476: Michael Cadenazzi—The Department of War is Hiring
The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe
The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe
4.9 • 40.8K Ratings
🗓️ 24 March 2026
⏱️ 96 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What does it take to rebuild America's industrial backbone—and who's actually going to do the work? Mike sits down with Michael Cadenazzi, Assistant Secretary of War for Industrial Base Policy, to discuss his role at the Department of War (DOW) and his mission focused on restoring the muscle behind America's might.
Cadenazzi makes the case that while the U.S. still produces world-class engineers and cutting-edge weapons designs, there's a growing gap where it matters most—the skilled workforce needed to actually build them. From welders and machinists to technicians and fabricators, he argues the country's strength depends on rebuilding the trades that turn ideas into reality.
It's a candid conversation about work, purpose, and why the future of national security may hinge less on innovation—and more on the people willing to pick up the tools and get it done.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Well, Charlie, I'm going to break some rules on this one. Oh, do tell. |
| 0:08.5 | Our guest today is ASW Michael Kodnazi. |
| 0:15.0 | An ASW stands for? I think assistant. Secretary of War? Yep. That's it. |
| 0:21.1 | Okay. |
| 0:21.5 | That's it. |
| 0:22.2 | It would not be charitable to simply call him a bureaucrat or a public servant. |
| 0:28.8 | Although I suppose technically, he would answer to both, but he would also answer to a Patriot. |
| 0:34.6 | Years in the Navy. |
| 0:36.2 | Years in the engineering game. years as an entrepreneur, very successful |
| 0:42.5 | in the private sector, family man, married man, wife's helicopter pilot, raised three beautiful |
| 0:49.4 | girls. And well, he got sucked in, didn't he? Yes, right. |
| 0:55.4 | Mike Kahnowsy works in the Pentagon, and I vowed, well, I didn't really vow, but I've aspired over the years to avoid the swamp and the politics of it all. |
| 1:09.1 | But I'm making an exception because I think our country is entering an extraordinary time. |
| 1:16.1 | And Mike Kodnazi, among other things, is in charge of billions and billions of dollars. |
| 1:22.5 | It's called the dib. |
| 1:24.3 | It's the domestic infrastructure's its name, the domestic infrastructure base. Mike's in charge of |
| 1:33.3 | reinvigorating the skilled trades in the military industrial complex. Right. This is amazing, |
| 1:40.7 | right? And this guy reached out to Microworkss before he was even confirmed. He had been nominated |
| 1:48.6 | and he had such a clear vision of what he wanted to accomplish internally. And I was so |
| 1:55.9 | flattered that he knew who I was and that he wanted to see if perhaps microworks could work with the feds. |
| 2:04.1 | It's really unfortunate that his email got lost in the shuffle for such a long period of time. |
| 2:09.1 | It didn't get lost. It got ignored because my crack team here knows that, you know, |
... |
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