T Mobile Representative (0:00)

With T Mobile. No trendspotter has to deal with trendspotty service because T Mobile helps keep you connected from the heart of Portland to right where you are on America's largest 5G network. Switch now keep your phone and T Mobile will pay it off up to $800 per line via prepaid card. Visit your local T Mobile location or learn more@t mobile.com keepandswitch up to 4 lines of your virtual prepaid card. Allow 15 days qualifying unlock device, credit service support in 90 plus days device knowledgeable carrier and timely redemption required. Card has no cash access and expires in six months.

Podcast Host (0:30)

Well, good morning everybody. It's Friday. I'm sorry I don't have anybody to join me here for this Q and A session. I'm going to have to figure out if I still remember to answer Q and A. Even though I do hear you. I listened to the feedback from when it was just Michael and I brought my dad on. Well received and truly interesting. Just being in the room and being able to, you know, I can't say I can hear the wheels turn. Maybe my dad, he needs a little, little grease on his wheels, if you know what I mean. But sitting in there and, and hearing the different opinions, Leah actually said she had a very good time coming on and doing the Q and A. The next request that I've gotten is to have Michael, my dad and Leah come on, which all of them have agreed that they would do. That's not this Friday though, but it'll happen. My worry though, or my suspicion is that people just want to ask questions about the dumb shit that I did as a child. And you'd like to hear more stories about oranges being flushed in the toilet, of which there are no more stories like that. I did not flush any more fruit down the toilet. My dad, as we were at dinner the other night laughing our asses off about that, tried to tell me that I was 13 when that happened. So he's clearly losing it and needs to be put into a home immediately because I was probably at maximum eight or nine. But whatever. We're gonna go traditional Q and A today. See if I remember how to do this before we get into it. Give me just a few seconds. Let me pay the bills here and then we are off and running. Here we go. Today's episode is brought to you by AG1. Are you looking to simplify your health and wellness journey? Do you enjoy laying out a bunch of stuff that you want to take in the morning and choking it all down or do you like the concept of being able to get a broad brush approach, knocking out a bunch of micro and macronutrients all in one serving? And also you get to work on your hydration a little bit. I'm going to go for the latter. Here's what's inside of AG1 and this is why I choose to take it as part of my morning routine. Because that what I described of laying all this stuff out and working my way through that, I did it for a bit and I don't enjoy it and I actually don't know anybody who does. So I'm going to read this. Vitamins, minerals, prebiotics, probiotics, greens and superfoods, antioxidants, stress, adaptogens and digestive enzymes. Yes, I want all of those things. No, I don't want all of those things in an individual container, capsule, powder, drink. I want it all in one. Check this thing out. This thing is badass. This is what they sent me for. Unscrew this thing. This is where I keep the old AG ones with the scooper inside of there, inside of the refrigerator. Not only that came with this, the thing that I drink it out of, it's got the measurements on the water. It's got ounces or milliliters depending on if you're crazy or not. Obviously ounces, oz is the way to go. Couldn't be easier, couldn't be simpler. People ask me all the time what it tastes like. I think it tastes good, it tastes a little bit earthy. But I. I don't like mushrooms and some people love mushrooms, so it's really hard to tell based off my own taste and flavor profile. AG1 has been for me, the simplest and most efficient way to target micronutrients, macronutrients, antioxidants, superfoods, greens, all in one. Plus, like I've talked about before, I'm on a journey to drink more water. Super easy. Could not be easier. It is the perfect time to start a new healthy habit. Stick with it. Pick something that's very easy to stick with. If that sounds like something you want to give a shot. AG1 is offering new subscribers a free $76 gift. When you sign up, you're gonna get a welcome kit, a bottle of D3K2 and five free travel packs. So you can take this stuff on the road with you if you want. In your first box, make sure you check out drinkag1.com clearedhot to get this offer that is drinking normal spelling alphagolf1ag1.com clearedhot to start off your new year on a healthier note. We're not quite through Q1 yet. Get something going in Q1 and then drag it into Q2. Let's get back to the show. Okay, I got the red smoke. Sun runs north and south. West of the smoke. West of the smoke. Okay, copy. West of the smoke. I'm looking at danger close now. Oh, wait a minute, baby. Give it to me. I mean it. You're playing hot. All right, we're off and running again. Let's see if I remember how to do this. We'll take I have four questions pulled aside. Whether I get to all four depends on how much I actually run my mouth. I should probably turn my phone off here, Todd. Rookie mistake. Before I run my mouth too much and go through a meeting I have here in an hour. I don't think I've ever done a solo Q A that took an hour. But you know, there's always today starting off with something a little bit close to home. Literally in this case. Longtime listener to the podcast as well as Rogan and Jocko. Feel like I'm in good company there. This may be a hard question to answer. Tell me more. But this feels like my patriotic duty as a Canadian to ask. I am concerned about the rhetoric regarding the annexation of my country, as well as an alarming trend of my favorite podcast to either support it or imply that our freedoms are being degraded, cartels are taking over, or that fentanyl is flowing freely from our borders to yours. My question is this, and it is not meant as an attack, but as a prompt for personal and national self reflection. When faced with the imperfections of your country and in parentheses, gun violence in schools, silencing of protests, to name a few, do you feel that you would welcome another country to take America over on a promise to solve these issues? Would you be willing to give up your sovereignty on that promise or premise? Because I fear that is where that rhetoric and the economic warfare on my country is going. We may not be perfect here in the north, but we can solve our own problems and must be allowed to make our own mistakes and correct them democratically as we see fit. It is our privilege, sometimes burden, and solemn duty as free citizens, but it is our own, just as it is in your great country. I understand that this is a long rant and don't expect an answer on the show. Just some food for thought. With respect from Canada, first things first. I have for years been guilty of calling Canada the top hat of America or the 51st state I was doing that a long time before President Trump started talking about the annexation of Canada. And I'll get to whether or not I actually think that is just rhetoric or he's being serious. You