In this episode, Dr. Nicole Saphier sits down with board-certified physician, Air Force Reserve Colonel, and author Dr. Josh McConkey to break down the biggest health and national security headlines shaping America right now.
They unpack what wasn’t said in the State of the Union about the MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) movement, vaccine policy, and public health transparency. The conversation dives into the controversial Senate confirmation hearing for Surgeon General nominee Dr. Casey Means, the hepatitis B vaccine debate, COVID-era messaging failures, and what it will take to restore trust in the medical establishment.
Dr. McConkey also shares firsthand insight as a military commander, discussing recruitment challenges, the rollback of vaccine mandates, DEI priorities inside the armed forces, and how national security readiness has shifted under new leadership.
The episode then turns to rising tensions with Iran, nuclear breakout concerns, Operation Midnight Hammer, and what’s at stake globally if deterrence fails.
Plus, Dr. McConkey discusses his Pulitzer Prize–nominated book and his new children’s leadership series focused on resilience, accountability, and raising the next generation to lead.
Topics Covered:
-
MAHA movement and vaccine controversy
-
Surgeon General confirmation hearing analysis
-
COVID vaccine mandates and public trust
-
Military recruitment and readiness
-
Iran nuclear threat and U.S. strategy
-
Leadership, resilience, and raising strong kids
Learn more about Dr. Josh McConkey HERE
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Listen
Watch
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Wellness Unmask. Today.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I am joined by Josh McConkie, who is a doctor
and he's a military colonel, and we are going to
discuss several topics that sits at the intersection of medicine
policy and national security. We actually talk about code vaccination policy,
how it helped people, but also how it hurt our
military and its implications for military readiness. We're also going
to talk about how some of the mandates affected service members,
(00:28):
what we know about health outcomes, and the broader question
how do we balance protection with individual medical risk but
also national defense. We also dive into the State of
the Union, what he thought was good, what he thought
was missing, the Maha movement. We even talk about pending
military relations with Iran. We cover a lot of it.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Well.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
It has certainly been a busy time talking about health policy.
We had the State of the Union, we have Senate
confirmation hearings. So I'm very happy that we have doctor
McConkie on with us today to kind of help break
it all down. Certified position, he was a professor and
he also is an author, so he has a lot
to say about these topics.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Doctor McConkie, thanks so much for being with us today.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Thank you for having me on the show.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
So obviously the State of the Union, a lot of
people tuned in, there were a lot of applauses, there
were some outbursts, But I kind of want to get
away from the political side of things, because there were
some very important things that were talked about, you know,
from you know, a big view from you what was
your take on the State of the Union.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Well, I think from the healthcare side of things, I
think some of the biggest notable points was what was
not mentioned. And so in the previous State of the
Union speech when you talk about that MAHA movement making
America healthy again, and you know had previously put you know,
Secretary Kennedy more front and center, there was basically no
(01:51):
mention in this at all. And then most presidential administrations
and prior addresses have talked about some type of medical advances,
you know, they didn't mention anything as far as kind
of research and those things. So there was a lot
of things not mentioned. There was a lot that was
mentioned with you know, immigration, and there was a brief
(02:12):
mention of how many people they were removing from the
Medicaid scrolls. But I think the big notable things were
what were not mentioned?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
So why do you think that is? I mean, I
have my opinions, but let's hear yours first.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
You know, I've been reading some articles and some reviews
on that, and I think a lot of the issues
with you with the vaccine, you know, specifically, you know,
the hepatitis B and COVID vaccines, and what the perception
being that you know that Kennedy and his administration are
kind of moving away from evidence based studies and interjecting
(02:45):
more of their personal beliefs into some of those recommendations.
I think it's it's causing a lot of issues, and
the President may be distancing himself from that. So it
may have been intentional, or maybe he just ran out
of time. I guess that will be determined here shortly.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
You know, we have heard a little bit about I
don't know if you tuned in at all to the
Senate confirmation hearing for Surgeon General Casey.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Meet doctor case I watched some clips.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Yeah, so I am someone who actually tuned in for
the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
I tend to do that in between seeing patients. It's
always fun.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
But I thought it was very interesting and a lot
of the things that you just mentioned got brought up,
and it is controversial, and so I think that's probably
why it could have been he just didn't have enough time.
But I think because it's controversial and it isn't very
favorable with a lot of American people is maybe why
it didn't get brought up in the State of the Union.
(03:41):
But specifically, the questions that were asked were hepatitis B vaccines,
should it be universally recommended in newborns? And also, interestingly
for me, though the Surgeon General confirmation hearing, they didn't
bring up the COVID vaccine.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
They didn't bring up COVID at all, and I found
that a little surprising.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Yeah, So I guess I guess from my standpoint is
when we talk about the MAHA movement, I am able
to you know, I think it's kind of divided. I
think you can talk about the health, you know, the
wellness point, the making food healthy, healthier, and trying to
get some of the stuff, you know, the artificial dies
and some of the stuff that already has been banned
(04:22):
in other countries that we still have here in the
United States kind.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Of nowhere else on the planet can you get those
on the in America that is quite quite ridiculous. So
I'm glad to see that being addressed as well.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Yeah, I think that, you know, there's no way you
can't champion and cheer for that a little bit. I
think unfortunately some of that gets muddied by some of
the vaccine talk And what's your overall take on the
MAHA vaccine talking points?
Speaker 3 (04:48):
You know, when you kind of lump it all together,
you see so many people just dismiss it all and
just want to throw the whole baby out with the
bath water. Them asking some questions, you know, with the
food dies and just food security and addressing those issues
I think are a very positive thing. Those questions should
have been asked and really addressed decades ago with the vaccines.
(05:10):
You know, I certainly have some concerns that they try
to put a blanket anti vaccine rhetoric out there. I
don't think that's that's truly the case, but I think
that it's controversial enough. I'm a physician, I've practiced for
twenty years. I certainly believe in vaccines. They've saved thousands
and thousands of lives. You know, I certainly had some
concerns with the COVID vaccine specifically, but the hepatitis B vaccine,
(05:35):
I felt like it's a little bit more of a
reach on their part to really almost politicize that. And
I'm not a pediatrician. I don't do himnizations. I'm an
emergency doctor. You know, I see the repercussions of people
who don't get those vaccines coming into my emergency department.
But you know, as far as that specifically with the
hepatitis vaccine, I think they were a lot of valid concerns.
(05:56):
And with doctor means, my understanding is that she hasn't
clinically practiced medicine in quite some time. Did they address
that there? I had seen just some clips, but when
did she last practice?
