S6 Ep9 Denis Leary on Residue, Six Years On
From Teamcast by Mission Critical Team Institute
May 4, 2026 · 57 min · Season 6 · Episode 10
About this episode
Denis Leary joins Preston to discuss the concept of psychological residue and its implications for mission critical operators, reflecting on their first conversation six years ago.
Six years ago this week, on May 7, 2020, we released our first Teamcast on Residue . In that episode, Preston shared a conversation with Coleman Ruiz on the psychological and emotional substance left behind after choosing the hard path. The episode, and the paper that grew out of it , traveled further than we expected. Eight operators have since told us that paper is the reason they are still here. In 2018, at a Wounded Warriors event in Alexandria, Tom Hardy introduced the idea of Residue to Preston. Preston then turned to FDNY Chief David Morkal, who pointed him toward Denis Leary. Denis's response became an essential part of MCTI's paper. Six years later, this is the first time Preston and Denis have actually talked in person. They get into what method actors and mission critical operators share, the difference between trauma and burden, dark humor as survival, the Clark Kent–at-the-barbecue experience, and why music does the work that nothing else quite does, as evidenced by Denis singing in the car on the way to the recording. Denis's response to our Monday morning question is in there, too. If this conversation is useful, the best way to support our work is to subscribe and…
People in this episode
Host: Preston
Guest: Denis Leary
Topics covered
- psychological residue
- trauma
- dark humor
- method acting
- music therapy
- mission critical operators
Keywords
- residue
- psychological
- trauma
- dark humor
- mission critical
- Denis Leary
- Preston
- music
- method acting
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: MCTI
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