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Activist Bob Massie's Incredible Journey

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Activist Bob Massie during the Democratic Convention, Saturday, June 4, 2011, at the Tsongas Arena in Lowell, Mass. (AP)
Activist Bob Massie during the Democratic Convention, Saturday, June 4, 2011, at the Tsongas Arena in Lowell, Mass. (AP)

A miracle. Every once in a while, you hear a story that sounds pretty much impossible. Yet, there it is: true. Sitting right across from you. Living, breathing, astounding even to itself. Or, to himself, in Bob Massie's case.

Massie was a leading student anti-apartheid activist while at Yale in the late 1970s. He later wrote an award-winning book on the divestment movement, called "Loosing the Bonds: America and South Africa in the Apartheid Years."

Massie then went on to Yale Divinity School and Harvard Business School. He transported his sense of social justice and the environment into the business world, and founded the Investor Network on Climate Risk, the Global Reporting Initiative, and the Massachusetts Energy Efficiency Coalition. He's also thrown his hat into the political ring. He was the Democratic candidate for Massachusetts lieutenant governor in 1994, and this year made a brief run for the Senate.

And he did all that, while living with three severe diseases that could have taken his life at almost any time.

Imagine it. Living with the constant, inescapable reminder of your mortality. Having your body break down and fail you, even as a young child. Wondering, "What do I do today, because I might not be here tomorrow?"

Bob Massie tells us what he did in a new book, "A Song in the Night: A Memoir of Resilience".

Guest:

This segment aired on July 11, 2012.

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