How to transform mental health challenges into resilience – EP294 Tango Alpha Lima - Tango Alpha Lima Podcast

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
We're back out those. We're coming in hot with
inspiring guests, witty banter and colorful commentary.
Today's veterans and military community, this is the Tal
Podcast. All right, welcome, Alphas.
Thanks for joining us. We have a great show for you
today. Great to have you with us.
Tony Crescenzo is the US Marine Corps veteran whose decades of

(00:24):
executive leadership in defense tech had been shaped by
uncompromising values of trust, accountability and team
empowerment. Those are good values.
As CEO of Intelligent Waves, he's built a culture where
almost half the workforce are veterans and his commitment
earned national recognition for veteran hiring and transition

(00:46):
support. What's truly unique?
Tony bridges the service driven perspective with trailblazing
innovation, founding Peak Neuro LLC, a neuroscience powered
company helping veterans transform mental health
challenges like PTSD and TBI into resilience using accessible

(01:07):
technology. The way he's translated struggle
into a mission for healing and seen measurable outcomes for
special operators and trauma survivors is deeply motivating.
So very excited to have Tony on.I love this kind of stuff.
It it, it focuses on, I think ithelps with people that have ADHD

(01:28):
to hypothetically, not that I have it, but if I did, I think
that these type of therapies canbe really beneficial.
Hypothetically again, I'll say. Yes, I'm very thankful for
therapies like this, and I'm thankful for Tony coming on, and
I'm thankful to learn what he has to say.

(01:49):
But Joe, Thanksgivings just right around the corner.
What are you thankful for? I'll be honest with you man, I'm
thankful that my wife has an identical twin and I'll tell you
why. Have you ever had a favorite
food that your. Spouse makes you got a backup
ready to go. Oh yeah, yeah.

(02:11):
I'm sure she's married. Let's talk to her.
So I, I actually met my wife through my, my, my
brother-in-law. He was a Co worker at Walmart
and I went to school with him. And you know, back back when
you're a kid, all it takes is long hair and you both Dr.
Pontiacs and you're like best friends.
We both had long hair and drove Pontiacs like, OK, cool, we're
obviously going to be best friends, right.

(02:31):
And did. You have so retail dude.
I I have. Oh yeah, Oh, yeah.
I had a ponytail. I had shoulder length hair for
for most of my high school. So his car broke down or he
wrecked it. He probably wrecked it.
But he asked me to give him a ride to his girlfriend's house
and I took him over there. And she walks out on the front

(02:52):
porch and I'm like, how did thathappen?
How is how is how are you linkedto that?
And does she have a sister? And he said she has an identical
twin sister. And I said, wait, I wasn't
prepared for the answer. I was like, is she single?
And he said yes, and she wants to stay that way.
Yeah, she wanted. To stay that way.

(03:13):
I'm sorry, we both have Pontiacs.
We both have ponytails and twin sisters.
Yeah. I mean, come on.
So he's like a command Sergeant major in the Air Force now.
He went from, you know, being a long haired ponytail man like me
to, to, to being a leader. And I'm, I'm really proud of

(03:34):
him. But the reason why I'm thankful
that my wife has a twin. Because if, if you've ever had a
favorite food that your wife makes, like several favorite
foods. And so when Thanksgiving hits,
you're like, I want you to make all these things.
Just she's like, I'm only one person.
No, no, I've got 2. So I'm getting all the food that
I like made by my wife and her clone.

(03:57):
Because they have enough people to cook it all for you.
That's right, That's right. And I'm not helping.
I'm moral support and I'll get rid of it.
What's your contribution to the Thanksgiving affair?
I. Number one eater.
Number one eater. Never.
No, I will start it. You know, when that awkward
moment when nobody is grabbing aplate yet.
I'll, I can be that guy, but also I will go out and get

(04:22):
everything for them. We'll do all the shopping that's
needed. If anything, any emergency runs
or anything like that, which is not equal.
I know it's not equal to the cooking, but our goal is to keep
the kids away from the kitchen and to give them everything they
need to make anything that pops in their heads and to pay for
everything. So that's probably, probably.

(04:42):
Off to a a couple healthy servings of comedic relief.
I would, yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, like when things are just kind of going to normal, like
there's probably an infusion of humor by you.
So last year the the brine cooler got set up on the counter
and fell over and it was like 2 inches of raw Turkey juice

(05:06):
covered the entire kitchen. It was so bad that it was funny.
It was so bad. Like their whole that whole
floor of their house got cleanedin a way that that no one would
with any right mind would ever go that deep cleaning something.
Bleach, OH. It was everything, it was like
they there was like 4 different layers.
So I think my goal is also to make sure that nobody sits the

(05:29):
brine cooler up on the counter. That's it.
That's good. That's I feel like that's a good
contribution. It saved them four hours of
cleaning. What about you, Stacy?
What are you thankful for? Oh, you know, I'm always
thankful for my husband. He's tremendous.

(05:50):
Of course, all my animals. And my sister is my neighbor
now, so I'm thankful that she's close.
I think that's really changed mylife.
So, you know, just all around good people.
I'm thankful for good people. What about you, Adam?
Well, that was a perfect transition.
I'm going to go super cornball here, but I'm thankful for all
the alphas. Oh good.

(06:11):
Yeah, I'm, you know, we've gotten to meet a few of them
over the the years at the convention and the different
events and we got. Army Navy coming up.
We do have a few. More Army coming up.
It's going to be awesome seeing Army destroy Navy again, just
like last year, and it's so great.

(06:32):
It's no, but I, I really do I, Ienjoy those interactions and I'm
thankful for everybody that takes the time to listen in and
go on this journey with us. So thank you I.
I'll, I'll piggyback off of thatlike a good first Sergeant and,
and just say that this is one ofmy favorite things that I get to

(06:54):
do. And, and you're absolutely
right. This is fun.
Hey, that's your favorite thing,hanging out with me and Stacy,
right? Yeah, yeah, Stacy and you.
Yeah. Yeah, and I am.
I'm thankful for all of you guys.
I I really am. It's one of my most favorite
things to do too. And it's light, it's joyful,

(07:15):
it's often heart centered. Joe's probably going to cry.
We're going to get down from some rabbit holes.
It's been a few episodes. OK, I've manned up.
Yeah. Well, alphas like, like Adam
said, we love you and we appreciate you.
Please stick around. We'll be back with Mr. Tony
right after the break. Hey there, Legionnaires and

(07:38):
sports fans. This is Joe Worley, American
Legion member and Navy veteran, and I am so excited that the
American Legion is continuing their tradition of support for
the Army Navy Game presented by USAA, the first veteran service
organization to sponsor America's game in its 126 year
history. That's right, the greatest

(07:59):
rivalry in sports just got even more meaningful for veterans
like us. We're honored to stand behind
the incredible student athletes that are not only competing on
the field, but are also committed to protecting the
freedoms we hold dear. And through this sponsorship,
we're shining a spotlight on ourprimary mission.
Be the one, our fight to end veteran suicide.

(08:19):
So mark your calendars. Tune into CBS on December 13th
at 3:00 PM. Eastern to watch Navy take on
Army in this epic showdown. To learn more about the American
Legions involvement and our mission, visit legion.org.
Back slash army Navy game. Let's cheer on our team, support
our mission, and show the world what it means to be Legionnaire.

(08:40):
Go Navy. Today we're joined by Peak Neuro
founder Tony Crescenzo. Peak Neuro was originally
deployed and refined with war fighters and combat pilots,
where split second decisions mean life or death, and has
since been applied to veterans dealing with PTSD.
How does peak neural work? Well, we're going to find out

(09:00):
shortly. Tony, welcome to the Tal
Podcast. Thanks.
It's great to be here. Tony, thank you for your service
and welcome to the show. I have so many questions, but
first I want to get to know you a little bit pre service.
Where are you from originally, and what drew you to the Marine
Corps specifically? That's a that's a loaded

(09:23):
question. So I'm originally from South
Philadelphia, and I grew up in South.
I'm old, by the way, because youhadn't noticed.
I grew up in the neighborhood that Rocky ran in when Rocky was
made. So very blue collar.
My grandfather was a mechanic, my father was a mechanic.
My uncles are mechanics, My cousins are all mechanics.

(09:44):
And when I was 12 years old, my father took me aside and said,
Anthony, it's a good thing you're smart because if you had
to make a living with your hands, you'd starve.
So go to school, how I got to bein the Marine Corps.
So basically I grew up in kind of a hybrid.
My grandfather had a farm after he retired.
So I spent most of my summers ona farm.
And that was a that was a great experience.

(10:06):
But sort of that in a combination of a Sopranos
episode in, in the, in the, in the South Philly world, my
parents divorced, my mother remarried a Navy officer and we
were stationed in Hawaii during the 70s.
It was about 19741973 and my stepfather had a friend he'd
served on the Saipan with. He was a Marine helicopter

(10:29):
pilot. Little guys like 5, seven, 140
lbs silk and wet smoked these big cigars that were bigger than
him and he had stopped to visit with us for a week or two as he
was rotating back from Vietnam. I just thought he was everything
that a cool guy was. This guy was like a little

(10:50):
Doberman, just full of piston vinegar and fire and funny as
hell. And I didn't learn until later
that he was on his way back fromVietnam to get the Medal of
Honor. It was ACH, I'm sorry, UE pilot.
And the story that my stepfathertells is really good.
They're sitting in the ward roomon the side pan and an alarm

(11:12):
goes off. There's a platoon of Marines
who's pinned on a beach. They can't get in the water
because of sea snakes and sharksand the North Vietnamese are
just chewing them up. So they sent A4 ACH 46 and two
UE's to escort it. The 46 gets shot up and can't
can't land so it returns to the to the ship.
The other UE gets shot down. Then here's one guy in a UE

(11:35):
gunship rotating over the beach with his machine guns while this
group of Marines are trying to get on it.
You guys are all veterans. I don't know how many have ever
been on a UE, but it holds maybe14 people.
And they overloaded this thing to the point where the skids
were hitting the top of the waves.
As he's coming back and he gets back into the gets back into the
ship and slams it onto the flight deck.

