An Army of Normal Folks - HIGHLIGHTS: Why America Is in Better Shape Than You've Been Told | Unify USA

Episode Date: September 15, 2026

In this episode, Bill sits down with Teagan and Koston McCoy of Unify USA: how Teagan, 21 and fed up with the division on his phone, pulled an American flag off his truck, ran 22 miles on a whim, and turned eight million views into flag runs across seven states. He gets spit on, has cigarette butts thrown at him, and tells them he loves them anyway. That opens a bigger conversation about what actually divides Americans: the wedge inside their own family, a jar of ants blaming each other instead of the man who shook it, and 600 flags through Central Park without a single protester. Plus a leprechaun calls in to sing Bill happy birthday. ARMY ACTIONS Sign up for the newsletter and join the Army: https://normalfolks.org/#newsletter-cta Join or start an ANF local service club at https://normalfolks.org/service-clubs/ Take The 10 Level Challenge, "the hero's journey for service" at https://normalfolks.org/10-level-challenge/ Follow Unify USA at https://unifyusaofficial.com Have an idea for a Shop Talk or a guest for the show? Write Bill anytime at [e-mail] Follow us on all socials: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/armyofnormalfolks/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@armyofnormalfolks Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArmyofNormalFolks X: https://x.com/armynormalfolks LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/an-army-of-normal-folks/Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/#joinSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

All the hate that we got, 80% of it was just people call me a Trumpie. You're like, hey, you're a Trumpie. And I always said, I'm not running for Trump. They go, what? I've had people spit on me. I've had people throw cigarette butts at me. Every single time I look them in the eyes, and I tell them I love them. You go to your truck.

You take an American flag off the back of it. That's right. And you say, I'm going for a run. I just said I'm running for the country, for the people, for America. For the firefighters, the first responders, the troops, to respect this. country and show that patriotism is still alive within the younger generation. 600 people showed up to run with American flags through Central Park. We put something on 10 days notice and have the biggest turnout we've had for Unify USA.

The biggest flag run in American history. And that's what we fight for for Unify USA is human connection and foundation. There are patriots everywhere in America. They're just disconnected. This is Army of Normal Folks, where our people. mission is to make service easier for all of us and together change the country. The long loading times. The glitchy video calls. That's your house asking for better internet. Switch to Bell Pure Fiber, Canada's most reliable internet awarded by Open Signal from $75 a month.

Price guaranteed for two years on a two-year term and auto pay credit. Visit bell.ca for more details and to check availability. Bell, Connection. is everything. When I was 14 years old, I was kidnapped and held captive for nine months. I survived, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them.

I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are the Survivor Files. I just remember this low, taunting voice next to my ear saying, shut up, don't say anything. Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable. I knew if he woke up, without a doubt, he was going to hurt me.

I started feeling that there was someone at the end of my bed, and I just started screaming. They are abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. But these aren't stories about what's taken from them. There's stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to the Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, it's Alec Baldwin. This season on my podcast,

here's the thing I'm speaking with more artists, policymakers, and performers like actor Stephen Root. I think for me to be any good or for any character act to be any good, you've got to put enough of yourself and your empathy for people in it. I'm a people watcher. You see that guy going down the dream and go,

yeah, I can use that. Open Igloo co-founder, Alia Muhammad. I love staying on top of what is going on in our city, what is going on in city politics, what is on renter's minds, and taking all of that knowledge to build a platform that hopefully is going to make New York City better in the long run. And actress and singer Melissa Eriko. Partnership took on a whole other meaning when I started making my own work. It's like you with a great actress or actor. It was best to come out of your trailer, full of life, and just face another person who's full of life and don't talk. Listen to

Here's the Thing on the I Heart Radio app Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. What up y'all, this your main man, Memphis Bleak right here, host of that Rock Solid podcast. And each week, we bring in you exclusive looks inside music, everything happening inside the culture. Some of the best conversations were the biggest names in the game. You had a little bit more pressure to be good.

And they didn't care if you was a girl. Like, you wasn't getting no points because you were the girl. If you're not trash, you better be not just going to be. you better be great. On rock solid, we're talking to rap legends, hit-making producers, rising stars from the golden era to the future of this hip-hop game, where we keep it 100% unfiltered and keep it nothing but rock solid. The thing about Jay, my opinion, is he's been so great at being seen but mysterious.

You know what I'm saying? He don't got to come talk about nothing. You figure it out. So it's always a mystique and mystic. seriousness behind them, but it ain't like you don't see them. Listen to Rock Solid on Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you streamed podcasts. My name is Josie Duffy Rice.

I'm a journalist who covers the criminal legal system. And over my career, I've heard account after account of prosecutorial misconduct, story after story of injustice. But I've never heard a story quite like this. The more I kept reading that stuff, I thought, man, there's more red flags that just kept coming up over and over. We'll hypnotize him to strengthen that memory. So he went into a good france. I really didn't believe any of it was real.

