Mike Drop

MIKE DROP NEWSROOM | 08 OCTOBER 2026 The New York Times says the Iran war was supposed to show off American power and has done the opposite. B-1 bombers are pulled out of Britain, bases across the Gulf are closed, and carriers are being resupplied from 2,200 miles away. Former Navy SEAL Mike Ritland, who served in Iraq, breaks down why seven months of war have left Iran's regime replaced but n...

MIKE DROP NEWSROOM | 07 OCTOBER 2026 France leads both papers again, so Mike skips ahead to the stories that matter here. The headlines: according to the New York Times, a Yemeni general warned weeks in advance that the Iran-backed Houthis were about to push along the Red Sea coast, and the U.S. and Saudi Arabia stood by. Vice President Vance is pressing Iran for a meaningful reduction in its nucl...

Former DEA Special Agent Steve Murphy—credited with taking down cartel kingpin Pablo Escobar, serving as a technical consultant for Narcos , and co-authoring Manhunters —sits down with Mike Ritland for an in-depth conversation. After watching the hit series depicting Murphy’s career, Ritland explores the real-life history behind the story, diving into the operational friction, the uncredited role...

MIKE DROP NEWSROOM | 06 OCTOBER 2026 The biggest story today wasn't on either front page. Mike pulls in an AP report: soldiers seriously wounded in Iranian drone strikes say the military's medical system failed them. One soldier had a damaged artery that put him at risk of a stroke. He was sent to barracks and told to schedule outpatient appointments. Another waited more than four months f...

MIKE DROP NEWSROOM | 05 OCTOBER 2026 The Journal and the Times split again today, and Mike gives the edge to the Times. The headlines: the U.S. is moving its B-1 bombers out of the UK over security concerns. Investigators say authorities in three countries missed chances to keep the FlyDubai attacker out of the cockpit. President Trump repeated a promise of $5,000 to every adult American if Republ...

MIKE DROP NEWSROOM | 04 OCTOBER 2026 A long one for Sunday. There's no Wall Street Journal today, so Mike covers the New York Times and then shares the story many of you asked for: his path back to Christ. He starts by setting the record straight. After hearing from viewers, Mike walks back his comments on the Cornell case. He says he was guilty of the same rush to judgment he warns against, a...

MIKE DROP NEWSROOM | 03 OCTOBER 2026 The Saturday papers split again, and this episode includes something new: a private intelligence summary from Mike's friend Max at Asylum Security, a former SEAL sniper who now works in executive security. It's not classified, but it comes from serious sources, and it covers threats that never make the front page. The headlines: Russia is pushing migran...

MIKE DROP NEWSROOM | 02 OCTOBER 2026 A busy front page to close out the week. The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal split today, so Mike covers both. The headlines: the Pentagon is sending a third aircraft carrier strike group and more Marine Corps ships to the Middle East, adding roughly 10,000 troops to the region. OpenAI and Anthropic are spending to influence the midterm races and sha...

MIKE DROP NEWSROOM | 01 OCTOBER 2026 Both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times led with the same two stories today. The first: after more than 23 years and $1.7 trillion, the U.S. has closed its last major military base in Iraq, ending what critics call America's forever war there. The second: on FlyDubai Flight 1073, a pilot stabbed the other pilot and tried to hijack the plane, sen...

WANT MORE MIKE DROP? Become a Mike Drop YouTube Member and get closer to the show with exclusive members-only content, bonus access, and perks you won’t get as a regular subscriber. 👉 Click “JOIN” below the video to become a member. Former Navy SEAL Captain Bradley Geary joins Mike to reflect on 25 years in Naval Special Warfare—from SDV missions and DEVGRU to commanding BUD/S. They dive into lea...

Former F-15E Strike Eagle combat pilot and U.S. Air Force Thunderbird number two Ryan Bodenheimer — founder and host of Max Afterburner — joins me exactly 25 years after 9/11, the day that sparked his entire career. We cover his 70 combat missions and 300 combat hours in Afghanistan, a near air-to-air engagement with an Iranian jet, losing his best friend in pilot training, a hypoxia incident that...

Former Diplomatic Security Service special agent and attorney Ryan Dalton joins Mike to discuss his career investigating human trafficking, protecting U.S. officials overseas, and his investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. Ryan explains why, after reviewing released Epstein files, prison records, and other anomalies surrounding August 2019, he believes the evidence raises the possibility that Epstein...

