediscovering her voicethrough stand-up comedy.
Whether you're a veteran, a caregiver, or
simply someone trying to stayafloat in today's chaotic world,
Robin's story offers a refreshinghuman take on healing purpose and
why we can't lose our sense of humor,especially when the stakes are high.
(01:16):
As always, I hope you enjoyed today's showand look forward to hearing your feedback.
Robin, thanks formaking time to join Frontline Voices.
We had a podcast scheduledoriginally a few weeks ago.
I know you all spent a few weekssince you've seen us record, but
I was just a bit under the weather.
I wasn't myself and sowe had to reschedule.
But it was important for me to make sureI got you on this platform to share your
(01:39):
story for a couple of reasons.
Even before we just kind of went live,you and I were talking about pedigree and
how certain places can feel intimidatingbecause of beliefs we have about ourselves
or where we come from andstuff, et cetera.
And with this program, it's important forus to have all voices represented,
including those of mustangs,which hold a special place in the heart
(01:59):
the United States military,which we're going to be talking about, and
then also your work with humor and howit relates to kind of mental health and
helping people navigatesome tough challenges.
So we got a lot to unpack here andI'm just so happy you're here today.
>> Robin Johnson (02:15):
Get into it.
And I'm glad you're feeling better.
You look great.
Nice [CROSSTALK].>> Mike Steadman: Thank you,
thank you, thank you.
So, Robin, please introduce yourself toour viewers today who are not familiar
with you and the work that you do.
Why they don't know who I am?
This is crazy.
Hi everyone.
No, I'm Robin Phoenix Johnson.
Phoenix is just kind of a nickname,by the way.
It's not like a real name,but I am an army veteran,
(02:37):
part of the fourth cohort forthe Hoover Veteran Fellowship program.
More importantly,I'm a mom of two very busy kids.
They keep me running.
So I'm basically an Uber driver,glorified Uber driver as a soccer mom.
>> Mike Steadman (02:53):
Do you have a minivan?
>> Robin Johnson (02:55):
I do. I have a Toyota Sienna xle.
Yes, I am a loud and proud minivan.
I call it my Swagger Wagon.
>> Mike Steadman (03:03):
Okay.
>> Robin Johnson (03:04):
If you've ever seen this Toyota Swagger Wagon commercial, that is.
It's hilarious.
Just Google Toyota Swagger Wagon.
It's actually what inspiredme to buy the minivan.
But the minivan's going away.
This is the last year.
I'm coming up on a milestonebirthday this year, and
I am going to buy myself a new vehicle.
So this is the first time ina decade to get a new vehicle.
(03:24):
So back to this.
Yep.
So my real passion.
I left the army after26 years of service and
found that my true passion is somewherein the intersection of leadership and
mental health and helping peoplenavigate life with the use of humor.
That humor is more thanjust entertainment.
That is also a superpower.
(03:46):
And that's what I ultimatelybuilt my capstone about.
And I will get into that later, but justfelt like people talk about resiliency all
the time, but it's not grit, it's wit thattruly gets you through the tough times.
>> Mike Steadman (04:00):
One thing I appreciate about Robin is, you know,
I was part of the inaugural cohortof the Veteran Fellowship program.
And so I know my fellow cohort members,you know, pretty intimately.
We got to travel to the Republicof Georgia together,
got to spend some time together andstuff, et cetera.
But as a program has grown, it's hard forme to keep up with all the new cohort
members, you know,all the fellows over the years.
(04:21):
But, you know, I think at one of the.
We call them the fly ins,where we all kind of come together in D.C.
you were super social.
You introduced yourself, andthe Hoover team was like, you gotta.
You gotta talk to Robin,you gotta talk to Robin.
And so that's one of the reasonswhy I knew I had to get you on this
podcast today, too, because this alsogives us opportunity to just kind of learn
a little bit more about each other.
(04:42):
I know I'm pretty visible.
A lot of people assumethey know what I'm do, but
I'm generally curious in the workthat you've done with your capstone.
So.But before we get into that,
I do Want to talk aboutyour kind of background?
Where were you born?
>> Robin Johnson (04:56):
Well, I was born in Fort Lauderdale now.
Okay, so, by the way,I consider myself to be a master at
escape rooms because of mybeing from South Florida.
We have escape rooms in,like, every corner.
I mean, we call them rehab,but very similar.
But I I have to tell that joke.
But I wasn't really raisedin South Florida, so
(05:20):
I grew up in Ohio and, like,on a farm or like in the country.
So not at all like a city,Miami day, Broward County girl.
But I do have a lot of families stillthere, and I go back to visit, so
there's a special place in my heart forFlorida.
But I consider myself an Ohio Ohioan.
>> Mike Steadman (05:41):
What made you join the military?
>> Robin Johnson (05:43):
I didn't want to live in Ohio the rest of my life.
I love that I was from a small town.
I think it taught me a lotof great work ethic.
It taught me that giving a darn mattered.
That showing up mattered,community mattered.
Like, I.
I feel like that was a reallygood foundation, but
I wanted to see more of the world.
(06:04):
You know, I didn't come froma lot of money or affluent,
so I felt like that was my best wayto kind of travel, see the world,
get an education,broaden my horizons, if you will.
>> Mike Steadman (06:17):
And at what point did you decide to go to school and
become an officer?
>> Robin Johnson (06:21):
Right away.
So I joined when I was 17, and my mom hadto sign a waiver for me to go in at 17,
and her condition assigning the waiverwas that I would use the college benefit.
What I didn't know is that I woulddo ROTC and become an officer.
I mean, I knew I wanted to besomething more than just a private.
(06:41):
And actually, I was at E3 twice,a long story behind that.
It's good for character building.
But I think I just always wanted to lead.
I'm the oldest of four kids.
I'm the oldest grandchild onboth sides of the family.
I'm the oldest of, like,all the cousins on both sides.
So I've kind of always inherentlyhad a leadership mindset, or
(07:04):
the eldest child syndrome, if you will.
My sisters would just say I'm bossy.
I say I have leadership skills,but they would just say bossy.
>> Mike Steadman (07:13):
Okay, and then where'd you go to school?
>> Robin Johnson (07:16):
The Ohio State University.
>> Mike Steadman (07:17):
That's right.
>> Robin Johnson (07:18):
That's right.
You can't see it, butit's behind me on my wall, yeah.
>> Mike Steadman (07:22):
Yeah. And how many years.
So how many years had you servedbefore you made the decision?
I know you said right away,but did you go?
You didn't go right away.
Right?You spent some time on active duty before
you went to Ohio State?
>> Robin Johnson (07:34):
No, I was in the National Guard.
So they have a simultaneousmembership program where you're in
the National Guard andyou can go to college.
So that's what I did.
And I didn't go on active dutyuntil I commissioned as an officer.
So all my enlisted time was in the Guard.
I never got to be a non commissionedofficer because I got busted from
E4 to E3.
So I had to repeat.
