#1363 - Dakota Meyer

[0] what's up Dakota what's coming on we finally did this I know finally we've been talking about it um I'm I feel super connected to you man because uh all day I've been listening to you on jaco's podcast and what first of all anybody who really wants to know you in depth in your element talking with a fellow warrior I like strongly recommend that podcast um for for people don't what number is it you know which number I don't know what number it is just listening to it it's jaco podcast 115 into the fire and beyond the call of duty yeah jaco is a fucking beast and you two together talking about the incidents that happen with you overseas it's insane i mean it is is like i had to call buddy him i had to stop the podcast and call my friend brandon just to talk to him yeah i was like this is so intense it's like i was driving i was getting nervous right you know yeah driving in my fucking car my Tesla right my little electric car drive my hands are sweating and I'm breathing heavy I'm like fuck yeah it was well if you hear all those like you know when you're listening to that podcast that was by far the most I mean he like Jocko just pulled it out of me like right like you know most everybody hits like the the high points of it but you know me and Jocko just made that connection it was the first time we'd ever met and we uh face to face yeah we just went like you know he picked me he actually picked me up from the airport and we went we went there and we sat down and did the the podcast and and I don't know I think I think he knew the questions to ask because I think it was good for both of us because you know if you got to the point kind of in the middle of it if you start hearing those silences it was both of us trying to keep from tears falling right like it was like it was like that moment you're trying to it just you know we really really connected and it was you know it was a tough podcast well you could tell because for jaco i mean i listen to a lot of jocco's podcast but that was one where he was really in his element first of all it's very obviously has a deep respect for you and who you are and what you stand for and then two it brought him back to his own experiences and more and so the whole thing is just it's one of the most intense podcasts i've ever listened to if not the most intense it's fucking heavy yeah it was it was a hard like it was a hard one you know he like i like you said i think i think we both i think jaco was getting as much out of it as i was right and i have the utmost respect for jaco the guy is just you know he is he's the epitome of of of a warrior all around you know like from day day in and day out i mean he wakes up every day and lives the things that he says i mean you know he does what he says and he lives it and he puts people first and he's just i mean he's one of the he's one of the greatest guys i've ever met and i agree i couldn't set it better and tim kennedy's well you know we're both friends with tim and that's the same thing that kind of it's a rare rare human being it is those guys it is you know and i think that's what, like, you know, that's what I'm so fortunate about is, like, I'm just, I'm surrounded by just people like that, right?

[1] Like, you know, I'm so, I'm so fortunate to have a circle like that, you know, I think that that's what makes us who we are, you know, I mean, that's the true the epitome is, is iron sharpens iron, and when you're surrounded by guys like Jocko and Tim Kennedy, and, I mean, what, you have no option, but even if you're, you know, even if you're last in that group, like, you're still, you're still above average, you know?

[2] Well, there's a cliche, you know, that comes up when people talk about military, you know, that, you know, people will say things.

[3] And sometimes it's hard to understand whether or not they grasp exactly what they're saying, but that people make sacrifices so that you could be free.

[4] And I don't think people, it's hard to truly internalize that without having experience what you've experienced, what Jocko and Tim Kennedy have experienced.

[5] When I'm listening to it, I know that it's correct.

[6] I know that it's true.

[7] I support it 100%, but it's almost like an alien thing to me because I've never experienced it.

[8] So when hearing you guys talk about it and climbing inside your head for a bit and listen to you describe it, that cliche, the land of the free because of the brave, it gets highlighted where you understand like this is why America's not like it is in other places because of this strong military.

[9] And one of the things you guys talked about in that podcast was this idea of us invading Afghanistan.

[10] You were fighting alongside Afghanistan.

[11] Absolutely.

[12] And most people who talk about war will have this peripheral sort of cursory understanding about what they would like the world to be like.

[13] You know, that they would like no war and that this is terrible.

[14] We shouldn't be over there.

[15] They don't truly understand what you understand.

[16] You know, they don't.

[17] And I think, you know, the perspective that I get to come back and I think all these guys telling their stories, you know, from Rob O 'Neill, to Marks LaTrail, like I think every warrior out there has to tell their story to make people understand, right?

[18] Like, it's so important for that because we've got a perspective of the world that a lot of people don't get.

[19] Yes.

[20] And, you know, I mean, I stood next to, I stood next to people that we couldn't, like, you talk about not believing, not being raised, not coming from the same place, not having, you know, we could have found every reason not to be on the same ground.

[21] But we stood next to each other and we're willing to die for each other we found we chose to find the common denominator and that was because there's only two types of people in this world there's good and evil yes like that it really comes down to that like like war is so simple life is so simple when you try to complicate it there's other reasons and it's like this this whole this whole thing we were all over there fighting for this for for the belief to be free this this this belief of democracy this belief of of what we all live for and it's you can't see see it.

[22] But we live it every day and we were willing to give our lives for people we didn't even know, people we didn't even meet.

[23] One of the things you talked about with Jocko, you said you didn't just lose four brothers that day.

[24] You lost 10 because you lost six Afghani brothers as well.

[25] Yeah, you know, the Afghans were as close to me as the Marines were.

[26] You know, my team of Afghan soldiers, you know, I lived on a base.

[27] It was four U .S. and 80 Afghans.

[28] And every day I went out on patrol and I'm patrolling with them and they're no different than me and you you know they just want a place I'll never forget that really hit home to me is I had an afghan we were sitting up on the mountain actually the cover of my book it was that day we were sitting on the on that mountain because we had chased some Taliban up up that hill and we were sitting up there and this afghan looked at me and he just said I hope that someday you can bring your family here on vacation I hope that we can get it to that point.

[29] Wow.

[30] And it really hit home to me. It's like, you know, we're all just alike.

[31] You know, we're all just alike.

[32] We all just want to live a great life and we all just want to get along.

[33] I mean, if you don't get along, it's because you choose not to get along.

[34] For people who don't understand the conflict in Afghanistan, explain what is happening and why we're over there.

[35] Yeah, so, you know, basically Afghanistan, and it was the same thing in Iraq, too.

[36] I mean, And, you know, that's where these terrorist organizations were, right?

[37] And, you know, we're over there fighting alongside Afghanistan.

[38] We're over there fighting alongside Iraq.

[39] We're not fighting Iraq and fighting Afghanistan.

[40] We're fighting alongside both of those countries and trying to rebuild it up and trying to get rid of these terrorist cells that are inside those countries.

[41] You know, like you said, I mean, everybody thinks that, you know, we're fighting Iraq and we're fighting Afghanistan.

[42] It's not the case.

[43] We're alongside them, helping them rebuild their countries.

[44] You know, when you go to Black Rifle Coffee in Salt Lake, you know, those guys are awesome.

[45] They brought a bunch of former Afghani troops over, and they work for them over there.

[46] Like a lot of the guys working in the factory.

[47] Yeah.

[48] You're like, oh, okay, these guys are so close to these people.

[49] They brought them back and gave them jobs in America.

[50] Absolutely.

[51] You know, and this is, I just think most people don't really have a full picture of what, what's at stake and why it's even happening?

[52] They just don't want war, right?

[53] They just don't want war, but it's like, you know, I mean, there's no way.

[54] I mean, you can go in your house and lock your doors and sit there and try to pretend that the evil that we fight doesn't exist, but it exists.

[55] It exists.

[56] It's there.

[57] It's there.

[58] And if we don't go fight it over there, it's going to come here.

[59] That's another cliche that, like, seems alien to people.

[60] You know, it's a true statement.

[61] It's always been true throughout human history.

[62] But when you live in a country like America, we're so fortunate.

[63] It's so awesome here.

[64] Even when it sucks, it's awesome.

[65] In comparison to the rest of the world, you know, it's very rare that you have a place where you really can start at the bottom and make your way up to be a successful person.

[66] I mean, literally, you can start here and come from nothing.

[67] And within your generation, be the president of the United States.

[68] States.

[69] You could literally start from that.

[70] And it's the only country on the face of the planet.

[71] And I tell people all the time, like, you know, just because, you know, we get so caught up, like right now is like an emotional time for America, right?

[72] It's getting ready to, I call it the draining time, you know, from now until, you know, November, you know, until the election time, it's going to be draining, right?

[73] And everybody's getting so emotional and fired up.

[74] And it's like, you know, like, it's going to be whatever.

[75] But the cool part is is that this country, like from all of us in the military, from all our first responders or police officers, you know, we're the only country on the face of the planet that doesn't swear allegiance to a person.

[76] We swear allegiance to a document, to a piece of paper.

[77] And that's what allows us to be us.

[78] That's what allows us to not have one person come in and be able to change up this idea that we have of democracy, of freedom.

[79] And that's something that's just, it's incredible.

[80] That's what keeps our country the way it is, right?

[81] Like, there's not, you know, the people will always be in charge here.

[82] And you know what?

[83] Most of America, most 99 % of America is incredible.

[84] It's incredible.

[85] And you know what?

[86] They're stopping and they're helping people.

[87] And it's just the loud ones that make us look, you know, make it look like it's all chaotic.

[88] Well, people love to point out the horrible aspects and they love to ignore the good aspects.

[89] They love to dwell on the bad parts.

[90] And I think ultimately that's going to prove to be good for everybody.

[91] because those people that are highlighting all these bad things, then everybody else has to think about it and will slowly but surely evolve and come to an understanding and make the world a better place.

[92] It's a way better place now that it was 100 years ago or 200 years ago.

[93] And I think this is a, I mean, Stephen Pinker talks about this all the time in his books, but it's criticized for it because a lot of people don't like the idea that things are getting better.

[94] They want to dwell on the negative aspects.

[95] They want to magnify those and make it the most important.

[96] focal point.

[97] I think the most important focal point if we want to have a good world is concentrate on the good aspects and how amazing it really is that we have this incredible ability to express ourselves, this incredible ability to prosper, to move.

[98] And, I mean, you know, people don't get the same share or the same stake in life.

[99] A lot of people get a terrible opening hand of cards.

[100] Yeah.

[101] But you can improve.

[102] And this is one of the rare places in the world where you can, And if you're so inclined, if you have the discipline, if you can figure it out emotionally, if you could figure it out in terms of what you want to do in your life, you can live a healthy and successful life in this country.

[103] It's possible.

[104] It's 100%.

[105] A hundred percent.

[106] Like nobody's holding you down, right?

[107] Like you have the choice to be able to do that.

[108] You have the choice to go out.

[109] Every opportunity is here.

[110] Like there's no other country that has more opportunities than the United States of America, especially, I mean, for anybody.

[111] And I agree with it.

[112] you i think that that this society has gotten into this to this place of where we're trying to out victimize each other like who can be the bigger victim who's had it harder yeah and and you know it's it's the thing that i also believe is it with technology and all this is the empathy like like suffering has became normal for people right like it's became entertainment like look at reality tv like people's messed up lives that's entertainment for people now right video games of of, you know, and I talk about this all the time about war, right?

[113] We came back and it was, like, war has now been romanticized.

[114] It's been romanticized that it's this cool image of, like, I hear people say, I just want to go kick indoors and shoot people in the face.

[115] And it's like, well, you've probably never done it then.

[116] And it's like, we've got our kids playing video games of the stuff that keeps me awake at night.

[117] And it's like, you know, at what point do we start humanizing these things?

[118] When you see one of those crazy video games, those first -person shooters involved in war, does that bring back memories?

[119] I mean, does it, or does it irritate you?

[120] You know, I under, I think that what's not put out there is, is, you know, I hear kids talking about, hey, you know, did you use this or did you use this?

[121] Or did, you hear people say, well, did you kill somebody, right?

[122] it's like kids and I don't think that that's you know I like to me that bothers me because it's not there's nothing cool about taking another human's life and and when you're playing video games and it's like oh I got you know this many kills like these kids are just watching this screen over and over and the more you know the more graphic it gets the like the less desensitized that we have to another human being suffering right the more desensitized yeah desensitized right like the more desensitized and then you start, you know, the more the movies go and the more, I mean, you know, I think, I think that, like, we've just, like, we've pushed ourselves away from, you know, from being empathetic to, hey, these are real people.

[123] These are real people's lives.

[124] Like, what if they, you know, we've stopped looking at people and saying, you know, this is someone's child.

[125] Yes.

[126] This is someone's mother.

[127] Right.

[128] this is someone's son like we've gotten away from that and like like the you know the old art that I was always told to live by is treat someone as you would want to be treated yourself and if you were in those shoes and every time I pass somebody every time I see somebody suffering I always look at that and be like well what would I want somebody to do if they see my daughter suffering or my son suffering right I mean look at all these times I see these people holding their video cameras up in their video and somebody like getting just beat.

[129] And it's like, why, how do you do that not help?

[130] How does that not just suck everything out of you to not want to do something?

[131] Yeah, there's a thing called diffusion of responsibility that happens to people in crowds, unfortunately.

[132] And it's also the same thing that I think when you're filming something that's happening in real life is the same thing that you've seen in these video games and on television shows.

[133] I mean, we have never had more violence in film form and in video game form ever ever but yet we've never had less violence violence like how many people who play these games that have seen people get shot over and over and over and over again have never seen a body never seen anybody get severely wounded or shot yeah and so to them getting shot and shooting people is always uh it's almost like empty it's like bang bang bang bang there's the guy he comes out of the budges bang bang bang you shoot him here comes this guy bang, bang, you shoot them, and it doesn't feel like anything.

[134] And then you shut it off and you have a sandwich, then you turn it on again, you do it again.

[135] So you're experiencing this thing that's empty.

[136] It's like you're pretending to drink water, but there's nothing in the glass.

[137] You just keep doing it over and over again.

[138] And then you get some real water, and you're like, oh, this is different.

[139] Yeah, this is different.

[140] That's not even a good analogy.

[141] That's a terrible analogy, but the analogy of numbing that people are numbed to this fake violence and have no experience with the real stuff.

[142] So they think of the real stuff the same way they think of the fake stuff.

[143] They do.

[144] And then, you know, and sometimes when they see it, they still are numb.

[145] They still can't act, right?

[146] Like, they still don't.

[147] It's kind of like, it's kind of like imagine the way I look at it is, you know, you look at all these simulators, like flight simulators.

[148] Like, I mean, there's all this virtual reality, right, of people are using this for actually training.

[149] And so, like, you don't think that it's the same way when you're doing this.

[150] And then you've got games that come out like Grand Theft Auto.

[151] Right.

[152] Like where you're just running around and you're shooting hookers, running people over.

[153] running like yeah like how does that how is that eat how has anything positive come from that right right how is anything positive yeah it's um we're a weird culture and then weird you could see all the violence you want like i watched john wick three last night i finally finished it jesus christ three quarters of the way through i'm like how many fucking people have they killed this is so ridiculous yeah it's just a murder fest it's murder porn that's what it's like Isn't it?

