Fresh Air

How Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth brought the culture wars to the military

Usually secretaries of defense do everything they can to sort of protect the military from our sort of divisive politics and those culture wars. And Hegseth was really the first secretary of defense I've seen in my lifetime who invited that into the Pentagon and made it a central plank of his identity and leadership.

Pivot

Why Kara Swisher Finds Pete Hegseth's Unhinged Speech So "Terrifying"

You can take your roided up macho w you know WWE e you know warrior and give me a 90 lb man or woman in thick glasses with a drone and a hellfire missile and a command module. Let's see who wins. We fight wars now not as much with brawn but with brains and with people who have a certain level of discipline, a certain level of respect for each other.

The New York Times

Family Members of Sailor Aboard U.S.S. Lincoln Speak Out

I keep hearing, 'Well, they signed up for this.' They didn't sign up to be on a ship in the middle of the ocean with no port calls, no feet on the ground. That wasn't in the brochure when they signed up.

Fresh Air

How Trump made an estimated $2.2 billion last year

The Air Force One is actually designed to be able to keep flying in the event of a nuclear war. I mean, a terrible potential scenario. So they actually put like special shielding around all of the electrical wires and electrical components, so that if there were to be an electromagnetic pulse, which can result from a nuclear weapon, that it doesn't lose electric power, which would obviously imagine what would happen on a plane if it lost electric power.

Code Switch

How anti-DEI hit the military | Code Switch

Crossing the ocean to fight for freedom abroad that he wasn't even fully granted at home.

Book of the Day

ABC News' Martha Raddatz on 'The Hero Next Door,' her collection of veterans’ stories

I have always considered myself kind of a bridge. I can help those people who do not understand the military, who don't understand that these are the guys next door who four days before they were in a war zone were in a minivan taking their kids to school.

EconTalk

Facing Death (with Sebastian Junger)

Most soldiers who die in combat aren't thinking about their country or their family or God — they're thinking about the other soldiers in their unit. They die for each other, and that is the most powerful form of loyalty that humans are capable of.