And that held me back some,and then I just said, well,
(07:56):
I'm going to be a lieutenant beforeI ever make that back again.
So I just.
>> Mike Steadman (08:02):
Yeah.
And so then you did 26 years andthen when did you transition?
>> Robin Johnson (08:06):
2020, I know.
>> Mike Steadman (08:08):
Right in the middle of the pandemic.
>> Robin Johnson (08:10):
Yes.
My gosh.
It was terrible.
It was so anti-climatic.
It was terrible to get.
I got my DD214 emailed to me and they did.
The person who sent to me didn't eventake the time to say thank you for
your service.
There was nothing in the email.
It was just an attached attachment.
And that was it.
And I clicked it open andThere was my Dhu14.
(08:33):
No fanfare, nothing.
Five deployments, 26 years of my life.
And it was like, next, see ya.
It was very.
Just.
It was.
I was a rough year.
>> Mike Steadman (08:47):
Yeah. I got my DD214 in 2015.
It was May.
April or May of 2015, whatever.
Freaking left the base the next day.
You know,I was already living off the base, but
I remember grabbing my DD214 actually.
Then I remember leaving Camp Lejeuneliterally the next day.
So it is anti-climatic, y'all,
(09:09):
which is why I do think at times a lotof vets struggle when they transition.
Because, you know, you spend allthis time kind of fighting for
your country, doing a good fight, and thenthere's really no kind of grand applause.
You know, maybe if you retire,you have a retirement ceremony or
something like that.
But for the most part, it's like peoplewere just kinda, yeah, not in COVID,
people just kind of kick backinto the civilian world.
>> Robin Johnson (09:30):
Yeah. You know, I call.
I always say that it waslike an amicable divorce and
I felt like I was getting divorcepapers when I got my DD214.
Like they were finalized.
Like I was kind of done with the army.
It was done with me.
Like we were just at a good placewhere we were just going to go our
separate ways very nicely.
And I.
(09:50):
I still to this day call my retirementpay my alimony, like just like as a joke.
>> Mike Steadman (09:57):
Yeah, it was just time.
It's just time.
You're entering a new season of life andit was time to transition out.
How did you start to.
What was the origin stories ofyour kind of work with humor?
Was it informed by thiskind of transition and
everything that was going on at that time?
>> Robin Johnson (10:13):
No, I've been a consumer and lover of comedy for a long time.
I remember when I was little,my mom was watching the Tonight Show and
she was just laughing really hard.
Her shoulders are shaking andthe really belly laughing, and
her face was so lit up.
And I remember even back then I thought,
(10:34):
wow, I never see my momlike this during the day.
She's stressed, she's like,she's got chasing the kids,
she's working multiple jobs.
Like, I just didn't seethat side of her and then.
But I did see that when like shewas watching the Tonight Show.
So then I decided that I was gonna try tomake her laugh and goof off and be funny.
So I really started being funny,
like probably around 7 tointentionally to like kind of get.
(10:57):
Get her attention or her probably somevalidation, you know, from my mom.
I'm competing with three siblings forattention.
So that was the start of it.
And then I had that initially, but
then it's like somewherealong the way I lost it.
I lost my sense of humor,my funny Bo naturophied.
I just, I don't know if it was myassignment in the Pentagon or where I was.
(11:20):
It just sucked it out of my soul.
But I just started being overly serious,I couldn't even laugh.
So I wanted to reconnect andfind that person when I retired.
You know how you go througha little bit of an identity crisis?
You're trying to likefigure out who are you?
Like, I'm notLieutenant Colonel Robin Johnson.
Who is this person apart fromthe uniform and the ring?
(11:44):
So in that exploration time, I remembered,God, you know, you used to be funny.
What happened to that girl?
Where is she?
I liked her.
And so I started to explore comedy again.
Took a course through Armed Services ArtsPartnership, which I highly recommend.
ASAP.
ASAP.org if you haven't heard of it, theyhave like storytelling comedy bootcamp.
(12:06):
And I just really fell inlove with comedy, yeah.
>> Mike Steadman (12:11):
And how did you make the connection between kind of comedy and
healing?
>> Robin Johnson (12:15):
Now, that's a bigger jump.
So first it was just like a hobby.
I was just doing comedy.
For me, just a side hobby.
Like somebody would do golf ormaybe take martial arts or tennis.
Like you just have something you do onthe side for fun, escape, you know,
the day to day.
That's all it was.
And then it happened to be that I startedhelping to do some caregiving for
(12:37):
my mother in law who wasdiagnosed with stage four cancer.
And I used to try to make her laugh andjoke around and even like her care,
her larger like medical care team triedto make them laugh at appointments.
And then I would make other patientsaround who were going through the same
Thing laugh.
And the last thing that she said to mebefore she passed away was thank you for
(12:58):
making me laugh.
You need to do this for more people.
And I just felt like it was my.
All of a sudden I had this calling,this charge to a new mission statement.
And I had been researching aboutit anyway just in her situation.
I was researching like Patch Adams andthe, the science and all that behind it.
(13:20):
And I joined this association forapplied and therapeutic humor,
a.org which is behind me.
And they had, they were offering a threeyear, they offer a three year program
where you can get your certificationto be a certified humor professional.
So that's somebody who is certified and
trained to use humor intherapeutic settings.
(13:40):
It doesn't make you a clinician,you can't treat patients, but
you work in partnership with cliniciansto deliver humor based programming.
So as part of that program you have todo a pilot or that pilot like a capstone
project, kind of like Hoover,you have to do a capstone project.
So mine was I'm going to create a humorbased therapy group for my local va.
(14:02):
So at the Ralph Johnson VA centerin Charleston, South Carolina.
They were nice enough to letme just pilot it there and
I just kind of created something.
Basically the idea was let's reframethe way we see our problems and
stressors through the eyes of a comedian.
Think like a comedian instead ofthinking through your normal len.
(14:23):
And it, it was a little rocky at firstbecause I really didn't know what I
was doing.
But it grew into being the most wellattended group locally and getting a lot
of great reviews and response fromveterans and seeing their progress.
And so now we're still doing it.
Now it's several years in and that's whatI brought to Hoover because I wanted to do
(14:43):
more than just my little local va.
I wanted to figure out how to scale it andhelp more veterans.
>> Mike Steadman (14:50):
So that's your new purpose now is using the power of comedy
to help more veterans and help morepeople just kind of heal in general?
>> Robin Johnson (14:57):
Yeah. And not just veterans.
I've even like broadened it nowbecause like there's such burnout and
compassion fatigue inthe healthcare industry.
So helping just those at risk or overlystressed career fields, I mean veterans is
where I start and that's where my heartis because that's where now I come from.
But there's lots of industriesthat's high stress and so
(15:18):
I'm really looking at nurses,doctors for police, law enforcement.
And so, bringing that in is different.
Like, they get entertained andthey get educated.
And so it's a two for one.
Nobody wants to sit in a conference ortrain.
