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Ellen MacArthur knew she wanted to sail from the age of 4 — by the time she turned 30, she was a record breaker in the sport

Not many can say that they've single-handedly sailed around the world. One individual who can however, is Ellen MacArthur, who managed to do it before turning 30 — twice .

For the record breaking sailor-turned-advocate for the circular economy, MacArthur's love for the sport dates back to when she was just four years of age, when she first got the opportunity to go sailing.

"I'll never forget that feeling as a kid of setting foot on a boat for the first time. To see this little world — and it was a small boat — but it had little bunks, a little cabin, a kitchen."

"It kind of struck me that this boat had everything we needed to take us anywhere in the world. And as a child, that opened up everything," MacArthur told CNBC's Tania Bryer , explaining how it felt like the "greatest sense of freedom."

"I knew then that I wanted to sail around the world. As a kid, that was the goal. I had no idea how to get there – growing up in the countryside, it wasn't the most obvious career path – but I knew that was what I wanted to do at some stage."

This episode ignited a passion within MacArthur, who acquired knowledge and saved up for years to pursue a career in sailing.

Speaking on the " CNBC Conversation ," the world-renowned retired sailor recalls how she would save her dinner money every day, so that she could save up to buy the right equipment.

"You make every step in your life one that gets you one step closer to that goal. And that step could be so small," MacArthur said, explaining how she would have mashed potato and baked beans every day for eight years, to save cash.

By reaching certain financial goals and asking technical questions about sailing, this helped MacArthur feel as though she was getting closer to her ambitions.

"I think having a goal, so young, it just gives you focus. And it gives you a direction," she said, adding that there are many parallels between her goal of becoming a sailor, and that of the work she does at her eponymous foundation , which aims to promote a circular economy , whereby economic activity builds and rebuilds the overall health of the system.

"When you know where you're going, you can actually get there — even if it seems impossible. I think that drive from being a kid and wanting to sail around the world, and somehow making that happen — maybe it teaches you that the impossible could be possible and aiming high is not necessarily such a crazy thing to do."

And it seems that MacArthur's drive to become a sailor went beyond her expectations. At the age of 24 , she started to garner media attention after participating in the Vendee Globe, a single-handed non-stop yacht race that goes around the world. She came in second place.

Having a goal, so young, it just gives you focus. And it gives you a direction Ellen MacArthur Founder and Chair of Trustees at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation

Some three to four years later, the sportswoman chose to sail for 71 days and 14 hours, covering more than 26,000 miles during the course of her journey.

This led to MacArthur scoring a new world record in 2005 , as the fastest person to circumnavigate the globe single-handedly. While this record has since been surpassed, MacArthur is still considered as Britain's most successful offshore racer.

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On this day in 2005: Ellen MacArthur smashes round the world sailing record

Macarthur completed her solo voyage in 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes and 33 seconds on february 7, 2005., article bookmarked.

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Yachtswoman Dame Ellen MacArthur smashed the record for the fastest single-handed circumnavigation of the globe 18 years ago.

MacArthur, then 28, completed her 27,354-mile odyssey in 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes and 33 seconds on February 7, 2005.

With an average speed on the water of 15.9 knots, she beat the previous record set by Frenchman Francis Joyon by more than a day.

It was an astounding achievement given that many in sailing had predicted Joyon’s mark, set only in 2004, would last many years. Joyon had taken more than 20 days off the previous record in completing his journey in 72 days, 22 hours, 54 minutes and 22 seconds.

MacArthur, from Cowes on the Isle of Wight, set out on November 28, 2004 in her 75ft trimaran called B&Q/Castorama. She crossed the finish line off Ushant, France , at 10.25pm on February 7.

During an incident-packed voyage she narrowly avoided colliding with a whale, suffered burns to her arm and was battered and bruised after climbing the 90ft mast to carry out repairs.

She also had to battle gales and icebergs in the Southern Ocean , deal with light winds in the Atlantic and cope with a host of other technical problems.

Despite that, she managed to stay ahead of Joyon’s time for the vast majority of her adventure. She also collected another five records on the way, beating Joyon’s time to the Equator, the Cape of Good Hope, Cape Leeuwin in Australia, Cape Horn and back to the Equator.

“I am elated, I am absolutely drained, it has been a very tough trip,” MacArthur said. “When I crossed the line I felt like collapsing on the floor and just falling asleep. I was absolutely over the moon.”

MacArthur, originally from Derbyshire , was given a Damehood soon after her completing her quest.