[154] Kind of?

[155] Yeah.

[156] But the crazy thing is, like, that kind of violence is unheard of.

[157] But yet, you don't show sex.

[158] Like, you could show people's brains exploding.

[159] But if you showed a girl's pussy and a penis going inside of it, people would, Ah!

[160] Get that on the air!

[161] To one thing that doesn't hurt anybody that everybody wants, that would be horrific to show.

[162] Like, if you had a film with, you know, a Bradson, Pid and um give me a hot woman actress Jamie you know hot women actresses who's on Scarlett Johansson okay Scarlett johansson and Brad Pitt have a sex scene and they actually fucking get after it yeah and you you see it and you see her feet up in the air you'd be like what are we watching oh yeah this is crazy but yet you could see Brad Pitt spoiler alert if you see that uh once upon a time in Hollywood is that the name of it the Quentin tant turn he beats a woman to death smashing her face against a mantle of a fucking fireplace and you're like holy fuck that's okay that's okay that's okay that's okay but just fucking dodge and you're like whoa that's fine that's fine that's fine but if you fuck Charlotte Yohansson you saw her asshole you'd be like what I see her actual asshole this is crazy get this up you should go to jail it's weird things that everybody wants to do like we all want sex everybody likes sex everybody likes sex but so bad you know nobody likes beating someone to death their fucking head off a mantle i mean that's a daughter too that's somebody's daughter that fucking we're weird bro we're so weird we are weird yeah when you look at it like that so weird do you know how outrageous it would be if scarlet johansson and brad pitt had an actual sex scene in a movie but they just fucked they said listen i like her she looks me let's do this yeah and she's like let's do it fuck it i'm ready i'm ready to method act that actually happened in a movie called brown bunny it was a long time ago there was a movie with vincent gallo and uh there was an actress her name is chloe i forget how do you say her name svengy how do you say it's a really good actress and he's a really good actor and for whatever reason they decided to do a sex scene where she gives him a real blow job yeah and everybody who saw it in the theater was angry all these critics were angry they're like this is fucking outrageous.

[163] This is terrible.

[164] And it really killed his career.

[165] I mean, it killed her career a little bit, too, I think.

[166] Definitely derailed it, but it fucking killed his career.

[167] Yeah.

[168] Everybody thought he's a creep after that.

[169] It's weird.

[170] A creep, like, a creep for something that everybody's done.

[171] Right.

[172] But, meanwhile, everybody loves Keanu Reeves.

[173] And he's like, da -d -da -d -d -d -d -d -d -d -h.

[174] He's shooting people in the neck, and the asshole, in the face, and the eyeballs in the mouth.

[175] He's cutting him up and stabbing him and throwing him off motorcycles like fuck that's okay though that's okay that's okay that's okay that's okay but vinceing gallo actually getting a legitimate blow job that's outrageous that guy should be pulled out of hollywood forever done he's terrible who wants a blow job yeah it's weird like we can't freak down about watching people do something that everybody wants to do it's it's insane very weird yeah it's insane yeah it's super weird oh that's funny what do you got jamie he uh he uh he produced edited, directed cinematography of the video Yeah, it's his idea to get his dick sucked He made the whole thing I know, he did make the whole thing Like a self -produced sex tape Try getting somebody else to do it Try getting somebody like hey in this scene How about she actually sucks my dick for real?

[176] Oh Vince and no no no really Let's do this Everybody would be like Get the fuck out of here He probably had to film it And not let anybody know what was happening Until after it was over The crazy thing is he talked her into it You imagine she'd be like Wait what the fuck did you just say but he talked her into it and she went with it but that would be fine but you know there's a scene in apocalypse now where there's a water buffalo and they killed the water buffalo with a machete they used a real water buffalo and a real machete they really killed the water buffalo for that scene oh and that was people went nuts I bet they went nuts and they would go nuts now when people find out about now they freak out yeah like I wouldn't like I mean I wouldn't even post anything on my Instagram of hunting because PETA would just like people just tell you like oh we should we should we should we should hunt you we should shoot you with a bone arrow i mean yep you know but but but but but but they can go watch people get killed mm -hmm no problem no problem yeah i very rarely post things i posted the first elk i ever shot with a bow i posted a picture of that because i was it's hard work man it was hard for me to do i was proud of it yeah it was difficult and i was going to eat that elk for a year and i did eat it you know and to me that meant a lot to me like this is how i'm getting my meat now this is my nutrition.

[177] I'm going to feed my family with this, but yeah, the comments are just ridiculous.

[178] They're ridiculous, right?

[179] They just go crazy.

[180] But hey, you know, that's their trip.

[181] This is part of it.

[182] Yeah, their trip is Save the Animals.

[183] Everybody's got their own, it's interesting, like the own thing that gives them a sense of purpose that makes them feel like they're doing something that makes a difference and makes a change.

[184] That matters.

[185] Yeah, and for a lot of people, it's that.

[186] Like, stop eating eggs.

[187] Yeah, stop eating eggs.

[188] Okay.

[189] Good luck with that.

[190] My favorite is when they're rabid, fucking vicious, nasty vegans, and then, like, eight years later, they give up.

[191] They start eating fish, and the next thing you know, they get hard -ons again.

[192] It's like, it doesn't last.

[193] You know, it's so fucking hard to just eat only plants.

[194] It's not the healthiest move for most people.

[195] I mean, everybody varies biologically, but for most people, it's not the healthiest move.

[196] But, you know, I mean, you got to give respect.

[197] I mean, a vegan, like, that's discipline.

[198] Yes.

[199] That's discipline.

[200] 100%.

[201] I have friends that are vegan.

[202] My friend John Joseph, he's legit as fuck, and he's, he's been plant -based for more than 20 years.

[203] I think more than that, right?

[204] 30 maybe even, maybe 30 years.

[205] He's an animal.

[206] But for him, like, it's part of his discipline that helped him clean up.

[207] He was addicted to drugs.

[208] It helped him, you know, I mean, he's done 10 iron mans, you know, so, and then a bunch of half -iron mans as well.

[209] So, like, you know, it's part of who he is as a man, like, his discipline.

[210] And part of his discipline applies to his diet.

[211] Yeah, being a vegan, that's something like I couldn't do.

[212] You could do it.

[213] No. I'm sure you could.

[214] You don't want to do it.

[215] What you've done, you can probably do anything that people can do.

[216] You know, the way I justify it is, is like, I'm, you know, I'm a vegetarian through secondhand sores.

[217] Right, you're eating vegetarians.

[218] Well, yeah, exactly.

[219] Yeah.

[220] So let's just do a secondhand source.

[221] Yeah.

[222] I don't think they count that.

[223] It doesn't?

[224] No, I don't think so.

[225] You know, it's, I don't know, man. It's one of those things where it's...

[226] Even when I drink, it's from corn.

[227] right so Anthony Bourdain used to get really angry about this and one of the things that he said was this is a first world problem he's like we are so fortunate that we have this problem and in other countries they're just trying to get enough protein to feed their family they're just trying to get enough food to feed people you know and he was it wasn't like he was indifferent to animals but he was deeply concerned about people about you know because of all this was traveling he had like a great deal of empathy for all these different people and these different cultures and their cuisine and he did that a tremendous amount of respect for it like he would talk about it like it was religious to him almost you know yeah like you know when we would go into villages and eat i mean if they if they had meat like that was a big deal like if they if they brought meat out to you then they you know that was a huge deal yeah um i mean you look at it and it's just like gosh you know we we you know we're over here complaining about stuff that that most countries wish they had those problems like most 90 % of stuff we're complaining about most countries wish they had those problems right but I get it the people don't want those problems to exist too they want those problems to go away they want a utopia and the only way to build towards a utopia is to improve upon the problems that we have and we do have problems across the board but in comparison I would just love some perspective from people I would just love some and I think that would go a long way to help people have more happiness well I mean but I mean how do you wake up when all you do is focus on problems right like it's kind of like you know when you're when you're when you're when you're you're working or you're at a job right or you own a company like everybody's you're always just fixing i call it putting out fires yeah and if that's all you do is constantly put out fires like at what point do you become grateful like like at what point at what point of the day do people stop and look around right and they're grateful for what they have and they're appreciative of at a guy tell me you know when i was going through my divorce i mean i was i was a train wreck just called tim kennedy and he'll tell you um you know i'll never forget a guy set me down i I was talking about all these problems and just nitpicking and fighting over the small stuff.

[228] And, I mean, literally just, well, she worded it this way and she needs to do it this way.

[229] Like literally just every little thing.

[230] And a guy finally sent me down and he looked at me and he goes, look, Dakota, he said, if you can make choices or decisions to change it, then it's not a problem.

[231] It's an inconvenience.

[232] The day that you can't make a choice, you've got cancer or a kid sick or something like that, he goes, that's a day you've got problems.

[233] Until then, you just got inconveniences.

[234] That's a great way to look at it.

[235] until then you just got inconveniences and I was like you're right it's a great way to look at it because there's levels of problems right there's insurmountable problems cancer injuries things things of that nature car accidents and you know what and the thing is and I think you know the I think I'm so fortunate to to have gone through the experiences that I have because I you know each one of them it it's all perspective it changes my perspective on the way I look at things it changes the things that are important to me I call it I always call it.

[236] Everybody's got their lens of life.

[237] And that lens of life, your lens of life looks different than mine.

[238] Mine looks different than yours.

[239] And we all have our own lens of life.

[240] And at the point, you know, we get so focused and get into autopilot and it'll focus on, you know, it's kind of like your camera, you pull it up and you got it on autofocus.

[241] It never focuses on what you want it focused on, right?

[242] Until you go back to the manual focus and you push where it's at.

[243] And I feel like all these problems that we have are just made to, hey, we need to tighten our lens back up to focus on what really, really, really matters.

[244] Yeah.

[245] Well, I think sometimes people need to hear it from someone who are like you, you know, or someone like Jocko or, you know, the beautiful thing about these podcasts is that you get to hear people's perspective and a lot of them are eye -opening.

[246] You know, they literally can change the world because they change the way you behave and you interact with people when you listen to it.

[247] And that podcast that you did with Jocko when I was listening to it, I mean, it changed my whole day.

[248] It changed like how I was going to look at my day.

[249] I was, you know, instead of like looking at my day, like, oh, it's a normal day.

[250] I was thinking, God damn, I'm lucky.

[251] God damn, I'm lucky.

[252] And God damn, imagine experiencing what you, and how old were you at the time?

[253] I was 21.

[254] 21 years old.

[255] Yeah.

[256] And experiencing what you experienced in that insane firefight being locked down.

[257] And, I mean, how many guys did you wind up engaging with?

[258] I don't know.

[259] I, you know, I don't know.

[260] I mean, every one day I got an opportunity with, right?

[261] And it just, you know, it was just a, you know, it was so chaotic.

[262] I mean, I still, I look, I think about it all the time, obviously.

[263] It's something I could have never experienced.

[264] I mean, I trained for war every single day when I was in the Marine Corps.

[265] I mean, it was what my job was.

[266] And I still could have never imagined that day the way it was or anything to turn out.

[267] I could have never pictured it.

[268] I could have never.

[269] And I think every day it goes by, I think there's a reckoning of it, right?

[270] the way that I seen it that day is not the way I see it today.

[271] And I think that comes with, you know, just sharpening and just your body, you know, you change and you see different things in perspective.

[272] But, yeah, I mean, you know, I, I, you know, that day, I mean, it's still, I mean, it still is just, you know, just, it's just, there's so many lessons that come from that day that, you know, I look at people complaining about stuff here in America and it's like, you know, I've seen him.

[273] day the best of humans the worst of humans and everybody nobody thought they were wrong and it's possibly you know it's just it's just one of those deals of you know that that day was just that's an important point what you just said nobody thought they were wrong not them not you yeah you know i i but and it changed me that day like i walked in there that day and i was the guy who was cocky who would tell you you know i love fighting you know what i mean like i i like I just want to go fight like you know but every every fight I had before that it was like you know I always had airplanes sitting you know or helicopter sitting sitting around I always had you know it was like I'm going to go in there and start the fight and then I'm going to call in all this other this other stuff to to win right and um that day it wasn't there and and and literally I walked out of there and I just think about all the time today I just think about all the time of how many generations just that day were changed how many generations of people's lives were changed you know all my teammates died so they'll never have kids that generation stopped their families forever exist so many lives were changed that day by that that that piece and guess what and everybody in America had no clue what was going on like right now there are U .S. troops somebody wondering if they're going to be able to come home and see their family again that's reality whether you want to ignore or not like that's reality and that was me september 8 2009 and it was just a gosh it was a chaotic day it's amazing how you could have thousands of days in your life and one day changes the way you look at everything one day changes the way you look at everything and you know and like the the further I go on I look at it different you know I always talk about this story of um you know whenever this guy came up behind me and I ended up I ended up killing him with the rock and I always remember just like I remember it like I see it every night like I remember like I just see his face and like I just because there was a point there's a point that I feel like that anybody that when they whether they're injured or anything like they realize they're defeated like they like it like you i don't know i just think there's a point when you look at somebody and they know they're going to die and i never forget that and i you know now i look at it and i see it and i always think that like this guy is a son to somebody his mother and father are going to miss him this guy he believes in his cause as much as i do he doesn't believe he's wrong this guy this guy he he could have had a wife or kids that are never going to see their father again just like you know my dad might have never seen me again if it was switched and really I don't even know I don't hate him I don't even know this guy we're just here at this place right now because we were born in two different countries were you out of weapon Were you out of ammo?

[274] So my, no, he had came up and he started choking me. I had shot him once before, and I was trying to pick my buddy, Dada Lee.

[275] My, one of my closest Afghans, Dada Lee had been shot.

[276] He got, he had been killed, and I came around this terrorist to get him, and I was on my knee, and this guy came up behind me. And, um...

[277] So he didn't have a weapon either.

[278] He was sure.

[279] No, he did.

[280] He had a weapon, and I ended up shooting him from the ground, and I thought he was dead when he fell on the ground.

[281] and I kind of moved down and got down with Dada Lee because I was still getting shot at from this machine gun up on this hill and I was trying to make myself small as I could and this guy ends up coming up and choking me like I thought he was dead and he ends up choking me out he starts trying to choke me out and eventually let up a little bit and I ended up getting around him and I just got we were fighting back and forth and I can remember all I was thinking about was like don't let his legs get on me like you know these guys their legs I mean, they've been crawling up mountains their whole life.

[282] And he was a pretty big dude.

[283] And I just remember getting on top of him, finally got on top of him.

[284] And I was rolling on top of him.

