Behind The Shield

Keynote speaker Ash Alexander-Cooper is a former specialist military unit commander, combat helicopter pilot, wounded veteran, international athlete, musician, leadership and resilience expert. In this second conversation, we discuss the potential healing and damaging potential of drone technology, his new book Mindful Soldier, forging human performance, growing from childhood trauma, the healing power of altruism and so much more. Ash became one of the most operationally experienced officers of his generation, spending almost seven years deployed, leading some of the world’s most skilled forces in predominant challenging, complex and hostile environments, such as the Balkans, the Middle East, and Central Asia.Following retirement from active duty, Ash turned his attention to business, focussing on addressing issues of leadership, resilience, team-building, leader development, talent management and more, after recognising how many companies today experience very similar difficulties to what he and his colleagues faced in combat.Ash draws on lessons learned from more than 25 years of experience in managing and leading diverse multinational military, civilian, government, sports, and other elite teams, using those insights and experience gained from working in some of the world’s most challenging, hostile and complex environments.With powerful examples of resilience, leadership, teamwork and trust, Ash assists businesses and leaders develop the skills, mindset, and behaviours necessary in order to adapt and win. Leveraging empowering and motivational stories from his personal and professional life, Ash now supports companies, organisations and teams of all sizes to fulfil their potential.Episode Sponsor: https://www.carnabunkergear.com/

Lisa Mason is a Canadian CPA who works as a Chief Financial Officer for a healthcare technology company. In 2021, her life was changed forever when her brother Sgt. John R Little, CD died by suicide after serving two tours in Afghanistan. Through her grief journey she co-founded Operation: Talk 2 Me Johnny, a family run non-profit that aims to encourage loud conversations about mental wellness for veterans & first responders. Using their lived experience, Lisa and family share their story with everyone who will listen and organize community family friendly events to bring the mental health conversation to all individuals in a fun way with an aim of normalizing the topics and breaking the stigma.

Jason Kubiak is a serving Leading fire fighter with over 27 years in the UK Fire and Rescue Service, having worked across multiple brigades including Buckinghamshire and London Fire Brigade. We discuss his journey into firefighting, mixed martial arts, career calls, the Grenfell fire, his powerful mental health journey, prioritising family, the UK knife crime epidemic and much more. Jason is open about his experiences with mental health and PTSD, shaped by years on the frontline, and now focuses on maintaining wellbeing through honesty, structure, and support. Jason is married and a proud father of two daughters.

Dr Rangan Chatterjee is a British physician, author, podcaster and television personality. We discuss his powerful journey into progressive medicine, vitamin D, the importance of sleep, gut health, the four pillars of health, creating healthy habits through small victories and much more.Dr Chatterjee's mission is to empower 100 million people to become the architect of their own health and to help them feel fantastic with simple, practical and digestible information. Dr. Chatterjee is regarded as one of the most influential doctors in the UK and wants to change how medicine will be practiced for years to come. He hosts the biggest health podcast in Europe, ‘Feel Better, Live More’, #1 on Apple podcasts and announced as one of the most downloaded new podcasts of the past year. He is known for finding the root cause of people's health problems and he highlighted his methods in the ground-breaking BBC television show, Doctor in the House, which has been shown in over 70 countries around the world.Dr Chatterjee is the author of the international best-seller, The Four Pillar Plan which has already become one of the top 10 selling Health titles of the past 5 years. His second book, the Amazon #1 bestseller, The Stress Solution, tackles what the WHO call the health epidemic of our time – STRESS and has been featured in 2 recent New York Times articles. Feel Better in 5 launched in the UK in January 2020, quickly hit the #1 spot in all non-fiction books and is Dr Chatterjee's most accessible health plan showing how small achievable habit-changes can help everyone improve their health.Dr Chatterjee co-created the successful RCGP accredited Prescribing Lifestyle Medicine course which has been delivered to 1200 GPs and specialists since January 2018, providing doctors and primary healthcare professionals with a framework to apply Lifestyle Medicine principles in clinical practice. He regularly features on BBC news channels and has given an inspirational TED talk on making diseases disappear with over 2 million views.

Byron Branch is a veteran law enforcement officer, amputee and fencing paralympian. In this second conversation, we discuss the unlearned lessons from the pandemic, marksmanship in law enforcement, the opioid crisis, homelessness, fitness in policing, wheelchair fencing and so much more.Byron first began fencing in high school. As an indoor sport, fencing worked well for the frigid winters in Ohio where Byron grew up. As an extra bonus, Byron could still play baseball in the spring after the fencing season ended.Byron excelled at fencing. Prior to becoming a Parafencer, he competed in the able-bodied divisions of the sport. In 2011 he was top in the sport for able-bodied fencing in the Great Lakes Region, and in 2014 he was 17th in the USA for DIV1A Men’s Foil. He also volunteer coached at the local fencing club, helping numerous fencers gain scholarships and earn titles in the sport.Outside of fencing, Byron dedicates himself to his family and his community. As a police officer, Byron is committed to strengthening his community. In addition to serving on a panel to improve community and police relations, Byron has visited local schools to engage students and help build a better understanding between police and the citizenry.In 2016, Byron was injured during a traffic accident while on duty. After his injury, he continued training students at the local fencing academy, and in 2018 Byron decided to try wheelchair fencing. Shortly thereafter, he won Gold at the 2018 PanAm Games in Saskatoon, Canada. Within one year Byron quickly moved up to ranking 17th in the world.He has since won 3 Pan Am games and was a 2024 Paralympian.Episode Sponsor:https://www.stationwise.com/