Champion's Mojo for Masters Swimmers
The award-winning podcast that celebrates comeback stories and the pursuit of personal excellence, especially for Masters swimmers, adult athletes and health and wellness seekers. Through powerful interviews and uplifting conversations, we explore the mindsets, habits, and heart behind remarkable performances—in and out of the pool—with host Kelly Palace, an elite Masters athlete and former NCAA Division I head coach. A podcast that champions you!
Champion's Mojo for Masters Swimmers
What is Purposeful Swimming? Matt Moseley's Aquatic Mission. EP 283
This episode has one of the best comeback stories ever! It's filled with genuine emotion and inspiration and will have you thinking about the purpose of your next swim. Matt Moseley — a man whose life is fueled by purpose, storytelling, and water. From boardrooms to backstrokes, Matt is not just a world-record open water swimmer, but also a strategic communications expert, environmental advocate, and author of his recently released book, Soul is Waterproof.
By day, Matt runs the Ignition Strategy Group, guiding high-stakes campaigns for clients like Johnny Depp, the Colorado Senate, and American Rivers. By sunrise, he's logging record-breaking swims through some of the planet’s most challenging waters — all with a mission: to protect our rivers and reconnect us with what truly sustains life.
In this rich and emotional conversation, Matt shares:
- How he uses extreme swims to raise awareness for clean water and river conservation
- The story behind his 25-mile Lake Pontchartrain swim and the jazz musicians who accompanied him from a boat
- His inspiring recovery from a devastating leg injury and painkiller dependency
- Why open water swimmers are uniquely positioned to be powerful advocates for our planet’s water
- His work overturning Colorado’s felony murder statute and collaborating with Hunter S. Thompson and Johnny Depp
- How mental conditioning and purposeful goals helped him conquer some of life’s darkest moments
Matt’s message is clear: We’re not just athletes—we’re ambassadors. Whether you’re swimming 25 miles or simply wading into a local stream, your story can ripple outward and make a difference.
Resources & Mentions:
- Matt Moseley’s new book: Soul is Waterproof
- Learn more about American Rivers: www.americanrivers.org
- Dear Dr. Thompson (Matt’s book about Hunter S. Thompson’s advocacy and legacy)
- The WOWSA (World Open Water Swimming Association)
- The Ignition Strategy Group: www.ignitionstrategygroup.com
Email us at HELLO@ChampionsMojo.com. Opinions discussed are not medical advice, please seek a medical professional for your own health concerns.
Hello friends, welcome to the Champions Mojo podcast, where we celebrate the extraordinary stories of adult athletes who inspire us with their passions, comebacks and stories we can all relate to and learn from. I'm your host, kelly Pallas. I am so excited today for our special guest, matt Mosley, a powerhouse of purpose whose life has been shaped by three interwoven pursuits by day. He's the principal and CEO of the Ignition Strategy Group, a communications consultancy that has guided major campaigns in high-stakes public affairs, including work for Johnny Depp, the Colorado Senate and AT&T, just to name a few. But by early morning, matt transforms into an extreme open water swimmer, pushing human limits in rivers, lakes and seas.
Speaker 1:Matt's three world record adventure swims read like a call to arms for the planet, from a 25-mile solo across Lake Pontchartrain in almost 15 hours to pioneering swims through canyon lands and across the Caribbean. His feats have been turned into documentaries and recognized by the World Open Water Swimming Association, or WOWSA for short. His new book Soul is Waterproof is both a love letter to water and a clarion call. We are fish that live on land. Going back to the water is not secret. We are fish that live on land. Going back to the water is not secret Beyond the swims and stories. Matt is an author of three published works Ignition, superior Communication Strategies, dear Dr Thompson, and public policy. As a co-chair of the Southwest River Council for American Rivers and an advisor at the University of Colorado, his mission is ambitious yet simple to use storytelling in the boardroom or the briny deep to ignite change. I'm thrilled to welcome Matt Mosley to Champions Mojo. Welcome Matt.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much. Great to be here.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm a big fan and there's so much to cover. First, just kind of tell us where you are in the world and what is the main thing going on in your life right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you talked about in the intro.
Speaker 2:I basically have three jobs in my daily life.
