Cleared Hot - Powered By BRCC

Latest Episodes:

Don't Let Your Past Be Your Prison | Full Auto Friday | 5.15.026 May 15, 2026

Show notes

A soon-to-be 40-year-old wants to face his fear of skydiving and use it to teach his anxious five-year-old that fear is normal but it doesn't get to run your life. I break down the difference between gambling and accepting calculated risk, what to actually look for in a drop zone, and why pushing yourself smartly and incrementally beats trying to be a badass for an audience that isn't watching.

A guy who grew up homeless and couch-surfing wrote in about feeling like he came back from a war he never fought. We talk about why trauma isn't owned by anyone, why your past doesn't have to be your identity, and why if the community you need doesn't exist yet, you might be the one who has to build it.

Last question is about discipline. A husband, father, and plant manager who used to run ultras can't find the hours anymore and wonders if he's lost it. He hasn't. His life changed. The goalpost has to move with it.

Plus the book hit the Times again, and I'm headed to Virginia Beach.

Enjoy

Join the Cleared Hot Newsletter here: ⁠https://www.clearedhotpodcast.com⁠

Today's Sponsors:

Willies Remedies:

Order now at ⁠https://www.drinkwillies.com⁠ and use code "CLEAREDHOT" for 20% off of your first order + free shipping on orders over $95, and enjoy life in the high country.

AG1:

For a limited time only, go to ⁠https://www.drinkag1.com/clearedhot⁠ to get a FREE AG1 Flavor Sampler and AGZ Sampler to try all the flavors, plus FREE Vitamin D3+K2 and AG1 Welcome Kit with your first AG1 subscription order!

The Night Stalker They Couldn't Shoot Down | Alan Mack | Ep. 447 May 11, 2026

Show notes

Alan Mack flew Chinooks for the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment for seventeen years. Chief Warrant Officer 5. Senior MH-47 pilot. Flight lead. Instructor. He was the pilot in command of Razor 03 on Takur Ghar — the aircraft shot up trying to insert a SEAL element on top of the mountain that became Roberts Ridge. He has logged over 6,700 flight hours, took rounds through his cockpit on Anaconda, ran fog approaches into walled compounds in Iraq, and helped write the procedures the Night Stalkers still use to land in zero visibility. After retiring, he commanded the flight detachment at West Point and spent a decade running emergency management for a New York county. He is the author of Razor 03 and the upcoming Chinooks in the Dark.

We cover the new Medal of Honor awarded to a 160th pilot and what it actually takes to earn one. The Anaconda shoot down — RPG, lost hydraulics, three cans of fluid, and a crew chief pumping a t-handle to keep him in the controls. Why he chose to dive at a Dishka instead of climbing. The myth around Extortion 17 and why the conspiracy doesn't hold up. How the unit trains pilots to fly through real lead. Air refueling at night in the weather. Cutting hoses with rotor blades. And the lessons every pilot — military or civilian — needs to internalize before the aircraft starts shedding systems on them.

Enjoy

Chinooks in the Dark: https://a.co/d/0cOy6d88

Join the Cleared Hot Newsletter: https://www.clearedhotpodcast.com

Today's Sponsors:

Montana Knife Company:

https://www.montanaknifecompany.com

David:

David is offering our listeners a special deal: buy 4 cartons and get the 5th free when you go to https://www.davidprotein.com/CLEAREDHOT

Cruise Ships, Cover-Ups, and Cow Killers | Negligent Discharge Friday | 5.8.2026 May 08, 2026

Show notes

Michael and I get into it on this one. Hantavirus headlines, the Doomsday Clock, wind turbines, the Epstein note, and a guy on YouTube paying his bills by getting stung by bugs.

I open by confidently passing along bad medical advice from two articles I read. Michael fact-checks me in real time. We agree it's a good exercise in why you should slow down before you repeat anything. From there we get into what Hantavirus actually is, why this isn't going to be another lockdown, and why I think people would push back hard if it were.

The Doomsday Clock is at 89 seconds. Not 90. Not 88. Two old guys in suits decided. We talk about why fear-mongering on a quarter clock face stops working at some point, and what's actually happening with all those wind turbines I just flew past for eleven hours that weren't spinning.

Then the heavier stuff. The "rape academy" story. Epstein's suicide note. Andrew Mountbottom. Why I don't believe anyone in his orbit is ever going to face accountability in this country, and what that says about a government willing to look away if the math works out for them.

Enjoy

Join the Cleared Hot Newsletter: https://www.clearedhotpodcast.com

Pick up a copy of Drownproof: https://www.clearedhotpodcast.com/book

Today's Sponsors:

Firecracker Farm:

https://www.firecracker.farm use code CLEAREDHOT for 10% off your first order.

LMNT:

Head to https://www.drinklmnt.com/clearedhot to pick up your free sample pack

The Cost of Telling the Truth | John Kiriakou | Ep. 446 May 04, 2026

Show notes

John Kiriakou spent 14 years at the CIA. He started as an analyst, went operational, and eventually ran counterterrorism work in Pakistan that led to the capture of Abu Zubaydah. He was the first U.S. government official to publicly confirm that the agency was waterboarding prisoners. For that, the Obama administration prosecuted him under the Intelligence Identities Protection Act and sent him to federal prison for 23 months. He lost his pension. He lost his career. Most of his kids stopped speaking to him. Today he writes books, hosts a podcast, and teaches a course on the history of terrorism.

We get into how the agency really works. Recruiting spies. Breaking into a house in a foreign country to plant a bug. The mentor who told him to walk up to a target's front door and sell him out to his face. Then we get into the part nobody at Langley wants to talk about. Torture. Rendition. The innocent people who got grabbed off planes and buses and never got their lives back.

We also cover Section 702, the Patriot Act, Iran, Iraq, and why no agency ever gives the power back.

Enjoy.

Join the Cleared Hot Podcast Newsletter: https://www.clearedhotpodcast.com

Today's Sponsors:

Black Rifle Coffee:

https://www.blackriflecoffee.com

Brunt:

Right now, for a limited time, our listeners get $10 off at https://www.BRUNTworkwear.com when you use code "clearedhot" at checkout.

Learning To Suffer Well | Full Auto Friday | 5.01.2026 May 01, 2026

Show notes

Four questions this week. The kind that don't have clean answers.

A guy whose father murdered his mother is asking how to get back to who he was before. He's not.

A 28-year-old still living at home is watching his mom's cancer come back and trying to figure out how to spend the time he has left.

A man in his sixties wants to know how to bring up suicide with three friends he's had for 40 years before it's too late.

A 31-year-old in his first long-term relationship doesn't feel anything for the woman he's dating but knows everyone around him likes her. I talk about why the people you see online keeping it together aren't keeping it together. I talk about why the snapshot isn't the whole picture.

I talk about why the first therapist who wants to sell you his book isn't the last therapist you'll need to find. I talk about going right at the hard conversation instead of around it. And I talk about why bringing the government into a relationship you're already unsure about is the wrong move.

Enjoy

Join the Cleared Hot Newsletter: https://www.clearedhotpodcast.com

Today's Sponsors:

Ridge:

For a limited time, our listeners get 10% off at https://www.Ridge.com by using code "clearedhot" at checkout.

Helix:

Go to https://www.helixsleep.com/CLEAREDHOT for 27 percent off sitewide!

Bonus Episode - Drownproof Chapter 1 - Be the Author of your Life, not the Victim of it Apr 29, 2026

Show notes

Today's "episode" is the audiobook first chapter of my book: Drownproof. Thank you to everyone who helped make the launch such a tremendous success.

Hitting all of the "Best Seller" lists, to include the NYT, was quite frankly, incredibly humbling. You all made that happen, not me.

For those of you who have read or listened to it already, well, clearly today's episode is not going to be exciting for you! For those that haven't, this chapter is about a very formative experience in my young life that changed how I viewed my self in the world. That change in mindset altered the trajectory of my life.

Pickup a copy of Drownproof (Digital or Print) here: https://www.clearedhotpodcast.com/book

Working for Kanye, Building "Items" for Delta Force | Justin Klahn | Ep. 445 Apr 27, 2026

Show notes

Justin Klahn is hard to put in a box. Twenty years inside Nike Innovation. Years embedded with JSOC units building gear that had to actually work. Time consulting with three-letter agencies, DARPA, and the Harvard Learning Innovations Laboratory. A run working directly for Kanye West. He calls himself a problem solver, and the resume backs it up. His new book is Innovator's Handbook.

We open on the divorce conversation, the kind of failure neither of us wished for, and what it takes to show up for a partner the second time around.

From there it gets wide. The competition mindset that separates the top of the JSOC food chain from everyone else. What it's actually like to sit in a room with Kobe, with Tinker, with Kanye. The Nike origin stories most people don't know — the real Jordan re-signing, the Pantry, the relationship between Phil Knight and Steve Jobs.

We dig into the supernatural. Faith. Conspiracy and control. How a guy who advises high-stakes operators stays open enough to consider anything but grounded enough to still get the work done.

And we end on the AI workflow he used to write a book in two weeks — and what that says about where the world is going.