And I was like, well, they're going to figure out this is not me. They're going to do their police job. Listen to examined the backfire effect on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts for wherever you get your podcasts. Many people think the American Dream is out of reach, and the country is too messed up to fix, and you guys don't. And before we even get into the story, what do you hope people get after listening to this episode from it? I believe, and I hope that Americans can feel as if there is always a light at the end of the tunnel.

There is always hope for this country, and as an American, we will always be. able to continually move forward to make this country a better place. The most beautiful part about America is it's built on the, it's built by the people, by the people, and we can continue to thrust forward as a nation, but collectively together. And I never think that America's too far. I never think that it'll ever get too bad. And no matter how bad it may seem at the time, there will always be hope. 100%. Cost your brother. just rolled that out. I mean, I feel like Lee Greenwood ought to be playing in the blackout.

You know, proud to be an American and all that stuff. But, you know, I am really proud of my country. Yes, sir. Just, but for perspective, before we go on, I'm also really proud of my kids. My kids are 31, 30, 29, and 28, or maybe 29, 30, 31, and 32. Anyway, that's all my kids are. Yes, sir. And they have done some really, really stupid stuff.

in their life. They have caused Lisa and I an enormous amount of consternation and frustration. They have messed up. They have done stupid things. They have engaged in behavior that I found abhorrent, but it does not mean that I'm not eternally proud and love them because good people make bad mistakes all the time, and that's part of growing up. That's part of aging. That's part of maturity. Our country's the same way. A hundred percent. You can absolutely be very proud of a country who is, made mistakes and continues to, but they continue to try their fine way, their forward.

Yeah, sir. So in what you're saying, you're not saying we're faultless. I ain't saying America's perfect. I'm saying America's always worth fighting for. I love that. So, Teague. Yes, sir. On September 3rd, I guess, of last year since you're 22, of 2025,

I guess you're just hanging around looking at some apps on your. your phone, bored of tears at your house. That ought to be it, yeah? Just hanging out. Maybe playing video games. Do you do that? Honestly, at that point, it's not like I was sitting around like a couch potato. I'll still take care of myself.

But within our country specifically, I'd seen so much division on the internet. I was in this. Oh, you mean social media? Yes, sir. I was on social media and I was in this endless scroll. I call it scrolling into the abyss, especially with political matters. And I just got so freaking frustrated. I got so pissed off.

Do you think it's possible? that there are people with an enormous amount of power and wealth sitting in places like New York, Chicago, D.C. and Silicon Valley that purposely craft narratives to drive you nuts? I couldn't actually have said that any better. You said that perfectly. I actually think it rolls deeper than that, honestly. But I do. Yeah, I think there's narratives that are pushed to make people emotional and to emasculate men. Absolutely. And that's one thing, too, when you were talking about in the beginning, what do you want people to hear and kind of take from the show is that the Media is feeding you something that's not true.

Because every city that we go to, we went to Central Park in New York City with 700 people and 30 Marines and ran through the belly of the beast, which online and social media is showing right now, like, you can't even step foot in there with an American flagger. You die. And we ran there with cheers and support and people supporting us. So it made us start to think in all these different cities that maybe America is not as bad as we think it is, and we're just being fed something on our phones every single. Yeah, we're definitely going to get to that.

Yes, sir. But first, you're sitting there frustrated, and as I understand it, you go to your truck and you take an American flag off the back of it. It's right. And you say, I'm going for a run. I just started running. Like, Forest Go, baby. And Greenbow, Alabama.

But this is in Newport, Ritchie, Florida. What do you think? I'm going to run around the block with my flags? Negative. I said, I'm going to run so I can't no more. I'm just going to run to my legs fall off. And then I ran 22 miles. somehow made it home.

I don't know. Are you a runner? I kind of. I mean, I run... What did you do, Miles are a marathon? We used to live in Searcy, Arkansas, and this guy would say, I'm going to go with no headphones in the rain and run a marathon. No training.

This guy is a little psychopath. Like, I'm not kidding. And he just has the will and the want to. It's not that he really can or should. He would lay in bed for like hours and hours, even days after because he'd be hurting so bad. But something inside of him just wanted to push himself. and he wouldn't stop.

And then he'd be like, cost, I got in this flow state. Like, I just didn't stop running. And I was like, all right, dude. He's like, he should come with me. No, absolutely. So you really did. You just literally on a whim. You got frustrated.

You grabbed your flag. You put it over his shoulder. And you're living in Tampa Bay. And you just take off running. That's right. Well, there's a bit more, there's a couple of layers to it, actually. So if you want to peel the onion back.