Her record stood for almost three years before being reclaimed by Joyon. He took another 14 days off the time, finishing in 57 days, 13 hours and 34 minutes.

The record is currently held by another Frenchman, Francois Gabart, who completed the journey in 42 days, 16 hours, 40 minutes and 35 seconds in December 2017.

MacArthur, who still holds the record for the fastest woman to sail solo around the world, retired in 2010 and set up the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, which campaigns for a circular economy to eliminate waste and pollution.

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On this day in 2005: Dame Ellen MacArthur sets new round-world sailing record

Y achtswoman Dame Ellen MacArthur smashed the record for the fastest single-handed circumnavigation of the globe on this day in 2005.

MacArthur, then 28, completed her 27,354-mile odyssey in 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes and 33 seconds.

With an average speed on the water of 15.9 knots, the Briton beat the previous record set by Frenchman Francis Joyon by more than a day.

It was an astounding achievement given that many in sailing had predicted Joyon’s mark, set only in 2004, would last many years. Joyon had taken more than 20 days off the previous record in completing his journey in 72 days, 22 hours, 54 minutes and 22 seconds.

MacArthur, from Cowes on the Isle of Wight, set out on November 28, 2004 in her 75ft trimaran called B&Q/Castorama. She crossed the finish line off Ushant, France , at 10.25pm on February 7.

During an incident-packed voyage she narrowly avoided colliding with a whale, suffered burns to her arm and was battered and bruised after climbing the 90ft mast to carry out repairs.

She also had to battle gales and icebergs in the Southern Ocean , deal with light winds in the Atlantic and cope with a host of other technical problems.

Despite that, she managed to stay ahead of Joyon’s time for the vast majority of her adventure. She also collected another five records on the way, beating Joyon’s time to the Equator, the Cape of Good Hope, Cape Leeuwin in Australia, Cape Horn and back to the Equator.

“I am elated, I am absolutely drained, it has been a very tough trip,” MacArthur said. “When I crossed the line I felt like collapsing on the floor and just falling asleep. I was absolutely over the moon.”

The yachtswoman was congratulated by the Queen and Prime Minister Tony Blair following her achievement.

The Queen said: “Your progress has been followed by many people in Britain and throughout the world, who have been impressed by your courage, skill and stamina.”

She described it as a “remarkable and historic achievement”.

MacArthur, originally from Derbyshire , was given a Damehood soon after completing her quest.

Her record stood for almost three years before being reclaimed by Joyon. He took another 14 days off the time, finishing in 57 days, 13 hours and 34 minutes.

The record is currently held by another Frenchman, Francois Gabart, who completed the journey in 42 days, 16 hours, 40 minutes and 35 seconds in December 2017.

MacArthur, who still holds the record for the fastest woman to sail solo around the world, retired in 2010 and set up the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, which campaigns for a circular economy to eliminate waste and pollution

The Independent is the world’s most free-thinking news brand, providing global news, commentary and analysis for the independently-minded. We have grown a huge, global readership of independently minded individuals, who value our trusted voice and commitment to positive change. Our mission, making change happen, has never been as important as it is today.

Navigating the circular economy: A conversation with Dame Ellen MacArthur

At the age of 28, in early 2005, yachtswoman Ellen MacArthur achieved what was then the fastest single-handed circumnavigation of the globe, sailing more than 26,000 miles in just over 71 days. While learning how to cope with limited supplies of water, food, and fuel, MacArthur quickly discovered just how important her scarce resources were to her survival. After consulting experts in the private and public sector, she retired from professional racing and in September 2010 launched the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, with the goal of “accelerating the transition to a regenerative, circular economy.” In this video interview, she explains why moving toward an economic system that retains and reuses resources makes both environmental and business sense. An edited transcript of her remarks follows.

Interview transcript

When you set off around the world, you take with you everything that you need for your survival. So for three, three and a half months, you’re on a boat with everything that you have. You know that you only have so much food, you only have so much diesel, and you become incredibly connected to those resources that you use.

And as you watch those resources go down, you realize just what “finite” means, because in the Southern Ocean, you’re 2,500 miles away from the nearest town. There is no more, you can’t stop and collect more.

I’d never made that translation to anything other than sailing, but suddenly I realized our global economy is no different. It’s powered on resources which are ultimately finite. And I suddenly realized that there was a much greater challenge out there than sailing around the world, which was, in fact, trying to find a global economy that could function in the long term.

