By: Ali Elizabeth Turner
Mike Rowe made hard and dirty work cool again when he started the enormously popular show, Dirty Jobs. The concept was simple—stuff needed to be done/fixed/built/restored/ redeemed, and he proved that you could have fun even when it wasn’t fun. This led to other shows, including Somebody’s Gotta Do It, numbers of jobs on the History Channel, Discovery Channel, People You Should Know, his own podcast, and more. He is described as being a “trades activist,” meaning that he firmly believes that some of the physical and spiritual disrepair we find in the infrastructure of America could be remedied if the trades were returned to their rightful place of respect in our culture.
To that end, Mike has teamed up to help veterans and first responders regain their footing through forging… literally. Through his organization, mikeroweWORKS, along with other initiatives, Mike is working with Black Horse Forge, which teaches the nearly lost art of blacksmithing. Black Horse has found that vets and responders who are struggling are impacted in a powerful way by learning how to do something hard, beautiful, dangerous, skilled, artistic, and perhaps most importantly, visible. And, the work of Black Horse Forge also powerfully illustrates the positive impact of community.
When people are dealing with trauma, there is certainly a great deal of hard work that needs to be done on the inside. However, vets in particular can be totally turned off by some of the “therapeutic approaches” that have been used in the past, and they often don’t want to talk about it. However, bring in something to heat up, pound out, and physically shape, and good instructors along with fellow travelers learning the skill, and you have something that is literally digging new grooves in their brain matter and teaching old dogs some new neuroplastic tricks. Black Horse Forge has been featured on Mike’s show, Returning The Favor, and there is nothing like watching worthy organizations receiving much needed cash so that they can continue their mission. With respect to Black Horse, there have been zero suicides reported amongst their ranks, and their deeply held belief is that all of the aforementioned components “forge” into something tangible and powerful when it comes to meeting the needs of those who have put themselves in harm’s way for us.
Black Horse Forge also makes apprenticing possible through scholarships for those vets who want to go on and make blacksmithing and knife making their career.
Recently, Rowe became a spokesman for Pure Talk, a cell phone company that has a focus on strengthening vets and first responders. Pure Talk is also committed to causes, companies, and investments that reflect the values of most Americans, and has a desire to be excellent in every regard. Pure Talk is also supporting Black Horse Forge and other trades-based organizations to help rebuild people, the culture, economy, and our communities. For more information on how you can either participate, benefit, or both, please go to mikeroweWORKS foundation and let your heart get “fired up, pounded out, and made beautiful.”
By: Ali Elizabeth Turner
June 20, 2025