We do. I was laying in the bed of my truck. And it was more like of a somber, feeling like an ambient and a very spiritual moment for me. And it almost felt supernatural. I was laying in the bed of my truck and I don't want to say I felt purposeless. I just didn't feel intentional like within my life. I think a lot of not only high school students, college graduates, but kids within our generation feel as if they have this lack of purpose. Like, oh, I should be doing so much more, especially when you see other people on the internet over in Croatia and on yachts here and

there, everybody else's success triumphs mine. It's like, well, all of them are lying, first off, but second off, you're exactly where the Lord needs you to be. You just need to take the next step forward. So instead of getting paralyzed by all this analysis of what you could be doing, it's better to just put that first foot forward, like literally and figuratively. Like, I just decided, I prayed to the Lord for purpose for a reason. Like, I want to serve people, and I don't know what that is. I don't know how that looks. I open my eyes. I seen old glory waving in the wind, and I picked her up the next day. It genuinely is just, I would love to sit here and say,

oh, I was this ambitious young man at 21, and I ran with the flag to unify the American people. That didn't even come until the eighth day. I just said I'm running for the country, for the people, for America, for the firefighters, the first responders, the troops, to respect this country and show that patriotism is still alive within the younger generation. So you picked up a flag and took off? That's it.

It's that simple. And people, it drives people crazy. It is that simple. So I understand that you got about 12 miles out and said, maybe I had to turn around, maybe, maybe a stupid is a stupid dog. Maybe it's far enough. I got to run this much back. That's right.

And your dad pulls up next to you on like mile 17. What was it tracking you on your phone? Yes, sir. He has our location. And he's like, well, maybe you need to go check on my dog. he's out there running around somewhere i was hurted i tried to shoot him a call earlier but you know when you're running you got your phone in your pocket gets all sweaty and you can't type on it to just tap a thing no sir i tried to sit here and call him but the phone's too sweaty so it's all

janky and she's trying to call him and i can't so my i'm just going to run home he pulls up on me i don't know if you saw in the video there's a tear in my flag on mile 10 of the run it got caught on a power line the nail of a power line and it ripped a hole in it and i think that's why it went viral because everybody's like, why does this kid have a hole in his flag? Like, he's disrespecting our American flag. And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, guys, I just didn't want to call, I don't want to be a wissy and call it Uber or nothing. I had to run at home, you know? Like, I had to run at home. And then that's where my father came up to me is about mile 17. And I was broken. I was beat. And he was driving next to you.

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. And I was beat. And spiritually, I tapped into this separate sense that I'd never felt in my life. The only Bible verse I knew at the time was Philippians. 413, and I recited out. I said it hundreds of times. Which is. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And I just can, I recited it in numerous different ways. Just God give me strength. Christ give me strength. I didn't even believe in Jesus at the time, but I knew that I had to take that step onto the water to see if I could walk.

And so you're running and he's filming. That's right. And he posted or you posted who posted? He said it to me. I was like, hey, pops, can he send that to me? I want to post it on the internet. I expected nothing of it. 8 million views, 800,000 likes, so many Americans saying, I wish my son was like this, or I said, I love you to my father in the end of the video, and a lot of people break down in tears and send me voice messages, and I got some people's phone number, and they'd facetime and crying to me saying, I wish I had that connection with my father. My father passed, or my father's disconnected within my life.

I didn't have that figure growing up, so I think there was a lot of different moving parts to that, but one of the real base interest in all of it was just a lot of the, the love that I share with my father and the relationship we have. Tell everybody, as you're running, about to die with the flag and your dad's filming. Yeah. What was that right? What's he worried about you? Oh, terribly.

I mean, he's always worried about me, though, and cause. We'll go off and do something random. He'll shoot us a call and just make sure we're good. Hey, just checking in, son, you alive? Yes, sir. All right, take care. Yes. But he showed up, and he recorded me, and it was very spontaneous.

I didn't know that it was happening. and he goes, hey son, how far have you ran? And I go, I don't, 17 miles? He goes, what the hell are you running for? I said, I'm running for the American people. You just said it. I don't know, I'm just running for the American people. It's like, I'm just so tired, baby, woo!

And I was like on this separate high, I had this second blow of wind. And I was like, dopamine and all that. And I saw my dad and it gave, that really is what sent me home. Those last five miles were some of the hardest miles that I've ever experienced. but my dad's showing up and giving me that boost of encouragement, it made it everything. Everything. After that, you said, I'm going to do it tomorrow too. That's right.

And after that, you said, I'm going to keep doing it. That's right. And now a few messages from our generous sponsors. But first, thanks for tuning into an army of normal folks, where our mission is to make service easier for all of us. and together can change the country. Today, I want to share with you an email received from an Army member named Hunter Cowan. Hunter wrote,

Good morning, Bill. I've listened to all of your episodes since the very beginning. They are our light and all of the bad news that comes our way every day. By listening to your shows, y'all have inspired me to try to take part to make a difference in my community. I have started a sleep in heavenly peace chapter.