Navigating the circular economy

The best way to illustrate a circular economy is to look at our current linear economy. Our economy today is predominantly driven through taking in material at the ground, making something out of it, and ultimately that material, that product, gets thrown away.

Within a circular economy, from the outset, you design the economy to be regenerative. So you design a car for remanufacture, you design a car for disassembly, for de-componentization. So that the materials that sit within the global economy that currently flow off the end of the conveyer belt can go back in. Which involves everything from different financing of those products and materials to different business models: Do we sell? Do people pay per use for those materials?

If you can understand what a circular economy is, if you set that as the goal, then you know that every decision that you make within your business can take you one stage closer to that point.

That’s very much like sailing, because in sailing it’s not just the speed of the boat. It’s the construction of the boat. It’s whether you’ve got everything in the first-aid kit. It’s the weather the boat is sitting in. It’s the water the boat’s sitting in. What’s happening to the water, what’s happening to the icebergs, what’s happening to the weather? What effect is that having on everything else? You have to look at the big picture, because the moment you focus on the immediate it’s all over.

Circular manufacturing

When commodities become more expensive, as they have been doing over the last ten years, the solution has often been, “Let’s put less material in the product.” But ultimately, you get to a point where you can’t recover that material, because it’s in such small quantities in that product that you can no longer get it back.

Actually, within a circular economy, you may use reverse logic. You may say, “We’ll put more of that material in, and we’ll design it in a way so we know we can get that material back.” Because we will ultimately have a material flow which includes that product coming back to us to be remanufactured or disassembled.

In our current economy, we have different levels of quality of washing machines that we could buy. You would have your lower-end machine, which is designed to do about 2,000 washes, which will cost you about $0.27 a wash. Your high-end machine, which evidently costs more to buy up front—with more research and development, more materials within it—that will cost you $0.12 a wash.

Within a circular economy, what you would allow is for everybody to have access to that higher-end machine, that only costs $0.12 a wash, because the manufacturer designs it so they get that machine back. They look after it. You pay per wash. You don’t buy the machine up front.

So you don’t have to pay tax when you buy it, you don’t have to pay landfill tax when you throw it away, and the manufacturer—through changing the system—guarantees they can get that machine back so they can upgrade it, they can repair it. They can put it back into their system to recover the raw materials for the machines of the future. You change the entire economic system. The manufacturer makes a third more profit, and the user pays significantly less for a better product.

Making it happen

Obviously, our goal at the foundation is to accelerate the transition towards a circular economy. So we’ve put short-term goals within that, such as building a program for 100 companies, including regions and emerging innovators, to start to unlock the opportunity of the circular economy through collaboration, through working together, through looking at legislation.

I think there’s a massive opportunity for emerging markets in this space. And to think that you have the opportunity to lock into a circular model rather than a linear model, that’s a huge economic opportunity. To think that the users of those products can have a better product for less money; that product can ultimately return, creating employment in the remanufacturing or the de-componentization of the product. And then ultimately the manufacturer makes more money because they know they get that component back. That, for an emerging market, is incredible. It allows them to leapfrog our system and gain even more advantage.

Dame Ellen MacArthur is a yachtswoman and founder of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. She is also founder of the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust, and received a knighthood in 2005.

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Record Breaking Yachtswoman

Dame Ellen MacArthur is a Record-Breaking Yachtswoman.

Dame Ellen’s fascination with sailing started at just 4 when she began sailing with her aunt.

While at school, Ellen started saving her dinner money to hopefully one day buy a boat. At 13, she purchased her first boat/dinghy, ‘ Threepenny Bit ‘.

At the exceptionally young age of 18, Ellen achieved her RYA Yachtmaster and Instructor’s Ticket.

Ellen’s record-breaking career soon followed when she single-handedly sailed around Britain in her ‘ Iduna’ boat. This achievement earned her the BT/JYA Young Sailor of the Year title.

Despite such promise, Ellen found it hard to attract sponsorship to take her career to the next stage. Out of 2,500 letters to potential sponsors, she received just two replies.

Eventually, Ellen raised enough money to buy a used 21ft Classe Mini.

She refitted the boat and raced it solo across the Atlantic in the 1997 Mini Transat Race , completing the 2,700-mile journey in 33 days.

This achievement brought sponsorship from the retail group Kingfisher. This funded her move to an Open 50 yacht, which she entered in the gruelling 1998 Route Du Rhum Race .

Ellen’s strong effort saw her finish first in her class and fifth overall. This led to her being named BT/JYA Yachtsman of the Year in the UK and Sailing’s Young Hope in France.

