Welcome Home - A Podcast for Veterans, About Veterans, By Veterans
Welcome Home is a Willing Warriors and the Warrior Retreat at Bull Run project. The program highlights activities at the Warrior Retreat and issues impacting all Veterans. For questions or feedback, please email us at podcast@willingwarriors.org.
Episodes
165 episodes
From High-OpSec to High-Visibility: How Veteran Entrepreneurs Win at Branding and PR
You can have the best product in the world and still lose if nobody knows you exist. That’s the tension we dig into with Austin Holmes, a Navy EOD veteran who now leads the Nashville-based PR firm Publici...
Why A WWII Propaganda Poster Is Basically Old-School TikTok
Fewer people personally know someone who served, and that quiet shift changes how communities understand sacrifice, leadership, and even citizenship. We sit down with Scott English, president of the P...
Mission: Entrepreneur — How JDog Brands Is Turning Military Service Into Business Ownership
One customer, noticing an early arrival and a military haircut, kicked off a brand that’s now helping veterans become business owners. We sit down with Tracy Flanagan, co-founder of JDog Brands, to unpack how...
What Good Is A Benefit If No One Uses It; Free Eye Glasses for Veterans
Paying retail for prescription eyeglasses is frustrating enough. Finding out you may have qualified for VA glasses the whole time is worse. We sit down with Sean Loosen, CEO of PDS Optical and a West Point ...
Stronghold: Where Veteran Healing Meets Purpose
A former Navy SEAL with 10 trips to Afghanistan should have had an easy off-ramp into high-paying contractor work, but Todd Peters chose a different mission. After years of watching suicides stack up across his community, he founded
How An Iraq War Veteran Turned PTS Into A Band With A Message
A triple agent looks a young soldier in the eye and says the North Gate is about to be hit. Minutes later, the blast proves it. That moment is one of the turning points Sean Martin shares with us, and it’s also part of the story behind why his ...
How JPMorgan Chase Helps Veteran-Owned Businesses Succeed Through CEOcircle
Many veteran-owned businesses don’t struggle because their founders lack discipline. They struggle because growth demands a new kind of support system: peers who’ve been there, mentors who tell the truth, and a clearer plan for capital, technol...
Military Spouse Survival Kit
Your spouse raises a right hand, and suddenly, your whole life has a new rulebook. Larry Zilliox, Director of Culinary Services at the Warrior Retreat at Bull Run, sits down with Kayla LaFond, military spouse liaison for the
A Community Car Show That Funds Healing at the Warrior Retreat
A great car can stop you in your tracks, but a great car show can do more than that. We’re joined by Chuck Berge, board member at Willing Warriors and the team lead behind Vettes For Willi...
From Service to Survival: The Fight for Veteran Healing
The fastest way to lose your footing after the military is to lose your people and then pretend you’re fine. Host Larry Zilliox sits down with Navy Veteran Jordyn Jureczki, CEO of Frontline Heal...
How A Combat Injury Led To A Fitness Mission For Veterans
A locked Marine recruiter door turned into an Army career, and an IED in Afghanistan turned that career into a fight to rebuild a life. I’m joined by Jason Smith, a retired Army infantryman, double amputee, and ambassador for
What If Belonging Is The Best Medicine For Veterans
A lot of veteran suicide prevention talk gets complicated fast. This conversation stays refreshingly direct: isolation kills, connection protects, and a well-run event can be the difference between shutting down and showing up. I’m Larry Zillio...
Transition Out Of The Military Is Harder Than People Admit
Stop Loss. That single policy changed thousands of military timelines overnight, and it changed Jonathan Tennis, too. Jonathan is a prior-service Army intelligence specialist who served through the post-9/11 shift, and he joins us at the Warrio...
Priorities Shaping Veterans’ Benefits and Care
What does it take to turn a veteran’s story into law that actually changes lives? We sit down with Jess Finucan, a retired Air Force Senior Master Sergeant and now the Director of Policy and advocacy at Iraq an...
Women Veterans And Toxic Exposures
Burn pits and jet fuel aren’t just headlines; they’re lived experiences that can follow veterans for years. We sit down with Dr. Maheen Adamson (Research Director) and Dr. Jennifer Jennings (Clinical Director), two VA physicians leading the
Inside The Stories Bringing Veterans’ Service To Young Readers
A single word on a headstone—Unknown—sent author Jeff Gottesfeld on a path to write children’s books that carry the weight of service with grace. Today, we sit down with Jeff to trace that path from 21 Steps: G...
Inside The Coast Guard Foundation’s Lifelines For Families
When a cutter launches into a storm or a helicopter hovers over a capsized hull, the story we don’t see is the family at home watching the radar, praying for their service member going into harm's way, or the kid who just switched schools again...
Brain Injury Is A Journey
What if recovery felt less like appointments and more like belonging? We sit down with Donna Meltzer, CEO of Brain Injury Services in Fairfax, to unpack why “brain injury is a journey” and how a purpos...
How One Combat Medic Built A Lifeline For Women Veterans
The most powerful sentence in today’s conversation is also the simplest: “Actually, she’s the veteran.” We sit down with Brooke Jackson Kahn—Army combat medic, neurosurgery PA, and founder of She’s the Vete...
Inside The Marine Raider Foundation: Care, Community, Continuity
The quiet work after the mission often decides whether a family bends or breaks. We sit down with Marine Raider Foundation CEO Jessica McAndrews to open the door on a community that rarely seeks...
From Underserved To Seen: Holistic Support For Women Veterans
Too many women who served are still asked to fight for basic recognition before they can access care. We sit down with Virginia Giordano, CEO and founder of the Barbara Giordano Foundation, to e...
Building On A Decade Of Healing At The Warrior Retreat
Ten years in, the Warrior Retreat at Bull Run stands on stories that still move us—volunteers who swung the first hammers, families who found rest here, and a community that showed up in sunshine and storms. We take that history and turn it int...
Green Berets, Still On Mission
The question we ask is simple: Who watches the warriors when their war is over? Larry sits down with Denny Caballero, a former Green Beret and media entrepreneur, to explore how the Special Forces ...
From Combat To Community: How "The Battle Within" Supports Veterans And First Responders
A Purple Heart veteran turned advocate, Justin Hoover knows what it takes to look tough at work and feel lost at home. We sat down with the CEO of The Battle Within to unpack practical ways veteran...