Speaker 1: Hey, folks.
Speaker 2: You know, I've been really excited about how well received.
Speaker 1: This show has been.
Speaker 2: I'm just absolutely thrilled, and I think people have really
Speaker 2: taken to it. But for me, it's really been a
Speaker 2: learning curve to understand how to do this man, how
Speaker 2: to be on the other side of the mic. Now,
Speaker 2: Rob Low, today's guest, is a natural at that he
Speaker 2: has a kind of charisma that makes you want to
Speaker 2: be his friend. I mean, he's very easy to talk to.
Speaker 2: He's also given a lot of his time to support
Speaker 2: an organization here that he wants to highlight.
Speaker 1: So I just want to let you.
Speaker 2: Know that this episode is going to be a heavier one,
Speaker 2: but it's so important. The people who make up our
Speaker 2: military deserve to be heard and they deserve to be supported.
Speaker 2: During the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, I spent a
Speaker 2: bunch of time at Walter Reed Medical Center in Maryland,
Speaker 2: and I was meeting soldiers and veterans and I really
Speaker 2: wanted to ask many of them their story, the story
Speaker 2: of how they got hurt, but I wasn't sure if
Speaker 2: that would be something that they wanted to share. And
Speaker 2: what I've learned now is that often when someone's undergone
Speaker 2: such a trauma. As they do, they want to tell
Speaker 2: their story and if they can use it to do good,
Speaker 2: then there can be some healing there. Listening to the
Speaker 2: story here today is just one way that you can
Speaker 2: bear witness to what this man went through and learn
Speaker 2: more about.
Speaker 1: Ways to support our veterans. So lean in. I'm really
Speaker 1: glad you're here.
Speaker 2: It's so good to see Robin. As you know, we
Speaker 2: just spoke what last week or something? I did your
Speaker 2: awesome podcast.
Speaker 3: Yes, you were on literally and it was so fun
Speaker 3: and you were everything I knew you would be, funny, entertaining.
Speaker 3: It was great. We had a blast.
Speaker 1: So here's the thing.
Speaker 2: I'm very very new at this and you have been
Speaker 2: doing it for a long time. So my first question is, Tipsy,
Speaker 2: can you help a brother out?
Speaker 3: Help a brother out? You know what? It's kind of this, Listen,
Speaker 3: I'm making it up as I go along, as we
Speaker 3: all do in our careers, as you know. But to me,
Speaker 3: it's just about being curious. You're naturally curious. I'm curious,
Speaker 3: so that's what qualifies us to do this, and I
Speaker 3: just it's the same thing as acting curiosity and listening.
Speaker 3: I mean it really really is an offshoot. I have
Speaker 3: people on who I admire and like, am and interested in,
Speaker 3: and then I listened to what they had to say,
Speaker 3: and my curiosity, my natural curiosity, leads it from there.
Speaker 3: In terms of the questions, I don't prepare questions. I
Speaker 3: never ever do, because then it is more like an interview.
Speaker 3: And You've been interviewed plenty. I've been interviewed plenty, But
Speaker 3: what people haven't seen or heard are conversations, right right right, yeah,
Speaker 3: And so to me, there is a difference between an
Speaker 3: interview and if the listener was able to invisibly pull
Speaker 3: up a chair while you and I had lunch together. Sure, sure,
Speaker 3: And to me, that's the sweet spot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I totally get that. And you you have that
Speaker 2: in space. I mean, it's like you you it feels
Speaker 2: so relaxed. There almost isn't really even the beginning of
Speaker 2: the conversation. And it's funny because you know, we're not
Speaker 2: supposed to, you know, in our with our current strike situation,
Speaker 2: talk about specific work.
Speaker 1: But I feel really.
Speaker 2: Strongly that we're allowed to talk about what it is
Speaker 2: that we do for a living.
Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, yeah, for sure.
Speaker 2: In your case, one of the many many things that
Speaker 2: you do for a living, which there is a very
Speaker 2: very long list which we can get into. But you know,
Speaker 2: I've I've always felt like for the acting piece of it,
Speaker 2: I'm constantly trying to find the world where.
Speaker 1: The movement between.
Speaker 2: Being off on the side of the camera and moving
Speaker 2: to the front of the camera that you're kind of
Speaker 2: living in the same space in a way that that
Speaker 2: there's that the time between action and cut is just
Speaker 2: as relaxed and as free flowing as the time when
Speaker 2: you're sitting in your trailer, you know, on the phone
Speaker 2: or playing the guitar or whatever happens to be. You know,
Speaker 2: I kind of got that from from a couple of
Speaker 2: directors that I that I worked with, that sort of
Speaker 2: you know, created a set that had that kind of vibe,
Speaker 2: and I wonder if that, you know, if you can
Speaker 2: relate to that at all.
Speaker 3: I mean, and here's the other part of it, I
Speaker 3: think is like when you get on the other side
Speaker 3: of that and you master that to the extent that
Speaker 3: anybody can, the next thing you worry about. For me,
Speaker 3: it is like, wait a minute, I'm not doing anything.
Speaker 3: Mu Wait am I phoning it in?
Speaker 1: Wait?
Speaker 3: Wait? What's going on I'm not working.
Speaker 1: Yes, no, for sure.
Speaker 3: And you know, as as you know the difference between
Speaker 3: doing movies and television is, you know, if you're on
Speaker 3: a seier and you like me, have done both. You know,
Speaker 3: a movie is a finite amount of time that you're
Speaker 3: on the set in front of a camera, and then
Speaker 3: you might be off for six months or two years
Speaker 3: or a month, whatever it is. But if you're doing
Speaker 3: television like I've been doing since nineteen ninety nine, nineteen
Speaker 3: ninety nine, I've had a show on every.
Speaker 1: Year with that, that's amazing. It's crazy thing.
Speaker 3: It's insane, but it's like anything else. You get the reps.
Speaker 3: So I'm in front of a lens so much that
Speaker 3: it is my life and I get to I get
Speaker 3: to that place that you're talking about, just merely, not
Speaker 3: because I'm any great actor or have any great technique.
Speaker 3: It's just when you're in front of a camera that often,
Speaker 3: that long you're in and you're out, you're gonna get relaxed.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you a question, do you have a technique?
Speaker 3: My technique now is to trust my instincts, and you know,
Speaker 3: if it's they're obviously different techniques for different parts.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: So if I'm on the West End doing a few
Speaker 3: good Men, there's the vocal the vocal prep that goes in,
Speaker 3: you know, for months months beforehand, literally training my voice
Speaker 3: as if I was going to be singing the part.
Speaker 3: And then there's the warm up every day, and and
Speaker 3: my technique was to come into the theater and early
Speaker 3: and run through two or three of those great caffe
Speaker 3: monologues at high speed with the annunciation and the projection,
Speaker 3: just as like a sound check basically, So that.
Speaker 1: Was what time would you get to the theater.
