It was a point of pride for Cory Brown’s unit: Despite their dangerous mission providing convoy security along the highways of northern Iraq, all of the nearly 200 soldiers survived the war. Then they got home. Since 2008, when his cavalry regiment returned to the US, more than 20 of the soldiers have died, most apparently by suicide. That includes Brown’s closest Army friend, Kevin Zachary, who lost his life to suicide in 2019. “When you look back and start piecing things together, he had a lot of medical bills, he was having trouble with the bank and housing, his job and the relationships that he had,” Brown says. “All these things had hit him, and he wasn’t talking to us about them, or at least he wasn’t telling anybody all of it.” Zachary’s death was devastating for Brown, who had been hit by an IED in Iraq, suffered a traumatic brain injury, and struggled with his own reentry. He got divorced, had trouble finding the motivation to work, and dealt with suicidal thoughts himself. “I thought I would be more adjusted, but life has a way of showing you that you don’t know what you’re talking about,” says Brown, who grew up in Alabama and today lives in Nokesville, Virginia. Before shipping off, Brown had attended graduate school in political management at George Washington University, and when he got back, after a rough period in Alabama, he moved to the Washington area and worked as a campaign consultant and pollster. But after his friend’s death, he searched for opportunities to help struggling veterans talk more openly about—and seek help for—their mental health. That’s why last year Brown debuted Eat Your Feelings, an online cooking show that incorporates honest discussions about grief, loneliness, and stress. Brown hosts the show with Sam Nathews, a beverage lobbyist who grew up in the next town over from Brown’s in Alabama—though the two never met until they were on a panel together in DC a decade ago. Cooking, it turned out, was the perfect way for the two friends to talk about intense subjects while keeping the conversation lively. “We’ll be laughing one minute, we’ll be crying the next minute, and then setting off the fire alarm the next minute,” Nathews says. Both have been into cooking for years. Brown’s fondest childhood memories are of big country breakfasts his grandmother made, and Nathews’s father owned a barbecue trailer that served a famous jambalaya, which the pair try to recreate in one episode while also talking about the loss of parents and friends. Though it deals with heavy subject matter, Eat Your Feelings—nine more episodes are coming to YouTube soon—is casual and unscripted. Nathews joshes with Brown and makes off-color jokes, filling up the show’s virtual “swear jar.” But both have also cried on camera. “The cooking can be fun and the comedy can be funny,” Brown says, “but at the end of the day, it’s got to be about that stuff that nobody wants to talk about.” This article appears in the March 2026 issue of Washingtonian.The post An Iraq Veteran’s Cooking Show Mixes Food and Feelings first appeared on Washingtonian. ...read more read less