Latest / The Scene Projects / Donald Dunn on Podcasting, Veteran Advocacy, and Mental Health Awareness

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Donald Dunn on Podcasting, Veteran Advocacy, and Mental Health Awareness · The Scene Projects

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  Today, we're joined by Donald d d Dunn, retired army veteran, storyteller, and host of Spirits
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  and Stories and Veteran Voice Radio.
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  From Combat Zones to Podcast Mikes, Donald brings the real, raw, and unfiltered voice of
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  veterans everywhere.
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  Stick around.
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  This conversation is one you don't wanna miss.
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  This program is part of the Scene Projects podcast network.
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  Scene Project features interviews with independent musicians, comedians, and artists
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  from across the Midwest.
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  Become part of our community and support local art wherever you are.
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  Welcome in to another exciting episode of the scene.
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  I'm your host, Bubba Starts.
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  With me today is d d, Donald Dunn.
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  Welcome to the show, brother.
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  Hey.
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  What thanks for having me on, man.
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  Looking forward to it.
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  Yeah.
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  Well, I usually say nice to meet you, but we got to meet, here in the studio a few weeks
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  ago, our cohost and, partner on the network.
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  Willie had you on his show, Soul Impact.
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  And, yeah, man, it was great to get to know you then, but we want our listeners to have a
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  chance to do the same.
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  So, I'm gonna give you the floor and let you give us a little bit of backstory.
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  Yeah.
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  So I came in the military in '94, retired in 02/2014, spent sixty eight months, in Iraq,
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  Afghanistan, and Bosnia between the three.
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  And, you know, when I got out, I was no different than a lot of other veterans, kinda
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  messed up and and needing some help.
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  And I found that through podcasting, and that that's where the the show had started from.
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  It was a show that was needed for some of our, veterans and that we served with that had
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  committed suicide.
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  And, we started the show.
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  It was a Facebook Live.
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  We called it a podcast, and and it just grew.
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  You know, from there, I I found therapy through podcasting.
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  It helped me talk about my story and then things that had happened.
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  And then the platform has kinda turned into that for our guests.
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  So we have the guests come on.
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  They get to tell their story, and and it gets documented in their words so that if there's
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  ever anybody in the future listening, they they can hear it straight from from the person's
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  mouth that they're researching.
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  So, yeah, that's pretty much in a nutshell.
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  The, nonprofit started from the show as well.
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  We've seen the same problem that a lot of podcasters have, and that's, reach.
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  So we, started a radio station that plays, music for, veterans that are transferring from
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  the military into music careers, and, that has just grown as well.
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  We got two stations.
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  Ranger Rockwave is our our rock and roll, and Semper Fi Country is the country station.
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  And from there, man, it's just getting bigger.
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  You know?
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  We're we're trying to to get the the VVMAs going, the Veteran Voice Music Awards.
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  We'd like to get some songwriter conventions put together, and those are the missions that
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  we're working desperately on right now.
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  Feel like we are destined to meet, brother.
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  So many alignments there because we are obviously focused on artists, and a lot of our
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  artists around the scene projects are veterans themselves.
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  And, obviously, you can see the the banner behind me, operation combating veteran suicide.
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  Listeners of our show know it very well, and it it's a shocking statistic.
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  And 22 a day is the one that gets thrown out, but in reality, it's much higher than that.
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  Right?
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  They're not counting people who have died from drug overdoses, which is just as much as
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  suicide, because you're you're dealing with the same things.
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  Right?
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  It all stems from mental health.
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  It all stems from the lack of community when these veterans, retire inevitably from the
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  military and and are without that structure in their lives.
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  And and one of our big missions here with OCVS is to build communities.
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  Right?
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  To build out housing units to, you know, take these these veterans, you know, guys and gals,
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  hopefully, and and to be able to put them into some kinda, you know, transitional spaces,
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  right, and and to grow communities around that.
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  And one big part that I have that I have said was so important was exactly what you are doing
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  is that I've seen how podcasting has changed my life, how it has become a therapy session for
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  me.
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  And one thing that I wanted to bring in to all of these housing units that we're gonna build
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  in the future is to have a small podcast studio inside of the unit itself so that veterans can
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  get in there, whether it's two of them that are living on the property together or it's
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  somebody doing like we do, you know, jumping on the Internet and doing them online this way.
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  It's so important.