Speaker 3: I would get there twenty minutes before I needed to
Speaker 3: start the hair and makeup process. Basically, I always like
Speaker 3: to be I like to get there the latest possible moment.
Speaker 1: To do the work I need to do right, right right.
Speaker 3: But I would always but you know, you want to
Speaker 3: be you you have to be there before they've opened
Speaker 3: the house.
Speaker 2: Sure, For people that don't know, we have this thing
Speaker 2: in the theater called half hour, and it is it's
Speaker 2: a really serious rule. You can that be there past
Speaker 2: half an hour before the show starts, where you can
Speaker 2: get brought up on charges and all this stuff can happen.
Speaker 2: They'll move one of the digits off your hand. It's
Speaker 2: it is, it's really as punishable by death. And the
Speaker 2: few times that I've ever missed half hour, it's been
Speaker 2: a combination of It was never my fault. Well maybe
Speaker 2: it was my fault, but it was always a you know,
Speaker 2: stuck on the subway or or you know, something to
Speaker 2: accident or you know whatever. You know, I wasn't drunk line,
Speaker 2: and it did somewhere, but but I always felt such
Speaker 2: so terrible in such a sense of guilt, and oh
Speaker 2: my god, it was the most horrible feeling.
Speaker 1: And oh, how.
Speaker 3: About your I had so there was a strike and
Speaker 3: a picket and my car couldn't get to the theater
Speaker 3: side to get out and walk. And I'm definitely not
Speaker 3: only my missing half hour, I'm missing curtain.
Speaker 1: And you were in the first scene, though.
Speaker 3: And I'm in the first I'm in the very first scene.
Speaker 1: Oh you are in the first scene.
Speaker 3: I'm in the first scene. But the great oh, this
Speaker 3: this was my first line the play the play, the
Speaker 3: play play, and the first line is I'm sorry I'm late.
Speaker 3: That's the first line of the play. So I get there.
Speaker 3: The autist has been sitting there for twenty minutes in
Speaker 3: their seats and my first thing is sorry I'm late,
Speaker 3: and they went crazy.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, that's a hilarious story.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, I love that. I love that. Wow.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, it's interesting to podcast and theater while
Speaker 2: we're in this strike. There's so many other, you know,
Speaker 2: things that we can do or we're trying to do,
Speaker 2: trying to find, you know, something to stay busy with you.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you've been working on this anymore,
Speaker 2: but you're an author, correctly, you have like two books
Speaker 2: I think you've gotten Yeah, I I mean, I'm so
Speaker 2: amazed by that. Like you know, I can my my
Speaker 2: writing ends at four minutes and fifteen seconds in the
Speaker 2: length of a song.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's a long one, you know.
Speaker 2: But to actually sit down and construct something that has
Speaker 2: I mean a lot of pages, I just that blows
Speaker 2: my mind.
Speaker 3: Well, it's you know what it's it's it's this. But
Speaker 3: it is the same thing in that you write a
Speaker 3: song because you have a song in you, whether you
Speaker 3: whether you know it or not, whether you go, oh
Speaker 3: my god, I got some here. I think this is something,
Speaker 3: or you don't know, but you've you go I'm going
Speaker 3: to see and you sit and the muse comes or doesn't.
Speaker 3: It's exactly the same thing. I happen to know. I
Speaker 3: suspected I had a book in me. I mean I
Speaker 3: kind of was like I and it was really from
Speaker 3: enough people telling me that I should write a book.
Speaker 3: It's like, and you know, I'm a great believer being
Speaker 3: in recovery and sober for thirty three years.
Speaker 1: That if not thirty three years, congratulations.
Speaker 3: Thanks brother, thank you. But like it's like, if enough
Speaker 3: people tell you you're drunk, you should probably lie down, and
Speaker 3: enough people tell you should write a book, you should
Speaker 3: probably write a book. So that that was kind of
Speaker 3: the the impetus, and I I had a great time
Speaker 3: doing it. I'm really really proud of it. I'm really
Speaker 3: proud of both the books and the reception and that
Speaker 3: they that they still are out in the world and
Speaker 3: people still like them.
Speaker 2: Were they both memoirs or neither or yeah, both men
Speaker 2: different at different points of in your life.
Speaker 1: Is that is that the way it worked?
Speaker 3: I mean, the first one, called Stories I Only Tell
Speaker 3: my Friends, was kind of I didn't think I would
Speaker 3: ever write another, so I didn't leave anything out, like
Speaker 3: and it was my it was everything in my life.
Speaker 3: It was the beginning of my life. The where I
Speaker 3: Am now was, you know, it was kind of a
Speaker 3: Pope Peie, a collection of essays more than a linear narrative.
Speaker 3: And it was like, I looked at It's funny you
Speaker 3: say this. I looked at it like making an album.
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, right, all right?
Speaker 3: Does it have enough hits in it? Are there too
Speaker 3: many bouts? I feel like there are a little too
Speaker 3: many ballads? Did not even know really legit and like,
Speaker 3: I'm like and then I was like, it's a set
Speaker 3: list at a concert. I'm like, do I open with
Speaker 3: a hit? Or do I like, do I open with
Speaker 3: like the Brat Pack? Or do I save that for
Speaker 3: the encore? Or do I or do I not play it?
Speaker 3: M now? Literally those are the things I was thinking.
Speaker 1: Yeah, which is tough because your fans are going to
Speaker 1: want to hear it.
Speaker 3: They want to hear it. So I remember going, I'm going,
Speaker 3: I am not going to write a first chapter that
Speaker 3: has the the gotcha hit hook. I'm going to write
Speaker 3: a first chapter that establishes that I'm a writer, and
Speaker 3: I'm going to live or die on this first chapter.
Speaker 3: So my first chapter literally is about I think meeting
Speaker 3: JFK Jr. On a ski trip and and he and
Speaker 3: I talking about marriage and how we both sort of
Speaker 3: met our blonde ideals and our wives, and then it
Speaker 3: and then it goes on into there to talking about marriage,
Speaker 3: and that is not that's I don't think. I don't
Speaker 3: think that's what people were picking up the book to
Speaker 3: hear about, for sure. And I gotten around to the
Speaker 3: rest of the stuff in due time.
Speaker 2: Well, I'm gonna I'm gonna get myself a copy and
Speaker 2: check that out, because first off, I love memoirs, and
Speaker 2: I think that seeing uh your journey would be really
Speaker 2: really fascinating.
Speaker 3: Oh, you you will love the You will love the
Speaker 3: Footloose Dance Edition story more than anything.
Speaker 2: Uh your boy told me a little bit about that. Yeah,
Speaker 2: Johnahan told me about something about that story, and I.
Speaker 3: Would I will just say this, I just need it.
