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Hey everyone, it's Adam Grant. Welcome back to Rethinking, my podcast on the Science

of What Makes Us Tick. I'm an organizational psychologist and I'm taking you inside the

minds of fascinating people to explore new thoughts and new ways of thinking.

My guest today is Admiral Linda Fagan, the common-dunt of the US Coast Guard. In 2022,

she became the first woman ever to lead any branch of the US military.

Overseeing a workforce of 79,000 people, she hasn't wasted any time rethinking outdated

policies and challenging the military to embrace practices like flexible work and parental

leave. She's also won more awards and medals than I can count, including for her Arctic

and Antarctic service. More on that later. In the meantime, serving the Coast Guard hasn't

just been her life's work. It's also sort of the family business. Her younger daughter

graduated from the Coast Guard Academy and serves as a lieutenant.

Admiral Fagan, welcome to Rethinking. Thank you, thanks for a village to be here with you.

Well, we'll find out if that's true or not. I'm a little disappointed that you beat me

here because you have a much bigger and busier job than I do.

Well, I have a good staff that makes sure that they keep me on track and on time.

I definitely respect that. I'll just say for my part as a stand-in for our listeners,

I know the original Coast Guard traces back to Alexander Hamilton. I think late 1700s,

if I remember correctly, I know much less about what you do today and I'm probably not

alone and wondering, like in the 21st century, why do we need to guard our coast?

So a confusion point for some people is, is the Coast Guard a military service? Yes.

We are first and foremost a military service. We reside in the Department of Homeland Security

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