Y'all have inspired me, and I know y'all have inspired many others. At some point, that inspiration becomes exponential. And when we're emailing with Hunter, he told us his sleep in Heavenly Peace chapter already has 60 beds built for kids without them in the Richmond area of Virginia. I am inspired myself that episodes that we share can inspire someone like Hunter to engage and do good work. I'm inspired that there are 60 kids today that are sleeping in beds rather than piles on clothes because Hunter listened to an episode of an Army of Normal Folks and decided to act. We always say, together we can change this country.

and Hunter is metaphorically what one member of a massive army of normal folks can do to make better lives for other people. We'll be right back. The long loading times, the glitchy video calls. That's your house asking for better internet. Switch to Bell Pure Fiber, Canada's most reliable internet awarded by OpenSignal from $75 a month. Price guaranteed for two years on a two-year term and auto pay credit.

Visit bell.com for more details. sent to check availability. Bell, connection is everything. When I was 14 years old, I was kidnapped and held captive for nine months. I survived, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are the Survivor Files. I just remember this low, taunting voice next to my ear saying, shut up, don't say anything. Every week I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable. I knew if he woke up, without a doubt, he was going to hurt me.

I started feeling that there was someone at the end of my bed, and I just started screaming. They are abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. But these aren't stories about what's taken from them. There's stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to the survivor file. with Elizabeth Smart on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, it's Alec Baldwin. This season on my podcast, here's the thing I'm speaking with more artists,

policymakers, and performers like actor Stephen Root. I think for me to be any good or for any character act to be any good, you've got to put enough of yourself and your empathy for people in it. I'm a people watcher. You see that guy going down the dream and go, yeah, I can use that. Open Igloo co-founder Alia Mohamed. I love staying on top of what is going on in our city, what is going on in city politics, what is on renter's minds, and taking all of that knowledge to build a platform that hopefully is going to make

New York City better in the long run. And actress and singer Melissa Eriko. Partnership took on a whole other meaning when I started making my own work. It's like you with a great actress or actor. It was best to come out of your trailer, full of life, and just face another person who's full of life and don't talk. Listen to Here's the Thing on the IHeart Radio app Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

What up, y'all, this your main man, Memphis Bleak right here, host of that rock solid podcast. And each week, we bring in you exclusive looks inside music, everything happening inside the culture. Some of the best conversations were the biggest names in the game. You had a little bit more pressure to be good. And they didn't care if you was a girl. Like, you wasn't getting no points because you were the girl.

If you're not trash, you better be not just good. You better be great. On rock solid, we're talking to rap legends, hit-making producers, rising stars from the golden era to the future of this hip-hop game, where we keep it 100% unfiltered and keep it nothing but rock-solid. The thing about Jay, my opinion, is he's been so great. at being seen but mysterious. You know what I'm saying?

He don't got to come talk about anything. You figure it out. So it's always a mystique and mysteriousness behind them, but it ain't like you don't see him. Listen to Rock Silent on Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you streamed podcast. My name is Josie Duffy Rice. I'm a journalist who covers the criminal legal system.

And over my career, I've heard account after account of prosecutor. story after story of injustice. But I've never heard a story quite like this. The more I kept reading that stuff, I thought, man, there's more red flags that just kept coming up over and over. We'll hypnotize him to strengthen that memory. So he went into a good france. I really didn't believe any of it was real.

And I was like, well, they're going to figure out this is not me. They're going to do their police job. Listen to Examine the Backfire Effect on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Before we get to day seven, where you kind of said something that set a lot of this emotion, and I don't want to go to that. I wanted to go to day two and three, four, five. Yes, sir. I'm really curious. Why? Why do it again?

What, what, I mean, what was, why, why did you think, all right, well, I almost killed myself yesterday. That's cool. Let's do it again. Was it the response on the social media? What was it that inspired you just say, I'm going to do this next few days? It was the honks that I got in person. It was the honks. The honks, brother.

And you should see this smile on these people's faces. when I have an American flag in my hand, a young man looking to... I didn't even know what I was doing at the time. It was very naive. It was very spontaneous, but the people seeing our flag and our colors and lighting up with joy and honking,

let's go, baby! It is like, I get chills thinking about it. It's like no experience that you'll ever... I cannot compare it to anything else. And the first day it ever happened now, of course I've ran every single day consecutively for Lord knows how long, but that first day, it's like there really is people in America that care.

And to bank back on your first question that you asked at the start of the interview, that's all I needed to see was hope. And that's all these other people need to see. It's just one kid carrying a flag. That's all it takes to reignite the American spirit in an entire country with 350 million people. So you said, I got honked at it. I'm going to run again. I'm going to keep running, baby.