Speaker 2:I'm the president of a public affairs consulting firm and in that work we do a lot of work with water, and some of my clients include American Rivers, the Water and Tribes Initiative, the Colorado River District, the Colorado Water Trust, and I'm also running communications for the Upper Colorado River Commission and we're involved in some very high stakes negotiations between the upper basin of the Colorado River Colorado, utah, wyoming and New Mexico and the lower basin, which is California, nevada and Arizona.
Speaker 2:And so I like to try to use my swimming as a way to tell stories about water and just finished a 17-mile swim through Moab to raise awareness about the Colorado River and some of the challenges that it's going through. You know it's a really low water year, really low water year. We've had great snowpack but because of the way climate change and aridification, the ground is drier, it soaks up more moisture and so we've some of the rivers are only about 30% of where they should be right now. So you know, I feel like the Colorado River holds a real special place in my heart and so wherever I can combine kind of my work and my pleasure and my love of swimming. That's a real sweet spot for me.
Speaker 1:Beautiful. So this work that you do, is it based through your communications company?
Speaker 2:Correct, yes, through your communications company. Correct, yes. And you know, one of the things I like to tell folks is that we have a water problem, but I also think that we have a huge communications problem around water, in that I feel like people have lost their connection to what water really means to their lives and why it's so critical to our survival as a species and a planet. You know, some people think that oil and gold are the most critical issues of the day. I think water is the most critical issue of our time right now. We just haven't realized it yet.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's so, so powerful, that statement. What do you think we could be looking at like as kind of a worst-case scenario that might get us all moving? I mean not that we like to talk about that in general, but you know, sometimes that's a motivator.
Speaker 2:Well, no, it is, and you know I don't. I think you know I grew up in South Louisiana. I live in Boulder, colorado. Uh, I think generally people think if water is coming out of the tap, then everything is fine.
Speaker 2:Um and you know my work with the water and tribes initiative, uh, shows us that. You know large, large percentages anywhere from 60 to 70 percent of people on Indian reservations and Native American tribes don't have access to clean drinking water. And you know, we sort of take it for granted that that the taps are always going to flow and that clean water is always going to be available. But we know from climate change around the world that clean, fresh water is becoming scarce and more scarce and it's, you know, it's kind of an issue for the world, I think.
Speaker 1:Absolutely for sure. So your stories that you would tell what are they in, soul is Waterproof. I know this book is kind of brand new so I have not even had a chance to read it, but tell us what. What is Soul is Waterproof about and what might we glean from it.
Speaker 2:Sure, and so I track a number of different swims and tell stories through these swims around the world and, for instance, swimming across the Caribbean, we were doing some of the first testing for plastics this is about 11 years ago down there and and working with the five gyres foundation to actually do real time testing for plastic content in the water. As I was swimming and, uh, you know, trying to use my swims in in those kinds of ways, and, um, you know, I swam across Lake Pontchartrain. It was 25 miles. Uh, that's where I'm from and whenever I was growing up, people wouldn't even put their toe in there. Whenever I was growing up, people wouldn't even put their toe in there. It had been ruined literally by agricultural runoff, dredging for shells. There were oil derricks out there, cultural center of New Orleans, especially in the summer for the hotter months, and people could go and go to Potch Train Beach and it was a beautiful place, it was really a part of the city, and then they decimated the lake, so an organization had spent 25 years cleaning up the lake and getting it back to a really pristine body of water, and so I swam to raise awareness that hey, here is this resource, here is this water that we should really be appreciating a lot more and what it means to the city of New Orleans. And so that was 25 miles for 25 years and you know, my mom was like what are you doing? You know, because it was, people wouldn't even put. You know, there's alligators and bull sharks and all kinds of stuff in there. But uh, it was a.
Speaker 2:It was a fantastic swim and and I like to um, you know, Kelly, I'm a little bit different from other open water swimmers who I I love open water swimmers but they're fairly serious and they're pretty, you know, pretty dour sometimes, and so I really like to have a lot of fun. I like to have a great support crew on the New Orleans swim who had played with the Beats and Dizzy Gillespie and is a composer in residence at the New York Philharmonic, playing jazz, composing jazz for 14 hours and 56 minutes while I swam, and he was joined by a Congo player from Professor Longhair's band, Uganda Roberts, and then blues legend Papa Molly, and so we had a little trio on the support boat playing music while I was swimming and I couldn't hear it in the water. But you know it's happening and the support crew is dancing on the boats and having a blast and it just makes me appreciate that moment so much. And I had been swimming for nine hours in Pontchartrain and the uh. I swam through the night, uh, and I wanted to minimize my sun exposure and I'm swimming into it.
