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Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

S.O.S. (Stories of Service) - Ordinary people who do extraordinary work

Theresa Carpenter

This channel confronts power, exposes institutional failure, and gives a platform to people willing to tell the truth when silence is easier and safer. We cover the stories the military, media, and influencers would rather bury, because reform does not happen without friction.

education self-improvement

All Episodes

121:22

VA Malpractice and Finding A Voice | Brian Tally -...

S.O.S. (Stories of Service) - Ordinary people who do... ·

2026/01/30

Send us a text A routine VA visit turned into a life-or-death spiral—and a blueprint for change. Marine Corps Sergeant Brian Talley woke up in 2016 with sudden, ferocious back pain. The VA labeled it a “low back sprain,” refused bloodwork and imaging, and sent him home with escalating opioids. Months later, an outside MRI led to surgery that uncovered the real culprit: a bone-eating staph infection tearing through his spine and organs. He survived, but the damage was permanent. Then came the ...

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96:46

The Day Due Process Died in the Military with...

S.O.S. (Stories of Service) - Ordinary people who do... ·

2026/01/29

Send us a text A decorated Air Force logistics officer. A collapsing marriage. A system that prized appearances over proof. We sit down with Major Clarence Anderson to trace his path from special operations success to a 42‑month sentence—despite no civilian charges and a later-recorded admission of a $100,000 payment tied to perjury and motive. This isn’t a salacious true-crime detour; it’s a clear look at how political pressure, unlawful command influence, and lopsided resources can bend mil...

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57:29

Military Stories You Are Not Told | Jennifer Barnhill...

S.O.S. (Stories of Service) - Ordinary people who do... ·

2026/01/23

Send us a text Who decides which military stories get told—and which ones never make it past the draft? We sit down with journalist and Navy spouse Jennifer Barnhill to uncover how narratives about service, sacrifice, and family support are shaped, sanitized, and sometimes silenced. Her new book challenges the usual focus on weapons and missions by centering the lived reality of military families: underemployment, licensure barriers, food insecurity, and the hidden costs of constant moves. J...

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87:04

Betrayal of Command | Asad Khan - S.O.S. #252

S.O.S. (Stories of Service) - Ordinary people who do... ·

2026/01/21

Send us a text A Marine officer who helped open Pakistan’s gateway to Afghanistan, coordinated CSAR basing, and carried the keys to a shuttered Kabul embassy steps into the studio to talk about combat, command, and the price of telling the truth. We walk through the early days after 9/11—commercial flights into Rawalpindi with a rucksack full of radios, late-night negotiations for overflight and basing, and the scramble to build humane, lawful processes as refugees surged and detainee operati...

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62:18

Guns and Mental Heath | Walk the Talk America -...

S.O.S. (Stories of Service) - Ordinary people who do... ·

2026/01/16

Send us a text The national fight about guns gets loud, tribal, and stuck—and meanwhile, the leading cause of firearm death in America happens quietly every day. We sit down with industry veteran and Walk The Talk America founder Michael Sodini to explore a different path: building trust between gun owners and clinicians, reducing stigma, and putting practical tools in people’s hands before crisis hits. No litmus tests. No lectures. Just programs that meet communities where they are. Michael...

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67:09

DEI Controversy Meets Pentagon Whistleblowing Rick...

S.O.S. (Stories of Service) - Ordinary people who do... ·

2026/01/15

Send us a text A simple question opens a complicated story: what happens when you say no to a powerful directive that feels wrong? Rick joins us with 43 years of experience spanning infantry, war-zone logistics, and Pentagon program oversight to recount how refusing an alleged extortion scheme set off a cascade of retaliation, reassignment, and legal battles. The stakes are not just personal—this is about how procurement ethics, whistleblower protection, and culture shape national security an...

