Overview

From Monk to Punk to Public Health: A personal life journey recounting experiences that shaped me, in which others might find echoes in their own lives. The siren song of organized religious life at a very early age ending in disenchantment and a rebound to punk rock, theatre, and UK politics in the Thatcher years. Searching for my purpose in travel through Brazil, the South Atlantic, and the Caribbean. Finding direction and success in PR, advertising, and health communications in the US. Getting married, having a child, getting divorced, and trying to understand why. Through reflection coming to terms with and finding fulfillment in who I am. Not a story of great disasters or great triumphs but an authentic account of diverse life experiences and lessons learned along the way. The author takes us on a journey from his childhood upbringing in Sheffield, England, his decision to join a Catholic teaching order, the De La Salle Brothers, as a trainee brother or monk, onwards to his Bristol college days. There he managed the college entertainment and arts program, hiring the top bands of the mid-seventies, just as the punk rock scene was emerging in the UK. He produced rock concerts with the Jam, Annie Lenox, and the Sex Pistols and traditional artists such as Procul Harum and Al Stewart. Tiring of the punk music scene and the violence, he moved into the London arts and theatre world of the early 1980s, working at organizations such as InterAction and the Half Moon Theatre, which provided early theatre experience to actors such as Daniel Day-Lewis, Simon Callow and Alfred Molina. He co-founded the National Campaign for the Arts as Thatcher cut funding. He co-produced a show at the Royal Festival Hall featuring Emma Thompson protesting the Conservative government's policy of limiting the local government's ability to raise taxes. He later led the publicity campaign for the 1986 50th anniversary of the Jarrow unemployment march. The Thatcher years cut funding for the arts, which led to a layoff. Looking for a new direction, he traveled to Rio Janeiro, where he taught English and marveled at the warm openness of Rio compared to the then-closed and depressed psyche of Britain. Journeying around the country, in Bahia, he met with Capoeira dancers and spent an overnight in jail, then met up with a sailboat captain and enlisted as crew. They sailed from Bahia to Natal, Trinidad, Grenada, and Antigua. The experience helped him navigate not just the ocean but a later life in America. He recounts the story of his landing in America, his decade of work in PR and radio, and a decade building a company that focused on health communications and Hispanic outreach. One campaign backed the bipartisan passed Children's Health Insurance Program and led his first White House visit. His experience in health communications turned into an opportunity to grow the government contract business at WebMD, the leading health information website. There he has sold millions of dollars of health communications services to the US Federal Government, from advertising to physician training in topics as diverse as COVID, HIV, substance use disorder, cancer, and older driver safety. While the book is one man's account of life experiences, readers familiar with the Thatcher years, the arts, and the music of the 70s and 80s in the UK will find many familiar references in this story. PR professionals will resonate with his early days in Washington, DC, pitching agencies on the merits of radio and recording and distributing soundbites for dozens of political, association, and corporate causes. Many will take comfort in recognizing aspects of a life journey rich with lessons learned about religion, technology, culture, and government, from Thatcher to Trump.

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Reviews

This book is about a life that did not follow a planned trajectory but simply did what came next. It is the story of an open heart, taking each moment as it unfolds. Steve Murphy weaves a tale of thirst for adventure, surviving from one chance encounter to the next, with the poignancy of a lifelong search for self that begins as a childhood quest for belonging in a religious order and continues through a series of stints in arts and media promotion in one country to the experience of running his own media company in another. But his taste for risky encounters takes him to a place where his search for self becomes the ultimate adventure. I was drawn into this tale from the moment I met Steve, the toddler who lost his mother's attention to a very ill baby sister, setting in motion his quest for the high-impact experiences that propel him through life. His writing is infused with the self-reflection that gets him through the toughest parts of his journey. Steve doesn't hesitate to show his vulnerability, and that is what gives the book its authenticity. Sonya Weakley, Washington DC Any one of the chapters of Steve Murphy's life would make a stirring essay of a fascinating life's transitions, drama, and difference-making. Beginning as a monk, moving through political activism and excellence as an innovative arts promoter, his insights on Britain's various political and cultural roller coaster rides are hard won. His keen appreciation for travel, global cultures, seagoing adventure, great friendships, and engaging experiences for its best moments are stories of themselves. Moving to America, he met a new land with a new tool, pioneering digital dynamism and finding success at it. But his real achievement has come in an arena less appreciated, how radio could be mastered for public health possibility. As an entrepreneur, advisor, champion of focus group listening and learning, as well as a media expert, his professional realm is mined here for anecdotal enjoyment. The end of his marriage, unflinchingly told, provided a launch pad for a new life of music-making, friendships, and making health far better understood in the American opinion landscape. It is a life well told and learned from. I commend it to you. Don Wilson, Washington DC The author, Steve Murphy, weaves a tale about his life, spanning more than six decades of life. His story details life on different continents, numerous career paths, a brutal marriage, and a legacy left in several people's lives. It occurs in several occupational arenas, in several worlds, and on different sides of the globe. From monk to punk to a health communications professional is a jigsaw puzzle of a life where Steve leaves his mark on many and on society. The most compelling part of the book is traveling on Steve's multiple journeys and learning throughout that for Steve, the journey is the goal. The journey is the success. Steve is an adventurer and, as such, has entered each stage in life and rode on the amusement parks of life. The remarkable thing about the journey is that with his multiple extraordinary skills and abilities to generate income; through religious training at a monastery; communication-related businesses, health-related careers, show business endeavours, and later in life, performing himself, Steve seems to have no preferences for which parts of his life gives him the most joy. Richard Siegel, Silver Spring, MD

Author Information

Born in Sheffield, England, Steve Murphy has always been passionate about understanding what the public needs and delivering to those expectations, in music and the arts and in helping organise political events. This direction later led him to sales and marketing in broadcasting, founding a successful healthcare marketing agency and becoming the sales and marketing lead for Public Health Solutions at WebMD. An accomplished harmonica player, when he is not working, he enjoys playing music with friends and in local bars and events.

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