Behind The Shield

Zamia Cohen is a personal trainer, physiologist and the woman behind Good Human Fitness. We discuss her journey into coaching, the importance of sleep, microcurrent point stimulation, health psychology, her pro bono work with veterans and first responders, GLP-1s and so much more."I became a certified personal trainer and joined the personal training team at Equinox Fitness Club in 2002. I quickly became one of their top tier trainers and helped launch Equinox’s West Coast Tier 4 (now Tier X) Coaching program. Throughout my now 22 years (and counting) in the industry of health and wellness, I strive to be the best for my clients, always learning and advancing myself through seminars, workshops and certifications.In 2017, I felt my calling to go beyond working with clients in a gym setting. After 14.5 years, I left Equinox to create Good Human Fitness on the core belief that being of able body and mind is fundamental to good health. Being healthy is the key to living an optimal life, not only for you, but for the world as a whole."

I welcome back Navy SEAL Master Chief Jason Gardner and his wife Iris; a horse wrangler and former EMT. We discuss the elements of a successful marriage, sexual abuse, overcoming trauma, parenting, fasting and much, much more.Jason Gardner is a former U.S. Navy SEAL, combat leader, and now a leadership instructor and speaker with Echelon Front. Jason spent nearly three decades in the SEAL Teams with eight deployments across the globe. With experience operating in violent cities in both Iraq and Afghanistan, Jason has seen first-hand the power of the leadership lessons taught at Echelon Front. He brings perspective from every level of leadership from a front line SEAL sniper to the SEAL Team FIVE Command Master Chief.As a lead instructor for Naval Special Warfare Group One Training Detachment, he created and implemented realistic and challenging special operations combat training to better prepare SEAL units for the real-world battlefield. Throughout his career, he worked alongside Jocko, Leif, and several members of the Echelon Front team developing the same principles and mindsets taught to companies across every industry. He is the recipient of the Silver Star, two Bronze Stars, a Purple Heart and numerous other awards.After his retirement from the US Navy, Jason brings unmatched experience with combat leadership in dynamic environments, building winning teams, and developing relationships across all levels of an organization. He serves as a leadership instructor, speaker, and strategic advisor at Echelon Front.Iris Gardner is a horse wrangler, writer and former EMT.

John Ryan is a seasoned law enforcement professional with over four decades of distinguished service at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department. He rose through the ranks from Police Officer to Detective Lieutenant Commander and served as Chief of Department in 2012. Throughout his career, he held leadership roles in multiple regional, federal, and joint task forces, including the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force where he served as a Commander for both the NY Office and the Newark FBI. He was part of the Executive Board for both the NY office and Newark FBI, NYPD HIDTA, NJSP Regional Operations Center and the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force. He served as the Commander of the Rescue and Recovery Task Force Operation at the World Trade Center from September 11, 2001, until its conclusion in June 2002, and has been involved in every aspect of the rebuilding mission. His career reflects a deep commitment to public safety, interagency collaboration, and national resilience.

Robert Burke is an actor and a nineteen year veteran firefighter. We discuss his early life, his journey into acting, the tragedy that inspired his fire service career, portraying General Mattis in Generation Kill, working on Rescue Me, martial arts, altruism and so much more.

With more than 30 years in medicine, including a background in diagnostic and interventional radiology, Jerome Puryear helps people navigate one of the hardest parts of modern healthcare: knowing what to trust, what matters most, and what to do next. His work focuses on cutting through conflicting advice, misinformation, overlooked warning signs, and complex medical information so people can make clearer, more intentional decisions about their health.At the center of his work is The Puryear Lens, a simple three-step framework for making better decisions when health information feels noisy or overwhelming: Clarify. Focus. Respond. It helps people separate signal from noise, identify what matters, and take an intentional next step, especially when making decisions about their health.For over 30 years, Dr. Jerome Puryear has helped people look beneath the surface of their health. As a radiologist and interventional physician, he has seen what most people never do the early progression of chronic disease, the hidden inflammation, the silent damage that begins long before symptoms appear. Those years taught him a powerful truth: most disease is preventable.While many patients receive advice, few receive the tools to make sustainable lifestyle changes. Dr. Puryear’s mission became clear to guide people across the wellness bridge between knowledge and action. He focuses on preventive medicine, functional health, and evidence-based wellness strategies that empower individuals to regain control of their health before disease takes hold.After completing his residency and fellowship training at The University of Alabama at Birmingham and Jackson Memorial Hospital, Dr. Puryear pursued board certification as a Health and Wellness Coach (NBC-HWC) through Duke University and advanced certification in Obesity Medicine. Instead of simply treating illness, he committed to helping people build long-term vitality, resilience, and longevity.He later developed the CLARITY Bridge™, a structured, science-backed framework that blends behavioral health coaching, functional medicine principles, sustainable lifestyle change, and personalized wellness strategies. It’s designed to help individuals align daily habits with deeper values creating real, lasting transformation.Dr. Puryear’s books go beyond information they equip. Each page gives readers the insights, tools, and motivation needed to break free from self-defeating habits and move toward a healthier, stronger, and more vibrant life. His work supports anyone seeking integrative wellness, disease prevention, or the path to healthy aging.https://www.drjeromepuryear.com/

Timmy Gleason is a veteran Miami firefighter and member of USAR TF-2.We discuss losing his home to a hurricane as a child, his journey into the fire service, the Haitian earthquake, Hurricane Ian, the Surfside collapse, his own powerful mental health story, addiction, suicide, post traumatic growth and so much more.

Sara Wilkinson is the founder of the Step Up Foundation, skateboarder and Gold Star Widow. In this third conversation, we discuss catharsis through travelling, addressing the mental health crisis through community, turning the page on grief and so much more. Sara was always familiar with a military life as she grew up the youngest to a father in the Marine Corps. Her upbringing allowed her to understand the stress, high cycle times, of deployments and frequent training trips while furthering to instill her independence and resilience.Unfortunately, she’s learned even the most prepared can be unprepared in the wake of suicide. Sara has seen firsthand the hardships among the special operations community specific to multiple combat deployments, high cycle times and too many friends lost leaving lasting stress on the operators and their families. While her experience is within the Navy SEAL community she fully understands that many of our veterans are struggling regardless of branch, rank, or time in service. Sara is dedicated to using her voice and her story to change the narrative and the number to this veteran suicide epidemic.

Chad Eldridge, DC is a Chiropractic Physician with a primary focus on performance enhancement, movement, and corrective exercise. We discuss the ailments that led him on the medical path, choosing chiropractic, functional medicine, foundation training, the obesity epidemic and so much more.Chad Eldridge, DC is a Chiropractic Physician with a primary focus on performance enhancement, movement, and corrective exercise. His passion and curiosity of the human body started at a young age where he spent many hours after school in medical doctor and chiropractic offices, in which his mother worked. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Organizational Communications from the University of Central Florida and then moved to California to live out a dream of his and pursue other creative endeavors.Eventually, that passion and curiosity of the human body led him to return to Florida and pursue a career as a Chiropractic Physician. He graduated Cum Laude from Palmer College of Chiropractic in 2012. While attending chiropractic college, Chad developed an immense interest in human movement. This led him to attend a multitude of courses to develop his skills and knowledge in this subject. These courses provided him with valuable concepts and techniques to spot out dysfunctions in movement, ways to address these dysfunctions, and to narrow down the true cause of your pain or restrictions.Chad has been an athlete his entire life, participating in a wide variety of sports and physical activity. Plagued and sidelined by a multitude of injuries in his earlier years, Chad has experienced the feeling of not being able to participate in the things you love. This has sparked his continued pursuit of knowledge and skill to provide patient’s with the greatest potential for pain-free living and quality movement in order for them to perform the activities they love for as long as they wish.https://www.platinumfitnesssummerland.com/chad-eldridge

Dr. Jessa LaCroix is a social psychologist, behavioral health researcher, and scientific advisor focused on advancing mental health, suicide prevention, and human performance. She is a Research Assistant Professor at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and serves as a Lead Scientific Advisor for the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) through Strategic Engineering Solutions.Her work has spanned federally funded research initiatives addressing suicide prevention, cognitive optimization, and mental health. She is passionate about bridging behavioral science and health innovation to develop more effective approaches to prevention, treatment, and resilience.Dr. LaCroix is particularly interested in how biology, psychology, social context, and meaning-making interact to shape human health—and how a deeper understanding of these processes could unlock new possibilities for healing and well-being.Please note that Dr. LaCroix's views are her own and do not represent her employer, the Department of War, ARPA-H, or the federal government.

Julie Lewis, a 38-­year AIDS survivor, and mother to Grammy Award winning musician, Ryan Lewis, was infected with HIV in 1984 but not diagnosed until the early 1990s when she was given three to five years to live. After years of silence about her disease, she found an unlikely community of friends to fight alongside and began using her story to make a difference. Her experiences as a woman living with AIDS offers insights about grief and loss, caregiving, spirituality, and the importance of community in the midst of tragedy. Thirty years later, wanting to find a way to celebrate her incredible journey, and her passion for community health, she launched the 30/30 Project to positively impact the lives of other women, girls, and families who didn’t have the same access to the healthcare opportunities that she’s had.https://stillpositive.com/