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He grew up on the south side of Santa Monica, surfing a mediocre break and guarding it like home turf. He pledged a Black fraternity, played piano on a national TV talent show, and was told by the producers that he was exactly what the show was looking for. Then he walked away from all of it. In Episode 55 of Three for the Founders, the second of our three biographical episodes, Antonio and Lybroan turn the mic on their brother Jon William Augustine. What does a white kid raised on jazz records and Thelonious Monk album covers owe the culture that shaped him? Is it confidence or curiosity that puts you on a step-show stage in front of five thousand people who are all asking "who's the white guy"? Why would a 19-year-old with Elton John's agent's business card in his pocket stop returning calls and give twenty years to a church that asked for everything? And once you leave the system that told you who to be, how do you find out who you actually are? This one has surf lessons, Star Search receipts, Crazy Church, and a question about ikigai that lands somewhere none of us expected. Where Brotherhood meets the breakdown, and this time the breakdown is Jon's.

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