Miss Understood with Rachel Uchitel

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In 1995, twenty-year-old Navy SEAL Dusty Turner watched the man he trusted most — his SEAL Team “swim buddy” — murder a young woman in the back seat of his car. What followed was 31 years in a Virginia prison for a crime Turner didn’t commit: two trials, an 82-year sentence, a 2008 ruling that called him “actually innocent” (the first of its kind in Virginia history), and a Virginia Supreme Court reversal that sent him back to prison for 18 more years on what he calls a legal technicality.

Paroled in March 2026, Turner sits down with Rachel Uchitel for his first extended interview since walking free — the SEAL “code” that kept him silent for a week, the polygraph strategy he used so the truth could surface without him breaking that code, what three decades inside 13 different facilities does to a person, and why he’s still fighting for full exoneration while living under sex-offender-registry restrictions for a crime he was never charged with.

In this episode:
• The night of June 18, 1995, and how it unraveled in under two minutes
• Why Turner didn’t go to police — and the polygraph gambit he used instead
• Learning years later that Billy Brown had confessed to the murder
• Being ruled “actually innocent” in 2008 — and losing it again in 2011
• Training rescue dogs and growing an apple tree from a windowsill in solitary
• Walking out of prison after 31 years, and what “paroled, not pardoned” really means
• His new work with Veterans Healing Veterans, helping other wrongfully convicted vets

Learn more and support Dusty’s fight for exoneration: https://www.freedusty.com/

Veterans Healing Veterans from the Inside Out: https://veteranshealingveterans.com/index.html

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⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow Rachel on Instagram!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.instagram.com/racheluchitelnyc/?hl=en
Follow Rachel on TikTok! https://www.tiktok.com/@itsracheluchitel
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Executive Producer: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠George Carmona
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To the world, Victor “Little Vic” Orena became known as a powerful figure in New York’s Colombo crime family. To Jackie Orena, he was simply her grandfather.

Jackie joins Rachel for a deeply personal conversation about growing up with the Orena name, the moment she realized her family wasn’t like everyone else’s, and why she has dedicated herself to fighting for her grandfather after more than three decades behind bars.

Now elderly and suffering from serious health problems, Orena remains incarcerated—and Jackie is asking a difficult question: At what point should punishment give way to compassion?

Rachel doesn’t shy away from the other side of the story. She challenges Jackie on her grandfather’s conviction, the victims connected to the case, whether Jackie is arguing for his innocence or simply asking for mercy, and how she responds to people who believe she was too young to understand the man her grandfather was accused of being.

Jackie also reveals what she would say if she had five minutes with President Trump, why every rejection has made her fight harder, and whether her advocacy will continue even after her grandfather is gone.

This isn't just a conversation about organized crime. It's about what happens when the person the world knows from headlines is the person you simply know as family.
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PLEASE LIKE, SHARE, SUBSCRIBE, AND GIVE US A 5-STAR REVIEW!: ratethispodcast.com/missunderstood
⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow Rachel on Instagram!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.instagram.com/racheluchitelnyc/?hl=en
Follow Rachel on TikTok! https://www.tiktok.com/@itsracheluchitel
Email us pr@missumedia.com
Executive Producer: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠George Carmona
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com
for information about our collection and use of personal data for
advertising.

With Lee Asher back in the news following the recent attention surrounding Velveteen, I wanted to bring back one of my favorite interviews.

For those who aren’t familiar with him, Lee is the founder of The Asher House and one of the most influential voices in animal rescue today. Nearly 3 million people follow his work across Instagram and YouTube as he documents the realities of rescuing animals and running a sanctuary.

Years ago, I interviewed Lee for Miss Understood. At the time, we released the conversation in two separate episodes. We’ve never published it as one complete interview—until now.

The interview was recorded well before the recent Velveteen story, so it isn’t about the current headlines. This is a candid conversation about Lee’s childhood, how he built The Asher House, why he devoted his life to rescue, and what it’s really like caring for so many animals every day.

One of the most fascinating parts of our conversation is Lee’s honest perspective on running an animal sanctuary. The biggest challenge often isn’t the animals—it’s the people. We talk about the emotional toll, public expectations, criticism, and the realities of rescue work that most people never see.

Whether you’ve followed Lee for years or you’ve only recently discovered him because of the Velveteen story, this is the full interview you’ve never heard in one place. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com
for information about our collection and use of personal data for
advertising.

Why do so many men struggle to open up? Why do relationships break down even when both people care? And what does "manning up" actually mean today?

Rachel sits down with therapist and Rugged Counseling founder Trey Tucker for one of the most honest conversations we've had about masculinity, rejection, anxiety, childhood trauma, and why so many men quietly carry emotional burdens they never talk about.

Together they explore how our earliest experiences shape who we become, why rejection affects us more than we realize, the differences between how men and women process emotions, and the misconceptions both sides have about each other.

Whether you're trying to better understand yourself, your partner, your son, or the men in your life, this conversation challenges conventional thinking while offering practical insight into what healthy masculinity really looks like.

In this episode:

Why rejection hurts more than we realize
The childhood experiences that shape adult relationships
Why many men shut down emotionally
What anxiety is actually trying to tell you
Therapy, EMDR & modern mental health
What "manning up" really means
Why women often misunderstand men's emotional responses
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PLEASE LIKE, SHARE, SUBSCRIBE, AND GIVE US A 5-STAR REVIEW!: ratethispodcast.com/missunderstood
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Shop Miss Understood Merch https://missumerch.com/
⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow Rachel on Instagram!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.instagram.com/racheluchitelnyc/?hl=en
Follow Rachel on TikTok! https://www.tiktok.com/@itsracheluchitel
Email us infomissunderstoodpodcast@gmail.com
Executive Producer: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠George Carmona
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com
for information about our collection and use of personal data for
advertising.

What if high school wasn't about preparing students for a job—but teaching them how to build a business instead?

Rachel sits down with Nat Eliason, co-founder of Founders School, an innovative high school redefining what education can look like in the age of AI.

For $150,000 per year, students spend their mornings learning through AI-powered instruction and their afternoons building real businesses alongside experienced entrepreneurs. The boldest promise? If students don't generate $1 million in gross profit by graduation, Founders School refunds their tuition.

Rachel and Nat discuss:

Why Founders School has no traditional teachers
How AI is changing education
Why students spend most of their day building businesses
The admissions process and why families are turned away
The $1 million guarantee explained
Whether college is still necessary
What skills today's kids actually need to succeed

Whether you think it's the future of education or one of the boldest experiments ever attempted, this conversation will challenge the way you think about school, entrepreneurship, and preparing the next generation.

Founders School Website: https://founders.school/
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PLEASE LIKE, SHARE, SUBSCRIBE, AND GIVE US A 5-STAR REVIEW!: ratethispodcast.com/missunderstood
Become a Patreon Member: https://www.patreon.com/c/MissUnderstoodwithRachelUchitel
Shop Miss Understood Merch https://missumerch.com/
⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow Rachel on Instagram!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://www.instagram.com/racheluchitelnyc/?hl=en
Follow Rachel on TikTok! https://www.tiktok.com/@itsracheluchitel
Email us infomissunderstoodpodcast@gmail.com
Executive Producer: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠George Carmona Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com
for information about our collection and use of personal data for
advertising.