Ed Schultz has a stressful job, no doubt. He talks on the radio for three hours a day, then talks on TV for an hour every night: fighting the establishment, fighting the powerbrokers, fighting, whatever’s worth fighting.
So how does he not let the stress of all that fighting affect his health?
“I have a physical every 90 days,” Schultz tells Men’s Health. “I have to because of my job. I go to the doctor four times a year.”
“A lot of broadcasters die in their 60s. I can’t even get disability insurance because of my occupation. So my goal is to live into my 70s. I’m 58. Managing stress, managing emotion in a high-pressure environment, is the key.”
Schultz managed the stress last night of the defeat of Tom Barrett, the democratic challenger to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. Schultz has been covering Wisconsin’s long, state nightmare for the last 16 months, when democratic state lawmakers fled the state rather than vote on Gov. Walker’s public employee collective bargaining proposal — a move which touched off the recall effort culminating in Walker’s win last night.
“This is not a good night for wage earners or the democratic party,” said Schultz after Walker had been declared winner. “It’s a tough one to take but it’s about being in the fight. It’s about believing what you believe in and sticking to your guns and not giving up.”
Schultz will be back in Wisconsin this weekend for the state’s democratic convention. Here’s Ed Schultz talking about how he got into broadcasting in the first place: