Sam traded a pre-med track for one that took him across conflict zones — literally. After stumbling on a Guardian article about Free to Run, an organization bringing running camps to Afghanistan and Iraq, he never looked back. We dig into the messy, important work of engaging in conflict regions responsibly and why sport is one of the most underrated tools for human connection.

We also zoom out to something closer to home: the quiet crisis in youth sports — the hyper-specialization, the elitism, a culture that's become increasingly expensive and unforgiving. From blind cricketers in India to girls running in Bamiyan, Sam's work teaches us about the universal need to play.

As war escalates in Lebanon, one student watches from the U.S. while her family races to evacuate.

In the first episode of Next in Command, we explore the emotional reality of distance—the guilt of being safe, the fear of what’s happening back home, and the strange ways people learn to live alongside conflict. What begins as a surreal detail—restaurants offering “missile views”—opens into a deeper conversation about what it feels like to watch your country in crisis from thousands of miles away.