Episode 79: The 20-Year War
The Grit Podcast:
I speak with Josh Moore, combat Marine, former SWAT and law enforcement officer with Orange County Police Department, husband and father of two young girls and head of sales of a tech startup company called INVI Mindhealth™. Josh and I formed a friendship over the past year when I joined INVI as their medical director. I first heard Josh's story as he spoke last summer in front of a large SWAT audience, recounting a series of horrific firefights at a forward operating base in Afghanistan, where he suffered the loss of two of his friends Geno Mills and Hunter Hogan. Josh...
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Episode 78: Here Comes Easy
The Grit Podcast:
This is an episode with two hunting friends, local law enforcement officer Cam Daniels and financial advisor Matt Cova. We recap our elk hunting season, from the planning, strategy, tactics to the deep relationships we share with our hunting partners. Cam and Matt discuss harvesting a bull elk this November that Cam killed in the deep Colorado backcountry and called Matt late in the day to help him, and what that whole process entailed. We discuss the pact that we share during hunting season- willing to drop everything, grab a pack filled with survival gear, drive into a...
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Episode 77: Letting Go
The Grit Podcast:
Thrilled to be back sharing podcasts with you all! I reflect on stepping away from the podcast, the processes of reflection, seeking validation and letting go. I am deeply grateful to my guests and listeners for their constant support, and cannot wait for this year's lineup of amazing people, bravely sharing their insights. We walk this road together. Thanks for listening to and supporting our podcast! Please follow the podcast in Instagram: @thegritwithdrbenpeery Please reach out to with any feedback to: @drben0636 on Instagram. Check out these resources from previous...
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Episode 76: The Inner Army
The Grit Podcast:
Dr. Sudip Bose joins us, ED physician, Iraq war combat veteran, medical director, professor and entrepreneur to share his insights about the experience of going to war as a doctor. Sudip reflects on how he managed the strain of his work under enemy fire by focusing on a powerful voice that he calls his "inner army." That voice stepped into the half-space between fear and action to help him complete his mission of saving lives. We discuss mental health, and the paradox in the first responder and military communities of focusing on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as the...
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Episode 75: Extrication
The Grit Podcast:
George Gjersfold is a veteran firefighter and engineer, lifeguard and movie set safety officer who reflects on years of service in the chaos of urban Los Angeles. George reflects on an incredible array of lifeguard and fire service work and the accumulated scars, from the tragic loss of his mother to suicide while working a shift, to the horrific traumatic death of an infant. SHADE is a firefighter mneumonic for how George learned to approach an emergency which stands for: Stabilization, Hazard, Access/Assist, Disentanglement and Extrication, and became a mantra for surviving his...
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Episode 74: Backburn
The Grit Podcast:
With flames from a massive forest fire closing in, young volunteer firefighter Zach Holmes and his partner lay down in the ashes of their backburn, certain that they were going to die. What does it feel like to face your own death as a first responder? Zach takes us through the incredible experience of how he survived this fire. During a 14-year career as a paramedic and firefighter with Cheney Fire Department, Zach faced two more near-death experiences. But his survival had just begun. First responders, front line workers and military veterans are asked to place...
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Episode 73: Dropping In
The Grit Podcast:
I am headed back to work as an Emergency Physician after a 2-year hiatus and discuss some of the interventions that have made that possible. I recount what it felt like on my first shift, and how dropping in on a difficult airway case reminded me that some things never change. I discuss numerous adaptations I made to my mindset, diet, daily practices and spiritual homeostasis to be able to return to work. I review how psychedilics, trauma-based therapy, and supplements have been helpful as healing tools along with the absolute imperatives of imbedding gentleness, gratitude and...
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Episode 72: Chasing Falcons
The Grit Podcast:
I speak with Dr Kurt Pappenfus, rural emergency medicine physician, about his amazing 35-year medical career and adventures as an alpine expedition physician, medical team leader on a movie set, and master falconeer. Kurt has worked in austere environments all over the world, from the peaks of the Himalayas and Alps, to the windswept mountains and plains of the American West, and shares his insights about the unique challenges of rural medicine. In 2019, Kurt and his wife settled in Cheyenne Wells, on Colorado's Eastern plains where he worked as one of the only physicians caring...
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Episode 71: We are the Asset
The Grit Podcast:
In March of 2023 Dr. Cunningham stood in front of a packed house as the Presidential Speaker at the Academy of Academic Surgeon's annual meeting and gave a speech entitled "Removing the Mask" where she revealed her incredible battle with addiction and severe depression. Carrie is a mother, Harvard endocrine surgeon and NIH-funded researcher and risked her professional, and personal reputation to frame the conversation about mental health and addiction to a traditionally stoic group of medical providers with her own journey. In her speech, she shared how profoundly the tragic suicide of a...
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Episode 70: Take it Easy
The Grit Podcast:
After travelling to South Africa to visit my mother and brother Jess Peery, Jess and I sit down to talk about Mom's worsening memory, the impacts for her of imbedded trauma after the death of her parents as a young girl, and what she now finds most important in her life. Jess shares insights after years as a psychedelic practitioner on mental health, psychedelics and the paradox of looking for hacks and quick solutions in a toxic, imbalanced world. We discuss the imperative of seeking beauty, redefining what is sacred and remembering, always to take it easy with ourselves. Thanks...
info_outlineI am headed back to work as an Emergency Physician after a 2-year hiatus and discuss some of the interventions that have made that possible. I recount what it felt like on my first shift, and how dropping in on a difficult airway case reminded me that some things never change. I discuss numerous adaptations I made to my mindset, diet, daily practices and spiritual homeostasis to be able to return to work. I review how psychedilics, trauma-based therapy, and supplements have been helpful as healing tools along with the absolute imperatives of imbedding gentleness, gratitude and connection in my life.
Thanks for listening to and supporting our podcast!
Please follow the podcast in Instagram: @thegritwithdrbenpeery
Please reach out to with any feedback to: @drben0636 on Instagram.
Check out these resources from previous podcast guests for assistance with tracking your mental health, and reaching out for therapeutic assistance:
1. Jonathan Wilson and INVI MindHealth have developed an App using smart watch technology to track your daily mental health wellness:
Please listen to Joinathan's incredible story on the Shawn Ryan Show- he reveals deep insights about his mental health struggles and mission to bring objective measurement of mental health to the veteran and first responder communities. The episode is imbedded here:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shawn-ryan-show/id1492492083?i=1000646864307
2. From Raul Rivas and his Trauma Behind the Badge podcast episode he shared the inline resource therapy resource:
https://www.lighthousehw.org/
Available on the App Store or on Google Play.
Lighthouse Health & Wellness is an in-hand, on-demand, 100% confidential health and wellness platform available at no cost to our nation’s public safety agencies.
Lighthouse was designed to provide your employees and their families anonymous access to your agency’s existing health and wellness programs, along with a growing library of the latest educational health and wellness information and tools that have been tailored to the unique needs of those working in public safety.