--- title: Ben Carson: Watch A Video of Him Retelling His Life Story description: Watch a video of Ben Carson telling his life story everywhere from the National Prayer Breakfast to the presidential debates. canonical: https://time.com/4089641/ben-carson-life-story/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-28T02:48:31.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-05T08:39:39.080Z article:section: Politics og:title: Watch Ben Carson Retell His Life Story og:description: Everywhere from the National Prayer Breakfast to the presidential debates. og:url: https://time.com/4089641/ben-carson-life-story/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbcf7aac3b662416c/69886e69bc6cfc5b893da1b6/gettyimages-488685828.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1920 og:image:height: 1080 og:image:alt: Ben Carson og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Watch Ben Carson Retell His Life Story twitter:description: Everywhere from the National Prayer Breakfast to the presidential debates. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbcf7aac3b662416c/69886e69bc6cfc5b893da1b6/gettyimages-488685828.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Watch Ben Carson Retell His Life Story > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=446e1de7-cfee-49f8-a922-142f06c944ee&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Watch Ben Carson Retell His Life Story [Watch (HLS stream): Watch Ben Carson Retell His Life Story](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/3PLzGzLI.m3u8) (1:39)  _Published 2015-10-27. GOP Presidential Candidate Ben Carson retells his life story_ by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Oct 28, 2015 2:48 AM UTC GOP Presidential Candidate Ben Carson retells his life story by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Oct 28, 2015 2:48 AM UTC Ben Carson’s rise from poverty to becoming one of the country’s top doctors is an American success story. His personal narrative has spread since [the 1992 release of his autobiography _Gifted Hands_,](http://time.com/4056213/ben-carson-gifted-hands/) which details his time growing up in Detroit to the 1987 separation of twins conjoined at the back of the head. It’s now a major part of his stump speech as he runs for the Republican presidential nomination. TIME put together this video of Carson telling his life story everywhere from interviews to the National Prayer Breakfast to the presidential debates. ## Transcript [00:00] I was born and grew up very poor. Single [00:05] parent home. But my mother was out working [00:07] extraordinarily hard. Three jobs at a time. And she [00:11] only had a third grade education. She had to take care [00:13] of us. [ UNKNOWN ] poverty. I was a terrible student. A [00:17] horrible student. Had a bad temper. As a teenager, I [00:21] would go out to people with rocks and bricks and [00:24] Baseball bats and hammers. Most of my classmates [00:26] thought I was the stupidest person in the world. They [00:28] called me dummy. I was the **** of all the jokes. When [00:31] I was 14 and I tried to stab someone. My mother [00:35] couldn't stand the fact that we were doing poorly in [00:37] school. And she prayed and she asked God to give her [00:39] wisdom. And you know what? God gave her the [00:41] wisdom. Turning off the TV and making us read books [00:44] and submit to her written book reports, which she [00:46] couldn't read. I began to read about people of great [00:50] accomplishment. I began to see that the person who [00:53] has the most to do with what happens with you in life is [00:54] you. Is you. You know, I loved anything that [00:58] had to do with medicine. I even like going to the [01:01] doctor's office. [ LAUGH ] And I would gladly sacrifice a [01:05] shot just to be able to smell those alcohol swabs. And [01:08] as a pediatric neurosurgeon who spent my entire [01:11] career Working on the welfare of children. There [01:16] had been many times when I've operated for 12, 15, [01:19] 18, 20 hours. I'm the only one that separate [01:23] Siamese twins. The only one to operate on babies [01:25] while they were still in their mother's womb. The only [01:28] one to take out half of a brain, although you would [01:30] think, if you go to Washington, that someone had beat [01:32] me to it. 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