That's boring.
But if you can have a stand up comediandeliver like this really practical way,
like to give you tools in your tool bagfor, like, how to be more resilient,
(15:41):
that's great.
And it's also great for leadership.
So I've also been opening up andteaching this at like, for MBA programs,
because if you can be, there's a lot ofleadership lessons from being a comedian,
reading the room, thinking on your feet,being very present in the moment.
Those skills are invaluable.
>> Mike Steadman (16:01):
Yeah, I think it's funny, too,
because I was having a conversationwith some friends lately.
I feel like there justfeels a seriousness.
I don't know if it's just becausewe're getting older now, you know,
life is kind of starting to beatpeople up a little bit more.
But I have law.
I've seen, you know, people that I'vekind of grown up with kind of start to
lose that spark and lose that twinkle,you know, And I'm just more the person,
(16:23):
you know, you saw,you know, my personality.
I'm like, listen, every day ain't a given.
You know,every day I write in my journal, and
I say that I'm thankful forwaking up to see another day.
That's the first thing I write.
And so, like, I do try to be a littlebit more bubbly in personality.
I'm a social person.
Like, I just kind of can't help myself.
But I do notice a lot more people seemto be just wound kind of so tight.
(16:44):
And I just want to be like,man, relax, smile some.
>> Robin Johnson (16:48):
It's like a social battery.
I mean, I feel like as I've aged,my social battery gets weaker, you know?
So, like, it used to be, because I aman extrovert, I love being around people.
Used to be I could go to an event,work a room, be around people, and
I would leave there feeling energized.
I can still do that and be happy andenergetic, but I leave exhausted.
>> Mike Steadman (17:09):
Right. >> Robin Johnson
I don't know if it's perimenopause,you know, age,
if it was an effect of COVID andbecoming in that time, like,
not recovering from being isolated forthat period of time, or that I'm so much
on social media that my attention span andbeing present is such focused work.
It takes a lot for.
I have a little bit of adhd, soit's a lot to stay focused for me.
(17:32):
I mean, I'm like, squirrel.
Yeah. >> Robin Johnson
This is.
Yeah.And so
this exhausting when you're concentrating.
Like, okay, I'm talking to my.
I'm here.
But God forbid, somebody I know walks by,goes, hey, Robin.
And then I'm like, I've.
And then I've lost myselfin that conversation.
Yeah.
(17:53):
I had a chance to watch oneof your TED Talks, right.
And you mentioned this line that, like,laughter is the Heimlich maneuver for
the brain.
Can you talk about that a little bit?
>> Robin Johnson (18:05):
Yeah, so if you were choking right now on something,
your body would know what to do?
You would just expel the object.
You would start to cough andit's gonna try to do whatever it can
to clear the airway sothat you can get oxygen.
But if you couldn't do that, then youwould give the international sign for
choking.
Somebody around youwould give the Heimlich.
If you're there alone in your studio,you'll lean over your chair,
(18:27):
administer it to yourself.
And so there's a protocol,there's a process.
But we know that depression is likejust negative thought patterns and
cognitive distortions.
We also know the number one causeof suicide is untreated depression.
So essentially your brain is choking.
This is metaphorically onthese negative thoughts,
(18:48):
these thought patterns that are justrunning rampant in your mind.
And no one can see that you're choking.
You're not.
There's no international sign foryou to give someone and
there's no Heimlich maneuverprotocol to address it.
I mean, ask for help, go get therapy.
But it's not like that rapidsolution that you would have.
And so my idea was that,that you can allow enough positivity or
(19:11):
air into your cognitive processesto like get you from, convince you
to not cause self harm or takeactions that were harmful to yourself.
And so it was a life saving measure.
I'm still working on this.
I mean that was the whole likepremise of my work at Hoover.
I'm still working on it.
(19:31):
I'm still trying to get where I can workmore with like MRIs and brain research.
I just joined a group calledthe Neuroplasticity Network.
So talking about neuroplasticity andyour brain function.
So that's,that's totally fascinating to me.
Like I just want to dive in deeper.
And what was so great about the fellowshipis I got to connect with people
(19:54):
that are of like minded andare researching some of this as well and
who are looking at the brain orare looking at humor as a superpower.
I mean they teach it at the gsb.
I got to go meet withfolks over at medicine and
humanities department atStanford Medical School.
So there's lots of alignment andpeople kind of exploring this space.
I'm not the first one andI won't be the last.
(20:18):
But what's unique about Hilarious,which is the program I built,
is that it's more about reef.
It's just,it's cognitive behavioral theory,
reframing your thoughts, which is done.
That's not my.
That obviously has been around for a longtime, but it's with a twist of funny.
I mean, instead of just sayingthat you're gonna say, well,
(20:41):
let's choose to look atthis from another lens.
No, let's look at it like you're JimGaffigan or if you were Dave Chappelle or
Jerry Seinfeld.
Well, how would they writematerial about this?
And in doing so, you, like, get.
You get a whole different relief from it.
I love to share about one of myveterans I was working with.
(21:02):
He was really upset with his wife.
He is a visually impaired veteran, sohis wife had driven him to the group,
and they were arguing.
When they came in, he's like,I don't feel very funny.
I'm not going to participatein the group today.
I said, no, we are absolutelygoing to write a joke about this.
Turns out he just felt like his wifewasn't being empathetic to the situation.
Living as a blind.
A blind man.
(21:23):
So we wrote a joke together,and it was like, my.
The joke went like this.
My name is Melvin.
I've been legally blind for six years.
But this morning,my wife asked me if I'd seen her keys.
Nope.
Then she asked me,have you seen my glasses?
Nope.
Then she asked me,do I look fat in this dress?
(21:46):
Yep, andjust doing that joke made him laugh, and
you could feel it physically reducethe tension between the two of them.
>> Mike Steadman (21:56):
Yeah.
Just so you're more studied on, like,the academic and the whole science behind,
like, this laughter stuff.
So.But I wanna ask you something, okay?
There's a group of.
Of people I've servedwith in the military.
I have not seen them in person inprobably, like, I don't know, 15 years,
10 years, whatever.
But we have this habit ofsending memes back and
(22:18):
forth to each other online all day,every day.
And one of the things I realized,it's like.
It's a form of, like,kind of even keeping us connected.
And occasionally, like,
we'll have these group threads wherewe'll kind of check in on each other.
And I have found that,you know, I'm very lucky.
Okay, I get to deal with vets all day,every day.
I get to see people all day, every day.
I live in New York City,which is a very populated area.
(22:41):
I had a veteran come in yesterday.
We grabbed lunch or we grabbed breakfast.
But I know a lot of my peers,they don't really have that.
Some of them are very isolated,and they just, you know,
some of these group threads, they just.
They've just been like,hey, thank you so much.
You know,
they appreciate that kind of constantcontact we have with one another because,
you know, everybody's life and, like, youknow, life is life and as we like to say.