As a result, Kingfisher backed Ellen to the tune of £2 million to enter the 2000/01 Vendee Globe with a brand new Open 60 boat named ‘ Kingfisher ‘.

Those who had predicted that the 5ft slip of a girl would struggle against muscular male opponents were silenced as Ellen finished the challenge ahead of all of her male counterparts, bar one – making Ellen the fastest female and youngest sailor to race around the world solo, nonstop .

Dame Ellen MacArthur – Sailing Legend

Her achievements as a record-breaking yachtswoman led to being nominated in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2001.

In November 2002, she tackled the gruelling Route du Rhum again, finishing first and breaking several records. She was the first woman to sail to victory in the race and captained the first monohull to cross the line, smashing the course record.

In 2003, she captained a round-the-world record attempt for a crewed yacht in ‘ Kingfisher 2 ‘. Unfortunately, she had a setback by a broken mast in the Southern Ocean, 2000 miles from the coast of Australia.

In January 2004, her new yacht, ‘ B&Q/Castorama ‘ was unveiled. Nigel Irens and Benoit Cabaret designed this superyacht to help Ellen break solo records. The 75-foot trimaran was built in Australia, with many of the components specifically arranged to consider MacArthur’s 5’2” height.

In June 2004, Ellen sailed the ‘B&Q/Castorama’ from New York Bay to Lizard Point, Cornwall, in 7 days, 3 hours, 49 minutes, 57 seconds.

This set a new world record for a transatlantic crossing by women. Remarkably, Ellen beat the previous crewed record and the single-handed version.

Sailing Non-Stop Around The World

On 28th November 2004, Ellen began her attempt to break the solo record for sailing non-stop around the world.

During her circumnavigation, she set records for the fastest solo voyage to the equator, past the Cape of Good Hope, past Cape Horn, and back to the equator again. She crossed the finishing line near the French coast at Ushant at 22:29 UTC on February 7th, 2005, beating the previous record set by French sailor Francis Joyon by 1 day, 8 hours, 35 minutes, and 49 seconds.

On her return to England on February 8th, 2005, it was announced that she was to be made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of her achievement, becoming, it is believed, the youngest-ever recipient of this honour.

Dame Ellen MacArthur Motivational Speaker

Known for her steely ambition, professionalism and unfaltering determination to succeed, Ellen’s story is not just about sailing but one of human endeavour. Her innovative thinking, goals, and success in overcoming countless challenges inspire audiences to make their innermost dreams come true!

Delivered as a fireside chat, Dame Ellen MacArthur inspires, motivates, breaks down barriers and encourages the audience to achieve their goals with her stories of living the dream, overcoming incredible difficulties, digging deep into her emotional reserves, and finally achieving the impossible.

Ellen MacArthur Foundation Circular Economy

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation was established in 2010 to accelerate the transition to the circular economy.

Since its creation, the charity has emerged as a global thought leader. As a result, they have established the circular economy on the agenda of decision-makers across business, government, and academia.

For more info on Ellen MacArthur (Dame), email us or speak with an agent on 01275 463222

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Outstanding Achievement Award Ellen MacArthur, yachtswoman, who at 28 years of age, sailed single handed round-the-world.

Record yachtswoman ready to sail again

LES SABLES D'OLONNE, France -- Solo sailor Ellen MacArthur is planning her next adventure less than 24 hours after becoming the fastest woman to sail round the world single-handed.

The 24-year-old British yachtswoman crossed the finishing line to a hero's welcome in the Vendee Globe round-the-world yacht race.

After just three hours' sleep, she awoke to the clamour of the world's press and announced she would compete in the Atlantic challenge race in July.

She will again be using her yacht Kingfisher -- but this time with a crew, she said as she recovered from her exertions in what is arguably the toughest of all round the world races.

Competitors in the Atlantic Challenge have to sail from Europe to the United States and take part in several legs off the American continent before returning to Europe.

MacArthur, who is just 5ft 2ins (1.52 metres) tall, finished second in the Vendee Globe, but in doing so set major milestones in sailing.

As well as becoming the fastest woman to sail around the globe, she became the youngest-ever finisher in the Vendee race, and only the second person to sail round the world solo in less than 100 days.

Flares lit up the sky and horns sounded as Ellen, completed what is arguably the toughest round-the-world yacht race.

She described her reception at the French port of Les Sables d'Olonne as "mind blowing."

And she said it was the hundreds of e-mails she received daily on her voyage, some from Buckingham Palace, that kept her going during the toughest moments of her journey.