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  And I don't feel I don't feel like most veterans can find a lot in, like, a typical
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  therapy setting.
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  You're just a different breed of people.
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  And you're different, first of all, in who you are.
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  Right?
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  The not everyone wants to go and to serve.
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  And all of our veterans now, nobody's been drafted.
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  Right?
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  We haven't had a draft since Vietnam.
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  So most of the veterans that we're seeing now, they volunteered to go do a job and to and to
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  go serve their country and then to go and do the things you've had to do and see the things
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  that you've had to see, to lose friends, to lose brothers and sisters, and then to get spit
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  out on the other side of that when the machine is done with you or, you know, grateful if you
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  have the chance to retire that there is no community.
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  There is no support.
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  A lot of people like to throw around.
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  Yes.
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  We support our veterans.
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  But how many people are actually out there supporting veterans?
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  Yeah.
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  You know, the you said a lot of the the correct things.
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  You know?
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  I believe, statistically, over 6,000 veterans last year killed themselves.
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  Over a hundred killed themselves on the property of a place that they went to for help,
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  whether that be the VA or or another program.
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  I don't think you can get a bigger cry than that.
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  The the veteran community is 72 higher in suicide than the rest of the population.
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  You know?
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  Now keep in mind, you know, we're talking about major numbers.
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  We're talking about every six seconds, somebody kills themselves.
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  Whether you're a veteran, it doesn't matter.
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  Every six seconds.
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  And and to to be that much higher than the rest of the the suicide population is is huge.
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  There's there's no other way to to combat this if you're not gonna get ahead of it.
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  And there's where the the major problem lies, and that's we don't do any we only do training
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  to physically train you to go to war and fight.
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  We do not train you to deal with the the mental fallback that's gonna happen after enough
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  trauma finally breaks you breaks that mind down.
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  And that's one of the biggest things is to get rid of that stigma that that you can't see
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  help.
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  You you start embedding psychologists in the units.
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  They train with next to the the rest of the soldiers and they become known, and it becomes
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  normal to have a conversation with the psychologist.
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  It it becomes normal to get that kind of training to understand what resiliency really
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  is, understanding the different techniques that can control breathing, that can control
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  visualization and success of the mission.
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  All of these things are used by the elite of the elite.
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  The NFL, the NBA, the Olympic teams, all of them use this because it is making them not
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  just physically ready to be the best they can be, but mentally.
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  By doing that, you're going to reduce the amount of impact that you're gonna have on
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  these programs, the the VA and and so forth with people that have gotten some training and
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  and they caught themselves before they fell into that depressive state that puts you in
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  that deep hole.
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  And that is the part that that is needed.
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  If we don't get ahead of it, those numbers are so large.
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  How do you how do you you stop it?
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  It's like drinking water from a fire hose, and and it's it's just gonna keep happening because
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  we can't get ahead of the problem.
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  Yeah.
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  How do you turn the spigot off?
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  Yeah.
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  And and and, again, I think a lot of that comes from training inside the military.
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  You know?
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  A a unit that's getting ready to deploy, if you taught them the the symptoms of PTSD, the the
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  symptoms of depression, and and you got rid of the stigma that you can't talk about it, that
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  would all get fixed no different than a broken arm.
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  You break your arm.
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  You can't do push ups for a while, but you go to the doctor.
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  They fix it.
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  Few months down the road, you're back to doing push ups.
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  Right?
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  Well, if if you catch this problem soon enough before they get to the depressive state, the
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  suicidal state, the the the point of not being able to talk about their problems because
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  you're taking now and deploying over and over.
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  Like I said, I deployed sixty eight months.
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  I was not in the right mind for all of those months.
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  I I promise you.
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  And and you you get over there, and now I've got 30% worried about my family at home.
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  I got 40% focused on the war and and another 30% that's trying to shut these voices off
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  telling me I suck and I'm not doing the right things and and I'm a piece of crap and and
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  everything else that that's going on in in my head, you're not a 100% in the moment.
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  And and that's putting lives at risk.
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  That that's putting more damage done to to these veterans.
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  You know?
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  So now you got scabs over top of scabs that you have to work through.
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  And and now you're talking years of therapy, not just months or or weeks of of therapy.