[285] He didn't have all the gear on, I did.

[286] And I remember getting on top of him like I was straddling him, and I'm just reaching up trying to grab for anything I can.

[287] And I'm holding him down with my forearm, and I'm just grabbing anything I can.

[288] And finally I ended up grabbing a rock, and I just started beating this dude's face.

[289] And I just start beating and beating and beating.

[290] And I remember just like finally, like after hitting him, you know, I don't know, three or four times, four or five times, whatever, I remember him like finally just kind of looking at me and like just, it's like he's like just, I'm just looking him in the eyes, like obviously closer than me to you right now.

[291] And you just see all the, you can tell.

[292] Like he knows where this is going.

[293] And I always think about that, you know.

[294] Obviously I would kill him a million times over again, right?

[295] He was the enemy like, I don't feel.

[296] go bad about that part of it.

[297] But I just think about, like, in that moment, if I can find a way to relate to him in that moment, a man I'm taking his life, we all in America can find a way to connect with each other.

[298] If we don't connect with each other, it's because we choose not to.

[299] I don't care what your differences are.

[300] Like, don't, like, find a reason of why we can get along, not why we should not get along.

[301] Right.

[302] And I always think about that moment, you know, of this guy and you know obviously ended up dying and and what it showed me was is that no cause that you have that's built on hate will survive i didn't hate this guy i didn't even know him but i was willing to to take his life because of what i loved and that's what that's what we have to build our lives and our foundation on, is not being angry and hating each other, but because we love the cause that we believe in so much.

[303] Does that make sense?

[304] It does make sense.

[305] I understand what you're saying.

[306] The way they look at it in Afghanistan, this, so it's, is it Al -Qaeda or the Taliban?

[307] So Al -Qaeda is mainly in, so Al -Qaeda was in Iraq.

[308] So Al -Qaeda is the issue that's in I reckon the Taliban is the issue that's in Afghanistan.

[309] And the Taliban, what are they trying to do?

[310] Are they trying to run a religious caliphate?

[311] Yeah, I mean, they just want, you know, they want to run, you know, it the way that they want to, right?

[312] Like, they want to, they don't want, they don't believe in, you know, women being educated.

[313] I mean, they don't believe in any, like, like, they don't believe in, you know, they go back to their beliefs of, you know, it's driven by religion of all that control.

[314] They want to, they want to control.

[315] And how much support did they have from the general.

[316] population?

[317] I mean, I think not necessarily the support because I think that it's not necessarily the support, it's the power that they have, right?

[318] Like, they come in and they lead with a heavy hand, right?

[319] I mean, there's these they don't, these, these, these, the locals run the place.

[320] But the Taliban is kind of like, look at it like a gang, right?

[321] Like, kind of like a, like a mob or or like, or like, um, the Taliban is kind of like the cartel, right?

[322] And so that's where they come from, and they try to lead with violence and the same thing that you would see with the cartel.

[323] Taliban is kind of like an over -a -big cartel.

[324] And so the general population, they would like that to not be the case.

[325] Yeah, I mean, they want a system of democracy similar to what we have?

[326] I mean, I don't know that they want that, but I don't think, I don't think, I don't think, of course.

[327] Like, I mean, I think they all see that they live in shithole.

[328] right?

[329] They all see, you know, I think that they know what could get, you know, how it could be better and how life could be better, you know?

[330] Yeah.

[331] The cool thing about America is that we know what freedom is.

[332] And I promise you this, like, you want to have all the differences stop.

[333] If anybody ever invaded us, I mean, people don't want to give anything up.

[334] So they would all start fighting.

[335] Everybody would get on the same page and start fighting if anybody tried to come to America because nobody would want to give up their stuff.

[336] Well, post 9 -11, do you remember that?

[337] You were a younger guy at the time.

[338] old were you at 9 -11?

[339] I was in the eighth grade and I always say I would never wish for another 9 -11 but I would give anything for a 9 -12.

[340] I would give anything for a 9 -12.

[341] It was crazy.

[342] Like people were friendly, people were letting people in in traffic, people that, like American flags were everywhere.

[343] Everywhere.

[344] People were proud of America.

[345] Like, yeah, it was, it was crazy.

[346] It was crazy like how on in sync everybody was it's hard for people who weren't there on those days to understand the mood of the country it was a different world like we people were patriotic like everybody was i don't necessarily remember what it was like before the day 9 -11 so i i don't i don't have much perspective on that but i do remember 9 -12 i remember i mean everybody was proud to be americans i mean you i mean it was everybody was everybody was everybody was everybody everybody was proud of our country and who we all switch had turned it was and in that the way it goes though like when something tragic happens like isn't that the way it goes like like we refocus on what really matters like all these differences go away yeah but we come back to what matters well that's something that a lot of people who experience war have said that this is where they felt the most connected because their life was literally in danger and because they knew because they had lost loved ones to this thing.

[347] They had lost brothers to this thing that this was real and that to this day that is the most exciting and happiest time of their life because they were so connected.

[348] Sebastian Younger wrote about this in a movie book Tribe.

[349] Have you read it?

[350] I haven't read it.

[351] It's very good and it probably would speak to a lot of the exact same things that you say.

[352] But you know like I I find the same thing not the same thing obviously because my life's not in danger and I hope that I never have to go a day where my life's in danger again.

[353] And I find the same appreciation back here in a country that I love.

[354] I can, you know, I narrowed it down because I had to come up with a reason of like why, you know, I mean, it's hard to sit here and watch the valleys that you fought for, and then the government go and give those valleys back to the Taliban, you know.

[355] There's this one video, me and my buddy, we're laughing about the other day, a base that he had been on, and he shows me this video, and it's like literally the treadmills that were in the gym there, it's a Taliban guy running on our treadmills, right?

[356] Like they had left it there.

[357] And we're just like, whoa, you know?

[358] And I always think about, you know, because if you get down in the weeds of it and you start really getting, you'll get upset about, you know, that valley, did I really, did my teammate sacrifice really change your life?

[359] Like if they hadn't a sacrifice that day, would your life be changed?

[360] Like, because that's what we're fighting for is America.

[361] And so I just, I always looked at it like this and I came to peace with it of, you know, all we were trying to do anywhere we went when I served and I wore the nation's cloth.

[362] Like I got the, I got the best opportunity.

[363] When people thank me for my service, I'm like, don't thank me. Like, I appreciate you letting me represent America, be the away team for the United States of America.

[364] Like I got to wear the nation's cloth in so many countries.

[365] But I always, I justify it as all we try.

[366] tried to do no matter whether we were passing out soccer balls to kids or we were going in and providing security for a whale or we were taking out an enemy combatant all we were trying to do was make that part of the world that we were in a better place that's all we were trying to do we're trying to leave it better than we found at that moment and if we take that same concept and we apply it here and we all go over and do it for the person on the left and the right of us and if we use that same concept you can apply it here in america every day every single day you can make this world just a little bit better there's a lot of people in this country that don't think we should be nation building in other countries and um including people like tulsi gabard who served but then you got people like dan krenshaw who i've had on the podcast who the what his perspective is you have to go over there Like, you can't allow these groups to get more powerful and gain more control.

[367] You just can't.

[368] You can't.

[369] You can't.

[370] And if not us, then who?

[371] And the thing is, is America's a beacon of hope across the world.

[372] America's a beacon of hope.

[373] And you can notice when America's strong, everybody hates us.

[374] When America's weak, the world suffers.

[375] And I'm not saying we need to go.

[376] in and fight everybody's battle obviously right like but on the backside of it you know we're not necessarily going in and fighting for other countries but we do have an obligation to go and help people like you take Syria when they are gassing when they are gassing kids and women if nobody else is going to go send rockets in there if nobody else is going to go hold somebody accountable for it I'm there's nobody that's serving that's wearing the uniform that's not gladly doing that and going to go hold them accountable for it has nothing to do with anything other than good and evil and if we don't go fight the evil then who's going to do it who's going to do it and we don't want the evil to get bigger you don't want the evil to get bigger you don't want the evil to to progress and you don't want the evil to to think that they can I mean imagine you see what they're doing right now and I think the world knows that America will come and show up and you see how they're still going imagine if they didn't have to worry about us doing it imagine what they would look like I think you can imagine better than most that's part of the problem is that you know when you're in Catlabassas you know going to the mall you know getting yourself a fucking smoothie it doesn't seem real you know and you can have all these opinions about what we should be doing, you know, and that we need to stop these war mongers, and we need to stop this and stop that.

[377] And I've had those opinions myself in the past and gone back and forth.

[378] And the only thing that's changed my mind is I listen to people that actually know.

[379] I think it's one of the most important things you could ever do.

[380] And don't try to form an opinion if you don't really have any facts and any real understanding.

[381] I've done that in the past, too.

[382] I've made those mistakes.

[383] I can tell you this You know You look at 9 -11 Thousands of people died And then none of them volunteered To give their country for their life that day Except obviously the first responders You look since 9 -11 Besides a couple attacks that's been in America But you look since 9 -11 Everybody that's given their life overseas Has volunteered to do that They volunteered to go fight the evil and for us to go over there and do that and keep it off the country to keep it out of our country to keep it to where our kids and our families and our mothers and fathers and don't have to worry about this I mean obviously it could happen anywhere but but I can't think that us being over there and giving them a place to fight us has not helped this country keep from being attacked multiple times if we had not gone over there.

[384] That's a hard pill for people to swallow, right?

[385] They don't want to think that.

[386] They want to think the reason why they would attack us is because we're over there.

[387] Yeah.

[388] Well, you know what?

[389] I mean, why did we get attacked on 9 -11?

[390] That's a good question.

[391] You know, like, these people hate us just because they hate us.

[392] Like, they, it's not about, you know, there was that one worker that said that, oh, we should go over there and get them more jobs and more opportunities.

[393] No, these people don't care.

[394] Like, these people have, they wake up every day and try to think of a way to kill us.

[395] Like, there's no negotiating with these people.

[396] These people are evil.

[397] These people will do nasty things to human beings that, that no, you couldn't even imagine.

[398] You couldn't make a video game about.

[399] I mean, you look at some of this ISIS stuff of what they're doing.

[400] I mean, putting somebody in a cage and burning them, you want to be empathetic to that?

[401] throwing people because of their sexual preference off the top tying their hands and legs together and throw them off the top of a building these are the type of people that this is the type of evil like that that that we're going after and if we don't do it who's going to do it right who's going to do it do you think it's possible that this all could be resolved someday then maybe if it's not our children our children's children do you think it's possible nope that's that everybody says that there's one of the most disheartening things about any kind of conflict but i mean if you look at any of the books that came before us this is this is what you get this is this is just part of any at any point in time there's there's conflict going on it'll never be resolved it'll never be resolved it will never be resolved it will never be resolved So it's like a maintenance program.

[402] That's hard for people to swallow, right?

[403] Because people want to think that the reason why it will never be resolved is because the military, industrial complex, wants to keep us at war, and this is just a big money grab, and that's all they're trying to do is the reason why they have us over there, is they're sending people over there to die so that they can make money.

[404] This is how people love to look at it.

[405] I mean, everybody wants to, I think it's just because everybody wants to find a reason.

[406] you know everybody wants to everybody wants a reason that they can touch feel and blame like they want something to blame right and they you know there's nothing to blame except the people who are doing this and it exists and it's real and these are real people and you know what we're just so lucky that we have an all -volunteer military with some of the greatest people that's ever walk the face of the planet who are willing to go do this who are willing to do it on on mining your behalf i mean how cool is that it's pretty wild when you think about it right because it's a complete volunteer army volunteer complete volunteer military these people are willing to raise their right hand to a piece of paper to an idea of democracy go over they put their whole life on hold their wives sacrifice i mean you take military spouses and and they sacrifice if not more than than the people you know then then then the veterans and the service members and they're they're willing to go over and fight for mine your freedom they've never met us but they're willing to give their lives for it like think about this like like i challenge people who are who are listening to this like what are can you name one thing right now that you're willing to give your life for?

[407] I think about that.

[408] What would you give your life for right now?

[409] Like, like, somebody pulled a gun out.

[410] You know you're going to die.

[411] What would you give your life for?

[412] I mean, these people are willing to go do it on the idea of democracy, on the idea of me and you, on the idea of good.

[413] It's incredible.

[414] It is incredible.

[415] You, when you signed up, how old were you?

[416] 17.

[417] You were 17.

[418] Wow.

[419] I had my 18th birthday.

[420] damn boot camp no shit yeah wow so you can do that i didn't know i didn't know you i thought you had to be 18 no no i graduated high school at 17 and my dad signed for me oh someone can sign for you yeah wow and did you have any other aspirations or was that something that you knew you were going to do no i like honestly a marine recruiter channel told me i'd never make it as a marine and so like yeah yeah like i was just walking boy was he fucking wrong yeah well like he told me i was walking through my lunchroom.

[421] I mean, I don't have any cool stories.

[422] Like, oh, I woke up and knew I was going to be a Marine.

[423] Like, you know, I was walking through the lunchroom and this Marine recruiter was there.

[424] I started asking him a lot of smart aleck questions and just, you know, being a typical high school student.

[425] And he's like, look, you're wasting my time.

[426] You'd never make it as a Marine.

[427] And, you know, look, I was up for the challenge, so I signed up.

[428] So him saying that was what really stirred in?

[429] Yeah, that was it.

[430] Wow.

[431] I didn't even really what did you think you were signing up for you know i just told him i wanted to go fight wow yeah yeah holy smokes you know but you think about that like our whole life is built off decisions you know our decisions our control we are we are today where we're where we deserve to be because we made the decisions up to this point like and that's a hard pill to swallow too yeah it's variable right there's there's some things that are out of you control.

[432] There are, but...

[433] But a lot of it.

[434] But a lot of it.

[435] Yeah.

[436] You can't control situations and circumstances, but you can control how you take it.

[437] You can control your response.

[438] You can control your response.

[439] Growing up like that, I mean, you're growing up in combat.

[440] I mean, you're growing up at 18 years old.

[441] I mean, I was a fucking baby when I was 18.

[442] Yeah.

[443] You're growing up in combat.

[444] I did, yeah.

[445] I guess if you look at it like that, yeah.

[446] Yeah.

[447] And you are here now 10 years after what we were talking about.

[448] Yeah.

[449] And you said it still keeps you up.

[450] Yeah, I mean, I wake up, you know, a couple nights a month and just, you know, an anxiety attack throwing up.

[451] I was actually speaking last week.

[452] I was on the road.

[453] It's the first time, you know, I always, like, I'm always nervous.

[454] Like, if in the middle of night my daughter gets scared or, you know, she comes down and gets in my bed.