Speaker 3: Cutting to the chase of it. It's a dance audition
Speaker 3: at Paramount Dance, by the way, I think it was
Speaker 3: to a Styx song of all things. And the end
Speaker 3: of the dance was a knee slide across the floor
Speaker 3: and I hit my knees and slide across the floor
Speaker 3: into a lineup of like Sherry Lancing and Dean Pitchford
Speaker 3: and you know Craig Zaden and who who they directed
Speaker 3: it again? Yeah, her herb Ross, of course, her ross.
Speaker 3: And my knee explodes, explodes, pop, and they take me
Speaker 3: out of the soundstage on a stretcher. And this is when,
Speaker 3: this is what tells you everything you need to know
Speaker 3: about Hollywood. So Craig Zaden and the producers who were
Speaker 3: friends of mine, who were very pro me doing this movie,
Speaker 3: go to me and go, hey, man, it's cool. At
Speaker 3: the end of the day, were we really decided we're
Speaker 3: just going to hire a dancer for the part? And
Speaker 3: a week and a week later they hired you. And
Speaker 3: I'm like, God, damn these guys, that's a real actor.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, that's it.
Speaker 2: That is a great That is a great Hollywood store.
Speaker 2: So that's in the book. I guess, uh, stuff like that. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'm definitely gonna I'm definitely gonna read that. I'd like
Speaker 2: to talk to people. I'm always interested in the actual
Speaker 2: physical place of where they grew up or had a
Speaker 2: lot of their formative years. And also some people have
Speaker 2: just moved around and moved around and moved around. So
Speaker 2: just give me a little bit of a chart of
Speaker 2: the places that you spent your childhood years.
Speaker 3: Well, you're you're right, because I think that's I mean,
Speaker 3: it's completely forms who you are, right, one hundred percent does.
Speaker 3: And I was born in Charlottesville, Virginia. My dad was
Speaker 3: had was just graduating law school at UVA. They then
Speaker 3: my mom and my dad moved to Dayton, Ohio, and
Speaker 3: that's where I had my childhood. To the time I
Speaker 3: was twelve eleven, maybe eleven twelve, I lived in Dayton, Ohio.
Speaker 3: And at that time, not that it's not now, but
Speaker 3: at that time, it was a really thriving Dayton was
Speaker 3: hit has been hit really hard by by all kinds
Speaker 3: of things. I mean, not the least of which was
Speaker 3: when was the last time you saw a cash register? Well,
Speaker 3: in those days, NCR National Cash.
Speaker 1: Register was in Dayton, oh Okay.
Speaker 3: So it was one hundred and fifty thousand jobs. So
Speaker 3: Dayton was really popping. There was a vibrant theater community.
Speaker 3: There was summer stock coming through. When I decided I want.
Speaker 1: To were you doing theater at that time when you
Speaker 1: were Yeah.
Speaker 3: I started when I was like eight nine. Oh wow,
Speaker 3: And you know, so little kid, you know, you little kid,
Speaker 3: parts were of available in college and stock and things
Speaker 3: like that, and you know grew up, you know, playing
Speaker 3: kick the can at night, and you know with all
Speaker 3: these Irish Catholic families on our blocks that were there,
Speaker 3: each family had like eleven kids. So you would just
Speaker 3: run a muck with your friends all day long and
Speaker 3: all it was. It was great. It was fantastic. And
Speaker 3: then my when my parents split up, my mom uh
Speaker 3: remarried and my stepfather lived in California where he was
Speaker 3: a doctor. And that's why we moved to directly from
Speaker 3: Dayton to Malibu, which was a huge culture shock Malibu,
Speaker 3: California in seventy six. It was a lot different than Dayton,
Speaker 3: Ohio and seven or six. Yeah, I would think so, Yeah, ironically.
Speaker 1: I'm fectioning like Ryan O'Neill on the beach and stuff.
Speaker 3: Ryan O'Neill, Gary Busey, you know Nick Nolty stinking like
Speaker 3: an elephant just with his pants down over it blows
Speaker 3: butt like carrying cases of Corers out to his call.
Speaker 1: I mean it was this specifically in Point.
Speaker 3: Doom, Yes, it was Pointdom.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: You know, it's so fascinated about that to me, for
Speaker 2: people that don't know. There's Malibu, and you know, Malibu
Speaker 2: is a fairly large area. I mean it covers I
Speaker 2: don't know how many miles. It kind of goes up
Speaker 2: the coast, but.
Speaker 3: It's how big is it?
Speaker 1: Twenty two miles? Right?
Speaker 2: And then there's a one specific area called Point Doom,
Speaker 2: which which for whatever reason, multi I've never had a
Speaker 2: just maybe ten years ago, we finally got a little
Speaker 2: place in LA. But we all through our marriage and
Speaker 2: all through my years before I was married, I never
Speaker 2: had a place to live in La. When I would
Speaker 2: work in La, so I was constantly going from either
Speaker 2: a furnished you know, hotels, or or always places that
Speaker 2: would take my dog, or rented houses. And for some reason,
Speaker 2: for three movies, I think in a row, I rented
Speaker 2: a house in Point Doom. And that is one of
Speaker 2: the a combination I'm probably getting to get in trouble
Speaker 2: for this of really magical but really strange kind of
Speaker 2: brother dude.
Speaker 3: Okay, So Sean, I grew up with Sean Penn and
Speaker 3: Sean and I whenever we see each other kind of
Speaker 3: clutch each other, Like, dude, do you remember when like
Speaker 3: like we're survivors of a conflagration. I mean the stuff
Speaker 3: that Okay, I don't know if you have a great story,
Speaker 3: a great song in you that you know one day
Speaker 3: you'll crack for me. It is this. It is the
Speaker 3: story of growing up on Point Doom in the in
Speaker 3: the mid seventies and eighties. There's who the Probably there's
Speaker 3: a podcast about it?
Speaker 1: Is there? Really?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 1: What is that? Guys?
Speaker 3: What's the name of the podcast that we did? This
Speaker 3: are going to tell me?
Speaker 1: Oh, you were you were a guest, you were guessed
Speaker 1: on it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, But it's about growing up. It's about Malibu in
Speaker 3: the eighties.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: Have you have you ever thought about developing that into
Speaker 2: a story or a film or writing a book about it.
Speaker 3: Or I've tried. There's a lot of my book is
Speaker 3: about that, Okay, not as much as I could have
Speaker 3: written two books just about that.
Speaker 2: Another reason I want to read the book because I mean,
Speaker 2: I wasn't there in the probably in the in the
Speaker 2: it was. I probably didn't go there until the mid nineties,
Speaker 2: I would think.
Speaker 1: But but you gotta ge.