Speaker 2:The morning is coming, the full moon is setting, the sun is rising and David Amram is playing this Chinese flute that is sort of resonating across the water and, you know, I think back on that moment. It's just so beautiful and so transcendent. You know, that's why I do these things and it's to use that as this bigger moment. That's much more than just myself. It's about the team, it's about the purpose and the cause and bringing all of that together in one swim, you know, and it's only 15 hours of my life, you know, and I try to just be so grateful and love the place that I'm in. And, you know, as an endurance athlete, we ask for these things, right, Like we, you know, and you can't be surprised when it gets really hard. I mentioned the sunrise, you know, and David's playing the Chinese flute.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, I had six more hours of swimming and that's when things got really hard. I had six more hours of swimming and that's when things got really hard was when the sun came up and it's fracturing in my goggles and I had nausea issues and different things. I do a lot of mental conditioning and was preparing myself for that moment. When you know it's going to be hard, right, and you might be crapping on yourself and vomiting, and how are you going to react in those kind of situations. Are you going to be hard, right, and you might be crapping on yourself and vomiting, and you know how are you going to react in those kinds of situations. Are you going to pull out? Are you going to quit? No, how do you cope and get yourself mentally prepared for that space and smile, you know, and enjoy it because it's a beautiful thing and this is your dream that you're living. So just trying to be really cognizant and present in that space while while I'm swimming and when things get going really tough.
Speaker 1:And how do you deal with that when, when the pain comes, what's, what's your secret?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so uh. My longtime paddler, mark Williams, also is a mental conditioning coach and works with a lot of veterans. He was a former F-16 fighter pilot in the Iraq War and you know what is the last person to see hand-to-hand combat in the air when he was chased by a Russian MiG bat in the air when he was chased by a Russian MiG. But he is, you know, has worked with me over the past 15 years. You know where we do these mental conditioning exercises. It's like going to the gym in your mind and it's not really just meditation and blitzing out on the pillows, but these sets of different things to really tune you into your awareness and to be able to process and to deal with these things when, when things go tough. And part of that is visualization. You know we'll do visualizations of the swim and and Mark will lead me through like okay, it's not sunny and calm anymore. You're, you're vomiting on yourself, you just got chased by an alligator. What's, what's your space? Let's walk through that and and prepare for these different scenarios because you know a lot of times we, you know I like to swim at the Boulder Reservoir on Tuesdays and Thursday mornings at 6 AM and it's beautiful. It beautiful, it's placid and it's just the sun's coming up and you know it's really calm and just perfect conditions and you know, as an open water swimmer, it's rarely like that in the real world. Right, and when you go out for your big swims and I got a race across Lake Tahoe on July 19th Tahoe has the potential to be anything on any given day. Right, it could be choppy, it could be cold, it could be rainy. You've got all three of them. Um, so it's just, and that's one of the things I love about open water swimming is that variation of it is never the same, ever, ever. Uh, you know it, that's part of the sport is rivers, lakes and oceans present these really unique challenges that you don't find in a pool. In fact, I tell people, open water swimming is a little bit like running in the mountains, you know, trail running as opposed to running on a track, whereas swimming in a pool is like running on a track, you know, and, and I think swimming in the open water is like trail running, it's free, you know there's, you're really just doing it on your own time and your own space, and you know I will mention that, um, you won't see in my swimming history any of the you know English Channel swims. Now I want to do Gibraltar and Catalina and I've tried to do the race around Manhattan and haven't been able to get into that yet. But you know, the English Channel to me I mean, look great, love Channel swimmers.
