As someone who reports on Capitol Hill pretty often, I hear a lot of bloviating. Vapid partisan platitudes have become a staple in our politics that professional reporters and commentators have to cut through.

Occasionally, an especially lucid and insightful lawmaker comes along and offers a break from all the noise. is certainly one example. Following a term and a half in the Senate in which he acted as a type of thinker-statesman, the former university president is undergoing a deliberately public battle with .

As he fights his illness, he is attempting to teach us how to live a fulfilling life through his public appearances and especially through his podcast, Not Dead Yet, which he hosts with Chris Stirewalt. I’m not an especially avid consumer of podcasts, but I have become a faithful listener of the show for the wisdom he and his guests impart.

Next month, Sasse will receive the German-American Heritage Foundation’s 2026 Distinguished German American of the Year Award. Here’s a link to the release from the organization.

The gala is sure to be a swell affair honoring a truly remarkable human.