(11:56):
And by the way, when this alarm went off, they were in the
wardroom watching the John Waynemovie.
So he was pretty pissed. He had to put a cigar down, get
on the helicopter. So he comes back to get his
debrief and the pilot's debriefing room takes off his
helmet and AK47 round falls out of the helmet.
For those of you you know who haven't been on AU, it's like
every other helicopter in the military, right?

(12:16):
All of the armor is around the, the flight crew and the engines.
So I remember the first time I got on like a 53, they tell you
don't lean back because your your, your deuce gear is going
to smash the you know, it's going to go right through the
skin of the helicopter. Something like 300 bullet holes
in this thing. And he survived and saved all
these Murrays of lives. Oh.

(12:37):
My gosh. So I just thought that was
really, you know, an amazing guy.
I didn't know it at the time. But later, a kind of a
interesting testament to his character, but also sad is when
he came back, he got the medal. They asked what he wanted to do.
And he said, I'd really like to be a jet pilot.
I want to, I want to transition to jets.
And so they reassigned him to Pensacola.

(12:57):
And he was a biker, of course, he had a motorcycle.
And there's, if you haven't beento Pensacola, there's a
drawbridge in town that takes you to the base.
And he liked to jump that drawbridge with his bike.
Oh my gosh. And one day he didn't make it
literally. And on the way down, every
witness to that tragedy swore that he screamed rah the whole
way down into the water. So when it literally years

(13:19):
later, I was in college and I made a wrong turn on the way to
a Charles Kuralt lecture and I ran into the Marine recruiter
and I thought, what a great way to spite your parents.
And so, boys and girls at home, if you join the Marine Corps to
spite your parents, that never ends well.
Keep that in mind. Well, I think I'd rather join
the Marines to spite my parents than have it be an alternative
to prison. So I think that's how my uncle

(13:41):
ended up in the Marine Corps. Well, at that time there was a
lot of people like that in the Marine Corps.
Yes. So tell me a little bit about
your Marine Corps. What you you went into the
Marines, What was your occupation?
How long did you stay? I, I had a very, very atypical
Marine Corps career and I'll, I'll start with this.

(14:01):
I know there's a Corpsman on here who is a, the Marine in
every way. And thank you for your service,
by the way, appreciate. You, brother.
Marines are a different we're, we're definitely different than
most people. Just you got to be crazy.
Just even want to do that kind of thing.
But I went to boot camp. I have a kind of interesting

(14:21):
Marine Corps story. I went to OCS when I was in
college, graduated from both increments of the PLC program,
was 16 credits away from graduation, got kicked out of
school because I didn't have anymoney.
And so I just enlisted and thought, well, I'll just pick it
up that way. And by the way, going to boot
camp with a, with a service record that has OCS in there
does not make drill instructors like you very much.

(14:43):
So I had a, a really interestinginitial experience.
I was, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a Beirut veteran, but not
permanent personnel. I worked for 3rd Land Battalion.
I was assigned to a, a fad battery and I rotated in and out
of Beirut for two years. And when I, when I transitioned

(15:05):
back from that role to Beirut, this is my first enlistment.
I was AI was a corporal. I was assigned to work at a, at
an inspector instructor staff. And if you don't know what that
is, there's an interesting dichotomy in the Marine Corps.
They take the top 10% of Marinesand they put them into one of
three things. Recruiter, which no Marine on

(15:26):
the planet ever wants to be, drill instructor, which, yeah,
me, I'd love to do that. And something called independent
duty inspector instructors. And these are the permanent
personnel who work with reserve units.
And there was, you know, 10 Marines in the Navy Corpsman.
So I thought it was weird. You know, it's my first
enlistment, just coming back from a combat tour.

(15:48):
And I was assigned to an artillery battery reserve unit
in Trenton, NJ. And I just wasn't really sure
what that was about. And then I got orders to
Headquarters Marine Corps for a temporary assignment, which we
call TAD and everybody else calls TDI, where I discovered
that I was not working for Gulf Battery 314.

(16:09):
I was working for the Naval Investigative Service, which is,
you guys know, as NCIS. And by the way, if you're
watching the show and it looks really cool, they're not cool.
Back then, NIS agents were the guys who washed out of the FBI
Academy. So no glamour in that at all.
And I knew I was in trouble whenI showed up at the NIS office in
Philadelphia, and they took my dental records and fingerprints

(16:29):
in case somebody found me in a dumpster.
So I wound up spending almost three years undercover in a drug
and computer fraud investigation.
And I was a corporal. So I was the most junior Marine
on the staff. It was assigned there to work as
I've been cross trained as a programmer.
And then they made me a clerk. They what's what's called a unit

(16:51):
diary clerk pays everybody. And it turned out that the admin
chief of this unit, permanent personnel, who's a gunnery
Sergeant, was creating people who didn't exist in the manpower
management system and paying them.
He created checks and he had access to the safe with the ID
card. So every month he'd get a check
and he would go cash it over Broad Street National Bank.

(17:12):
And because the audits happened on 90 days, people would show up
and then back then you could drop from the unit and that's
how he made money. So after about 8 months, we kind
of figured out what he was doingand he and I walked into this
bank and every teller was a 45 year old NIS agent and I thought
I was done. I think you're great.
I can go back to the fleet. This was a little bit strange, a

(17:32):
little intimidating, and then itturned into a drug
investigation. And it turned out that most of
the rest of the staff, includingthe first Sergeant, were
involved in selling, using and importing cocaine.
So I spent the next almost two years of my life there walking
into rooms I wasn't sure I was ever going to walk out of.
I'd been on a bunch of drug buys.

(17:54):
They were every every month we had a piss test.
Because back then you got them every month.
They would. They paid the corpsman, the Navy
corpsman who was on the staff togive the bottles to the first
Sergeant. He'd take it to his house and
they would use their children's yarn to get over the piss test.
So three years into that, they get they all get charged and we

(18:16):
went to a funeral detail. We come back and there's a
swarming with NASA agents. Everybody's now under arrest
except for three people on staff.
The, the, the ini, the senior, the captain, the battery
commander was relieved. That was the permanent personnel
who done nothing wrong, by the way.
He's just a a guy who was in everybody's way.
And turned out that if you don'tknow this and you're listening,

(18:36):
Marine Corps really small and back then everybody knew
everybody. So when these when these senior
Marines to me got relieved, theywere replaced by friends of
theirs. And turned out that the
battalion commander who had ordered this investigation PCs
to Okinawa, nobody heard from him.
Nobody knew who he was. And all of a sudden I was just
some guy who was a clerk there and nobody thought to move me.

(18:56):
So while I'm preparing to testify against these 9 Marines,
I'm, you know, twice I was, there were two attempts on my
life. There were 4 witnesses, 2 had
been one died under suspicious circumstances, 2 were murdered.
So I was basically the sole surviving witness in this
General Court martial that thesepeople were going to.

(19:17):
And I was stuck working in a building with them.
I had written letters to the Sergeant major, Marine Corps,
written letters to my congressman, and nothing
happened along the way. You know, senior, senior Marines
all know each other. The first Sergeant had friends,
new first Sergeant was a friend of his.
And they, they did their best toeither impeach my testimony or

(19:39):
just drive me crazy enough that,you know, whatever was going to
happen wasn't going to be bad for them.
At one point, after they had allbeen convicted, the new first
Sergeant wanted to charge me. I'd, I'd taken some leave and
when I came back of those of youwho have served, you know, you
have a lot of collateral duties.You're the, you know, the male
NCO this week and you're the recreation NCO next week.

(20:00):
And they had a whole bunch of stuff that, you know,
disobedience of lawful orders, dereliction of duty.
I didn't do this. And being 20 minutes late to
work which? Is 15 minutes early, so only 5
minutes late, right? Thank you, got it too.
So I I declined office hours because it really was about
impeaching my testimony. I declined the office hours,

(20:21):
went to a court martial, and I was convicted that court martial
of being 20 minutes late to workand fined $20.
And that night, I got a phone call from my monitor,
Headquarters Marine Corps, telling me that he was
instructed to send me any, anywhere in the world I wanted
to go. The congressional liaison had
reached out. This was clearly an
inappropriate thing for them to do.

(20:41):
And I said send me to the closest place in my home of
record because fuck you, I'm getting out of the Marine Corps.
And I was transferred to Garden City, NY to another inspector
staff where they lost all my security clearances, made me a
files clerk, and I sat in a roomwith no windows for eight months
and no one wanted to PT or go toa poker game or talk to a guy.
Just came from a unit that was notorious.

(21:02):
Almost everybody went to jail. Now that's the bad news, you
know, And imagine what it's likein an organization whose motto
is Semper Fidelis. Always faithful.
You know, we never leave our dead or winded on the
battlefield. We got your back and nobody's
got your back. In fact, you know, I learned
then the corporals were pretty expendable versus a first
Sergeant or staff Sergeant. So eight months to the day after

(21:24):
that happened, the aid to camp to the commandant, then PX Kelly
walked into that reserve center with a check for $20.
They had overturned my court martial, a meritorious
promotion, a medal and a letter because a certificate,
accommodation from the commandant and a copy of the
four page letter of apology had written to my parents and was

(21:47):
then kind of reinstituted. They asked if I wanted to go
back to counterintelligence duties and I went down and
interviewed and of course that went, that went really well.
So at that point I didn't think I could stay in the Marine Corps
because it was very small and I was pretty sure that somebody's
friend was going to, you know, find out something at some
point. So I I had a it was interesting.
I was in New York at the time. I got an offer from a very high

(22:09):
growth technology company. Turned out being cross trained
as a programmer was a pretty good deal.
That was a skill that was in great demand and.
What year was that, Tony, that? Was 1987.
Wow, so your guests. Are still.
Using 5 1/2 inch floppies I takeit?
8 inch floppies, right? The first first portable
computer I worked on was called the Green Machine and it was

(22:29):
portable because you could put it in a Jeep, right?
An old M151 Jeep. Not even a Humvee.
So I wound up, I wound up working for three of the
craziest people you'd ever meet.But they were just incredible
leaders, incredible business people.
Taught me a lot. 2 years later, that company was the largest M
and a transaction in in New Yorkfor that year.