And it's almost a challenge. I mean, I'm a ginger like you. Yes, sir. Not many people kind of hawk at us. Sure. About that stroke your ego. A little bit. Yeah, yeah.

I would be lying if I said not. You're a great-looking kid. Thank you, sir. But the point is, you got response. Yes, sir. And it really wasn't the social media stuff. It was just the interaction of people encouraging you. And that was the gap.

Everything was social media before I told you I was screw on my phone. And that was the connection. Exactly right. And that's what we fight for for Unify USA. say is human connection and foundation. There are patriots everywhere in America. They're just disconnected. They're isolated.

And we just try and be the middleman. We try to connect people. Okay, so two months of running around by yourself in Tampa with a flag. And it built a lot of hype. Inspired by honks. Yes, sir. And hoots and hollers and waves and smiles. And all that.

Yes, sir. Right. You say, okay, if y'all really want to run with me with a flag, you posted, I'm going to be starting here. Y'all can. Yes. Sure. And man, what a success. Well, two people showed up the first time.

Two people showed up the first time. And Saul and in Charlotte. Very sweet. And it was a lady named Miss Sandy, too. She did a little bit of running, but she had to go early. I was expecting so much out of it. I wore my get-up, like my American flag, shorts like a Paula Creed wears. Eat up, ready to go. Two people showed up. And Soln actually showed up. So I ran with Miss Sandy for probably a half a mile. And then I see a kid running into- She didn't show up with a flag, right? She did it. She just showed up. She showed up to support.

My name's Sandy. Sandy, so sweet. We were just chatting it out back and forth, and I see, he's Moroccan. I see a Moroccan man running with an American flag draped around his shoulders, like fighters do when they're walking out to the cage. And I'm like, holy crick, Sandy, look. I said, let's ask him if he can run with us. He goes, Tegan, my brother, can I run with you?

And I was like, no way. He's, hell you. He's Moroccan. He's one of the most patriotic dudes I've ever met, though. So inspiring. And I'm like, oh, my God. And then we keep running, and then I met with a lady. I actually got a call from Instagram, and it was Charlotte.

She goes, hey, I'm at the pirate ship. Can I come join you? She didn't have an American flag either, but we ran all around Tampa. We ought to ran like eight miles together. And I'm like, holy cr- So people started jumping on as you were going. So quite literally the story of Forrest Gump. That's like Rocky, too.

It's Rocky, too. That's exactly right. So it's like, those were my two favorite movies growing up, the Rocky series and then Forrest Gump. I'm not joking. So to have that happen in real time, See, now, at this point, I didn't know that it was fixing to blow up. Like, I wasn't like, oh, we're going to throw 100 plus...

What's the Moroccan guy's name? I'm sorry. His name's Sultan. S-U-L-T-A-N. Sultan? Sultan. You can't even make this up. You can't.

Sultan, the Moroccan American Flag Patriot. Yeah. In Tampa, Florida. I think he's on an O-1B-V-A to go to UT, too. That's? Okay. He's pretty gangster. Do you still hang out?

Do you still know him? I don't have Ms. Sandy's contact. If you're seeing this, please reach out. But I do have Salton's and I do have Charlottes. I talk to them very often. Insane. All right. So that kind of sets up the first couple of months, which is this.

We're only year into this thing. But that crazy kids doing crazy things. That's right. And then Koss, you decided you wanted to join your brother and kind of help turn this momentum of whatever this was into, I guess, a movement. Yeah. What did you see looking from the outside looking in at your nutty brother run around that maybe your brother in the throes of actually running maybe didn't see from a high

altitude view? I think Teague's always been this crazy guy since he was a kid, right? We always knew he was destined for something weird. And I thought it was cool when he said, I know it sounds funny, but it's true. You ask my parents, it's the same thing. We go, I don't know, is he going to be an actor or something? Like, I just don't see T working in the cubicle. You know what I'm saying?

And he started doing this, and I was like, oh, my gosh, this is it. This makes complete sense for him. But then I started thinking as I... What were you doing at the time? I owned a peptide company and ran a gym. Okay. So I wasn't completely happy with that. It was just what I was doing in my entrepreneur journey.