"In those low moments it is the e-mails from people living the race with me that really gave me encouragement," she said.

She said was looking forward to going back to her parents home in the landlocked English county of Derbyshire in the next few days, but said she wanted to stay in France to perhaps see some more of the Vendee competitors finish the race.

Of the original 23 competitors that set out on November, 15 are still out at sea. Frenchman Michel Desjoyeaux finished first, arriving one day before her.

MacArthur broke down on a couple of occasions as she told how her trip had been for many people.

She became particularly emotional when talking about a French charity with which she is involved which that takes children with leukaemia out sailing.

"You're not doing it for you, you are doing it for them -- to see the smiles on their faces is amazing," she said.

She said could face another Vendee Globe race, despite the dramas and dangers of the past three months.

On her journey she has had to face the icy Southern Ocean, treacherous Cape Horn and the expanse of the Atlantic, taking her sleep in 15 minute bursts.

Several times she has had to climb her yacht's 30-metre (90ft) high mast in storm-tossed seas to carry out essential repairs.

"If the race was to start again tomorrow I would not hesitate going out there again," she added.

MacArthur spoke with great affection of her New Zealand built 60-foot yacht, Kingfisher. "In the last 12 months I have spent six months at sea with Kingfisher, mostly alone," she said.

"I feel she is a person and has a personality and she has her good bits and bad bits, like every single person.

"I have done everything to look after her and it seems she has done a pretty good job of looking after me too."

She said she had received an e-mail from someone which summed up what it was like to survive and complete one of the world's toughest races.

It read: "Courage is not having the energy to go on, it's going on when you do not have the energy." Ellen added: "And that's true."

Yachtswoman sails to solo record February 12, 2001 Frenchman sails to victory February 11, 2001 Sailor Ellen MacArthur making waves February 9, 2001 Key dates in MacArthur's race February 9, 2001 Quotes from Ellen MacArthur February 9, 2001

Ellen MacArthur's Web site Kingfisher Challenge 2000 Atlantic Challenge Cup Note: Pages will open in a new browser window External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.

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Ellen MacArthur to set sail again

Record-breaking single-handed yachtswoman Ellen MacArthur today announced her plans to take part in another race later this year - less than 24 hours after reaching dry land at the end of the Vendée Globe round-the-world race.

The 24-year-old British yachtswoman, who crossed the finishing line for the Globe race last night, said she would compete in the Atlantic challenge race in July. She will use her yacht Kingfisher - but this time with a crew, she told a news conference in Les Sables d'Olonne, France.

Competitors in the race have to sail from Europe to the United States and take part in several legs off the American continent before returning to Europe.

Ms MacArthur looked less exhausted than when she finished second in the Vendée Globe, setting records as the fastest woman and youngest person to circumnavigate the Earth in a single-handed race.

She said she could face another Vendée Globe race, despite the dramas and dangers of the past three months, and spoke with great affection of her New Zealand built 60-foot yacht, Kingfisher. "In the past 12 months I have spent six months at sea with Kingfisher, mostly alone," she said. She wept as she paid tribute to Mark Turner, her business partner and project manager, saying: "There is no doubt about it - I could not be sitting here without him."

Ms MacArthur, who is from Derbyshire, added: "I do not see myself as being famous, but it's an immense pleasure to see hundreds and thousands of people to come from all over Europe to see me come home."

She said she had received an email from someone that summed up what it was like to survive and complete one of the world's toughest races, adding: "Courage is not having the energy to go on; it's going on when you do not have the energy. That's true."

Pictures Ellen's journey in pictures Map of Ellen's route

Related articles 12.02.2001: Sexism left all at sea 12.02.2001: Hero's welcome as history is made 12.02.2001: Weather eye makes Ellen simply the best Read her diary from the Observer 11.02.2001: She won everything, except the race 10.02.2001: Sailing on a sea of adulation

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‘Making it’ usually means leaving Ohio. Hanif Abdurraqib is staying.

His literary reputation has grown. at home in columbus, life has gotten smaller — and stranger..

COLUMBUS, Ohio — “You will surely forgive me if I begin this brief time we have together talking about our enemies,” reads the opening of Hanif Abdurraqib’s latest book. “ There’s Always This Year ” is part sports memoir, part love letter to the city that raised him, and he thought the line might be off-putting. But it’s a sentence that tugs on your hand; it draws you into the inner circle. After all, the passage goes on, “to talk about our enemies is to talk about our beloveds.”