(22:49):
And I made some money. I learned a lot about what was
going on. My my transition was a little
challenging back then. It wasn't cool to be in the
military, right? But I remember when I was on
active duty, people either thought I was a Nazi or I was in
a punk band. And when I got out, I was
working at Merck, the pharmaceutical company.
And if you've ever been up to that building, it's 300 yards

(23:12):
long. It's a giant manufacturing plant
with offices in it. And I worked in this pit full of
developers and programmers. And there was this data
scientist who, you know, all youhave to do is say Jersey, and
you already know the kind of personalities of people who are
there. This guy was kind of a kind of
an asshole to everybody, was very condescending.
And I'm sure you all know that in the Marine Corps, we don't
have HR. If you have interpersonal

(23:33):
problems at work, it's 20 minutes behind the squad Bay and
let's go have a beer. That's the culture I sort of
grew up in. So I thought, well, one day I
looked at the guy and I said, listen, you talk to me like that
again, I'm going to knock you the fuck out.
And he thought I was kidding. And the next thing I know, I'm
chasing him out the building 300yards through offices at cube
farms and everybody's wondering what's going on.
And of course he's a, he's a no sock wearing BMW driving guy.

(23:56):
So he gets into BMW and drives away, by the way, before cell
phones. So as soon as he leaves the
building, I look at my watch andI think, boy, this is the part
of my career where I work for UPS.
I'll be a delivery driver. And 20 minutes later, sure
enough, my boss calls and says, I need to come up here.
So I pack up my gear and I walk up to the office and sit down,
tell me what happened. And I just like I told you, the

(24:17):
guy was kind of a jerk, not justto me, but to everybody.
And I warned him and my boss hadthis really funny look on his
face and he said, you know, I know you just got out of the
military and Marines are a little different than everybody
else. And I'm pretty sure you weren't
going to hurt the guy. To which I replied, I don't know
if I'd have caught him, I'd havebeat the shit out of him.
He just laughed and said, well, you know, be that as it may, he
is kind of a jerk. So we just fired him.

(24:38):
Go back to work. Don't hurt anybody.
Yes, I. Love that.
Yes, that's not. How I thought that story was
going to go, Tony and. That's what I knew threatening
people could get you places. I.
Really thought that I was on candid camera it turned out and
he didn't tell me this is what Ilove about this guy I never he
he never said a word but later Ifound out he was a three combat
tour Air Force veteran who had flown 31 combat missions.

(25:01):
But for him, where would I be? The, the sort of bad part of
that is. And like, I'm sure Joe and Joe
in particular, I know Stacey, you've had some of this
experience as well. It's you don't even realize if
you have, if you have PTSD, you don't know you have it.
You just think everybody else ismessed up, right?

(25:22):
Hey, that guy, that guy on the road started it, right?
And I'm just going to punish himnow for doing what he was doing.
I was in that I had no idea how angry I was.
My first wife would tell you andmy second wife would tell you
and my daughter would tell you. And anybody who's ever I had
friends that we'd go on a trip somewhere and they'd sleep and,
you know, in the other bed in the hotel room with me and swore
they'd never do it again becauseof the maniacal laughing and

(25:46):
things that I would say in my sleep.
And I'd wake my wife, both of mywives up, you know, 3-4 times a
week screaming in the middle of the night, anger issues and all
the things that, you know, we'reall kind of familiar with.
And I didn't even really know it.
I just, you know, I just thought, well, well, let me put
it this way. My second wife is still my

(26:06):
current wife. When I was 55, said to me that I
had been in more fights than allthe men she'd ever dated in her
life combined. And I said I never, I never
started a fight in my life. And she'd say, yeah, no, no, you
just get them all pissed off andthen they swing at you and you
beat the crap out of them and go, yeah, I had no choice.
And that was it. I thought, you know, bar fights
were kind of fun. And most people who know how to

(26:28):
fight don't fight and most who don't are fun to beat up.
That was it was that way for me for 30 years.
I just, I mean really like 0 to fuck you in 10 seconds kind of a
guy so. You're saying the bar fights
were your drawbridge moment but.Kind of, yeah.
But there, you know, I look, Marines are Marines just in
general are screwed up. But those are to me, that's just

(26:50):
how you get your cardio right. Or it was until I had an
opportunity and believe it or not, it was completely out of
the blue. I didn't even know what I was
doing. I I read an article on quantum
physics that was written in 1983and wound up sampling a
technology around brain wave entrainment that changed me
fundamentally in six days. So much so that my, my ex-wife,

(27:14):
my wife, my daughter, my friends, business associates all
wanted to know what I was doing because things were so
different. And it, it was such a
transformative experience that Idecided to Co found peek neuro
with the gentleman who's been doing this for 31 years, got 31

(27:34):
years of neuro acoustic entrainment.
We worked with, you know, we brought in a bunch of
neuroscientists, people from elite universities to help us
put it all together. And you know, the whole goal
here was to make this available to all veterans and not just
veterans. You know, trauma is trauma
doesn't matter whether you know,whether you've been shot at in a

(27:54):
military uniform or shot at in apolice uniform or robbed or
beaten or anything that, you know, that gets into the way.
And that sort of became for me, you know, along the way.
I'm, I'm running the, the 8th business that I've, I've founded
two companies and sold them. I've, I've run six companies is
what what most people would calla professional CEO.

(28:16):
I'm the guy that venture capitalist or private equity or
private owners hire for transformation of businesses to
go through stage of growth or get to a liquidity event.
So it's been, you know, it's, it's been a real, real
experience for me over the last four years since we, we sort of

(28:37):
conceived and then put this together.
But I can tell you today we are we're working with, I'll give
you one example and you'll you'll hear his name and he's,
he's agreed that we can talk about him.
His name is Mark Green. He is a 24 year retired Navy
SEAL, 8 enlisted, 5 as an officer, 21 Tbis, 12 combat
deployments, PTSD doesn't sleep hyper vigilant.

(29:02):
Raise your hand if you go to a restaurant and you got to sit
with your back to the door, right or your back to the wall.
You got to watch that door. In two months, Mark went from
that to sleeping 6 hours a nightuninterrupted, no hyper
vigilance. His PTSD is about 80% resolved.
His his TB is are virtually gone.

(29:24):
His brain fog is gone. He's engaged and he wrote a book
about it. He wrote a book about his
experience called Unsealed and Paramount and Skydancer making a
series about that. Interesting enough, as we were
talking before the show, every time they run that series, the
fund, Semper Fi and America's Fund, the fund and organization,
I'm also on the board of called Warriors Ethos will get a check

(29:47):
for that. And Mark, Mark is an
extraordinary guy. I mean, he's got, you know, a
lot of us have stories. Mark's stories usually beat
everybody else. Is also a former Division 1
college football player, but he's 1 of 23 veterans so far.
That we've gone through the entire process that you come out
the other side and and and you are better I, I so.

(30:10):
Go ahead. That actually ties in exactly
with what I wanted to ask. I wanted to jump in before you
answered it. And I lost my job peak neuro it
it so I I got involved with witha little bit of this through the
fund actually. And oh, it's it was fantastic.
Yeah, yeah. What the thing that surprised me

(30:30):
the most was how quickly you seebenefit.
I mean, within the second, first, second time you do it,
you can say, oh, this, this could really be huge.
So, but I, I want in your word. So it helps veterans transform
mental health challenges into resilience.
And like I said, I've done some related classes and exercises

(30:50):
myself and it's really interesting the approach.
So for our listeners who may be a little skeptical because
neuroscience sounds like Golbodygook for some people, but
it's neuroscience powered technology, can you describe
some of the accessible technological like technological
methods you use and how they work differently to other

(31:12):
therapeutic methods? Can you explain a little bit
about what you do? It's.
It's a great question. I'll, I'll, I'll give you a
comparison, right. If you, if you have PTSD, if you
have trauma, if you have anxiety, if you know, we talk
about rumination a lot. And here's a great example.
If you're listening to this podcast, if you're on this
podcast, close your eyes and imagine a time when you walked

(31:35):
out of a room and the first thing you thought when you
walked out is why did I say thator why did they say that?
What did that guy mean? And you can't get that out of
your head. Like you're just thinking about
it all the time. Why did I do that?
Why did that happen? That's rumination.
So when you're resolving trauma,you typically go to
psychotherapy, and psychotherapyis about meaning making.

(31:58):
It's about narrative building. I'm going to go to talk to
someone and I've got this autobiography.
It's my life story. And something in my life story
happened that I can't make senseof it just I'm stuck in it.
You know a lot of us, you know, I know Joe, you're a veteran of
Fallujah. One, there's still 8 guys a year
committing suicide, right? Your body comes home, but your

(32:20):
mind doesn't. This is the 8th company that
I've run in the last five years.I've had 18 employees, all
veterans. And by the way, the company I
run, Intelligent Waves, second best company for veterans on
monster.com. It's a, it's a great company.
It's founded by veterans. It's run by veterans, but
somebody has a problem. We had a guy sitting on that on
the runway at Allison Air Force Base, Air Force veteran, smell

(32:44):
the wrong thing, hear the wrong thing and boom, you're right
back in it. You're just, you're right back
in it. And this course, his wife calls
and says, what do I do? He's, you know, he's in Alaska.
We got, I got the call. I don't know, Joe, if you
remember, Sergeant Major Kent, retired Sergeant major in Marine
Corps, I call him twice a year and say, hey, Carlton, can you
get me a program to put this guyin?
And it's hard to do. So typically when you're going

(33:05):
to go to one of these programs, you, you start with
psychotherapy. So narrative building, meaning
making, I'm going to talk to someone and try and figure out
how this thing in My Autobiography actually fits.
And by the way, to have that conversation, I got to relive it
and even harder to relive it. I don't know if anybody on this
call or in general has been to the VAI.
Went to the VA in the 90s and I had a counselor I thought was

(33:28):
going to be great, a therapist, and turned out he was a three
combat tour of Vietnam veteran. I'm like, oh, this guy seemed
tons more than I have. This is great.
And three sessions in, he says, I can't treat you.
You're triggering me. That's the kind of experience
that you have. So meaning making narrative
building, by the way, takes place here in the dorsolateral
prefrontal cortex of your brain.This is the executive network

(33:49):
where decisions, rumination and cognition happen.
Tony. Sorry for.
The alpha for the alphas who arelistening and can't see you can
you? Can you kind of describe where
you're pointing to? I'm pointing to my forehead,
literally your forehead and the,and right up here, just the very
front of your brain is the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.

(34:10):
That's where narrative happens. That's where thinking happens.
That's where cognition, rumination, anxiety and stress
reside. And if I were to look at an EEG
for someone who is suffering from anxiety, what I would see
is, you know, you heard the story, left, left brain, right
brain, right, your brain hemispheres work together.
But when one side is really pumping out energy and the other

(34:34):
side isn't, that's when you get,if it's the right side, you're
going to get anxiety, stress, trauma.
It's the left side. You're actually in the state of
equanimity, right? And when they're balanced,
that's what that's like a snow, I call it the snowshoe effect,
right? If I step in three feet of snow
with a leg, I'm going to go right to the bottom.
But if I wear a snowshoe, the weight is borne by the entire,

(34:55):
you know, much, much larger footprint.
So your emotional and cognitive well-being really rests on whole
brain coherence and inter hemispheric synchrony.
And what we see is an imbalance in the front part of the brain.
And a lot of what's called beta and gamma waves that express
themselves, and those are very high frequency and require a lot
of energy, typically takes about12 watts of energy to have a

(35:18):
thought. But when that thought gets stuck
in your head, you're in OverDrive and it's metabolically
inefficient. It's tiring, it gives you
headaches. If you get ever get that
headache right in front of your brain or the one right behind
your eyes for a lot of people who get anxiety, that's a that's
gamma waves, that's an overabundance of prefrontal
gamma. That's just overloading your,
your prefrontal cortex. Now, if you've ever fallen

(35:44):
asleep and as you're falling asleep, you see a picture or you
have a complete memory of something, a symbol rather than
a narrative that happens in the back of your brain, that happens
in the occipital and parietal cortex.
And that's where, that's where symbolism happens.
That's where when the solution comes to you as a whole, you
don't go from ABCD, you just getthe whole thing at once.

(36:08):
So what peak neuro does, and this is just for trauma, we can,
we do a lot of different things,but basically what we do is we
create a frame. It's not brainwashing, it's not
giving you thoughts. You know, if you're going to run
a marathon, you got to be in a frame of mind to run a marathon.
If you're going to study, you have to be in a frame of mind to
study. If you're going to sleep, you
have to be in a frame of mind tosleep.
So we create the frame by adjusting more than just a

(36:32):
single or group of brain waves, but we really adjust the frame
of how your brain is working. And in this case, what we do is
we shut down the front of your brain.
We literally suppress your brain's ability to create
rumination, cognition, anxiety. All of those things get pushed
way down. And we work on what's called the

(36:52):
antigular cingulate cortex, the antigular cingulate gyrus, which
modulates emotion, and we suppress that.
And we open up that whole back of your brain.
And what happens is in therapy, you have what's called semantic
resolution. Semantics is just language,
right? We're going to talk about it,

(37:13):
but what Peak Neuro does, it's not a replacement, it's an
adjunct. What Peak Neuro does, it allows
you to digest anxiety, stress, trauma, allows you to adjust it
somatically with your body. So when you do this, you don't
necessarily even remember what happened as you're listening to
a set of headphones and you lay back in a chair.

(37:33):
You know you had a whole bunch of crazy things go on, but you
don't suffer from that. You can actually experience an
episode of the original trauma, but since we're suppressing
emotion, you watch it like it's a movie and you're not involved.
I don't know if any of you have been to like the immersive PTSD
therapy. I had to watch this movie over
and over again and I still can'twatch it.

(37:54):
I'm 64 years old. I still can't watch that movie
without crying. On the other hand, I can talk
about things now that I could never talk about before without
emotion because it doesn't. It doesn't own me anymore.
It's something that happened that isn't part of me.
It's just an event. So what we're doing is we're
changing the way that your brainworks and creating a frame for

(38:15):
you to digest that trauma in a way that allows you to come out
of it feeling for take 19 peoplewho went through a trial with
us, 18 of them come out and he asked the same question.
Give me one word to describe howyou feel.
And it's clear. I feel clear now.
It doesn't happen overnight. But here's the other thing.
There's a study conducted in 2021 by the Air Force.

(38:36):
The farther away you are from your home when you get PTSD
treatment, the lower the odds ofsuccess.
If you go away to a one month ortwo week or one week program,
you got about a 30% success rate.
The closer you are to your home,the better.
So if you have a set of headphones, you can use peak
neuro in your home without stigma, without talking to

(38:57):
anybody. The difference is and so Joe to
your to your thing, I don't knowhow long you were in the
neurofeedback program, but you got to get in a car, you got to
drive to a facility, you have tosit in front of a computer, you
have to do the work. And it usually takes somewhere
between 26 to 56 weeks for that to become what's called a trait

(39:17):
level change. So you can go and you can have a
state level change for the 30 minutes or 40 minutes that
you're doing this. You'll feel great.
And two hours later, your brain goes right back to the way it
was. Peak neuro creates trait level
changes, permanent changes in your neurophysiology in about a
month inside. It might be 21 days on the

(39:38):
outside, depends on individuals.And the other thing is for most
neurofeedback, ultrasound, focused ultrasound, you have to
go to a facility. You're going to do it.
It's 30 minutes long that, that,that takes you away from your
life. And if there's a stigma
attached, there's a, you know, the other issues to that this

(39:59):
allows you. And by the way, it's
one-size-fits-all. No one says, let me tweak some
things for you. Well, what we do, and I'll show
you these headphones is we don'tmake these, these are from
another vendor. That's an EEG device.
So I can put this on. You put this on, you have you
sit down for 10 minutes and, andget a profile.
And The funny thing is, is that while we're all we all have

(40:20):
brains, we all have electrical systems in our brains.
Every brain is different. Your neurophysiology is the
accumulated adaptation of your brain to your life.
So it's as individual as a fingerprint.
And we're able to now with an AIthat we put together that has
millions and millions of research studies, EE GS of

(40:41):
special operators, Fortune 500, CE OS, Tibetan monks, whole
populations of people, we're able to use your individual
neurology as the way to build the entrainment so that this
works specifically for you. So the difference between what
we do and neurofeedback, for example, is neurofeedback, you
got to go somewhere, you have towork with a professional.
It's a lot more expensive, it's a lot more time commitment and

(41:04):
it takes months and months and months.
It can take a year. We do it in your home with you,
tailored to you, and it takes a couple of months.
Not only that, but we can show you this is the great part about
it, as you might feel better, but are you better?
And what we can show you is the individual changes in your

(41:25):
neurophysiology and compare that, say to your age and gender
cohort or your age and military experience cohorts.
You know, it's interesting. I'm, I'm a Marine.
The closest thing that the Marines are the closest thing to
Marines that the Army has are Rangers because they're both
crazy. But the Delta guys and I work
with a bunch of them. We have we're treating 2D2D guys

(41:47):
right now. Retired Sergeant managers killed
more people than cancer, suffering from PTSD, 35 TB is
all kinds of issues. Their, their neurophysiology is
completely different. They're very quiet.
They're the, they're the thinkers, right?
The Rangers are like Marines, we're the doers.
So the ability to tailor this atthe individual level is what
makes it so powerful. Sorry.

(42:09):
I feel like I'm dominating the conversation, so I'm going to
shut up here from. Oh, Tony, thank you so much.
It's, it's really incredible to,to hear you explain it and kind
of walk through it. Also you're, you know, you're
rich history and lived experience as a Marine, but
then, you know, also kind of glossing over quite quickly.
You know, your, your corporate career and all the, the

(42:31):
organizations that you've LED. I just, I feel that you're a
real systems level change agent and able to drive a, a lot of
things, you know, forward. And so I feel like, oh, this was
my question. I could go so many different
directions. But also, you know, the brain is

(42:53):
really something that I learned more about than I ever could
have possibly imagined on this trajectory of veteran mental
health. You know, my, my brother and I,
the first nonprofit that we started is called Warrior Angels
Foundation, specifically to raise funds to provide a neuro
restorative protocol anti-inflammatory to rebalance

(43:14):
the hormones in the brain that have been affected from the
physiological damage right to a TBI.
So as you're explaining all this, and then obviously, you
know, the advancements in these,you know, diagnostic tests and,
and therapies like peak neuro and what you have all the way to
the neuro restorative. You know, then you have folks
like, you know, Joe Dispenza that are teaching the
neuroscience of change all the way to the meditative, how to

(43:37):
access between the conscious andthe subconscious with the
elevated emotion to in an attention to be able to, you
know, change that present momentof now that we all live in into
that future state that you want to be in.
Versus like the alternative therapies, like, you know, the
psychedelic assisted therapies, which are kind of like the easy
button to be able to help you toget there into those states.

(43:59):
And then the studies that are coming out and, and the new
research, right. And, and really, I think like
the last great frontier is the for, for us to understand is the
brain and is human consciousness.
And nobody really fully has a, agood explanation for, for what
that is and what we, you know, ultimately are.

(44:19):
So I guess I, I would, maybe thefirst thing I should say is just
that I'm a big fan of yours in your work and of organizations
and therapies like this. I believe that you are on the
forefront of the future of health and wealth care and
medicine. I believe that the brain is one

(44:41):
of the most valuable pieces of real estate, you know, in our
body. And you don't think about brain
health. We don't, we're not really
raised to think about the thingsthat we consume and how we might
create a neuropermissive environment or what that even
is. And, and yet it regulates every
single thing that happens and every thought that happens from
the time that you're in the wombuntil what happens when you

(45:04):
transition to the next state of,of consciousness and, and what
it's connected to you. And so I think that that's such
an important part of, you know, what I've kind of thought about
it as there's the recovery aspect of it.
Like I've had a, a some kind of significant insult or injury and
it could be, you know, psychological overtime, but

(45:26):
there's deep recovery that needsto take place.
Then there's the optimization, you know, kind of component
thinking maybe more like, you know, I was in the service, I
didn't have anything too too terribly crazy it from a
physiological standpoint, or I'mat an executive, you know, high
function in that prefrontal cortex all the time.
And how do I make that cortex work better for me?

(45:48):
How do I optimize that? And then, you know, it's, hey,
I've kind of done those things. I, I know how to maintain myself
physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually.
How do I maintain that, you know, that Wellness?
How do I, you know, for as long as I can?
And so there's, to me, it seems like there's so many different
layers, you know, of depth that that can and need to be reached.

(46:12):
So I guess maybe my question foryou kind of coming back to the
to the product in, in Peak Neuro, what was it that kind of
put this on your radar? How long have you been working
on this? And how do you guys think about
it from maybe those just surfaceof those three different layers
from the recovery side, the optimization in the Wellness?
And maybe you can just talk fromlike a practical standpoint of

(46:36):
different kind of, you know, protocols that you may have with
the equipment that would addressthose.
Boy, that's a lot to unpack, butlet me go back.
Briefly. You since you opened the woo
door, I'll I'll take a quick step into it.
So if you want to read an interesting theory about
consciousness, not about the brain, you know, and all the
time that I've spent doing the research and learning and

(46:59):
working on building this and youknow our our advisors for peak
neuro include staff professor from Harvard University's
medical school is a neurosurgeon.
He's the chief neurosurgeon at Brigham Women's Hospital.
Arnold DeLorme is the inventor of EEG Lab, the the software
that that neuroscientists use tointerpret EE GS.

(47:20):
He's one of our advisors. We have a team at Columbia
University that we've worked with, where I've done a lot of
presenting papers there. Marjorie Woolacott is a
professor at the University of Oregon who is the president of
The American Academy of Post Materialist Sciences.
That's a big one. And then there's every year

(47:41):
there, there is the world's foremost conference on
consciousness takes place at theUniversity of Arizona.
And every other year they have that conference internationally.
And this year it was in, it was in Barcelona, Spain.
There is a, a theory of consciousness called the Orc ore
theory. And it was written by Rodger
Penrose. Sir Rodger Penrose, who's a

(48:02):
Nobel Prize winner in physics, and Stuart Hameroff, who is on
the he's a professor at the University of Arizona, who's an
anesthesiologist. It's a, it was a fringe theory
for a very long time. And it postulates that inside of
our neurons are something calledmicrotubules and that they
vibrate at different frequencies.
You know, it's kind of funny. We, we say neuro acoustic
entrainment and people say, well, it's just sound, but sound

(48:24):
is nothing more than vibration. And what we're really doing is
we're stimulating the, you know,the, the, the microtubules
inside of your neurons and creating a vibratory effect
which changes consciousness. So the, the brain isn't, I used
to think the brain was a step down transformer that let us
understand the larger consciousness, right?
There's this sort of Newtonian physics view of the world and

(48:47):
the and the mechanical view, which which only leads you so
far. And then you have to get into
sort of the quantum field theory, quantum consciousness
space, and then that begins to explain things.
So I've since upgraded my sort of perspective to.
So by the way, to encourage you,you can read that that's what
our technology is really based on is the Oracle theory.

(49:08):
But I think the brain isn't a step down transformer.
It's a, it's a translation engine that allows you to access
Carl Young's, you know, collective unconscious, right,
or the quantum field. And when you can open up a
larger aperture to that information, you have access to
all kinds of crazy things. I mean, I, so, you know, how did

(49:30):
this really happen for me? It would blow your mind.
I, I have a, I have a home at the beach in Chincoteague.
I live in Falls Church, VA, right outside of DCI run a
National Defense industrial based defense contractor.
So that's where I live, but we have this nice beach house.
And in 2022, I believe May of 2022, I had a meeting scheduled
with a government organization in the intelligence field that I

(49:54):
won't mention. And I googled directions to a
meeting because I was in a placethat nobody told me that I'd
never known. I've been to this place 1000
times and when I Googled it I found a 1983 declassified
Defense Intelligence Agency document about a program that
was used in remote viewing. If if you're Joe Dispenza guy,

(50:15):
you probably. Know what you're talking about?
I'm not really, I don't care about remote viewing, but I'm a
big physics nerd and I'm thinking .1983 the the shape of
the universe and wave particle duality.
And in 1983 you couldn't even measure this stuff.
And yet in 2022, what was the Nobel Prize for wave particle
duality? So I looked at my wife who's
also a big nerd and said, hey, this is pretty cool.

(50:38):
They, they started to use this at this really interesting
Research Institute. I wonder if that place is still
around. And it was.
So I looked it up and it's in Virginia and I thought, well,
I'll just go and take that thing.
It looks pretty cool. No idea what it was about.
None at all. So I go down there and show up
in October of 2022. And I thought, holy cow, this is

(51:00):
this was the six day transformation.
And when I showed up, they have a little in doc, right?
You walk in, Hey, what do you expect to get?
And I'm like, nothing. I just came on a goof, man.
I just wanted to see what the physics was.
And the next thing I know, I'm having experiences that you just
can't explain, although they're real, right?
You can't. This is the place, by the way,
where the remote viewers were trained.

(51:21):
So, you know, you, you, you justasked the question.
OK, well, I can remediate certain things, but can I extend
beyond remediation into optimization?
So I really started this without, without even knowing on
the other side of it, on the optimization meditation frame.
And the interesting thing is when you're, when you get to the
point where we're normalizing, if there's any such thing as

(51:43):
normal for a brain, when we're getting you to the place where
you're, you're not suffering. The next question is, well, how
do I, how do I get better? You know, where can I take this?
What you find is you can go to alot of places you open up
experiences. A great example just talked
about psychedelics. My Co founder Bob Holbrook,

(52:05):
who's been doing this for 31 years, we went down to a
veterans clinic and we reverse engineered the brain waves of a
veteran and ketamine therapy. And now it doesn't work like
ketamine. You don't put on headphones and
all of a sudden you're in ketamine.
But after about the 10th time you do this, you have a
legitimate ketamine experience. I've, I've done it with a

(52:26):
psilocybin program and since I have a security clearance and
I'm, you know, not allowed to dothose kinds of things, I took a
reverse engineered psilocybin experience and it took seven
months of once a week playing around with it.
And then one day I, again, I have no personal perspective on
how that works, but talking to people, veterans who've had

(52:46):
that, that experience, it was not only like it, but lasted
longer and was better because itwas natural, right?
The You're right, the psychedelics we.
Need to get you. We need to get you down to an
ibogaine clinic. I've heard, trust me, I have
friends that have done everything, Ayahuasca, the
bullfrog stuff, it's crazy stuff.
And it's, it's great because it's a shortcut to the place you

(53:08):
want to be, but you can get thatotherwise.
So one of the interesting side effects of peak neuro is if you
do it long enough. And by the way, that's the other
thing, neurofeedback is great until you stop.
We have a sleep program. I I'm said it before 64 years
old, the average 64 year old gets 18 to 22% of their sleep is

(53:28):
restorative. That's a combination of slow
wave sleep and REM sleep. I, I use that program for about
6 months. Haven't used it in a year.
Last night my restorative sleep was 50%.
That's about average for me. I get better sleep in 4 hours
than other people get an 8. And I haven't used the
technology in a while because itjust works.

(53:49):
It works and it changes the brain state.
So there's, there's a side effect of this where if you were
to, if you were to do this for aweek straight, 4-5 hours a day,
I could put an EEG on you and itwould look like a Tibetan
Buddhist who's meditating, who'sbeen doing it for 30 years.

(54:10):
And if you do it long enough, that is your baseline wake
state. And not so much that it's great
for, you know, meditation or remote viewing, but it's
metabolically efficient. You don't get headaches, you
sleep real well. Your physiological stress goes
through the floor. And it's funny, you know, we
talk about we're down regulating, we're doing post

(54:30):
Combat Stress reduction. We're and then for Tbis, we're
not fixing. ATBITBI is a lesion on your
brain that destroys neural connections.
What we do is we create neuroplasticity and your brain
creates new connections that move around those lesions.
We don't resolve the lesions. It's not really possible, but
give you a great example as as Ilearn this and because we have

(54:51):
an AI back end now I can talk tothe AI and my wife who's about 7
years younger than me, likes to play pickleball and I don't get
out much because I'm doing all this and I love pickleball.
I think it's kind of cool for old guys with bad knees.
And like every other veteran on the planet, I got bad knees, bad
back, bad attitude, all that stuff.
So I thought, I wonder if I can make like an up regulation

(55:12):
exercise and that creates like aflow statement.
Sure enough, I, I use this exercise, I go out to play
pickleball and everybody I played with says, how are you
doing that? And I have to say, how am I
doing what? Well, how do you know where the
ball is going to be before I hitit?
I don't. Well, you keep winding up in the
right spot. And what it does is it changes
the frame rate for your visual perception.

(55:33):
So your, your eyes observe the world at about 24 frames per
second. We change the frame rate to 40
and the world slows down in yourin your perception, and we also
relax you. So when I play, my physiological
stress levels are at about 60% of my normal physiological
stress when I'm playing pickleball because.

(55:54):
It is. Is it just binaural beats?
Is it binaural beats? And so you're essentially able
to pick the program to be able to say what you want to happen
and then you'll be able to to put the to brain in in that
state. The technology is five
generations removed from binaural beats.
Binaural beats were invented, discovered, however you want to

(56:14):
say it, in the late 1800s, and they were sort of perfected in
the early 1900s. And from binaural beats we went
to frequency modulation, amplitude modulation, isochronic
tones. Bob Holbrook, the the my Co
founder and the genius behind this whole thing has created
what we call fractal neurophase entrainment.
So think of an ocean, an ocean wave.

(56:37):
Big waves drive smaller waves, Dr. Littler waves, Dr. Littler
waves. And it's a it's a very complex
mathematical model that mimics the brain's natural
oscillations. One of the problems with
binaural beats is it's called, it's called the function of
habituation. So if I listen to it long
enough, my brain just turns it off and says it's not a thing.

(56:58):
I can just ignore it. This actually modulates like
your brain modulates so you never get away from it.
If you were using binaural beats, two things about them.
They only work for the time you use them.
They don't create trait level change.
And the, the really interesting thing about them is that the way
I compare it is if you take a sponge and put it in water,
eventually that sponge is going to soak up the water.

(57:21):
That's binary beats. If you take what we do, it's the
equivalent of tying A bungee cord to your ankles and shoving
you off a bridge. Instead of 6 to 12 minutes into
the entrainment when you start to feel it, it's 4 to 8 seconds.
And now you have a lot more timeto work on the issues that you
want to work on. So again, the unintended
consequences of this kind of a thing are things like greater

(57:43):
neuroplasticity. And I talked a little bit
earlier about our affiliation with some research institutes.
I was invited to Columbia University in March of this year
to give a talk on AI and education and what we were doing
with Pete Nora. And as it turns out, we did a
six month random controlled study with 160 participants over
a six month period. And we measured things like

(58:04):
reaction time, stress, threat recognition, because we do this,
you know, work with the, we workwith military folks.
And what we discovered was the unintended consequence was we
saw a 16% increase in neuroplasticity.
So when you think about AI and you know, AI is kind of
interesting, right? This is a, this is an iPhone.
An iPhone is not really a phone.It's the accumulated knowledge

(58:26):
of mankind in a box. If you have a ChatGPT app on it,
right? It also makes phone calls, which
are kind of cool. But at the end of the day,
education is AI is the democratization of education.
But if you live in my neighborhood, that's pretty
cool. My in my neighborhood, high
income McLean, Bethesda, Potomac, Georgetown, not only do

(58:51):
you have access to education, you have access to good
nutrition, you have access to support, you have access to
mental health. 6 miles away in Anacostia in Southeast DC,
you're dodging bullets to go home.
Both your parents work. If you have both parents and you
don't have the same access, you have access to education.
You don't have access to learning.
But if we can create with peak Norrow the opportunity for you

(59:12):
to get greater neuroplasticity, we now democratize learning.
It's a democratization of learning.
So The funny thing is we talked earlier.
I'm actually talking to some folks.
I can't say who they are becausewe're under NDAA.
Famous gentleman who, who was the founder of a famous chain of
stores, created a foundation that has to give away $450

(59:35):
million a year for 20 years. That's how much money he made.
And what we're really looking todo is to create a foundation for
Peak Nuro that will make this available to nonprofits and to
all veterans, all military, all first responders for free.
That was exactly the follow up question I was going to ask you.
How do you how how are you guys making this available and and

(59:56):
sustainable? For That's really easy.
If you're a nonprofit, send me an e-mail.
Write me. Contact people through this
through this podcast and we willmake this.
The great thing about it is it'san app.
You do you want to use it? We have so many American, we
have so many American Legion posts and even, you know, I have

(01:00:18):
50 partner coalition nonprofits that we help coordinate with.
We I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
Guys, I would, I would love to be able to connect with you on
this, Tony. Yeah, we can.
We can provision this by what what I say is an e-mail address,
right. So if everybody has the same
e-mail, e-mail address, right, We peek Neuro is separate from
Intelligent Waves, the company that I run every month.

(01:00:40):
I have an open door teams call with we're all, we're in 26
states, seven foreign countries and all the employees get on.
And about two months ago one of them said, hey, can we get this
Peek Nora stuff? And I'm thinking, boy, I really
screwed that up. I should have thought that a
long time ago. So everybody in the company has
access to, you know, the different exercises and.
But that's why it's so importantto surround yourself with people

(01:01:02):
that that do think like that, that do think around because
you're always, you know, you're focused on, you know, so we
tunnel vision, you know, especially when, when we're kind
of also dealing with our own stuff, you know, we have a
tendency to, to tunnel vision. And on my end of things, I, I
cannot promote peak Nero enough.I, I can't believe it in.

(01:01:28):
So I think the biggest thing that, that I want to say before
I, I, before I finish up here isthat the reason why I think it
works that first time is becauseit shows you another way that
you didn't know existed. And, and I don't know how to
describe it any better than that, that you just have to try
it because I can't even describePeak Nero to someone.

(01:01:52):
I can only say you really need to sit down and try it.
There's these exercises where itchecks your focus and you think
that you're pretty good at stufflike that And, and you're not.
You can always be better. It reminds you that the mind is
a muscle that needs to be exercised in a very specific
way. You can't just read and improve

(01:02:15):
yourself. You can't just know about
classic conditioning and improveyourself.
There's some very specific stuffthat that peak neuro like
narrows down and, and focuses inon the small muscles in the
brain that make all the difference that, that changed
the trajectory of, of the way you think.
And I, I want to thank you so much for what you shared with us

(01:02:38):
today. And I wanted to give you an
opportunity to please share how we can get in contact with you.
You know, you mentioned as a nonprofit, you know, be prepared
to, to get some emails because we would love to, to be able to
hook you up with some people that are, are pushing and want
to be better. You've got some really fantastic
tools for that and I'd love people to know more about it.

(01:03:00):
So. Two things you can do.
I would, I'm sure you have show notes when you, when you post
these because spelling my, I couldn't spell my name until I
was 15. So I don't think anybody else
could either. So it's
tony.crescenzo@peeknoto.com. But you can also, by the way, if
you're a veteran and you have PTSD and TBI and you've been

(01:03:21):
diagnosed with that, we're currently conducting studies on
that. We've got partnering with he's
retired now from the VA. He's Ava psychiatrist and we're,
we're conducting studies. So you can write to studies at
peekneuro.com or, or not, let's say, or in addition to go to the
App Store, go to Google Play andlook for an app called Peek

(01:03:42):
Neuro. It's free when you get down.
It's free because it's not everything is on it.
But if you send, if you send me an e-mail and you're a, you're a
veteran and you're a first responder, we'll provision that
app for you with exercises that are specifically designed to
help people who are struggling with anxiety, stress, and, and,

(01:04:05):
and those types of issues. Now, I do want to say this,
there is a, this is what's called neuro adaptive.
So if you listen to something and it, and it doesn't feel
good, stick the headphones off. And we've never had anybody, you
know, have anything bad happen. But if you're, if you're
struggling with with PTSD, if you're feeling like you're

(01:04:27):
coming to the end of things, if you're having the kind of
thoughts that some of us have, all of us have at some point, go
to studies@peaknora.com and let somebody know we we will work
with individual veterans directly.
Obviously we can't do that with everyone, but we're working
right now with with the Defense Innovation Unit and with parts

(01:04:49):
of the Air Force and the Marine Corps to make this available
inside of the military for all service members.
We're doing the same thing. As I said, we're working with
nonprofits. So I'm not, if you're a
nonprofit and you want to use itto distribute to the the folks
that are in your cohort. So Warriors Ethos, for example,
you know, we make this availableto anybody.
We're very happy to to make thatavailable to every veteran that

(01:05:11):
you're working with in your nonprofit for absolutely
nothing. Wow, that's, that's absolutely
remarkable. Thank you, Tony.
Thanks for having me. You're a rock star, brother.
Thank you again so much for we. Got to have you back on.
Yeah, we got to have you back on.
We need, we need more time. We need another hour with you,
Tony. I feel like you're only

(01:05:32):
scratching. The surface.
So we're going to Oh, not at all.
I think you're tremendous. And we'll talk to super producer
Holly about getting you back on for another hour and doing a
follow up because what I really want to do is also dive into
some of your anecdotal stories about veterans success stories
and, and that kind of thing. Well, not just this science, but
if. You're open to it.
I'd love to come back with Mark,with Mark Green, He let's do.

(01:05:55):
It Yeah, that'd be great. Here's.
A guy who's actually been through it and he's not, you
know, 150 years old, doesn't have civil war.
That sounds great, Tony. Thank you again for your service
and thanks for giving us the time to talk about this
wonderful endeavor. And alphas, don't forget to
visit peekneuro.com and get thatout and reach out to them for

(01:06:18):
the all the incentives. It's amazing opportunity and
very generous from Tony and his crew.
Again, Alpha stick around for some scuttlebutt after the.
Break My name is Dan Wiley, National Commander of the
American Legion. This year, the American Legion
family is honoring our nation's 250th birthday with the USA 250
Challenge. Participants can choose 1-2 or

(01:06:42):
all three categories, but I wantto talk about the one that means
the most to me, mental Wellness.Like many of you, I know first
hand the struggles veterans dealwith when it comes to our own
mental Wellness. I am so proud of how the
American Legion makes mental Wellness a priority.
Our Be the One mission is designed to increase mental

(01:07:02):
health awareness and decrease the number of veterans lost to
suicide. Our Buddy Check program is
designed to ensure that no veteran is left behind.
These are worthwhile missions that change lives and save
lives. You can improve the lives of our
fellow veterans when you join the American Legion Family USA

(01:07:23):
250 Challenge and complete the Mental Wellness category.
Visit legion.org/USA 2:50 to getregistered today.
OK Alphas, we hope you had a great break.
We have a very animated scuttlebutt today, Stacey.

