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Hosted by Andy Stumpf · EN
It is safe to say that I have wandered a bit. I served in the military, flew some jets, jumped out of most, climbed mountains (I jumped off of them too), taught fitness, owned a gym, and have spent the last few years speaking to organizations and leaders. It has been a journey, and in all honesty, I have no idea where it is going. I seek the things that make me uncomfortable. I move towards things that scare me. I think you should too
203episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
The CIA Tried to Bury It | Rachel Cuda | Ep. 451
2d ago02:37:22Summary readyRachel Cuda grew up the daughter of a Navy SEAL, raised on Coronado around the teams. She speaks Russian, Ukrainian, and German. She studied at the University of Tennessee, earned a master's from Georgetown, and wrote software at a startup before moving into defense contracting. At the Pentagon she led the data modeling and analytics line for the military's COVID task force. She married a SEAL officer whose grandfather gave the CIA thirty years as a case officer. In February 2022, Rachel Cuda joined the agency's Directorate of Operations. It was the job she'd wanted her whole life. Two weeks after she started, Russia invaded Ukraine, and her languages put her in the middle of it. Six months in, a colleague strangled her with a scarf in a stairwell at headquarters. Then the agency went to work on her. They told her she couldn't go to the police. They told her she couldn't tell her husband. They warned her that reporting it could put her in prison. So she went to Congress instead. We get into the assault, the run-around, the predators the agency shielded for years, and how one trainee forced the CIA to rewrite its laws in eleven months. Today's Sponsors: Montana Knife Company: https://www.montanaknifecompany.com Brunt: Get $10 Off at BRUNT with code "Clearedhot" at https://www.bruntworkwear.com/clearedhot
SummaryDon't Live in the Rabbit Hole | Full Auto Friday | 5.29.2026
5d ago01:03:20Summary readyTwo questions this week, plus a video I've been asked about more than anything in recent memory. I break down the paraglider that got hit by a plane and why this stuff almost always lands on pilot error. I answer a man rehabbing from a spinal tumor who can't run, swim, or ruck anymore and is staring down a third surgery. I tell him about my own injuries, the rabbit holes I went down, and what actually got me out. I tell the story of waking up from emergency surgery, sneezing, and being sure no one recovers from this. They put your intestines back by shoving them in. Walking to the end of the block was the whole goal. And I answer a Marine on hazing. What's training and what's just a broken person dumping their baggage on you. Where the line is. Why drunk, angry, and violent isn't preparing anyone for anything. Today's Sponsors: David: David is offering our listeners a special deal: buy 4 cartons and get the 5th free when you go to https://www.davidprotein.com/CLEAREDHOT AG1: For a limited time only, go to https://www.drinkag1.com/clearedhot to get a FREE AG1 Flavor Sampler and AGZ Sampler to try all the flavors, plus FREE Vitamin D3+K2 and AG1 Welcome Kit with your first AG1 subscription order!
SummaryAre Police Academies Failing Cops? | Dennis Benigno | Ep. 450
1w ago02:28:16Summary readyDennis Benigno started in 2001 as a New Jersey corrections officer at nineteen. He moved to the U.S. Park Police in D.C., then to patrol in one of Jersey's largest municipalities. Over fourteen years he made more than 1,500 arrests and ran over 10,000 car stops. He had to self-train to survive the road. When he realized the academies weren't teaching cops what they needed, he started teaching it himself. That became Street Cop Training, one of the biggest police training companies in the country, with hundreds of thousands of officers behind it. He argues that 80% of line-of-duty deaths are training failures. Not bad luck. Failures you can trace back to the academy. We get into why the system box-checks instead of fixing the problem, and who benefits from keeping it that way. He breaks down the passenger-side approach, the traffic stop that ended with a cop executed on camera, and the constitutional gaps most officers never get taught. We also get into the political machine that came after him, what it cost, and who actually showed up when it did. Street Cop Training: https://streetcoptraining.com/?srsltid=AfmBOorcJeLaNQvrs9WJ1mgjCfFiYR0JPzLxm8nm6On3DGf8qO0mnWof Drownproof book and Conversation Starters: https://www.shop.clearedhotpodcast.com
SummaryRewiring the Brain After War | Jonathan Dickinson | Ep. 449
