Medal of Honor: Stories of Courage

We're sharing episodes this month from another Pushkin podcast we think you'll enjoy. In Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah, Jake Halpern and acclaimed investigative journalist Jess McHugh unravel an epic six-year deception that upended lives of countless people. Sarah Cavanaugh was many things: A decorated veteran. A Marine who saved her comrades. A young woman fighting cancer. She was stoic, humble, tough. In short: a hero. Sarah was everything people wanted her to be—until she wasn’t. Turns out, no one knew the real Sarah. Not her comrades. Not her wife. No one. Jake and Jess interview all of the key sources—including Sarah, herself—to tell this sprawling tale. Episode 5: One overlooked detail in Sarah’s story: she was married. Her wife, Nicole, never spoke to the press or the feds. She remained a mystery—until now. We’re committed to making Medal of Honor even better, and you can help! Leave your feedback for the show by filling out our listener survey at bit.ly/mohsurvey.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're sharing episodes this month from another Pushkin podcast we think you'll enjoy. In Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah, Jake Halpern and acclaimed investigative journalist Jess McHugh unravel an epic six-year deception that upended lives of countless people. Sarah Cavanaugh was many things: A decorated veteran. A Marine who saved her comrades. A young woman fighting cancer. She was stoic, humble, tough. In short: a hero. Sarah was everything people wanted her to be—until she wasn’t. Turns out, no one knew the real Sarah. Not her comrades. Not her wife. No one. Jake and Jess interview all of the key sources—including Sarah, herself—to tell this sprawling tale.Episode 4: (08:30) A former Marine and media personality asks questions and publicly challenges Sarah Cavanaugh’s credentials. Behind the scenes, law enforcement is already investigating Sarah; but the surge of media attention forces their hand. Fearing she might destroy evidence, federal agents move quickly to search Sarah’s home.We’re committed to making Medal of Honor even better, and you can help! Leave your feedback for the show by filling out our listener survey at bit.ly/mohsurvey.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're sharing episodes this month from another Pushkin podcast we think you'll enjoy. In Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah, Jake Halpern and acclaimed investigative journalist Jess McHugh unravel an epic six-year deception that upended lives of countless people. Sarah Cavanaugh was many things: A decorated veteran. A Marine who saved her comrades. A young woman fighting cancer. She was stoic, humble, tough. In short: a hero. Sarah was everything people wanted her to be—until she wasn’t. Turns out, no one knew the real Sarah. Not her comrades. Not her wife. No one. Jake and Jess interview all of the key sources—including Sarah, herself—to tell this sprawling tale.Episode 3: (10:18) Jess and Jake speak with Sarah and learn about her past life. As a social worker, she really knew how to listen to people. But when Jake and Jess interview two of Sarah's former friends, a darker picture emerges.We’re committed to making Medal of Honor even better, and you can help! Leave your feedback for the show by filling out our listener survey at bit.ly/mohsurvey.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We're sharing episodes this month from another Pushkin podcast we think you'll enjoy. In Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah, Jake Halpern and acclaimed investigative journalist Jess McHugh unravel an epic six-year deception that upended lives of countless people. Sarah Cavanaugh was many things: A decorated veteran. A Marine who saved her comrades. A young woman fighting cancer. She was stoic, humble, tough. In short: a hero. Sarah was everything people wanted her to be—until she wasn’t. Turns out, no one knew the real Sarah. Not her comrades. Not her wife. No one. Jake and Jess interview all of the key sources—including Sarah, herself—to tell this sprawling tale.Episode 2: (05:38) In her home state of Rhode Island, Sarah builds her reputation as a celebrated war hero. But as her public profile grows, so do the quiet doubts.We’re committed to making Medal of Honor even better, and you can help! Leave your feedback for the show by filling out our listener survey at bit.ly/mohsurvey.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

We’re gearing up for an all new season of Medal of Honor in 2026, but in the meantime we're sharing episodes from another Pushkin Industries podcast we think you'll like. It’s called Deep Cover and it’s all about people who lead double lives and the lengths they’ll go to deceive others. This last season, they covered the stolen valor story of Sarah Cavanaugh. Sarah Cavanaugh is a civilian woman who claimed to be a decorated veteran, a Marine who saved her comrades, and a young woman fighting cancer. She was everything people wanted her to be—until she wasn’t. Turns out, no one knew the real Sarah. Lies tend to be fragile, wilting under their own weight as they get bigger. Not in the case of Sarah Cavanaugh. The bigger her lies grew, the more real they became. But she never served in the military, never received any awards, and defrauded veteran organizations out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Jake Halpern and investigative journalist Jess McHugh unravel this epic six-year deception that upended the lives of countless people. Here's episode 1 of Deep Cover: The Truth About Sarah (00:16). Stay tuned to hear the full six-episode series on this feed throughout the next few weeks. We’re committed to making Medal of Honor even better, and you can help! Leave your feedback for the show by filling out our listener survey at bit.ly/mohsurvey.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.