The Association of the U.S. Army is releasing five new podcasts in July that include a discussion with former acting Army Secretary John Whitley and insights from the commander of Army Cadet Command.

First up in the “Army Matters” series is an interview with Aaron Hale, a former soldier and entrepreneur who owns E.O.D. Fudge.

In December 2011, while serving in Afghanistan as an explosive ordnance disposal technician, Hale was blinded when an IED exploded in his face.

During the podcast, Hale will talk about his journey back from his wounds, finding the love of his life, losing his hearing to a rare and dangerous bout of bacterial meningitis, and how he came to establish E.O.D. Fudge, which stands for Extra Ordinary Delights.

The episode is available July 4.

Next up, on July 11, is a podcast featuring Maj. Gen. Johnny Davis, commander of Cadet Command. Davis, who has led Cadet Command since August 2021, will share his personal leadership journey and provide the latest on how the Fort Knox, Kentucky-based command trains officers for an increasingly complex world.

The next podcast will feature Whitley, who served as acting Army secretary from January to May 2021 and is now a researcher and adviser with the Institute for Defense Analyses and other organizations.

He will talk about how the Pentagon should take a page from Formula 1 racing and embrace digital transformation to stay ahead of its competitors.

The podcast is available July 13.

On July 18, the podcast will highlight United Through Reading, a program founded in 1989 that connects military families who are separated because of deployments, training or assignments by providing the bonding experience of shared story time.

Molly Haskin, director of Army and Air Force programs for United Through Reading, will talk about new developments in the program and its ongoing efforts to cultivate a love of reading and early childhood literacy.

Finally, on July 25, the podcast will feature retired Col. R.D. Hooker Jr., who will discuss his new book, The Good Captain: A Personal Memoir of America at War.

Part of AUSA’s Book Program, The Good Captain chronicles Hooker’s time in uniform. Rising from private to colonel, Hooker served in the invasion of Grenada, in Somalia, as one of the first American responders to the Rwandan genocide and in Bosnia, Kosovo and the Sinai Peninsula. He was in the Pentagon on 9/11, deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and served several high-level Pentagon assignments and in the White House during four administrations.

Full details on the podcasts are available at https://www.ausa.org/podcast. Listeners also can subscribe to “Army Matters” for updates.