The Debrief with Jon Becker - TopPodcast.com

View Top 200 Chart

Back to Rankings Page

The Debrief with Jon Becker — Education
The Debrief with Jon Becker

The Debrief with Jon Becker is a no-holds-barred conversational podcast on the leadership principles that govern the world’s elite tactical units. Featuring top military and law enforcement unit commanders from some of the most high-stakes fields, this podcast examines how to form and lead a highly effective team.

After four decades spent working in tandem with top law enforcement and military units, Jon has gained invaluable lessons in leadership, teamwork, communication, and training. Now, he is sharing these lessons through conversations with some of these amazing team leaders. The goal of the show is to make us all better leaders, thinkers, and people.

In each episode, The Debrief shares lessons in decision-making, training, personnel selection, and perseverance that apply to people from all walks of life. Our host Jon Becker, is an expert in tactical equipment; working with some of the world’s top-performing teams. The Debrief is Jon’s payback to the community, units, and leaders who trained him and helped make AARDVARK a success. With this show, Jon invites listeners to benefit from the same insights and stories that have shaped his career and how he views leadership.

Learn more at thedebrief.live

Copyright: © 2026 The Debrief with Jon Becker

Latest Episodes:

Critical incident Review - Vegas Attack: Handling a Mass Casualty Incident – Dr. Kevin Menes Aug 23, 2023

Show notes

My guest today is Dr. Kevin Menes. Kevin is an emergency room physician and tactical team doctor who led a team that managed to treat and save hundreds of patients following the active sniper attack in Las Vegas on October 1, 2017. Kevin’s insights into the Las Vegas attack are unique and offer us clear lessons learned in preparing for mass casualty. Too often active shooter preparation ends at the tactical level and fails to consider the effect on all involved agencies. This discussion with Kevin clearly shows that saving lives after a mass killing event is dependent upon the preparation and training for all of the responding organizations.
Books Recommended
The Mission, the Men, and Me - Pete Blaber - ISBN-13:‎ 978-0425236574
The Way Things Work - David Macaulay - ISBN: 0-395-42857-2
The Floaters Log - Ron Krome - ISBN-13: ‎ 978-142418282

Sites Recommended
Kevin Menes, MD | Emergency Physicians Monthly (epmonthly.com)

Contact Info
Email: iamkevinmenes@gmail.com
Instagram: @menes.resuscitation
Facebook: menes.resuscitation
LinkedIn: Kevin Menes
MD Twitter: @kvnmns

Lessons Learned From A Legendary Tier 1 Operator – CSM Tom Satterly (Ret.) Aug 09, 2023

Show notes

My guest today is Tom Satterly. Tom is a highly decorated combat veteran, having served in the Army 25 years, with the last 20 in the US Army’s most elite Tier One unit, Delta. During his career Tom was involved in, and led, some of our nation’s most important military campaigns including the Battle in Mogadishu portrayed in the film Blackhawk Down and the capture of Saddam Hussein. Tom is the recipient of numerous medals including a Silver Star, and 4 Bronze Stars, with 1 for Valorous acts. He was also the first American to ever attend Germany’s Ranger School. Tom retired from Delta in 2010 as a Command Sergeant Major.

Tom’s willingness to speak openly and honestly of his mental and emotional struggles have saved the lives of countless other warriors who believed they had to suffer in silence and make it alone or not at all. Today, Tom and his wife and partner, Jen are the co-Founders and co-CEOs of All Secure Foundation, a non-profit organization serving Special Operation warriors and their families to help reconnect and heal.

Tom’s best-selling book, “All Secure: A Special Operations Soldier’s Fight to Survive on the Battlefield and the Homefront”, was released on November 5, 2019 and is available at all major booksellers.

Books Recommended

The Body Keeps the Score: Mind, Brain and Body in the Transformation of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk - ISBN-13:‎ 978-0670785933

All Secure: A Special Operations Soldier's Fight to Survive on the Battlefield and the Homefront by Tom Satterly and Steve Jackson - ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1546076575

Sites Recommended

www.allsecurefoundation.org

Contact Info

Instagram: @TomSatterly

BPL#5 – Building Resilience In Those You Lead - Chief John Perez Aug 02, 2023

Show notes

My guest today is Chief John Perez. John recently retired as the Chief of Police for the Pasadena California Police Department. In his nearly 37 years of service to Pasadena, John served at literally all ranks in the department. During his career John worked patrol, narcotics, counter terrorism, and as a swat sergeant, lieutenant, and commander, John helped to form the first generation of Pasadena’s tactical team which had the challenge of deploying as a full-time gang enforcement team and a SWAT team for many years. John was twice awarded the Chief’s medal of excellence and received several commendations for his service over the years.