[455] like I'm always really like nervous about that because like I don't I would like it like it was so I was so nervous about it because I was just gosh I never want them to see me in that in that that state right and the other day we were on the road I was speaking out in North Carolina and she was obviously we were in a hotel so she was staying with me and I don't know I didn't feel good that night so what I did is I put a I put a pillow between us and gosh I had I had one I knocked my tooth off I knocked my veneer off like it was so terrible and uh she just looked at me she's three and she just looked at me and she said it's okay daddy you're not you're not a bad dad wow and uh three had three and i was like gosh you know but yeah i mean you know you still i mean this is that's that's why you look at it and i see these people who who play these video games and they get nothing from like there's no emotional attachment to it and it's like this stuff's real like there's nobody who i would go out on a limb and say there's nobody who sees this stuff and they don't you don't come back and deal with it like it's it's a normal process to to being part of not normal situations what kind of resources are available to you when you do come back like how how do they treat people that are suffering from people PTSD and.

[456] Well, you've got to be careful with it, right?

[457] Because, I mean, the last track you want to get on is, is all the pharmaceutical drugs, right, like the pills and stuff.

[458] And you'll get on that real quick.

[459] The VA is notorious for it.

[460] So, you know, we, what do they try to give you?

[461] Um, I mean, colotopin, X, I've been on tons of blood pressure medicine.

[462] I mean, you go down the list, right?

[463] And, uh, and I, like, I went down that, I went down that, right?

[464] and it got me nowhere.

[465] But now, you know, like we're, you know, there's tons of nonprofits out there who are doing a lot of great stuff, trying to help out.

[466] You know, what's one thing that we found out and actually studies are starting to show that this helps is, it's called a Stella Ganglingling Block.

[467] It's called SGB.

[468] It's a Stella Gangling Block.

[469] And you get a shot.

[470] It goes in your neck.

[471] And I'll tell you this, like when I got that shot, it instantly, before the needle came out of my neck, Dr. Sean Mulvaney is the guy that's putting all this together.

[472] When the needle came out of my neck, it instantly took me from being, like my whole life was downtown New York City and rush hour traffic, 15 minutes late to a meeting that my life depended on, to instantly being driving down a quiet country road with nowhere to be.

[473] Really?

[474] instantly.

[475] What is it doing?

[476] So basically what it does is, is this is how it was described to me. And you have like two systems.

[477] You have like your, your automatic nervous system and then you have your manual, right?

[478] So your automatic is like your eyes blinking, breathing, things like that.

[479] Your manual is like, hey, I need to reach over here and grab this bottle of water.

[480] And what happens is, is fight or flight gets stuck in your automated.

[481] Like there's no longer do you say, I recognize this is as a threat and now I go into fight or flight.

[482] So what it does is you've been in that so long that it gets put over into the automatic side.

[483] And so what this does is it's kind of like a restart.

[484] Like there's no, nothing that lasts long in it.

[485] It goes in and it basically, I think it gets on, it's called the sciatic nerve, and it basically gives you a restart.

[486] And it just took away all my anxiety.

[487] I mean, it just, it instantly like just melted it away.

[488] How long does it last?

[489] So it comes down to, I mean, sometimes I get one, one a year, one every six months, but it just comes down to do you go back and expose yourself to these chaotic situations, right?

[490] Like, do you go keep making bad decisions?

[491] But for me, I look at it as like a, it's a solution to, I call it the flashbang of anxiety.

[492] So like it's that flashbang that gives you the moment, the separation, to where now I can make decisions that I don't feel like I'm out of control.

[493] Now I can make decisions to get things back together.

[494] What is the actual chemical that they're using?

[495] I don't know.

[496] I would have to look.

[497] He's got an article about it.

[498] That's crazy that it's so effective.

[499] Using stellet ganglion block to treat post -traumatic stress disorder.

[500] Yeah.

[501] Okay, make that a little bigger, Jamie?

[502] Post -traumatic trust disorder develops in response to being exposed to extreme stress.

[503] Okay, the sympathetic nervous system, fight, or flight, has been known to play a part in PTSD.

[504] It's believed that extra nerves of the system sprout or grow after extreme trauma.

[505] Wow.

[506] Leading to elevated levels of norapinephrine, an adrenaline -like substance, which in turn overactivates the amygdala, the fear center of the brain.

[507] This chain of events results in PTSD symptoms that may persist for years.

[508] So part of the sympathetic nervous system called a stellar ganglion, a collective nerves in the neck, seems to control the activation of the amygdala.

[509] A recent innovation offers potential and rapidly treating symptoms of PTSD for a prolonged period of time, placing an anesthetic agent on the stellet ganglion in an anesthetic procedure called the Stellet ganglion block can relieve the symptoms of PTSD in as little as 30 minutes.

[510] And for you, it's at just a few seconds.

[511] Before the needle is out.

[512] And last for years, the SGB reboots the sympathetic nervous system to its pre -trauma.

[513] state similar to a computer reboot in the brain.

[514] Nor epinephrine levels are rapidly reduced and the extra nerve growth is removed.

[515] Wow.

[516] SGB is an anesthetic procedure that has been performed since 1925 and is considered a low risk pain procedure done under X -ray guidance.

[517] That's insane.

[518] Yeah.

[519] They use a, so Dr. Sean Mulvaney is the guy.

[520] I've been to other doctors and he's Dr. Mulvaney's the only guy I would go to who does it the way.

[521] He's got the whole.

[522] procedure set up he was a navy seal um he's a doctor and uh he does it out of dc and and but nobody you know most people hadn't heard of this you know i've never heard of this yeah it's and it's uh i went in and he called me the next day and he was like so how do you feel i said man i caught myself singing in the shower this morning like i caught myself singing the shower what were you singing i don't i can't remember but i was like man i caught myself singing a shower like i actually like walked out of there and i and and to me you know i got to a point at that point like i i got to a low point and i just there was nothing like there's nothing in my life i can complain about like there's nothing i i have this country has given me a life that i could have never dreamed to ever have um i have no problems zero and i just woke up every day and i was just like I just don't want to wake up feeling like this.

[523] And so he's like, come do this.

[524] Come do this.

[525] And I came out there and did it and it changed my whole life.

[526] That sounds infinitely better than therapy or talking through it or any of the other methods I've ever heard of.

[527] Yeah.

[528] Well, I mean, I think all that matters.

[529] I think the therapy, like if you want to go do talk therapy, that's good.

[530] Like, you should do that.

[531] But I always tell people who go do talk therapy, like go in there, with a plan of where you want your life to be.

[532] Like, it's like going to a nutrition coach or a workout coach and not giving them goals.

[533] Right.

[534] You know, don't go in there just to go in there.

[535] Like, go in there with a plan.

[536] You know, hey, how, and have them help you get to that plan.

[537] But this, this is instantly, just like that.

[538] That's incredible.

[539] Now, did they try to do that in conjunction with medication?

[540] Does it, is a standalone thing?

[541] Stand -alone thing.

[542] Wow.

[543] Stand -alone thing.

[544] You know, the only thing I do to help mine, and my anxiety is, like, it can get bad.

[545] like I'm talking bad when you say that like what happens like what's what's the process you know I usually feel it building up over days yeah days like it's almost like a like it'll come and it just builds up and then it's like it'll you'll have like a little little bit of an anxiety attack or whatever you'll start feeling anxiety or anxious and that becomes your new baseline and then it keeps building and people don't recognize it and for a long time I used to, like, I used to drink a lot, and I didn't, because I didn't, I didn't know what anxiety was.

[546] I mean, what do you mean?

[547] Like, this is how I feel all the time.

[548] Right.

[549] And then, you know, then what usually happens is at night, it'll just, when I go to sleep, it'll just, it'll rock me. It'll rock me. I'll start throwing up.

[550] I'll be sweating.

[551] I'll be crying.

[552] Like, I mean, I'll be in the floor.

[553] Now, are you thinking things when this is happening, or is it just an overwhelming sense of anxiety, just all encompassing?

[554] I just, I don't know where it comes from.

[555] I mean, obviously, I know where it comes from but are you thinking about war where this is happening no no I think it just in my subconscious I think you know obviously your brain is always trying to to like when you're asleep trying to file things and process things right and I think that's what happens is like consciously you know you know consciously it doesn't bother me to talk about it like yeah I went back and I was in another gunfight four days later and I mean literally I was packing up all my teammate stuff getting ready to go back to fight again and I got into another gunfight and I think that you know coming home your brain's still trying to process all that stuff and I think it happens to anybody you don't have to go to war you could be in a car wreck I mean you look at you look at the October 1st shooting in Vegas you know you could you can go through anything right like whatever I think it's what people are dealing with and it's just I think that's why you see so much anxiety across the world is because of all this desensitization consciously and people are processing it subconsciously.

[556] That makes sense.

[557] That really makes sense that it's, they're taking in all this information.

[558] They think it's not affecting them at all, but it really is.

[559] It is, and I think it's why you see all these people feeling like their lives are out of control.

[560] And it's because consciously, like, we're not sitting here talking about it.

[561] Like, well, yeah, yeah, you know, I've seen a car wreck the other day or, you know, so -and -so died or, you know what I mean?

[562] And it's like they're not ever processing it consciously.

[563] but their body will subconscious like your body will i always say you can either exercise your demons or they're going to exercise you that's a great way to put it what do they recommend when when when you i mean do they check on you to see if you are having anxiety or do you have to come to them and explain it yeah i mean you you just you go to them does anybody get through it without anxiety i mean i i like i i would worry about the people that got through it without it i mean You know what I mean?

[564] Right.

[565] I mean, if you can go kill people and not get to it without nightmares or anything, you know.

[566] But I think some people do.

[567] I mean, I think people just deal with it different ways.

[568] Right.

[569] But me, you know, like I used to drink a lot.

[570] But I was doing it not because I was an alcoholic.

[571] I was doing it as a, I just, I had rather, I could regulate my drinking better than I could the effects of what medicine would do to me. now do the marines have a system that they will they check on you and make sure you're okay or guide you into a specific type of treatment when they know there's something wrong yeah yeah but you know the problem is for all these war fighters is like they don't want to go talk about it or tell the marine corps because then they're you know you're you're or the military i'll just say military wide you know they they look at you as well now this person can't operate everybody everybody's too worried to talk about this because they're afraid of not being able to do their job because they're afraid that somebody will look at them and say oh well you got PTSD so you don't need a gun and it's like you know most people that have PTSD are car wreck victims really yeah that's the biggest source of PTSD yeah you can you can google it see the biggest source of PTSD is car wreck victims wow well there's probably a lot of those right a tons of them yeah so when you do have an issue.

[572] How do you go from having an issue to getting treatment?

[573] What's the process?

[574] Well, you mean, if you, if you tell your command, I mean, you know, there's all types of resources there.

[575] I mean, you know, but you have to speak out.

[576] And that's the problem, right?

[577] That's the problem is nobody wants to talk out because, you know, you start talking and, you know, how quick's your job going to be gone.

[578] You know, I got out.

[579] I was out before, you know, I was out so fast after all this happened.

[580] I was out, you know, seven or eight months afterwards.

[581] I didn't realize what was going on until I probably never started dealing with my PTSD until 2016.

[582] I thought this was just normal.

[583] What made you change?

[584] My daughters, my daughter, Sailor.

[585] I can remember the day I was in a, I was actually in the floor, like just having an anxiety attack like crazy and I was like I got to do something.

[586] I've got to do something because my daughters they deserve the best father possible.

[587] Like they had no choice in coming in this world.

[588] And, you know, I might not want to deal with it and face it for myself.

[589] But they deserve for me to wake up every single day and give them the best father that they could possibly have.

[590] And that is my responsibility to them.

[591] Is that when you first got this shot, just block?

[592] So I ended up getting it in 2017, yeah, 2017, I think.

[593] And I didn't know anything about it until, you know, once I found out about it, I did.

[594] How did you find out about it?

[595] Just another warrior that had gotten it, and it worked for them.

[596] Wow.

[597] And I also used, so I use three methods to maintain all of it.

[598] I use the Stellic Anglingling Block, which is kind of, when it gets real bad, I'll go get that.

[599] That's like the whole reboot, right?

[600] For maintenance, I usually use, it's called an alpha stem, and so it goes on your earlobes.

[601] I've heard of that.

[602] People quit smoking with that, right?

[603] I don't know about that.

[604] It's usually for pain, anxiety, depression.

[605] But I use an alpha stem, and it goes, I put it on, clip it on my ears, and it, like, I usually do it every day, and it just, it melts.

[606] It melts it away as well.

[607] And then the last piece is, and this is not obviously in our community, it's probably not the popular side of it is is um is using a pen at night you know before i go ahead uh yeah yeah yeah do you CBD so it's it's the it's the um indica yeah and that like that pretty much eliminated all my drinking really yeah why is that not popular i don't know i think it's kind of like still like the taboo right like the town i come from they just made alcohol legal in it A few years ago.

[608] What town are you from?

[609] Columbia, Kentucky.

[610] That's crazy.

[611] They just made alcohol legal?

[612] Yeah.

[613] Wow.

[614] That's a good place to study.

[615] That's like an uncontacted tribe.

[616] Yeah, well, you know, look, if you make it legal, the bootleckers will go out of business.

[617] Right.

[618] Oh, okay.

[619] It's Duke's Hazard style.

[620] That's crazy.

[621] Yeah.

[622] Wow.

[623] They just made alcohol legal.

[624] Holy shit.

[625] So, yeah, vape pens are out of the question.

[626] Oh, yeah.

[627] Show up with a pot leave t -shirt, they'll shoot you.

[628] Oh, oh, listen.

[629] Yeah.

[630] That's so crazy.

[631] Yeah.

[632] That's, yeah, it's a weird taboo, but that combination, particularly like indica, it helps a lot of veterans.

[633] Yeah, the indica is like, it's, you know, you take like two or three puffs of that, and, man, it makes you conk out.

[634] You're asleep.

[635] You don't wake up with a hangover.

[636] Right.

[637] That's the cool part of it.

[638] Yeah.

[639] Yeah, it's a different kind of sleep.

[640] And CBD has some great benefits for people as well and alleviating anxiety.

[641] A lot of people like to use the two of them in conjunction.

[642] But at least it's good that that's available to you.

[643] Yeah.

[644] Where are you living these days?

[645] I live in Austin.

[646] Oh, okay, so you can get it there, right?

[647] It's not.

[648] Even if it's legal.

[649] It's not legal, right?

[650] It's not.

[651] No. Yeah.

[652] But it's still there.

[653] Yeah, it's still there.

[654] Austin's filled with hippies.

[655] It's the weirdest place in all of Texas, right?

[656] They are, they're keeping it weird.

