Welcome Home - A Podcast for Veterans, About Veterans, By Veterans

Jaksot

• From Service to Soil: Building a Successful Veteran Farm 13.07.2026 24min

  Farming can look like a simple escape plan until you run the numbers and realize the real enemy is the order of operations. Land is expensive, fences cost money, equipment breaks, and a “quick” farm dream can turn into years of stress if you start out of sequence. I sit down with Kate Bowen, program director of the American VetFarm Network (a program of At Ease Orchard), to talk about what it actually takes to help veterans become farmers and stay healthy in the process. We get into the pra...
• Military Kids Deserve College Help Without Debt 06.07.2026 28min

  Scholarship hunting shouldn’t feel like a second job, especially for military families already juggling PCS moves, shifting school rules, and tight timelines. We sit down with Kristen Ferullo, founder of Partners in Purpose, to discuss a free, searchable scholarship database designed specifically for military children, dependents, spouses, veterans, and ROTC students. If you’ve ever clicked through endless lists only to learn you don’t qualify, this conversation gives you a smarter path. We ...
• From High-OpSec to High-Visibility: How Veteran Entrepreneurs Win at Branding and PR 29.06.2026 27min

  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 Publicity for Good. We talk candidly about the mindset shift veteran entrepreneurs have to make when they leave a high-opsec culture and step into a marketplace that rewards clear, consistent communication. If you’ve ever built the LLC, opened the bank account, and then wondered why growth feels slo...
• Why A WWII Propaganda Poster Is Basically Old-School TikTok 22.06.2026 33min

  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 Pritzker Military Museum and Library in Kenosha, Wisconsin, to discuss how a modern military history museum can close that gap by telling authentic, relatable stories about the citizen soldier and the families who serve alongside them. Scott shares how the museum evolved from a book collector’s l...
• Mission: Entrepreneur — How JDog Brands Is Turning Military Service Into Business Ownership 15.06.2026 28min

  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 a junk removal and hauling side hustle grew into a veteran-owned franchise network with roughly 91 locations across 25-plus states and about 90% veteran ownership. Along the way, we get specific about what makes a franchise model work for military transition: structure, accountability, a...
• What Good Is A Benefit If No One Uses It; Free Eye Glasses for Veterans 08.06.2026 27min

  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 graduate with an infantry background, to explain how VA vision benefits actually work and why awareness remains the biggest barrier to better eye care for veterans. We break down the real-world basics: VA health care enrollment, what “service-connected disability” can mean for eligibility...
• Stronghold: Where Veteran Healing Meets Purpose 01.06.2026 27min

  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 Stronghold Alliance, a faith-based restoration nonprofit built to tackle veteran suicide prevention with urgency, humility, and real-world tools that veterans and first responders will actually use. We talk through what many people miss about PTS and traumatic br...
• How An Iraq War Veteran Turned PTS Into A Band With A Message 25.05.2026 27min

  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 band, The Quarantined, doesn’t exist just to entertain. Sean is a prior-service Army airborne infantry veteran who deployed to Iraq and ran hundreds of combat missions. He opens up about what pulled him toward the most “consequential” path, how a requi...
• How JPMorgan Chase Helps Veteran-Owned Businesses Succeed Through CEOcircle 18.05.2026 18min

  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, technology, and scale. That’s exactly where our conversation with Alex McKindra goes, drawing a straight line from military service to building stronger outcomes for veterans and military spouses in business and beyond. Alex is a Managing Director in Global C...
• Military Spouse Survival Kit 11.05.2026 21min

  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 Virginia Department of Veterans Services (DVS), for an honest talk about what the transition into military spouse life really looks like, from the first duty station shock to the long stretches where you feel like you are rebuilding from scratch. Kayla shares her own pat...
• A Community Car Show That Funds Healing at the Warrior Retreat 04.05.2026 21min

  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 Willing Warriors, to lay out exactly what happens when hundreds of vehicles roll onto the Warrior Retreat at Bull Run and the community shows up in force. We talk real numbers and real details: 240 cars and about 865 visitors last year, with expectations of 1,000+ spectators this time. You’ll hear how judging ac...
• From Service to Survival: The Fight for Veteran Healing 27.04.2026 25min

  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 Healing Foundation, to talk about what happens when transition feels isolating, anger lingers, and the path to care is blocked by money, red tape, or geography. Jordyn shares how her own post-service road led her into law enforcement, a personal struggle with alcohol, and an unexpected turning point...
• How A Combat Injury Led To A Fitness Mission For Veterans 20.04.2026 19min

  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 Catch A Lift Fund, and he tells the story with zero polish and a lot of truth: the terror of transition, the identity shift after catastrophic injury, and the small decisions that make recovery possible. We dig into what happens after the evacuation flights and the hos...
• What If Belonging Is The Best Medicine For Veterans 13.04.2026 22min

  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 Zilliox, and I’m joined by Kimberly Jewell Pond, Operational Support Coordinator and Lead Coordinator for the Washington, DC chapter of Irreverent Warriors, to break down how a “simple hike” becomes something much bigger for veteran mental health. Kimberly s...
• Transition Out Of The Military Is Harder Than People Admit 06.04.2026 25min

  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 Warrior Retreat at Bull Run to talk honestly about what comes next when the uniform comes off and the mission feels unclear. We get into why military transition can be so hard, even when you have strong qualifications, plus the parts people don’t say out lou...
• Priorities Shaping Veterans’ Benefits and Care 30.03.2026 26min

  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 and Afghanistan Veterans of America, to pull back the curtain on how evidence, testimony, and relentless follow-through move Congress on veterans’ issues. Jess shares her rapid transition from uniform to policy, her first VA appointment that made civilian life feel real, and why doc...
• Women Veterans And Toxic Exposures 23.03.2026 25min

  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 Women’s Operational Military Exposure Network Center of Excellence, to explain what we’re learning about military environmental exposure and why women veterans have been missing from the data for far too long. We walk through the center’s mission and the ...
• Inside The Stories Bringing Veterans’ Service To Young Readers 16.03.2026 22min

  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: Guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to his new large-format book, Honor Flight: Celebrating America’s Veterans, and a forthcoming project that centers on the kids who also serve. We dig into how a writer chooses the right voice for young readers without softening the truth. Jeff sh...
• Inside The Coast Guard Foundation’s Lifelines For Families 09.03.2026 34min

  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. This episode pulls back the curtain on the Coast Guard Foundation—the nonprofit lifeline that helps Coast Guard members and their families stay ready, resilient, and focused when it counts most. We sit down with Ron LaBrec, a 29-year Coast Guard vete...
• Brain Injury Is A Journey 02.03.2026 30min

  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 purpose-built clubhouse helps survivors—veterans and civilians alike—reclaim identity, skills, and community. From the first welcome to setting personal goals, the model flips the script: members choose to participate, practice real-life tasks, and build confidence where it matters most—at home, at wo...