Books Recommended

12 Rules for Life: An Antidote for Chaos – Jordan Peterson – ISBN 0345816021

Discover Your True North – Bill George – ISBN 0787987514

Extreme Ownership: Jocko Willink and Leif Babin –ISBN-13: 9781250183866

Man’s Search for Meaning – Viktor Frankl - ISBN 080701429X

Quiet Strength: The Principles, Practices, and Priorities of a Winning Life – Tony Dungy – ISBN 1414318022

Contact Info

Chief John Perez (Ret)

johnperez34@me.com

BPL #4 Key Leadership Concepts – Chief Phil Hansen Jul 26, 2023

Show notes

My guest today is a legend in the US tactical community Chief Phil Hansen. Phil recently retired after serving as the Chief of Police for the Santa Maria California Police Department. But prior to Santa Maria Phil retired as a Captain from the Los Angeles Country Sherriff’s Department where he served for 36 years. During his tenure at LASD he spent more than 24 years in full time tactical and emergency management positions, including nearly 20 years at the elite Special Enforcement Bureau (SEB). Phil has served as a board member of the National Tactical Officers Association since 1991 including serving as the Chairman of the Board. He is a member of the executive committee for the California POST SWAT guidelines, and has served as a board of inquiry member for LAPD and Oakland PD.

Contact Info
Cell # (805) 994-9051
Email: pchansen@live.com

Books Recommended
Contrarians Guide to Leadership - Steven B. Sample and Warren Bennis – ISBN: 978-0787967079
Going Pro, The Deliberate Practice of Professionalism - Tony Kern, Pygmy Books Publishing – ISBN: 978-0984206315
Leading Change: The Argument for Values-Based Leadership – James O’Toole – ISBN: 978-0345402547
Passion of Command: The Moral Imperative of Leadership – Col. Bryan McCoy – ISBN: 978-0940328372

Critical Incident Review – Jordan MacWilliams Charged with Murder for Shooting a Hostage Taker Jul 19, 2023

Show notes

My guest today is Jordan MacWilliams. Jordan is a 15 year member of the RCMP Lower Mainland Division Integrated Emergency Response Team, the second largest tactical unit in Canada. On November 7, 2012 Jordan fired a single shot which killed a hostage taker who pointed a gun at the team after a five-hour standoff at the Starlight Casino in New Westminster, British Columbia. Although it was a completely justifiable shooting, this incident began an almost three-year nightmare for Jordan and his family which included Jordan being charged with Murder by the newly created Independent Investigations Office, a civilian oversight board created just before Jordan’s shooting. This was the first time a police officer had been charged for using lethal force in British Columbia since 1975. Although the charges would later be dismissed, the damage to Jordan and his family had already been done. Jordans story is both a cautionary tale and a story of struggle, persistence, and eventual victory over a politically motivated witch hunt. This is a fantastic conversation that should leave all of us repeating Jordan’s Mantra for the event: Be Better, Not Bitter!
Contact Info

Jordan MacWilliams
LinkedIn - linkedin.com/in/jordan-m-976692257
Email - jordan.macwilliams@rcmp-grc.gc.ca
Books Suggested

Legacy: What The All Blacks Can Teach Us About The Business Of Life Paperback by James Kerr - ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1472103536
The Mission, The Men, and Me: Lessons from a Former Delta Force Commander by Pete Blaber - ISBN-13: ‎ 978-0425223727

BPL #3: Counter-Errorism and A Culture of Safety with Gareth Lock Jul 12, 2023

Show notes

My guest today is Gareth Lock. Gareth spent 25 years in the Royal Air Force as a flight instructor, a navigator on C-130 Hercules, a systems engineer and a requirements manager. Following his retirement from the RAF in 2015 he started work in high-risk industries teaching Human Factors and Crew Resource Management (CRM). Eventually Gareth turned his attention to diving, applying a military systems approach to diving risk management by creating an organization called The Human Diver which is focused on what they describe as Counter-Errorism. Specifically, Gareth and his team provides training globally to high reliability and high-risk organizations on leadership, culture, and practical measures to improve operator safety. In 2019 Gareth led a team of military experts to undertake a review of UK military diving with the goal of improving diver safety. Gareth has worked with the US National Parks Service Submerged Resource Centre (Denver, CO), National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research Ltd (NZ), and the American Academy of Underwater Sciences (USA) to provide human factors training and high-performance team development courses.

Gareth is the author of the book Under Pressure – Diving Deeper with Human Factors which looks at case studies of near disasters and applies academic theory to understanding how we can better communicate and lead those in high risk/high reliability units.

I am excited to have Gareth on because his views of human fallibility, although rooted in diving, have broad lessons to teach anyone who leads others, especially those working in high-risk areas.
Contact Information
www.thehumandiver.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/garethlock/

Links
Compliance provides an illusion of safety in diving

Dave Snowden’s paper on ‘Knowledge without context is meaningless’ – Complex acts of knowing.

Safety Culture & Trade-offs – Risk management in a dynamic society: a modelling problem – Jens Rasmussen paper

Red Teaming Thinking

Risk Savvy – Risk vs Uncertainty

Interpersonal Skills Lab

The training I offer across multiple domains which has no/limited professional jeopardy
Blog about Learning from Near Misses. Were you lucky or good?