know, the reality is I don't fucking know if he's being serious or not. I personally think it's ridiculous, but since it's taken that turn, I have stopped saying those things. I just want to go on record and say that I was first before him, at least on that one. I live 60 miles from the Canadian border. I'm going to be in Canada next week, snowboarding. I love Canada. The manager of my coffee shop is Canadian. I have friends from Canada. It is such a vast, beautiful country full of some of the nicest people that I've ever met. My first hunting trip with a bow ever was in northern Alberta. I went there for years and almost died by drinking bottled water that had been rebottled without notification of the people drinking it. One of the sickest times I've ever been in my life. I was saying Top hat of America, 51st date, completely jokingly and completely lovingly. The Triple 7 expedition we did with Glenn Cowan on there. And we did an episode from Antarctica, a podcast episode from Antarctica, an officer from JTF 2. Nothing but great things to say. So I was always viewing that comment from the land. It was coming from a loving place. It was a joke for sure. And I would actually even say it when, like, Kelsey Sheeran has been on a few times. And I would say it to her or even to Glenn, because clearly I was joking. The rhetoric around that has certainly changed. And I'll be honest, as somebody, an average citizen in this country, I don't know if he is serious with the annexation talk. I don't think so. And I say that because we have enough of our own internal issues as a country that we are trying to solve. You know, it talked a lot about Greenland as well, which I'm actually. I'm going to go on slight tangent here. The Greenland thing has gotten me interested in actually visiting Greenland. I've been to Iceland a few times, flying over Iceland or flying from Iceland back to the United States. We passed over Greenland the last time that I was there and I started researching small population. Seems like it's mostly coastal, very disparate. It seems so ridiculously beautiful that the talk of annexation or taking over Greenland has actually driven me to a place where it hasn't driven me. It has driven my interest to a place that I want to go and visit with Leah and I actually told her I might actually book us some tickets to go visit Greenland because it just looks amazingly beautiful. If I do come and visit Greenland, I'm not there to conduct espionage for anybody that's there. I'm not there to do, you know, prepping the battle fa, the battle space reconnaissance. I literally just want to check out the country. I think it's amazing. I'm looking at my passport and the places that I've traveled in my life. It's one of the places that I want to go. The bucket list has kind of been fulfilled. Well, there's one more. I need to go snowboarding in Japan with Leah. Other than that, I want to spend a week in Greenland now and check it out. So I think there. I can't draw the dots in my head in Trump talking about the annexation of Greenland to drive tourism there, but that is the net effect that it had for me. All right, so to our Canadian neighbors to the north. I don't think he's actually serious. I don't think if you polled the vast, vast majority of Americans that they have any interest in, in taking over Canada in any way, shape or form. I don't know what the impact of the tariffs will be. I don't, I don't understand. I don't understand political positioning at that level. I can understand tariffs that threaten, the threatening of tariffs, the levying of tariffs as a mechanism to force compliance on certain issues. But I have never been in a place where that has something that is something that I have looked at, that I have focused on. They have consequences for both sides of the tariff. I do understand that. I understand who pays the tariff and how that can impact price. I have watched it go back and forth a little bit. The threat, the application, the lifting, the removal, the threat, the application, the lifting. I, I don't know where it's going and I don't know why. I don't think your average American does either. But I do think that your average American has nothing but love for those of north of the border. I'm going to address a few things here that I think you, you may want to do a little bit more research on on your own. An alarming trend of your favorite podcast supporting it. I can't speak for anybody else. I hope I was very clear about my own personal feelings on it imply that your freedoms are being degraded. You know, I have talked with my friends from Canada. Some of them are in the content creation space and, you know, freedom. I've done, I've done episodes about this Freedom is actually really dangerous. It gives you choice. And it can be very unsettling to those who are in positions of power, especially when it comes to the transfer of information, the ability for people to say what they want, to do what they want, obviously inside of boundaries of laws. But in the US and maybe it's. Maybe it's not a good thing. You talk about unfettered access to information. You know, when I talk to Canadians, my Canadian friends, who come from north to south of the border, and we talk about podcasts or restriction of the Internet, and I have to. I am not Canadian, I don't live there, so I haven't experienced this. But when I hear from multiple people that there are boundaries and restrictions on the Internet and the receiving or ability to gather information, and certain things are throttled and certain things are not. To me, it's tough to use the word freedom when you are restricting in any way somebody's access to information. So I would suggest that you do a little bit of research before saying that your freedoms are not being degraded in any way. Not that, you know, the Constitution of the United States provides for a lot of things. And, you know, there are things that are legal here in the United States, information that. And unfettered access to it is not one of them. And I don't think that would be a deal breaker, I think, for almost every American if they were to try to change that. Cartel's taking over. So I host a show called Change Agents with Ironclad. And one of the things that I have been able to dive relatively deeply on is cartels. And recently I've talked with people who are based in Mexico City and they interface with people in the cartel. Many cartel, I'm going to say plural cartels. I have a hard time discounting firsthand experience from people. And the last conversation I had, it was a woman. Her name is escaping me in this moment. She's a Canadian citizen based in Mexico City who was talking to me about her personal experience in Vancouver dealing with cartel members and the cartel members taking her to drug production facilities. For most people out there, I think you understand, precursor chemicals for fentanyl specifically come from a variety of places. A lot of the times it comes directly from China, comes through the port, and then it's processed and distributed. And it could either go from north to south into. From Canada to the United States, south to north Mexico into the United States. There's a lot of talk of it coming south to north. But this isn't the first person I've talked To who has, with their own eyes, seen these production facilities in Canada as well, and talked to the people who are passing it down along the border. And I'm not trying to make a comparison between the southern border and the northern border, other than. I guess maybe it is valuable enough to make a comparison. The southern border I used to live literally in. I guess I couldn't see it. Could I see it from the second floor of our house? Probably. I could probably see where it was, but I don't think I could physically see the wall. But in San Diego, and specifically when I went and skydived at Skydive San Diego, which is out by the Otay Reservoir, the flight path goes. Starts out in eastern San Diego and it goes out west towards the water. And you can see the wall, a literal metal wall that ends at the base of a. Of a mountain. It's comical to see. And then it picks up in certain spots. Border Patrol presence all over the place. Thank you for every Border Patrol agent who's ever given me a ride back to the drop zone when I landed off dz. Very appreciated. You've never been forgotten. I've been to the border wall in Texas very recently, within the past six months. And holy shit. At least the portion of the wall that I saw, that was an engineering marvel to me. That was no joke. Fortification. Where I live. Flipping the coin, you know, that's largely the. The southern border where I live. Flipping the coin. There's no wall like that that I'm aware of in the state of Montana. There are. There's maybe a barbed wire fence. There is maybe a terrain feature. Maybe there's a mountain on one side, mountain on the other. You have to go through a valley, maybe water, you know, rivers and streams. And I think actually a few lakes cross the borders, especially as you go out towards. Out east towards the Great Lakes. Very, very minimal Border Patrol presence in comparison to what was in San Diego. Very different borders. It's much more open. You could cross it on a motorcycle, horse, snowmobile vehicle, hiking, backpacking, whatever you want. Obviously, you know, you don't want to do that probably right next to the border patrol station, but there is ample opportunity to do so. It is just very different. If I was in a distribution network and I had to choose between north and south, given the volume that you could push through from the South, I understand why they would continue to do that. But if that were to start to be restricted, it would come through the north. If I was the person throwing the levers behind the scenes and this brings me back to my point. Whether or not it is being reported in the Canadian newspaper or even the American newspaper, and one of the things that they did harp on was the small number or small amount of fentanyl that was caught at the border, which is cool. I'm glad that they caught that. The important number which we have a hard time actually quantifying is the amount that they didn't catch. You catch and can quantify that number by seizures. And there's a number for that at the southern border. And people openly recognize that it's maybe 5 to 10%, if even that much of what is actually crossing from south to north. It's a little bit of a finger on the pulse. So when I talk to these people who are embedded, not embedded, they have the ability to interface with cartel members and they see this with their own eyes, it speaks to me that the problem is real. Now, we can always see focus on our side of the border. But I also think Canada, and again, in conversations with these individuals, it's not that the Canadian military or law enforcement is turning a blind eye. The vibe that I get is that they're a little bit hamstrung and they're perhaps being told not to focus on those things. My suggestion again, back to you is dig a little bit deeper into that. Is fentanyl flowing freely? I don't know. Is it. Is it crossing the border? Based off the conversations I've had with people who are experts in this space, fuck yes, it is. At a. At a rate and velocity that is much higher, that is being traditionally supported. Okay, to your actual question. When faced with the imperfections of your country, gun violence and silencing protest, to name a few, do you feel it would welcome another country to take America over on a promise to solve those issues? No, I don't think Americans would tolerate that. But I also don't think that's what. I don't think that's what Trump is trying to say. And again, I'm going to go right back to. I don't know even know what the point of the annexation conversation is. To me, it seems ridiculous. I'm not the one sitting in the Oval Office, though. If I were able to have a conversation with him about this, I would ask specifically, you know, what are your. What is the goal of talking about it in that way? And what is the mechanism that you would actually use? Are we talking a military invasion to the north here? Are we even manned, trained and equipped to be able to do that? Given the variety of Conflicts around the world that the US military is still involved in. Whether or not people think the global war on terrorism, I would say that 20 year chunk is definitely over. If you think the warfare has ended, the forward deployed troops has ended, the stress on the military infrastructure has ended, it definitely hasn't. So I don't even understand the mechanism by which that would take place. Um, we do have issues in the United States. All countries have issues. And I think much like a family, and all families have one fucking crazy uncle or aunt, you know, bringing somebody else in from another family to solve that problem probably isn't necessarily going to work. I don't think the solution to any of Canada's problems, and I'm not even going to try to quantify what those are because I would let Canadians decide what their own problems are. I would agree with you. You have your sovereignty, you have the right to make your mistakes and fix them in the way that Canadians feel best serves Canada. The United States is exactly the same way. School shootings, I don't have a solution for this one. And it's, it is an issue that I'm sure to the world they scratch their head on and, and they may say, what in the actual fuck is wrong with the United States that is such a deep why somebody would make that choice, make that decision. It is, I personally, I think more of a mental health conversation than there is the access to firearms conversation. Second amendment is going nowhere. It shouldn't go anywhere. In my opinion. The second amendment is what protects the first and all other amendments. People can argue with me about that one if they want to. Bottom line, the sovereignty of Canada, it should remain. But as a Canadian citizen, I don't think you need to be getting a pair of binoculars out and looking at your southern border because I just don't think that the rhetoric has any teeth behind it. Now, the tariffs and the economic stuff, again, I am not a smart enough man or an educated enough man on that topic to know the long term consequences. To me, it feels like a leverage that can be applied for leverage and it goes both ways. So I am going to have to sit back. This is the first time in my lifetime that I can remember hearing talk of this or seeing things like this applied. I