This is an iHeart Podcast. America is changing. And so is the world. But what's happening in America isn't just a cause of global upheaval. It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere.
I'm a smah in Washington, D.C. I'm Tristan Redman in London and this is the Global Story. Every weekday, we'll bring you a story from this intersection, where the world and America meet. Listen on bbc.com or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm NFL linebacker TJ Watt, and this is my personal best.
YPB by Abercrombie is the active wear I'm always wearing. That's why I reached out to co-design their latest drop. I worked with designers to create high-performance activewear that holds up to my toughest workouts. Shop YPB by Abercrombie in store, online, and in the app. because your personal best is greater than anything.
Hey everyone, it's Sophia Bush, host of the podcast Work in Progress. Lexis is a company that believes in the importance of setting a standard. For me? A standard that matters to me? Is being a friend, being a person, being a co-worker who shows up.
The standard Lexis has set for themselves is to experience amazing. Lexis's benchmarks are feelings. Things like exhilaration and joy and amazing can only be achieved by knowing people on a deeper level. It's feeling like your car was designed and built. Just for you.
A machine that makes you feel... More human. Because a car that doesn't make you feel something is a car that stops short of amazing.
So experience Amazing at your LexisTealer. Mint is still $15 a month for premium wireless. And if you haven't made the switch yet, here are 15 reasons why you should. It's $15 a month. Two.
Seriously, it's $15 a month. Three, no big contracts. Four, I use it. Five, my mom uses it. Are you are you playing me off?
That's what's happening, right?
Okay, give it a try at mintmobile.com/slash switch. Upfront payment of $45 for three months plan, $15 per month equivalent required. New customer offer first three months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See Mintmobile.com. Come on, why is this taking so long?
This thing is ancient. Still using yesterday's tech? Upgrade to the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, ultra-light, ultra-powerful, and built for serious productivity with Intel Core ultra-processors, blazing speed, and AI-powered performance that keeps up with your business, not the other way around. Oh, this thing moves. Stop hitting snooze on new tech.
Win the tech search at lenovo.com. Lenovo, Lenovo. Unlock AI experiences with the ThinkPad X1 Carbon powered by Intel Core Ultra Processors so you can work, create, and boost productivity all on one device. This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories. And we talk about everything here on this show, from the arts to sports.
From history to business and everything in between. And we love hearing your stories. Send them. Then we'll take a few of them, take many of them if possible. and turn them into stories right here on the show and put them up on the satellite.
so you can hear them too. What we're doing here is special. I think you know it. Share it with friends. and anywhere you can talk up what we're doing.
We appreciate it and so too does your station. And now it's time for the McLellan files where we go deep inside the life of McClellan. Bob McClellan.
Someone that you don't know, but whose life and whose voice. you're certain to be captivated by. is in their dealings with While watching a movie with my wife in the family room one evening, we were interrupted by our sixteen-year-old son Tommy, who walked in and sat down with us. Politely, he said he had something important he wanted to discuss with us. As I turned off the T V I quickly imagined all the possibilities of something terrible, disastrous, or difficult that could force a sixteen year old boy to sit down to talk with his parents about anything important.
My wife, with her eyes wide open, sat silently while we all got settled in to hear what he had to say. I could not remember his approaching us like this before, and my expectations, coupled with my imagination, made me feel very uncomfortable. He began to tell us about a friend whose cousin attended the New Mexico Military Institute. in Roswell, New Mexico, for high school. That cousin is now a captain in the Green Berets and is teaching math at West Point.
Tommy was very impressed by that, and said he wanted to go there for the remaining two years of high school. He talked about the academic standing of the school, the numerous activities that were available, and the challenges he felt the school would present them. As he spoke, I was still unprepared for the ending of his story. Calmly and ever so smoothly, he discussed his desire to attend such a school. And pursue a college education that no doubt had a military career as its ultimate destination.
His mother countered with a gentle return to reason when she said, You're going to a fine private high school here in the Bay Area. Why would you want to leave all of your friends? More straightforward questions came from me like. Are you unhappy? What do you want?
Drugs? He said he was prepared to leave his friends, as he would make new ones at the school. and though it was a military school. he was not enlisting, and would still be a high school student. He returned to talking about the courses and activities offered by the school and its academic reputation.
He thought that discipline and focus would help him be more successful. It was obvious he had done his homework, and it was evidence of how seriously he took this idea of leaving home. traveling and living at the school. and taking on a rigorous academic and physical regimen at sixteen years of age. Young though he may be, he had reached a fork in the road in his life.
that his mother and myself didn't see. We asked, why would he want to be going to a military institute that sat out in the middle of the New Mexican desert? It was their reputation, he said. In their one-year cadet prep program, 97% go on to one of the military academies. Out of a total of 900 students, ninety went on to the military academies.