The Innovator's Handbook: https://a.co/d/01Zqj9Q7

Pick up your copy of Drownproof Here: https://www.clearedhotpodcast.com/book

Today's Sponsors:

Montana Knife Company:

https://www.montanaknifecompany.com

LMNT:

Head to https://www.drinklmnt.com/clearedhot to pick up your free sample pack

Bladder Control and Geopolitics | Negligent Discharge Friday | 4.24.2026 Apr 24, 2026

Show notes

Michael, my dad, and me. Three generations arguing in one room. That's the format today.

My dad watched Neil Armstrong walk on the moon live at twenty-two years old. He remembers the Iranian hostage crisis when it was happening, not when it was a movie. That perspective matters when we get into where we are now — the rhetoric coming out of the White House, the ceasefire that may or may not hold, a war nobody has explained the objective of.

We talked about the leaders we don't seem to produce anymore. Kennedy to the moon in ten years. Hungary voting out a hard-right prime minister by historic margins. Why most good people won't touch politics now — they'll destroy your entire family before you ever reach the ballot.

Then the stuff that piles up every week. California's rail to nowhere. AI versus actual brain tissue running video games. ICE changing tactics. Cancer research funding cut by thirty-one percent. Civil War monuments and what you do with history you don't want to celebrate.

And yes, my dad tried to break into the neighbor's house. And pissed himself at the rodeo. We get to that too.

Enjoy.

Pick up a copy of Drownproof here: https://www.clearedhotpodcast.com/book

Today's Sponsors:

Firecracker Farms:

https://www.firecracker.farm use code CLEAREDHOT for 10% off your first order.

AG1:

For a limited time only, go to https://www.drinkag1.com/clearedhot to get a FREE AG1 Flavor Sampler and AGZ Sampler to try all the flavors, plus FREE Vitamin D3+K2 and AG1 Welcome Kit with your first AG1 subscription order!

How Fast and Furious Buried an FBI Agent | John Shipley | Ep. 444 Apr 20, 2026

Show notes

John Shipley spent fourteen years carrying an FBI badge. Army aviator first — commissioned by his own father, a retired Vietnam-era lieutenant colonel — until a spinal cord injury at Walter Reed ended his flying career. He walked into Quantico in 1996, drew El Paso, and spent the next decade working narcotics and surveillance on the Mexican border. SWAT. Sniper. Bodyguard details for the FBI Director and the Attorney General. A father of two adopted kids. The kind of agent who refused a $27 million bribe because he didn't want the money — he wanted to keep his oath.

And then the government came for him.

One Barrett .50 caliber he sold legally to a county deputy years earlier ended up in a Mexican shootout. ATF traced it back. Prosecutors charged him with six felonies. What John didn't know at trial was that the gun store that brokered the final sale was an ATF informant — part of what would later be exposed as Operation Fast and Furious. They let the rifle walk. They knew. And when Mexico asked questions, they handed John up instead. He did two years in federal prison. An entire day of his trial transcript vanished from the record. Presidential executive privilege slammed down on every document that could prove it. John tells the whole story on his own terms — and he's still fighting for the pardon that would give him his rights back.

Today's Sponsors:

Montana Knife Company:

https://www.montanaknifecompany.com

BetterHelp:

Windshield, Not the Rearview Mirror | Full Auto Friday | 4.17.2026 Apr 17, 2026

Show notes

Week one of the book being out in the world, and I still don't have the vocabulary for the support. Thank you. Genuinely. If you read it, an honest Amazon review costs nothing and helps more than you'd think.

Then we get into the questions. A 25-year-old lawyer writes in about imposter syndrome and getting put on a pedestal for a job he doesn't feel qualified for yet. My take: keep the imposter syndrome. Just find a response that doesn't escalate or deescalate, and move the conversation to them.

Next one hits harder. A Marine turned med student on the "vet bro" archetype, the guy in head-to-toe fatigues at the airport, and the social sandpaper that follows. Why one bad interaction outweighs a hundred good ones. Why comparative service and competitive suffering benefit nobody. And why the best counter is just being a good expression of what you used to be.

Also covered: what recovery looked like overseas vs. now, why special operations runs like a professional sports team, and my honest take on TRT, dosage, and chasing health span over lifespan.

Enjoy

Pick up a copy of Drownproof here: https://www.clearedhotpodcast.com/book

Today's Sponsors:

Willies Remedy:

Order now at https://www.drinkwillies.com and use code "CLEAREDHOT" for 20% off of your first order + free shipping on orders over $95, and enjoy life in the high country.

Mando:

As a special offer for listeners, new customers get $5 off a Starter Pack with our exclusive code. That equates to over 40% off your Starter Pack Use code "clearedhot" at https://www.ShopMando.com.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Cleared Hot – Powered By BRCC

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected