Heroes' Path Podcast

Two things happened in the same 24 hours.

An American Apache helicopter was shot down near the Strait of Hormuz.

And the President of the United States announced that a deal with Iran could be signed within days.

That's not so much a contradiction, as it is modern warfare.

One side is negotiating. The other side is shooting. Sometimes they're the same side.

This week, Jeff Steinberg and I look at a conflict that has now crossed the 100-day mark. We discuss the downed Apache, the remarkable drone rescue that followed, the negotiations still underway, and the growing gap between what the United States wants, what Iran will accept, and what Israel is willing to tolerate.

We also examine something bigger.

The future of warfare itself.

A helicopter brought down by a drone.

Pilots rescued by a drone boat.

Billion-dollar weapons systems increasingly challenged by machines that cost a fraction of the price.

The headlines are interesting.

The implications are far more interesting.

If you're trying to understand where this war is headed, and what it may be telling us about the next one, I think you'll find these 15 minutes well spent.

 video is about Iran Update (June 9, 2026)

Support the show

Learn • Serve • Lead • Remember 

🎧 Never miss an episode—subscribe on YouTube or grab the RSS.

Follow & join the conversation ➔ @HeroesPath on X, Instagram, LinkedIn • #HeroesPathPodcast

The thing about ceasefires is that everybody talks about them like they’re the finish line.

Most of the time, they’re not.

They’re a pause.

A chance to count what’s been spent, what’s been broken, and what’s still sitting there waiting to be dealt with.

This week marks roughly ninety days since this war began.

In that time, thousands of people have been killed. Billions of dollars have been spent. Advanced weapons stockpiles have been depleted. Global shipping has been disrupted. Fuel prices have climbed. Diplomats have worked overtime.

And here we are.

The guns haven’t entirely stopped.

The Strait of Hormuz is still at the center of negotiations.

Iran’s nuclear program remains unresolved.

Israel is unhappy with the proposed terms.

And the President of the United States is sitting in the Situation Room deciding whether the framework of a deal is worth signing.

That’s where things stand.

Not at the end of a war.

At the beginning of whatever comes next.

This week, Jeff Steinberg joins me to examine the proposed agreement, the forces pushing it forward, the forces trying to stop it, and what the last ninety days have actually cost.

Support the show

Learn • Serve • Lead • Remember 

🎧 Never miss an episode—subscribe on YouTube or grab the RSS.

Follow & join the conversation ➔ @HeroesPath on X, Instagram, LinkedIn • #HeroesPathPodcast

We are now roughly 80 days into a war that many people believed would last four to six weeks.

The Strait of Hormuz remains under pressure.

Oil markets are reacting.

China publicly invoked the “Thucydides Trap” in front of the President of the United States.

And the diplomatic and military tracks are moving in opposite directions at the same time.

This week’s Iran Update with Professor Jeff Steinberg looks at the bigger picture behind the headlines:

• The strategic reality inside the Strait of Hormuz

• Why China’s language in Beijing matters

• Historical parallels to Pearl Harbor, Suez, and the Iran-Iraq War

• The economic consequences already moving through the global system

• Why none of this ends cleanly, even if there is a ceasefire

This is not just a regional conflict anymore. It is becoming a test of the international system itself.

Worth listening to all 25 minutes.

 video is about Iran Update

Support the show

Learn • Serve • Lead • Remember 

🎧 Never miss an episode—subscribe on YouTube or grab the RSS.

Follow & join the conversation ➔ @HeroesPath on X, Instagram, LinkedIn • #HeroesPathPodcast

Two weeks ago we left it with a deadline.

That deadline passed. The ceasefire stretched. Then two ships were taken within hours. Now there’s a blockade in both directions and a line of tankers sitting still where the world’s energy is supposed to move.

Gas is up. Diesel’s worse. You’re already paying for it whether you’ve looked at the headlines or not.

So we got Jeff back on.

He lays out what changed since the last conversation. The shift from airstrikes to economic pressure. The fight inside Iran over whether to cut a deal or push forward. The same argument happening here at home as the 60-day clock runs out and Congress leaves town. And the piece nobody has solved, sitting underground and still very much part of the equation.