Speaker 2:But you know it's like the Everest of swimming. It's expensive, it's cold. It's cold, it's gnarly, it's jellyfish, there's ships. You know how about? Let's go to a place like the Colorado river, through Moab and Canyon lands, where you feel like kind of phelpsian when you're swimming. That it's just long and you're going with the. You know the river's moving at about a mile per hour in this kind of strong current and the eagles are flying over the head, the canyons are rising up and you're you're following this beautiful river that's ancient, that has carved these canyons through the millennia and it's, you know it's cold, it was just snow melt right and it's it's that silky feeling on your skin that's cutting through these, these torching canyons in the in a blazing hot desert, and that kind of juxtaposition that just you know, I love it, I just love it.
Speaker 1:So, and it it sounds like you have this cause, this kind of mission, pushing you to swim in these different bodies of water, and what would you say that the swimmers out there that are listening, what can we do to help our water, to help save our rivers? What can we do?
Speaker 2:I'm so glad you asked that, kelly, because I think that open water swimmers are in a very unique position to be ambassadors for water, that we are not just swimmers but we are spokespeople for the water that we swim in and to keep it clean and to keep it healthy.
Speaker 2:Now, there's a number of things that people can do and you know, know, I've chosen to use my swimming for this purpose of of raising awareness about water issues. American rivers is the uh, the largest uh river advocacy organization in the united states. You know is is how do we support them and their work and and what they're doing on the hill? And uh, they have a goal to save and restore one million miles of rivers by 2050 and to take down 30,000 dams. And you know, clean, free-flowing rivers are a threat in this country. They are under threat and you know it's something that we should be using our sport to say like, hey, this is important. We need to keep these waters clean, protected, healthy and and for future generations, and not just because it's something pretty to look at, but because our very survival as a species depends upon it.
Speaker 1:So who are they under threat by? And tell me why dams are bad.
Speaker 2:Not all dams are bad. I don't want to say that. I think dams that have outlived their time, dams that are broken, that don't generate hydropower anymore. You know American Rivers was one of the spearheaders of taking down the Klamath Dam. That you know. Now, just after one year, you've already have salmon respawning. You have tribal members just did their first. They had, I think, 100 Native American youth that floated and did a kayak trip, multi-day kayak trip through the canyons there. And you know, one of the things that I'm so glad to see that happened just last week and over the weekend was that the public lands sell-off was stripped from the budget bill and you know 20% of our rivers and freshwater comes from public lands, so selling those off. Then you know 20 percent of our rivers and fresh water comes from public lands, so selling those off. Then you know the Clean Water Protection Act, the Clean Water Act that protects wetlands, and you know those things are all under threat and you know the moment that we start tearing up wetlands, drying up rivers and streams, polluting them.
Speaker 1:It's a real threat to humanity. So I'm hearing we can be ambassadors, we can support organizations that protect our rivers and lakes and estuaries and things. What else? How would I be an ambassador other than hosting you on my podcast?
Speaker 2:Well, I think you know there, um, you know, every day in the swimming world somebody is going out and doing these great swims in bodies of water and and using those stories to tell people why that's important. You know, I would say, for me at least, swimming with a purpose is very, very important to me. You know I'm on these long swims and you're almost 17 hours crossing the Caribbean and you know there's a time when you're like what am I doing here? Why am I doing this? And I'm sure I know you've talked a lot about this on the Champions Mojo podcast, about why. You know that big question, what drives us? Why are we there?
Speaker 2:And for me, I might you know, after seven or eight hours, when kind of the fun's over and I've thought about everything I can think about, you know I might get out Like what's. You know why do I need to do this? And for me, drawing on that purpose of being an ambassador for the water and that, when somebody, like American Rivers, has put themselves on the line for you and is raising money and creating awareness, I'm not going to quit. You know I am going to. That is dry. That purpose is driving me down the river and across oceans and you know it's very, very important to me, uh, why I do it? And that's another kind of reason why you know English Channel is great but it's generally not associated with any purpose.
Speaker 2:It's just kind of ego and I think I don't you know, I've got a pretty healthy ego, but it's not enough for me to really put myself in dire straits unless there's a bigger purpose involved in it, and so that purposeful swimming to me is very, very important.
Speaker 1:I love that. So one of the things that you're obviously you know doing great things for advocacy and you're a winner, you're a champion in life in so many ways, from your business to your books, to your swims and we love to talk about kind of what you've been through personally, not just you know, these are the things that you've done for humanity. But if we just drill down a little bit on Matt Mosley and what you've overcome, you know it's just so inspirational for me to hear people who are really out there killing it and what you've gone through. Do you have some stories of a comeback or something that you know you were really knocked down in life and how did you get back to the surface mentally, emotionally, physically?