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  And and it all starts by by implementing the the teams that are gonna fix that, your
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  psychologist and everything, putting putting that position in the battalion to, one, be able
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  to, talk to the company commanders and make recommendations, and, two, get to know the the
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  warfighters that they're training next to.
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  You know?
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  You you build that trust with your squad members when you're doing PT with them, when
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  you're doing training with them and and so forth.
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  And if you were doing that same training with an, military psychologist who's doing PT with
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  you, going to training exercises.
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  Now he's not a psychologist.
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  He's a he's a member of that team, that war fighting machine.
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  And and it it it gets rid of that stigma, and it opens up conversations.
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  Right.
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  It it makes them a brother or a sister, that's that's right along there with you.
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  They just have a different skill set, to fight a different war.
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  And are there things like this in the military now that just we need to see more of, or is
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  this a new concept?
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  Because I've never, not being a veteran myself that I I'm unaware.
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  So I have I have heard that the, elite forces use it, your navy seals, special forces, and so
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  forth.
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  I did ten years in the special ops community, and I never seen it in the areas that I was at.
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  And so I don't know how much.
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  It may be a resource that's available, but it may be done as, a we hired a contractor to come
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  in and do some training.
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  You know?
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  But I have never seen it.
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  Right.
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  So this is a a somewhat new concept that would be, you know, available.
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  And and to me, it sounds like a no brainer.
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  It sounds like, you know, why hasn't this happened already, especially knowing what we
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  know about, you know, clinical psychology now and and having those mental health
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  professionals close by.
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  But just like you said, by the time somebody gets out and they've dealt with ten years of
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  depression and substance abuse and you're already having suicidal thoughts, in many
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  cases, it's already too late.
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  You may be able to stem that tide, but given, you know, a lack of community therein as well
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  that you're not going to pull some of these people back from the edge.
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  You need to be able to give them the tools at 18, 19, 20 years old when they're just
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  enlisting in the military so that when they're, you know, getting out at 24 or 28 or or, you
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  know, people put in their entire careers into our serving our country that they have those
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  skills built in.
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  And I think you would see a stronger military for it because just like you said, if you're
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  40% in the fight, you're not an effective warrior.
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  And and you're putting other people's lives at risk.
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  Yeah.
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  Absolutely.
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  You know, and and not not just on on the the PTSD side.
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  Right?
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  There's additional benefits that would be beneficial to the the military and the machine
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  itself.
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  You know, visualization techniques is is is done all the time.
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  When you when you see that field goal kicker that is getting ready to kick the the game
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  winning, field goal, He he's not just there warming up and kicking the ball.
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  He's also visualizing how the ball is gonna be put down, how he's gonna kick it, watching it
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  go through the goalpost.
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  And all of this is being done prior to him actually seeing it.
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  And it's no different than if you can see it, dream it, you can do it.
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  It's the same concept as that.
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  There's breathing techniques that you can learn that's going to allow you to make a better
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  decision when you're in the the flight or fight instinct and and your adrenaline is just
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  pumping, there's techniques that you can do on the spot that's gonna slow down your your
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  respiratory rate.
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  It's going to relax some of that that tension and allow your body to think through problems
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  versus everything being reactive.
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  I gotta get out of this situation now.
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  And and I I think even those side of it, you're gonna have less casualties, less injuries
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  because people will be able to they'll have the tools to make better decisions.
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  Not to mention when they get out, they'll have more of, an opportunity to pull the right
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  emotion out of their toolbox when they're dealing with a whole another problem that
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  doesn't require violence to handle it.
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  D d, how do you feel like your career in the military is now serving you as a career as a
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  broadcaster?
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  You know, I think the the biggest thing is veterans just don't know how to give up.
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  Right?
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  And it's a double edged sword.
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  I I have never quit at anything until I succeeded.
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  And and once I succeeded, then I made the determination if this is something I still
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  wanna keep doing.
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  But I've never quit from failure.
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  And I think most veterans learn how to adapt and overcome, and that in itself lies another
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  problem.
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  You know?
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  Not only do we not know how to give up for our dream or something we're pursuing, but when
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  we're digging that hole, we also don't know how to quit and give up on trying to fix ourselves,
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  and we just keep digging that hole deeper.
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  For me, you know, I think that has helped me, the most because four years ago when I started
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  this, I had no idea how to podcast or what a podcast was.
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  And and had I gave up four years ago when only three people downloaded your your episode this
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  week or or whatever, you know, then at that point, I would have quit during failure.