It was making me good money. You forgot to say you were a college drive. I am a college dropout too. But that sense of purpose wasn't in me. Like I wasn't helping people. So I saw Teague running with the flag from the outside and these people joining him and the honks and the conversations he was having with people and how it was changing their hearts and they're being better servants of their community or better members of their family. And I was like, there's something happening here. But what I didn't want to happen was just for Teague to be an influencer. And we had some conversations and I talked to Teague and I was like,

like how are we going to help more people? What can we do in order to make this be something huge? And not just you're an influencer on social media because I feel like that's a problem that we've gotten these days. We just look up to these influential figures on social media. So I said, why don't we start something, which I didn't even know what it was. And I remember laying in bed at night and thinking of his saying, you know, this is day blank of running with the American flag to unify the American people. And I was like, well, that kind of sounds good. And I was like, then I came up with Unify USA. So I come to them the next day and I'm like, we should start a movement behind this. And I don't know what that looks like, but I think we could make these

events that you've been doing even bigger. I think we could get people wearing that stuff around the country because oddly enough, when people see us wearing these shirts in Publix or Walmart, they go, what is that? And that's when I knew I was like, dang, we did something good because just our company name is getting people to ask questions. And we say all the time that conversations and dialogue in this country is what will fix the country and then being able to agree to disagree. And if we can open up people to having dialogue with just our company name, I was like, we did something crazy here. So then I started posting, he started posting, we started Unify USA and these events started happening. They started blown up. And it's just weird because

we can't put a finger on why it happened. We just worked hard. And yeah, it's just wild. So now you've decided to start going to cities to do this and motivate people to run you. learn with you. 600 people showed up to run with American flags through Central Park the day after America turned 250 years old. Tell me about that. And tell me about how the Marines showed up and how they, I mean, that's weird too. Tell us that story.

So, I mean, funny enough. Because this is proof positive that your brother laying around on the bed of a pickup truck like Bill Clinton, who picks up a flag one day and takes a run, has actually now become a real-life movement. Yes, sir. And it's crazy because New York City wasn't actually a planned event. We actually were going to go up to see the U.S. Arlington, and we had a couple of plans to, you know, do some separate things in New York City. Those plans ended up not going through the way we thought they were going to.

And we already had flights bought, hotels booked, everything like that. So on 10 days notice, we decided to say we're going to do a Central Park New York City run. I was like T, start throwing it up on social media. I'll start posting about it. Unify starts posting about it. We had a couple of videos go viral about the event. And we saw RSVP start ringing through. Now, we had no plan for this.

So we literally made flags in New York City with Patriot producer John, which is a guy that runs with a flag in New York City. That's his whole gig on social media. He's the only other one that runs every single day like I do. So he invited us to his home. We built, how many flags, 300? flags in his garage the night before. And then we put a table in the middle of Central Park.

And we actually did end up going to the U.S. Arlington and talking to, you know, Marines and everything like that on the U.S. Arlington. And we talked about doing this run. And they're like, I think we can get guys out there to take part in this. And we didn't know to what level that would be. And they show up full on with flag bearers in formation ready to go. And we were like, oh my gosh, this is crazy. Now, we have people showing up two hours early.

really to the event when we're setting up the table. And all of a sudden, Teague and I are standing on top of this rock, and we look down and there's 600 people. We didn't even know that this was going to happen. Like, it was just crazy. I can't, it's so, I still can't wrap my head around how many people showed up. We'll be right back. The long loading times.

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I survived, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are the Survivor Files. I just remember this low, taunting voice next to my ear saying, shut up, don't say anything. Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable. I knew if he woke up, without a doubt, he was going to hurt me. I started feeling that there was someone at the end of my bed, and I just started screaming. They are abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. but these aren't stories about what's taken from them.

There's stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to the Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, it's Alec Baldwin. This season on my podcast, here's the thing I'm speaking with more artists, policymakers, and performers like actor Stephen Root. I think for me to be any good or for any character act to be any good, you've got to put enough of yourself and your empathy for people in it.

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host of that rock solid podcast. And each week, we bring in you exclusive looks inside music, Everything happening inside the culture. Some of the best conversations were the biggest names in the game. You had a little bit more pressure to be good. And they didn't care if you was a girl. Like, you wasn't getting no points because you were the girl. If you're not trash, you better be not just good.

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So it's always a mystique and mysteriousness behind them, but it ain't like you don't see him. Listen to Rock Solid on Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you string podcast. My name is Josie Duffy Rice. I'm a journalist who covers the criminal legal system, and over my career, I've heard a count after account of prosecutorial misconduct, story after story of injustice. But I've never heard a story quite like this. The more I kept reading that stuff, I thought, man, there's more red flags

that just kept coming up over and over. We'll hypnotize him to strengthen that memory. So he went into a good France. I really didn't believe any of it was real. And I was like, well, they're going to figure out this is not me. They're going to do their police job. Listen to Examine the Backfire Effect on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And I remember we were actually jogging and the Marines look at me and they go, let us know when we can start, you know, our march.

And I was like, okay, go ahead and start. Well, we usually do a mile walk in the beginning. beginning, they started running. Yeah, these are Marines. They're going. Cadden's. Next, motivator, want you. Come on.