Speaker 3: I mean, like you'd see like Martin Sheen, fresh off
Speaker 3: of Apocalypse in fatigues and a baseball bat patrolling Halloween night,
Speaker 3: so kids wouldn't egg the neighborhood or it was it
Speaker 3: was so amazing and so and there was a real
Speaker 3: dark side, you know, in Mary in my junior high
Speaker 3: which is now Malibu High School. It was a junior
Speaker 3: high when I went there. Out of seven hundred kids
Speaker 3: in the three years that I was there, eight of
Speaker 3: them died. Eight. Now, if that happened the Malibu podcast
Speaker 3: is called Lost Hills, by the way, cool if that
Speaker 3: happened today, eight kids in junior over three years, and
Speaker 3: you know, the weird freak accidents like a guy like
Speaker 3: diving to free the lobsters, like a like an animal
Speaker 3: rights kid getting his hands stuck in the lobster trap
Speaker 3: and drowning, and I mean, and just it was really
Speaker 3: dark as well and weird.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: And can you think of like how specifically, I mean,
Speaker 2: do you have you ever pointed to something, uh, well,
Speaker 2: I guess obviously getting into you know, becoming an actor
Speaker 2: and getting into the entertainment business, was anything specifically about
Speaker 2: that of that that place in that childhood and you know,
Speaker 2: your parents separating at that age, that that pushed you
Speaker 2: towards this gig that we do.
Speaker 3: Well, you know, because I The the aha moment for
Speaker 3: me that I wanted to do this happened back in
Speaker 3: we were still living in Dayton when my parents took
Speaker 3: me to a community theater version you Man, I can
Speaker 3: only imagine what that was like of Oliver and there
Speaker 3: were kids in it, and I just was like dumbstruck,
Speaker 3: like a caricature about Oh the light of God hit
Speaker 3: me and the angels saying in my and I was like,
Speaker 3: I want to do that, and I just I didn't
Speaker 3: know any better. I had no idea what that even meant,
Speaker 3: but I really wanted to do it. So by the
Speaker 3: time I got to Malibu, I already considered myself an actor.
Speaker 1: And okay, sure, okay, I get it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And ironically, in the great Irony is in Malibu,
Speaker 3: nobody was acting here. We are Malibu might as well
Speaker 3: have been eight hundred thousand miles away.
Speaker 2: You don't really feel like you're in La. It's not
Speaker 2: a it doesn't It does not feel like a La place.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sure it did. I'm sure it especially
Speaker 1: didn't back then.
Speaker 2: But but yeah, people rode their horses to the market.
Speaker 2: There was a hitch host. Yeah, amazing, amazing, Wow, that's
Speaker 2: so cool. I'm so fascinated by that.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: You one of the things that I really admire about
Speaker 2: you pretty much across across the board. I mean, I
Speaker 2: think that the UH talking about those books, which sound
Speaker 2: to me like they're probably pretty honest and open, you
Speaker 2: know about about uh your life.
Speaker 1: And I think that.
Speaker 2: You know, when you have the kind of fame and
Speaker 2: success that you've had, a lot of people want to
Speaker 2: hold on to, you know, some kind of perceived public persona,
Speaker 2: and there's a lot of fear around h putting a
Speaker 2: chink in that public armor.
Speaker 1: And I think you've been.
Speaker 2: Really kind of open about that to a great extent,
Speaker 2: and I think that's probably a part of why people
Speaker 2: love you so much.
Speaker 1: But also you also really.
Speaker 2: Are able to make fun of yourself, and I really
Speaker 2: admire that, and I just wonder, you know what that
Speaker 2: where that what that comes from?
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I thank you for that. And if you
Speaker 3: doubt it, all you've got to do is watch my
Speaker 3: Comedy Central roast, because brother, it is brutal.
Speaker 1: It's brutal. I've seen it. I've seen it, by the way, but.
Speaker 3: It's what is it? Am I crazy to say that?
Speaker 3: It's one of my favorite things.
Speaker 1: I love it. I don't what's wrong with me? It's
Speaker 1: pretty good. Who are the who are the Roasters list?
Speaker 3: But David Spade was the master of ceremonies, Peyton Manning,
Speaker 3: Jimmy Carr, oh my gosh, who else was on? Ralph
Speaker 3: Matchio from from Outsiders, I mean, and just amazing comedians.
Speaker 3: I'm blanking on yeah.
Speaker 1: But it was it was. It was hardcore.
Speaker 2: I've never been roasted, and I don't know, I don't
Speaker 2: know if I could take it, Honestly, I don't know.
Speaker 4: Here.
Speaker 3: You know what it is is like my heroes have
Speaker 3: have always been self deprecating heroes. There are there there
Speaker 3: are people that are my heroes who take themselves really seriously,
Speaker 3: and that's all great. But I always loved JFK when
Speaker 3: you get up it at the press conferences and just
Speaker 3: destroy himself mm hm, and you know what I mean,
Speaker 3: or or carry Grant or there are just people out
Speaker 3: there that that were, as the British would say, take
Speaker 3: the piss out of themselves in a way that just
Speaker 3: made just made me go, that person's so cool because they.
Speaker 4: Do that, And.
Speaker 3: I love, I love, I love a good joke at
Speaker 3: my own expense.
Speaker 1: Clearly you do.
Speaker 2: If you keep going back to watch your own roast,
Speaker 2: that's means you must really be okay with that, you know.
Speaker 2: But on top of everything else, you have this very
Speaker 2: uh deep, you know, philanthropic spirit, which uh you know
Speaker 2: is part of what this podcast is about.
Speaker 1: It's about.
Speaker 2: Highlighting that so that you know, people like you and
Speaker 2: me don't always just look like overpaid buffoons and that
Speaker 2: that they are there are things that you care about,
Speaker 2: which kind of brings me to Wounded Warriors, which is
Speaker 2: the organization that we're highlighting today. And I want to
Speaker 2: introduce Dan Nevins. I know that you guys know each other.
Speaker 3: Sure, of course, good to see you, man.
Speaker 4: I can see you.
Speaker 2: Thanks for thanks for coming Dan, you know here on
Speaker 2: this podcast, we we I love the you know, the
Speaker 2: section to shoot the breeze with people that I've either
Speaker 2: worked with or haven't worked with. Strangely, I don't think
Speaker 2: Rob and I have ever worked together, which is just
Speaker 2: kind of amazing considering we're kind of from the same
Speaker 2: era and you know that our our paths have never crossed.
Speaker 3: I'm the only person without six degrees of Kevin Bakin.
Speaker 1: I know, it's pretty weird. It's pretty weird.
Speaker 2: Although I think, and I didn't know this before, I
Speaker 2: believe that we don't need to mention it. But I
Speaker 2: think you did a sequel to a movie that.
Speaker 1: I was at.
Speaker 3: We did, That's exactly right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, which I I'm embarrassed to say I haven't seen,
Speaker 2: but I'm not sure I'm gonna put that.
Speaker 1: On right after I read the book.
Speaker 3: Oh don't.
Speaker 2: But Dan is joining us from Wounded Warriors, and I
Speaker 2: wanted to just start first with your backstory Dan, about
Speaker 2: how you got involved with the organization. And I think
Speaker 2: people will be fascinated in your story.