[657] They definitely keep it weird, but it's a weird combination, because it's like hippies, but there's also a lot of guns.

[658] Yeah.

[659] Like, it's like, you know what I mean?

[660] It's like a hunting culture and a Second Amendment culture, and there's like a lot going on there.

[661] And then hippies.

[662] It's like you want to, it's like people wearing fanny packs with guns in them.

[663] Yes.

[664] Right?

[665] Yeah.

[666] Yeah, man. Yeah, you see a guy with a fanny pack in Texas.

[667] Assume.

[668] Yeah, assume he's carrying.

[669] Yeah.

[670] It's a different animal.

[671] And Arizona's even weird.

[672] Like, Arizona is one of those open carry states, right?

[673] Yeah.

[674] You could just have it on your hip and go to the supermarket.

[675] Yeah.

[676] All right.

[677] Yeah, whatever.

[678] Yeah.

[679] You know, when you carried on your hip and go to the supermarket, I mean, that's obviously the first person that they would shoot.

[680] They should shoot, right?

[681] Right.

[682] Right.

[683] Like, okay, well, I know he's armed.

[684] Right.

[685] So let's go ahead and make sure we...

[686] Yeah, right.

[687] I think people think of it as a deterrent, but sometimes deterrence are also attractants.

[688] Absolutely.

[689] yeah well at least you can get a vape pen there you know while you're in town i suggest you stock up yeah this place is ridiculous california's got it everywhere california's got too much you know jamie what was what did you just read about uh the company that's uh that's got a bunch of fucking pesticides and shit and their stuff pesticides yeah they just tested it they just tested some shit that we used to have in the studio but Jamie went and threw it out that's the real problem with this is Wild Wild West out here and you know unless you're testing things on a regular basis you might be selling something I had a guy named John Norris who wrote a book called The Hidden War and the book is all about how he was Game Warden and during his normal dunees like looking for you know making sure the people aren't overfishing or hunting without a license, that kind of stuff, they started finding these cartel grow -ops.

[690] And these cartel grow -ops are extremely, the weed that they're putting out is extremely dangerous because it's got these super toxic pesticides to keep animals away and to keep bugs away.

[691] And so they're putting this shit on weed, then that stuff winds up getting to the hands of people, particularly in other parts of the country where it's illegal.

[692] Oh, wow.

[693] And it's just filled with pesticides.

[694] And, you know, you can get sick from that stuff and people can get real sick from it.

[695] That's terrible Do you find it, James?

[696] Yeah, so They had a petrosolvent extraction or some, let me see I'll just let you read it So, I'll just let's see the wrong part So California vape maker Cushy Punch caught making illegal products Dun, dun, dun T. This is in, what is the website here?

[697] This is a leafly, so it's like a weed website.

[698] Weeat websites.

[699] So what does it say the tip what?

[700] Consumer Affairs.

[701] served a warrant.

[702] Prompted by a tip, investigators at the California Department of Consumer Affairs served a search warrant Thursday, October 3rd, in a light industrial space, northwest Los Angeles, Kenoga Park District.

[703] That's over here.

[704] They found an illegal cannabis product manufacturing operation apparently operated by Cushy Punch, a legal state license company authority seized a number of finished products including gummies in the Cushy Punch packaging and disposable vaporizers in Cushy Vap packaging In photos obtained by Leafly, the facility appeared to be performing petrosolvent extractions where a technician concentrates the active ingredients in cannabis THC.

[705] Petrosolvent extracting is legal with a permit in California.

[706] The extraction method can sometimes have the effect of concentrating pesticides along with the THC.

[707] But it says it's legal.

[708] Hold on, scroll back up, Jamie.

[709] Yeah, that part did say it was legal.

[710] So it said it's legal with a permit in California.

[711] So the problem was that they didn't have a permit?

[712] I think maybe this place that they went to didn't have a permit.

[713] Edibles and vape cartridges seized.

[714] San Fernando Valley facility appeared to be in the business of putting those extracts into professional looking THC foods as well as disposable vape pen cartridges.

[715] Tall file cabinets held thousands of boxes of cushy vape pens and cushy punch edibles.

[716] I don't understand this because it says if it's legal, you can source from familiar with Cushy Punch, accused the adult use licensee of maintaining two facilities, one licensed and one black market.

[717] Okay.

[718] Leafly is granting the source's request for anonymity.

[719] They could have actually been using the packaging maybe, too, to package some stuff that was black market.

[720] Well, it seems like they have one license at one place, and the other place not.

[721] The source alleges of the cannabis that tested clean went through Cushy Punch's license facility and into the license supply change.

[722] source also says the cannabis might fail the state's stringent pesticide standards went to the illicit extraction lab pen factory okay so some of it but it doesn't say it did fail it says they're using uh so they were using untested black market oil and it's heavy in pesticide yeah yeah something got tested and they didn't know what was that federal legalization solve all this shit that's what they should do federal legalization and nation wide standards.

[723] You know, make it so it's stupid to grow shit illegally.

[724] Yeah.

[725] You know?

[726] Yeah, make it to where it's not a...

[727] It was a great South Park episode I was watching about this.

[728] It was fucking hilarious.

[729] The new one?

[730] Yeah.

[731] Yeah, with the Mexican Joker.

[732] Okay.

[733] See that one?

[734] I did not.

[735] I heard their new episodes are really good this year.

[736] Mexican Joe, it's fucking hilarious.

[737] They, this guy gets pissed because other people are growing wheat.

[738] He's got a weed operation and he's giving people weed and everybody's happy and selling weed and doing great but then people start growing their own weed and he gets furious he's like you stole my fucking idea he's like you can't grow weed he's like what I thought I was gardening like fuck you but I mean that is the problem man it's fucking it's easy to grow weed yeah there's the Mexican Joker the problem is that was a different part of the episode the the B story was that cartman called ice on on his friends because he just like he found out that you could call ice and like have people suspected so he called it on kyle and had kyle fucking arrested and his whole family arrested it's such a fucking look at him there lying there mad at cartman and then cartman got arrested himself it was so ridiculous what they were worried about was one of the mexican kids growing up to become the mexican joker taking like and killing everybody so they had like like an ice agent i'm giving away a lot of spoilers it's worth seeing though It's fucking hilarious.

[739] That's so funny.

[740] It's just so ridiculous.

[741] That's funny.

[742] Yeah.

[743] It's just so ridiculous when you find out like, but you can grow your own weed.

[744] That's the point.

[745] But you can't legally, federally, and you should be able to.

[746] It's fucking stupid.

[747] It's stupid.

[748] Yeah.

[749] Well, especially when it helps cops and firemen and first responders and soldiers and it helps a lot of people, man. Look at how much money we spend trying to fight it.

[750] Yeah.

[751] Yeah.

[752] That's the problem, though.

[753] there's a business in trying to fight it particularly like the prison guard unions they always fight against it there's a lot of people who actually fight against legalization which is it's a pretty un -American thing to do we got that restaurant that just opened up in Hollywood you can smoke weed at now that restaurant can go fuck itself they're not going anywhere near that place listen smoke a little weed at home go to a regular goddamn restaurant I don't want to go to the restaurant people zoned out of their fucking mind gravity bomb hits at the table fuck that!

[754] Do you imagine I can everybody's freaking I can't imagine.

[755] The conversations are probably real stupid.

[756] Everybody forgets what they're talking about.

[757] These are rookies.

[758] You can't be smoking that much weed with rookies.

[759] Showing up at these buildings where you've got restaurants filled with people smoking weed, that's a recipe for a disaster.

[760] They have to make you order before you smoke to.

[761] Oh, my God.

[762] You'll never get out.

[763] Not only that, after you smoke, you're like, who the fuck ordered pizza?

[764] Bitch, you ordered pizza.

[765] It's so high you don't remember what you want.

[766] ordered 10 minutes ago.

[767] Yeah, it's, all those public places, like, people are used to getting drunk in public.

[768] They're used to go to a bar.

[769] You can have a couple of drinks.

[770] You're fine, right?

[771] Two, three drinks, you're fine.

[772] You're just you with a little tipsy.

[773] Yeah.

[774] You're fine.

[775] But you can have a fucking psychotic spiral if you have a pot edible at some establishment.

[776] We've all seen people lose their marbles, especially if you got some rookie from out of town, like comes over from South Dakota.

[777] I can't believe you guys have free weed.

[778] What is that?

[779] What is that a chiba -choo?

[780] And they chew that thing.

[781] And an hour later, you're trying to peel them off the ceiling.

[782] Like, what happened to Jake?

[783] Oh, the fucking guy's still high.

[784] It's 48 hours later.

[785] I don't know what to do.

[786] Just make a room for that in the back.

[787] Yeah, big padded room.

[788] Like the drunk tank at jail, but you have the same thing.

[789] Same thing in the back.

[790] Yeah, patting.

[791] With soft music.

[792] They just play the carpenters.

[793] And they'll just burn incense for you and just try to bring you down.

[794] down you're going to be fine but I'm not yeah it's it's too risky like I want restaurants where people are they're straight everybody's fine you just order a steak regular restaurant people are getting loaded in those too though sit in the bar before they go getting no drinking yeah yeah but for some reason I feel like that doesn't bother me as much because we're used to it yeah yeah that's true just used to it right like do you remember when you were a kid when you first got drunk like how old when you first got drunk.

[795] Were you in the military or when you got out?

[796] I was young.

[797] Long before, yeah.

[798] But you remember when you first try it, you don't, first of all, no one's there with you.

[799] It's not like your dad or your uncle's going here.

[800] You have two shots.

[801] That's it.

[802] No, you're drinking with your friends.

[803] And you don't know how far to go.

[804] And so I remember throwing up in the cab.

[805] I was drinking jackdangers with my friends.

[806] We were listening to music.

[807] And I remember I was laying, I was like in a bean bag.

[808] I was 14.

[809] I was laying in this beanbag, looking up in the whole fucking world is spinning yep i was like this is ridiculous i got to get out of here and i called the cab to take me home and i threw up in the cab i was like oh my god i didn't know how to do it i didn't know how to do it nobody taught you how to do it no you just wind up figuring out with your friends and you're just lucky if you don't drink yourself to death it's just luck it's pure luck yeah i was 14 probably weighed 134 pounds fucking drink it like a fish had no idea what i was doing you know probably had five six drinks plastic Plastered.

[810] Yeah, it's terrible.

[811] But we're used to that by the time where you go out with someone in the 28 if they don't know how to drink.

[812] Get rid of them.

[813] Don't hang out with them.

[814] You know?

[815] I remember when I first moved to L .A. I was like 27.

[816] I went on a date with this gal.

[817] First day was great.

[818] Second date, I met her at a bar.

[819] And when I met her there, she was shah -shut -faced.

[820] Just shit -faced.

[821] Stumbling off the fucking, like, off the stool.

[822] Couldn't keep her shit together.

[823] Drop the glass broke.

[824] And I was like, I'm out of here.

[825] I left her at the bar.

[826] I was like, fuck this.

[827] So you ghosted her?

[828] Yes.

[829] Hell yeah.

[830] That was the glorious days when no one had cell phones.

[831] Oh, beautiful time to be alive.

[832] Yeah.

[833] She had to call my house.

[834] Good luck, bitch.

[835] She didn't have a cell phone.

[836] Very few people had cell phones in 94.

[837] You know?

[838] Very few people.

[839] There was nobody had.

[840] I mean, I had one.

[841] I had a Motorola Star Tack.

[842] It was like a big fat boy.

[843] It lasted like, you could talk on it for 13 minutes.

[844] it ran out of batteries.

[845] It had an antenna.

[846] You pulled the antenna up, click, click.

[847] You remember those things?

[848] Dude, you thought you were Captain Kirk with those bad boys.

[849] Yeah, yeah, I was six.

[850] Yeah, man. In 94, we were six?

[851] That was six.

[852] Yeah, that's when I first moved here.

[853] Click, click, hello.

[854] You hold it up to your ear, like the detachable battery.

[855] You get the fat battery.

[856] You get an extra 40 minutes of talking.

[857] Did you keep it, where did you keep it at?

[858] How did you carry it around?

[859] I don't remember.

[860] I probably had one of them holsters on the side.

[861] because it's too thick for your pocket You can't keep that fucking fat pastor in your pocket I remember when the razor phone came out Everybody was like holy shit We're in the future It's a credit card You're talking on a credit card That was the shit That little thing was so small But then that was like six minutes of talking Yeah The razor Yeah that thing And nobody had a cord You couldn't like It wasn't like today Like hey you got a charger Like most people have iPhones or Android It's either USBC or it's lightning.

[862] Most people have a charger somewhere, right?

[863] Yeah.

[864] Especially iPhones in America.

[865] Back then, if you didn't have a charge, you're a fucked.

[866] You can go to a rep. Nobody has a goddamn cable at a restaurant for your fucked up cell phone.

[867] It didn't exist.

[868] It didn't exist.

[869] Most people didn't even have cell phones until like 2000.

[870] When did you get a cell phone for the first time?

[871] It was 17 or 18.

[872] Like my senior year of high school, so like 2000.

[873] Yeah, like 2000 -ish.

[874] Somewhere on there.

[875] Yeah.

[876] I had one in 95.

[877] I actually had one in 88.

[878] I had one that was attached to my car.

[879] It was like the box?

[880] Like the little box that had the cord on it?

[881] Yeah, well, sort.

[882] It was actually bolted into the car.

[883] It was in the center.

[884] Like, it looked dope.

[885] I looked like a fucking, like a pimp.

[886] He driving around.

[887] I lit a Honda CRX.

[888] And it was like right there in the middle of the seats, like the phone.

[889] But it helped me because I used to get gigs because like booking agents, like if someone couldn't make a gig or they needed somebody fell out or got.

[890] sick.

[891] They would call me. I actually had a phone.

[892] So I was in my car.

[893] They'd call me up.

[894] And I got a number of gigs because I had this fucking cell phone.

[895] Were you in the right age where you had pager codes?

[896] Oh, yeah.

[897] You know that pager was Joey Diaz forever deep into the 2000s?

[898] And if he owed people money or if he didn't like talking to him, he just throw us pager away.

[899] Hey, I got a new pageer dog.

[900] He would get a new pager.

[901] He just loses that pager.

[902] You could never get a hole of them.

[903] That's all.

[904] Because he had to call you back.

[905] So he would call you back from just random phone numbers.

[906] I'm going to the pager.

[907] The pager was the shit.

[908] But then what happened was some people got pagers that could send text messages.

[909] I was going to say at first they expanded it to like you could get sports updates for some.

[910] Like everyone needed to get sports scores all day long.

[911] And like they paid an extra five bucks a month.

[912] But I remember I was at the comedy store in the back kitchen area and one of the people that worked there had a page.

