Meet US Senate Candidate Dr. Manny Sethi

Backroads and Backstories with Paul Bailey

Some of the highlights of the show include:

• Dr. Manny Sethi’s parents grew up in India in the 1940s. They moved to Cleaveland, Ohio in the 1970s after waiting seven years to come to America. @2:52
• Dr. Sethi’s family moved to Hillsboro, TN in the 80s. His father was a doctor to many farmers there. @4:26
• Becoming a trauma surgeon was not easy, but Dr. Sethi felt like it was what he was called to do. @7:23
• For his trauma fellowship, Dr. Manny Sethi went to Vanderbilt Medical Center. He has been on staff there for 10 years now. @9:27
• Dr. Sethi met his wife Maya when they were 16. They are now married with two children. @10:17
• “I just believe that our faith as Christians is to just reach out in times of need and help people.” -Dr. Manny Sethi @12:00
• 10 years ago, Dr. Sethi and his wife started Healthy Tennessee, a preventative health organization that focuses on the health of rural Tennesseans. @13:33
• “I just deeply in my heart feel it's an opportunity to ensure that the American dream in Tennessee stays alive for the next generation.” -Dr. Sethi on why he is running for Senate @17:54
• Dr. Sethi believes opening up TN and America is the best decision because the mortality rate would be less than 2 percent, but our economic gains would be so much higher. @20:16
• Dr. Sethi advises everyone to wash their hands and to wear a mask at the grocery store if it is crowded. He also says to try and keep high risk family members away from stores and crowded areas. @24:54
• Vanderbilt Medical Center had some COVID patients. It was an anxiety-inducing environment for Dr. Seth, but overall, it made him closer with his co-workers there. @28:16
• “We've got to cut our spending; our discretionary spending continues to be out of control.” -Dr. Sethi @36:24
• As a US Senator, Dr. Sethi wants to repeal and replace Obamacare. He also wants to tackle the opioid crisis. @
• “I'm asking you to take a chance on me and send me to the United States Senate and let's fight together to solve some of the greatest issues of our time.” - Dr. Sethi @44:49

Transcript

Announcer: For the politics of Nashville, to the history of the Upper Cumberland, this is the Backroads and Backstories podcast, with Senator Paul Bailey.

Senator Bailey: Welcome back to the podcast. I'm your host, Senator Paul Bailey. In today's episode, we have Dr. Manny Sethi, a trauma surgeon here in Nashville that works at Vanderbilt Medical Center. We're going to talk to him today about why he's running for the US Senate and to give his take on the current events in Washington DC. But before we get started, I would like to invite Manny to tell us a little bit about himself and what it was like growing up in Tennessee. Welcome to the program. Dr. Sethi.

Dr. Sethi: Well, Senator Bailey, it's an honor to have you, thanks for having me on. And before I go forward, I just want to say, you get to know people in different walks of life, in different ways and one of the substantial conversations I will always remember about you is when the tornadoes Cookeville, and you just we're all-in, helping folks, and were so selfless. And that is what I aspire to be as someone who wants to pursue public service. So, thank you for that.

Senator Bailey: Well, thank you for those kind words. And, as you know, as someone that serves the public as well, that when you are a public servant, and you have a true servant's heart, the main mission is always about the people and meeting their needs. But again, thank you for those kind comments. And so, tell me a little bit about your backstory. I'd like to know about where you grew up here in Tennessee, and tell us a little bit about why you became a trauma surgeon.

So, tell us a little bit about your family. The thing of it is the podcasts can go anywhere because, certainly, everyone has access to it, but a lot of people in the Upper Cumberland area in the 15th Senate District that I represent, listen to these podcasts. And this is an opportunity for you to really introduce yourself because we're in unprecedented times as far as campaigning right now. It's very tough. Obviously, we can't have Reagan day dinners, and it's hard to be at those Farm Bureau breakfasts, and so we're having to redo our campaigns basically, to reach people. So, I felt like this would be another way for you to reach the people of the Upper Cumberland, and tell them about Manny Sethi.

Dr. Sethi: Sure. Well, thanks. Well, my story, Senator, all starts with my parents, as for all of us, and my parents grew up in India in the 1940s. And they had nothing when they were little children. Their homes were burned to the ground by Muslim radicals. And they both, by the grace of God, pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps to become doctors. My mother would be a nanny, and she'd go to these villages in India without electricity, without running water, see patients. My father would sleep in the back of his car at night, and do odd jobs, and see patients during the day.

But they both get through medical school, they both become physicians and they look around. And they realize that India is not going to be the place for their unborn kids. And they're looking at what's happening with their nephews and nieces, and so they go to the US Embassy, they stand in line and wait their turn, and it took about seven years. And in the 1970s, they came to Cleveland, Ohio—and that's where I was born—and retrained in the medical system, here in America.

And then, at the age of four years old, I can still remember it, I got on this semi-truck, and we rolled on down to Coffee County, Tennessee; Hillsboro, Tennessee. And for those of you who don't know in the Upper Cumberland, Coffee County, Hillsboro, Tennessee is mostly a farming town. Back then, there were absolutely no doctors there. And so, my parents were among the first physicians, and they were doctors to farmers. And Hillsboro, Tennessee, people didn't have a lot, but they sure had each other, and they invested in me and my brother—go ahead.

Senator Bailey: My question is, in what year was that?

Dr. Sethi: That was 1982

Senator Bailey: 1982. So, the early 80s?

Dr. Sethi: Yeah.

Senator Bailey: Okay.

Dr. Sethi: So, in the early 80s, they were here in a farming town, and folks really poured their love into me and my brother, and I went to this school, which was a really, really small school, Hillsboro Elementary School, and really went to the school with the kids of all these farmers. And I just remember, they really struggled, but you just never known it. And I'd make all these house calls with my dad. We only had one ambulance in our town, so we had this blue Delta 88 Oldsmobile, and we'd make these house calls on the backroads, and I very specifically remember this one night, we picked up this farmer in Altamont in Grundy County. And he was having chest pain and shortness of breath, and I'm in the backseat of this car, and my dad's rushing to the hospital, this rural hospital he helped develop, and my dad runs him inside and comes out, and he's comforting the family.

And I watch his family tries to give my dad money, but he wouldn't take it. So, he gets back in the car, I get in the front seat. And we're riding home and I said,...