He thought that by doing well at NMI, He could pick any college he wanted to attend. and after graduation from college, become an officer. I began to suspect that he was bored living under the shady trees amidst a wealthy suburb south of San Francisco. Our bedroom community offers little excitement. punching a time clock, working at a retail store, Or hanging around with your friends, playing with your phone while living at home.
It's a lot less adventurous and exciting than traveling around the different places, living within a community where 30% of the student body is international. 100% are former military, and meeting the many challenges that the military presents. We reminded him that home and community are important for his development. They are nourishing, sustaining, and necessary foundations for his life. But Like bread, they can often become stale.
It wasn't love or nourishment that was missing. He just needed more room to grow. Finally, I just had to get to the point. I asked him, What's this all about? he said.
I got no problem with the military, but why not do R O T C in college? If you want to go in the military, why do you need to go down there and do this? There was a moment of silence and a Calm, self-assured demeanor, he looked at me, and without any doubt or hesitancy in his voice, he said. Dead. I am not going to go to Stanford Business School and I am not going to go to Harvard.
and I am not going to spend the rest of my life working in an office. I want to be a captain in the Green Berettes. I was speechless. There was nothing more I could say. And at that point, I was done.
I was sold. He said he wanted to be an officer in the Green Berets, work in special operations, and be fluent in Arabic. He wanted to be a leader and not a follower. He had heard from his friend's cousin that these men don't need to find themselves. They do that every time they're standing in the doorway.
Getting ready to jump out of a plane. I asked him. Are you prepared to jump out of a perfectly good airplane over Nigeria? His response was a simple yes. I could see the look in his eyes were infused with his youthful imagination and romanticism.
But I knew he meant it. I understood how he felt. and though I thought it was a little early, I reminded myself that after all it's just high school. He's not going off to war. I knew too that regardless of how far down this path he goes, he will benefit.
for making this decision. and will learn a lot about himself in the process. This was his decision. He looked into his own incipient life and realized that he needed to find a different path to take him to a different place. He didn't know where that place was located.
but his imagination convinced him that it existed. He just had to find it. And when we come back, more of this terrific story from Bob McClellan. And by the way, if you have a storyteller in your town that you know can just, well, hop out stories. Send his or her information to us.
We know there are great storytellers all over this great country. More of the McLowan files. After these messages. Lee Habib here, and I'd like to encourage you to subscribe to Our American Stories on Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, Spotify. Or wherever you get our podcasts, any story you missed, or want to hear again.
can be found there daily. Again, Please subscribe to the Our American Stories podcast on Apple Podcasts, the iHeartRadio app, or anywhere you get your podcasts. It helps us keep these great American stories coming. Hey, it's Bobby from the Bobby Bone Show. I had an incredible time at this year's iHeartRadio Music Festival and even got the chance to hang out with Diplo and Bailey Zimmerman while I was there.
Check this out.
So how did ashes come together, Diplo?
Well, uh I kind of briefly met Bailey I think a Morgan's show, one of them. And I think He's just a guy in Nashville. He's cool as hell, and I had a new kind of sound I wanted to do. I think he's the one guy that could carry it. I came to his house, I had a show.
I pulled up real quick. He was about to leave on tour. You're about to jump in your tour bus, and we had like three hours. played the record for him, we kinda like got a scratch and then he handled it on his own on the road. Yeah.
It was really cool. He literally just like randomly showed up to my house. I'm like, oh, hey, Diplo, what are you doing? He's like, I have a song that I want to show you. And I was like, okay.
And then.
Now we're here playing it live. You can listen to the full episode out now, wherever you get your podcast. And big shout out to my friends at Hyundai for making this possible out of blast, cruising around the festival weekend in the all-new Palisade Hybrid. Time for a sofa upgrade? Visit washable sofas.com and discover Anibay, where designer style meets budget-friendly prices, with sofas starting at $699.
Anibay brings you the ultimate in furniture innovation with a modular design that allows you to rearrange your space effortlessly. Perfect for both small and large spaces, Anibay is the only machine-washable sofa inside and out. Say goodbye to stains and messes with liquid and stain-resistant fabrics that make cleaning easy. Liquid simply slides right off. Designed for custom comfort, our high-resilience foam lets you choose between a sink-in feel or a supportive memory foam blend.
Plus, our pet-friendly stain-resistant fabrics ensure your sofa stays beautiful for years. Don't compromise quality for price. Visit washable sofas.com to upgrade your living space today with no risk returns and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Get up to 60% off plus free shipping and free returns. Shop now at washable sofas.com.
Offers are subject to change and certain restrictions may apply. Mm-hmm. America is changing. And so is the world. But what's happening in America isn't just a cause of global upheaval.
It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere. I'm a smah in Washington, DC. I'm Tristan Redman in London and this is the Global Story. Every weekday will bring you a story from this intersection, where the world and America meet. Listen on bbc.com or wherever you get your podcasts.