(23:04):
But I think there's somethingthere with even why we do that.
>> Robin Johnson (23:08):
Well, that's what we remember.
The camaraderie,this Brie score, all that.
Like, it's the jokes,it's the motor pool banter.
It's, you can't tell meyou can't find them.
Or you couldn't find a movie like Mashedas a TV show, but a band of brothers.
How many scenes are in those movies and TVshows where they're just joking with each
other and giving each other a hard time?
(23:29):
That's part of ourculture in the military.
And so I think it's.
It's really important.
Also, we have a gallows kind of a darkersense of humor in the military that a lot
of other people wouldn't appreciate.
So it feels safe when you can do.
Because I don't know that Icould send those same memes,
which is a love language, by the way.
I say that sending memesis a love language.
(23:50):
I don't know.
I could send the same memes to mycivilian friends that I send to my
military friends.
We're just a different breed.
I went into one of the Marines.
That is a friend of mine wasparticipating in one of my groups.
Unfortunately, he attemptedto take his own life.
He shot himself in the chin, in.
(24:10):
The bullet ricocheted off of hisdental work and exited out his cheek.
And I went into the hospital to visit him,and his wife said, look,
don't feel sorry for him.
He doesn't want any pity.
He just wants you to make him laugh.
And I was like, what?
I was like, okay, that's tough, what?
And so I was like, hey, I was like,I'm gonna need you to prove with your
paperwork that you were a Marine,because, I mean, you missed.
>> Mike Steadman (24:35):
Yeah.
>> Robin Johnson (24:35):
And he just started cracking up.
And I was like, hey, remember when I toldyou that if you wanted to do comedy,
you had to get headshots?
Wasn't being literal,you know, and he just.
It was just, you know,something we could laugh at, but
probably a lot of people wouldthink that was super inappropriate.
The other thing, I reason, I love what.
What we're doing with humor isalso the veteran narrative.
(24:59):
That was another passion, was the veterannarrative was sad, depressing.
It was like, we're all broken.
We're all ptsd, we're all homeless.
We're struggling.
We're struggling.
And that is not the narrative,the only narrative.
That's not the only stories we have.
I can tell you some stories of hardship,and I was deployed five times, and
it certainly.
Some stories that aren't great storiesto share, but I have hundreds of funny,
(25:22):
great stories of my time in the service,and how come those never get told?
So comedy was a platform for me to tellthe other side and to make sure America,
like that signal divide was lessbecause they knew both aspects of our.
Our story of service.
>> Mike Steadman (25:42):
So were you intimidated to apply to the Hoover Institution to work
on comedy?
>> Robin Johnson (25:49):
I sure was.
I mean.
I mean, you could say, well,I thought they think I was a joke, right?
Well, I mean, 1.
Because the topic isn't serious.
I'm not.I'm not addressing, you know,
foreign policy or geopolitical orlike, I'm not addressing some.
Some big hundred poundelephant in the room.
I'm addressing an important topic,which is our veteran mental health and
(26:11):
finding innovation in that.
And I'm glad.
I'm very grateful that they saw that.
But also, I mean,I didn't feel I was the pedigree.
I mean, I went to a state school, went toOhio State, the Ohio State University.
I did not go to an academy.
My master's degree was,you know, at night, when I was,
you know, in the army, sonot from like anything prestigious.
(26:35):
And I just didn't.
I wasn't sure.
I really didn't know what theywere looking for, but I didn't.
I honestly, I didn't think I hadmuch of a chance, but I said, well,
if I don't apply,I definitely don't have a chance.
So let me just try and see.
>> Mike Steadman (26:51):
And that was your thought process going into the program and
now how has it shifted on the other side?
>> Robin Johnson (26:56):
Gosh.
I think the Hoover Institutiondoes a great job
of looking at the total person and
the viability of their project andits importance and
tie into like national,like, security imperatives.
(27:18):
Like, and this, even though it'smental health and that's important,
which ultimately ties back toan all volunteer force which is so
important to our national security.
So I really.
Not to say I didn't think they were.
I just.
Now I'm like,I'm telling all these people to fly.
I just was speaking with somebody who was.
And enlisted,it was a female prior Navy enlisted.
(27:44):
And I was like, no, absolutely apply.
She told me what her capstone would be,and she was very articulate.
And I was like, you should,don't, don't let it scare you.
You.You got this.
And then, you know, if you want meto look it over, I'll look it over.
>> Mike Steadman (27:59):
Yeah. And
what I tell people is it's less aboutjust national security stuff, but
it's just like people, you know, we need.
There's hard problems.
There's a lot of hard problems out there.
We need creative people to come upwith solutions to these problems.
And a lot of times they'rehappening in our own backyard.
You know, whether it's veteran mentalhealth, whether it's housing insecurity,
you know, whether it's,you know, the future of work.
(28:21):
Right.
There's a lot of different challenges thatare taking place because the world is just
changing so rapidly.
And I love that, you know, the HooverInstitution is creating a safe space for
veterans to address these issues.
Now we've got people that are probablytuning in that are either thinking of
applying or on the fence about applying.
(28:41):
What words of encouragementwould you give them?
>> Robin Johnson (28:47):
You know, I have this little saying actually,
it's right here, I have.
It's kind of dirty, but it says,you did not wake up to be mediocre.
It's one of my favorite sayings, and
I think my encouragement would be,you did not wake up to be mediocre.
You only get one life, andtomorrow's not promised.
Dream big.
Go for the hard things.
(29:08):
Put yourself out there.
What do you have to lose?
And then I would also say also,if you're going to do this and you.
I'm gonna just be direct.
If you're going to do this, if you'regoing to take up a spot in a very coveted
fellowship, come prepared to work.
(29:28):
This isn't to getsomething on your resume.
This isn't to look good on paper.
You know, this is.
You should be driving to make a change andto make an impact and do the work and
show up and participate andbe part of the team of your cohort.
I was really fortunate to havea really good cohort, but I just.
(29:51):
I guess I just would not be happy ifsomebody came in, like, I'm just here to,
like, get.
Get a check block on my resume.
No, that's not what this is.
>> Mike Steadman (29:59):
Well, Robin,
I appreciate you makingtime to chat with me today.
You're doing important work.
Thank you for rescheduling, cuz, again,this is the second time here Robin had to
do this call because Iwas under the weather.
But we appreciate you.
And for everyone that's tuning in, I thinkby the time this interview comes out,
there'll still be about a week anda half left to apply to the fellowship.
So make sure you head overto Hoover.org/VFP and apply.
(30:22):
Look forward to seeing you allin the program, and good luck.
Welcome to Frontline Voices, a podcast brought to you
by Stanford University's HooverInstitution, where we explore leadership,
service, and real-world solutions to someof our nation's most pressing issues.
I'm your host, Iron Mike Steadman,a member of the inaugural class of
Hoover Veteran Fellows anda Marine Corps veteran.
What happens when a 26-year armyveteran trades the uniform for
(00:32):
a microphone and finds healing and humor?