Speaker 2:That's a great question. Yes, I have overcome some real tragedies in my life. The biggest one that spurred me into long distance swimming was I'd already, you know, I swam as a competitive swimmer in high school. I wasn't going to get a college scholarship, I wasn't fast like that. And then in graduate school, at CU, I kind of came back to swimming. You know, I remember showing up with the board shorts at the pool and, like you know, just a few laps and I started.
Speaker 2:My wife gifted me a canoe when she was in law school and I was in graduate school and it came with a trip down the Colorado River and that was the. I brought my swim goggles and it was the first time that I swam open water like that and it just something clicked and I just loved it and, um, I started doing 5k races and this is back in the early two thousands kind of late nineties uh, 5k races. And then I signed up for a 10k race across, uh, the horseshoes reservoir and um was doing these races. So we go on this canoe trip, right, and we have my kids and this is, uh, you know, 10 or 12 years after I'd gotten the canoe and we're coming back and I uh, in a place where I have cliff jumped maybe, you know, for 12 years or something before that and when I jumped off the cliff I hit a sandbar and um shattered my whole right leg. So I had my right leg look literally like the Eiffel Tower. There were, um, I had four plates and 17 screws holding it all together. Um, and it was Kelly.
Speaker 2:It was the darkest time in my life I, you know. First of all, I felt like a real dumbass because I had done it to myself and you know there wasn't some kind of car accident I could blame on somebody else, it was me. And um, you know, my kids are all going off skiing in the winter and I'm sitting on the couch and feeling sorry for myself and it took 13 months for that to heal. And then the you know I couldn't live with that stuff in my leg and so we got it all taken out and that was another eight or nine months of of of recovery, so, all told, about two years of of. I couldn't even drive barely because it was my right leg. And um, you know that was a time that they were just throwing around painkillers pretty liberally and I enjoy my white wine in the evenings, and you know it's a pretty dangerous combination, to tell you the truth.
Speaker 2:After a little while and uh, it was in that convalescence and in some of the darkest times that you know, I set the goal that we had gone down to Lake Pontchartrain for a number of years before and we're swimming to raise money to rebuild the lighthouse that was destroyed in Hurricane Katrina, and this is a lighthouse where De La Salle basically stood and claimed that the new world for spain. And uh, right at that point, and you know, the lighthouse was destroyed so we were raising money for that. But during my recovery is when I set the goal to swim poncho train and it took another three years to kind of come back right and I got a coach for the first time since I was in high school, this fiery Puerto Rican guy named Randy Soler, who you know really believed in me. And so, you know, coming back, I felt like, you know, there were two kind of divergent paths I could see in my life, like one was going down this path that I didn't want to be. I didn't want to be, you know, addicted to painkillers and an alcoholic and drinking and sitting on the couch and feeling sorry for myself and getting fat. I wanted to come back. You know, I felt like in the end when I stood up in Lake Pontchartrain.
Speaker 2:When I stood up in Lake Pontchartrain and threw my hands over my head, it wasn't, you know, it wasn't just the swim, it was basically like I had come back as a better person, like all around and, you know, discovering this kind of higher purpose in swimming, my friends and family.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sorry, I'm getting a little emotional about it, but you know, kind of I hadn't really thought about that time for a while and it was in this very real sense, kind of overcoming this tragedy and becoming a better person through it. And that's something I really encourage people when I speak and I try not to be a motivational speaker living in a van down by the river, but I, you know, try to tell people this example because you know, kelly, when you're our age, things happen in life. You know, try to tell people this example because you know, kelly, when you're our age, things happen in life. You know injuries, cancer, deaths, all kinds of things, and how we deal with those is really the mark of our character, not if they happen, but when they do. How do we respond as a person and so that was my response and I felt like, you know, it worked and I came back better and then, after Pontchartrain, there was no stopping me.
Speaker 2:I, you know, then went to the Caribbean and then, you know, went back to Canyonlands and swam the Colorado River and then, you know, sea of Galilee. And you know I'm not done yet. I've got so much more. I mean, there's so many swims I want to do right.