Speaker 2 (06:08):
So interesting, and I am not an expert in doctor
means credentials by any stretch of the imagination, but I
can tell you from what I have gathered, is very smart,
bright woman. She went to Stanford Medical. Not very many
people can say that. I certainly can't. Graduated in good standing,
had a lot of research experience, had a head and
(06:28):
neck surgical fellowship, not fellowship, I'm sorry, residency I think
somewhere in the Northwest, and hard residency to get and
she got it, but she went on a leave of
absence and we don't necessarily know why, and she ended
up not finishing her residency. And so as you know,
you can become get your medical license, we have to
(06:51):
while you're a resident. So she does have a medical license,
but she never completed residency. And I think that is
where a lot of people are criticizing her because in
terms of, you know, what she was trained to do,
She's never actually practiced medicine unsupervised. She's always been a
medical student or a resident who again didn't finish residency.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
She then went on to start a company.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
I think she has a device company that sells like
gluepost monitors, which is interesting because obviously Secretary Kennedy, that's
one of his big pushes is for people to have
these glucost monitors. And I think, you know, I've heard
that she practiced functional medicine, which is kind of a
yeah exactly that he made a face for people who
(07:37):
are listening. He made a face, And the thing is,
I make the same face because I'm like, I don't
know what that means. I think that means that you
focus on metabolic health. But you know, it wasn't that
she you know, completed a residency and then did a
fellowship or advanced training in this.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
I think she just I don't know. I actually don't
know what that means.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
And she doesn't have an active medical license right now,
so she's certainly not seeing patients right now, and I
don't know when the last time she was, and I
actually don't know if she ever really saw and treated
patients outside of residency.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
So there's a lot of questions marks for me on there.
It didn't come up as much as you would think.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Does that mean she's not board certified then in anything
with American border medical specialties?
Speaker 2 (08:18):
I would say I don't believe so, because she didn't
finish residency.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Yeah, so I don't know.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Again, I am not an expert in her credentials.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
I'm surprised it didn't come up as much as you
would have thought, mainly because the doctors on the panel
were Republican and so maybe they were a little lighter
on her. But for me, you know, that's one thing
that has me kind of scratching my head. There were
some things that did get brought up. Was I guess
she didn't disclose in some of She's an influencer, right,
(08:47):
so she makes money by posting on social media, and
so she didn't disclose that she had financial gains from
some of her posts. I guess, I mean, I'm not
an influencer, so I don't really know all that works.
And then they asked her a lot of questions about
the vaccines and birth control, basically about statements that she's
made in the past, which you know, she kind of
(09:07):
did a little bit of an about turn with her
responses in the Senate hearing. So but I think you
have to do that, right if you're wanting to get confirmed.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Yeah, very interesting. So I've just seen some of those clips,
so maybe if I get some time, I'll go back
and watch that. But there's certainly those are notable, notable things.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Yeah, you know, I think it's very likely she will
get confirmed.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Obviously, she has the sport of Secretary Kennedy President Trump,
and she's definitely aligned with the MAHA agenda. I kind
of would have liked to see someone to reach across
the aisle a little bit more, maybe a little bit
less involved with MAHA because public health and as you know,
I mean think about since COVID, I mean, we're at
an all time low in terms of trust, Like, what
do you think it would take to bring back trust
(09:48):
to the medical establishment?
Speaker 3 (09:51):
You know, for me, I think the biggest concern. I mean,
just talk about the COVID vaccine. You know, the research
was there. It certainly saved a ton of lives if
you had risks, you know, if you elderly population or
or or youth of some you know medical problems, you know, diabetes, asthma,
some specially of the respiratory issues. But I think what
(10:11):
concerned me with the COVID vaccine itself is that I
did feel that they could have been more honest. So
when they came out with their blanket statement, Hey, we
want to immunize everybody. It's going to prevent the spread
of the disease, and we should give it to all
these kids. You know, I had concerns there that unless
you had really especially in children, it didn't prevent the
(10:33):
spread of disease.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Do you think they knew that the that the transmission
wasn't able to be stopped by the vaccine when they
demanded universally.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Yeah, I don't think they knew that, and so they
shouldn't have come out so hard with that messaging, and
maybe it was the media they just caught onto it
and pushed that narrative, but they really pushed like, you know,
you have to get this, it's going to prevent the
spread of the disease. And it didn't. And you know,
there's both sides of the debate on that, but what
it did is that just gave just put fuel on
(11:03):
the fire for the anti vaxers. So the people that
were looking for a reason to not want vaccines, where
you push all those those crazy you know, autism lengths
and they just work. They're clearly not there. The evidence
does not support that. But if you give you know,
that population just an inch of like, oh, here's the
government being dishonest. You know the I don't think they
(11:25):
really knew that it wouldn't prevent the spread of the disease.
When you came out so hard saying hey, you have
to take it to prevent the spread of disease, they
just latch onto that. And now we had five hundred
and six hundred cases of measles in Texas a few
months ago and we're just what is this to eighteen hundreds,
Like we're going to dial back the clock now on vaccines,
So you know, it's that was my concern.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
You're listening to wellness and mass We'll be right back
with more.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
It's pretty disappointing that we are on the brink of
losing our eradication status for measles.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
It's not just the United States, to.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Be fair, you have Canada, you have some areas in
Europe obviously Mexico and other places that are also having
measles outbreaks right now. But I think a lot of
it has to do with you know, we started seeing
a decline in vaccination rates pre COVID like twenty nineteen,
a little bit of a dip, but since then, obviously
it's gone down. People like to point fingers saying it's
RFKA junior, but reality is it was happening before then.
(12:23):
It all has to do with the lack of trust,
and I'm one hundred percent with you. They just needed
to be more transparent when it came to the COVID vaccine.
I was one of the biggest things that people criticize
me for is they say that, oh, I was a
shot pusher, vaccine pusher, whatever they want to say about
me on social media, And the reality is, yes, I was.
I was reporting on air many times a day, every
(12:44):
single day since starting January twenty twenty, and when we
had Operation Warp Speed, it was very exciting, like, oh
my gosh, we're potentially going to have a vaccine and
maybe the hospitals won't be overrun. I think anyone who
didn't work in a hospital during COVID, they they're the
only ones who can say COVID wasn't real. Right all
(13:05):
actually step foot into the hospital know it was real.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
As an emergency physician, it sucked yourue will to live,
I'm telling you, just seeing just the fallout of that
and the patient deaths and the stories. You know, I've
spent time in Australia and New Zealand as well, so
I did spend some time in Australia during COVID, and
right after I had arrived there, you just hear the
stories in Texas because I was in Texas previously, and
(13:29):
as well as North Carolina where I'm at now, and
I mean just truckloads of bodies just thrown into refrigerated
trucks because they didn't even have place to put them all,
and just the stories that were coming out, it was, Boy,
It's something I hoped to never see repeated. They see
it was in one of those one hundred year events
like the Spanish influenza of nineteen eighteen. You know, I've
(13:50):
been perhaps in twenty years. I hope to never see
anything like that again.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Yeah, but it was exciting for the COVID vaccine to
come out because life as we knew it had really
stopped businesses utter, children were suffering, adults were suffering. It
was I mean, being a coronavirus, you know, I had
my suspicions that it's probably not going to stop transmission,
dead in its track, but they were saying it probably would.
