Claim OwnershipThe Wild Chaos Podcast
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© 2025 The Wild Chaos Podcast
Description
Father. Husband. Marine. Host.
Everyone has a story and I want to hear it. The first thing people say to me is, "I'm not cool enough", "I haven't done anything cool in life", etc.
I have heard it all but I know there is more. More of you with incredible stories.
From drug addict to author, professional athlete to military hero, immigrant to special forces... I dive into the stories that shape lives.
I am here to share the extraordinary stories of remarkable people, because I believe that in the midst of your chaos, these stories can inspire, empower, and resonate with us all.
Thanks for listening.
-Bam
86 Episodes
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Five minutes after a tense goodbye, her phone rang. A stranger said her husband—an on-duty motor cop—was down. What followed is a raw, unfiltered journey through trauma, a broken workers’ comp system, and the quiet heroism it takes to hold a family together when institutions look away. We walk you through the scene: a mangled bike, a hallway lined with uniforms, and the breath held until he wiggled his toes. The medical list runs long—shattered wrists, fractured vertebrae, TBI—but the emotio...
No one knows what waits on the other side of the door. It could be a scared five-year-old with a head cut, a fentanyl addict out in a parking lot, or a welfare check where the smell hits two floors below. In this conversation with a 21-year Seattle firefighter, we step past the clichés and into the craft. We dig into street medicine the way it’s actually practiced. He breaks down hands-only CPR and the hard truth that effective compressions are “beautifully violent,” explains why Seattle’s M...
Could you imagine your medical debt being erased? Swiped clean? Start with grit and end with gratitude. That’s the pulse of this conversation with Bear Handlon—Yale linebacker turned Navy SEAL officer turned founder of Born Primitive—who built a $100M brand from a garage while shouldering rucks, rewiring his life around service, and refusing to cut corners when it mattered most. We dig into the selection moments that strip away ego—why BUD/S graduates tend to be the ones who want the job, no...
A van door slides open at midnight and two strangers say she isn’t going home. That moment—engineered by her parents—sent Jacine into a notorious WWASP “behavioral program” in Mexico where abuse and brainwashing replaced help. We go where most stories don’t. Jacine Jadresko breaks down how she hacked punitive level systems as a teen, the toll it took, and why high-functioning addiction hid in plain sight for years. She shares two fentanyl overdoses, the mindset shift that ended heroin,...
The ocean doesn’t negotiate, and neither does life when your plan breaks. We sit down with Chris, who trained for the SEAL pipeline, finished Hell Week, survived pool comp, and then watched a herniated back end the path at third phase. What follows isn’t a sad ending; it’s a hard pivot. He walks us through the mental frameworks that kept him from quitting—monking out, removing distractions, breaking big tasks into fives, and resetting after every small win—and how those same tools helped him ...
A sow at six feet. Cubs overhead. A guide holding a hard line. The moment cracks open fast—and it never lets up from there. We break down what a charging bear is really saying: the pinned ears, the jaw clacks, the bluff rushes that test your calm and your conviction. Because out here, panic kills—and composure keeps you alive. Then we dig into the work no one films. Thousands of pounds of bait dragged through thick Alberta timber. Barrels and beavers hauled deep to pattern sex and size. The l...
A ridgeline in Okinawa turns into a “Christmas tree” of chem lights. A young Navy corpsman—adopted by Marines, hardened by the desert, and allergic to excuses—learns how fast jokes turn off when core temperatures spike and a friend’s life hangs on a bag of ice and an IV drip. From Third LAR in 29 Palms to the first firefight of the Iraq invasion in an LAV, he paints the chaos with unflinching detail: a gunny with a cigar and a 240, green streaks of artillery across the sky, and a bullet that ...
When Nick Jeffries joined the Marine Corps at 18, he couldn't have imagined how profoundly his life would transform. From clearing houses during the brutal Fallujah offensive to crafting exquisite antler chandeliers that hang in celebrities' homes, his journey reveals the remarkable resilience of the human spirit. Nick takes us deep into the chaos of urban combat in Iraq, where as a SAW gunner with Lima Company, 3/5 Marines (Dark Horse), he faced death daily during two deployments. His raw a...
In this raw and emotional conversation, Andrew Feraci shares his harrowing firsthand account of witnessing Charlie Kirk's assassination while working as a photographer at the event, September 10, 2025. Standing just feet away when the shot rang out, Andrew takes us through those fateful moments with remarkable clarity – from the electric atmosphere beforehand to the split-second chaos that followed. What makes this testimony extraordinary isn't just the proximity to tragedy, but Andrew's dee...