I bet they ain't got. They were ready to go. No, no, sir. And I was like, T, you need to go run with the Marines because all the people were expecting to walk. So I remember running backwards in this crowd in Central Park with our videographer, Kyle, and he was filming with me. I just kept running.

And there was more flags and more flags and more flags. I couldn't get to the end of it. And I was like, what the heck is gone? the way till I made it back to the place and there were still people funneling onto the sidewalk. Now, it was 600 people that we originally saw in the crowd and there kept being people that jumped in and I don't know where all these flags came from or anything like that. We have Marines running ahead and it was just so surreal because I was like on 10 days notice and arguably the most controversial city in the internet right now. Especially right now. 100%. After America's 250th birthday,

we put something on 10 days notice and have the big. biggest turnout we've had for Unify USA. The biggest flag run in American history. Yeah. Where did y'all run? Through Central Park. We did a perfect circle, three miles. Unbelievable.

And we had one person even say anything, and then the cop escort kind of just told him to piss off from there anymore. But you would think that there would be anti-protests. There would be people trying to jump in and like freaking truck us out of the formation or whatever, nothing. cheering, people recording, news headlines, like it was supportive. That's interesting that you said that because I've been wondering and now it's a good segue to it. How in God's name in our country, the Stars and Stripes could be controversial.

That in and of itself makes me crazy. But unfortunately, in some corners it can. I want to give you guys an opportunity now to speak to, this is not some Christian conservative movement. In fact, it's decidedly anti-political, anti-anything only pro our country, regardless of who you vote for, who you love, who you worship, or what skin color is.

I think that's a real. real important part to understand that patriots and people who love our country come in all kinds of different shapes, forms, and sizes, and you guys welcome all comers. Yes, sir. Talk about that. I think that's beautifully put, brother, and I completely agree. And the tough part is, is everybody that does have this opportunity always makes it about themselves.

So I am a Christian myself. I'm a follower of Jesus Christ, but that doesn't mean that I shut down other. religions. I may have my own political beliefs or whatever it is, but we believe that it's not only great to talk about it, but it's great to have like good middle ground, you know, because not everybody's going to see things high to eye. Now everybody's going to see things on the same level. Our event, specifically, we try to keep politics out of it in whole, but when it comes to it, we're all Americans. And sometimes people just have a hard time seeing that because they see all the division in the polarity on the internet, we welcome everybody.

As long as they show the person to the left and the person to the right, the same exact respect that they're given, we welcome absolutely everybody to Unify USA. And we think that's what it means to be a patriot within this country. It's to understand that America is the greatest and it is diverse.

But we welcome everybody and we all carry the same flag, the stars and stripes. Now, if you hate the stars and stripes, it's a completely different story, but we're just trying to show people that they're patriots in this country that care. I think one thing our father always told us was to look at where somebody comes from. And Americans come from all different walks of life, right?

From poor to rich, from happy to sad, from nice homes to bad homes. And a lot of times people will judge somebody at face value because of the things that they say, but never backtrack the reason they feel that. And that's actually something great that I saw from the documentary. Is these kids from a walk of life where they didn't have an opportunity to do things that they, maybe some other people had. But due to those circumstances, they still found a way to fight through it with a good role model. And that's what I kind of try to be to these people in America. And Teague tries to be these people in America is a role model that no matter where

you come from, you still have the opportunity to do something great. And that doesn't matter what you look like, what you believe, you know, what circumstances you've been dealt. There's always an opportunity in the American dream in order to go and achieve the things you want to. And I hope we can be the voice and the leaders so they can feel that too. For those listening to us, what do you think people, both of you, you first and then cost, you first take you in the cost. What do you think people that are listening to us that are inspired by your story, they're inspired by all of our stories, really, what do you think they need to hear about

the importance of service? The importance of service to who, our country? Service to your community, your country, your fellow man, whatever level of service you're engaged in. Yes, sir. That's a great question. I think that I do think personal excellence is the ultimate form of service. There's an analogy and it says to pour into others' cup, to pour into someone else's cup, you need to make sure yours is full first. So if you aren't taking the time to prioritize your mental well-being, your physical fitness, your spiritual journey, whatever that may look like, can have a fulfilling life and be fruitful, how do you expect to multiply? How do you expect to put your, which you've created into other people's lives? I think of it like stoking a fire. I wake up every

single day and I try to stoke my own fire, not so that I have a big campfire, but so I have more warmth for more people to gather around. Because as a man, I try and provide, I try and provide an ecosystem for people. So it's like a lot of people look at it as selfish, but the more of a competent man that I become, the more people that I can help and the more people I can serve. So it's like, I see competency through my physical fitness. The farther I can run, the more high-fives I can give. The more God blesses I can give. The more mentally sharp I am, the more I can come on a podcast like this and try and use my intellect to be able to give my perspective to other people. The more spiritually connected I am, the more I can help other people