You can hear where this is headed if you listen closely.

It runs under thirty minutes.

If you want to understand what’s driving the price at the pump, what’s shaping the next few weeks, and why this doesn’t stay “over there,” this one’s worth your time.

If you haven’t already, join us and subscribe to our Heroes’ Path Substack. We’ll make it worth your while.

Support the show

Learn • Serve • Lead • Remember 

🎧 Never miss an episode—subscribe on YouTube or grab the RSS.

Follow & join the conversation ➔ @HeroesPath on X, Instagram, LinkedIn • #HeroesPathPodcast

Five weeks in.

A U.S. fighter goes down over Iran. One pilot recovered. One still out there. Rescue teams are working inside the country.

At the same time, the Strait is tightening, the price of oil is climbing, and whatever talks were underway are starting to fall apart.

So we got Jeff on the line.

He walks through what changed this week, what’s breaking, and what could come next.

Fifteen minutes.

If you want more of this, become a paid subscriber to our Heroes' Path Substack

Support the show

Learn • Serve • Lead • Remember 

🎧 Never miss an episode—subscribe on YouTube or grab the RSS.

Follow & join the conversation ➔ @HeroesPath on X, Instagram, LinkedIn • #HeroesPathPodcast

Four Weeks In. Nobody Planned for This.

Day 28 of the war with Iran.

The Strait of Hormuz is now a toll road — $2 million per transit, collected by the Iranians, for ships they're gracious enough to let pass. Patriot missiles are running low. The IDF Chief of Staff told his own cabinet this week that his force is on the road to collapse if they don't get 15,000 more troops. The diplomatic channel that opened this week looks, depending on who you ask, either like the beginning of a deal or the cover story for a surprise ground assault. Russia trained Iranian forces well-before the shooting started. Three thousand people are dead and that number goes up every day.

Jeff Steinberg has been on the Heroes' Path podcast three Fridays running. He comes prepared. He's been right. This week, We sat down with him again to ask the questions that don't have clean answers yet — who actually wants this war to end, and what does ending it even look like now that the early assumptions are gone.
 
Twenty-five minutes. No spin. Worth your time.

https://open.substack.com/pub/heroespath/p/the-heroes-path-brief-iran-update?r=ky3s5&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Support the show

Learn • Serve • Lead • Remember 

🎧 Never miss an episode—subscribe on YouTube or grab the RSS.

Follow & join the conversation ➔ @HeroesPath on X, Instagram, LinkedIn • #HeroesPathPodcast

We recorded this one on the move.

No studio or deep editing. A quick call with Jeff Steinberg while the situation keeps changing.

In twenty minutes, he walks through what’s actually happening. The resignation in Washington. The split with Israel. The nuclear question that hasn’t gone away.

It’s not polished, but it will provide some clarity nonetheless.

If this is the kind of signal you want instead of noise, become one of our paid subscribers. That’s what keeps conversations like this coming when they matter most.

So, twenty quick minutes.

Worth it.

https://open.substack.com/pub/heroespath/p/heroes-path-brief-iran-update?r=ky3s5&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

#Iran #Update #Steinberg #HeroesPath #Brief #Substack #Podcast

Support the show

Learn • Serve • Lead • Remember 

🎧 Never miss an episode—subscribe on YouTube or grab the RSS.

Follow & join the conversation ➔ @HeroesPath on X, Instagram, LinkedIn • #HeroesPathPodcast

The American Revolution was not a foregone conclusion. It was eight years of freezing encampments, shattered supply lines, battlefield defeats, and a Continental Army that nearly dissolved more than once. From the catastrophic retreat across New York to the starvation winter at Valley Forge, the fight for independence was long, desperate, and closer to failure than most Americans will ever know. What kept it alive, beyond raw endurance, was something the history books have largely erased: George Washington's systematic intelligence campaign — a web of spies, deception operations, and covert networks that outmaneuvered the most powerful empire on earth at the moments it mattered most.