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75:01

The Military Failed my Son | Heather Baker - S.O.S. #249

S.O.S. (Stories of Service) - Ordinary people who do... ·

2026/01/09

Send us a text A young paratrooper with a near-perfect PT score, big plans and a bigger heart grew dangerously ill at Fort Bragg. He was sent back to the barracks, where missed formations, unanswered calls and a holiday weekend combined into six silent days. By the time anyone knocked, it was too late. His mother, Heather Baker, walks us through the painful timeline—ER turnaways, worsening vitals, redacted pages, and a claims process twisted by contractor loopholes—and the moment the Army Sec...

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65:42

He Advised the Pentagon and They ignored him with...

S.O.S. (Stories of Service) - Ordinary people who do... ·

2025/12/31

Send us a text What if the way we select and promote military leaders is wired to produce the very failures we say we want to avoid? That’s the challenge we take on with Don Vandergriff, a retired Marine and Army officer, defense analyst, and one of the most persistent voices for personnel reform in the U.S. military. Don pulls back the curtain on a system shaped by industrial-age thinking—zero-defects culture, inflated evaluations, and top-heavy headquarters—that rewards process and optics o...

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85:59

The Cost of False Allegations with Marine Col. (ret)...

S.O.S. (Stories of Service) - Ordinary people who do... ·

2025/12/24

Send us a text The story opens at a dinner party and ends with a near-unheard-of legal result: dismissal with prejudice. In between is retired Colonel Dan Wilson’s toughest battle—how a decorated Marine became the target of a false allegation, why the case grew despite exculpatory DNA, and what happens when command climate, politics, and process collide. We trace Dan’s life from childhood in Africa through four decades of Marine command, the accusation, and months under a gag orde...

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55:34

Are Disability Benefits Backfiring with Army Lt. Col...

S.O.S. (Stories of Service) - Ordinary people who do... ·

2025/12/24

Send us a text A hard conversation worth having: we sit down with retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Gade to examine how the VA disability system, built with noble intent, can trap veterans in dependency and distort how America sees its warriors. Drawing on his combat wounds, hospital experience, academic work, and policy roles, Daniel makes a clear distinction between having a condition and becoming that condition—and shows how incentives, ratings, and advocacy ecosystems can push vetera...

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62:40

The Military History USMA Never Taught… and Tried to...

S.O.S. (Stories of Service) - Ordinary people who do... ·

2025/12/15

Send us a text A forgotten reformer changed how we think about military education, then got written out of the story. We dig into Alden Partridge’s bold vision for the citizen-soldier, why his mastery-based model threatened entrenched interests, and how his practical ideas—shorter paths for proven mastery, rigorous field training, and decentralized leadership—can still fix what’s broken in today’s force. Franklin Annis walks us through Partridge’s rise at West Point during the War of 1812, t...

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45:15

Killing Busywork and Reclaiming Your Brainpower |...

S.O.S. (Stories of Service) - Ordinary people who do... ·

2025/12/12

Send us a text Imagine trading a wall of meetings for a calendar with white stripes where thinking, planning, and decisive action actually happen. That’s the shift we explore with Juliet Funt—keynote speaker, author, and founder of the Juliet Funt Group—whose work helps teams cut busy work and create the bandwidth to do their best thinking. We dig into why white space isn’t idleness; it’s a performance tool. Juliet shows how modern work confuses motion with progress, burying judgment under e...

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38:29

From Kicked Out to Cleared of 19 Federal Charges with...

S.O.S. (Stories of Service) - Ordinary people who do... ·

2025/12/11

Send us a text What does it really cost to lead with integrity when the system leans the other way? We sit down with Forrest, a former naval flight officer and mission commander, whose career bends from high school dropout to strike planner for Kosovo—and later into the crosshairs after he refused to hide a serious security breach on a remote island base. The stories move fast: carrier decks and air tasking orders, isolated duty stations that no one wanted, and the everyday creativity require...

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67:26

Inside the Army’s SHARP Meltdown with Jeff Gorres |...

