On this week’s episode of The Adrenaline Zone, Sandy and Sandra are joined by former army doctor and infectious disease physician Matt Hepburn, who led the COVID-19 vaccine development effort with Operation Warp Speed. Matt opens their conversation by sharing how his parents instilled in him a sense of service to others and his country that led him to a career in military medicine, taking him from the ROTC in college to working across the US government. He speaks in detail about his work with DARPA and its philosophy of taking risks to encourage breakthrough innovations before discussing how Operation Warp Speed also balanced risk with a commitment to safety to make COVID vaccines available as soon as possible. Matt then discusses the challenge and rewards of bringing together different cultures of expertise from medicine and the military to work on the COVID response and his role as translator between those two worlds.

Sandy and Sandra’s guest this episode is Phil Reilly, a former CIA paramilitary officer who was the first American on the ground in Afghanistan in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Phil starts by explaining a little about the history and organization of the CIA and how the paramilitary fits into it. He also talks about the tough vetting process to get into the CIA and how recruits are analyzed to determine which area they’ll be placed in. Phil then shares his own journey to the CIA, including his time on a HALO team as a Green Beret, his choice between the Navy or the Agency, and his paramilitary and operational training. He also shares some details of his experiences in Central America in the 80s and with operating under an alias persona, something that would likely not be possible in our age of ubiquitous technical surveillance and global connectivity.

Sandra and Sandy are excited to welcome Andy Weir, renowned author of Project Hail Mary and, more famously, The Martian to the podcast. Before he became a self-published, best-selling author, Weir spent two decades working as a software engineer, and it wasn’t until he was laid off that he actually got to pursue writing as more than just a hobby. And so The Martian was born. After creating weekly blog posts to share his work, thousands of his fans requested he publish it on Amazon - and the rest, as they say, is history.

Jon Scheyer, former professional player and newly anointed head coach at Duke, joins the conversation with Sandra and Sandy today. He provides us with a sneak peak into the world of collegiate basketball, Coach K’s diligent and personal prep work, and his vision for the storied Duke basketball program. As long as he can remember, Scheyer has been competitive; maybe too much so, if you ask his mother. So it’s no surprise that he went on to have an illustrious career.

For her day job, Sarah Arnosky Ko is vice-president of Greater St. Louis Incorporated, where she helps bring the business community together in the Gateway City. But in her spare time, she’s known as Bricktator, a star player for the St. Louis-based Arch Rival Roller Derby team. Today, she joins Sandy and Sandra to give us all the lowdown on how roller derby works, what drew her to it, and why the sport is growing in popularity around the globe.

On today’s episode of The Adrenaline Zone, Sandra and Sandy are joined by Kate Dargan Marquis, who has made a career out of the complex and dangerous business of wildland firefighting. Kate kicks things off by discussing the structure of roles in the wildland firefighting world, the situations they respond to, and the training involved, including constant heat conditioning. She then steps back in time to share how she got into firefighting by volunteering as a smokejumper in the summer before college—one of very few women at the time—before discussing some of the challenges she’s faced more recently at the high level of the firefighting business. In particular, she talks about the tensions between reducing environmental impact and protecting lives and how that will be the central problem for firefighting in the next twenty to thirty years as climate change continues.

On this episode of Adrenaline Zone, “Sandy” and Sandra welcome big wave surfer, Jamie Mitchell to the podcast to talk about his late start in surfing, the risk in big-wave surfing, and climate change.

On this episode of The Adrenaline Zone, hosts James “Sandy” Winnefeld and Sandra Magnus are joined by Dr. Ralph Harvey of the Antarctic Search for Meteorites Program, and Dr. Fraser Goff, Volcanology and Geothermal Systems Expert.

On this episode of The Adrenaline Zone, James “Sandy” Winnefeld and Sandra Magnus are joined by Diana Trujillo, JPL Flight Director for the Mars Perseverance Rover.

On this episode of The Adrenaline Zone, hosts James “Sandy” Winnefeld and Sandra Magnus are joined by Victor Vescovo, Undersea Explorer, Investor, and Former Naval Officer.

On this episode of The Adrenaline Zone, hosts James “Sandy” Winnefeld and Sandra Magnus are joined by Alejandro Villanueva, Professional Football Player and former Army Ranger.

On this episode of The Adrenaline Zone, hosts James “Sandy” Winnefeld and Sandra Magnus are joined by gang member “Blanco”, one of the leaders of an innovative project to reduce inner city gun violence in Wilmington, NC.

On this episode of The Adrenaline Zone, hosts James “Sandy” Winnefeld and Sandra Magnus are joined by Tim McGraw, prolific actor and country music star, to talk about some of the emotional risks associated with being a performing artist.

On this episode of The Adrenaline Zone, hosts James “Sandy” Winnefeld and Sandra Magnus are joined by Sarah Thomas, an NFL official who became the first woman to officiate in a Super Bowl. She shares her story of breaking the gender barrier in a male-dominated industry, and the many risks that entailed.

On this episode of The Adrenaline Zone, hosts James “Sandy” Winnefeld and Sandra Magnus are joined by Captain Brian C. Kesselring, Commanding Officer and Flight Leader of the Blue Angels.

On this episode of The Adrenaline Zone, hosts James “Sandy” Winnefeld and Sandra Magnus welcome Josef Newgarden, IndyCar driver and two-time IndyCar Series Champion. They discuss some of the ways Josef’s training has helped him develop better instincts in high-risk situations.

On this episode of The Adrenaline Zone, hosts James “Sandy” Winnefeld and Sandra Magnus speak with Brad Snyder, former EOD Officer and US Paralympian, about responding to the consequences that sometimes accompany risk.

Join hosts Sandra Magnus and James “Sandy” Winnefeld as they explore risk in its many forms on The Adrenaline Zone.