Speaker 4: Oh absolutely, it's you know, when I look back, I
Speaker 4: am really surprised because it feels like yesterday. But it's
Speaker 4: been almost nineteen years, which is crazy to me. So
Speaker 4: for me, I met Wounded Warrior Project at my hospital
Speaker 4: bedside at Walter Reed Army Medical Center after I was
Speaker 4: surreally injured in combat in two thousand and four. So
Speaker 4: backstory on that that deployed from the California, Well, I
Speaker 4: did eight years active duty to fight in the First
Speaker 4: Golf War and then got out after eight years to
Speaker 4: go back to school, got a degree, was a broker
Speaker 4: for a while, win in the pharmaceutical sales, but stayed
Speaker 4: in the National Guard. You know though you know it's
Speaker 4: supposed to be one week and a month and two
Speaker 4: weeks a year. Moving on with my life, sort of
Speaker 4: living in the American dream where the poor kid from Baltimore.
Speaker 4: I grew up in our pretty bad neighborhood in Baltimore,
Speaker 4: and you know, I had found some success and like, wow,
Speaker 4: it's the American dream come true. Spent my time in uniform,
Speaker 4: moving on, and then nine to eleven happens, which we
Speaker 4: just honored the twenty second anniversary of. And I actually
Speaker 4: got to go to New York with my thirteen year
Speaker 4: old to beyond approach to how impactful that was. But
Speaker 4: I found myself activated during Operation Iraqi Freedom Too Reserve.
Speaker 1: You were in the Reserve at that point, I was, Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 4: In the California Army National Guard. The opposite end, I
Speaker 4: was in northern California in Sonoma County, Okay. So when
Speaker 4: we got mobilized, we wound up as part of a
Speaker 4: task force called Task Force Tacoma. And you know, this
Speaker 4: relatively untrained National Guard unit. We found ourselves kicking indoors
Speaker 4: and you know, doing everything that we didn't imagine that
Speaker 4: we were going to do because we were a combat
Speaker 4: engineer unit and we had just been like many units
Speaker 4: reflagged or sort of they said, forget what you've trained for.
Speaker 4: You're an all now infantry. So we had.
Speaker 2: Did you discuss that amongst the amongst your your comrades
Speaker 2: about how like, guys, what what where are we going?
Speaker 4: Well, it was more of a sense of so I
Speaker 4: was a staff star and a squad leader and at
Speaker 4: that level you're you are like the executors, So there's
Speaker 4: you're really not involved any of that strategic planning. But
Speaker 4: I can tell you all of us were completely blindsided,
Speaker 4: like almost completely surprised. But then once we got into theater,
Speaker 4: we you know, found out why they needed people, because
Speaker 4: that's right when the conflicts started ramping up and when
Speaker 4: the term i ed became a household word and they
Speaker 4: you know, would say roadside bomb or ied. And so
Speaker 4: we lost some people in early engagements, and we were
Speaker 4: getting backfills, you know, like from fresh out of training
Speaker 4: to just keep us up to strength to continue on
Speaker 4: with the mission. But then finally, like once you get
Speaker 4: into the country and you realize that the consequence of
Speaker 4: not being like, excellent at your craft is that you
Speaker 4: lose your best friends, right, And so we got to
Speaker 4: be pretty good at what we did, and so these
Speaker 4: sort of level sophistication of our missions were going up.
Speaker 4: And it was November tenth of two thousand and four
Speaker 4: when we were headed out for a seventy two hour
Speaker 4: dismount encounter insurgent operation when improvised explosive device detonated beneath
Speaker 4: my vehicle. It's four o'clock in the morning, and I
Speaker 4: remember literally everything. I remember doing the pre combat checks.
Speaker 4: My platoon sergeant who is my boss, was driving the vehicle,
Speaker 4: which isn't really normal for most of the time the
Speaker 4: platoon sergeants and what's called the TC seat the truck
Speaker 4: command and is guiding the operation. But he actually was
Speaker 4: scheduled for hernia surgery. It's toughest guy I've ever read
Speaker 4: in my life. We saw him WinCE one time literally
Speaker 4: during the whole deployment, and then when we said, you know, hey,
Speaker 4: what's going on, he showed us this protruding abdominal hernia
Speaker 4: that was absolutely gnarly and he couldn't lead that operation.
Speaker 4: So it was it was my mission. Now I was
Speaker 4: leading the team, and as we headed out, I remember
Speaker 4: my head was bout in prayer like it was before
Speaker 4: every mission, and then boom, wow. The silence of that
Speaker 4: morning was destroyed by the deafening blast that sent my
Speaker 4: eighteen thousand pound vehicle in the air and a ball
Speaker 4: of fire.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 4: And I couldn't tell them that moment, you know, like
Speaker 4: that all like we've been hit by an ID. It
Speaker 4: was just my ears were ringing, my face fell hot,
Speaker 4: and I opened my eyes. I might have been knocked
Speaker 4: out for a couple of seconds, not really sure, basically
Speaker 4: all a blur. But when I opened my eyes, I
Speaker 4: realized that I was ejected from the vehicle and my
Speaker 4: legs were caught in the twisted and burning metal that
Speaker 4: used to be the floorboard and undercarriage of the truck.
Speaker 4: And I just remember trying to figure out what was
Speaker 4: going on. And I saw the four o'clock in the
Speaker 4: morning so completely pitch black outside. There was low hanging
Speaker 4: cloud covers so that you couldn't see the mooner stars,
Speaker 4: and it was eerily dark. And now the silence was gone,
Speaker 4: so we had people moving, you know, I listened through through,
Speaker 4: you know, like I was basically still blind, but I
Speaker 4: can hear my team moving with tactical proficiency, securing the perimeter,
Speaker 4: doing everything that they were supposed to be doing in
Speaker 4: that situation. But I was supposed to be the guy
Speaker 4: yelling out commands and I was saying nothing, and they
Speaker 4: were doing everything right. And in that sort of silence,
Speaker 4: when I saw my weapons sort of material in the
Speaker 4: doorway because there was some fire that started in go
Speaker 4: off my vehicles. There was some light and the dust
Speaker 4: from the explosion. Because we were in this we called
Speaker 4: it a dirt road, but it was more like silty powder,
Speaker 4: and it made this huge pulling with dust in the air,
Speaker 4: and as it started to settle, I could see my weapon.