don't know what the end state is going to be and I don't think most Americans do either. But I do think that the problems that the United States has, and this is the same conversation I have with people when it comes to, you know, the United States is the largest provider of Foreign aid on the globe, which I think is an amazing thing. We also have an immense amount of improvement that we could do inside of our own country at a state and a federal level and a community level too. We could start at a, at a straight up community level, to a state level, to a federal level. I don't want to stop the aid that the United States gives to the world because I'm proud of the fact that we're able to do that. But I would like to see a recentering and a refocusing on solving our own shit between our northern and southern borders. I think all countries take the foreign aid out of it. I think all countries would benefit by an objective and reflective look inward and instead of spending your time that the classic when you point your finger at somebody, three are pointing back at you. I think one time I said four and that would be really tough to get my thumb coming back plus a thumb. I don't know if that counts as a finger or if thumbs just are different which has nothing to do with what I'm talking about but just how my brain is working today. Reflective inward focus I think is far more beneficial than external inflammatory rhetoric. I don't sit in the Oval Office. I can't control that One person does sit in the Oval Office. But what I can say and at least in my life experience with the people that I communicate with my anecdotal opinion is this. Nobody's trying to take over Canada. Man, you guys are awesome. I think there might be an attempt to level the playing field a little bit on some things. But nobody's trying to take your country. So I appreciate actually your opinion on this one. I appreciate it that you're patriotic about your country but I think it's more talk than action and I'll leave it at that. Hopefully that in any way, shape or form answered your question. Question 2 Andy have a friend that is a police officer and he has ptsd. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He has been going through a rough time. I know he has also attended some programs to try to help out. I keep in touch with him but don't want to be overwhelming. The last time I saw him in person he mentioned PTSD is kicking his ass. My question is how would you recommend I help out? I try to call him and say hello to see how he is doing. I worry about him. We have been friends for 25 plus years and you can see the hurt. I know you have mentioned you worry less about the individuals who are willing to talk about it. I can't relate well because I'm in a completely different field. Any suggestions or ideas would be appreciated. I enjoy listening to your podcast. I appreciate your ability to communicate your own mistakes, of which there are many, and have learned a lot. Well, I'm first off, I'm glad the podcast has been helpful to you, man. This is a topic that is going to continue to rear its head. A lot of people associate post traumatic stress. I personally don't think it is a disorder. I believe that post traumatic stress when exposed to trauma, the way I put it is this. If you were to get sick and you get a fever, that is not abnormal. If you get sick and you don't get a fever when you should, I would consider that to be a disorder. When people are exposed to trauma, especially in I will just call the first responder world fire is EMS, police, 911 call center, anybody under that umbrella. When you're exposed to that and it has an impact on your life or is a burden that you have to bear and work your way through, I feel like that's normal. That world is not a world where people call and say, I just had an amazing birthday party. Do you want to come get a slice of cake? No. It's like, holy shit, Grandpa just went face first and torpedoed himself into the cake. He's having a heart attack. The children are surrounding him screaming, please come save Grandpa. That's every. Every day. You know, the friends that I talk to in that world, they fuck. The amount of things that they are exposed to is unbelievable. And oftentimes in the way that they described it or have described it, to me it seems like it would be unbearable. It has an impact. It can have life altering consequences if you don't find ways to deal with it. I think that's normal. If the human body was not designed to recover from trauma, we would not exist as a species. So the only time I think that post traumatic stress becomes a disorder is that when people take a healthy approach, whether that's through individually having a community of people that is outside of the one that they work in, having an ability to detach from their occupational life and have a social circle that can support them outside of that healthy diet training, abstaining from excessive alcohol use, sleep recovery, finding somebody to talk to, support groups and networks inside of the community with which they work. If you're doing those things and you're unable to deal with, process and move on from the things that you're being exposed to, then I think it would trip into the side of Being a disorder. I. I hate, I dislike. I was gonna say I hate, I dislike there always being a D on the end of pts. Because the only time to me that it becomes, and again, I'm not a physician by any stretch, is when people are unable to recover from it. And from my understanding of the math on this, that statistics, the vast majority of people should show improvement, especially if they are attacking it through the ways that I already mentioned, there are some that can't. And then it truly is a disorder. For your friend and for anybody out there who works in a world where you're exposed to trauma and it is changing your life, maybe it is changing the view that you have of humanity. Maybe you feel like it's robbing you of your humanity. Maybe you're having a difficult time having a normal emotional range. Maybe it's all you can think of. Maybe it's what you dream about. Maybe it is all consuming. There are countless resources out there for you in the military world specifically, I think the last numbers I saw nearly 40,000 service based organizations that are funded not, I mean there, there's some illegitimacy in some of these organizations as well. You know, the 501c3 world, countless organizations that are staffed and funded and want nothing more than to help you, but they can't do it without your participation. The hardest part about this question, and what I'll say is this question is a little bit easier because this person is talking about the struggles that they are having. And it is true, in my opinion, with my friends, the ones that have not killed themselves are the ones that have been open and willing and able to talk about it. The ones that have chosen to kill themselves, at least with the breadcrumbs of information that they have left behind, were often struggling at a level that was incomprehensible to me and probably to others. But we didn't know it because they didn't say anything. I don't think it's a get out of jail free card just because somebody is talking about this that they may not go down that path. In