That's what they were saying was in that short term
(14:14):
study that it did stop transition.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
So and just the conferred immunity. You know, once you
have a disease, you generally build those antibodies. You know,
early on they were just pushing that, oh, there's no
confer immunity. And for me, I'm a I'm a biologist.
I have a degree in biology, practice medics for twenty years,
and so you're telling me that in the history of
disease and the thousands of years of mankind, this is
(14:38):
like the one disease where you don't build some natural
antibodies to that. And I questioned that early on, but
don't say anything or you get crucial. You know obvious,
we know now, but they were pushing that early on
as well. And you know, just I think people were scared.
They just didn't know what they didn't know. And we
had not in our lifetimes, had not seen a pandemic
(14:59):
like this before. So I think everyone was just scared
and fear kind of ruled the day rather than the
actual science. When I went to Australia, I was locked
in a hotel room for two weeks.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
We were very harsh in Australia.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
I mean people are wife in and out of the country. Yeah,
with my wife and three children, we were locked in
a hotel room. As soon as we were checked in.
We couldn't open the door, the windows were bolted shut.
You couldn't even go out on the patio. And we're
up on the seventh or eighth floor, and you know,
just I'm so, you're getting.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
All the circulating air but you can't.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Oh yeah, you can get the circus sare and read
that all over. But what if I stepped outside and
I coughed and a particle fell on someone's seven floors below,
and it was just it was so bizarre, just the
complete ignoring like science and germ theory and how everything works.
I lived it. It was bizarre.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
I mean really common sense went out the window. At
anytime you actually tried to mention common sense things that
we had been taught twenty years ago. They all of
a sudden you were turning.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
Into a conspira theorists.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
And for me, you know the idea of trying to
get back to normalcy with the COVID vaccine, I'm like, yes,
I'm all for it.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Weight should do it.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Obviously, high risks should do it first, and you know,
anybody else who wants it should do it. But then
when they started mandating the kids to do it, that
is when I took a pause. Being a mother of three,
I had concerns because of the sense that one we
already knew overwhelmingly that healthy kids were extremely low risk,
but we were also seeing those cases of misc in kids,
(16:29):
which was that the inflammatory response from the virus. And
my concern was, if kids are getting this weird inflammatory
response from the virus, we're now going to give them
a dose that's higher than the virus in this vaccine.
Are they going to get an even higher inflammatory response
to the vaccine? I wrote about it a lot, I
talked to a lot of people about it, and everyone
(16:50):
really kind of just kept saying, no, we're not saying this,
there's no evidence to suggest this, and so then I
started saying, I am not for this, and then I
turned into typevaxer. So half of the population we're like,
you're pushing the clot shot as people like to call it,
quote unquote, and then another half is like, oh, you're
an anti vaxer.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
I'm like, well, I can't be both, so choose.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Yeah. I mean, so in the military population, I'm a
colonel and the Air Force reserves, it was a military commander,
and in young, healthy, twenty year old guys, you see
a six hundred percent increase in like paracatitis, myocarditis. Hmmm.
I wonder what it could have been, you know, I
mean there's no doubt, but I mean if you talk
about it, like whoa, you know, they want to cucify you, but.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Yeah, talk about it.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Israel even tried to alert us with data early on
about young men, adolescents early twenties, and it was really
pushed aside by our public health officials for months. And
you know, this isn't necessarily supposed to be a talk
about COVID and the vaccine, but it's just these moments
are what took us so far away from being trusted
in the public's eye. And now we have a new administration,
(17:59):
which I was very happy for because this is an
administration who wanted allowed us to have these conversations. I
wanted to roll back a lot of the mandates. But
my concern is that we're not necessarily making the moves
to regain public health and we actually may be going
a little farther from that.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Yeah, definitely concerning, and I think you probably saw that reflected.
That's why he didn't talk about that specifically. That's my
feeling in the State of the Union address, and we'll
kind of see where the administration goes from here. But
I think he senses that as well, and that it
concerns a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
So what is your take, you know, pivoting a little bit,
We now have Secretary of Hegseth.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
We're kind of coming out of COVID, they're trying to
roll back those mandates. They're paying back people who maybe
you know, we're removed from the military lost some of
their funding. From like a national security and readiness standpoint,
where do you feel like we're at with recruitment, from
the health of the military physical health, but also just
having a robust military.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
So for me, I've always been very support of the
administration's stance that the military has a terrible, terrible job
to do, so when we're called on, we unleash lethality.
And I've served in combat. I have carried body bags
of American heroes and Iraq. In two thousand and seven,
I was there when they were shooting down helicopters. I
(19:19):
arrived the day I landed in theater. They shot down
one helicopter, one of ours. It was about eight helicopters
in a two week span. I was there. They killed
the flight surgeon, Colonel Algod, just before I got there.
And when you start taking the attention of the military
and putting out things on things that don't really add
to that ability to deliver lethality and train as a
(19:41):
military commander, I will tell you that an ordinate amount
of my time was spent on DEI things and CBT
computer based training, and you know, diversity and inclusion they
can be great things. So that's what I love about America.
My squadron had people from all walks of life, ethnicities, religions, colors,
(20:04):
and just everything. It was wonderful. But when you make
that you're singular focus instead of focusing on the absolute mission.
We did a big exercise in the Pacific Northwest. So
this was CADUSA, so Ultimate Caduceas. This is a big
military exercise where they are planning on patient movement in
the Pacific theater. It was clearly in response to military
(20:28):
aggression of China against Taiwan. And I did an NBC interview.
This is involving the National Disaster Medical System, the Department
of Defense, the VA, all the civilian hospitals, and this
was at Joint Base Lewis McCord in Seattle, Tacoma area.
And the night before the interview, during the Biden administration,
(20:48):
I got a list of things that I could not
talk about, and number one, front and center that this
four page document I kept it. Don't say the word China,
can't say China.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Who from who did you?
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Yeah? Yeah? So there's Department of Defense and then there's
the Public Affairs who get their marching orders from you
know whatever mag com who get their orders from. So
somewhere along the line, the public affairs officer, he sits down,
these are the things I can't talk about, cannot say
the word China. So sure enough, the very first question
that the NBC anchor asks is this exercise in response
(21:22):
to Chinese aggression against Taiwan, And in my mind is
just exploding. I'm like, you've got to know, this is
an annual exercise that we do every year. This year
just happens to be in the Pacific Theater because we
were actually assizing all the way from Guam and the
Okinawa all the way to Seattle and then Elmendorf up
in Alaska, like we actually flew aircraft. We flew aircraft
(21:45):
but simulated patients and then farm them out on helicopters
to Spokane and Boise and very big exercise and just
don't say the word China. And that concerned me, and
that knowing what the national security objectives are and what
we were preparing for or but you don't want to
upset the Chinese, so don't don't say China on National
and TV. And so that that we follow, we follow orders.