Speaker 4: It was stuck in the door front of the vehicle,
Speaker 4: and I remember saying to myself, like, Dan, get up,
Speaker 4: put your weapon in operation. Dan, get up, put your
Speaker 4: weapon in the operation. And I couldn't move, And in
Speaker 4: those sort of moments, I remember, I remember distinctly, I
Speaker 4: took a breath and I looked forward to the driver's
Speaker 4: compartment of the vehicle where Mike was, and it was
Speaker 4: painfully obvious that he was killed, no question. And then
Speaker 4: I realized I was probably hurt pretty bad, and I
Speaker 4: didn't really understand the extent of my injuries and started
Speaker 4: with my head, like we're trained to always, you know,
Speaker 4: start with your head when you're doing self assessment. And
Speaker 4: my helmet came apart in two pieces in my hand,
Speaker 4: and I just remember I almost laughed. I think that
Speaker 4: now in that moment, I probably didn't, but I was like,
Speaker 4: I'm conscious, and that's good. And I was like surprised
Speaker 4: to see the condition of my helmet. And I was
Speaker 4: checking myself, my arms, my torso, and I could my
Speaker 4: hands were stinging like a numb basically, and I could
Speaker 4: get some feeling back. And I remember because I'm if
Speaker 4: you visualize, I'm laying in the dirt and my legs
Speaker 4: are elevated and stuck still in what's left of the truck,
Speaker 4: and I'm reaching up for my legs to go check
Speaker 4: and see what I can do or if they're stuck,
Speaker 4: if I can pull them out. And that's when I
Speaker 4: felt the unmistakable arterial blood spurt with every beat of
Speaker 4: my heart, and I knew that I was going to die.
Speaker 4: I was making my peace with God. I was saying
Speaker 4: goodbye to my wife and my daughter. She was ten
Speaker 4: years old at the time. And I'm sure you've heard
Speaker 4: the oh, when you're about to die, your life flashes
Speaker 4: before your eyes. Yeah, But for me, that wasn't really
Speaker 4: what happened. It was more like, and I really can't
Speaker 4: give it a real a texture or quality, but it
Speaker 4: was like I was watching goals unfulfilled, just sort of
Speaker 4: slip by. And I don't remember what each of those were,
Speaker 4: but I remember the last one, and it was my
Speaker 4: ten year old daughter, but she was all dressed up
Speaker 4: headed toe and white and walking down the aisle without
Speaker 4: her tat, and I just remember I shot up and
Speaker 4: I was like I'm alive, Like I'm still alive. I
Speaker 4: had to do something to keep it that way, and
Speaker 4: I reached my hand in that wound in my thigh
Speaker 4: almost up to my wrist, like my sort of it
Speaker 4: was like I was going to attempt to find the
Speaker 4: artery and like pinch it off and stop the bleeding,
Speaker 4: like I thought it was gonna be like mc guy vern,
Speaker 4: just reach in and pinch it and somehow magically and
Speaker 4: be fine. And that is not what happened. I just
Speaker 4: reached and pressed against a piece of shrapnel that was
Speaker 4: still lodged in my femur, and I prayed that it
Speaker 4: would give enough time, like I could slow my bleeding
Speaker 4: down enough for a medic to get there. And I
Speaker 4: was kind of fading out, and I blinked my eyes
Speaker 4: and then danced me. My medic was right there, and
Speaker 4: he looked at me right in the face, like got
Speaker 4: my attention and completely lied to me, but in the
Speaker 4: way that good medics do and said, Sartin Evans, You're
Speaker 4: gonna be all right.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 4: And I blinked again. There was a tourniquet on my leg.
Speaker 4: And then one of my team leaders starting chillis, was
Speaker 4: putting an IV in my arm, not even a medic,
Speaker 4: just we were all trained to called combat life savers.
Speaker 4: We're all trying to keep each other alive in those
Speaker 4: types of situations. And I blinked again, and it was
Speaker 4: my whole My whole team was there putting themselves in
Speaker 4: harm's way to remove my legs from that vehicle. It
Speaker 4: was still on fire. And then I was in a
Speaker 4: helicopter and had my first surgery in a hospital tent
Speaker 4: right next to the main gates of LSA and a
Speaker 4: conda where I was stationed in a place called blog.
Speaker 4: It was maybe a two minute helicopter ride, and I
Speaker 4: already had the IV, so they just injected me with
Speaker 4: happy juice and I was out. And I woke up
Speaker 4: in the hospital tent and the first thing I saw
Speaker 4: was a combat nurse's face, and she was kind of
Speaker 4: awkwardly close to me, and she just looked at me
Speaker 4: and said, Sartain Evans, you're a very lucky man. We
Speaker 4: managed to repair your femeral artery. We had to take
Speaker 4: your left leg below the knee. We managed to save
Speaker 4: your right one for now, but you'll probably lose that
Speaker 4: one too. And she was ultimately right. But after that,
Speaker 4: it was I think one of the best moments actually
Speaker 4: if as I sort of like readlive this story every
Speaker 4: time I tell it, like I can almost smell it.
Speaker 4: And I woke up and she had just told me this,
Speaker 4: and in my head I went immediately, like I think
Speaker 4: a lot of people would do. It's like, oh my god,
Speaker 4: what can the guy with no legs do? It was
Speaker 4: how is my wife gonna love me? How is you know?
Speaker 4: How am I gonna play with my kid?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 4: Am I gonna be stuck in a wheelchair? Like what's
Speaker 4: gonna happen? And when that pity party really started like
Speaker 4: washing over me. I just took a breath and looked
Speaker 4: against the wall of the tent and there was my
Speaker 4: whole team. It's like a brotherhood that's an indescribable and
Speaker 4: they were just waiting for me to wake up, and
Speaker 4: they just once they saw that I had come too,
Speaker 4: and I think the doctor had waved them over, and
Speaker 4: they just surrounded my bed and we told horrible jokes.
Speaker 4: It was so like we just got so There were
Speaker 4: jokes about like returning your roller skates you got for Christmas.
Speaker 4: There was a loo because that's it's what we do, right.
Speaker 4: You got to make fun of something to maybe make
Speaker 4: a nutsting so much. And then we went in. We
Speaker 4: told stories, and we talked about Mike, who actually wear
Speaker 4: this bracelet for every day, this memorial bracelet. For those
Speaker 4: you don't know, it's just a black aluminum bracelet that
Speaker 4: mine says Starn first Class Michael Siattolini, Task Force, Tacoma, ten,
Speaker 4: November two thousand and four, Ballata racket. We wear these
Speaker 4: bracelets too, memorialize and remember those who can get to
Speaker 4: come home. And we talked about Mike, and I just
Speaker 4: remember we all shared some tears and it fell asleep
Speaker 4: and woke up the next morning at launched, a regional
Speaker 4: medical center in Germany where yeah, and if you remember
Speaker 4: your history during the time, so this is ten November
Speaker 4: two thousand and four. On seven November, the Battle of
Speaker 4: Fallujah had started and so was mostly a Marine Corps battle.
Speaker 4: And I actually over this this this past September eleventh.