Retired Secret Service Special Agent Darin Kinder recounts surviving 9/11 from inside the World Trade Center, entering the North Tower to help people evacuate, and escaping the collapse of the South Tower. He also shares stories from his 25-year career, including counterterrorism work with the New York Joint Terrorism Task Force, protecting President George W. Bush, and how those experiences ultim...

Former Navy SEAL Jonathan Wilson sits down with Mike Ritland to share his path from getting kicked out of the Naval Academy to fighting his way into the SEAL Teams and deploying to Iraq. He opens up about combat, taking a life, rediscovering his faith, the toll his career took on his family, his own struggles after service, and the mission that ultimately led him to help other veterans navigate tr...

Air Force Special Operations JTAC veteran Conan Higgins joins the show to break down what a Joint Terminal Attack Controller actually does on the battlefield—and why he believes air power could have changed the outcome of missions like Operation Red Wings. Conan deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Philippines, earning two Bronze Stars for combat action, while simultaneously serving as a Washing...

In the final part of this conversation, Tony Mayne shares the story he says he's never told publicly before—the loss of his soldier Hing Shaw to an IED, and the impossible decisions made in the seconds and hours that followed. Tony also opens up about being forced out by a medical board, the fight to stay in uniform, and the calling that led him to build Ranger transition and ministry programs...

In Part 2, former Army Ranger Tony Mayne takes us deep into the objective and execution of the Haditha Dam mission—one of the most heavily defended objectives of the early Iraq War. Tony details the harrowing overnight drive through the desert, the ambush that nearly cost his team everything, and the unique cooperation between Rangers and Delta Force on the ground. From there, the conversation fol...

Retired Major Tony Mayne joins the podcast to walk through 12 years in U.S. Special Operations Command, including nine years in the 75th Ranger Regiment's 3rd Battalion, where he took part in the regiment's historic combat parachute assault into Afghanistan after 9/11 and later jumped into Iraq — completing eight combat deployments in support of the Global War on Terror and earning inducti...

In the final part of this conversation, Mike Sarraille recounts the base attack in Jalalabad where he served as Joint Strike Force commander, dismantles the conspiracy theories surrounding Extortion 17, and shares the story of Guardian dog Bart's final act protecting his handler Jet Li. He then breaks down his transition out of the military, the founding of Talent War Group, and his current ro...

Part 2 of this conversation with Mike Sarraille picks up inside the deployments that followed Ramadi, including the chaotic quick-reaction mission into Sadr City alongside a hastily assembled team from two different SEAL platoons. Mike breaks down the brotherhood built with Army infantry on the ground, the Sunni Awakening, and why he believes the Iraq War was ultimately a policy mistake despite th...

Mike Sarraille breaks down his path from getting kicked out of college to Force Recon to Navy SEAL to DEVGRU. He talks Delta vs DEVGRU, deploying to Ramadi with Task Unit Bruiser, and standing three feet from Michael Monsoor the day he died saving his team. Also covers DEVGRU selection and why he thinks the Iran conflict is repeating Iraq's mistakes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit pod...

In the final part of this Mike Drop conversation, Prime Hall traces his path from military transition into deep psychological healing. He details his first 5-MeO-DMT experience, a profound "hard reset" that showed him both the devastating and the redemptive paths his life could take, and how it launched an unexpected connection to Mike Tyson and Tyson Ranch. Prime opens up about the harder...

Prime Hall returns for Part 2 of this Mike Drop conversation, taking listeners deep into his time as a Marine Raider deployed to Helmand Province, Afghanistan. He recounts the brutal June 14th, 2012 ambush where two of his closest teammates were shot, the insider attack that nearly killed him weeks later, and the invisible wounds—traumatic brain injury, hearing damage, and psychological toll—that...

Mike Ritland sits down with Prime Hall — former Marine Raider, Marine Corps water survival instructor, co-founder of Deep End Fitness and Operation Resilience, founder of the Underwater Torpedo League, and recipient of the Purple Heart, Combat Action Ribbon, Bronze Star, and Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal. Prime is also the author of "Permission to Heal: Redefining Strength for Warri...

In the final part, Mike LeBlanc explains why Ukraine has become a real-time preview of future warfare, where robots and drones now do most of the fighting and over 80% of incoming Russian drones are stopped before impact. He breaks down the political reasons Russia hasn't crushed Ukraine, the underexplored frontier of subsurface warfare exposed by Iran, and why he believes autonomy—not new wea...