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  And now, you know, I I reach thousands of people and and, I'm doing guest speaking.
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  I wrote I'm on my third book that I wrote, and and all of this comes from that mentality of,
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  if I don't know how to do it, I'll figure it out and and not give up when you make a
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  mistake.
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  I think that's so important for our young podcasters out there.
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  Nobody's going to be listening.
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  Nobody steps out into this world and is an instant success.
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  Our channel, The Scene Projects, just clipped a thousand or a thousand uploads, over 300
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  episodes, quarter million views on YouTube, and there's still nobody listening.
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  So, you know, it is not it's not like that.
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  You know, I did dabble into the stats, and I saw that our, you know, Apple Podcast numbers,
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  you know, over a thousand downloads a month we're getting.
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  And that's great.
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  I I don't pay attention much to the numbers because that's honestly not where the work is,
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  and that's not where my good feeling comes from.
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  I I appreciate that people are listening.
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  They're tuning in.
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  But to me, it's about these conversations.
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  It's about me getting to know another human being on the other side of the camera or
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  sitting on the couch with me.
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  You know, unfortunately, for me, I don't get to do as many in person interviews as I would
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  like, but this serves a purpose.
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  And I get to, from my small South Dakota town, connect with people not just around our country
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  and around our region, but on the other side of the world.
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  And what you find is you find so much more alike with people than you do differences.
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  And I say it a lot on this show that this is how God is healing our planet, is how we are
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  healing ourselves, is by having conversations.
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  And, I feel like you embody that so well, especially in your veteran community to say,
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  hey.
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  Just sit down and and let's talk.
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  Right?
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  And and it doesn't have to be about something, and we don't have to get into the weeds.
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  But that door is open if we wanna go there.
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  And, it's it's what is going to heal all of us.
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  Like, it has made me such a different person, especially going to video in, January.
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  Right?
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  I've only been doing these video podcasts for just over nine months now.
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  But since doing that, it has inexorably changed my life.
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  It has changed who I am as a person, how I deal with people, whether I'm online or in the real
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  world.
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  Right?
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  So I'm a firm believer in in what you're doing with your community the same way I am with
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  mine.
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  Yeah.
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  You know, I think, that's that's the most important step.
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  Right?
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  The first step to podcasting is to make sure that you're passionate about what you're gonna
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  talk about and and not be looking to talk about what's trending.
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  You know?
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  If if you're not a big news guy or a big sports person, but you see there's a lot of people
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  finding success in those categories and you decide to start podcasting, you're not gonna
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  avoid the fade.
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  You know?
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  One, you're you're not passionate about the topic, and two, when it gets tough, you're just
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  gonna quit.
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  And and you've gotta have that foundation to start with.
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  And and if you're not passionate about what you're speaking about and not worried about how
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  many people are listening, then you're gonna struggle.
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  And and I think that's the the first step is to make sure that you are passionate about what
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  you're talking about.
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  And that is what has worked for me.
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  I I I am passionate about helping not just the veteran community.
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  It started out that way, but but trying to figure out how do we make this better for my
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  grandkids and my great grandkids so that that mental health crisis that we're we're going
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  through right now in America is either reduced or or programs are fixing something.
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  But if we do nothing, then nothing's gonna change, and and that's what I'm passionate
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  about.
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  Yeah.
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  Just doing something.
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  And and for me, our relationship with operation combating veteran suicide is still brand new.
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  I I just met Charlotte, the founder, missus South Dakota International, and her husband,
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  Casey, back in May.
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  And we've accomplished so much.
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  Thousands of bottles of water that we put out in Sturgis for the motorcycle rally.
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  I was just at the Cinch playoffs Governor's Cup here in Sioux Falls, South Dakota last weekend
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  and put out several 100 of our, you know, I call them tags.
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  Just a little business size, QR code, business card size QR code with with the OCVS, you know,
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  donation link attached to it.
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  We had our banners down there in front of, you know, 10,000 people over the weekend.
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  And just raising the awareness of what we're trying to do.
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  And in that time, we had a conversation with two gentlemen in particular, Leon and Kelly
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  Ridell, who both you know, one was a veteran thirty eight years in the service, retired, and
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  had a long lengthy career.
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  And Kelly works with a, Souls of Sacrifice, who's a national bike club who's doing things
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  anyway.