(01:07:46):
Yep, on this day in 1940, Woody Woodpecker Dave Pecker Pecker
Woody Woodpecker debuted as an animated cartoon.
Woody is an anthropomorphic woodpecker.
He was created in 1940 by American cartoonist Walter
Benjamin Lance and World War Oneveteran Ben Bugs Hardaway.

(01:08:08):
Fun fact, Hardaway is a seasonedstoryboard artist previously
laid the groundwork for the two screwball characters, Bugs Bunny
and Daffy Duck. Wow, I didn't realize that.
Yeah, and I wonder if that's where he got his nickname.
Ben the Bugs Hardaway. Yeah, yeah.
What came first, the chicken or the egg there?
I'm curious whether he. He made.

(01:08:28):
Maybe Bugs Bunny was his alter ego, I don't know.
I just want to say also that imagine you're playing Scrabble
and somebody drops anthropomorphic.
Like that's just a handshake. It's like, let's just save 20
minutes and call this one. I'm normally dropping bugs.
That's what I drop, yeah. Yeah, me too.

(01:08:50):
Daffy Hardaway enlisted in WorldWar One on June 4th, 1917 and
was discharged on April 9th, 1919 after serving 14 months in
France and a total of 26 months.But he also was led by in the
129th Field Artillery Regiment by the future President of the
United States Harry S Truman. And though not a veteran

(01:09:13):
himself, the cartoonist Walter Lance entertained the troops
during the Vietnam War and visited hospitalized veterans.
At any rate, Woody's character was designed and evolved over
the years from an insane bird with an unusually garish design
to a more refined looking character acting more in the

(01:09:34):
veins of Bugs Bunny. Woody was originally voiced by
the prolific voice actor Mel Blanc, who notably served as the
voice of the hapless Private Snafu in a series of Shores
produced by Warner Brothers as away of training World War 2
recruits through the medium of animation.
This sounds like something they did for the Marines because they

(01:09:55):
can't read. The films were designed to
instruct service personnel aboutsecurity, proper sanitation
habits. Yeah, it's definitely for the
Marines, booby traps and other military subjects and to improve
troop morale. Why do you think they're called
booby traps? You know, I don't know, so quick
Google it. Primarily, they demonstrated the

(01:10:17):
negative consequences of doing things wrong with the main.
The main character's name is a play on the military slang
acronym SNAFU. Gentlemen, do you know what that
means? Yeah, I know what that means.
Not good. It's not.
It's things are real bad. All big up, you know what I
mean? Snafu was designed by Art

(01:10:37):
Hyneman at the same man who wenton to redesign Woody Woodpecker
in 1944. So many interconnected threads
here. Anyway, so it do either of you,
Joe or Adam, can you do Woody Woodpecker signature laugh?
I don't. Think I can do that anymore?

(01:10:59):
The guy who made-up his his laugh and and was known known
for that that particular laugh was singer Harry Babbitt.
He, too, was a veteran but also Navy during World War 2 and best
known for his hit The White Cliffs of Dover.
So that's a really, really good song.
Woody has a motion picture star in the walk of on the Hollywood

(01:11:22):
Walk of Fame. And in case you want to visit
it, that's at 7000 Hollywood Blvd.
You can go check out what he's what he's started.
Woodrow Woodpecker. He remains an iconic character
with a dedicated fanbase and continues to be recognizable in
pop culture upon new cartoons onplatforms like YouTube and has
the status for the mascot of theUniversal Studios even to this

(01:11:46):
day. While not a prominent as
characters like Mickey Mouse, his legacy is sustained through
continued new productions and lasting appeal with classic
cartoons. All right fellas, do either of
you know the signature sign off for Woody Woodpecker?
Oh gosh, really? Can you want me to do it?
I. Definitely do, but I've got.

(01:12:06):
That's all. Oh, that is it.
Oh yeah. All right.
We may hear back, folks. Let's hear it.
What? Oh man, no.
What? Oh, that's all folks.
That's all folks. I can't do oh shenanigans.

(01:12:28):
I remember watching. The cartoons when I was little.
Yeah. I watched so you know, I, I the
whole reason I, I watched Woody Woodpecker when I was like
little, little and then having red hair.
For some reason, people would call me woody woodpecker and I
legitimately hit people in the face over it.

(01:12:49):
And, and thinking back, I don't know why that was like insulting
the kids say the weirdest things, you know, like you smell
like shoes. What, you know, like no, no, no
new shoes. And therefore I smell like
shoes. I just love.
I love finding, you know, anniversary dates for things
like this with, you know, Woody's birthday, but finding

(01:13:10):
the people behind them that theycreated and the, and the, the
drive and motivation like these,these military veterans, I mean,
touch every, every space and facet of this particular
character that's so iconic. It just seems exponential what
veterans can do in our communities.
You know, it's, I think it's funny too, because if you look

(01:13:32):
at the calendars, like the national calendars, every day is
a day, whether it's like sistersday, super producer day, you
know, whatever it is, you know, there's always a day and which
means that there's a story. And not only is there a story,
there's somebody that that pushed to have this day
memorialized in some way. So there's just an endless

(01:13:53):
amount of of rabbit holes that you could chase down bugs
intended on, you know, on these types of topics.
And and fighting military tie insurance.
Yeah. That's that's always great.
Well, I enjoyed putting this this one together for you guys,
so thanks for let me share. Well, I am gonna go from
cartoons to something, you know,way more sad.

(01:14:16):
So you know you're. Great.
Buckle up. Buckle up, buckos.
So on February 28th, 1943, a 20 year old draftee inducted into
the US Army at Fort Snelling in his hometown of St.
Paul, MN, said a particularly painful farewell for the very
last time. He addressed his mother, who was
near death from cervical cancer.Goodbye.

(01:14:39):
Sparky said his bedridden mother, Dina, who was 48, will
probably never see each other again.
She died. Yeah, 48.
I know it doesn't seem young. When you're little, you're like,
Oh my gosh. But like when you start, when
you get in your 40s, you're like40s.
I feel pretty good. I'm not dead yet, Dude.
That's three. Years from now for me, that's

(01:14:59):
sketchy. Yeah.
That poor lady. But she said we'll probably
never see each other again, so she died the next day.
While Sparky, the childhood nickname of Charles M Schulz,
was in route to Fort Campbell inKentucky, the cartoonist who
drew the popular Peanuts comic strip, which marked its 75th
anniversary back in October, wasunable to return home for her

(01:15:20):
funeral. So years later, Schultz
reflected on that experience as a defining moment in his life,
one that enabled him to project his own fragile emotions through
the downtrodden world of good old Charlie Brown, the comic
strip's main character. And it would also lead to
development of one of the most beloved illustrated figures of
all time. The Army taught me all I need to

(01:15:42):
know about loneliness. Schultz later recalled that the
tears shed and his barracks following Dina's death.
Schultz was in. Which peanut was the one with
the blanket? Linus.
Linus. I I feel like he's he's talking
a lot of Linus right now. I'm wondering how many of the
characters represent different aspects of of that grief.
Oh yeah, I guess it every. Yeah.

(01:16:03):
I mean it, it's, it's interesting though, the way that
art sort of bleeds in from your life, you know, as somebody who
writes and somebody who does music, I mean, there's, there's
a lot of myself in in these characters, but you know, it
feels very self absorbed to write characters based off
yourself. So oftentimes you start with
what you know and then you try to find someone who seems to

(01:16:25):
embody that, you know, like. I related to most of those
characters with the exception ofPeppermint Patty.
She was such an evil. I figured that would be more
exactly who you identified. I'll kick you in the tank, Joe.

(01:16:47):
But Schultz was incredibly proudof his World War 2 service, said
Michael Keane, a veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and
author of Charlie Brown's Christmas Miracle.
However, his mother's passing while at basic training really
had an impact on him. He was horribly lonely.
It's worse being lonely when you're surrounded by people and,
and you can't always blame the people around you because some

(01:17:10):
of us are better at masking thanwe think we are.
Sometimes we think we're in the midst of a cry for help and
nobody's answering. And you can, you can sit on that
and think, wow, nobody cares at all when really you're 20%
quieter than normal. Like it's not something.
And people are dealing with their own stuff too.
So, you know, it's, it's easy toshift that on to other people,

(01:17:32):
but often times I've found that when I'm at my loneliness, I've,
I've chosen that I've been chipping away at my own
foundation for for long enough that I've, I've sort of put
myself in a spot where I'm not as approachable as always.
I'm not saying that that's what happened with him.
I'm saying really to anyone listening, a lot of times for

(01:17:53):
most people, you're only as alone as you choose to be.
In some ways, you know, 'cause there's, there's peace in
loneliness and then you carry ittoo far, you know, just don't
let it sneak sneak up on you. So Charles Schultz, sorry, my
dog was making some odd noises back there.

(01:18:15):
Schultz served in the US Army with the 20th Armory Armored
Division in battles across France, Belgium and Germany.
He rose to the rank of SNAP Sergeant, became a light machine
gun squad leader. According to Keene, Schultz
likely suffered from undiagnosedPTSD.
After the war. He was plagued by severe
depression and paralyzing anxiety.