(22:09):
You know, we have a civilian led military. I'm very
strong believer in that. I had some uh much different
opinions than leadership at that time, but I followed orders.
And I'm very happy to see the Trump administration have
that much different approach in the focus now being put
on the right things, and I think you're seeing that
reflected in a massive increase in our recruiting. It was
(22:31):
very very hard to recruit near the Biden administration for
some very obvious reasons.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
More coming up on Wellness Unmasked with doctor Nicole Sapphire
heading into i mean all over the media right now,
is the conflicts going on with Iran.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
What is your take on that?
Speaker 3 (22:49):
So Iran has been one of our largest national security
threats for decades, having served in Iraq and then seeing
after the withdrawal in twenty eleven, US going into the
Middle East and then you disrupt that government, that check
that we had on Iran. Saddam Musain was a very
(23:10):
very bad dude, but taking him down let Iran just
run completely wild. So we removed more of the big force,
the big check against Iran. And then when we bailed
in twenty eleven, which I also thought was a mistake,
when I was there in two thousand and seven. It
was the largest air base and then second in traffic
(23:30):
only to London Heathrow. And you know, you're there to
take care of the men and women that are serving
this country. Politics aside. We serve for those men and women.
And I carried those body bags. I took care of
those men and women, those real heroes. And I thought,
you know, we're going to be here for the long term,
and so keep that check on Iran. And then as
(23:51):
soon as we left in twenty eleven, you had Iran
come in there and just set up the whole Isis,
you know, state, and really gave everything exploded, I mean
all the way to like Syria, and and then you
know what happened in Israel, you know, October seventh and
twenty twenty three. I mean, these cascading effects of just
(24:14):
bad decisions. So Iran is a very very bad group
of leadership, you know, are the Iranian people are just
no different than anyone else. They want to education, they
want food for their families. But I mean the leadership
there is horrific. They are hell bent on destroying the world,
nuking Israel. You know, you cannot let them have a
nuclear weapon, and if some of these reports are accurate
(24:37):
that I'm hearing, they may be as little as one
week away from having that ninety percent enriched uranium enough
to have a nuclear weapon.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
That creation Midnight Hammer. I mean, we were told that
that was supposed to have taken most of it out.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
There's conflicting reports there, you know, depending who you talk
with in the administration, but the most recent reports and
I think why you're seeing these talks that we're having
right now getting so heated and so focused on if
they get that capability, you it will be extremely bad.
I don't want to be hyperbolistic, but if they get
(25:14):
a new kid a weapon, I mean, world War III
is going to be it's going to be horrific. Like
just we can't let it happen under any circumstance, under
any administration. That cannot happen. So whatever we need to
do to prevent that is what needs to happen.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Well, I think President Trump, if anyone's going to be
forthcoming with doing what needs to happen there, I.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Believe it would be him.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
So I guess that gives me some sort of piece
in a very very dangerous time.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Yeah, I wanted to get this in.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
I know you're a very, very busy person, but you
actually wrote a book that was a Pultzer Priye nominated
book obviously is very good and it's turned into something
even bigger than that now in a children's series.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Can you just tell us quickly about that.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
Yeah, thank you very much. So my personal leadership ethos
be the weight behind the spear. That's my call to
action for people to engage their communities because our best
resource we have in this country, it's teachers, coaches, volunteers,
and families. That is what sets America upart. And as
a military commander, as an emergency physician, I had just
seen an entire generation that lacked leadership skills, They lacked resiliency.
(26:19):
I mean, as an emergency doctor, I see the anxiety,
the depression of the suicide, and as a military commander,
just we have a long way to go to teach
this generation. You know, some of these skills it's really
hard to do when they're twenty years old. So there's
a lot of pushups, and there's a lot of yelling
and physical fitness, and you just we need to start earlier.
So getting involved at five six years old, I've now
(26:43):
turned that into a children's book series, the Be the
Weight Series and our first book, The Heart of a Leader.
But behind me here we've won the Gold Seal from
the Mom's Choice Awards well as well as several other awards.
But this is how you teach kids about leadership. So
the next books are going to be a about resiliency
and just some of those really important skills and accountability.
(27:05):
So when you ask, how do you teach a five
year old these skills, well, we got a fantastic book
with joe Yakivetic, a world renowned illustrator had done a
lot of Disney illustrations Leelo and Stitch and a Little
Mermaid quite legit, so I was very blessed to have
him jump on board, and we're pretty excited about the series.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Well, I love that maybe fewer drag Queens storytime hours
at the local libraries and more children's books on resilience.
Thank you so much, colonel and doctor Josh McConkey, so
appreciate your time.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Well, we covered a lot.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
There, so let me figure out how I'm going to
wrap all of that up. First and foremost, I really
appreciated his insight and time when it came to discussing
the COVID vaccine and how we just didn't know a
lot in the beginning. You know I personally, You've heard
me say it over and over again. I didn't like
the way it was handled from a public health standpoint.
I didn't think they were very transparent on things. But
I don't think a lot of it was nefarious. I
(27:59):
think it was just rapidly moving information, and while their
ultimate goal was to save lives, they definitely muddied it
and took us far away from trust in public health.
It's going to take a really long time to get
back to it. I have my concerns whether or not
the MAHA movement is actually helping us regain public trust
or taking us farther away. There are a lot of
(28:21):
good things coming out of the MAHA movement, also some
things that are a little frustrating as a physician to watch.
I also thought it was very interesting to talk about
military readiness, how the COVID vaccine obviously negatively impacted a
lot of young healthy men because that's what we like
to see in the military, and how we had recruitment
(28:42):
efforts were very hard during the Biden administration. And how
about that, how about the fact that he was told
he can't even talk about China when talking about national security.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
I mean that's concerning.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
I'm glad that we find ourselves now where we're able
to be more transparent and we are not afraid to
talk about some of our foes across the world and
have a little bit more of an American.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
First in mentality. Whether we're talking about our physical health,
mental health, or national security, everything is aligned. Thank you
so much for listening to Wellness on MASS. I'm doctor
Nicole Saffire.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
Be sure to tune in every week to Wellness on
Mass on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts,
and we'll see you next time.