Local Rationality and Hindsight

BPL #2: Kevin Cyr - Making Difficult Decisions Jul 05, 2023

Show notes

Kevin Cyr is an Inspector with Royal Canadian Mounted Police and is the current commander of the RCMP Emergency Response Team in British Columbia, which is the second largest tactical unit in Canada. Kevin has been with RCMP for 22 years and has been with the team for 7 years. He has a master’s in law from Osgoode Hall Law School and is published internationally in law and criminology journals. He also teaches incident command at the Canadian Police College.
Contact Info: LinkedIn

Books Recommended: Extreme Ownership - Jocko Willink and Leif Babin – ISBN# 250067057

Training & Tech – Recovering From Being Shot - Follow Up With Jordan Robison Jun 28, 2023

Show notes

My guest today is Jordan Robison. This episode is a follow up to last week’s Critical Incident Review about the August 18, 2021, shooting that occurred when the San Bernardino Police Department’s SWAT Team attempted to arrest a suspect who had ambushed and attempted to murder a San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Deputy the day before.
When the team performed a vehicle takedown the suspect immediately opened fire
on the team with a 10mm handgun, striking Jordan in both forearms, his shoulder, his femur, his stomach below the armor and a grazing wound to his ribs. He was also hit in the abdomen which was stopped by his armor.
After last week’s episode we received several calls and emails asking about Jordan so we decided to do a follow up episode with him to discuss his recovery and his personal lessons learned. There is a great deal of very valuable information on this episode which we hope will help others who are affected by an on-duty shooting.

Critical Incident Review - Fatal OIS SWAT Vehicle Takedown in San Bernardino Jun 21, 2023

Show notes

On August 18, 2021, the San Bernardino California SWAT Team was assigned to locate and arrest a suspect who had ambushed and attempted to murder a San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Deputy the day before. When the team located and attempted a vehicle takedown the suspect immediately opened fire on the team with a 10mm handgun, striking Officer Jordan Robison 8 times and Officer Chris Shipley once. Officer Robison was hit in both forearms, his shoulder, his femur, his stomach below the armor and a took grazing wound to his ribs. He was also hit twice in the abdomen which were stopped by his armor.

Officer Shipley, despite being shot in the leg, was able to return fire along with a teammate fatally wounding the suspect. Officer Shipley then rendered lifesaving medical aid to Officer Robison. SWAT Medic Spencer Brumbaugh was also on scene and provided lifesaving aid to Officer Robison immediately after the incident and through subsequent transport to the emergency room.

My guests today are Jordan Robison, Chris Shipley and Spencer Brumbaugh

Timestamps

1:25 - Introduction To The Incident

2:39 - Leadup To The Event

13:14 - Start Of The Takedown

15:00 - The Exits The Van

17:18 -Jordan And Chris Are Shot

21:00 -Chris Treats Jordan

25:50 -Chris Discusses Treating Jordan

28:00 -Spencer Treating Jordan's Injuries

40:35 -Getting To The ER

46:00 -The Need To Remain Calm

48:00 -Lessons Learned

56:20 -What The Tacmed Program Did Right

1:02:00 -Training For The Worse Case Scenario

1:12:19 - The Risk Of Complacency

1:17:39 - Knowing Your Gear

1:21:00 - The Role Of Competition And Culture

1:23:41- Things They Would Do Differently

BPL #1: Bob Koonce – Using Nuclear Submarine Culture To Create High Reliability Teams Jun 14, 2023

Show notes

Description

My guest today is Bob Koonce. Bob is the founder of High Reliability Group, which he created after serving 20 years in the United States Navy. Bob's distinguished naval career included serving on five different nuclear fast attack submarines and culminated with him being given command of the USS Key West, a $2 billion nuclear-powered Los Angeles-class fast attack submarine. Following his retirement from the Navy, Bob has worked in a variety of leadership roles, primarily in the energy industry, where he has led business development, project management, and consulting efforts for large and small companies. Bob is an expert in the leadership of high-reliability organizations and a co-author of the book, "'Extreme Operational Excellence,' which focuses on the culture of the United States nuclear submarine force. Our conversation today focuses on utilizing specific techniques he learned in the nuclear submarine community to drive the culture of high reliability organizations.

Contact Info

Bob Koonce

President and Founder

High Reliability Group LLC

312-859-9311

linkedin.com/in/bobkoonce
Books Recommended

Extreme Operational Excellence: Applying the US Nuclear Submarine Culture to Your Organization: DiGeronimo, Matt, Koonce, Bob: 9781478778127: Amazon.com: Books

Amazon.com: The High-Velocity Edge: How Market Leaders Leverage Operational Excellence to Beat the Competition: 9780071741415: Steven J. Spear: Books

Timestamps
Timestamps
00:01:55 Nuclear Submarine Culture

00:10:50 Methods of Developing Positive Culture

00:15:30 Authority and High-Risk Decision Making

00:22:40 Importance and Reinforcement of Lessons Learned

00:31:15 Bob’s Most Important Habit

00:31:50 The Most Important Element of Building an Effective Team

00:32:13 What Should Every Leader Know?

Related Podcasts