Step inside the razor-wire perimeter of maximum security prison life through the eyes of a former correctional officer whose four-year career transformed him in ways he never anticipated. This conversation pulls no punches, revealing the brutal reality of a world where violence is currency and survival requires speaking a language most of us will never understand. From his first day witnessing a bloody inmate assault to eventually becoming the "hammer" the prison administration called when s...
What if we've been lied to about feminism? What if the most radical act in today's world isn't joining a movement that is meant to destroy women? January Donovan, founder of The Woman School and mother of eight, challenges everything we think we know about modern femininity in this profoundly honest conversation. January shares her journey from insecure Filipino immigrant to becoming a mentor for women worldwide. After experiencing two abortions as a lost teenager, she found a mentor who gav...
In this raw and riveting conversation, Marine Corps veteran Austin Hancock takes us on an extraordinary journey from rock bottom to remarkable success. Proving it can be done. Starting with a shocking confession about assaulting someone with a tire iron as a troubled teen, Austin reveals how this pivotal moment led to his military service and ultimately transformed his life. Austin doesn't hold back as he recounts the psychological warfare of boot camp at Paris Island, serving in Iraq's dang...
In this explosive conversation, former School District teacher Laura Boulton reveals the disturbing pattern of institutional failure that she uncovered during her 23-year teaching career. What began as standard mandatory reporting of student disclosures about sexual assault evolved into something far more sinister—a suspected pedo ring within the district with connections potentially dating back to the 1980s. Boulton, an immigrant from Malaysia who built her American dream through education,...
What happens when you put your thumb out and trust America? Luke Whyte is finding out as he hitchhikes across the country, documenting conversations with strangers in an ambitious project to bridge our growing cultural divides. With years of hitchhiking experience spanning multiple continents, Luke brings a unique perspective to understanding human connection. His current journey is motivated by a troubling observation: Americans increasingly live in digital bubbles that amplify our differen...
When JD answered the call to serve his country after 9/11, he couldn't have imagined the battles that lay ahead, not just in Iraq's dangerous terrain but within his own body. This extraordinary conversation takes us through his journey as an Army soldier driving fuel trucks through the early chaos of the Iraq War, his transition to law enforcement where he dangled off a six-story building to save a suicidal man, and his most personal fight: battling stage 4 cancer that attacked his testicle, ...
When culinary arts teacher Michelle Chung first reported mice in her classroom, she never imagined it would lead to a parasite infection, major surgery, and a battle against a school district determined to silence her at all costs. In this powerful follow-up episode, Michelle reveals shocking new developments in her fight for classroom safety and accountability. The situation has escalated dramatically since her first appearance. After paying her own money for a professional inspection that ...
From the moment a suspect fired three shots at him in a Chicago alley, Ruben's life transformed forever. In this powerful conversation, Ruben takes us through his journey from Marine infantryman to Chicago police officer, building to the harrowing day when he and his partner Jeff were both shot while on duty. With remarkable candor, Ruben describes his upbringing in Chicago, his time in the Marine Corps including deployment to Iraq, and his transition to law enforcement. The conversation bui...
From the remote plains of South Central Utah to the cartel-controlled territories of Mexico, Hagan's journey as a hunting guide reads like an adventure novel that couldn't possibly be true, except every word of it is. Growing up in a town of barely 120 people shaped his self-reliance in ways that modern suburban life simply cannot replicate. When the orthodontist arrives in a mobile bus once a month and the nearest gas station is 20 miles away, you learn to plan ahead and make do. The contra...
From life-or-death decisions to navigating departmental politics, Rafael pulls back the curtain on his 27-year career as a San Francisco firefighter paramedic in this captivating conversation about service, sacrifice, and survival. Rafael's journey began in 1990 as a paramedic with no intention of joining the fire department. When the city merged emergency services in 1997, he found himself thrust into a hostile environment where paramedics were viewed with suspicion and resentment by tradit...
What does real security look like? Former Marine turned executive protection expert Logan Flynn has spent 15 years guarding the ultra-wealthy—and what he’s learned will challenge everything you think about success, safety, and parenting. The conversation shifts from professional insights to perhaps Flynn's most important mission – raising four sons and a newborn daughter. His approach combines seemingly contradictory elements: teaching children hard skills like marksmanship and self-defense w...
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