That's exactly what we explore in today'sconversation with Robin Phoenix Johnson,
a fellow veteran and VFP alumni whodeveloped the comedy-based mental health
program that helps veterans andFrontline professionals reframe stress and
trauma through laughter.
Robin shares her story of transitioningout of the military during the height of
(00:55):
the pandemic,navigating identity shifts, and
rediscovering her voicethrough stand-up comedy.
Whether you're a veteran, a caregiver, or
simply someone trying to stayafloat in today's chaotic world,
Robin's story offers a refreshinghuman take on healing purpose and
why we can't lose our sense of humor,especially when the stakes are high.
(01:16):
As always, I hope you enjoyed today's showand look forward to hearing your feedback.
Robin, thanks formaking time to join Frontline Voices.
We had a podcast scheduledoriginally a few weeks ago.
I know you all spent a few weekssince you've seen us record, but
I was just a bit under the weather.
I wasn't myself and sowe had to reschedule.
But it was important for me to make sureI got you on this platform to share your
(01:39):
story for a couple of reasons.
Even before we just kind of went live,you and I were talking about pedigree and
how certain places can feel intimidatingbecause of beliefs we have about ourselves
or where we come from andstuff, et cetera.
And with this program, it's important forus to have all voices represented,
including those of mustangs,which hold a special place in the heart
(01:59):
the United States military,which we're going to be talking about, and
then also your work with humor and howit relates to kind of mental health and
helping people navigatesome tough challenges.
So we got a lot to unpack here andI'm just so happy you're here today.
>> Robin Johnson (02:15):
Get into it.
And I'm glad you're feeling better.
You look great.
Nice [CROSSTALK].>> Mike Steadman: Thank you,
thank you, thank you.
So, Robin, please introduce yourself toour viewers today who are not familiar
with you and the work that you do.
Why they don't know who I am?
This is crazy.
Hi everyone.
No, I'm Robin Phoenix Johnson.
Phoenix is just kind of a nickname,by the way.
It's not like a real name,but I am an army veteran,
(02:37):
part of the fourth cohort forthe Hoover Veteran Fellowship program.
More importantly,I'm a mom of two very busy kids.
They keep me running.
So I'm basically an Uber driver,glorified Uber driver as a soccer mom.
>> Mike Steadman (02:53):
Do you have a minivan?
>> Robin Johnson (02:55):
I do. I have a Toyota Sienna xle.
Yes, I am a loud and proud minivan.
I call it my Swagger Wagon.
>> Mike Steadman (03:03):
Okay.
>> Robin Johnson (03:04):
If you've ever seen this Toyota Swagger Wagon commercial, that is.
It's hilarious.
Just Google Toyota Swagger Wagon.
It's actually what inspiredme to buy the minivan.
But the minivan's going away.
This is the last year.
I'm coming up on a milestonebirthday this year, and
I am going to buy myself a new vehicle.
So this is the first time ina decade to get a new vehicle.
(03:24):
So back to this.
Yep.
So my real passion.
I left the army after26 years of service and
found that my true passion is somewherein the intersection of leadership and
mental health and helping peoplenavigate life with the use of humor.
That humor is more thanjust entertainment.
That is also a superpower.
(03:46):
And that's what I ultimatelybuilt my capstone about.
And I will get into that later, but justfelt like people talk about resiliency all
the time, but it's not grit, it's wit thattruly gets you through the tough times.
>> Mike Steadman (04:00):
One thing I appreciate about Robin is, you know,
I was part of the inaugural cohortof the Veteran Fellowship program.
And so I know my fellow cohort members,you know, pretty intimately.
We got to travel to the Republicof Georgia together,
got to spend some time together andstuff, et cetera.
But as a program has grown, it's hard forme to keep up with all the new cohort
members, you know,all the fellows over the years.
(04:21):
But, you know, I think at one of the.
We call them the fly ins,where we all kind of come together in D.C.
you were super social.
You introduced yourself, andthe Hoover team was like, you gotta.
You gotta talk to Robin,you gotta talk to Robin.
And so that's one of the reasonswhy I knew I had to get you on this
podcast today, too, because this alsogives us opportunity to just kind of learn
a little bit more about each other.
(04:42):
I know I'm pretty visible.
A lot of people assumethey know what I'm do, but
I'm generally curious in the workthat you've done with your capstone.
So.But before we get into that,
I do Want to talk aboutyour kind of background?
Where were you born?
>> Robin Johnson (04:56):
Well, I was born in Fort Lauderdale now.
Okay, so, by the way,I consider myself to be a master at
escape rooms because of mybeing from South Florida.
We have escape rooms in,like, every corner.
I mean, we call them rehab,but very similar.
But I I have to tell that joke.
But I wasn't really raisedin South Florida, so
(05:20):
I grew up in Ohio and, like,on a farm or like in the country.
So not at all like a city,Miami day, Broward County girl.
But I do have a lot of families stillthere, and I go back to visit, so
there's a special place in my heart forFlorida.
But I consider myself an Ohio Ohioan.
>> Mike Steadman (05:41):
What made you join the military?
>> Robin Johnson (05:43):
I didn't want to live in Ohio the rest of my life.
I love that I was from a small town.
I think it taught me a lotof great work ethic.
It taught me that giving a darn mattered.
That showing up mattered,community mattered.
Like, I.
I feel like that was a reallygood foundation, but
I wanted to see more of the world.
(06:04):
You know, I didn't come froma lot of money or affluent,
so I felt like that was my best wayto kind of travel, see the world,
get an education,broaden my horizons, if you will.
>> Mike Steadman (06:17):
And at what point did you decide to go to school and
become an officer?
>> Robin Johnson (06:21):
Right away.
So I joined when I was 17, and my mom hadto sign a waiver for me to go in at 17,
and her condition assigning the waiverwas that I would use the college benefit.
What I didn't know is that I woulddo ROTC and become an officer.
I mean, I knew I wanted to besomething more than just a private.
(06:41):
And actually, I was at E3 twice,a long story behind that.
It's good for character building.
But I think I just always wanted to lead.
I'm the oldest of four kids.
I'm the oldest grandchild onboth sides of the family.
I'm the oldest of, like,all the cousins on both sides.
So I've kind of always inherentlyhad a leadership mindset, or
(07:04):
the eldest child syndrome, if you will.
My sisters would just say I'm bossy.
I say I have leadership skills,but they would just say bossy.
>> Mike Steadman (07:13):
Okay, and then where'd you go to school?
>> Robin Johnson (07:16):
The Ohio State University.
>> Mike Steadman (07:17):
That's right.
>> Robin Johnson (07:18):
That's right.
You can't see it, butit's behind me on my wall, yeah.
>> Mike Steadman (07:22):
Yeah. And how many years.
So how many years had you servedbefore you made the decision?
I know you said right away,but did you go?
You didn't go right away.
Right?You spent some time on active duty before
you went to Ohio State?