my experience, which only counts for me, there is a better recovery rate, if you will, and the stats look way better for those who are willing to talk about it. So that is a good sign. Talking about struggling with this is one thing, taking the actions that you need to. And notice I said actions because an action, talking to somebody one time, engaging with an organization one time going on a retreat one time, journaling one time, whatever path you may take may not be enough. So talking about it, good first step. Nobody can force somebody to go seek the help that they need. You may be able to lock them into a room, but that doesn't mean that they're going to participate. They have to. And this is the hard part about it, they have. This journey is one that can be supported by a community, but it's one that has to be done at an individual level. The person struggling with this has to take the actions. Now once they start those actions, I often have found that they will find that community and then the community support can exist. And here's another one I hear all the time, well, you know, I'm a cop. Fill in the blank. Cop, firefighter, ems, military. Why would I go talk to somebody who doesn't have the same experience that I do? They're not going to understand. And that is one of the biggest bullshit cop outs that I have ever fucking heard. That is such an excuse from the somebody to say, well, how are they going to even understand what it is that I'm going through? They don't need to understand exactly what it is that you may be going through or the mechanism, I should say, they may not. They don't have to understand what it feels like as a law enforcement officer to show up at a vehicle crash and have to drape fabric over dead people sprayed throughout the road. And look for children that have been ejected from a car because the parents didn't have them wearing a seatbelt or the parents were drunk and having to deal with that level of destruction. They don't have to have experienced that to be an expert in understanding how the brain works and how the brain processes these things. There was one thing that I could change, it would be people who are stuck in that loop of, well, this person wouldn't understand, so why would I waste my time? Fuck off with that. That is such a bullshit excuse. You need to at least try. Now, if you try and you find somebody who clearly is not capable of helping, you go find somebody else. And at this point, I have been contacted by so many people in all of these different areas that I know there are resources specifically inside of these communities that specialize on these things in every department. No, of course not. The more rural you're going to get or the smaller the population size, it might be a little bit more difficult. The Internet's an amazing thing though. They can do this type of stuff online. Looking at somebody, I mean, if anything Covid showed, it's like, Jesus, we can do almost anything from our home. Maybe not as well, for sure, but. But the possibility exists, but take this fucking rock out of your backpack. This bullshit excuse of this person has to have experienced exactly what I did or they'll never be able to help me. And put that shit down. If you do that, you're gonna have a hard look in the mirror because you're gonna realize the person holding you back from at least going down that path. It's not the path regardless of how many landmines you might convince yourself are on it. It's the person that you see in the mirror. For the person asking this question. Sorry. For the rant. The person asking this question, keep doing what you're doing. It is a good sign, in my opinion, that this person is vocalizing this. Keep reaching out. Keep telling this person that you care about them. And if you feel comfortable doing so, just be super open and honest about your concerns. Hey, man, when you're telling me that post traumatic stress is kicking your ass, I am not pretending that I understand that. I am not trying to say that I know what you're going through. But as your friend and somebody You've known for 25 years, I deeply care about you. And I worry that your struggles with that may lead you to a place where you might make a bad decision. And I don't want that to happen. Can I help you find some resources? What could I do that could help you unburden some of this? Could I help you find a community of people? You know what I mean? Like the endless, endless opportunities to have these conversations when you position them through a place of caring and love. It is amazing how much people will open up if they understand that the reason that you're trying to talk to them about a difficult topic is because you care about them and then you love them. You know, 25 years in law enforcement. I'm sorry, you've known him for 25 years. Who knows how long he's been in law enforcement? There is a point in time where your cup's going to overflow regardless of who you are. And there is a point in time where you might have to face the decision of putting down your occupation to save and recover whatever time you may have left. Because human beings were not autonomous robots. You have an emotional everybody, except for probably sociopaths and psychopaths. I think it's a sociopath that don't have emotional range. You're not a superhuman, you know, Your badge doesn't stop bullets. Neither does your vest, really, depending on the caliber you're not made out of. Teflon the things that you see, they don't just slide off and, and leave their mark. Each one of those things is a fingerprint. And at some point in time, it's going to become too much for everybody. And I've seen this in the military as well. You, you might be faced with a choice, can I continue to do this? And if I choose to continue to do this, at what cost for the rest of my life. And I'm not going to make that choice or decision for anybody. But I tell you right now, I've seen some friends that have been at that point and that is a very challenging place to be because oftentimes they've done that job for so long that if they were to leave it, it shatters their sense of identity. And that can be a really tough place. Keep reaching out to your friend. Keep expressing to him the care that you have. Don't, you know, call several times a day, but call at a level commensurate with a normal friend, depending on the type of relationship. I don't know if says the last time I saw him in person, I don't know if you guys live in the same place or not. Keep reaching out. It's the best thing you can do. You can't force somebody to get the help that they need. You can support them, you can tell them how much you worried about them. You can, you could talk to them about the concerns that you have. You could maybe even provide them informational resources, but you can't do it for them. And that's the toughest thing about this particular subject matter. All right, shifting gears. This episode is brought to you by David and you all are in for a treat. I guess in this case it would be literally and figuratively. David is a new protein bar that has a very simple concept. The least amount of calories for the most protein. If you are like me, you're on the go. Maybe your self care from an eating perspective isn't always the best. Maybe