But more on that later. On this night, in early March, the enemy was the Chicago Fire Football Club. For Abdurraqib, for everyone gathered in the section known as the Nordecke, the enemy stood on the field — their backs to the stands packed with fans in yellow and black and, for some reason, the odd Star Wars costume.

Abdurraqib has loved few things as long as he has loved his city’s Major League Soccer team. He was about 12 when the Crew arrived in Columbus, and he was instantly drawn to such players as Jeff Cunningham and Dante Washington. “ I didn’t know Black people played soccer like this ,” he remembered thinking back then. “They became my guys.” His mother died in 1997, in the middle of their second season, and the team became a full-blown obsession — something to pour his mind into. As a teen, unable to afford tickets, he and his friends snuck into the stadium. In his 20s, he worked selling concessions. “I was a bad hot dog vendor, but almost anyone could do it,” he said. “Occasionally you get some extra cash, and, more importantly, you get to take hot dogs home. And I could be in the arena.

Abdurraqib, an award-winning poet and essayist, is now a season-ticket holder. In February, along with the founder of Jeni’s Ice Cream, he was asked to model the Crew’s new home jersey. But for the next long while, he won’t get to attend any games. He will be on the road for the new book, out March 26.

“There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension” is deeply rooted in Ohio, and explores the intense sense of affinity and mutual betrayal that can exist between a person and their hometown. The narrative is structured like a basketball game: divided into quarters, numbered headings counting down from 12 minutes, with “timeouts” where the flow of prose is punctuated by verse. The book is partly about LeBron James and his 2010 split from the Cleveland Cavaliers — but it’s also about the star player from Abdurraqib’s old neighborhood, Kenny Gregory, who never did make it to the NBA. Centrally, it’s about who makes it and why, and what “making it” even means. Where Abdurraqib is from, people assume “making it” means leaving.

“As someone who has never really wanted to leave, it began to create this question for me of: Am I grappling with some kind of disordered affection?” Abdurraqib said. “Everyone I love at some point has been like, ‘I want to get out of here.’ And I’m like, ‘This is the here. This is the only here that I want. Flaws and all.’”

Things didn’t look promising at the break, with a score of 0-0. We all started to feel the cold. Per Abdurraqib, the Crew generally play strongest in the first half and allow heartbreaking goals to slip through in the second. (An unspoken factor: He had violated at least two of his superstitious rituals while participating in this interview — fasting just before a game and throwing his arm around the neighboring person for the traditional singalong of “Can’t Help Falling in Love.”) He went in search of gloves, maybe a pretzel, and wanted to say hi to some old friends. As he headed downstairs, a mom nudged the two boys in her care, whispering: That’s Hanif Abdurraqib.

“Success” — Abdurraqib put the word in quotes — has been useful in at least this one way: “It tricks people into thinking you can do anything you like.” When he pitched “There’s Always This Year,” his second book with Penguin Random House, there was more trust — an air of, if you say you can do this, we believe you — even as its scope morphed and its structure flipped. Ben Greenberg, who edited the book with Maya Millett, said via email that he’d learned not to get too attached to a project’s original pitch with Abdurraqib. Initially, the book was supposed to center more firmly on LeBron — but this time, Greenberg wrote, “I knew what to expect (as in, don’t expect what I might expect), and gave myself over far more readily to his vision.”

Something definitely changed in the last few years. Abdurraqib has a hard time identifying it. Certainly his national reputation has grown: In 2021, he won the MacArthur “genius” grant , and his book on the history of Black performance, “ A Little Devil in America ,” was named a finalist for the National Book Award. Correspondingly, his world in Columbus shrank — or at least became more crowded, more thickly populated by strangers who recognize him by sight.

“I guess I don't really think about how the city thinks of me,” Abdurraqib said, during our earlier, unlucky bite to eat at a nearby food hall.

“You don’t?” I asked. Fifteen minutes ago, a teacher at his old high school had stopped by to apologize for missing his reading and to chat about student tickets for Abdurraqib’s next event.

“It’s best that I don’t,” he amended. “I love it here — and it’s a little bit strange here for me sometimes. It’s a bit stranger than it was in, say, 2020 or 2019. There’s a level of pride in that, and I’m grateful for that. But there’s also a —” He winced. “Did I tell you about the mural?”

He didn’t need to tell me about the mural — the one of his face, painted highlighter-bright above a quote from his 2017 essay collection. I’d seen photos of it on the internet. More subtly, the nearby King Arts Complex — where Abdurraqib had gone to summer camp and had his first kiss — put his name on a brick on its walkway.