>> Robin Johnson (07:34):
No, I was in the National Guard.
So they have a simultaneousmembership program where you're in
the National Guard andyou can go to college.
So that's what I did.
And I didn't go on active dutyuntil I commissioned as an officer.
So all my enlisted time was in the Guard.
I never got to be a non commissionedofficer because I got busted from
E4 to E3.
So I had to repeat.
And that held me back some,and then I just said, well,
(07:56):
I'm going to be a lieutenant beforeI ever make that back again.
So I just.
>> Mike Steadman (08:02):
Yeah.
And so then you did 26 years andthen when did you transition?
>> Robin Johnson (08:06):
2020, I know.
>> Mike Steadman (08:08):
Right in the middle of the pandemic.
>> Robin Johnson (08:10):
Yes.
My gosh.
It was terrible.
It was so anti-climatic.
It was terrible to get.
I got my DD214 emailed to me and they did.
The person who sent to me didn't eventake the time to say thank you for
your service.
There was nothing in the email.
It was just an attached attachment.
And that was it.
And I clicked it open andThere was my Dhu14.
(08:33):
No fanfare, nothing.
Five deployments, 26 years of my life.
And it was like, next, see ya.
It was very.
Just.
It was.
I was a rough year.
>> Mike Steadman (08:47):
Yeah. I got my DD214 in 2015.
It was May.
April or May of 2015, whatever.
Freaking left the base the next day.
You know,I was already living off the base, but
I remember grabbing my DD214 actually.
Then I remember leaving Camp Lejeuneliterally the next day.
So it is anti-climatic, y'all,
(09:09):
which is why I do think at times a lotof vets struggle when they transition.
Because, you know, you spend allthis time kind of fighting for
your country, doing a good fight, and thenthere's really no kind of grand applause.
You know, maybe if you retire,you have a retirement ceremony or
something like that.
But for the most part, it's like peoplewere just kinda, yeah, not in COVID,
people just kind of kick backinto the civilian world.
>> Robin Johnson (09:30):
Yeah. You know, I call.
I always say that it waslike an amicable divorce and
I felt like I was getting divorcepapers when I got my DD214.
Like they were finalized.
Like I was kind of done with the army.
It was done with me.
Like we were just at a good placewhere we were just going to go our
separate ways very nicely.
And I.
(09:50):
I still to this day call my retirementpay my alimony, like just like as a joke.
>> Mike Steadman (09:57):
Yeah, it was just time.
It's just time.
You're entering a new season of life andit was time to transition out.
How did you start to.
What was the origin stories ofyour kind of work with humor?
Was it informed by thiskind of transition and
everything that was going on at that time?
>> Robin Johnson (10:13):
No, I've been a consumer and lover of comedy for a long time.
I remember when I was little,my mom was watching the Tonight Show and
she was just laughing really hard.
Her shoulders are shaking andthe really belly laughing, and
her face was so lit up.
And I remember even back then I thought,
(10:34):
wow, I never see my momlike this during the day.
She's stressed, she's like,she's got chasing the kids,
she's working multiple jobs.
Like, I just didn't seethat side of her and then.
But I did see that when like shewas watching the Tonight Show.
So then I decided that I was gonna try tomake her laugh and goof off and be funny.
So I really started being funny,
like probably around 7 tointentionally to like kind of get.
(10:57):
Get her attention or her probably somevalidation, you know, from my mom.
I'm competing with three siblings forattention.
So that was the start of it.
And then I had that initially, but
then it's like somewherealong the way I lost it.
I lost my sense of humor,my funny Bo naturophied.
I just, I don't know if it was myassignment in the Pentagon or where I was.
(11:20):
It just sucked it out of my soul.
But I just started being overly serious,I couldn't even laugh.
So I wanted to reconnect andfind that person when I retired.
You know how you go througha little bit of an identity crisis?
You're trying to likefigure out who are you?
Like, I'm notLieutenant Colonel Robin Johnson.
Who is this person apart fromthe uniform and the ring?
(11:44):
So in that exploration time, I remembered,God, you know, you used to be funny.
What happened to that girl?
Where is she?
I liked her.
And so I started to explore comedy again.
Took a course through Armed Services ArtsPartnership, which I highly recommend.
ASAP.
ASAP.org if you haven't heard of it, theyhave like storytelling comedy bootcamp.
(12:06):
And I just really fell inlove with comedy, yeah.
>> Mike Steadman (12:11):
And how did you make the connection between kind of comedy and
healing?
>> Robin Johnson (12:15):
Now, that's a bigger jump.
So first it was just like a hobby.
I was just doing comedy.
For me, just a side hobby.
Like somebody would do golf ormaybe take martial arts or tennis.
Like you just have something you do onthe side for fun, escape, you know,
the day to day.
That's all it was.
And then it happened to be that I startedhelping to do some caregiving for
(12:37):
my mother in law who wasdiagnosed with stage four cancer.
And I used to try to make her laugh andjoke around and even like her care,
her larger like medical care team triedto make them laugh at appointments.
And then I would make other patientsaround who were going through the same
Thing laugh.
And the last thing that she said to mebefore she passed away was thank you for
(12:58):
making me laugh.
You need to do this for more people.
And I just felt like it was my.
All of a sudden I had this calling,this charge to a new mission statement.
And I had been researching aboutit anyway just in her situation.
I was researching like Patch Adams andthe, the science and all that behind it.
(13:20):
And I joined this association forapplied and therapeutic humor,
a.org which is behind me.
And they had, they were offering a threeyear, they offer a three year program
where you can get your certificationto be a certified humor professional.
So that's somebody who is certified and
trained to use humor intherapeutic settings.
(13:40):
It doesn't make you a clinician,you can't treat patients, but
you work in partnership with cliniciansto deliver humor based programming.
So as part of that program you have todo a pilot or that pilot like a capstone
project, kind of like Hoover,you have to do a capstone project.
So mine was I'm going to create a humorbased therapy group for my local va.
(14:02):
So at the Ralph Johnson VA centerin Charleston, South Carolina.
They were nice enough to letme just pilot it there and
I just kind of created something.
Basically the idea was let's reframethe way we see our problems and
stressors through the eyes of a comedian.
Think like a comedian instead ofthinking through your normal len.
(14:23):
And it, it was a little rocky at firstbecause I really didn't know what I
was doing.
But it grew into being the most wellattended group locally and getting a lot
of great reviews and response fromveterans and seeing their progress.
And so now we're still doing it.
Now it's several years in and that's whatI brought to Hoover because I wanted to do
(14:43):
more than just my little local va.
I wanted to figure out how to scale it andhelp more veterans.
>> Mike Steadman (14:50):
So that's your new purpose now is using the power of comedy
to help more veterans and help morepeople just kind of heal in general?
>> Robin Johnson (14:57):
Yeah. And not just veterans.
I've even like broadened it nowbecause like there's such burnout and
compassion fatigue inthe healthcare industry.