Welcome to Wellness Unmask. Today.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
I am joined by Josh McConkie, who is a doctor
and he's a military colonel, and we are going to
discuss several topics that sits at the intersection of medicine
policy and national security. We actually talk about code vaccination policy,
how it helped people, but also how it hurt our
military and its implications for military readiness. We're also going
to talk about how some of the mandates affected service members,
(00:28):
what we know about health outcomes, and the broader question
how do we balance protection with individual medical risk but
also national defense. We also dive into the State of
the Union, what he thought was good, what he thought
was missing, the Maha movement. We even talk about pending
military relations with Iran. We cover a lot of it.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
Well.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
It has certainly been a busy time talking about health policy.
We had the State of the Union, we have Senate
confirmation hearings. So I'm very happy that we have doctor
McConkie on with us today to kind of help break
it all down. Certified position, he was a professor and
he also is an author, so he has a lot
to say about these topics.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Doctor McConkie, thanks so much for being with us today.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Thank you for having me on the show.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
So obviously the State of the Union, a lot of
people tuned in, there were a lot of applauses, there
were some outbursts, But I kind of want to get
away from the political side of things, because there were
some very important things that were talked about, you know,
from you know, a big view from you what was
your take on the State of the Union.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Well, I think from the healthcare side of things, I
think some of the biggest notable points was what was
not mentioned. And so in the previous State of the
Union speech when you talk about that MAHA movement making
America healthy again, and you know had previously put you know,
Secretary Kennedy more front and center, there was basically no
(01:51):
mention in this at all. And then most presidential administrations
and prior addresses have talked about some type of medical advances,
you know, they didn't mention anything as far as kind
of research and those things. So there was a lot
of things not mentioned. There was a lot that was
mentioned with you know, immigration, and there was a brief
(02:12):
mention of how many people they were removing from the
Medicaid scrolls. But I think the big notable things were
what were not mentioned?
Speaker 2 (02:19):
So why do you think that is? I mean, I
have my opinions, but let's hear yours first.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
You know, I've been reading some articles and some reviews
on that, and I think a lot of the issues
with you with the vaccine, you know, specifically, you know,
the hepatitis B and COVID vaccines, and what the perception
being that you know that Kennedy and his administration are
kind of moving away from evidence based studies and interjecting
(02:45):
more of their personal beliefs into some of those recommendations.
I think it's it's causing a lot of issues, and
the President may be distancing himself from that. So it
may have been intentional, or maybe he just ran out
of time. I guess that will be determined here shortly.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
You know, we have heard a little bit about I
don't know if you tuned in at all to the
Senate confirmation hearing for Surgeon General Casey.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Meet doctor case I watched some clips.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
Yeah, so I am someone who actually tuned in for
the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
I tend to do that in between seeing patients. It's
always fun.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
But I thought it was very interesting and a lot
of the things that you just mentioned got brought up,
and it is controversial, and so I think that's probably
why it could have been he just didn't have enough time.
But I think because it's controversial and it isn't very
favorable with a lot of American people is maybe why
it didn't get brought up in the State of the Union.
(03:41):
But specifically, the questions that were asked were hepatitis B vaccines,
should it be universally recommended in newborns? And also, interestingly
for me, though the Surgeon General confirmation hearing, they didn't
bring up the COVID vaccine.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
They didn't bring up COVID at all, and I found
that a little surprising.
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Yeah, So I guess I guess from my standpoint is
when we talk about the MAHA movement, I am able
to you know, I think it's kind of divided. I
think you can talk about the health, you know, the
wellness point, the making food healthy, healthier, and trying to
get some of the stuff, you know, the artificial dies
and some of the stuff that already has been banned
(04:22):
in other countries that we still have here in the
United States kind.
Speaker 3 (04:25):
Of nowhere else on the planet can you get those
on the in America that is quite quite ridiculous. So
I'm glad to see that being addressed as well.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Yeah, I think that, you know, there's no way you
can't champion and cheer for that a little bit. I
think unfortunately some of that gets muddied by some of
the vaccine talk And what's your overall take on the
MAHA vaccine talking points?
Speaker 3 (04:48):
You know, when you kind of lump it all together,
you see so many people just dismiss it all and
just want to throw the whole baby out with the
bath water. Them asking some questions, you know, with the
food dies and just food security and addressing those issues
I think are a very positive thing. Those questions should
have been asked and really addressed decades ago with the vaccines.
(05:10):
You know, I certainly have some concerns that they try
to put a blanket anti vaccine rhetoric out there. I
don't think that's that's truly the case, but I think
that it's controversial enough. I'm a physician, I've practiced for
twenty years. I certainly believe in vaccines. They've saved thousands
and thousands of lives. You know, I certainly had some
concerns with the COVID vaccine specifically, but the hepatitis B vaccine,
(05:35):
I felt like it's a little bit more of a
reach on their part to really almost politicize that. And
I'm not a pediatrician. I don't do himnizations. I'm an
emergency doctor. You know, I see the repercussions of people
who don't get those vaccines coming into my emergency department.
But you know, as far as that specifically with the
hepatitis vaccine, I think they were a lot of valid concerns.
(05:56):
And with doctor means, my understanding is that she hasn't
clinically practiced medicine in quite some time. Did they address
that there? I had seen just some clips, but when
did she last practice?
Speaker 2 (06:08):
So interesting, and I am not an expert in doctor
means credentials by any stretch of the imagination, but I
can tell you from what I have gathered, is very smart,
bright woman. She went to Stanford Medical. Not very many
people can say that. I certainly can't. Graduated in good standing,
had a lot of research experience, had a head and
(06:28):
neck surgical fellowship, not fellowship, I'm sorry, residency I think
somewhere in the Northwest, and hard residency to get and
she got it, but she went on a leave of
absence and we don't necessarily know why, and she ended
up not finishing her residency. And so as you know,
you can become get your medical license, we have to
(06:51):
while you're a resident. So she does have a medical license,
but she never completed residency. And I think that is
where a lot of people are criticizing her because in
terms of, you know, what she was trained to do,
She's never actually practiced medicine unsupervised. She's always been a
medical student or a resident who again didn't finish residency.
Speaker 1 (07:11):
She then went on to start a company.
Speaker 2 (07:15):
I think she has a device company that sells like
gluepost monitors, which is interesting because obviously Secretary Kennedy, that's
one of his big pushes is for people to have
these glucost monitors. And I think, you know, I've heard
that she practiced functional medicine, which is kind of a
yeah exactly that he made a face for people who
(07:37):
are listening. He made a face, And the thing is,
I make the same face because I'm like, I don't
know what that means. I think that means that you
focus on metabolic health. But you know, it wasn't that
she you know, completed a residency and then did a
fellowship or advanced training in this.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
I think she just I don't know. I actually don't
know what that means.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
And she doesn't have an active medical license right now,
so she's certainly not seeing patients right now, and I
don't know when the last time she was, and I
actually don't know if she ever really saw and treated
patients outside of residency.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
So there's a lot of questions marks for me on there.
It didn't come up as much as you would think.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
Does that mean she's not board certified then in anything
with American border medical specialties?