Speaker 1:I just don't have the time or the space. I could see you going back in your mind. I could see you literally visualizing yourself through the accident and through you know, maybe the self-blame and the you know, all those things that we terrorize ourself with, and so could you share with us, like, obviously so if somebody's in that dark time, because we're all in that dark time, and if it's not, if you're not in that dark time, then it's coming and I know people used to say that to me and I hated it, but I really believe that we have way more of an ability to endure things that we think know.
Speaker 1:Obviously you set the goal. What else? What like if? If you're, if you go back to that dark time on a daily basis for almost two years of probably a lot of pain and a lot of struggle what were, what were you doing that got you up? What?
Speaker 2:were you doing that got you up, you know when, the first? I remember when I first started coming back into the pool. You know, I I always loved swimming but I did not realize, you know, how much it meant to my life until I couldn't do it anymore. Right, and I think you know, I remember coming back to the pool and I was starting to do some dry land exercises on the side of the pool and I was, you know.
Speaker 2:So this guy, randy, comes over. He had just moved from Puerto Rico to Boulder and he was coaching the, the Boulder masters team, and he comes over and he's like, hey, what you doing, you know, are you training for something? And I kind of told him he's like, well, if you keep doing what you're doing, you're going to hurt yourself. It's like, how about if I help you with a couple of things? And you know it started pretty casually and he would just give me these few things and he was really, you know, my, because of my injury, my leg would kind of twist out a little bit.
Speaker 2:It was, it was weird, you know, but he he was very, very focused on form and technically being correct in the exercises and you know, posture and using. You know he was also. You know he used to tell me to swim from the belly. You know, swim from your core, not just using your shoulders. Like a lot of open water swimmers are very shoulder heavy, you know, and they're picking up and they're sighting and doing all this stuff.
Speaker 2:And um, you know he was like swim from the belly, I want your butt high in the air, but you know just that technically correct form. And then he made me do a lot of sprints, which I was like what are you talking? Why are we doing these sprints? I'm a distance swimmer and he's like no, but you got to go fast to go far. You got to go fast to go far, man. And so it he was right, he really did. You know, getting that speed back really helped my strength and overall ability for swimming and you know, just having somebody that believes in you, it was really special and I, you know, I hadn't had a coach in my life since I was in high school, right, so it was very different.
Speaker 2:And you know that accountability and you know, hey, I'm going to be there at 6 am for dry land and then we're swimming at 7. You're going to be there, right, and so having that was, I think, the key element to my success.
Speaker 1:Was that, and you know, having a great family and supportive team great family and supportive team, right, yeah, yeah, I think I think all those things just to kind of you know, summarize what I'm hearing you have a goal, you have somebody that's really supporting you, that you're accountable to. I'm also hearing movement, like I just believe that people, when they're injured or they're sad or they're depressed or they're, you know, you got to move your body and even if it's you know the littlest thing, you walk from here to the mailbox and then you walk from the mailbox to the next mailbox and just movement and certainly the community of people that are that are supporting you, but that, that passionate purpose of I want to swim and and make a difference. So beautiful, beautiful, okay, matt. So again on your intro, I was so impressed with the books that you've written and one that just intrigued the heck out of me and I saw one of your speeches to you actually spoke to Google.
Speaker 1:For goodness sakes, I didn't even put that in the intro, but I loved your Dear Dr Thompson book and I'm just going to throw that out there for people to check that out. Check out your Google talk. I don't want to go into it here because we'll be on for two hours, but essentially, essentially what that book taught me is people who become champions make good choices, you know. And so what are your thoughts on how we can make better choices to reach the things that we want in life and have a better life?
Speaker 2:Well, it's interesting that we talk about making good choices and working with the author Hunter S Thompson in the same sentence.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, that's, that's, and you know. And why don't you tell people why that's a terrible choice?