[913] Maybe it was a comic.

[914] I don't remember.

[915] But they had a pager with a keyboard.

[916] I was like, what the fuck is that?

[917] And they're like, you could send people messages.

[918] I'm like, no. Like, yeah, like if you're at a club, you can send them a message, and they can know where you are.

[919] I was like, that is crazy.

[920] Like, that's great.

[921] You're sending messages, and I remember thinking I should probably get one of those, but then I never got around to doing it.

[922] But people were, they had pagers.

[923] This is about before everybody had cell phones.

[924] They had pagers that you could type messages on.

[925] That bled Venn diagram bleed over into the next tell.

[926] Oh, yeah.

[927] Waukee talking to someone.

[928] Eddie Bravo had one of those.

[929] Very close time period.

[930] I would always give him.

[931] shit.

[932] I'm like, you have a phone.

[933] Why the fuck would you put a walkie -talkie on a phone?

[934] A phone's better than a walkie -talkie.

[935] Like, why not put smoke screens on how about, you know, have a drum signals.

[936] This is so stupid.

[937] You get a smoke signals on your phone.

[938] You hear that sounds everywhere.

[939] It's a fucking phone.

[940] It's a phone.

[941] Dood -d -do -d -do -d -d -d -d -d -d -d.

[942] Yeah.

[943] You don't have to say over.

[944] A phone's better.

[945] You don't have to stay over.

[946] You know, I tell things.

[947] It's like, you know, only one person can talk at a time.

[948] And the other thing about the walkie -talkie was, I was like, okay, can someone listen?

[949] Like, do you have to press the button, or could someone just listen?

[950] That was the concern.

[951] Like, you know, like, your girl could call you and just listen.

[952] You're talking shit with your friends.

[953] And she could just dood.

[954] I had a thought the other day, too, this was a 90s thing.

[955] Maybe, you might remember this too.

[956] When you would turn on your home cell phone, wireless phone, sometimes you'd just hear your neighbors talking.

[957] Oh, yeah.

[958] And, like, they couldn't hear you.

[959] Like, you just listened to a half an hour conversation, like, randomly.

[960] So where I lived at, we didn't have neighbors close enough.

[961] Okay.

[962] I remember that.

[963] Clearly, when I was living in an apartment, I heard the neighbor talking through, like a sock, but I would hear their whole conversation.

[964] That was like you picked up on their frequency.

[965] Yeah, the wireless thing just got connected to what bad.

[966] There was no encryption back there.

[967] Yeah.

[968] You didn't have to be a hacker.

[969] He just had to have a fucking antenna.

[970] Yeah.

[971] Those days, simpler days.

[972] But at least people, for the most part, were talking to each other, face to face.

[973] Face to face.

[974] That was the vast majority of communication was face to face.

[975] Now I would venture to say it's flipped on its head.

[976] And the vast majority of communication is probably through text messages.

[977] Well, 100%.

[978] I mean, text messages, emails.

[979] I mean, people can build their own reality now, right?

[980] Like, I can never, you never have to look at me. And I can build my own reality through Instagram, Facebook, through all the social media.

[981] I mean, literally, I can build my own filter.

[982] My life can be filtered.

[983] Sure.

[984] Like, and people don't want to look in the mirror of unfiltered realness.

[985] yeah yeah they just want to be in a bubble communicate with people that have like -minded views make their own reality yeah yeah you know it is a is an extremely strange time when it comes to the way people communicate with each other and there's no accountability right like you you communicate through those things like you can say whatever you want and there's no accountability there's no accountability for for what you say to people for for you know the shit you talk to people um there's no accountability because I can just hide behind a computer screen.

[986] I can hide behind a screen.

[987] I can hide behind my Instagram profile.

[988] You can't find me. You can't see me. You know how people can like your posts?

[989] Like to put a little heart.

[990] They like your post.

[991] Imagine if they give you electric shock.

[992] Oh.

[993] Like if all the people, if people thought you were cunts, there's like a little lightning bolt next to the, next to the heart.

[994] Like this guy's a dick.

[995] I'm glad they don't because in that I'd probably get more of those.

[996] We all would.

[997] Yeah, I'd probably be dead.

[998] Probably shocked to death.

[999] I mean, And you imagine if someone could just reach out and shock you anytime they want?

[1000] Oh, that'd be terrible.

[1001] It would be fucking terrible.

[1002] But, I mean, the emotional pain that people cause any time they want where they could just reach out and say something terrible to people, especially people doing it through anonymous accounts.

[1003] Oh, that's the worst.

[1004] And you know what?

[1005] And it's like people you're saying this too.

[1006] Like they're real people.

[1007] Yes.

[1008] They're real people.

[1009] Like the people that you're judging, the people that you're criticizing their lives that the media chooses to put out there, like, that the media chooses to put out there.

[1010] They're real people going through real problems, too.

[1011] Do you think that you have, and this is going to be a crazy question, but do you think that you have more of an appreciation for life because you've taken life?

[1012] I think that I have more appreciation for people in life because I have seen what suffering looks like.

[1013] I have felt suffering.

[1014] Like when I look at people and people have their problems and they come to me or they say, you know, hey, they tell me their experience.

[1015] you know i don't try to compare the experiences like it's not a it's not a game it's not a it's not a you know it's not a it's not a it's not a contest i try to look at them and when they tell me their experience i just instantly go to well gosh like i know this person's suffering how can i help them get through it because i know what that feels like and that's where i can you know i try to relate to people on that level of not the not to experience because look I look at people yeah my day it sucked people gone through way way worse million times worse you know you look at you know sexual assault victims you look at you know you look at domestic violence victims I feel like they've gone through way worse than I could ever experience right like they've gone through just stuff and their PTSD thing is astronomical but it's like we can all find a way to relate on that empathetic side of gosh you're going through something like Like, let me help you get through that.

[1016] Like, if I can help you get through that, I want to help you get through that.

[1017] And I think that I've, I know what it's like to suffer, and I've seen suffering at such extreme levels that I appreciate, I just want to help people.

[1018] I just want to change the world.

[1019] What do you do with your days most of the time these days?

[1020] So I do a lot of public speaking.

[1021] I work with, I work with hiring our heroes, with helping veterans transition back, getting jobs.

[1022] jobs in Toyota and you know I'm also I'm launching a website on own the dash so own the dash it's kind of like it's kind of like my it's my brand of what I believe in of owning your dash you know dash what do you mean by that so Linda Ellis wrote a poem it's called the dash and so she talks about you know on your tombstone you have the day you're born and the day you die which are two of the most insignificant days of your life they're both the only two days in your life that aren't 24 hours.

[1023] But what matters is that dash in between.

[1024] And you don't have control of the day you're born or the day you die, but you have control of what that dash looks like and how you made people feel and how they're going to remember you the day that you're gone.

[1025] You have that control every day.

[1026] And so I'm all about owning your dash.

[1027] Own your dash.

[1028] Be the best you.

[1029] Don't try to be the best somebody else.

[1030] Be the best you.

[1031] Wake up every day and put it all on the table and put it into making people's lives better.

[1032] And so I'm, I have, I'm launching this site to where it's like, it's helping people, empowering people to owning their dash, to being okay with being the best them.

[1033] I think people want to be the best them.

[1034] I think people want to be positive.

[1035] I just don't think people have anybody showing them how to do it.

[1036] I think there's a lot at people that are frustrated because they really don't know how to live life in a positive way and they're spinning their wheels to many people are out there people are out there they're out there surviving instead of succeeding they're just surviving and you said Toyota with hire for heroes the Toyota higher heroes is that yeah so I teamed up with Toyota when I got out I mean Toyota has been they they they you know everybody at Toyota has just been so incredible but we I teamed up with Toyota in the US Chamber of Commerce and So we built this platform.

[1037] It's a resume engine.

[1038] So basically it helps veterans translate what they did in the military to what corporations are looking for.

[1039] And so Toyota just sponsors this.

[1040] That's awesome.

[1041] Yeah.

[1042] And so that's most of your time is these speaking engagements?

[1043] Yeah.

[1044] And then I have a canvas company, Flipside Canvas.

[1045] So we basically do digital art. Oh, so that's why you're asking about these images that we have.

[1046] Yeah.

[1047] So we have Flipside Canvas, so we do digital art. You put it up on different media types.

[1048] So we do infused metal.

[1049] We do canvas and we also do floated paper.

[1050] Did we order those things already?

[1051] I was going to, that's why I was asking.

[1052] Oh, perfect.

[1053] Yeah, we'll do it through you.

[1054] Yeah.

[1055] Yeah, we're getting a bunch of shit made, right?

[1056] We're about to just now.

[1057] Yeah, it would be awesome.

[1058] Yeah, we'll do it through you.

[1059] 100%.

[1060] I love it.

[1061] So we love it.

[1062] You know, so I do that.

[1063] And then also, you know, we just, I was telling you earlier, you know, we just launched, you know, Discipline Go with Jocko, right?

[1064] I've got a signature flavor coming out called Dax Savage.

[1065] Oh, wow.

[1066] So this is Jocco's energy drink?

[1067] Yeah, Jocco's energy drink.

[1068] We were just talking about this.

[1069] Jocco should not have a goddamn energy drink.

[1070] Keep that mother.

[1071] Dude, dude, so he drinks tea.

[1072] He drinks like herb tea.

[1073] If you could just bottle up Jocco's energy.

[1074] Runs through walls.

[1075] Right?

[1076] If you could just bottle up Jocco's energy and pass it out.

[1077] Yeah.

[1078] Yeah.

[1079] He's an interesting dude, but the world's better that he's alive.

[1080] 100%.

[1081] People like that, first of all, they're a tremendous source of inspiration and information.

[1082] Yeah.

[1083] But inspiration, particularly important, because he leads by example.

[1084] And what he does with his life, what he does with his days, you know, like he took an image the other day on his Instagram of the sunset.

[1085] And it's like, this is finite, you know, go get it.

[1086] Go get it.

[1087] You know, a few of these.

[1088] You don't get many.

[1089] And he does it so simple too, right?

[1090] Yep.

[1091] Like everything, like, it ain't complicated.

[1092] Yeah.

[1093] It's simple.

[1094] It's to the point.

[1095] We played his video good.

[1096] I played it probably 50 fucking times of this podcast because I love it so much.

[1097] It's a video where he's talking about his response to anything that goes wrong.

[1098] Good.

[1099] Here's a chance to grow.

[1100] Good.

[1101] We learned, you know?

[1102] And there's like this video.

[1103] And it's so intense because it's so, there's great music and animation to it.

[1104] And the video is on YouTube.

[1105] I've literally watched it a hundred times.

[1106] Yeah.

[1107] When I got, you know, when I get my hardest times out, like, that's what I watch.

[1108] I watch that good video.

[1109] Like, it's done so much for me. That video is amazing.

[1110] It's amazing.

[1111] It just puts it in perspective.

[1112] It's like, I don't know, what is it, two minutes long?

[1113] Yeah.

[1114] And it's like, that two minutes, like, you just, if you're driving down the road, like, you just want to, like afterwards, you just want to kick your windshield out.

[1115] Like, let's do it, right?

[1116] Yeah, it's fuel.

[1117] It's fuel.

[1118] It's inspiration.

[1119] I mean, it makes your fucking hackles raise up.

[1120] It gives you goosebumps.

[1121] Yeah.

[1122] It makes you want to go.

[1123] It makes you want to go.

[1124] Yeah.

[1125] It makes you just want to, it's, it just makes you want to go.

[1126] That's why guys like Jocko and Tim Kennedy and David.

[1127] Goggins and these fucking dudes that are out there that provide so much inspiration.

[1128] Yeah, I heard Guggins.

[1129] He said that he did the one the other day.

[1130] He's out there running and he said, I don't know how I'll slaughter it.

[1131] But he goes, you know, he goes, it's hot out here.

[1132] And he goes, this guy pulled up to me. And he said, I don't know, he said something to him about, you know, why are you running it so hot?

[1133] And he's like, you know, we need doctors.

[1134] We need lawyers.

[1135] And we also need hard motherfuckers.

[1136] we need fucking savages he sends me random text messages out of nowhere I'll read out to you because they're so ridiculous because he's so fucking savage man but he means it like he sends you these text messages and I get them just randomly like here's one no need to respond hope all's well brother continue to live in the grip of life as you know nothing gets done by being a bitch stay hard brother it's a random David Gagin's text message I'm like it's Tuesday I'm at home just watching TV or something I get this message like what the fuck Jesus Christ and you know he's out there it's probably 115 degrees outside he's been running for 18 hours stay hard stay hard oh yeah but those guys are a massive source of inspiration they are they are then you know what and like i i i just love them all so much because they're real yes like they're just they're real like it's not an act it's not a performance right it's not a it's not a show it's not you know they're just they wake up every day like especially you know jaco like yeah wakes up every day tim kennedy i mean these guys just wake up every day and live everything that they say yeah and jocco wakes up every day and takes a picture of his fucking watch he does look it's 430 bitch here we go that's not that's not that's not that's not the way that you know somebody like me would do it is like I would take like 10 of them 10 of them in one day and then I would put them on hoot suite and they would come out one day you wake up at 4 30 yeah that's just that's just that you know but they they crush it and and that's why you know the world needs the world needs them they the world does and also people with the kind of experiences that they've had their their inspiration means more you know there's a lot of people out there given inspiration but they haven't done shit when you get inspiration from someone that you know is living it every goddamn day yeah you know pushing it every goddamn day pushing every day and like finding like you know they got every reason to to not do it but they always find the reason to do it yeah jocco's recently gotten into bow hunting now which is pretty excited how is that how is that bow hunt with him it was great well i wasn't i wasn't hunting with him i was in camp with him he was hunting with my friend john dudley who's uh who coached me and has helped me and he's coaching he coached jaco to his first elk and um you know so but we all got to share camp and talk we did a podcast together it's available on knock on archery and it's also available on my brother andy stump's podcast which is cleared hot i love andy i love andy too he's a shit he was in camp as well and um we we were there for five days in uh utah We had a great fucking dime.

[1137] It was awesome.

[1138] That's awesome.

[1139] It's gorgeous up there, man. God, it's so beautiful.

[1140] Andy's an awesome dude, too.

[1141] He's crazy.

[1142] He's legitimately crazy.

[1143] Anybody who has the world record for the longest flight suit in one of them flying squirrel fucking suits, that guy's out of his fucking mind.

[1144] But he doesn't do the flying squirrel suit anymore.

[1145] He doesn't?

[1146] Nope.

[1147] No, he had a buddy die.

[1148] Well, he's had several, but one too many, I believe.

[1149] And then base jumping.

[1150] He's had a bunch of friends died.

[1151] Quit base jumping?