Abdurraqib feels gratitude for the affection the city has for him. It can be hard to wrap his head around, though. For a stretch in his 20s, evicted from his first apartment, he lived out of a storage unit and spent some nights in jail. It’s a period he discusses at some length in the new book: “I have seen the city I love from the sky just as I have seen the city I love from the cracks in between metal bars,” he writes. “Cherish the homecoming, because you know what lasts forever and what does not.”

“When you’re unhoused, you’re either invisible or a nuisance. So this level of visibility is strange,” he said. “But — these are my folks. So yeah, I don’t mind people coming up to me when I’m shopping and want to talk about albums. I’m in community with these people. I don’t need much more than that.”

Four years ago, he bought a home in the historically Black neighborhood of Bronzeville, where he lives with his graying dog, Wendy, and is the youngest person — and only single, childless adult — on his block. He never thought much about what a happy adulthood might look like; he never thought he would live past 25. “I really still — honestly — live in these 24-hour bursts. If I’m lucky. If I’m unlucky, if I’m struggling, then it’s like the time is condensed. Can I get through 12 hours? Can I get through eight hours? That’s always been my brain. I think it’s a bit healthier now.”

At times he’s startled to find himself in the position of village elder, shouting at kids to steer their bikes clear of traffic. “I was a kid on the streets,” he said. “I remember how people talked to me, and treated me — like I was worth survival.”

Turning 40 has made him think a lot about loneliness, and how to tend to it carefully, he said: “I want more than anything to not have any of my relationship with loneliness or isolation become anyone else’s problem. I don’t want to become harsh.” He makes sure to go out every two weeks, to buy flowers and a chai, chatting with vendors at the market. He busies himself with writing, teaching, editing and various other projects, not all of them literary — like tinkering with a broken 1938 jukebox he bought years ago.

He doesn’t know how to repair jukeboxes, he said, but “it gives me a reason to say, ‘I am alone, but I am also present with the spirit of this project. I am working to bring something back to life that has been loved by many hands before mine. Therefore, I’m not really alone at all.’”

Another thing about turning 40? “I have aged beyond a desire for suffering,” Abdurraqib said. On his long Sunday runs, he can go for 12, 14 miles, or quit after three if his body tells him he needs to sit down. Playing sports drilled into him the belief that pain was rigor, that anguish unlocked achievement. He brought that to his writing, particularly his 2017 essay collection , “ They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us ,” and his 2019 poetry book, “ A Fortune for Your Disaster .”

He once thought that leaning into suffering, depressing its accelerator, would yield a romantic result. Now he wonders, “What if I don’t have to? What if my best work is awaiting me through ease, and some level of pleasure?”

At minute 60, still nothing, but the Crew were finally on the attack. “I don’t think he can catch,” Abdurraqib said, studying the enemy goalie with quiet relish. “A goal would be … very pleasurable.” His guys delivered about eight minutes later, and again in overtime — sweet revenge for the lone Chicago goal, awarded upon video review. The game ended 2-1, with another rousing rendition of the song: “ Wise men say … ”

It was galvanizing, a gift, this last home game before the new book landed. Abdurraqib tours books like a musician would tour an album. He calls the stops “shows” rather than “readings” — a mark of coming up through Columbus’s open mic scene, and of how seriously he takes the performance of his writing.

“Some of this is my own anxiety,” he said. “I don’t trust that what I’ve done is good enough to live in the world on its own without my animation of it being a part of its legacy.” Really, he added, “it’s hard for me to trust this book — but I think I’m getting there.”

So he’s getting ready, grounding himself in routine. With the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, he has to get his disciplines in place, he said: waking up early, getting in a run, then having a big meal and going back to sleep, before waking again at 6 in the morning. He’s going to an extra session of therapy each week. He’s watching a lot of old episodes of “Living Single.” He’ll hang out with his Columbus pals, who “know so many different versions of me that aren’t this version.” The comforts of this, he said, made it possible to live with the rest.

But there are parts of the experience he can’t really prepare for: the acute loneliness, more jagged than the loneliness he has learned to shape at home; the crash that comes from reading in front of hundreds of people and then going back alone to the hotel. He plans, each night, to phone one of his buddies on the West Coast, asking them about their day, telling bedtime stories to their kids.

When the first New York show sold out — as did the second one they added afterward, along with several other stops on the tour — Abudrraqib texted a friend: I think this one’s going to be different. “I don’t know what it is. I would like to figure it out. I mean, yeah, the audience has grown due to ‘Little Devil in America’s’ success. But it’s not just that,” he said. “All of this is wonderful. But I don’t have a good — I don’t have a good understanding of my own self. In some ways, I do — I’m emotionally aware. But I don’t know how the world sees me. It’s probably better that way.”

This idea — of the gap between the self that his readers expect and the self he knows himself to be — came up again after Abdurraqib said his goodbyes, and we drifted out of the stadium and toward his car. People expect him to be serious, he said, but “I’m not a very serious writer. I’m not a very serious person .” Writing wasn’t even in his top three interests, by his reckoning. He loved music, sports, vast collections of things: sneakers, records, vintage concert tees. Other writers get to work no matter what; he needed to feel fulfilled in the other corners of his life to work well.

“Like tonight, I could go home and write, I feel so richly fulfilled,” he said, sitting for a minute, savoring. “By getting to witness this team I love, beating a team I really hate.” Abdurraqib put the car in reverse. “And in that fashion.”

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Watch CBS News

Fleeing wrong-way driver smashes into vehicles in Oakland's MacArthur Maze; 1 dead, 3 injured

By Carlos Castaneda

Updated on: March 19, 2024 / 5:34 PM PDT / CBS San Francisco

A wrong-way driver fleeing from a robbery at a tobacco shop in El Cerrito crashed into two other vehicles on Interstate Highway 580 in the MacArthur Maze in Oakland Tuesday morning, leaving one person dead and three others with major injuries.

According to El Cerrito police, the incident began around 4:20 a.m. when officers responded to a burglary at the Tobacco Outlet on San Pablo Avenue. Officers said the driver of a pickup rammed the vehicle into the front of a business before fleeing.

An officer responding to the call spotted the pickup and attempted to pull over the vehicle, but the driver did not stop.

The officer chased the suspects onto westbound Interstate Highway 80, following them to the Bay Bridge toll plaza. After westbound I-80 merged with westbound I-580, police said the suspect abruptly changed direction and began to drive the wrong way.

Police said the officer did not follow the suspects, ended the pursuit and exited the freeway.

The California Highway Patrol said the wrong-way vehicle was going eastbound in the westbound lanes and hit two other vehicles headed west. The wrong-way vehicle had two people inside who sustained major injuries, while the solo driver of a white van also suffered major injuries in the wreck.

The solo driver of a BMW was killed in the crash, the CHP said.

In an update Tuesday afternoon, El Cerrito Police identified the driver of the wrong-way vehicle as 34-year-old Patrick Sheckells of Oakland and the passenger as 56-year-old Andre Alberty of San Francisco. Police said they are working with the California Highway Patrol to pursue charges.  

Following the crash, all three westbound lanes where I-580 merges into I-80 on the approach to the Bay Bridge were blocked. The right lane was reopened shortly after 6 a.m.

The crash backed up morning commute traffic heading toward the Bay Bridge on Highway 580/80 and on westbound State Route 24.

Lanes were fully reopened by 8 a.m.

Later, the owner of the smoke shop told CBS News Bay Area he woke up to a cell phone notification about the break-in.

"I woke up and looked at my cameras, saw that there was a pick-up truck backed into the store. Guys were rummaging around," said the owner, who gave his name as Omar. "The whole front [of the store] was pushed in. Extensive damage. Almost looked like a total loss. This could be about $50,000 in damage. I don't know if I can afford to fix that."

Shocking video shows the moment two suspects backed a white truck into the front of the Tobacco Outlet in El Cerrito—destroying the façade before taking thousands of dollars worth of merchandise. 

The suspects then spent about three minutes filling up their bags. The owner of the shop was furious about the disregard such thieves have towards others.

"They act like they're on a game show, just grabbing what they could and running out. It was just fun and games for them," said Omar. "They don't care about small businesses. They don't care about people trying to make a living. For them this is just fun. Our business isn't covered by insurance. Our insurance company dropped us because of instances like this. So it's coming out of our pockets."

Omar said while the loss to his business is bad, it's nothing compared to the innocent life lost in the freeway collision. 

"This gentleman was on his way to work and just out of nowhere, that was it. It ended for him. He thought he was going to have a good day, go home, see the family, but these scumbags decided that's not going to happen today," Omar said. "No amount of money is worth taking someone's life."

Omar said this wasn't the first time the location has been targeted. He said his shop has been burglarized six times.

• Highway 580
• Fatal Crash

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