S.O.S. (Stories of Service) - Ordinary people who do... ·

2025/12/11

Send us a text Power reveals character, and nowhere is that more visible than inside military sexual assault response. We sit down with Jeff Goris—career aviator, senior SHARP advocate at Fort Hood, and later a Department of the Army civilian—to unpack how a program meant to protect survivors gets kneecapped by backlogs, weak command emphasis, and investigations run by the very people with skin in the game. From the McQueen scandal to the wake-up after Vanessa Guillén, Jeff traces the specifi...

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23:23

62 Miles of Grit: Honoring a Navy SEAL Through the...

S.O.S. (Stories of Service) - Ordinary people who do... ·

2025/12/09

Send us a text A 62-mile race that lets you sleep at night and still pushes you to your edge? We’re bringing a new kind of endurance event to the Colorado backcountry to honor Navy SEAL Ryan Larkin and fund life-changing sleep recovery through 62 Romeo. Over three days from Montrose to Telluride, ten fire teams face rugged terrain, military-style navigation, and surprise challenges that reward strategy and teamwork—not just speed. Rob Sweetman, a former SEAL and founder of 62 Romeo, shares h...

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67:25

Are Veterans Getting too much Disability with Clay...

S.O.S. (Stories of Service) - Ordinary people who do... ·

2025/12/05

Send us a text Headlines say the VA system is broken and rife with abuse. Our conversation with Marine veteran Clayton Sims tells a different story—one grounded in lived experience, policy fluency, and a community-first approach to getting claims right without fear or costly consultants. Clayton shares how a rough transition and a hurried VSO visit pushed him to learn the language of 38 CFR and the evidence behind service connection. We unpack the realities of infantry life—miles in boots un...

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132:56

Flordia Tech, DEI and Rick Addante’s Fight | S.O.S. #239

S.O.S. (Stories of Service) - Ordinary people who do... ·

2025/12/01

Send us a text A university president tells faculty to “keep doing what you’re doing” on DEI and critical race theory—just don’t get caught. That’s the moment Dr. Rick Adante, a cognitive neuroscientist and NASA analog mission lead, decided to blow the whistle. What follows is a rare, unvarnished look at how policy theatre and word swaps can allegedly shield millions in federal and state funds while undermining the very laws and standards meant to protect students, researchers, and the public...

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122:25

The Cost of Integrity: COL (ret) Tony Bianchi on...

S.O.S. (Stories of Service) - Ordinary people who do... ·

2025/11/26

Send us a text A decorated field artillery officer and former West Point garrison commander says one strange night derailed 27 years of service—and exposed how fragile due process can be on a military post. Tony Bianchi recounts leading a week of storm recovery, an alumni dinner where a trivial carving-station moment sparked a rumor, and a late drive home later portrayed as a gate run. Hours after he went to bed, senior MPs gathered behind his house and colleagues woke him at 2:45 AM—an...

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140:56

Exposing Lies at NATO | One Officers Battle Against...

S.O.S. (Stories of Service) - Ordinary people who do... ·

2025/11/25

Send us a text This episode pulls back the curtain on a NATO headquarters usually seen only through press releases. Marine officer and Foreign Area Officer Andres Caceres explains how honest analysis on Afghanistan, ISIS’s rise, and Russia’s moves toward Crimea collided with a staff culture that valued appearances over results—and what happened when he refused to go along. Andres contrasts early command lessons—where clear standards cut alcohol incidents to zero in Japan—wit...

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69:35

Finding Purpose in Adversity with Daniel O’Dell & The...

S.O.S. (Stories of Service) - Ordinary people who do... ·

2025/11/19

Send us a text The story starts where most stay quiet: a violent childhood, a foster system built on survival, and a hunger to belong somewhere that demanded excellence. Daniel Odell found that place in the Army—even in a role many dismiss. As a cook in Iraq, he saw how a hot meal and a few kind words could calm fear. Volunteering for flights, he witnessed medevac shock up close, carrying home images that didn’t fade when the war quieted. Back in the States, ambition collided with...

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266 results

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