On this episode of Ruck The Way, Gabe Smith unpacks the heavy thread of responsibility that has shaped his life—from a childhood trauma that left him frozen in shame to a celebrated capacity for compartmentalization in the military. Gabe shares how carrying others’ pain became his default, and how a pivotal moment in South Africa invited him to finally tell his own story. This is a deeply human conversation about what we carry, why we tuck things away, and how story work can bring freedom, repair identity, and invite us into a more alive way of being.
