Courageous Leadership with Travis Yates

Send us Fan Mail If you’ve ever watched bodycam footage and thought, “Why didn’t they just…?”, you already know the hard truth: under extreme stress, the brain does not behave as it does in a classroom. Today we sit down with Remo Eyal, CEO and co-founder of Decision Tactical, to unpack what it really takes to build decision-making under pressure and why immersive scenario-based training has to feel real enough that you forget it’s training. We walk through the research and the physiology be...

Send us Fan Mail The job ends for everyone, and sometimes it ends fast. That’s where our conversation with Doug White starts: why police officers and first responders need to prepare for retirement and identity change from the first day in the academy, not the last month on the calendar. Doug shares how a career built on service, intensity, and saying “yes” can quietly turn into sleeplessness, hypervigilance, pain, and the kind of mental fatigue nobody wants to admit out loud. Doug walks us ...

Send us Fan Mail A police officer can be cleared for a shooting in a deadly-force fight, but still face prison for trying to control a suspect without firing a gun. That’s the core contradiction we dig into with retired NYPD Lieutenant John Macara and host of NYPD Unfiltered. We walk through the NYPD’s staffing and morale spiral: fewer applicants, faster exits, and a “10 is the new 20” mindset that turns a once-proud career into a short stop before the next job. We also talk about how ...

Send us Fan Mail Retiring with a pension is the plan, but what if the system quietly assumes you will not live long enough to enjoy it? I sit down with Dr. Mark Sherwood, a retired police sergeant turned functional medicine leader, to talk about the statistic that should stop every first responder cold: many officers still die around age 66, and the number has barely moved in decades. We get honest about how “wellness” often becomes window dressing while stress, overtime, and burnout keep ris...

Send us Fan Mail We talk with Dr. Michael Howell about earning a PhD and why his dissertation targets a neglected gap in active killer research: how churches train and prepare to stop violence. We connect his findings and his off-duty Costco shooting to real-time threat cues, officer safety, and why unsupported policies can get people hurt. • what it takes to finish a doctoral program and dissertation • why church security training and preparation is under-researched • lessons from an off-...