by sharing my testimony and helping them stay connected through Christ. So it's like, sharpening my own sword sharpens other people's iron sharpens iron as one man sharpens another but if you have a dull blade how do you expect to sharpen someone else's so i believe ultimately that personal excellence looking inwards and as a man being self-accountable and saying hey listen i've got some things i've got i've got to cross my tees and and check my or whatever the saying is you know got your eyes yeah that one you do that as a man and then you can start pouring into other people that's very cool so take care of yourself so you can serve others yes sir what about you guys i i i 100% agree with that is the first thing i want to say but secondly i think people think you have to join

the military to serve your country and i think people on social media are trying to fix the biggest issues in the country change the president change this policy you know if you started serving your own community you'd actually see a change in the things around you and i believe that service to our country as well. So that's why in our app that we're launching, we're going to do one random daily tasks that you can do to serve your community that day. So talk to a stranger, you know, give somebody a high five, something as simple as that. Start changing the climate around you before you start trying to change all of the big crazy policies and the presidents because you have to fix things internally, even when that comes to yourself, think of internally as community. And then once

your community feels good, you could probably make a bigger impact. And imagine if every community in the country started doing things every day to benefit the country. Yeah, imagine if we had an army of normal folks serving where they can, how they can. An army of unified people and normal folks. Well, that's on the money. And as we say always, politics is downstream of culture. If you can wake up and go put five smiles on someone's face today in Memphis, Tennessee, you'll probably change the atmosphere very slowly, but the ecosystem will start to become positive.

And then you have more of a unified Memphis. Guys, thanks so much for coming and sharing your story. Everybody, Teague and Koss McCoy, co-founders of Unify USA from Tampa Bay, coming to a state near you soon and go to what handle to find everything out about it? UnifyUSA official.com or UnifyUSA official on Instagram, UnifyUSA on TikTok. I'm sure if you look up UnifyUSA, you'll see our faces. And maybe you'll see a crazy, goofy guy with a flag across his shoulder running through your neighborhood one day. I hope so. Godspeed, guys. Keep up the good work.

Yes, sir. Thank you. And thank you for joining us this week. If the McCoy brothers have inspired you in general, or better yet, to take action by joining the Unify USAMovement at UnifyUSAOfficial.com, bringing unity and patriotism to your own community or something else entirely, let me know. You can write me anytime at bill at normalfolks.org. If you enjoyed this episode, please, please share it with friends and on social, subscribe to the podcast wherever you're watching or listening to it. Rate it, review it. Join the army at normalfolks.org. Join or start one of our local service clubs. Take the 10-level challenge and buy our birch, any and all of these things

that will help us grow an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney. Until next time, do it you can. We've all heard the phrase all things in moderation, but that's clearly not us. That's why we're celebrating 300 episodes of That's Messed up, our Law & Order SVU podcast, where we cover the real crimes behind the stories

and interview actors from the show. We're doing it big for the 300th episode. We've got Icon, heartthrob, and SVU guest star John Stamos, and we're best friends now. In waiting for Guffman, Chris... Are you serious? It's like her favorite movie. That's like my favorite movie of all the time.

I've seen it like 150 times. Me too. Oh my God. New episodes of That's Messed Up, drop Tuesdays. Listen to That's Messed Up on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On Big Lives, we take a single cultural icon.

People like Jane Fonda, George Michael, Little Richard. And we pull apart the story behind the image. Discovering forgotten interviews that changed exactly how we see these giants of our culture. We're here for the messy, the brilliant, the human version of our heroes. I'm Emmanuel Jochi. I'm Kai Wright. And this is Big Lives. Listen to Big Lives on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

In February of 2024, celebrated illustrator and children's book author, Petram Athers, and her husband Michael, mailed letters to dozens of friends and family members to let them know they had died by suicide. Dear honies, this is goodbye. By the time you get this letter, both Petra, and I will be dead. Next stop, Wonderland. Why did they do it? And what did it do to the people they left behind? Listen to Death of an Artist on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome aboard Season 6 of The Girlfriends, Flight or Fight, which takes place 30,000 feet in the sky. A beautiful woman smiles and hands you a scotch. But you have no idea just how messed up her job actually. is. It was the most sexist job I think you could have. Until one day, a group of stewardesses spark a revolution that reshapes America. Listen to The Girlfriends, Flight or Fight, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In 1986, a man named Scott Macklam was killed in broad daylight. Police quickly found their suspect. Prosecutors convicted him. But now, almost 40 years later, I'm re-examining this case.

I really didn't believe any of it was real. And I was like, well, they're going to figure out this is not me. They're going to do their police job. Has the wrong man been in prison this whole time? Listen to examined the backfire effect on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.