meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Today, Explained

The silent war

Today, Explained

Vox

Politics, Daily News, News

4.310.3K Ratings

🗓️ 3 September 2024

⏱️ 33 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The story of Army specialist Austin Valley highlights a crisis the US military can’t seem to solve: More service members die by suicide than in combat. A veteran psychologist told Congress what to do about it, and today he tells us. This episode was produced by Victoria Chamberlin, edited by Matt Collette, fact-checked by Laura Bullard, engineered by Patrick Boyd and Andrea Kristinsdottir, and hosted by Noel King. Photo courtesy of Erik Valley. Transcript at vox.com/today-explained-podcast Support Today, Explained by becoming a Vox Member today: http://www.vox.com/members Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

In April of 2023, Army Specialist Austin Valley took his own life.

0:07.0

There were two mysterious things about this tragedy.

0:11.0

Valley had tried already while deployed overseas in Poland just a month earlier.

0:16.0

He'd nearly succeeded and the Army knew that after the attempts they'd flown him home from Poland to Fort Riley, Kansas.

0:22.0

Also, the 21-year-old driver... flown him home from Poland to Fort Riley, Kansas.

0:23.4

Also, the 21-year-old driver hadn't seen combat.

0:26.4

His short time in the service had been fairly calm.

0:29.8

The military has a crisis.

0:31.6

Active duty service members who've never seen war are dying by

0:34.6

suicide. Thousands more in fact than died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

0:39.2

Coming up on today explained Austin Valley's parents who want answers and the veteran psychiatrist

0:45.4

who may be best equipped to help solve a mystery that the US military's got a crack.

0:57.0

How do custom orders work on Cracken?

1:00.0

Imagine I'm a music producer. How dole custom orders work on Cracken?

1:02.8

Imagine I'm a music producer, dialing in my newest track.

1:06.4

Need more bass?

1:07.4

Crank it.

1:08.4

Vocal's not popping.

1:09.7

Double it up.

1:10.7

Want a bigger sound?

1:11.9

Hit that reverb. Hard. That's custom orders on

1:15.7

Cracken. Complete control over your crypto trades. Go to Cracken.com and see

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Vox, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Vox and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.