sometimes you launch out of the house and you didn't really think about what you were gonna eat beyond what you were able to stuff in your face before you left the house. If that sounds like you, I cannot recommend enough that you check out these David protein bars. I have two of these boxes in front of me. I'll read off what they. As you can tell, these two boxes have kind of been torn into a little bit because I have them here at the podcast studio. I have in front of me the chocolate chip cookie dough and the double fudge brownie. Finding a healthy bridge between meals, a healthy snack, something that's not going to just completely derail my dietary protocol that I am attempting to stick with. And most of the time I'm finding a way to derail myself anyway. When I'm being good though, what I'm looking for is something exactly like these bars. Something that full of protein, not too many calories, not full of horrendous ingredients that I can't read. That keeps me on track. And they're super convenient. So at this point I have them at the studio. I have them in my laptop bag. I think I actually have a couple in my truck. They're delicious and they help me bridge that gap. Some specifics about the bars and I'm going to read this to make sure it's precise. 28 grams of protein for only 150 calories with zero grams of sugar. Comes in six flavors. I've already talked about the two. In front of me we have the chocolate chip cookie dough. Delightful. Cake batter. Never been my jam. Are there actually people out there who eat cake batter that might be a little bit gross? If you're that type of person. Get the cake batter. Double fudge brownie, blueberry pie and the newest two peanut butter chocolate chunk and salted peanut butter. I've actually had both of those. Delightful. I'll close with this. I have a little bit of a sweet tooth. Or especially in the evenings or when I go a little bit too far without eating, I'll start to get a little bit of a craving for something sweet. These bars are a fantastic way to satiate that without derailing yourself. I highly recommend you head over to davidprotein.com clearedhot you're gonna know you're in the right place because as you scroll down there's a picture of me stuffing my face sitting in this chair in the studio with one of these bars. Probably right before I did an ad read for them. Cause legitimately they're lifesavers. And if you scroll down, you're gonna see all the bars. They are as good as I'm trying to make them sound. They are tasty. They satisfy my sweet tooth. They keep me on track. Davidprotein.com cleared hot. Let's get back to the show. I am a 19 year old man, a young man who values and appreciates your opinion. I'm currently in the process of enlisting in the army, going infantry. While I am absolutely excited and feel moved by the opportunity to serve my country, I'm having a hard time coming to grips with my own mortality. And I don't want it to get in the way of my ability to do my job. Something that helps me prepare myself for the low but very real possibility that this job could kill me. In parentheses, to the extent that a person can do that is recognizing that every single person ever is going to face the same fate. Death is a part of life, and if I am to face it a little earlier than my peers for a cause greater than myself, then bring it on. We will all pass eventually. I mean, there is some truth to that. You know, life is a fatal diagnosis. We're all gonna get to the end of the track at some point. Even that crazy billionaire who looked like he's a day walker in Silicon Valley trying to make himself as young as humanly possible. You're gonna die one day, buddy. That guy, I think, might get uploaded into the Matrix at some point if he could figure out a way to do that, though. But I digress. My question's to you. How did your outlook and approach towards life change when you became ready to die? I'm going to answer this one right here before we get any farther. Why? Why would you assume that I had a change in outlook and approach towards life when I became ready to die? Why would you assume that I became ready to die? Because I. I didn't. I understood that the job that I had from a mortality perspective or a risk perspective, potentially was a little bit higher. But I didn't then, nor do I now, have. What would be the exact words used here? A mindset of becoming ready to die. I am aware that some of my hobbies could be considered riskier than other people's hobbies. But I'm not looking for ways to die. I'm looking for ways to live. To me, living the fullest life, pushing yourself as hard as humanly possible, consistently and constantly finding new things to learn, scaring yourself, flirting with failure, to me, that's the only way to live a fulfilling life. I'm not prepared to die. I mean, I know that I may die in one of those activities. And somebody asked me this question the other day because I have said before, I'm willing to take risks, but I'm unwilling to gamble, especially with my life. Wingsuit Base shipping, which I did years ago, and I didn't do it for that. I did it for a couple of years, is dangerous. It is not a sport that is safe, but it can be done as safely as possible. What's the difference in that world between risking and gambling? Waking up one morning let's just say you go out the night before, you party your ass off, you wake up one morning, you hike up to an exit point, you throw your shit on without really caring too much about doing a gear check. You zip yourself off and you send it without paying any attention to the wind, the weather conditions along the way, conditions external and internal, versus somebody who views that, that activity as an occupation. Never goes more than a few days without packing a parachute, is constantly looking for mentorship. And working with a mentor stays current and competent both in skydiving and in base jumping. Constantly looking at the weather, constantly keeping track of not only the external but internal conditions, making sure you're hydrated, well rested, eating well, fuel for the trip on the way up, being willing to walk off of a cliff edge if you see something that you don't like, that's how you manage risk. The other one is just purely gambling. I was willing to take risk as long as I could mitigate as many of the factors as possible. And the remaining risk was something that I was comfortable with. Gambling, I was unwilling to do. And I watch people lose their lives because it seems as if I can't ask them now because they're gone. But it certainly seemed as if they were more laissez faire about it and went onto the gambling side. Whether they realized that or not, I actually don't know. But I always took it very seriously. Same thing with my military job. You know, the number one thing that somebody's going to look at, at least when I was in on the mission approval template, is you're going to get a cover slide that has the risk of the operation. We spend 24 to 72 hours of planning something that doesn't show up in any of the movies, going through an ORM process, an operational risk management process. And this exists in every phase of the military, from training evolutions to real world evolutions. You identify, you assess, and then you mitigate risk. And it can't be