So helping just those at risk or overlystressed career fields, I mean veterans is
where I start and that's where my heartis because that's where now I come from.
But there's lots of industriesthat's high stress and so
(15:18):
I'm really looking at nurses,doctors for police, law enforcement.
And so, bringing that in is different.
Like, they get entertained andthey get educated.
And so it's a two for one.
Nobody wants to sit in a conference ortrain.
That's boring.
But if you can have a stand up comediandeliver like this really practical way,
like to give you tools in your tool bagfor, like, how to be more resilient,
(15:41):
that's great.
And it's also great for leadership.
So I've also been opening up andteaching this at like, for MBA programs,
because if you can be, there's a lot ofleadership lessons from being a comedian,
reading the room, thinking on your feet,being very present in the moment.
Those skills are invaluable.
>> Mike Steadman (16:01):
Yeah, I think it's funny, too,
because I was having a conversationwith some friends lately.
I feel like there justfeels a seriousness.
I don't know if it's just becausewe're getting older now, you know,
life is kind of starting to beatpeople up a little bit more.
But I have law.
I've seen, you know, people that I'vekind of grown up with kind of start to
lose that spark and lose that twinkle,you know, And I'm just more the person,
(16:23):
you know, you saw,you know, my personality.
I'm like, listen, every day ain't a given.
You know,every day I write in my journal, and
I say that I'm thankful forwaking up to see another day.
That's the first thing I write.
And so, like, I do try to be a littlebit more bubbly in personality.
I'm a social person.
Like, I just kind of can't help myself.
But I do notice a lot more people seemto be just wound kind of so tight.
(16:44):
And I just want to be like,man, relax, smile some.
>> Robin Johnson (16:48):
It's like a social battery.
I mean, I feel like as I've aged,my social battery gets weaker, you know?
So, like, it used to be, because I aman extrovert, I love being around people.
Used to be I could go to an event,work a room, be around people, and
I would leave there feeling energized.
I can still do that and be happy andenergetic, but I leave exhausted.
>> Mike Steadman (17:09):
Right. >> Robin Johnson
I don't know if it's perimenopause,you know, age,
if it was an effect of COVID andbecoming in that time, like,
not recovering from being isolated forthat period of time, or that I'm so much
on social media that my attention span andbeing present is such focused work.
It takes a lot for.
I have a little bit of adhd, soit's a lot to stay focused for me.
(17:32):
I mean, I'm like, squirrel.
Yeah. >> Robin Johnson
This is.
Yeah.And so
this exhausting when you're concentrating.
Like, okay, I'm talking to my.
I'm here.
But God forbid, somebody I know walks by,goes, hey, Robin.
And then I'm like, I've.
And then I've lost myselfin that conversation.
Yeah.
(17:53):
I had a chance to watch oneof your TED Talks, right.
And you mentioned this line that, like,laughter is the Heimlich maneuver for
the brain.
Can you talk about that a little bit?
>> Robin Johnson (18:05):
Yeah, so if you were choking right now on something,
your body would know what to do?
You would just expel the object.
You would start to cough andit's gonna try to do whatever it can
to clear the airway sothat you can get oxygen.
But if you couldn't do that, then youwould give the international sign for
choking.
Somebody around youwould give the Heimlich.
If you're there alone in your studio,you'll lean over your chair,
(18:27):
administer it to yourself.
And so there's a protocol,there's a process.
But we know that depression is likejust negative thought patterns and
cognitive distortions.
We also know the number one causeof suicide is untreated depression.
So essentially your brain is choking.
This is metaphorically onthese negative thoughts,
(18:48):
these thought patterns that are justrunning rampant in your mind.
And no one can see that you're choking.
You're not.
There's no international sign foryou to give someone and
there's no Heimlich maneuverprotocol to address it.
I mean, ask for help, go get therapy.
But it's not like that rapidsolution that you would have.
And so my idea was that,that you can allow enough positivity or
(19:11):
air into your cognitive processesto like get you from, convince you
to not cause self harm or takeactions that were harmful to yourself.
And so it was a life saving measure.
I'm still working on this.
I mean that was the whole likepremise of my work at Hoover.
I'm still working on it.
(19:31):
I'm still trying to get where I can workmore with like MRIs and brain research.
I just joined a group calledthe Neuroplasticity Network.
So talking about neuroplasticity andyour brain function.
So that's,that's totally fascinating to me.
Like I just want to dive in deeper.
And what was so great about the fellowshipis I got to connect with people
(19:54):
that are of like minded andare researching some of this as well and
who are looking at the brain orare looking at humor as a superpower.
I mean they teach it at the gsb.
I got to go meet withfolks over at medicine and
humanities department atStanford Medical School.
So there's lots of alignment andpeople kind of exploring this space.
I'm not the first one andI won't be the last.
(20:18):
But what's unique about Hilarious,which is the program I built,
is that it's more about reef.
It's just,it's cognitive behavioral theory,
reframing your thoughts, which is done.
That's not my.
That obviously has been around for a longtime, but it's with a twist of funny.
I mean, instead of just sayingthat you're gonna say, well,
(20:41):
let's choose to look atthis from another lens.
No, let's look at it like you're JimGaffigan or if you were Dave Chappelle or
Jerry Seinfeld.
Well, how would they writematerial about this?
And in doing so, you, like, get.
You get a whole different relief from it.
I love to share about one of myveterans I was working with.
(21:02):
He was really upset with his wife.
He is a visually impaired veteran, sohis wife had driven him to the group,
and they were arguing.
When they came in, he's like,I don't feel very funny.
I'm not going to participatein the group today.
I said, no, we are absolutelygoing to write a joke about this.
Turns out he just felt like his wifewasn't being empathetic to the situation.
Living as a blind.
A blind man.
(21:23):
So we wrote a joke together,and it was like, my.
The joke went like this.
My name is Melvin.
I've been legally blind for six years.
But this morning,my wife asked me if I'd seen her keys.
Nope.
Then she asked me,have you seen my glasses?
Nope.
Then she asked me,do I look fat in this dress?
(21:46):
Yep, andjust doing that joke made him laugh, and
you could feel it physically reducethe tension between the two of them.
>> Mike Steadman (21:56):
Yeah.
Just so you're more studied on, like,the academic and the whole science behind,
like, this laughter stuff.
So.But I wanna ask you something, okay?
There's a group of.
Of people I've servedwith in the military.
I have not seen them in person inprobably, like, I don't know, 15 years,
10 years, whatever.
But we have this habit ofsending memes back and
(22:18):
forth to each other online all day,every day.
And one of the things I realized,it's like.
It's a form of, like,kind of even keeping us connected.
And occasionally, like,
we'll have these group threads wherewe'll kind of check in on each other.
And I have found that,you know, I'm very lucky.
Okay, I get to deal with vets all day,every day.
I get to see people all day, every day.
I live in New York City,which is a very populated area.
(22:41):
I had a veteran come in yesterday.
We grabbed lunch or we grabbed breakfast.
But I know a lot of my peers,they don't really have that.
Some of them are very isolated,and they just, you know,
some of these group threads, they just.
They've just been like,hey, thank you so much.
You know,
they appreciate that kind of constantcontact we have with one another because,
you know, everybody's life and, like, youknow, life is life and as we like to say.
(23:04):
But I think there's somethingthere with even why we do that.
>> Robin Johnson (23:08):
Well, that's what we remember.
The camaraderie,this Brie score, all that.
Like, it's the jokes,it's the motor pool banter.
It's, you can't tell meyou can't find them.
Or you couldn't find a movie like Mashedas a TV show, but a band of brothers.
How many scenes are in those movies and TVshows where they're just joking with each
other and giving each other a hard time?
(23:29):
That's part of ourculture in the military.
And so I think it's.
It's really important.
Also, we have a gallows kind of a darkersense of humor in the military that a lot
of other people wouldn't appreciate.
So it feels safe when you can do.
Because I don't know that Icould send those same memes,
which is a love language, by the way.
I say that sending memesis a love language.
(23:50):
I don't know.
I could send the same memes to mycivilian friends that I send to my
military friends.
We're just a different breed.
I went into one of the Marines.
That is a friend of mine wasparticipating in one of my groups.
Unfortunately, he attemptedto take his own life.
He shot himself in the chin, in.
(24:10):
The bullet ricocheted off of hisdental work and exited out his cheek.
And I went into the hospital to visit him,and his wife said, look,
don't feel sorry for him.
He doesn't want any pity.
He just wants you to make him laugh.
And I was like, what?
I was like, okay, that's tough, what?
And so I was like, hey, I was like,I'm gonna need you to prove with your
paperwork that you were a Marine,because, I mean, you missed.
>> Mike Steadman (24:35):
Yeah.
>> Robin Johnson (24:35):
And he just started cracking up.
And I was like, hey, remember when I toldyou that if you wanted to do comedy,
you had to get headshots?
Wasn't being literal,you know, and he just.
It was just, you know,something we could laugh at, but
probably a lot of people wouldthink that was super inappropriate.
The other thing, I reason, I love what.
What we're doing with humor isalso the veteran narrative.
(24:59):
That was another passion, was the veterannarrative was sad, depressing.
It was like, we're all broken.
We're all ptsd, we're all homeless.
We're struggling.
We're struggling.
And that is not the narrative,the only narrative.
That's not the only stories we have.
I can tell you some stories of hardship,and I was deployed five times, and
it certainly.
Some stories that aren't great storiesto share, but I have hundreds of funny,
(25:22):
great stories of my time in the service,and how come those never get told?
So comedy was a platform for me to tellthe other side and to make sure America,
like that signal divide was lessbecause they knew both aspects of our.
Our story of service.
>> Mike Steadman (25:42):
So were you intimidated to apply to the Hoover Institution to work
on comedy?
>> Robin Johnson (25:49):
I sure was.
I mean.
I mean, you could say, well,I thought they think I was a joke, right?
Well, I mean, 1.
Because the topic isn't serious.
I'm not.I'm not addressing, you know,
foreign policy or geopolitical orlike, I'm not addressing some.
Some big hundred poundelephant in the room.
I'm addressing an important topic,which is our veteran mental health and
(26:11):
finding innovation in that.
And I'm glad.
I'm very grateful that they saw that.
But also, I mean,I didn't feel I was the pedigree.
I mean, I went to a state school, went toOhio State, the Ohio State University.
I did not go to an academy.
My master's degree was,you know, at night, when I was,
you know, in the army, sonot from like anything prestigious.
(26:35):
And I just didn't.
I wasn't sure.
I really didn't know what theywere looking for, but I didn't.
I honestly, I didn't think I hadmuch of a chance, but I said, well,
if I don't apply,I definitely don't have a chance.
So let me just try and see.
>> Mike Steadman (26:51):
And that was your thought process going into the program and
now how has it shifted on the other side?
>> Robin Johnson (26:56):
Gosh.
I think the Hoover Institutiondoes a great job
of looking at the total person and
the viability of their project andits importance and
tie into like national,like, security imperatives.
(27:18):
Like, and this, even though it'smental health and that's important,
which ultimately ties back toan all volunteer force which is so
important to our national security.
So I really.
Not to say I didn't think they were.
I just.
Now I'm like,I'm telling all these people to fly.
I just was speaking with somebody who was.
And enlisted,it was a female prior Navy enlisted.
(27:44):
And I was like, no, absolutely apply.
She told me what her capstone would be,and she was very articulate.
And I was like, you should,don't, don't let it scare you.
You.You got this.
And then, you know, if you want meto look it over, I'll look it over.
>> Mike Steadman (27:59):
Yeah. And
what I tell people is it's less aboutjust national security stuff, but
it's just like people, you know, we need.
There's hard problems.
There's a lot of hard problems out there.
We need creative people to come upwith solutions to these problems.
And a lot of times they'rehappening in our own backyard.
You know, whether it's veteran mentalhealth, whether it's housing insecurity,
you know, whether it's,you know, the future of work.
(28:21):
Right.
There's a lot of different challenges thatare taking place because the world is just
changing so rapidly.
And I love that, you know, the HooverInstitution is creating a safe space for
veterans to address these issues.
Now we've got people that are probablytuning in that are either thinking of
applying or on the fence about applying.
(28:41):
What words of encouragementwould you give them?
>> Robin Johnson (28:47):
You know, I have this little saying actually,
it's right here, I have.
It's kind of dirty, but it says,you did not wake up to be mediocre.
It's one of my favorite sayings, and
I think my encouragement would be,you did not wake up to be mediocre.
You only get one life, andtomorrow's not promised.
Dream big.
Go for the hard things.
(29:08):
Put yourself out there.
What do you have to lose?
And then I would also say also,if you're going to do this and you.
I'm gonna just be direct.
If you're going to do this, if you'regoing to take up a spot in a very coveted
fellowship, come prepared to work.
(29:28):
This isn't to getsomething on your resume.
This isn't to look good on paper.
You know, this is.
You should be driving to make a change andto make an impact and do the work and
show up and participate andbe part of the team of your cohort.
I was really fortunate to havea really good cohort, but I just.
(29:51):
I guess I just would not be happy ifsomebody came in, like, I'm just here to,
like, get.
Get a check block on my resume.
No, that's not what this is.
>> Mike Steadman (29:59):
Well, Robin,
I appreciate you makingtime to chat with me today.
You're doing important work.
Thank you for rescheduling, cuz, again,this is the second time here Robin had to
do this call because Iwas under the weather.
But we appreciate you.
And for everyone that's tuning in, I thinkby the time this interview comes out,
there'll still be about a week anda half left to apply to the fellowship.
So make sure you head overto Hoover.org/VFP and apply.
(30:22):
Look forward to seeing you allin the program, and good luck.
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