[1152] Yes.

[1153] You're still skydiving.

[1154] No more base jumping.

[1155] We're supposed skydive together.

[1156] I skydive a lot too, so I love it.

[1157] I don't skydive.

[1158] I mean, I'm nowhere near handy stuff.

[1159] Dude, that looks like a ridiculous thing to do.

[1160] I don't get it, but I was just in a hot air balloon recently.

[1161] That was as close as I get to skydiving.

[1162] Yeah?

[1163] You wouldn't do it?

[1164] Come on.

[1165] I mean, I definitely would do it, but I don't want to.

[1166] I don't want to jump out of a goddamn plane.

[1167] I would do it.

[1168] Yeah.

[1169] If I had to do it, I would do it.

[1170] But I don't want to do it.

[1171] just some crazy thrill look we're almost going to die and then we landed don't you feel better that he didn't die I can imagine that I'll lie in bed and close my eyes and pretend I'm jumping out of a plane I'm good you're good yeah but Andy like that's not enough he's got to get in that goddamn squirrel suit and then fly close to close to all those you know yeah and you can calculate that shit wrong if you don't know every goddamn nuance of the surface of the earth or just like the wind oh yeah yeah well how about that i mean there was one that we played on this podcast that's horrendous where a guy was trying to bridge the gap through the golden gate bridge and he slams into the bridge all these people are watching oh my god oh my god and the sound oh when it hits the bridge it's like a car accident that sounds terrible oh my god it's so terrible because you realize that people are realizing this guy's gonna hit the bridge because he just you know you're floating yeah it's not like you have like controls you're just kind of guessing and it's like you guess wrong slam right into the side of the bridge it's horrific yeah if it's all about guessing then i'm not usually good at guessing no not interested man the one of the greatest jiu jitzy guys of all time um holst gracie he he died uh skydiving not skydiving um um what's it called what's it called when you're on the The, those things, paragliding, yeah.

[1172] The, you know, the triangle thing, flying around those things.

[1173] That's how you died?

[1174] Yeah, he died slamming into a mountain.

[1175] Wow.

[1176] Yeah.

[1177] That would suck.

[1178] Yeah.

[1179] But, again, he's goddamn savages.

[1180] It can't get enough adrenaline.

[1181] I like Andy.

[1182] I love it.

[1183] I love it.

[1184] Andy, Andy, Andy's like, I blame him for me getting into it.

[1185] You know, he got, I was interested in it, and I did it.

[1186] I love it, though.

[1187] I love it.

[1188] No, he's gotten a couple of friends of mine into it.

[1189] God damn psycho.

[1190] Yeah.

[1191] He told me, though, that I can't, he said, no base jumping.

[1192] He did tell me that.

[1193] He's like, no base jumping.

[1194] He's like, you don't be base jumping.

[1195] Yeah, that one doesn't work out all the time.

[1196] It doesn't, does it?

[1197] No. No, those times it doesn't work out.

[1198] And when it doesn't work out, it's terrible.

[1199] Yeah.

[1200] It's, I just, I get it.

[1201] But those things, those cheap thrills, you know, it seems like a cheap thrill.

[1202] I get it I get it I mean I'm not telling anybody they shouldn't do it It definitely should be illegal I'm not saying it should be illegal You should be able to do it for sure You should do it Fuck that So you're not even on the fan Fuck that Not interested Oh come on What else are you doing with your time these days That's it raising my daughters You know I got two and three year old They're awesome That's always fun Yeah man Flying my helicopter You got a helicopter?

[1203] Yeah, so I got it.

[1204] Holy shit.

[1205] My buddy, Tim, Tim introduced me to a guy named Shane Steiner, and he got me into flying, so I love it.

[1206] Like, I'm addicted to it.

[1207] I love it.

[1208] It makes my life a lot easier.

[1209] I mean, it also, whenever I, you know, if I go to Dallas or Houston, it's a difference in me getting home that day versus me staying another night and not being able to wake up, you know, in the same house as my kids, right?

[1210] So it's, um, I love it.

[1211] I love it.

[1212] That's pretty cool, man. I've been up in them before.

[1213] I was in them in Hawaii.

[1214] I've flown in them when you do the tour of the volcanoes.

[1215] And then recently my friend Bill Burr, he's gotten really into flying helicopters, and he took me up when we flew around downtown L .A. And it was crazy.

[1216] We went around Malibu after the fires, too.

[1217] Oh, wow.

[1218] We see it from the surface, from the sky rather.

[1219] You get a totally different perspective of how bad the damage was.

[1220] But yeah, he loves it.

[1221] He flies all over the place.

[1222] I love it.

[1223] I love it.

[1224] It seems like a lot of fun.

[1225] Yeah, you come to Austin.

[1226] We'll go fly around.

[1227] Fuck that.

[1228] No, I'll fly with you for sure.

[1229] How long have you been doing it for?

[1230] A couple weeks.

[1231] A few weeks.

[1232] No, I should be taking my...

[1233] I should be taking my...

[1234] So, you know, if I do anything, like I just...

[1235] Is this you?

[1236] Yeah, that's me right here.

[1237] So did you buy this thing?

[1238] You bought a plane?

[1239] Holy shit.

[1240] Yeah.

[1241] I mean, a helicopter?

[1242] That's ultimate freedom, though, right?

[1243] Oh, my gosh.

[1244] You go wherever the hell you want and you can land in a small area.

[1245] Yeah, like sometimes you're just, you're flying over, you're flying over the lake, Lake Travis, and just like, you know, eight to ten feet off the water.

[1246] And it's like, yeah, there's Shane right there.

[1247] Today's his birthday, actually.

[1248] Happy birthday, Shane.

[1249] That's pretty dope.

[1250] That was the day I did my first solo.

[1251] Oh, wow.

[1252] Yeah, the first day.

[1253] How far did you fly?

[1254] So basically you just go up and you do three takeoffs and landing.

[1255] So that's his helicopter over there.

[1256] Oh, okay.

[1257] The red one in the background?

[1258] Yeah, we're starting her, we're starting a helicopter.

[1259] Club, you know.

[1260] Oh, really?

[1261] Yeah, hell he's angels.

[1262] No, I'm just kidding.

[1263] Have you ever been hella hunting?

[1264] I have.

[1265] I have pigs.

[1266] Have you?

[1267] Yeah.

[1268] I've watched Ted Nugent.

[1269] There's a show that they did called a porcalypse now.

[1270] The porcalyps?

[1271] Where are you saying?

[1272] Ted Nugent hanging out of a helicopter gunning down these wild pigs.

[1273] Yeah.

[1274] People who don't know, it's really actually a necessary evil because these wild pigs, in Texas in particular, they've overrun them.

[1275] the state there it is yeah uncle ted a porclyly this is so ridiculous and he's just taking him out tink tink i mean there's so many of them like it has to be done it does have to be done it's fucking crazy the video is goddamn crazy you got to see him doing reload and they're just gunning these pigs down from the sky and that's uh they're doing a talk brian quaco's pig man he's got a a show called pig man yeah that's in the same type of helicopter it's our i think it's r44 This is a fucking crazy video, man. It's so crazy.

[1276] It's so awesome.

[1277] They shot, I think, something like 250 hogs in a day.

[1278] Oh, my God.

[1279] Just flying around, gunning them down.

[1280] That's a lot of bacon.

[1281] A lot of barbecue.

[1282] It is.

[1283] Yeah, they just round them up, and they actually feed the homeless with them.

[1284] The thing about pigs is they're destructive and they're terrible, and they're terrible for the ranches, and they're terrible for these farms, but they're damn delicious.

[1285] They are.

[1286] So if you, especially those, the wild ones actually taste better than domestic.

[1287] pigs it's a far superior meat but it's you know you got a lot of times oh you get to them and they're all nasty they all eat up with stuff that can happen too yeah you know you're gonna watch them infected and like you know because they eat everything uh but they'll come in like a pig will tear up like and it's crazy how fast they reproduce right like i think i think it's like a pig's gestation so i think after a pig is born i don't know how long it is when they but when they after they you know they have their first litter, like it's like every, I don't know, if it's six months or if it's six weeks, I don't know what the...

[1288] I think they can have their first litter at six months.

[1289] Yeah, six months.

[1290] And then I think it only takes them, like, I don't know how it is, but like usually after they have their litter, they're pregnant the next day.

[1291] That's crazy.

[1292] Like, it's like there's this whole gestation period of why they reproduce so much.

[1293] Right.

[1294] And that's the problem with them, you know, they're everywhere in Texas.

[1295] They're everywhere in California now, too.

[1296] They're in San Jose and people's front yards chewing up their grocery.

[1297] grass and stuff and they're all over the place man what do they do what do they do about them out here in their front yard well you can hunt them the place where i'm hunting elk you can hunt pigs as tahone ranch and there's um you know in northern california mean it's a famous place where hunter thompson used to hunt him with a k -47s used to go out and hunt pigs that's a famous picture of him with a pig hanging from a rope that he's uh he's quartering you know gutting that's so awesome Yeah, they were brought to California by William Randolph Hearst, believe it or not.

[1298] Really?

[1299] Yeah, you know, he had Hearst Palace up there, or Hearst Castle, and he wanted to bring a bunch of wild animals up there.

[1300] So he had all these wild animals running around on his lawn, and some of them were Russian boars.

[1301] So he brought over these Russian boars and sows, and they bred, and now they're all over the place.

[1302] They're here they are.

[1303] Particularly northern California.

[1304] They get about as far south as Bakersfield, the Bakersfield area.

[1305] But eventually they're probably going to make their way to the San Fernando Valley.

[1306] They'll probably just keep going and link up in Texas.

[1307] Probably.

[1308] You know?

[1309] Well, they're fucking everywhere, man. People don't know.

[1310] If you've never seen it before, people on the outside are like, oh, why would you want to shoot pigs?

[1311] But if you just saw the kind of devastation and millions and millions of dollars worth of property damage every year for these farmers.

[1312] And for farmers, like, they're on a tight margin as it is.

[1313] You know, if you're a farmer, a rancher, you're trying to grow crops, it's, it's, It's tough to make a living.

[1314] And you got to worry about weather and everything else, much less pigs.

[1315] Millions of pigs, too.

[1316] Millions.

[1317] Yeah.

[1318] I mean, people are, wait a minute, millions, are you exaggerating?

[1319] No, millions.

[1320] I think they estimate, what is, find out this.

[1321] What's the number of wild hogs estimated in Texas?

[1322] Just in Texas alone, I would bet, let's take a guess.

[1323] I'm going to say four million.

[1324] Yeah, I'd go higher.

[1325] I'd go five.

[1326] Five.

[1327] What does it say, Jamie?

[1328] One point five.

[1329] No, they don't know shit.

[1330] liberals yeah god damn hippies is that real that's what it says Texas government website Texas government they're corrupt yeah it's a government you can't believe it yeah well we were a little warm yeah we were a little off on that one also Ted Nugent's out there he's probably probably 15 million if it wasn't for him yeah Ted Nugent he's awesome he's fucking he's an interesting cat I enjoyed talking to him I had him on the podcast and a lot of people he's a polarizing character, you know, but I don't think people understand him.

[1331] He talked to him.

[1332] He's actually a very good man. Like, he's a good guy.

[1333] He's got this outrageous side to him and he says a bunch of outrageous shit, but that's also part of the way he gets attention for some of the things that he believes in, you know?

[1334] I don't think he's a bad guy at all.

[1335] Yeah, I mean, you got to make a statement to get people to pay attention, right?

[1336] Yeah, and also, you've got to realize, like, this guy's been fighting the same fight for a long time in regards to hunting rights for a long, long time.

[1337] Back when people didn't really have the same information that they have today.

[1338] Like now today people can understand like, oh, conservation is actually very important.

[1339] And it's important to remove certain numbers of the population of these animals.

[1340] And also the money that you spend on these tags and on hunting licenses and even on gear, a percentage of that goes towards protecting habitat and hiring game wardens.

[1341] And it's a very efficient system.

[1342] And it's a system that's actually managed by wire.

[1343] Wildlife biologists.

[1344] Yeah, it's a, I mean, it's a system that's, you know, very managed.

[1345] You know, like, just like in Alaska, like, their game wardens up there.

[1346] I mean, it seems like if you, you know, if you killed a moose or you fished with the wrong thing, you know, the wrong hook, like, that's more important than, you know, if somebody got killed or something.

[1347] You know what somebody told me, though, which is interesting, you know, they have that game wardens TV show.

[1348] You know, there's like a show about game wardens.

[1349] and somebody was telling me that game wardens are like some unscrupulous game wardens are actually setting guys up just so they could be on these shows oh really yeah they're trying to set up stings and set up these things just so they could be on the shows and they might even be entrapping people they um i know like where i was from like they would put this deer out it's like that you know if you get in trouble shoot you know if you can't shoot from the road right right right and they put that fake deer they put the robot deer right there with a camera on it I could film people trying to kill it.

[1350] Yeah.

[1351] That's hilarious.

[1352] They'd get you.

[1353] Yeah, he's had to watch out.

[1354] Watch out for a robo deer.

[1355] Yeah.

[1356] Make sure it's a real deer.

[1357] Yeah.

[1358] It actually moves its head and shit.

[1359] It does.

[1360] I've seen that thing.

[1361] It'll move and stuff and they put it out in the field like where like people drive by and they see it in the field.

[1362] Well, you know, on one hand, I'm like, that's hilarious.

[1363] And the other hand, fuck poachers.

[1364] Yeah.

[1365] So good.

[1366] You know, good.

[1367] If you're out there doing that.

[1368] If you're out there doing that, it's not fair, right?

[1369] Yeah.

[1370] Well, it's good.

[1371] crazy too and you know there's so many people out there that don't follow the rules that are out there shooting animals are not supposed to shoot and you know there's a reason why we have so many animals it's because they they have this stringent set of rules that they want you to follow yeah and if you can get a tag for two animals great that's what you're allowed to get you get two animals that's it and if you get four or five and you're storing them in your freezer and not letting anybody know you're a criminal and you're part of the problem and if everybody did that there would be no animals left and that's really what you're what this country had at the turn of the century when market hunting was in full swing they mean almost wiped out black bears almost wiped out white -tailed deer almost wiped out elk to this day elk in this country are only in a small percentage of the population that they used to including grizzly bears small percentage of the place where they used to be yeah California has a goddamn grizzly bear as its state flag there's a grizzly bear on the flag there's no fucking grizzlies here they whacked them all they killed every one of them yeah But they did that because they were killing people.

[1372] The last guy that get killed by a grizzly bear was in, I think it was named Stephen Leveck.

[1373] And there's a town named after him.

[1374] When you're headed up north, if you're on the way to Bakersfield, there's a town called Leveck.

