The Military Chose a Strange Moment to Launch a Lifestyle Podcast

On "Inside CENTCOM," Admiral Brad Cooper lets us in on his favorite food—French fries. CENTCOM/Youtube Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily. The Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, is a “dead man walking,” on the verge of possible impeachment, Pentagon officials reportedly said. The United States has spent the past week carrying out “minor strikes” against Iran’s Qeshm Island. Yesterday, Donald Trump appointed war hawk Stephen Miller as his chief of staff. And after Democrats swept the legislature, even Vice President JD Vance couldn’t help but blame his party’s loss on the choice to go to war with Iran. Meanwhile, the United States Central Command (CENTCOM), which bears responsibility for the military’s actions in the Middle East, has chosen this moment to launch a lifestyle podcast. Inside CENTCOM, which went live on Thursday, has been compared to Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis, but for the camo-clad. The podcast promises to introduce listeners to the human side of the “incredible warfighters” protecting the nation’s interests in the region. In its first episode, CENTCOM head Admiral Brad Cooper delved into topics such as the virtue of patience, playing basketball on a moving warship, the importance of physical fitness, and his personal love of stealing other people’s french fries. Cooper distributes bon mots like “pursue a passion that you’re interested in, but don’t try to figure it all out,” throughout the first episode. “For sure, no one could have imagined the trajectory of events that we would be on but through it everyone has been doing a fantastic job,” Cooper told listeners, eight months into a massively unpopular war of choice with Iran. He then informed the nation that he always takes time to invest in his “mental fitness, spiritual fitness, and physical fitness,” even during Operation Epic Fury. Cooper distributes bon mots like “pursue a passion that you’re interested in, but don’t try to figure it all out.” It’s a truism that men experiencing midlife aimlessness may well get their buddies together and start a podcast, even if no one really wants to listen to them speak. And the internet is stuffed full with military podcasts, and ex-military podcasts, and weapons-tech podcasts, and podcasts commenting on military culture. This isn’t even the first podcast CENTCOM has produced—they used some small portion of the Department of Defense’s bloated budget to script, edit and air a podcast on the history of their command in 2023. But the launch of this newest assay into the podcast universe comes at a strange moment for CENTCOM, and for the military writ large, as America’s lame-duck president threatens post-election military escalation. According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, more than 3,400 civilians have been killed since the US and Israel began bombing Iran in February. And the war, at last count, has cost the US military at least $47 billion. You won’t hear about any of this on the new lifestyle podcast taxpayers are floating, though: During Inside CENTCOM‘s first episode’s 11 minute runtime, Cooper fields zero questions about the war he is currently engaged in.