Loved the pod and excited to hear more, and kudos to the guys for expanding in new and interesting ways.
Hooooowever, there’s no way we’re going to regret mentioning having met Tron in the same breath as presidents and 4-star generals, are we?
I assume you’ll get into it, but what are the big points of conflict between NASA and SpaceX?
If all I had to listen to for several weeks, while in a Syrian prison that I was managing, was the Trap Draw Airports episode, I can imagine that meeting Tron would be a thrill!
I remember a story that Laz told in that very Airports episode about the difference in his mind between meeting famous people and golf famous people.
The airports episode was one of the best ever Trap Draws - my power ranking:
Airports
Commissioner for the Day
Metallica Doc
The ‘Plex with the Commish
Switzerland.
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Episode 16 is pretty good
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Nothing to apologize for! Still new here. Send your wife our way!!
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For anyone on Overcast, I could NOT find the podcast by searching for “Downrange” but I did just finally find it searching for Cody McBride.
So even if The Refuge doesn’t (yet) know who the hell @Cody is, podcast players do. Can’t wait to dive in. The YouTube preview was pretty moving - this seems like a great new path for Cody and for NLU.
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Listening to it now - and @Cody I know a guy who went through Ranger School and he told me about it over beers one night and I think about it 20+ years later. He didn’t stay in the military for a long time after that but I remember him saying that everyone, no matter what they’re into, is hyper focused on FOOD as it goes on. He said his girlfriend picked him up and wanted to have some sexy time and he was like, “Sure, but I need three cheeseburgers first.” Your comments about blueberry pancakes and pizza sound VERY similar…!
Thanks for your service and glad you are a key part of NLU.
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Ranger School sucks. But that is the point of it all. I had two snickers bars wrapped in a pair of socks. This might seem weird but your packing list is highly scrutinized and examined weekly. No contraband at all. I somehow forgot about the snickers until we were in Florida. It was an amazing find. I also took my ruck apart to hide dip in the frame. I have my weakness
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Kyle getting sent back to the Air Force Academy, it’s probably a pretty sweet deal with the golf facilities there.
Kyle graduated two years before me, so we overlapped a bit. Just followed his group today at KFT 2nd stage Q School today. Super nice dude!
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#GetInvolved… in toppling South American governments!
#GetInvolved… in using a vaccination program to do DNA testing!
#GetInvolved… in domestic wiretapping!
#GetInvolved… in drug trafficking!
Listen, I’m sure it’s a very enlightening interview, but let’s remember that a large portion of the NLU audience doesn’t have the same affinity for the US military, and in particular the CIA, that some Americans might.
As someone who has gotten involved in a lot of what NLU has done via merch and events and content… this one is a big swing and a miss.
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Lol what? I haven’t listened yet and also don’t have an affinity for the US or their military, but seems pretty weird to shit on something for what I can only tell as having the CIA in the name??
My point is I think a very slippery slope is being walked here. Pro-military stuff needs to be treated very delicately, and I don’t think I’m the only one who is uncomfortable with the direction this is heading in.
I think if it was more stories like Kyle Westmoreland or how veterans have found peace through golf, it would work.
But glorifying the CIA and the whole military complex doesn’t really sit well with me. And that’s what I see this as being.
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Touting a background in interrogation in the introduction video really bothered me. The US military’s history with interrogation in the middle east is really, really not good.
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From spending 2.5 seconds to research the book on Amazon…
"Harnden skillfully interweaves dramatic action sequences with the backstories of the book’s central figures, and briskly highlights the failures of U.S. policy in Afghanistan. Readers will be swept up in this little-known chapter of America’s ‘forever war.’" -Publishers Weekly
Award-winning author Toby Harnden gained unprecedented access to all living Team Alpha members and every level of the CIA. Superbly researched, First Casualty draws on extensive interviews, secret documents, and deep reporting inside Afghanistan. As gripping as any adventure novel, yet intimate and profoundly moving, it tells how America found a winning strategy only to abandon it. Harnden reveals that the lessons of early victory and the haunting foretelling it contained—unreliable allies, ethnic rivalries, suicide attacks, and errant US bombs—were ignored, tragically fueling a twenty-year conflict.
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I really struggle with calling this glorifying without having even listened to the episode. So far what I’ve seen from Cody is far from glorifying and more giving a spot to tell stories about the people from the events that have happened.
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I read that too, DJ.
My issue isn’t with the book, and I said I’m sure it is a very interesting conversation.
My hesitancy is, as @scottyrp4 pointed out, the way we were introduced to Downrange was concerning and military and military glorification is particularly uncomfortable for a lot of people. We would be wrong not to point out that when talking about these kinds of things.
Especially on a forum that likes to poke fun at the Saudis, it would be prudent to be cognizant of the fact that a lot of people around the world think about the CIA and American military efforts in the same way.
I’m not expecting everyone to share my opinion, but just something to be aware of.
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As someone who struggles a lot between
a) Having a preposterous amount of respect, admiration and awe for people who serve in the military and put their lives on the line constantly AND
b) Having a serious question about exactly why our country asks them to do this in many instances
I struggle with the focus on military stories, almost (entirely?) exclusively thus far. (I guess one episode was with a NASA employee, which is civilian. Side note - still sort of can’t believe Space Force is an actual thing.)
I do think it’s more balanced than just being a “pro-military” podcast, but it certainly has felt more on that side of things, which is understandable given that Cody spent most of his life there and has guests on who did the same. I didn’t understand from the start that ALL the guests were going to be ex-military folks, I thought they might be people who did service in any type or just had crazy interesting life stories. I would hope that it expands a bit more into that, just for variety’s sake and finding new stories to tell.
The beauty of what NLU is doing with adding new pods is that there is something for everyone - I’m sure there are folks here who are avid NLU listeners who don’t find this their cup of tea. I may be one of them. Others may not love the Trap Draw or the Grueter Golf pod.
Something something spice of life.
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If my initial comment was overly blithe, then maybe that was wrong. But I stand by what I said in subsequent posts.
I’m sure the book is interesting but I have one little quibble regarding the blurb itself:
Was there a winning strategy? Afghanistan is called “The graveyard of empires” for a reason.