Speaker 2 (08:18):
I would say I don't believe so, because she didn't
finish residency.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Yeah, so I don't know.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Again, I am not an expert in her credentials.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
I'm surprised it didn't come up as much as you
would have thought, mainly because the doctors on the panel
were Republican and so maybe they were a little lighter
on her. But for me, you know, that's one thing
that has me kind of scratching my head. There were
some things that did get brought up. Was I guess
she didn't disclose in some of She's an influencer, right,
(08:47):
so she makes money by posting on social media, and
so she didn't disclose that she had financial gains from
some of her posts. I guess, I mean, I'm not
an influencer, so I don't really know all that works.
And then they asked her a lot of questions about
the vaccines and birth control, basically about statements that she's
made in the past, which you know, she kind of
(09:07):
did a little bit of an about turn with her
responses in the Senate hearing. So but I think you
have to do that, right if you're wanting to get confirmed.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
Yeah, very interesting. So I've just seen some of those clips,
so maybe if I get some time, I'll go back
and watch that. But there's certainly those are notable, notable things.
Speaker 1 (09:25):
Yeah, you know, I think it's very likely she will
get confirmed.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Obviously, she has the sport of Secretary Kennedy President Trump,
and she's definitely aligned with the MAHA agenda. I kind
of would have liked to see someone to reach across
the aisle a little bit more, maybe a little bit
less involved with MAHA because public health and as you know,
I mean think about since COVID, I mean, we're at
an all time low in terms of trust, Like, what
do you think it would take to bring back trust
(09:48):
to the medical establishment?
Speaker 3 (09:51):
You know, for me, I think the biggest concern. I mean,
just talk about the COVID vaccine. You know, the research
was there. It certainly saved a ton of lives if
you had risks, you know, if you elderly population or
or or youth of some you know medical problems, you know, diabetes, asthma,
some specially of the respiratory issues. But I think what
(10:11):
concerned me with the COVID vaccine itself is that I
did feel that they could have been more honest. So
when they came out with their blanket statement, Hey, we
want to immunize everybody. It's going to prevent the spread
of the disease, and we should give it to all
these kids. You know, I had concerns there that unless
you had really especially in children, it didn't prevent the
(10:33):
spread of disease.
Speaker 2 (10:34):
Do you think they knew that the that the transmission
wasn't able to be stopped by the vaccine when they
demanded universally.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Yeah, I don't think they knew that, and so they
shouldn't have come out so hard with that messaging, and
maybe it was the media they just caught onto it
and pushed that narrative, but they really pushed like, you know,
you have to get this, it's going to prevent the
spread of the disease. And it didn't. And you know,
there's both sides of the debate on that, but what
it did is that just gave just put fuel on
(11:03):
the fire for the anti vaxers. So the people that
were looking for a reason to not want vaccines, where
you push all those those crazy you know, autism lengths
and they just work. They're clearly not there. The evidence
does not support that. But if you give you know,
that population just an inch of like, oh, here's the
government being dishonest. You know the I don't think they
(11:25):
really knew that it wouldn't prevent the spread of the disease.
When you came out so hard saying hey, you have
to take it to prevent the spread of disease, they
just latch onto that. And now we had five hundred
and six hundred cases of measles in Texas a few
months ago and we're just what is this to eighteen hundreds,
Like we're going to dial back the clock now on vaccines,
So you know, it's that was my concern.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
You're listening to wellness and mass We'll be right back
with more.
Speaker 2 (11:54):
It's pretty disappointing that we are on the brink of
losing our eradication status for measles.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
It's not just the United States, to.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
Be fair, you have Canada, you have some areas in
Europe obviously Mexico and other places that are also having
measles outbreaks right now. But I think a lot of
it has to do with you know, we started seeing
a decline in vaccination rates pre COVID like twenty nineteen,
a little bit of a dip, but since then, obviously
it's gone down. People like to point fingers saying it's
RFKA junior, but reality is it was happening before then.
(12:23):
It all has to do with the lack of trust,
and I'm one hundred percent with you. They just needed
to be more transparent when it came to the COVID vaccine.
I was one of the biggest things that people criticize
me for is they say that, oh, I was a
shot pusher, vaccine pusher, whatever they want to say about
me on social media, And the reality is, yes, I was.
I was reporting on air many times a day, every
(12:44):
single day since starting January twenty twenty, and when we
had Operation Warp Speed, it was very exciting, like, oh
my gosh, we're potentially going to have a vaccine and
maybe the hospitals won't be overrun. I think anyone who
didn't work in a hospital during COVID, they they're the
only ones who can say COVID wasn't real. Right all
(13:05):
actually step foot into the hospital know it was real.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
As an emergency physician, it sucked yourue will to live,
I'm telling you, just seeing just the fallout of that
and the patient deaths and the stories. You know, I've
spent time in Australia and New Zealand as well, so
I did spend some time in Australia during COVID, and
right after I had arrived there, you just hear the
stories in Texas because I was in Texas previously, and
(13:29):
as well as North Carolina where I'm at now, and
I mean just truckloads of bodies just thrown into refrigerated
trucks because they didn't even have place to put them all,
and just the stories that were coming out, it was, Boy,
It's something I hoped to never see repeated. They see
it was in one of those one hundred year events
like the Spanish influenza of nineteen eighteen. You know, I've
(13:50):
been perhaps in twenty years. I hope to never see
anything like that again.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Yeah, but it was exciting for the COVID vaccine to
come out because life as we knew it had really
stopped businesses utter, children were suffering, adults were suffering. It
was I mean, being a coronavirus, you know, I had
my suspicions that it's probably not going to stop transmission,
dead in its track, but they were saying it probably would.
That's what they were saying was in that short term
(14:14):
study that it did stop transition.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
So and just the conferred immunity. You know, once you
have a disease, you generally build those antibodies. You know,
early on they were just pushing that, oh, there's no
confer immunity. And for me, I'm a I'm a biologist.
I have a degree in biology, practice medics for twenty years,
and so you're telling me that in the history of
disease and the thousands of years of mankind, this is
(14:38):
like the one disease where you don't build some natural
antibodies to that. And I questioned that early on, but
don't say anything or you get crucial. You know obvious,
we know now, but they were pushing that early on
as well. And you know, just I think people were scared.
They just didn't know what they didn't know. And we
had not in our lifetimes, had not seen a pandemic
(14:59):
like this before. So I think everyone was just scared
and fear kind of ruled the day rather than the
actual science. When I went to Australia, I was locked
in a hotel room for two weeks.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
We were very harsh in Australia.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
I mean people are wife in and out of the country. Yeah,
with my wife and three children, we were locked in
a hotel room. As soon as we were checked in.
We couldn't open the door, the windows were bolted shut.