1w ago02:32:50Summary readyJonathan Dickinson is the co-founder and CEO of Ambio Life Sciences, one of the world's leading ibogaine clinics. He's spent more than fifteen years on this — apprenticing in Tijuana clinics, running the Global Ibogaine Therapy Alliance, and writing the field's first clinical safety guidelines. He's a Mexico-licensed psychologist. He holds the only active export license for iboga root and led the first Nagoya-compliant export out of Gabon, where he was initiated into two Bwiti traditions. His team co-authored the Stanford study in Nature Medicine on ibogaine and veteran traumatic brain injury. Ambio has now treated over 3,000 people. Most of what you think you know about ibogaine is probably wrong. It's not a high. It puts you flat on your back for twelve hours and asks for everything. It resets the body off opioids almost overnight. It seems to repair the brain in ways nobody fully understands yet — MS lesions shrinking, a guy walking in with a cane and leaving it behind. We get into the cardiac risk, the deaths, the Trump executive order, and why the science and the ceremony might not survive being pulled apart. And we talk about the part nobody wants to hear: the medicine doesn't do the work for you. Pick up Jonathan's Book here: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Ibogaine-and-the-Bicameral-Mind/Jonathan-Dickinson/9798888504680 Join the Cleared Hot Newsletter: https://www.clearedhotpodcast.com Today's Sponsors: Black Rifle Coffee: https://www.blackriflecoffee.com LMNT: https://www.drinklmnt.com/clearedhot
SummaryForeign Money, Dead Jets, and Criminal Monkeys | Negligent Discharge Friday | 5.22.2026
2w ago01:07:22Summary readyThomas Massie just got primaried out, and it cost the most money ever spent on a primary. $32.6 million in ad buys. A guy hand-picked by Trump comes out of nowhere and takes the seat. Massie voted with the administration 77% of the time. His sin was the Epstein files. So we get into it. We talk about getting that kind of money out of elections, and why the people who could fix it never will. We talk about AIPAC, foreign influence, and whether the question changes if you swap Israel for Egypt or China. Michael walks through where his generation is landing on all of it. Then it gets lighter. Two F-18s mate mid-air and four guys punch out. A man hops a fence at Denver International and walks onto an active runway. A tourist throws rocks at a seal in Hawaii and finds out. And we close on a criminal monkey gang in Bali running a sunglasses-for-snacks racket. Heavy up front. Stupid in the middle. Monkeys at the end. Join the Cleared Hot Newsletter: https://www.clearedhotpodcast.com Today's Sponsors: Firecracker Farm: https://www.firecracker.farm
SummaryFrom Ranger Battalion to the OR | Dr. Mike Simpson | Ep. 448
2w ago03:16:19Summary ready"Crike him." That's the call a tactical medic makes when a guy can't breathe and the clock is at zero. Mike Simpson is the doctor on the other end of that radio. He's a former 1st Ranger Battalion anti-tank section leader, a Special Forces engineer turned 18 Delta medic with 7th Group, and a board-certified ER physician who spent his last six years on active duty attached to JMAU providing trauma support to tier one units. He retired in 2016 after 32 years and now runs medical direction for Central Texas Regional SWAT while practicing urgent care. We got into the real mechanics of trauma care — what actually happens between the front door of an ER and the OR, why a hundred tourniquets on paper cuts beats one missed arterial bleed, and the brutal physics of wounds incompatible with life. He walked through his own prostate cancer diagnosis and what every man over 40 needs to know about PSA screening. We also got into his path from corrections officer to medical school, why he's writing fantasy novels now, and the conversation every operator avoids until it's too late — documenting injuries before you're out the door. Enjoy. Today's Sponsors: Montana Knife Company: https://www.montanaknifecompany.com Better Help: Sign up and get 10% off at https://wwww.BetterHelp.com/clearedhot
SummaryDon't Let Your Past Be Your Prison | Full Auto Friday | 5.15.026
3w ago01:00:41Summary readyA soon-to-be 40-year-old wants to face his fear of skydiving and use it to teach his anxious five-year-old that fear is normal but it doesn't get to run your life. I break down the difference between gambling and accepting calculated risk, what to actually look for in a drop zone, and why pushing yourself smartly and incrementally beats trying to be a badass for an audience that isn't watching. A guy who grew up homeless and couch-surfing wrote in about feeling like he came back from a war he never fought. We talk about why trauma isn't owned by anyone, why your past doesn't have to be your identity, and why if the community you need doesn't exist yet, you might be the one who has to build it. Last question is about discipline. A husband, father, and plant manager who used to run ultras can't find the hours anymore and wonders if he's lost it. He hasn't. His life changed. The goalpost has to move with it. Plus the book hit the Times again, and I'm headed to Virginia Beach. Enjoy Join the Cleared Hot Newsletter here: https://www.clearedhotpodcast.com Today's Sponsors: Willies Remedies: Order now at https://www.drinkwillies.com and use code "CLEAREDHOT" for 20% off of your first order + free shipping on orders over $95, and enjoy life in the high country. AG1: For a limited time only, go to https://www.drinkag1.com/clearedhot to get a FREE AG1 Flavor Sampler and AGZ Sampler to try all the flavors, plus FREE Vitamin D3+K2 and AG1 Welcome Kit with your first AG1 subscription order!