[1375] And that's where that guy got whacked.

[1376] So they named a town after him?

[1377] Yeah.

[1378] That's the last place where a person got killed by a grizzly bear in California.

[1379] And they just gunned them all down.

[1380] Like, enough.

[1381] Got rid of all of them.

[1382] That's awesome.

[1383] Have you ever been around a grizzly bear in real?

[1384] life?

[1385] Not a grizzly bear.

[1386] I've seen brown bears, black bears.

[1387] Well, brown bear is a grizzly.

[1388] It's the same thing.

[1389] Unless it's a color fair, he's black bear.

[1390] Yeah.

[1391] But in there, like, a little bit, like there's a little difference between them.

[1392] The difference is really their diet.

[1393] Grizzly bears are more aggressive because they're out there fucking up moose and deer and shit.

[1394] It's a hard -knock life for a grizzly bear.

[1395] Well, I think that, you know, so the brown bears, I mean, they're out there.

[1396] I mean, they're out there crushing moose too, right?

[1397] I mean, they are.

[1398] But they're also eating a shitload of fish.

[1399] Yeah.

[1400] Brown bears are coastal bears.

[1401] Gotcha.

[1402] And like Alaska.

[1403] Yeah, so that's where I was at is Alaska.

[1404] So that's where I was around them is in Alaska.

[1405] There's a crazy picture that went viral a couple days ago.

[1406] This couple of guys are fly fishing, and they don't even realize that a bear is right behind them.

[1407] Oh, gosh.

[1408] They're standing there in the river, and this is fucking huge bear.

[1409] See if you can find the picture.

[1410] These guys around the river, viral image men don't know bears behind them.

[1411] They're fishing around this river.

[1412] This fucking huge bear is just right behind them, looking at them.

[1413] They don't even know it's there.

[1414] That's awesome.

[1415] I'm glad of, bears are, bears are something else.

[1416] There's something else.

[1417] There's something else.

[1418] You seen it?

[1419] I thought you were, there's another video I was looking for you.

[1420] Look at that.

[1421] They don't even know.

[1422] They're fishing.

[1423] Like, hey, you got.

[1424] Oh, my gosh.

[1425] They had no idea.

[1426] There's a fucking 900 -pound bear right behind them.

[1427] Yeah, I mean, and then you're kind of screwed right there.

[1428] Mm -hmm.

[1429] Like, do you think the guy's yelling at?

[1430] him as he's taking the photo or do you think he took the photo and then told him?

[1431] The guy probably stayed there for hours taking pictures.

[1432] He never told him.

[1433] He probably was hoping that the bear ate him and you get the best picture.

[1434] There's one crazy video of these people riding these bikes down this trail and Oh, the men in the photo were barely bothered when they realized the bear oh, well they must be Alaska natives.

[1435] Yeah.

[1436] God damn savages up there.

[1437] They're crazy.

[1438] People don't give a fuck.

[1439] That's a different breed of human up there.

[1440] Yeah, that's like they're hard people.

[1441] people in Alaska.

[1442] Hard people.

[1443] Hard people.

[1444] Yeah.

[1445] Looked over his shoulder and continued fishing.

[1446] The bears in the park regularly walk up and down the riverbank searching for food and we'll dive into the water dozens of time per day.

[1447] See the thing is those bears have so much salmon.

[1448] They get so much meat that they just think of salmon as food.

[1449] Like people are just a pain in the ass that might, might shoot them and kill them.

[1450] They're not interested in that as much.

[1451] Man. Yeah, they probably would have jumped right over me or walked right past me to get the salmon.

[1452] Yeah, there's, I mean, that's why they're so big.

[1453] They get so much protein.

[1454] There's an insane amount of fish that's crazy.

[1455] That's come up that river, and that's where the salmon are there.

[1456] There's a great video of this guy.

[1457] He's got a camera set up, and a bear walks right next to him and just sits down, and it's like, it's close as where Jamie is.

[1458] and it's fucking huge it's so big this guy's got a lawn chair there he's like hey bear come on man get out of here the bear it's like 900 pounds or something it sits down right next to where like right where jamie is just chilling look at it and they look out onto the river itself and it's filled with bears it's like 40 bears in view because they're all just going through the salmon run that's insane it is insane that is insane um yeah i lived up in alaska for a year and um it was a whole different world.

[1459] It's a different world.

[1460] It's a whole different world.

[1461] It's barely America.

[1462] Yeah.

[1463] It's like, it's a really nice place to visit.

[1464] I love Anchorage.

[1465] I've only been once, but man, I really enjoyed the shit out of it.

[1466] When did you go up there?

[1467] Um, I guess it was two, three years ago.

[1468] My friend Ari Shafir and I, we did some salmon fishing.

[1469] Then we did a couple shows up there.

[1470] Yeah.

[1471] Yeah, we had a great time, man. Yeah, like during, I think like April to, you know, probably September is really It's awesome It's hard to sleep though Yeah I mean because you gotta cover your eyes Like it's weird Yeah Like you're tired and it looks like it's Two o 'clock in the afternoon Like this is fucking strange That's pretty cool though Yeah It doesn't get too warm up there It doesn't know obviously But those mosquitoes are gangster They should be like The state bird Those mosquitoes should be a state bird They're so big They're terrible They're so big and so aggressive They don't even make sense Yeah Yeah, we got out of the car.

[1472] We got to the river and, you know, you pull up the trailhead and we got out of the car and we hadn't sprayed the bug spray on.

[1473] We opened up the door.

[1474] I was thinking, well, we'll get out, you know, I'll put my clothes on, then I'll spray myself with bug spray.

[1475] The moment we opened the door, the car was filled with 100 mosquitoes.

[1476] Like, how the fuck did they even know we're here?

[1477] They just found us so quick.

[1478] Fresh blood.

[1479] Just open the door and it's like, wah.

[1480] Like, what the fuck, man?

[1481] We're both swatting and we're inside the, we're supposed to.

[1482] spray and bug spray inside the truck it's ridiculous that's so awesome yeah it's a it's a crazy place to live but it's also like when you're up there you you recognize like oh like this is a these people have a way closer relationship with the natural world than we do it gets cold as fuck in the winter they're surrounded by grizzly bears moose are everywhere deer everywhere it's just a different different relationship with wildlife yeah it's like you know and everything up there like The one thing I noticed is whether you're going out to, there was a cabin, there was a cabin at Mount Donali.

[1483] And so what we would do is we'd ride snow machines, you'd have to park, and then you'd have to ride snow machines out to it.

[1484] And it's like, everything you do up there is, it's, like, it's like serious.

[1485] You know what I mean?

[1486] It's not, like, you better take it serious or you could die.

[1487] Yeah, everything.

[1488] Everything.

[1489] You know, if you want to go fishing or, you know, on the river or whatever, like, it's all, it's all serious.

[1490] But it seems like the people have a different attitude.

[1491] What is this?

[1492] The mosquitoes there?

[1493] Oh my God.

[1494] That's in Alaska?

[1495] Yeah.

[1496] They can kill baby caribou.

[1497] Caribou calves, literally mosquitoes will, like, sting them around their eyeballs and their assholes until they die.

[1498] Swarm engulfed scientists who recorded God -awful phenomenon.

[1499] That's crazy.

[1500] Man, that's nature, right?

[1501] That's what happens when you only get to live for a couple months.

[1502] Yeah.

[1503] You just got to go out.

[1504] Yeah.

[1505] That's why in L .A. there's fucking zero mosquitoes.

[1506] They're just like, chill.

[1507] Oh, my God.

[1508] Look at these legs.

[1509] They're just covered.

[1510] they'll bite you right through your fucking pants they don't give a shit about your pants look at that guy's foot oh my god click on the foot covered in mosquitoes that is crazy oh that is crazy oh my god that gives me a the hebi -jeebies just looking at it why is that guy letting that happen backpacking with monster skeeters yeah they're doing it for the gram imagine getting your feet lit up just for Instagram it's not worth it man keep your feet protected bro it's too crazy they'll go right through your socks anything they don't give a shit about clothes clothes are not going to protect you clothes nope not up there do you get a chance to do much hunting these days you know I haven't I haven't hunted much I haven't it's not since I've been home I used to I grew up hunting I grew up hunting and you know we've got a farm in Kentucky and so I grew up there hunting with my whole life and I haven't hunted the tons since I've been home I've hunted I killed a Neil guy down on the King Ranch.

[1511] Oh, wow.

[1512] That's a big animal.

[1513] Yeah.

[1514] That's an elk -sized animal.

[1515] It's like a horse with horns.

[1516] Yeah.

[1517] Yeah, it's beautiful.

[1518] Apparently unbelievably delicious.

[1519] That's what I hear.

[1520] Yeah, beautiful.

[1521] It's a beautiful animal.

[1522] I killed a bear up in Alaska.

[1523] I've killed some deer since I've been home, you know, on the farm.

[1524] You killed a black bear?

[1525] I killed a black bear.

[1526] Yeah.

[1527] They're delicious, too.

[1528] Oddly enough, right?

[1529] Yeah.

[1530] People don't know.

[1531] Yeah, they taste good.

[1532] Yeah.

[1533] that king ranch is crazy how many acres is that thing uh it's i think it's almost a million right i think that's what it is right i think it's almost a million texas is so strange i think it's like i think it's almost a million acres i think it's like the largest land 1 .225 yeah yeah and the crazy thing is is like you're talking about i got so fired up because you know i mean i come from a farm and and you know the deer there it's not like they're they're you know they're not we don't feed them you know we don't we don't we don't we don't grow deer there right right and um so you're driving out and literally you're getting out to open the gate leaving the king ranch and you look over to your right you know 10 feet off the road and there's a you know a non -typical huge deer right there and you're like uh i'll give anything to have that on my wall yeah but it's a weird thing right because they do feed them oh yeah it's almost like agriculture yeah they i mean you know they put out food plots and stuff like that and you know they food plots make sense that's just plants that the animals eat but feeders oh feeders yeah that's where i draw the line i'm like okay what are we doing here is this agriculture is this hunting is it killing or hunting even if it's a million acres if it's a million acres in every you know 800 900 yards you have a feeder and all the animals gather in the feeder so you got a blind that you hang out by the feeder yeah that's a Neil guy yeah how good were those things they're good i hear they're better than elk it's really good i hear it's insanely delicious oh it's so good I've never had elk, but...

[1534] Oh, I can take care of that.

[1535] How long are you in town for?

[1536] I'll leave out tonight.

[1537] Oh, I'll give you something in a freezer bag.

[1538] You can bring it home with you.

[1539] They were...

[1540] You know, so the thing about them is when you see them, they're running.

[1541] Uh -huh.

[1542] As soon as...

[1543] Well, they used to be in around lions.

[1544] That's what's so crazy about Texas.

[1545] Like, they take all these African animals.

[1546] Like, you can hunt a fucking zebra in Texas.

[1547] Zebra.

[1548] Yeah.

[1549] Zebra?

[1550] What?

[1551] Why is there a zebra here?

[1552] And the zebras get out too That's what's really fucked up They keep them in these high fence ranches But those fences break And then you got zebras just running around Running around Yeah I got a buddy who has a farm Who has elk You know down in Texas He's got elk On this farm because they got out You know they just came down the river Well that's a real common thing in West Texas now Yeah Is elk There's quite a few of them And you know you look at some of the ranges Where they hunt them And you look like you're You might as well be in Colorado or something like that It's weird Yeah, and I got a buddy who He has drafts on his farm Two drafts What is he doing with them?

[1553] They're just there for You can go feed the drafts I had a bit in my act A couple years ago And my triggered Netflix special triggered About Texas and about how there's More Tigers in captivity in Texas Than in all of the wild of the world Really?

[1554] Yep More tigers in dudes Backyards In private collections There's more tigers in Texas than all of the wilds of the world.

[1555] So these giraffes, I think the story behind them was, and I don't quote me on it, but I think the story behind them was is like the zoos couldn't afford to feed them anymore, and so they brought them in and let them run.

[1556] And so they feed them like it wasn't, you know.

[1557] That makes sense.

[1558] Yes, like the zoos, I guess they couldn't afford to keep up with them or something.

[1559] That makes sense.

[1560] Yeah.

[1561] It's something oddly perverse about bringing animals that are not supposed to be at a certain place to a certain place.

[1562] You got something, Jamie?

[1563] What do you got?

[1564] In Texas, it's easier to own a tiger than a dog.

[1565] Than a dog that's been labeled dangerous.

[1566] It's estimated there could be from 2 ,000 to 5 ,000 tigers living in the southern state of the United States, meaning Texas could have more tigers than roughly the 3 ,800 tigers living in the wild globally.

[1567] Yeah, if you have a dog that's dangerous, people think you're an asshole.

[1568] If you've got a tiger, like, oh, you're just seeing the wildlife.

[1569] That's crazy That's crazy That's such a fucked up thing To have in your yard You got a fucking tiger How much do you trust your fences What kind of fence control do they have?

[1570] They have fence regulations That surely they have to, right?

[1571] I don't know man It's pretty nuts But there's a lot of them A lot of them there And again There's in so many people's backyard No one really knows how many tigers there are Some people put the United States Tiger population around 7 ,000 others say it's inflated by animal welfare activists to raise money oh of course that's what it is of course that's what it is that's what they would think making money there's a lot of them there though man i know a bunch of people that have seen tigers in people's yards in texas and in fact there was a crazy story about these kids were smoking weed and they went into his abandoned house and they go into the abandoned house and inside the abandoned house is a tiger in a cage and they're like wait what what so they walk into this fucking abandoned house trying to get high and they find a that's almost like the hangover right yes really similar yeah i mean did you find that story yeah it's a fucking crazy story these kids are just trying to smoke a little weed escape from life tiger found in abandoned house by person who just wanted to smoke pot that's crazy yeah that's tiger baby that's tigers in texas that's so awesome um so listen man um it's been an honor having you on I appreciate you having me. I really, I'm glad we found and got a chance to do it.

[1572] And let's get you out.

[1573] I want to get you out with John Dudley, take you out on one of these hunts that we do.

[1574] I'd be great.

[1575] I'd love this.

[1576] Let everybody know if you have social media.

[1577] I do, I do.

[1578] What is your?

[1579] I'm on Instagram, Dakota Meyer 037.

[1580] I'm on Facebook, Dakota Myers.

[1581] So, yeah.

[1582] And all of the information about all these things that you're involved with us all there.

[1583] Absolutely.

[1584] All that's there.

[1585] Beautiful.

[1586] Thank you, brother.

[1587] Thank you.

[1588] Appreciate it.

[1589] Thanks so much, man. Appreciate it.

[1590] Bye, everybody.