America is Deeply Broken (Here's How We Can Fix It) - Rye Barcott
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
They know courage matters. We know it. It matters not only in our leaders, but it also matters in our own lives. For sure, it matters in our kids' lives. This is a total mental health crisis that we're going through. I didn't even hear the word, you know, suicide when I was growing up in junior high or high school. It wasn't even in my consciousness. And now I got kids that are in middle school. One of my kids is in sixth grade, like the first two days. She comes home and she's like, Daddy, this guy next to me who's like had a wrinkled up piece of paper and said that I feel like I can't, you know, go on with my life. And the teacher doesn't say anything in response to it. Courage is about service. Service is about purpose.
And I think that's why people are hungry for a message like this.
Welcome to Open Book. I am your host, Anthony Scaramucci. Joining us today is Rye Barcott. He's the co-founder and CEO of With Honor, and he is a New York Times bestselling author. That's right, and it's about this book, actually. The title is Courage to Save Us, 10 Extraordinary Americans and the Fight for Our Future. It's a brilliant title. Rye, congratulations on the success of the book. It's well-deserved. The book is amazing, but I want to go to your career, if you don't mind. I want to go to the veteran that you are, why you decided to serve and then how you started with honor and what with honor is about before we get into this sensational book.
Thanks so much, Anthony. Great to be on. You know, we've known each other for almost 10 years and I started with honor about 10 years ago. I co-founded it with the late David Gergen who passed away one year and a day last year. So actually his, his, his anniversary, the passing was, was, So we're going to do a special posting on with honor for that. And another veteran that I'd served with in the Marine Corps. And this was 10 years ago. And what we saw was that there was a group of vets that had served in post 9-11 that were eager to answer the call to serve again in another hardship post, which is our modern politics.
Yeah.
And they actually were running across party lines. And so we decided to set up an organization called With Honor. It's a nonprofit organization. It's got a political arm to it.
Who is Rye Barcott and what is With Honor's mission?
Veterans who we support have to take a pledge to serve with integrity, civility, and the courage to still work across party lines, which is hard to do. But vets in Congress used to be at a high watermark of 70%. It's down to about 20% now. We support not every veteran. Not all are sort of part of the solution. But as a group, veterans tend to act in a more cross-partisan way. We like to say cross-partisan because we support independence as well. And all the proceeds from this book, every dime that I bring in, and fortunate that it's been on the list now for four weeks, goes to the organization. And what the organization does is it recruits, it trains, it then supports, and then it helps bring cohesion and have accountability back.
to veterans across party lines, particularly in the U.S. Congress. There are about 50 of them. They still trust each other. They often don't agree on issues, but they trust each other, and they're able to work on some difficult things. And frankly, they just treat each other with respect and dignity, which is in scarcer supply these days as is courage.
Okay. I mean, listen, I think you came to the first Soul Conference in 2019. Is that correct?
That's right. That's right. With Mikey Sherrill.
Mikey Sherrill, who's now the governor of New Jersey. I've had the chance to meet her at several conferences and love her. I mean, she's doing great work. You obviously have her here in the book. You've got so many others, but I want to I want to go to what it means to be a humanitarian. Because I think character does matter, right? You've got loads of it. You've got buckets of it. And you write about character mattering in the book. But really, if you are a public servant in the right kind of way, you've got to be a humanitarian. So define that for me.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–2:07
2
Who is Rye Barcott and what is With Honor's mission?
2:07–4:17
3
Why did Rye Barcott start With Honor and how does it support cross‑partisan veterans?
4:17–14:02
4
How does Rye define humanitarianism and why does character matter in public service?
14:02–28:39
5
What inspired Rye to write Courage to Save Us and who are the ten Americans profiled?
28:39–32:57
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Open Book with Anthony Scaramucci
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