Speaker 2:And Hunter. Yeah, hunter is the, the famous author of the book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and invented a form called Gonzo journalism, and so just a real character. And he used to call my swimming Gonzo swimming. So but just, you know, if you want me to summarize real quickly, that there was a woman, lisa Allman. She was ended up climbing in its car with the guy she didn't know. He ended up being a skinhead in a stolen transam, high on meth and with a bunch of guns. He ended up killing a cop and then he killed himself. She had never touched the gun, had never met the guy, had no idea what was going on. But they, uh, convicted her for felony murder and she spent um. She was in prison for, you know, life without parole and had never even touched the gun, in fact wasn't even there. When the officer was shot she was already in police custody. So she's in prison for five years.
Speaker 2:Writes a letter to Hunter S Thompson from prison saying your books aren't available in the prison library. Can you send me something? He miraculously reads a letter and then responds and says hey, I followed your case. I was horrified by it. You were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe I can help. He writes a thing about it and I had been following this case, living in Denver at the time, and, um, in fact, I had worked for president Bill Clinton at the time and we were doing an event in Denver where he met the widow of the slain officer that I was at that meeting.
Speaker 2:So you know, I'd been following this case and I ended up writing Hunter a memo saying here's how you could change the narrative of this woman's case. She was, you know it was. She didn't have any representation. It was really badly framed for the public about what happened. But she didn't do it. She wasn't even. She had no intent for anybody to get murdered. So he calls me, I'm at the state Capitol and I get to see this number and this is a guy I you know there was one person I could have dinner with. It would be him. You know, he was a real hero in my earlier life because he made politics sound like it could be so much fun and so real and it's why I ended up a career in politics, um, and so, you know, we end up working together.
Speaker 2:Uh, the last point of the memo was um, let's hold a rally on the west steps of the capitol when her appeals brief was filed with the supreme court. And so he says, son, let's hold a rally, and do you mind if I bring Warren Zevon Like? Well, of course you know. So we ended up holding the rally. It does change the narrative of the case. It goes to the Supreme Court, they overturn the case, remand it back to the Denver court, which 10 years later couldn't put the same case together and she walked out of prison a free woman after 10 years in jail.
Speaker 2:And then the governor of Colorado just recently signed a law overturning the felony murder statute. So very big sort of change there, using this one woman's case as a test case for overturning the felony murder law around the country. And it really worked. And Hunter had already killed himself at the time when it was at the Supreme Court. He committed suicide. And that's when I ended up being hired because I'd worked with them for about seven years. So I knew the family very well, I knew his world, I knew him and was hired by Johnny Depp to be the communications director for Hunter's funeral. So we blasted his ashes out of a 157 foot tall gonzo fist in Aspen. It was pretty crazy.
Speaker 1:Well, it sounds like this is a. You love changing the narrative on things and I think that's really powerful. And you know, besides, obviously don't get in a car with someone you don't know who's a skinhead. How, how else can we make good choices, just like in life? Have you? Have you narrowed that down?
Speaker 2:just like in life? Have you? Have you narrowed that down? You know, I don't know if we can say good choices, you know, for everyone all around, like, is going out and swimming 25 miles a great choice, you know, for some people not so much. But I think that the sweet spot in life is generally when we're doing something that's greater than ourselves, when we are thinking about ways that our life can make the world a better place, make just the people around us better, to be a better friend, to be a good colleague and to find for me, to find work and issues that I really deeply care about and like water, where I can use my full passion, my full self, and bring it to the table to create change and move public opinion. You know I've spent my basically my whole career in sort of managing issues and public opinion. And how do we get people to, you know, support things like water or education or overturning the felony murder law, things that really impact people's lives?
Speaker 1:Well, that is a great place to kind of start to wrap this up. If you had a magic wand, what would you want to see happen with your most recent advocacy?
Speaker 2:I would love to see a seven-state deal on the Colorado River, I mean, first of all, just because you know that's my world. But in general, I would love to see us, as a sport, using our our sport to be water ambassadors and to to really speak from the water. And you know I mentioned that earlier, but you know, in the same, I mean fishermen kind of stand on the side of the river right, surfers are on top of it. Uh, you know scuba divers. Yes, they are also ambassadors for the water. But you know we're in this unique place where we are in it. You know, we feel it, we taste it every day when we're in these bodies of water.