I'm NFL linebacker TJ Watt, and this is my personal best. YPB by Abercrombie is ActiveWear I'm Always Wearing. That's why I reached out to co-design their latest drop. I worked with designers to create high-performance activewear that holds up to my toughest workouts. Shop YPB by Abercrombie in store, online, and in the app.
because your personal best is greater than anything. This is Justin Richmond, host of Broken Record. Lexis is a company that believes in the importance of setting a standard. Which I can appreciate as someone who holds themselves to lofty if not ridiculous standards, especially with the car I drive. The standard Lexis set for themselves is to experience amazing.
Lexis measures success by the feeling and emotions evoked in a driver, like exhilaration and joy. Amazing can only be achieved by knowing people on a deeper level. The standard of amazing results in a feeling in drivers that their car was built in anticipation. of them. Machines that make you feel more human.
Because a car that doesn't make you feel something is a car that stops short of amazing.
Experience Amazing at your Lexus dealer. This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories. And we pick up where we last left off. with the McLellan files. A young man, a boy.
Having a dream in his head, a vision in his head of leading a team overseas in the Green Beret. and making that next important move to go to military school. Let's pick up where we last left off. As a parent, I learned eventually I could not really direct my children's lives anymore. Oh, yeah, I could influence or coerce em.
But I was no longer the director. And this conversation with him that night I realized I'd become a spectator. I always believed as a father that the best I could do was to prepare my children, to set their direction in life. and be ready to live with the success or failure of their choices.
Now I would have to honor that belief. Consequences exist in the world of adults while children are protected from them. Families like ours create barriers and boundaries and walls trying to keep out the grimmer and grimier aspects of society. But to do that we risk becoming imprisoned inside the wall Holding on to the illusion that we are safe and in control. We sent our children to private schools, put alarm systems in our house, and were careful about who we invited into our home.
But still. We know that no one is safe. We pick their friends, pick their school and where they can go, but at some point we can no longer be there to make their decisions or supervise every activity, place or person that comes into their life. The point has to come or either I release him, Or he just jerks his hand out of mine. Troubles like drugs, teen suicides, mental illness, or just being lost, living at home with mom and dad have permeated through the porous walls of his school.
He sees some of his peers already making these dangers a lifestyle. and it is one of the reasons why he wants to leave. These dangers may be hidden among the many to morrows of his future. It was becoming apparent to me That Tommy is not just running to someplace. but running away from some place.
I thought my wife and I would make all of his decisions. But at some point I know. We won't be there to help him. To manage these serious difficulties, he needs many attributes to get him through, and resourcefulness sits at the top of that list. Resourcefulness is an attribute that is part of the military bedrock.
Planning for the unexpected. adapting to fluid situations. and working with limited resources are integral parts of military training. Our natural instinct at home is to nurture our children. It is our duty as parents.
But being nurturing. is not preparing them to be self-sufficient and independent. Eventually, the breast runs dry. and is incapable of providing nourishment. for a man.
The appetite becomes too large when your son is six feet tall. A shared. without realizing it. Nami's decision. is one that will help him develop the ability to take care of himself.
Wow. What a concept. Choosing for oneself which side of the wall is right for you is a decision we all have to make. Tommy chose the risk of being on the outside rather than being inside in the safety of the center. His confidence impressed me as evidence of both his desire for independence and self-reliance.
Regardless of the outcome, this is his choice. If he gets down there and doesn't like taking seven classes a day and training in 100-degree heat in the desert, then that's just too bad as far as I'm concerned. I am sure this experience will teach him to be very selective about what he chooses to do in the future. He will certainly learn his limitations down there. as well as his capabilities.
Video games and drugs and alcohol hold no allure or excitement for him. And then am I He is not allowed to even have a smartphone, and internet access is controlled by the school. It leaves all those attachments and appendages here at home. There was no use for them at the school. they will write letters instead and carry a flip phone.
The school seems to have a policy that I embrace. Less is more. I told him that the door only swings one way here. and other than leave or come home on vacations, Don't come back until you finish it. He said, No problem, Dad.
I told all my children when they turned 18. Three doors will appear in their life. They go to college. The daughter of the military. And the front door.
And they're going to go out of one of those three doors. For sure. And Tommy? He's the last to go. Afterwards my wife discussed the conversation with me.
and she asked what he thought was driving his decision. My answer to her question was that he was bored. A high school campus full of kids that all grew up together becomes a very small world. Church for teenagers every Sunday. Boy, that gets routine real fast.
Faith eventually fades away. teachers telling him all day what he's to believe. doesn't challenge him to think for himself. It doesn't learn to solve real problems, but rather digital or paper once. In the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, Paul Balmer exclaims to his former teacher, after returning home on leave from the front lines in World War One, You never taught us anything really useful.