Most Americans have never been told that story. Professor Jeffrey Steinberg reveals the hidden intelligence operations that made American independence possible. Drawing from his university course "The Unknown History of United States Intelligence," Steinberg takes us inside the networks, tradecraft, and systematic deception that the Founding Generation used to defeat the British Empire. 

As we approach America's Semiquincentennial, 250 years since the founding, this isn't ceremonial history. It's a mirror. What does it mean to keep a republic when the original victory was built on vigilance, judgment, and the ability to tell truth from noise?

Jeffrey Steinberg has worked in national security policy for over forty years in partnership with Congress, the military, and the intelligence community. He serves as Executive Vice President of PTB Global Advisors and teaches national security affairs at Florida Atlantic University and Florida Gulf Coast University.

Heroes' Path Foundation develops character-based leadership through story-driven curriculum.

Support the show

Learn • Serve • Lead • Remember 

🎧 Never miss an episode—subscribe on YouTube or grab the RSS.

Follow & join the conversation ➔ @HeroesPath on X, Instagram, LinkedIn • #HeroesPathPodcast

After surviving a catastrophic blast in Iraq, John Gallina came home to discover that the hardest part of service often begins after the war. In this powerful episode of the Heroes’ Path Podcast, Colonel John Fenzel sits down with the combat-wounded veteran, builder, and co-founder of Purple Heart Homes to talk about service, sacrifice, and what it really means to come home.

John shares the story of his deployment with battle buddy Dale Beatty, the life-changing injuries they sustained, and how their wounded homecoming became the catalyst for a national movement serving veterans through housing. Since its founding, Purple Heart Homes has helped thousands of veterans and their families live more safely, independently, and with greater dignity.

This conversation goes far beyond ramps and repairs. It explores the link between housing, mental health, family stability, and community reintegration. John explains why inaccessible or unhealthy homes can deepen isolation and despair for veterans, why families often carry the hidden burden, and why communities have a responsibility to do more than simply say, “thank you for your service.”

You’ll also hear John’s reflections on older generations of veterans, the enduring influence of Vietnam veterans on his own journey, the legacy of Dale Beatty, and the future of Purple Heart Homes as it expands innovative housing solutions for those who served.

This is an episode about dignity, belonging, and the truth that service does not end when the uniform comes off. It may just be beginning.

Support the show

Learn • Serve • Lead • Remember 

🎧 Never miss an episode—subscribe on YouTube or grab the RSS.

Follow & join the conversation ➔ @HeroesPath on X, Instagram, LinkedIn • #HeroesPathPodcast

Every conflict looks simple from a distance. A few maps on television, a headline about airstrikes, a sentence or two about retaliation, and the impression forms that the shape of the story is already clear.

The reality is usually far more complicated, and the early days of a military operation are often the moment when the least is actually known.

The United States and its allies are now engaged in a rapidly developing operation against Iran. Reports are coming in by the hour. Facilities have been struck. Senior figures inside the Iranian system may have been removed. Regional forces tied to Tehran are adjusting their posture. Energy markets are reacting. Governments across the Middle East are calculating their next steps.

What is still unclear is where this goes next.

Moments like this are when it helps to hear from someone who has spent a career studying how national security decisions are made and how intelligence, strategy, and geopolitics intersect long before events reach the public stage.

Professor Jeffrey Steinberg is one of those people. For more than four decades he has worked in the field of national security analysis, advising policymakers, engaging with military and intelligence professionals, and teaching students how the machinery of strategy actually functions behind the scenes.

In the conversation, Jeff walks through the situation as it stands today. He lays out what can reasonably be understood about the current operation, where the real uncertainties lie, and the wider consequences that could follow if the conflict expands across the region.

It is a clear, thoughtful 30-minute briefing on a situation that is moving quickly and carries implications well beyond Iran itself.

If you want a deeper sense of the strategic landscape behind the headlines, this discussion is well worth your time.

Support the show

Learn • Serve • Lead • Remember 

🎧 Never miss an episode—subscribe on YouTube or grab the RSS.

Follow & join the conversation ➔ @HeroesPath on X, Instagram, LinkedIn • #HeroesPathPodcast