brought down to zero. It's a matter of what risk is left over and are you comfortable accepting that risk. The higher level of risk associated with an operation, the higher level of approval is going to be required. It makes sense, right? So even in that job, the one that you're getting ready to enter into, dude, it's not about having a mentality like I'm ready to die. I don't, I, I don't want you to enter into military service thinking like that. I want you to enter into military service thinking that I am going to do Everything fucking humanly possible to make sure that I'm not gonna die. You know, the role of the military is not to die for your country, it's to make some other motherfucker die for their country. Right? I mean, that's kind of a, a rough way to put that. But I mean, mechanically, if two military members are facing off each other from other countries, you know, or you know, two soldiers on the ground, maybe it's not even a nation level state engagement, you know, your goal shouldn't be to die for your country. Your goal should be to kill the other motherfucker that holds the Axis beliefs to what you hold or is a threat, you know, a legitimate threat to the, the country and the beliefs that you have. So at 19, I think it's a good thing that you are at least recognizing that you are entering into a profession of arms, that it is a different job than most 19 year old jobs. But dude, you need to figure out every possible way to make sure that you don't die. How can you do that as a soldier? Dedicate your life to your craft. If you're going to be in for four years, make it the most dedicated four years that you can. You're going to be going into the infantry. Do not fuck around. Go to every school that you can and every training exercise that you go to and every training evolution that you go to. Sharpen the blade as much as humanly possible. Have an understanding of your roles and responsibilities. Have an understanding of your job. Be a student of the infantry past and present. Read about the tactics that you use. Understand not only what the tactics are, but where they came from. Understand the strengths and weaknesses. Now I understand this is a lot for a 19 year old, but all of those things I just described are going to at least conceptually help with your mortality. So I never had like this change in mindset where I'm like, okay, I'm ready to die. You know, tonight's the night, I'm ready to die. There were certainly nights where you were thinking to yourself, this is the stupidest fucking job I've ever done. I can't believe we're actually about to do this. This, this is wildly dangerous. And then you fall back on your training when you get on target and focus on that. But I never had this drastic change in mindset. I don't want to die. I know I'm going to die. I want to live every day I possibly can with Leah and my kids. I want to do as many amazing things until my body absolutely falls apart. Until my body is literally revolting against me. I'm not looking for the shortcut to the end. I'm as free, as afraid of death as anybody else is. And yeah, I, I do weird hobbies, but I do them like I said, because I'm trying to figure out the most fulfilling and enriching way for me to live. It's not about the death aspect of that. Huge tangent off. Just one sec. Sentence. Okay. Can you ever truly stop clinging on? Can you ever truly stop clinging on to the fear of death? I don't think so. I think if you. So what is fear? Fear, I mean, there's rational and irrational fears for sure. Why are people afraid of spiders? Obviously, because they're disgusting creatures that should be wiped off the face of the earth just like snakes. Fear of death. Why are we afraid of death? Well, I think a lot of people are afraid about the mechanism of death, not just death itself. It might be painful, whatever it may be. Let's say you are, to use one of my hobbies, one of my old hobbies, standing on a cliff in Switzerland. You're zipping up in a nylon suit. You have a single parachute system on your back. Why would that scare you? Well, because if you fuck up, you're going to die. So what is that fear telling you? Is that a natural response? Yes, of course it is. Your body is trying to tell you, hey, you are doing something or about to do something that is exceptionally dangerous. Perhaps it would benefit you if you really, really, really paid attention and took this seriously. So fear is a great feedback mechanism. The question that I think a lot of people struggle with is what should you do when you are afraid? How do I know when I should listen to the fear? How do I know when I should push through the fear? And this goes back to the risk of versus gambling. I'm willing to tolerate risk. I am unwilling to gamble. I have walked down from a substantial amount of base jump exits because I was uncomfortable with what was presented in front of me. The fear of dying allowed me to put a pretty regimented template of what I was looking for at an exit point, whether it be lighting, winds, visibility, weather, physical condition in general. And it allowed me to create that. Because I encountered it enough, I knew I needed to check some things off to make sure I was actually paying attention and not just being consumed by my emotions. That checklist, if not met meant zero jump. But guess what? You're going to walk away from every jump you don't do. You may not walk away from the jumps that you do. I used to tell people this base jumping, leaning forward, rocking forward, and getting to a place where you no longer could recover your body, back off and pushing off into the unknown is optional. Everything that occurs after that is mandatory performance, especially if you want to live. So I don't think you can ever truly stop clinging onto the fear of death, but you can control it. Not all fear is rational. Not all fear should be. You know, in the military, if you're in the infantry and you ever find yourself in a place where you're getting shot at and you don't have some level of fear associated with that, especially as the fire starts to get closer, more precise, more accurate, more of a threat to your life. If you don't have fear in that environment, I don't think that is a good thing, because I think it means that you're not paying attention. And if your body's just not capable of that, like I said, I think it's the sociopath that is incapable or incapable of having those normal range of human emotions. I would leave that to a psych or shrink to correct me on that one. As people know, I am neither of those things. If you don't have that feeling, it may lead you to do some really dumb that might end up taking your life. But there's another side of that coin. If you're consumed by that feeling. You know, if you're on the receiving end of an ambush and let's say you have a really nice rock you can hide behind, it's very tempting to get behind that rock. And you don't want to move from behind that rock because the metal projectiles that are flying at you thousands of feet per second are being blocked by that rock. So you'll say to yourself, I'm good here, right? I'm safe. I don't want to die, and this rock is protecting me from dying. And you'll be paralyzed by your fear being on the receiving end of a linear ambush, which