Speaker 4: I got to meet uh status start and David Belvida,
Speaker 4: who is only living Medal of Honor recipient from the
Speaker 4: war in Iraq and his action that he was nominated
Speaker 4: for and eventually was awarded the Medal of Honor came
Speaker 4: from ten November, and so it was a crazy day
Speaker 4: all across the theater and I just you know, got
Speaker 4: in to Walter Reed. I had surgery every day, and
Speaker 4: I was waiting for a ride back to I mean
Speaker 4: we got into Launcho, was waiting for a ride back
Speaker 4: to Walter Reed. And took about seven days, had surgery
Speaker 4: every day, and got to Walter Reed and by that
Speaker 4: time anger had start started setting in the ymes the
Speaker 4: you know, and Mike Cattelinia, who was killed was like
Speaker 4: one of the best human beings on the planet, and
Speaker 4: you know, like why my like, why do you volunteer
Speaker 4: to drive? Because he was supposed to have her new
Speaker 4: the surgery, so he volunteered to drive for that mission
Speaker 4: when he didn't have to. And I just remember being
Speaker 4: mad because I thought he got the better deal. Because
Speaker 4: I was in freedom on pain. I was down the
Speaker 4: spiral of all, my wife's not going to love me anymore.
Speaker 4: I can't play with my kids the way I used to, Like,
Speaker 4: what's life going to be like? And in that first
Speaker 4: day in the hospital, I met my nurse and her
Speaker 4: name was Erica, and I was married, so I wasn't
Speaker 4: allowed to flirt with her, but I was trying, like
Speaker 4: in and out of my drug fog, I was I
Speaker 4: think I proposed to her like three times. She was
Speaker 4: the first human being I got to really talk to
Speaker 4: in a full week. And so she was the first
Speaker 4: person like I had trust in her, well, probably because
Speaker 4: she had pain medicine, which was a huge plus up
Speaker 4: with a deluded and I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 4: thank you. Yeah, And she had said it was like
Speaker 4: what she had told me, she goes, your wife is
Speaker 4: on her way here from California. So I'm in DC.
Speaker 4: She's coming from California. She should be here around three PM.
Speaker 4: I think it was, and that was supposed to be
Speaker 4: good news, but I didn't want I didn't want to
Speaker 4: see her, I think more I didn't want her to
Speaker 4: see me. Okay, And Eric comes back into my room.
Speaker 4: She goes, Hey, there's some people here I think you
Speaker 4: should meet. And so I trusted her, and then I
Speaker 4: said okay. And then in came two of the founders
Speaker 4: of Wounded Warrior Project, and for context at that time,
Speaker 4: the Wind to Worrior Project is a wildly successful organization
Speaker 4: and they are effective at fundraising so they can fuel
Speaker 4: the programs like today, they serve about one hundred and
Speaker 4: eighty five wounded warriors in their families. I mean one
Speaker 4: hundred and eighty five thousand, sorry, one hundred andy five thousand,
Speaker 4: two hundred and four Sorry I just got corrected, two
Speaker 4: hundred and forty thousand. We get about eleven hundred warriors
Speaker 4: sign up every day, especially with the introduction of the
Speaker 4: pack deck, which is not necessarily relevant, but it is
Speaker 4: inspiring to see because in the beginning, these were people
Speaker 4: living off of their retirement, maxing out their personal credit
Speaker 4: cards to stuff backpacks with the things that they that
Speaker 4: in this case the founder had needed when he was
Speaker 4: a wounded warrior before the war and a helicopter accident
Speaker 4: off the coast of Somalia, and I remember they gave
Speaker 4: me this backpack. It's the first time I'd seen the
Speaker 4: wounded warrior logo with one warrior carrying another off the battlefield.
Speaker 4: It's like the Firenment's carry yep. And I instantly related
Speaker 4: to that. And in that whole you know, it said
Speaker 4: Wounded Warrior Project underneath of it, and I just said,
Speaker 4: I'm a wounded warrior and they we're brief wright and gone.
Speaker 4: They gave me that backpack and then promise that whatever
Speaker 4: I needed or whatever my family needed, that they'd be
Speaker 4: there for me.
Speaker 5: If you are inspired by today's episode, please join us
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Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, welcome back.
Speaker 2: We're here with Rob Low and Dan Nevins, who is
Speaker 2: sharing his story of becoming a wounded warrior and how
Speaker 2: the Wounded Warrior Project was the lifeline that he needed. Now,
Speaker 2: this UH can be a triggering topic for those in
Speaker 2: the military, for veterans, for their loved ones. So you know,
Speaker 2: if you if you find yourself having a difficult time,
Speaker 2: please reach out to Wounded Warrior Project dot org.
Speaker 1: To talk to someone. They're there for you.
Speaker 2: And that seems to be really the backbone of the
Speaker 2: of the of the of the organization, right being being
Speaker 2: there for for these these UH, for the for the
Speaker 2: soldiers and for the families.
Speaker 4: Oh absolutely, that's I think what's made them so successful
Speaker 4: is well one their commitment. Right. So when they went
Speaker 4: in to do this, they literally set out the calling
Speaker 4: card was the backpack, saying like I these are the
Speaker 4: things I wish I had, and it was it was
Speaker 4: everything that I didn't know that I needed. And I
Speaker 4: still have that same backpack from nineteen years old. Wow,
Speaker 4: pattered and torn, and but I don't really use it
Speaker 4: because it's not that effective anymore. But it's one of
Speaker 4: those momentos I can't throw away. Sure, And what they
Speaker 4: I think what made them so successful is they were
Speaker 4: in the hospitals listening, like what were the gaps that
Speaker 4: needed to be filled, Like what were the things that
Speaker 4: weren't being provided by the government, what wasn't happening, And
Speaker 4: then so they were committed to making those things happen.
Speaker 4: And like I said, the intent, the original intent, the
Speaker 4: calling card, the intent was to change the way benefits
Speaker 4: were administered the warriors, because what used to happen three
Speaker 4: Wounded Warrior Project is someone would get catastrophically injured with
Speaker 4: training accident, differ different wars, you go back to Vietnam,
Speaker 4: Korea and different They would leave the service and then
Speaker 4: years later develop issues from their service that were obviously
Speaker 4: services connected. And then they would go try to get
Speaker 4: their benefits together, like so the compensation from the VA,
Speaker 4: and they would take years. It would take years to
Speaker 4: get the records together, get everything done, and then submit
Speaker 4: a claim that would probably get rejected. And so so
Speaker 4: John Meelia and the people that he recruited in those
Speaker 4: early early days, they were benefits officers for a different nonprofit.
Speaker 4: So they said, like, we're going to get it right
Speaker 4: this time right. So the whole intention was to get
Speaker 4: everything annotated documented, so the moment that that service member
Speaker 4: left active duty, their benefits would start instead of having
Speaker 4: to dig through for two years.
Speaker 2: And as we know, you know, when it comes to
Speaker 2: anything of a cause based issue, it's really all about
Speaker 2: how quickly the impact can be felt, right and the
Speaker 2: most efficient use of both of people's energy and time
Speaker 2: and also of their dollars. Rob, how did it come
Speaker 2: across your desk to get involved with wounded warriors?