SummaryThe Night Stalker They Couldn't Shoot Down | Alan Mack | Ep. 447
3w ago02:57:40Summary readyAlan Mack flew Chinooks for the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment for seventeen years. Chief Warrant Officer 5. Senior MH-47 pilot. Flight lead. Instructor. He was the pilot in command of Razor 03 on Takur Ghar — the aircraft shot up trying to insert a SEAL element on top of the mountain that became Roberts Ridge. He has logged over 6,700 flight hours, took rounds through his cockpit on Anaconda, ran fog approaches into walled compounds in Iraq, and helped write the procedures the Night Stalkers still use to land in zero visibility. After retiring, he commanded the flight detachment at West Point and spent a decade running emergency management for a New York county. He is the author of Razor 03 and the upcoming Chinooks in the Dark. We cover the new Medal of Honor awarded to a 160th pilot and what it actually takes to earn one. The Anaconda shoot down — RPG, lost hydraulics, three cans of fluid, and a crew chief pumping a t-handle to keep him in the controls. Why he chose to dive at a Dishka instead of climbing. The myth around Extortion 17 and why the conspiracy doesn't hold up. How the unit trains pilots to fly through real lead. Air refueling at night in the weather. Cutting hoses with rotor blades. And the lessons every pilot — military or civilian — needs to internalize before the aircraft starts shedding systems on them. Enjoy Chinooks in the Dark: https://a.co/d/0cOy6d88 Join the Cleared Hot Newsletter: https://www.clearedhotpodcast.com Today's Sponsors: Montana Knife Company: https://www.montanaknifecompany.com David: David is offering our listeners a special deal: buy 4 cartons and get the 5th free when you go to https://www.davidprotein.com/CLEAREDHOT
SummaryCruise Ships, Cover-Ups, and Cow Killers | Negligent Discharge Friday | 5.8.2026
4w ago01:05:03Summary readyMichael and I get into it on this one. Hantavirus headlines, the Doomsday Clock, wind turbines, the Epstein note, and a guy on YouTube paying his bills by getting stung by bugs. I open by confidently passing along bad medical advice from two articles I read. Michael fact-checks me in real time. We agree it's a good exercise in why you should slow down before you repeat anything. From there we get into what Hantavirus actually is, why this isn't going to be another lockdown, and why I think people would push back hard if it were. The Doomsday Clock is at 89 seconds. Not 90. Not 88. Two old guys in suits decided. We talk about why fear-mongering on a quarter clock face stops working at some point, and what's actually happening with all those wind turbines I just flew past for eleven hours that weren't spinning. Then the heavier stuff. The "rape academy" story. Epstein's suicide note. Andrew Mountbottom. Why I don't believe anyone in his orbit is ever going to face accountability in this country, and what that says about a government willing to look away if the math works out for them. Enjoy Join the Cleared Hot Newsletter: https://www.clearedhotpodcast.com Pick up a copy of Drownproof: https://www.clearedhotpodcast.com/book Today's Sponsors: Firecracker Farm: https://www.firecracker.farm use code CLEAREDHOT for 10% off your first order. LMNT: Head to https://www.drinklmnt.com/clearedhot to pick up your free sample pack
SummaryThe Cost of Telling the Truth | John Kiriakou | Ep. 446
May 403:20:23Summary readyJohn Kiriakou spent 14 years at the CIA. He started as an analyst, went operational, and eventually ran counterterrorism work in Pakistan that led to the capture of Abu Zubaydah. He was the first U.S. government official to publicly confirm that the agency was waterboarding prisoners. For that, the Obama administration prosecuted him under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act and sent him to federal prison for 23 months. He lost his pension. He lost his career. Most of his kids stopped speaking to him. Today he writes books, hosts a podcast, and teaches a course on the history of terrorism. We get into how the agency really works. Recruiting spies. Breaking into a house in a foreign country to plant a bug. The mentor who told him to walk up to a target's front door and sell him out to his face. Then we get into the part nobody at Langley wants to talk about. Torture. Rendition. The innocent people who got grabbed off planes and buses and never got their lives back. We also cover Section 702, the Patriot Act, Iran, Iraq, and why no agency ever gives the power back. Enjoy. Join the Cleared Hot Podcast Newsletter: https://www.clearedhotpodcast.com Today's Sponsors: Black Rifle Coffee: https://www.blackriflecoffee.com Brunt: Right now, for a limited time, our listeners get $10 off at https://www.BRUNTworkwear.com when you use code "clearedhot" at checkout.
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