Join the McCain Institute for this special Veterans Day edition of its book talk series on Tuesday, November 10, 2026. This event will feature Marine Corps veterans Rye Barcott, Co-Founder and CEO of With Honor, and McCain Institute MGL Council Member and Arizona Board of Regents Member Jim McCain. They will discuss their own paths through military service, what Veterans Day means to them, and the responsibility veterans carry to keep serving after they leave the uniform. Drawing on Barcott’s latest book and his work leading With Honor, the conversation will explore how the courage and sense of shared purpose forged in uniform can strengthen American democracy, and why putting service before self matters more than ever in a divided country.
Rye Barcott is a Marine Corps veteran, social entrepreneur, investor, and New York Times-bestselling author of Courage Can Save US. He is co-founder and CEO of With Honor, a cross-partisan organization that fights polarization by supporting principled veteran leadership in public office. As a college student, he co-founded CFK Africa, a locally led youth leadership and public health organization in Nairobi, Kenya. He later co-founded Double Time Capital, a solar power investment firm. His first book, It Happened on the Way to War: A Marine’s Path to Peace, juxtaposes humanitarian and military service. Dartmouth College awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters.
Authors & Insights: Rye Barcott
Through this event series, the McCain Institute hopes to engage the American people in a dialogue that affirms the importance of character-driven leadership and America’s leadership in the international community. The McCain Institute’s Authors & Insights series features interviews with authors of books on American politics, policy, and leadership that affirm the importance of character-driven leadership and America’s role in the world.
Previous authors have included USA Today’s Susan Page, former U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander, former U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright, journalist Anne Applebaum, former U.S. Secretary of Defense Dr. Mark Esper, CBS News’ Major Garrett and elections expert David Becker, former World Food Programme Executive Director Amb. Cindy McCain, CNN’s Jake Tapper, former POLITICO National Security Reporter Alex Ward, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, and more.
The McCain Institute is grateful to the Merrill Family Foundation for the generous support of the Authors & Insights series.