Speaker 3: Well, it's funny because there's no one in my immediate family,
Speaker 3: and certainly nobody that I knew growing up who served.
Speaker 3: But I've always had a connection and an interest in
Speaker 3: the men and women who serve our country. And many
Speaker 3: years later I did a show where they traced my
Speaker 3: ancestry and found out that I actually had people serve
Speaker 3: in the Revolutionary War and the Civil War and all
Speaker 3: those things. So clearly that must have been in my DNA. Obviously,
Speaker 3: after September eleventh, my awareness was completely raised, and I
Speaker 3: was looking to do something to figure out who I
Speaker 3: could help raise money for and donate to, and wounded
Speaker 3: warriors were the first people that came to mind. But
Speaker 3: it really took September eleventh I think for me to
Speaker 3: go into action in this arena, and I've been involved
Speaker 3: in various charities in this area ever since, but wunder
Speaker 3: Warres is there there. They're the best and they you
Speaker 3: can just from that story we just heard. I mean,
Speaker 3: I think that you did such a great job, as
Speaker 3: you always do, Dan, articulating, I mean, because it really
Speaker 3: puts it in perspective. I know that sounds like a cliche,
Speaker 3: well puts in perspective, but perspectives really needed. I mean,
Speaker 3: until you hear how effective these two guys walking to
Speaker 3: your bed.
Speaker 1: What it did for you exactly.
Speaker 3: I mean, and this goes on every single day with
Speaker 3: no fanfare, and it continues and is going to continue.
Speaker 3: And you know, the government can't do everything, and it's
Speaker 3: up to the private sector to step in and and
Speaker 3: to fill in the gaps.
Speaker 2: And Dan tell people how they can get involved or
Speaker 2: or help out. This is our our call to action
Speaker 2: right here. I'd love to hear more about how and
Speaker 2: I'm sure everybody would like, especially based on this incredibly
Speaker 2: compelling story that you tell. So how can people get involved?
Speaker 4: Absolutely the best ways to the Wounded Warrior Project website.
Speaker 4: It's Wounded Warrior Project dot org and you can find
Speaker 4: a myriad of ways to get involved from hoping hosting
Speaker 4: an event in your community so you can actually spread
Speaker 4: awareness to the people and to their people and their communities.
Speaker 4: And there's even an option to bring one of the
Speaker 4: speakers that I'm talking about to that event to share
Speaker 4: the stories and make and like really move the needle.
Speaker 4: And there's simple, easy ways to donate. And one of
Speaker 4: the best things that you can do is just if
Speaker 4: you know a warrior that's struggling, And this is like
Speaker 4: fundraising is great, but what Wounded Warrior Project's trying to
Speaker 4: do is make sure every warrior that's served and needs
Speaker 4: something is getting the help that they need. So if
Speaker 4: they know someone who's struggling, to have them go to
Speaker 4: Wounded Warrior Project as well. And I register as an
Speaker 4: alumni because every program that we have that heal the mind,
Speaker 4: heal the body, are about economic empowerment. Like the list
Speaker 4: goes on and on of how holistic when Warrior Project
Speaker 4: programs are. But the sort of best thing about it
Speaker 4: is that we've been doing this for twenty years. This
Speaker 4: is our twentieth year of service, and we're truly the
Speaker 4: experts in the field and when people, whether they make
Speaker 4: a donation or whether they just get involved in some way,
Speaker 4: it's you know, twenty years of service, but a lifetime
Speaker 4: of commitment. And you know, I really want people listening
Speaker 4: to know that, yes, their funds are seriously needed to
Speaker 4: make sure that we're going to be here for twenty
Speaker 4: more years. But more than that, we want to know
Speaker 4: where the warriors who don't think that they are eligible
Speaker 4: or qualify or it's not for them, but meanwhile they're
Speaker 4: you know, self medicating with drugs or alcohol or being
Speaker 4: disconnected from their family. Like that's what we really want.
Speaker 1: That's really interesting. I'm so glad to hear you say that.
Speaker 2: So uh it's a that's a whole other side of
Speaker 2: it that hadn't even really occurred to me. So anybody
Speaker 2: that's listening, whether you have been you know, affected or injured,
Speaker 2: or you are struggling, reach out, and anybody that wants
Speaker 2: to help, please get involved. And Dan, thank you so
Speaker 2: much for sharing your story. It's incredibly moving and riveting
Speaker 2: and you know, I'm I'm I'm so impressed and inspired
Speaker 2: with with you and you know, taking a tragedy like
Speaker 2: that and figuring out a way that you can turn
Speaker 2: it into something really positive and beautiful. It's it's great,
Speaker 2: it's amazing. And Rob, thank you so much for being
Speaker 2: here too, and for introducing me to Dan. And it's
Speaker 2: just been a blast having you guys, and I look
Speaker 2: forward to you know, reading your books and watching your
Speaker 2: sequel of my movie so good.
Speaker 4: I want to just say one thing, just just real quick,
Speaker 4: because it just occurs to me. So the Wounded Warrior
Speaker 4: project logo is one carrying another off the battlefield and
Speaker 4: all of the warriors start is the warrior on the top,
Speaker 4: and the goal is to become the warrior on the bottom.
Speaker 4: And I want both of you to know, like I'm
Speaker 4: gonna got Kevin Bacon and Rob Low right, like you
Speaker 4: got to understand how cool that is for me, right,
Speaker 4: just so just so you know, like I can do
Speaker 4: like forty of the dances from Footloose, right, and I
Speaker 4: can recite every line from Tommy Boy, Like you got
Speaker 4: to understand how cool that is. But now like Rob
Speaker 4: Low has been and now Kevin Bacon is the warrior
Speaker 4: on the bottom because like using your platform to show
Speaker 4: the story, it's doing more good than you possibly know.
Speaker 3: Thank you, and I love you, brother, Thank you for
Speaker 3: taking the time, as you always do. You look great man,
Speaker 3: looking good man, looking like the stud as always. Thank
Speaker 3: you all right, brother, thank.
Speaker 1: You all right fellas. Thanks for being here.
Speaker 3: Thanks Kevin, you're the best. This is awesome.
Speaker 2: Hey guys, thanks for listening to another episode of Six
Speaker 2: Degrees with Kevin Bacon. Now, if you want to learn
Speaker 2: more about the Wounded Warrior Project and all the work
Speaker 2: that they are up to, head over their website Wounded
Speaker 2: Warrior Project dot org. That's Wounded Warrior Project dot org.
Speaker 2: You can find all the links in our show notes,
Speaker 2: and please make sure you subscribe to the show, I mean,
Speaker 2: if you're enjoying it, and tune into the rest of
Speaker 2: our episodes. You can find Six Degrees with Kevin Bacon
Speaker 2: on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: See It's some Day
Speaker 2: MHM.