Speaker 2:So how could we, you know, make it where our sport is much more on the front lines of advocacy? And you know it doesn't have to be to the level that I do it. You know I'm I'm probably a freak of nature in this, in this way, but you know, just to go and dip your toes and take a cold plunge in the Boulder Creek or in in any river, the Gauley, you know, in West Virginia, or something where you show people why you love it and why you care about these places and bodies of water and why they're important. So it doesn't have to be that you have to go out and swim 25 miles. You can just go dip your toe in it, but tell that story and so that other people see it and appreciate it.
Speaker 1:That is so beautiful, beautiful. Um, before we go to the sprinter round, which is just a little list of fun questions for listeners to get to know you better, is there anything that I have not asked you that, uh, you'd like to share that I?
Speaker 2:have not asked you that you'd like to share. No, I think we've covered quite a bit.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, and of course your book Soul is Waterproof is available. The Matt Mosley story, it's available. You're holding up a copy there.
Speaker 2:They can get it on Amazon or anywhere books are found, I would imagine right, absolutely, absolutely. I did a 35 city book tour. Somebody's like, well, why didn't you write a book? I'm like, well, to go on book tour, of course. But yeah, I love getting out and talking about these things and talking to audiences and sharing sort of this unique passion that I've, that I've found, you know sort of this unique passion that I've found.
Speaker 1:You know, Okay, Wonderful, Wonderful. Well, I will put in the show notes how you know all this info that people can find. Are you ready for some fast questions?
Speaker 2:Well to mention to you, I'm not a sprinter.
Speaker 1:I know I'm not either, so that's why just do the best you can, okay.
Speaker 2:You got to go fast, to go far.
Speaker 1:Yes, if your life had a soundtrack, what?
Speaker 2:might be a song that you would play while you're swimming. I love the Grateful Dead, so Scarlet Fire, Scarlet Begonias might be something that I do. I also I love funk music, so there's some Devil Brothers songs that I that I love to play and then there's this great zero seven song called Swimmers. That sometimes gets in my head and you know I like to to kind of hum it while I'm swimming.
Speaker 1:Oh, I'm going to write that one down. I haven't heard it. Okay, um, if uh soul is waterproof, the Matt Mosley story became a movie. Who? Who do you want to play you?
Speaker 2:Uh, oh gosh, that's a funny one. Uh know it. Brad Pitt maybe, I don't know uh, tatum Channing Chris Farley.
Speaker 1:Oh gosh, I love Chris Farley, you're yeah, that's too humble or um, yeah, will Ferrell. Will Ferrell. Oh Will Ferrell, that would be a good one.
Speaker 2:I think Will is great, yeah and he'd make it kind of funny, which I like to be. You know, I like to have a lot of fun and tell jokes.
Speaker 1:And you know we've all seen him in a Speedo already, so that's kind of you know he's in a Speedo in a couple of his couple of his movies. It's funny, all right. What is your pump up ritual before Big Swim?
Speaker 2:What is your pump up ritual before a big swim? I usually eat shrimp. Pasta is kind of my go to meal before a big swim because it's got that heavy protein. I don't eat a ton of the pasta but the shrimp is very good to digest. Um, I like quiet space. Uh, you know, usually like. So I had 18 people on a support crew for this moab swim and I I usually have to designate somebody that's the person that to deal with the crew, like answer all their questions and what are we going to eat, how are, how do how do we pee, like all these things like have somebody else deal with this. So I like to just be really kind of focused and just ready, ready to swim.
Speaker 1:Okay, awesome, okay. Um, if you can gain one new skill, just instantly poof, what would it be?
Speaker 2:Fixing cars or working on my house.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, fixing cars. How great would that be.
Speaker 2:I'm just not a. I'm just not a handyman. I wish I was. I was, in fact. I was going to go take a class in like Greek mythology at CU and my wife was like how about you learn how to fix the kitchen sink first?
Speaker 1:That's great, all right. Last question when you are in the water, what? What is a one word that you that describes how you feel?
Speaker 2:Gratitude.
Speaker 1:Gratitude.
Speaker 2:Oh, I love it, I love it I found gratitude for just the space, the water, the people, my life, all the little things that bring you to that moment. It's just profound gratitude.
Speaker 1:That is beautiful. Matt, thank you so much for spending this time with us today. You were awesome and best of luck in everything.
Speaker 2:What a treasure I loved talking with you, kelly. Thanks, great questions and just a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
