#51 - Ben Pendleton - Milk & Honey

About this episode

Ben Pendleton shares his experiences with mental illness, military service, and spirituality in a candid and dark conversation.

“This is going to be a pretty dark interview… with suicide, Islamic dreaming, jihad… it may get a little dark. But anyhow, it is what it is, I guess. Welcome to my life.” There you have it — straight from Ben himself. Hard to top an introduction like that. But I will add this: beneath all the darkness Ben deeply cares. And despite the weight of the conversation, we shared a lot of laughs too. Ben Pendleton was born into a family deeply affected by mental illness — and as he openly shares, he didn’t quite dodge that bullet himself either. As we discover, his love of religion and inner spiritual struggle have helped him make meaning of his own suffering, his sibling’s, and others’. Ben served in the United States Marine Corps, reported from Afghanistan during the Soviet-Afghan War in 1983, and in 1991 photographed and interviewed legendary Afghan resistance commander Ahmad Shah Massoud. Ben introduced me to a side of Islam, poetry, and the Middle East I likely never would have explored on my own. As Ben says, afterward he went back to working construction — “boringly, scraping paint.” Well… I’m not sure I quite buy that. You can decide for yourself. I feel genuinely lucky to bring…

People in this episode

Host: Ethan C. Lewin

Guest: Ben Pendleton

Topics covered

• mental illness
• Islam
• spiritual struggle
• military experience
• poetry
• dark themes
• personal stories

Keywords

• mental illness
• Islamic dreaming
• jihad
• military
• spirituality
• poetry
• Afghanistan
• personal struggle

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Caleb’s Café

Places: Kempton, PA

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