Derek Abbey, PhD joins me again! I enjoyed my last conversation so much with Derek, I invited him back to share his research on transitioning into the veteran space. Derek says that there are important stages we should all go through in order to help us mature as well-functioning adults. The military sets the perfect conditions by providing almost everything we need as adults. It provides community, a way to progress through rank and accomplishment, and makes many of our decisions for us.
Although the military “saved his life”, Derek shares what he has learned from helping veterans take the next big step in their lives in higher education and helping veterans take the next big step in their lives. The result was a fascinating conversation on what we all need to do to evolve to a better version of ourselves.
Derek Abbey, PhD is a retired Marine and CEO of Project Recover.
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Music by Rudy Vaughn
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Corie Weathers, LPC, BCC, NCC
Catch up on Past Briefs:
Brief 02: The Rhetoric of Lethality
The vocabulary of and toward the military has narrowed to a single attribute — and the person who carries it has been edited out.
Maximum lethality. Hunt, and kill. Without mercy. None of it is wrong — they are warfighters. But this brief traces where that register has worked, where it has failed, and what it asks of the people who must live inside it.
Brief 01: Follow the Money: The Warrior Ethos, Redefined
The FY2027 $350 billion mandatory defense request, and what the Warrior Ethos banner funds now.
The language calls it the Warrior Ethos. The scope has changed. This brief walks through three connected shifts in 2026 — in words, money, and how the institution treats the people who sustain the force — and what they mean for military families.