What Jake Clark Wants You To Know About Trauma

Jake Clark is an unexpected hero. As the founder of the Save a Warrior program for veterans and first responders, he helps those suffering from post-traumatic stress uncover the core of their pain, which often stems from trauma that came before combat or violence. His work has led to surprising breakthroughs for many people, mirroring his own journey of self-discovery after years of self-destruction. Jake and I talk about the program’s core practices of meditation and reflection, as well as the community and outcomes that arise from Save a Warrior. And as if being a founder, a veteran, and a former agent for multiple federal agencies wasn’t enough, Jake is also a big X-Files fan. Naturally, we discuss what it’s really like to be in the FBI.

Fail Better is now on YouTube! Watch this episode here.

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To be human is to fail – period. And not just to fail once, but to fail a lot. As the author Samuel Beckett said: “Fail again. Fail better.” This saying means a lot to me and my family – so much so that my daughter got a tattoo of it. Why are we, and so many others, so deeply concerned by failure? And if it’s something we all do so often, why are we so afraid of it – especially those of us here in win-at-all-costs America? In this podcast, I sit down with successful, thoughtful people like Ben Stiller, Bette Midler, Sean Penn and more to talk about failure – or what they labeled “failure,” but what was really an unparalleled opportunity for growth and revelation. I even want to delve into my own hardest moments, when I wrestled with setbacks, shame, and fear. We’ll still fail again. And again. But maybe if we fail better, we’ll feel better -- and maybe if we can all laugh together in failure, that's a start.

• No. of episodes: 67
• Latest episode: 2025-07-29
• Society & Culture

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