(01:18:37):
His wife wanted him to get therapy, said Keene.
That's a familiar story to to many veterans.
Schultz wouldn't do it, though. He was afraid it would affect
his creativity and he wouldn't be able to draw peanuts anymore.
That's an interesting. That is very interesting and
insightful. I would I would love to hear his
supporting reasons why he thought therapy would impact his

(01:18:59):
creativity as as somebody who was a creative like I.
Bet he felt that strong emotional connection and like
you were saying earlier, he he funneled that into the
characters and he thought that he might lose that.
Interesting. Maybe.
You know, have you ever listenedto an artist?
And I won't call anyone out because I, I love musicians and

(01:19:22):
I know that they've got their journeys, but it's sometimes as
they grow out of their, their pain stage, they lose some of
the fire that they had in, in some of the earlier albums.
And I don't want anyone to ever go through that stuff.
But I've got a dear friend of mine that went through a very,

(01:19:44):
very tough divorce and some health issues as and he's an
artist. And I have never seen somebody
grow in their art the way that it he did.
I think finding a way to channelthat stuff the way that Schultz
did is a very healthy. And I don't think that this was
a lack of therapy fully. I think this was partially was
his therapy. I mean, I think we'll get a.

(01:20:06):
Lot of people. Out You know Justin Bieber has
not put out any quality work since his separation with Selena
Gomez back in the day. Man, I'm not getting involved in
this because if you think that fandom is still not out there.
Occasionally people Bro has not produced since marrying Haley.
It's just not been there. But you know, I'll tell you some

(01:20:29):
of the. It's been nice knowing you,
Adam. It's been real nice knowing you.
We're going to have Justin Bieber on as our third host in
two weeks. Oh, man.
All right, so after World War 2,Schultz pursued his dream of

(01:20:49):
drawing comic strips, starting with a series of 1 panel
drawings called Little Folks forthe Saint Paul Pioneer Press in
1950. So funny to me.
Little folks, he was signed by the United Feature Syndicate to
do a daily 4 panel strip across the country.
That's four times the amount of work he was doing before.
I hope he got paid for that. Schultz had to make a few

(01:21:11):
revisions before he could be syndicated because it was too
similar to the Little Abner comic strip, so the name was
changed to Peanuts. He also needed a new name for
one of his characters, a a dog named Sniffy, who was already
taken by a pooch in another comic strip.
Where's Sniffy now? In the grave, baby, do.
You have Sniffy came about like,you know how a dog likes to go

(01:21:33):
up and sniff butts and stuff, was that?
I I do that. Hang on sniffy, sniffy.
Hang on. No it.
Doesn't. Have the.
Same. Yeah, that stinks.
I'm so sorry. So Schultz recalled some of the
last conversations with his mother, who by that time was

(01:21:54):
prescribed morphine to ease her suffering.
The resulting hallucinations crept into conversations with
her son, and Dina spoke about getting a new dog, who she
planned to name Snoopy. Of course, Snoopy also has a sad
story behind it. This guy, I want to hug him.
So coming from a Norwegian family, the word Snoopy SNUPI
meant affection, so Schultz knewit was the perfect name for the

(01:22:17):
character in his comic strip. Snoopy made his debut in October
4th, 1950. To that's debut.
Just in case the joke didn't carry.
It's funnier now that I explained it. 2 days.
After Peanuts first premiered innewspapers, he grew in
popularity to the point where the character soon dominated.
Peanuts dominated the comic strip as well as the network TV

(01:22:41):
specials. People ran in fear.
At its peak in 1975, Peanuts wasread by more than 100 million
people each day, and Snoopy was a huge part of the process.
I I think everybody our age, especially if you think about
pean like Peanuts and and reallyin general, the first vision

(01:23:01):
that pops in my head outside of Charlie Brown is Snoopy laying
on top of his his doghouse. When I think of of Peanuts, for
some reason, if I you tell me toname a character, I would say
Charlie Brown. But if you just said the word
Peanuts, what would pop in my head is is him and Woodstock.

(01:23:21):
Yeah, Woodstock the bird. Yeah, the little yellow bird.
So I saw at bird so in its peak in 75 a 100 million people and
became a symbol of hope during the Vietnam War when American
troops brandished Snoopy on helmets, tanks, trucks and other
military gear. Schultz died in at 87 in in

(01:23:42):
2002, days before his final peanut strip ran in newspapers
around the world. He would have been 103 on
November 26th. That's great.
So we. Got links for that in the show
notes? Wow, OK, that's very
interesting. I got one for you.
For both of you. Both of you.

(01:24:02):
What you got? A A group of women Legionnaires
from the American Legion PacificPalisades Post 283 in California
are strengthening their bonds while taking on all three
elements of the USA 250 Challenge.
Navy veteran Michelle Heaton is coordinating the Post Women

(01:24:25):
Legionnaires Committee and its activities, including a recent
day that was dedicated to engaging in all three
challenging categories. Do you remember what they are,
Joe? That's right.
Community service, mental Wellness and physical fitness.
I think it's community service, mental Wellness.

(01:24:45):
Got three out of three. I knew you would.
The ten women American Legion members visited Will Rogers
State Beach, playing a game witha flying disc, practicing.
Or is they're not using frisbee because that's a a commercial
name. No, like maybe like the the
discs for like disc golf golf, you know, is that a.
Frisbee, right? No, they have.

(01:25:09):
They want the names. I don't know.
I've never disc golf before. Practicing meditation with a
sound bowl. Way to go, ladies.
And handing out water and snacksto other beachgoers.
Also trying to get the flying discs inside the sound bowls.
There you go. That was a fun game that they
came up with when they got bored.

(01:25:31):
We decided to do the USA 250 Challenge as a group so we can
incorporate some fun into the activities as well as continue
to engage with the community as a whole, she explained.
We're going to bring awareness to the community that the
American Legion goes out together and does things for the
community. The American Legions USA 250
Challenge, which celebrates the nation's 250th birthday, offers

(01:25:55):
3 categories for participants topursue solo or as part of a
team. Proceeds from the $30
registration fee and optional fundraising dollars go toward
the Veteran and Children's Foundation, which supports
disabled veterans and military families in financial distress.

(01:26:15):
Post 283 member Melissa Orduna, who served in the Navy during
Operation During Freedom, enjoysthe community service part of
the challenge. Community service is important
to me because it's something I've been doing for the majority
of my life. It just makes me feel good and I
like to be able to give back. Orduna noted their group can

(01:26:36):
inspire other women veterans to join the American Legion.
The common bond that we share isour love of service, she said.
We want to make a change for women leaving the service.
We want to bring them on board. We want to show them that
they're heard, that they're cared for and most importantly,
to build a camaraderie we have. Well, I think that's really

(01:26:58):
heartwarming and that's great. We need, we need more showing up
like that in the communities. Well, I want to just make make
note that these are women, veterans, all three, because you
know, we're over 2 years. Good job.
I'm sorry. Go ahead.
I only said good job. OK, well, I'm going to do way

(01:27:20):
better than you. And no, I, I saw a commercial
about and it was a, a female veteran that was talking about
how welcome she felt joining theAmerican Legion.
And it was, it was her just sharing her experience.
And I thought, man, that's incredible because the more
people we bring in, the more, you know, these things that are

(01:27:43):
happening that are supporting veterans, these things like, you
know, the, the VA loans and stuff that you can get when you
buy a house, all these things, people have to fight for this
stuff. And when you join the American
Legion, that's the kind of things that we do.
That's the kind of things that we make sure you know, when,
when something is happening that's going to benefit veterans

(01:28:04):
or hurt veterans, we talk about it.
We talk about it on here. The posts know about it.
They talk about it and, and our goal is to be informed voters
that that support, whether it's it's Republican or Democrat
people that take care of veterans.
And so, you know, get involved it you have a lot more power

(01:28:24):
involved in the with the American Legion than than you
can imagine. And, and, and these women
veterans that are that are joining these are leaders.
I'm seeing so many that are not joining the auxiliary that are
joining the, you know, the, the Legion Post as you know, as
veterans themselves and are getting leadership positions and

(01:28:46):
stuff. And like, it's the dream.
Like this is what I want to see is representation of, of, you
know, our veterans of all ages and all races and all, you know,
genders leading because that's what it takes to make a, that's
what's great about America is that we're just, it's chaos.

(01:29:06):
It's kick, it's chaos with one goal.
And that's what the American Legion does.
Vote for Joe Worley, ladies and gentlemen.
Let's let's bump those numbers up.
Let's bump those. Numbers.
Up. Numbers.
Let's get those numbers up. All right, We'll have the link
to the full story and video in our show notes and alphas.
Get a team together in your community, bump those numbers up

(01:29:29):
and head out to legion.org Back slash USA 2:50 to join the
challenge. Happy Thanksgiving everybody, I
hope you have a a nice Turkey ora tofurkey if you're a me
diverse. Be twins cooking for you.
Some yams, some ham are. You going to watch?

(01:29:50):
I do like some good yams. You got to watch plane trains
and automobiles. Oh yeah, we do.
Sell some shower curtains, pay for your expenses.
What's? The book, what's the book that
he's reading? John Candy and.
I can't remember. What it is.
All right, I'll figure it out. I'll tell you guys next year.

(01:30:10):
Not know the answer. All right, Alphas, thanks.
Thanks for listening. Thanks for being our friends.
Thanks for being here with us. Thanks for sharing space and
giving us the opportunity to share stories and and continue
to be the voice for the AmericanLegion.
You can subscribe to our podcast, our newsletter, and
send us mail and guest recommendations at legion.org.
Back slash tango apha Lima. Send us some Thanksgiving photos

(01:30:33):
too, while you're at it. What you what shenanigans you
guys have gotten into and happy Thanksgiving.
Drive safe, don't drink and drive.
We'll see you next week. It's called the Canadian
Mounted. I'm done.

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How to transform mental health challenges into resilience – EP294 Tango Alpha Lima

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}How to transform mental health challenges into resilience – EP294 Tango Alpha Lima