You couldn't even go out on the patio. And we're
up on the seventh or eighth floor, and you know,
just I'm so, you're getting.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
All the circulating air but you can't.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Oh yeah, you can get the circus sare and read
that all over. But what if I stepped outside and
I coughed and a particle fell on someone's seven floors below,
and it was just it was so bizarre, just the
complete ignoring like science and germ theory and how everything works.
I lived it. It was bizarre.
Speaker 2 (15:49):
I mean really common sense went out the window. At
anytime you actually tried to mention common sense things that
we had been taught twenty years ago. They all of
a sudden you were turning.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
Into a conspira theorists.
Speaker 2 (16:00):
And for me, you know the idea of trying to
get back to normalcy with the COVID vaccine, I'm like, yes,
I'm all for it.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Weight should do it.
Speaker 2 (16:07):
Obviously, high risks should do it first, and you know,
anybody else who wants it should do it. But then
when they started mandating the kids to do it, that
is when I took a pause. Being a mother of three,
I had concerns because of the sense that one we
already knew overwhelmingly that healthy kids were extremely low risk,
but we were also seeing those cases of misc in kids,
(16:29):
which was that the inflammatory response from the virus. And
my concern was, if kids are getting this weird inflammatory
response from the virus, we're now going to give them
a dose that's higher than the virus in this vaccine.
Are they going to get an even higher inflammatory response
to the vaccine? I wrote about it a lot, I
talked to a lot of people about it, and everyone
(16:50):
really kind of just kept saying, no, we're not saying this,
there's no evidence to suggest this, and so then I
started saying, I am not for this, and then I
turned into typevaxer. So half of the population we're like,
you're pushing the clot shot as people like to call it,
quote unquote, and then another half is like, oh, you're
an anti vaxer.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
I'm like, well, I can't be both, so choose.
Speaker 3 (17:12):
Yeah. I mean, so in the military population, I'm a
colonel and the Air Force reserves, it was a military commander,
and in young, healthy, twenty year old guys, you see
a six hundred percent increase in like paracatitis, myocarditis. Hmmm.
I wonder what it could have been, you know, I
mean there's no doubt, but I mean if you talk
about it, like whoa, you know, they want to cucify you, but.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Yeah, talk about it.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Israel even tried to alert us with data early on
about young men, adolescents early twenties, and it was really
pushed aside by our public health officials for months. And
you know, this isn't necessarily supposed to be a talk
about COVID and the vaccine, but it's just these moments
are what took us so far away from being trusted
in the public's eye. And now we have a new administration,
(17:59):
which I was very happy for because this is an
administration who wanted allowed us to have these conversations. I
wanted to roll back a lot of the mandates. But
my concern is that we're not necessarily making the moves
to regain public health and we actually may be going
a little farther from that.
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Yeah, definitely concerning, and I think you probably saw that reflected.
That's why he didn't talk about that specifically. That's my
feeling in the State of the Union address, and we'll
kind of see where the administration goes from here. But
I think he senses that as well, and that it
concerns a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
So what is your take, you know, pivoting a little bit,
We now have Secretary of Hegseth.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
We're kind of coming out of COVID, they're trying to
roll back those mandates. They're paying back people who maybe
you know, we're removed from the military lost some of
their funding. From like a national security and readiness standpoint,
where do you feel like we're at with recruitment, from
the health of the military physical health, but also just
having a robust military.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
So for me, I've always been very support of the
administration's stance that the military has a terrible, terrible job
to do, so when we're called on, we unleash lethality.
And I've served in combat. I have carried body bags
of American heroes and Iraq. In two thousand and seven,
I was there when they were shooting down helicopters. I
(19:19):
arrived the day I landed in theater. They shot down
one helicopter, one of ours. It was about eight helicopters
in a two week span. I was there. They killed
the flight surgeon, Colonel Algod, just before I got there.
And when you start taking the attention of the military
and putting out things on things that don't really add
to that ability to deliver lethality and train as a
(19:41):
military commander, I will tell you that an ordinate amount
of my time was spent on DEI things and CBT
computer based training, and you know, diversity and inclusion they
can be great things. So that's what I love about America.
My squadron had people from all walks of life, ethnicities, religions, colors,
(20:04):
and just everything. It was wonderful. But when you make
that you're singular focus instead of focusing on the absolute mission.
We did a big exercise in the Pacific Northwest. So
this was CADUSA, so Ultimate Caduceas. This is a big
military exercise where they are planning on patient movement in
the Pacific theater. It was clearly in response to military
(20:28):
aggression of China against Taiwan. And I did an NBC interview.
This is involving the National Disaster Medical System, the Department
of Defense, the VA, all the civilian hospitals, and this
was at Joint Base Lewis McCord in Seattle, Tacoma area.
And the night before the interview, during the Biden administration,
(20:48):
I got a list of things that I could not
talk about, and number one, front and center that this
four page document I kept it. Don't say the word China,
can't say China.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
Who from who did you?
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Yeah? Yeah? So there's Department of Defense and then there's
the Public Affairs who get their marching orders from you
know whatever mag com who get their orders from. So
somewhere along the line, the public affairs officer, he sits down,
these are the things I can't talk about, cannot say
the word China. So sure enough, the very first question
that the NBC anchor asks is this exercise in response
(21:22):
to Chinese aggression against Taiwan, And in my mind is
just exploding. I'm like, you've got to know, this is
an annual exercise that we do every year. This year
just happens to be in the Pacific Theater because we
were actually assizing all the way from Guam and the
Okinawa all the way to Seattle and then Elmendorf up
in Alaska, like we actually flew aircraft. We flew aircraft
(21:45):
but simulated patients and then farm them out on helicopters
to Spokane and Boise and very big exercise and just
don't say the word China. And that concerned me, and
that knowing what the national security objectives are and what
we were preparing for or but you don't want to
upset the Chinese, so don't don't say China on National
and TV. And so that that we follow, we follow orders.
(22:09):
You know, we have a civilian led military. I'm very
strong believer in that. I had some uh much different
opinions than leadership at that time, but I followed orders.
And I'm very happy to see the Trump administration have
that much different approach in the focus now being put
on the right things, and I think you're seeing that
reflected in a massive increase in our recruiting. It was
(22:31):
very very hard to recruit near the Biden administration for
some very obvious reasons.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
More coming up on Wellness Unmasked with doctor Nicole Sapphire
heading into i mean all over the media right now,
is the conflicts going on with Iran.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
What is your take on that?
Speaker 3 (22:49):
So Iran has been one of our largest national security
threats for decades, having served in Iraq and then seeing
after the withdrawal in twenty eleven, US going into the
Middle East and then you disrupt that government, that check
that we had on Iran. Saddam Musain was a very
(23:10):
very bad dude, but taking him down let Iran just
run completely wild. So we removed more of the big force,
the big check against Iran. And then when we bailed
in twenty eleven, which I also thought was a mistake,
when I was there in two thousand and seven. It
was the largest air base and then second in traffic
(23:30):
only to London Heathrow. And you know, you're there to
take care of the men and women that are serving
this country. Politics aside. We serve for those men and women.