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  And it's like those two conversations were the mission.
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  Right?
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  I I didn't know who I was gonna meet there, but I knew it was my job to get out there, tell
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  everybody about what we're doing and, you know, supporting our veterans in any way that we can.
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  And you don't have time.
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  Right?
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  We were kinda I call it the squeeze chute, right, to put it in rodeo terms, that we were
• 22:28
  at the entrance and exit of the building.
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  Every single fan came in and left through the same point, and we were right there spreading
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  the word about our mission and what we're trying to do.
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  And if at the end of the day, we reach those two gentlemen that may end up being you know,
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  Leon's great.
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  Him and his wife were there.
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  We're like, honey, you come stay with us out at our bunkhouse in the Black Hills next time you
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  come.
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  You know?
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  We're talking about a five minute conversation that we had, but they see the passion that I
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  have for helping veterans.
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  You know?
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  No one in my immediate family, veterans, but my grand both my grandfather's veterans, my
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  grandpa on my mother's side, Vietnam vet.
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  And, you know, he didn't talk about it a lot.
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  Right?
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  He I mean, I didn't get to hear war stories.
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  He wasn't that kind of man, but I knew how important his brothers in arms were to him.
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  Right?
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  Because they would get together all the time and and because of what he had done as, you
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  know, when he was with them, he was a he earned a silver star, for, you know, getting behind
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  the gunner and getting the pilot out of an enemy mess hall.
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  His helicopter landed in a in a mess hall, right, in the middle of Vietnam, and he was one
• 23:39
  of the older guys there.
• 23:40
  He enlisted at, like, 24 after one of his younger brothers got drafted.
• 23:45
  And just kind of putting the pieces together, knowing who I am as as a man now at almost 40
• 23:51
  years old and and looking back and knowing who my grandfather was and the fact that he
• 23:58
  volunteered to go to Vietnam because he wasn't about to let his brothers go over there and die
• 24:03
  in that godforsaken country.
• 24:05
  Right?
• 24:06
  Yeah.
• 24:06
  It spoke a lot to the man that he was, and I never got to know him as that hero.
• 24:12
  Right?
• 24:12
  I I mean, I would say that while my grandpa was an an amazing individual, that he struggled
• 24:18
  with alcoholism his entire life.
• 24:20
  Now we didn't call it that then.
• 24:22
  Grandpa just like to come home and kick back, you know, a 12 pack of old Milwaukee or
• 24:26
  whatever, you know, bush light towards the end of his life.
• 24:29
  But there was a darkness that lived inside of him that was the reason for that constant
• 24:36
  alcohol abuse.
• 24:37
  Right?
• 24:37
  Right.
• 24:38
  And and it wasn't long after, you know, the doctor was like, hey.
• 24:42
  You gotta stop drinking, and you gotta stop smoking that you know, I don't wanna say that
• 24:47
  he lost the will to live, but it wasn't long after that that he was that he was gone.
• 24:52
  Right?
• 24:52
  And Yep.
• 24:54
  No doubt those demons that he brought home with him and the things that he had to do and the
• 25:00
  things that he saw stuck with him through the end of his life.
• 25:05
  But to see his small group of of brothers, and they would always get together every year they
• 25:12
  had a reunion and how much that meant to him.
• 25:16
  I wish I knew it at the time.
• 25:18
  I wish I knew why it was so important.
• 25:20
  But Yeah.
• 25:21
  I think that kind of, like, knowing it now as an adult and as a as someone who's just been
• 25:28
  through a lot.
• 25:28
  You know?
• 25:29
  Double d.
• 25:29
  I've done prison time.
• 25:31
  I've been in a foreign country separated from my family.
• 25:33
  Now that was my choice.
• 25:35
  Right?
• 25:35
  I wasn't being told, and I wasn't stationed there.
• 25:38
  But I I know some of those feelings of isolation.
• 25:41
  I mean, we were living in Mexico for almost a year, and we were in the heart of Mexico.
• 25:45
  Nobody spoke English.
• 25:46
  Right?
• 25:47
  Nobody did anything.
• 25:48
  And granted, these people were trying to kill me.
• 25:50
  Right?
• 25:51
  They're very well could have been some of them that would have jumped at the opportunity.
• 25:56
  Right?
• 25:56
  And so I know the stress that can be caused just by that, and that was a personal choice to
• 26:03
  go down there.
