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 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.

It’s the season of giving—and yesterday was Giving Tuesday, a time based on the global generosity movement that encourages people to do good and help others.In honor of Giving Tuesday, Dr. Laurie Santos, host of another Pushkin podcast, The Happiness Lab, teamed up with the non-profit Give Directly to help raise donations for people experiencing extreme poverty. As part of her work with Give Directly, she’s made a special episode of The Happiness Lab talking with other podcast hosts about their own experiences with giving. Times when they’ve given something meaningful to someone, or have been given something that has deeply impacted them. I sat down with Dr. Santos to share my own experience of receiving a gift I didn’t even realize I needed. One that came into my life at the perfect time. In the spirit of giving, you can join Pushkin and Give Directly in making a real difference for those in need. Go to givedirectly.org/pushkin to learn more and give what you can.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

To mark Veterans Day, host J.R. Martinez sits down with producer Ryan Sweikert to talk about what he’s learned from the stories of veterans who have received the Medal of Honor, how to talk to veterans about their service, and the moments that shaped his life, both in the service and afterward. Medal of Honor Season 3 is coming on May 27th, 2026. In the meantime, we want to hear from you. We’ve put together a listener survey. Tell us what you love about the show. What we can improve on. Stories you think we've missed. To take the survey, follow this link: bit.ly/mohsurveySee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.