And I carried those body bags. I took care of
those men and women, those real heroes. And I thought,
you know, we're going to be here for the long term,
and so keep that check on Iran. And then as
(23:51):
soon as we left in twenty eleven, you had Iran
come in there and just set up the whole Isis,
you know, state, and really gave everything exploded, I mean
all the way to like Syria, and and then you
know what happened in Israel, you know, October seventh and
twenty twenty three. I mean, these cascading effects of just
(24:14):
bad decisions. So Iran is a very very bad group
of leadership, you know, are the Iranian people are just
no different than anyone else. They want to education, they
want food for their families. But I mean the leadership
there is horrific. They are hell bent on destroying the world,
nuking Israel. You know, you cannot let them have a
nuclear weapon, and if some of these reports are accurate
(24:37):
that I'm hearing, they may be as little as one
week away from having that ninety percent enriched uranium enough
to have a nuclear weapon.
Speaker 1 (24:46):
That creation Midnight Hammer. I mean, we were told that
that was supposed to have taken most of it out.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
There's conflicting reports there, you know, depending who you talk
with in the administration, but the most recent reports and
I think why you're seeing these talks that we're having
right now getting so heated and so focused on if
they get that capability, you it will be extremely bad.
I don't want to be hyperbolistic, but if they get
(25:14):
a new kid a weapon, I mean, world War III
is going to be it's going to be horrific. Like
just we can't let it happen under any circumstance, under
any administration. That cannot happen. So whatever we need to
do to prevent that is what needs to happen.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
Well, I think President Trump, if anyone's going to be
forthcoming with doing what needs to happen there, I.
Speaker 1 (25:35):
Believe it would be him.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
So I guess that gives me some sort of piece
in a very very dangerous time.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Yeah, I wanted to get this in.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
I know you're a very, very busy person, but you
actually wrote a book that was a Pultzer Priye nominated
book obviously is very good and it's turned into something
even bigger than that now in a children's series.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Can you just tell us quickly about that.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
Yeah, thank you very much. So my personal leadership ethos
be the weight behind the spear. That's my call to
action for people to engage their communities because our best
resource we have in this country, it's teachers, coaches, volunteers,
and families. That is what sets America upart. And as
a military commander, as an emergency physician, I had just
seen an entire generation that lacked leadership skills, They lacked resiliency.
(26:19):
I mean, as an emergency doctor, I see the anxiety,
the depression of the suicide, and as a military commander,
just we have a long way to go to teach
this generation. You know, some of these skills it's really
hard to do when they're twenty years old. So there's
a lot of pushups, and there's a lot of yelling
and physical fitness, and you just we need to start earlier.
So getting involved at five six years old, I've now
(26:43):
turned that into a children's book series, the Be the
Weight Series and our first book, The Heart of a Leader.
But behind me here we've won the Gold Seal from
the Mom's Choice Awards well as well as several other awards.
But this is how you teach kids about leadership. So
the next books are going to be a about resiliency
and just some of those really important skills and accountability.
(27:05):
So when you ask, how do you teach a five
year old these skills, well, we got a fantastic book
with joe Yakivetic, a world renowned illustrator had done a
lot of Disney illustrations Leelo and Stitch and a Little
Mermaid quite legit, so I was very blessed to have
him jump on board, and we're pretty excited about the series.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
Well, I love that maybe fewer drag Queens storytime hours
at the local libraries and more children's books on resilience.
Thank you so much, colonel and doctor Josh McConkey, so
appreciate your time.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Well, we covered a lot.
Speaker 2 (27:38):
There, so let me figure out how I'm going to
wrap all of that up. First and foremost, I really
appreciated his insight and time when it came to discussing
the COVID vaccine and how we just didn't know a
lot in the beginning. You know I personally, You've heard
me say it over and over again. I didn't like
the way it was handled from a public health standpoint.
I didn't think they were very transparent on things. But
I don't think a lot of it was nefarious. I
(27:59):
think it was just rapidly moving information, and while their
ultimate goal was to save lives, they definitely muddied it
and took us far away from trust in public health.
It's going to take a really long time to get
back to it. I have my concerns whether or not
the MAHA movement is actually helping us regain public trust
or taking us farther away. There are a lot of
(28:21):
good things coming out of the MAHA movement, also some
things that are a little frustrating as a physician to watch.
I also thought it was very interesting to talk about
military readiness, how the COVID vaccine obviously negatively impacted a
lot of young healthy men because that's what we like
to see in the military, and how we had recruitment
(28:42):
efforts were very hard during the Biden administration. And how
about that, how about the fact that he was told
he can't even talk about China when talking about national security.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
I mean that's concerning.
Speaker 2 (28:54):
I'm glad that we find ourselves now where we're able
to be more transparent and we are not afraid to
talk about some of our foes across the world and
have a little bit more of an American.
Speaker 1 (29:06):
First in mentality. Whether we're talking about our physical health,
mental health, or national security, everything is aligned. Thank you
so much for listening to Wellness on MASS. I'm doctor
Nicole Saffire.
Speaker 2 (29:15):
Be sure to tune in every week to Wellness on
Mass on iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts,
and we'll see you next time.
Popular Podcasts
Hey Jonas!
Hey Jonas! The official Jonas Brothers podcast. Hosted by Kevin, Joe, and Nick Jonas. It’s the Jonas Brothers you know... musicians, actors, and well, yes, brothers. Now, they’re sharing another side of themselves in the playful, intimate, and irreverent way only they can. Spend time with the Jonas Brothers here and stay a little bit longer for deep conversations like never before.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by Audiochuck Media Company.
Betrayal Weekly
Betrayal Weekly is back for a new season. Every Thursday, Betrayal Weekly shares first-hand accounts of broken trust, shocking deceptions, and the trail of destruction they leave behind. Hosted by Andrea Gunning, this weekly ongoing series digs into real-life stories of betrayal and the aftermath. From stories of double lives to dark discoveries, these are cautionary tales and accounts of resilience against all odds. From the producers of the critically acclaimed Betrayal series, Betrayal Weekly drops new episodes every Thursday. If you would like to share your story, you can reach out to the Betrayal Team by emailing them at betrayalpod@gmail.com and follow us on Instagram at @betrayalpod and @glasspodcasts. Please join our Substack for additional exclusive content, curated book recommendations, and community discussions. Sign up FREE by clicking this link Beyond Betrayal Substack. Join our community dedicated to truth, resilience, and healing. Your voice matters! Be a part of our Betrayal journey on Substack.