Doug Casey's Take – Episode Summary

Episode Title: Doug Casey and Michael Yon
Date: November 14, 2025
Host: Matthew Smith
Featured Guests: Doug Casey, Michael Yon

Overview

This episode is a lively, globe-trotting exploration of crisis, resilience, and global power struggles, featuring independent war correspondent Michael Yon alongside host Matthew Smith and legendary contrarian investor Doug Casey. Michael Yon shares recent experiences from Japan, offering vivid stories about Japan's escalating bear attacks, "rewilding" across the globe, depopulation, drug policy as a weapon, and how power brokers shape the world via population management, resource control, and political psyops. The episode seamlessly weaves personal anecdotes with grand historical sweeps, exploring Japan's challenges, parallels with global trends, and warnings for the future.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Japan’s Bear Crisis & Rural Depopulation

00:02 – 11:06

• Michael Yon recounts recent time spent with a famous fourth-generation Japanese bear hunter and rice farmer in northern Honshu.
• Yon explains how “rewilding” and severe depopulation have led to an explosion in bear and other wildlife populations, resulting in dozens of bear attacks—some fatal—in 2025 alone.
• The bear hunter, who has killed approximately 500 bears in his lifetime (nearly 50 just this year), now trains police and Japan’s Self-Defense Force for bear encounters.
• Rural areas are turning to ghost towns due to youth migration and a rapidly aging farming population (average farmer age cited as 72–73), leading to food security risks.

Quote:
"I love to go out with farmers and hunters in every country because the farmers and the hunters, they just know stuff... they're one with the land."
— Michael Yon (00:18)

Quote:
"He killed four in one day last week... he's training the police and Japanese military to fight bears. That’s how serious this dude is."
— Michael Yon (02:51)

• Japan’s strict firearm regulations and difficult licensing process add complications.
• Discussion about how some bear meat cannot be sold due to restrictive regulations, echoing historical European practices around game and forest management.

2. Depopulation, Rewilding, and Food Security

11:06 – 18:46

• Yon ties Japan's depopulation to global trends, linking the "rewilding" movement to deliberate policies he sees in Europe, North America, and Asia.
• He shares insider perspectives—via his wife, Masako, and her connections to Japanese scientists—about alleged vaccine injuries and their supposed roles in demographics.
• Observations of Japanese rural decline: old, shuttered towns, unused fields, and declining food resilience—increasing vulnerability to famine or supply chain shocks.
• Historical context: Hundreds of famines in Japan's past; now entirely dependent on global logistics for food.

Quote:
"Japan has a history of famines... there’s been about 1,500 famines in Japan in the last about 500 years."
— Michael Yon (14:30)

3. Global Drug Policy as a Weapon

18:46 – 30:33

• Yon describes drug legalization and proliferation (cannabis, meth, SSRIs) as deliberate tools for social control—a continuation of a centuries-old practice.
• "Weaponized intoxication" and psychological operations are key in keeping populations manageable and fragmented.
• Extensive digression on the historical uses of alcohol and opium as currencies and weapons, notably in the colonization of the Americas and Asia.
• Cites Thailand’s successful development projects to curb opium production, replacing it with coffee, fruit, and flowers—a rare example of a positive transition.

Quote:
"The grease and rocket fuel of psychological operations is intoxicants. It doesn't matter what they are—alcohol, opium—those are the two biggest historically."
— Michael Yon (22:02)

4. Globalism, Resource Routes, and Process Wars

31:07 – 73:21

• Deep dive into what Yon and Casey call "globalist" power games: managing populations, depopulating rural areas, controlling access to food and energy, and gatekeeping critical trade routes (Panama Canal, Suez, etc.).
• Long-term "process wars" are distinguished from short-term "events." The elite are said to play the long game, manipulating societies and using crisis as opportunity.
• Discussion of Israel as a longstanding geopolitical project (as opposed to a religious homeland) for controlling the Suez Canal and surrounding corridors.
• Historical analogies: The Dawes Act’s role in moving and integrating Native Americans; globalist strategies wielding population swaps, legal frameworks, and proxy companies since the colonial age.
• Updated insights: Current events in places from Iran and Venezuela to Panama, Thailand, and Argentina are framed as iterations of this larger pattern.

