David Holdridge served as a platoon leader in the U.S. Infantry outside of Chu Lai, Vietnam suffered a catastrophic injury, and has since devoted his life to delivering humanitarian aid to people suffering from starvation, exploitation, and in war zones around the world in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. From Saigon to Gaza, he relates his journey.

Inspired to write his book "The Water Above," David brings important wisdom as he shares his insights into working effectively within various cultures to give help to the people who need it.


Heroes Behind Headlines
Executive Producer Ralph Pezzullo
Produced & Engineered by Mike Dawson
Music provided by ExtremeMusic.com

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

A different kind of war story and hero: Lt. Mary Balster was a charming Midwestern teenager (the apple of her father's eye) when she enlisted as a nurse at the outbreak of WWII. She proved invaluable on the front lines as a German-speaker, but was unprepared for the nonstop workload; the filth; the horrible injuries and desperation; the quickly formed friendships; having to care for enemy combatants; and being one of a handful of women surrounded by thousands of GIs. Patton insisted on keeping his field hospital close to his front lines, (in order to more quickly care for the wounded) and Mary had her share of challenges and adventures. Her daughter NCR Davis shares highlights from her mother's diaries and war history, including her never-diagnosed PTSD, from her biography, "For the Boys."


Heroes Behind Headlines
Executive Producer Ralph Pezzullo
Produced & Engineered by Mike Dawson
Music provided by ExtremeMusic.com

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

Award-winning journalist Sam Quinones lays out the facts behind the meth and fentanyl drug crisis in the U.S.:

He expertly describes how mass manufacturing has made these drug ubiquitous, cheap, and infinitely more potent, and thus unlike any other drugs--legal or illegal--ever consumed by human beings. Sam explains how today’s meth has triggered an abrupt rise in homelessness, and why these drugs and so destructive to users, their families, and ultimately all of us.

Heroes Behind Headlines
Executive Producer Ralph Pezzullo
Produced & Engineered by Mike Dawson
Music provided by ExtremeMusic.com

Janina Melberg was a brilliant mathematician posing as a Polish Countess Janina Suchodolska to hide her Jewish identity during the Nazi occupation in WWII Poland. She simultaneously joined the both the Polish Welfare Council (RGO)--and secretly the Polish Underground--and bravely organized food and relief supplies for Poles incarcerated in the infamous Majdanek Concentration Camp.

Co-authors Elizabeth B. White and Joanna Sliwa trace the long-hidden history of this remarkable and previously unknown woman, and how they posthumously discovered and researched her story for their book, "Counterfeit Countess." (Publisher) Janina ended up escaping to the U.S. following the war, ultimately finishing her academic career at the University of Chicago.



Heroes Behind Headlines
Executive Producer Ralph Pezzullo
Produced & Engineered by Mike Dawson
Music provided by ExtremeMusic.com

Jim “Wild Carrot” Shorten-Jones served as a team leader (One-Zero) in MACV-SOG during the height of Vietnam War, and ultimately in the Army, Navy and Air Force. In another exciting chapter in America's "secret war" in Laos and Cambodia, Jim shares his adrenaline-fueled war stories as team leader of RT-Delaware, and also recounts the non-stop life of adventure he has led since--including his work as a U.S. Air Force Pararescueman (PJ) saving people stranded far out at sea.

Heroes Behind Headlines
Executive Producer Ralph Pezzullo
Produced & Engineered by Mike Dawson
Music provided by ExtremeMusic.com

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

Jim “Wild Carrot” Shorten-Jones served as a team leader (One-Zero) in MACV-SOG during the height of Vietnam War, and ultimately in the Army, Navy and Air Force. In another exciting chapter in America's "secret war" in Laos and Cambodia, Jim shares his adrenaline-fueled war stories as team leader of RT-Delaware, and also recounts the non-stop life of adventure he has led since--including his work as a U.S. Air Force Pararescueman (PJ) saving people stranded far out at sea.

Heroes Behind Headlines
Executive Producer Ralph Pezzullo
Produced & Engineered by Mike Dawson
Music provided by ExtremeMusic.com

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

When FBI Special Agent Nikki Badolato arranged a live meetup with a man looking to 'rent' her infant daughter as part of a sting, she was shocked to see how presentable and 'normal' this 30-something man was. Now, after a two-decade career, Nikki and Rolling Stone journalist Alex Morris lay out the state of domestic human trafficking, how pedophile rings work, and what we should all know about the fight to save hundreds of thousands of children trafficked in the U.S. every year.


Heroes Behind Headlines
Executive Producer Ralph Pezzullo
Produced & Engineered by Mike Dawson
Music provided by ExtremeMusic.com

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify

U.S. Coast Guard Veteran Martha La Guardia-Kotite shares inspiring stories of bravery from her book, “So Others May Live—Coast Guard’s Rescue Swimmers: Saving Lives, Defying Death.” These brave men and women put their lives at risk to rescue people in the greatest peril. Among the stories is that of a baby rescued from a boat in the middle of a hurricane.

Heroes Behind Headlines
Executive Producer Ralph Pezzullo
Produced & Engineered by Mike Dawson
Music provided by ExtremeMusic.com

Listen on: Apple Podcasts Spotify