Like how to light a match in the wind. or make a fire out of wet wood.
Sometimes it is the practical and not the theoretical education that is important. He wants to take classes to fly a plane, experience scuba diving, and rappel out of a helicopter. Run an obstacle course and learn about teamwork from teachers who spent many years in the military. He's not interested in being a digital cartoon characterization action figure. He wants to be a real one.
He wants to be a green beret no less. Those ideas and dreams lie far out in the future. Though they may never materialize, I am comforted that he has some starting point in his life. These are questions his mother and I have discussed with him since that night. The questions that he could not provide answers for.
He told us he would find them when he gets there. It was so apparent to me that my son was becoming someone else. I could see his hunger for adventure and challenge, was contained in my most favorite quote of all of literature. Shakspeare's play, The Taming of the Shrew. It introduces the Tiro Petruccio, who, while riding into Padua, is greeted by a friend from his home town who asked O hail Petruchio What winds blow thee to Padua?
He answers, Such winds that scatter young men through the world to seek their fortune farther from home, where small experience grows. These are the words that help me understand my son's decision. I worry about his mother. and how she's feeling about the prospect of her son leaving home at sixteen. She was unprepared and not happy about a separation so soon from Tommy.
Our other son Bobby had left for college a year earlier, and she thought she would have taught me for two more years. The idea of spending 20 years as a mother and then watching them leave home. is a painful experience for any mom. But his desire was so credible and so sincere that she could only say yes. She said she could not be so selfish as to stand in the way of her son seeking to make his life matter at sixteen.
She always said that she put her children first. Her commitment to that devotion puts her into the selfless position that that how her children feel is more important than how she feels.
So she is preparing herself for what will be one of the most difficult sacrifices she could make for her children. What a fine example of love that is. For me, I grew up in and served in the military as did most of my family, and though I will miss them, I will. I accept the idea that life is a journey. through a strange land.
and each obstacle that's overcome becomes a transition to the next place in life. This challenge will expand the margins of Tommy's life. and test his capabilities. When we finally informed Tommy that he'd been accepted and that he could go. I had a sense that I would see a lot of Roswell, New Mexico, over the next couple of years.
I think my wife will insist upon it. And what a terrific story, and as always, beautifully told and written. Bob McCloud. And by the way, again, if you know a storyteller in your town, in your city, In your community, and you know who they are, there are a few people who can just really write and tell a story. Send their names to us.
This is Our American Stories, the MacFilant file. Hey, it's Bobby from the Bobby Bones Show. I had an incredible time at this year's iHeartRadio Music Festival and even got the chance to hang out with Diplo and Bailey Zimmerman while I was there. How did Ashes come together, Diplo? I pulled up real quick.
He was about to leave on tour. You're about to jump in your tour bus, and we had like three hours. It was really cool. He literally just like randomly showed up to my house. I'm like, oh, hey, Diplo, what are you doing?
He's like, I have a song that I want to show you. And I was like, okay. You can listen to the full episode out now wherever you get your podcast. And big shout out to my friends at Hyundai for making this possible. Had a blast, cruising around the festival weekend in the all-new Palisade Hybrid.
America is changing. And so is the world. But what's happening in America isn't just a cause of global upheaval. It's also a symptom of disruption that's happening everywhere. I'm a smackhollid in Washington, D.C.
I'm Tristan Redman in London and this is the global story. Every weekday, we'll bring you a story from this intersection, where the world and America meet. Listen on bbc.com or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Julian Edelman from Games with Names. Fantasy football can be exhausting.
I mean that literally. You're so anxious over your lineup, you can't fall asleep. Best way to deal with it is Unisom. There's a reason it's the number one doctor recommended over-the-counter sleep aid brand. It helps you fall asleep faster, wake up less, and feel refreshed in the morning.
Plus, Unisom sleep tabs are clinically tested and proven effective and completely Non-habit forming.
So, make the ultimate sleeper pick and put it to bed with Unisom. Use as directed. What kind of man? would let this happen to his family. Inspired by Shocking actual events.
I'm working on a story about the Murdochs. Their abuses and power are playing out in real time. Starring Academy Award winner Patricia Arquette and Jason Clark. It's only cheating. If you get caught.
Hulu Original Series, Murdoch, Death and the Family. New episodes Wednesdays on Hulu and Hulu on Disney Plus. For bundle subscribers, terms apply. Can small acts make a real impact in the world?
Sometimes a small thing has the power to become more, something big and meaningful. And when it comes to helping children, no act is too small. When you fill up at the Purple Giving Pumpet Shell, a portion of your purchase will be donated to support charities in your community. The Giving Pump. Easy to stop, easy to donate.
From 9125 to 1031.25, participating shell stations will donate a minimum of one cent per gallon of the fuel pump from the giving pump or a minimum donation of $300. This is an iHeart podcast.
