The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration in the United States.

Recipients have done the improbable, showing immense bravery and sacrifice in the name of something much bigger than themselves.

This medal is for the men who went down that day. It's for the families of those who didn't make it.

I'm J.R. Martinez. I'm a U.S. Army veteran myself.

And I'm honored to tell you the stories of these heroes on the new season of

Medal of Honor, Stories of Courage from Pushkin Industries and I Heart podcast.

From Bud Day, who survived more than five years in the Vietnamese prison, to Alvin York, the most famous soldier of World War I.

These are stories about people who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor going above and beyond the call of duty.

You'll hear about what they did, what it meant, and what their stories tell us about the nature of courage and sacrifice.

Listen to Medal of Honor wherever you get your podcast.

It's 1720. The old Bailey, the central criminal court of the city of London, stands directly

adjacent to the city jail, the infamous Newgate prison. It's noisy in here, crowded. Here in the

courts, the public is welcome to watch the proceedings, as justice is meted out daily, served up like theatrical

performance. On this bitter winter day, Margaret Wilson, a resident of the parish of St. Giles

in the fields, stands shivering as she is found guilty of stealing two silk handkerchiefs,

a muslin apron, a shirt, and a pair of flaxen sheets.

Her crime is pretty unremarkable stuff.

Petty theft.

One of countless such offenses in a city swelled with desperate lives.

And her sentence?

Equally ordinary.

Indeed, unexceptional.

...