means, like, draw a straight line and that the fire is only coming from one direction. Sucks a big old dong. But what sucks a bigger dong is being on the inside of a complex ambush. And if you are pinned in place, like, number one rule of a firefight is win overwhelming fire superiority. Flank and crush your fucking enemy. Notice I said flank. If you're hiding behind a rock and you're afraid to move because you're worried about dying and you sit there and you're unwilling to move, what's likely gonna end up happening is people are gonna maneuver on you and you're gonna find yourself in a complex ambush like an L very traditional military ambush. L ambush. Your desire to stay safe could cost you your life because you were maneuvered on. The reality is, even though that rock is saving your life in that moment, what you need to do is shoot back and you need to maneuver, which yes, may seem like, oh my God, this is going to put me in more risk. And it might momentarily, but it's actually going to drastically decrease the risk if you can create a complex ambush on those that are ambushing you and force them to maneuver. But you have to control your fear to be able to do so. That's why I said there's rational fear and there's irrational fear. You should have fear of death. A soldier should have a fear of death. If not, it may cause you to do really stupid things. But you have to stay in control of that fear. You can't allow it to control you. Because in the example like I just gave that fear and you feeling safe and not wanting to move because you might die might be the actual reason that you end up getting killed. When you were hit that day in Iraq by that AK round, did you feel any kind of peace in the reality that your lights may get shut off? Fuck no. First off, it hurt really bad. It felt like a nine inch nail sticking out of a baseball bat. And I gave fully juiced up. Bash brothers Jose Canseco or Mark McGwire, take your pick of just a swing like you can wind. You can get a running start and take a wind up swing at my hip with that. That's what that feel like. Felt like. Was there a piece? Fuck no. I was absolutely terrified. I was on the receiving end of just getting blasted with nothing in between me and this fucking window. This guy was shooting at me from pinned underneath the vehicle, wasn't even able to shoot back. Like superheroic war story, right? I'm like, oh, I just crawled back up and took him out with my pistol and I fucking laid there, wasn't able to shoot back. There was no feeling of peace. There was no acceptance of death. There was a lot of pain and it sucked. And pretty rapidly I realized my buddy Sean pulled me around the corner and told me to move my hand so he could cut through my pants to take a look at. And I was yelling at him, like, no direct pressure. Because it's the first thing that came to my mind, even though it was the correct answer, was putting pressure on it. God, we're idiots. I, not Sean, but me and you Know, I came to the realization that it probably wasn't going to be fatal. And then there's still a firefight going on, still a target that had to be worked through. I was completely. I mean, they drugged me out of the courtyard and I was sitting in the alley. No, the fear doesn't go away. No, it's. The people that do the job that I used to do are not fearless. They're probably, what I would say is masters of controlling their emotions and working through that fear, of managing and mitigating things that allow that fear to just crescendo and come over the top. You learn over time how to manage and deal with that shit. But this isn't the movies, all right? I did not have. I didn't get transported to this meadow of butterflies and, you know, a brook, a bristling brook coming nearby me. It fucking sucked. It was absolutely scary. It got scarier after getting shot for a short period of time until I realized that probably wasn't going to die from the gunshot wound. But it's just not the movies. Maybe if I had had enough blood loss or the round had been a little bit higher or had smashed my femur and just completely ripped up my pelvic girdle and I had started to bleed out, maybe that would have happened. But that wasn't the experience that I had. And I don't want people to think that that was the experience that I had. It was terrifying. It sucked. It hurt. I wish I had, you know, looking back, had been able to fight back. I was pinned underneath a car. I couldn't do anything. Uh, it's like the exact opposite of a cool war story. It was like, oh, hey, got shot, was done for the night. The end. You know, I don't think anybody's gonna buy that book. I hope my questions are clear. I understand that only a fraction of the military sees combat, and there's a good chance I could serve a full career without ever finding myself on a two way range. Very true. But in the moment that push comes to shove, I don't want to let my team down or put them in danger by becoming paralyzed with fear in the moment. I can totally understand that. Let's go back to what I said a few minutes ago. Become a master of your craft. If you do a career, dedicate yourself to that career. Have a life outside of the military as well. But if you're going to be in a profession of arms, remember that that's what you do and focus on exactly that. At 19, untrained right now, looking at military service, I can understand why you would feel this way. Give it some time. The military does a very good job of taking people from being young civilians and making them into military members. The infantry is going to teach you infantry shit. The special operations community, if you ever go down that path, is going to teach you special operations shit. There are test gates along the way. There are training protocols. There are courses of education and practical skills that you're going to be able to learn that will make sure that you don't put your team or let your team down or put them in danger by becoming paralyzed. If you were to take somebody off the street and throw them into that environment, fuck yes, they're going to be paralyzed. You know why? It's their first exposure. They don't know what's going on. They don't know what to do. You're not going to be that person because you are going to know what's going on and you are going to know what you need to do because you have been taught to do so by the military and by your peers and mentors. It will come in time. Thanks for taking the time to read this. I think your perspective could help a lot of people who are freshly enlisted. Freshly enlisted, you're not expected to know a lot. Don't worry about not being an expert tactician. The time will come. That time is not when you were freshly enlisted. In my opinion, my old job, it took about five years to get up to speed until you had a baseline understanding of what it is that we were expected to do. And then you could hone that for the rest of your career. You're going to have time. Do not ever lose your fear of dying and try to figure out a way to squeeze every drop out of the limit of life. Like when you come across that finish line, that fucker should be dry and it should be in your mouth and you should be chewing on the rind and just that lemon should barely exist. At least in my opinion. That's all I have for this Friday.