Quote:
"These are process wars. Like how we got the Indians... It took centuries; we're still working on it...."
— Michael Yon (49:41)

Quote:
"Israel is a giant aircraft carrier. The only reason it even exists is so we could get control of the Suez Canal. That's why Israel exists. It has nothing to do with the homeland for Jewish people. That's a whole absolute psyop."
— Michael Yon (47:54)

Quote:
"All these wars are about routes and resources."
— Michael Yon (46:54)

5. Current Crisis Points & Security Threats

73:21 – 90:10

• Tech oligarchs’ ambitions and their dependence on state power/military for real control: “At the end of the day, they don't have armies, right?”
• Rapid infrastructure changes, deconstruction of water management (dam removal, etc.) as elements of the “rewilding” and depopulation agenda.
• Case studies of border security, demographic change in Europe, and what Yon sees as a deliberate “genocide” or population replacement program in Western societies.
• Aggressive expansion of state power: National Guard or QRF units deployable to every state in the US, signaling increased readiness for crackdowns.

Quote:
"They're ready to crack down on the people. That's what it is, it's obvious. They're coming for you."
— Michael Yon (86:08)

6. Advice & Preparing for the Era of Turmoil

74:32 – 78:36; 97:37 – End

• Survival advice: Recognize rapid change, adapt quickly, and take self-reliance seriously (food, water, gold, skills).
• Endorse significant lifestyle moves, such as relocation to more resilient countries (like Uruguay or Thailand), but with caveats—“Thailand is too important... I think it's going to end up in war.”
• Warns against complacency: “If you won't defend it, you don't own it. And I mean physically defend it.”
• Value of passing down practical skills and independent thinking to younger generations, as exemplified in the discussed book.

Quote:
"If you won't defend it, you don't own it. And I mean physically defend it."
— Michael Yon (86:20)

Quote:
"We might not be able to save Western civilization even, really, but we can certainly save people we love. And so if you have young men in your life, you should definitely get this book."
— Matthew Smith (98:13)

Notable Quotes & Moments by Timestamp

• [00:51] Michael on the bear hunter: "He's a close-quarters fighter. Man, this guy, he's straight up hardcore."
• [11:06] Population and rewilding: "Japan has been clearly, is being depopulated. The rewilding is quite real."
• [22:02] "The grease and rocket fuel of psychological operations is intoxicants."
• [49:41] On “process wars”: "These people aren't making five-year plans. Five-year plans are for children. These people are making plans that go over the horizon, centuries."
• [86:08] On US readiness: "They're ready to crack down on the people. It’s very obvious."
• [86:20] "If you won't defend it, you don't own it."
• [98:13] On Western civilization: "We might not be able to save Western civilization even, really, but we can certainly save people we love."

Timestamps for Major Segments

• 00:02 – 11:06: Japanese bear crisis, rural depopulation, meeting the bear hunter.
• 11:06 – 18:46: Japan's demographic collapse and food insecurity.
• 18:46 – 30:33: Drugs as weapons, opium history, Thailand’s anti-opium strategies.
• 31:07 – 73:21: Deep dive on globalism, resource wars, population management, historical analogies.
• 73:21 – 78:36: Tech oligarchs, AI, and the realities of hard power; advice for survival.
• 78:36 – 94:13: Infrastructure, water/power as weapons, history of Panama Canal/Railroads.
• 94:13 – End: Final personal commentary, book recommendations, the importance of independent skills and resilience.

Tone & Closing Remarks

The episode is urgent, wide-ranging, and conspiratorial-yet-grounded in deep personal experience and extensive historical reference. Michael Yon peppers his commentary with vivid storytelling, global comparisons, and actionable advice for listeners. There is a consistent call to vigilance, self-reliance, independence, and grassroots resilience in the face of accelerating global turbulence. Both hosts and guests reflect a strong skepticism of elites, governments, and technology as panaceas, arguing instead for practical, traditional skills and critical thinking as survival strategies for uncertain times.