• 26:04
  I I can only imagine what some of our veterans have to live with every single day, and it's
• 26:09
  why I am passionate about the the foundation now, the organization, Operation Combating
• 26:15
  Veteran Suicide, any connecting with people like you that are out here doing doing god's
• 26:20
  work truly and working to save the veterans, not just using a a the the veterans as an
• 26:29
  excuse to pocket big paydays like some of the large nonprofits that we see around the country
• 26:34
  these days.
• 26:35
  Yeah.
• 26:36
  And and that's, you know, that's the big part of this.
• 26:40
  All of these little mom and pop nonprofits, the reason why it's so hard for veterans to find
• 26:47
  them is because they don't have the budget to advertise.
• 26:51
  And it's it's extremely important podcasts like this and mine and and a lot of others out there
• 26:58
  are are eager to have these kind of nonprofits on to help spread the word.
• 27:04
  And and without this, imagine how many veterans would actually even find it.
• 27:09
  You know?
• 27:10
  There's a lot there's a lot of great programs out there.
• 27:13
  They're just very small.
• 27:15
  And, you know, a lot of them don't even have any waiting time frames, and and it's because
• 27:21
  they're hard to find.
• 27:24
  Well, I think that's our next collective mission is you send me all the ones that you
• 27:29
  already know, and we'll continue to find more of them on our side.
• 27:33
  I got a few in mind already.
• 27:34
  Hero Stock down in Nebraska is one we just connected with recently, and we're gonna be
• 27:39
  doing some work with them.
• 27:40
  I actually gonna run into them out in Deadwood, I hope, for the Wild West Songwriters Festival
• 27:45
  and the Tales and Trails, Music Festival that'll be happening on Main Street, Deadwood
• 27:49
  that weekend.
• 27:50
  But that's that's our job now.
• 27:52
  Right?
• 27:53
  And I wanna thank you for your service and for your continued service to your veteran
• 27:57
  community.
• 27:58
  It's not just commendable, but it is so, so necessary to making this, to changing the
• 28:04
  world.
• 28:05
  Right?
• 28:05
  To to making our vision of the world different and for changing lives.
• 28:11
  That's what it's really about for us and I know for you as well.
• 28:16
  Double d, I'll give you an opportunity to go ahead and plug everything.
• 28:19
  Tell people where they can find you and the shows and where they can support everything
• 28:25
  that you got going on.
• 28:27
  So, yeah, if you want to keep track of what I'm doing, you can go to donald dunn dot me, and
• 28:34
  that's my my personal website.
• 28:36
  You can see my books that I've wrote, follow the blog, watch the podcast, listen to podcast,
• 28:43
  keep up with news, everything from there.
• 28:45
  If you would like to download the apps for the radio station, they're a 100% free.
• 28:50
  There's no account required, so you don't even need an email address.
• 28:54
  You just go to your App Store, download either Semper Fi Country or Ranger Rock Wave and hit
• 29:00
  play.
• 29:00
  And and you're now listening to music that is is wrote by the people that have lived their
• 29:05
  songs.
• 29:06
  If you're interested in getting into podcast, I I do own a media company.
• 29:11
  It is one of the ways that I help fund, Veteran Voice Radio.
• 29:15
  And there, you can find hosting packages as well as, we do a profit sharing with all of
• 29:22
  the, content creators.
• 29:23
  So 30% of all the profits go back to the the content creators that are are creating.
• 29:30
  And it's it's not gonna get you rich, but it will cover your your costs and and software
• 29:37
  expenses and and other stuff.
• 29:40
  And the whole theory behind that is is to keep people talking and keep people having these
• 29:44
  conversations and and not letting somebody that's using something as therapy cause them to
• 29:50
  quit because then there's nothing left for them to talk about.
• 29:55
  I couldn't love all of it more, double d.
• 29:57
  I'm glad we got the chance to connect today, and, we're gonna be doing a lot more of that,
• 30:03
  in the future.
• 30:04
  I know that for sure.
• 30:05
  Thank you for everything that you're doing for the veteran community.
• 30:08
  Thank you for everything you're doing for the podcasting community as well inside of that,
• 30:13
  and thanks for being part of the scene.
• 30:15
  Yeah.
• 30:16
  I thanks for having me, man.
• 30:17
  I had a great time.