Tactical Tangents

Isaac the Rookie Cop joins Mike back on the show for an update on the beginning of his career. Isaac is going to share some thoughts and lessons on being the new guy in Law Enforcement and reflect back on the things he would have done before the academy or when he first started on his path to becoming a police officer. Like what we're doing? Head over to Patreon  and give us a buck for each new ep...

In many areas there is both an art and a science-tactics, training, leadership, music, sports, and so on. In this solo Mike rant we'll cover Boyd's paper "Destruction and Creation" and how we need to look in two different directions to come up with new ideas and adapt to an ever-evolving world.  Like what we're doing? Head over to Patreon  and give us a buck for each new episode. You can also make...

Two radicalized brothers built several bombs out of pressure cookers and other readily available items and detonated two of them near the finish line of the Boston Marathon back in April 2013. Mike runs us through an overview of this incident and several talking points for public safety personnel. We also touch on security for large public venues or events, the threat of improvised or homemade exp...

MJ the Marine talks to us about her time at the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, her path to becoming a Marine Officer upon commissioning, and some lessons learned while become a helicopter pilot. MJ also went through training for an upcoming ground tour calling in air strikes and is a fully qualified Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC). She also touches on gaining credibility as a yo...

Brian Willis is a police trainer and speaker who founded a company called Winning Mind Training, which focuses on leadership and professional development for law enforcement but is also relevant to others in the military, public safety, or who are serious about survival and personal defense. He also did a TED talk which exemplifies what a good presentation should look like. Hear his thoughts on le...

Mike and Jim examine courage, bravery, and valor. Can it be taught? We go over a few examples and also discuss the element of choice. There are some leadership/moral courage lessons in here as well. Thank you to our Patreon and GoFundMe supporters! Funds raised go back into improvements for the show. Like what we're doing? Head over to Patreon  and give us a buck for each new episode. You can also...

Thomas Yoxall is a regular guy who makes his living as a photo journalist and enjoys shooting in his free time. He carries a concealed Glock 26 and takes that responsibility seriously - Which is a good thing, because on January 12, 2017, he was driving along Interstate 10 enroute to California when he saw a State Trooper in serious trouble. DPS Officer Ed Andersson had been shot, pistol whipped, a...

Some time ago, a psychologist named Abraham Maslow wrote up a list of human needs in roughly the order people need to satisfy them: food and water at the bottom of the pyramid, social and family needs in the middle, and self-esteem and purpose at the top. Mike and Jim discuss some ways we can apply this to tactical and leadership settings by figuring out how to influence behavior.  Like what we're...

A federal weapons investigation into a doomsday cult known as the Brand Davidians, formed by a guy name David Koresh, led to a 51-day standoff that resulted in the death of 75 people and at least 4 Federal Agents back in 1993. This was a high-profile event and there are several lessons learned that every one in public safety should hear about. Mike discusses some of those details in this solo epis...

LANGUAGE WARNING! This episode is NOT safe for work! Uncle Dan like's Jack Daniels and he's had a little bit to drink so we're gonna drag some war stories out of him and have a good time. Dan was one of Mike's team leaders on SWAT when he first joined the team. He's also a football coach for his son, and it turns out there's quite a bit of crossover between the two in terms of leadership and tacti...

John Correia runs Active Self Protection (ASP), a massive YouTube channel analyzing self defense encounters from all over the world. He's taken notes on 17,000 gunfights caught on camera, and he's going to share some of those lessons with us in tonight's episode.  Link to John's video discussed in the show here . Don't forget you can support the podcast by giving us a buck for each new episode on...

USAF PARARESCUEMAN, College football player, Human Performance researcher. Jason's bringing us up to speed on some current research, athletic performance, mental toughness, motivation, and his current project preparing future special operators for selection, training, and performance in their chosen career fields. An insightful conversation that covers things like the difference in physical and me...

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The Ferguson Effect. The militarization of law enforcement. The history and evolution of the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team. These are just a few of the topics we cover with Mr. Gagliano who is a retired career FBI Supervisory Agent, West Point graduate, Army Ranger, and now CNNs Law Enforcement Analyst.  Like the show? Give us a buck to help support the project! You can contribute as little as $1 per...

Jim does a deep-dive on active shooters and mass violence, complete with case studies, some steps you can take to get help, fight if necessary, and some scenarios to help you recognize some warning signs.  Also be sure to check out our episode with Andy Brown who wrote Warnings Unheeded Columbine, by Dave Cullen Remember that we publish new episodes on the 1st and the 15th of every month! Find us...

Brady Speth is the owner of Riton Optics and he's going to teach us some nomenclature and terminology about scopes and optics. We're also going to hear how Brady started Riton and learn about his background and the company's design process. They offer high quality glass from Japan backed by a lifetime warranty and these products are built tough with the end-user in mind. Even if you already own a...

What about "reality" are you trying to simulate when you run scenario based training? How do you explain to your role players what you want them to do? These are some of the questions we are going to address in this episode about training with role players and opposition forces. Using reality based training is an invaluable tool and one of the areas often neglected beyond initial training in the m...

Earlier this year we had Craig Douglas on the show to talk a little about his expertise in the self-defense world. Craig runs a company called Shivworks, and their flagship course is called Extreme Close Quarters Concepts (ECQC). ECQC specializes in clinched/entangled or "0-5 feet" fights that often involve knives and guns. Jim went to ECQC and tonight we're talking about his after-action report a...

A lot of people think that being a "Type-A" has something to do with a hierarchy or "alpha dog," but it turns out, that's not really it. In this episode, Mike and Jim break down what Type A really means, and what traits we see in the Tactical type of person. These traits are important to understand, because a little might be good, but a lot can be really bad. They are also good to know from a lead...

Kevin Briggs is a retired California Highway Patrol Sergeant who has been called the Guardian of the Golden Gate for his reputation interacting with hundreds of people who wanted to commit suicide by jumping from the bridge. We discuss communication strategies, some considerations to make regarding tactical interventions in a crisis, red flags that someone might kill themselves, things to say to s...

Ed Darack is an author and war reporter who has embedded with US forces in Afghanistan and written a couple books about it. Extortion 17 was a US Chinook helicopter that was shot down by a lucky hit by a Taliban fighter with an RPG. 38 US and Afghan personnel and a military working dog were killed in what became the largest single loss of Special Operations personnel in Afghanistan. Just so happen...

This might sound a little boring, but let's face it: Trying to get stuff done when you're dealing with your bosses is a skill of its own. Some people are better at it than others. We discuss some strategies for dealing with "obstructions" in the workplace. It's not that you should backdoor everything and circumvent rules or procedure, its just that there are some ways to go about the system that m...

What is a tactic? How do we come up with them? The word tactical is one of those buzzwords we throw around, but what does it all mean? We are going to talk about how people apply creativity and problem solving to coming up with a list of solutions to situations we face in our professions. That involves several layers: We have to come up with ideas, we have to test them, we have to make sure they a...

Mike and Jim discuss the differences between a boss, manager, and leader, styles of leadership and how they affect a team or organization. We'll cover things like establishing social norms and how close or distant leaders should develop their personal relationship with subordinates. TED Talk Aid in Africa Parkland Sheriff claiming he's not responsible Remember that we publish new episodes on the 1...

We interviewed Andy Brown, the author of Warnings Unheeded, to discuss his role in stopping an active shooter with an AK47 by shooting him in the head from 68 yards away with his pistol. We cover the things that he credits with his success that day including dry fire practice, mental rehearsals, and personal responsibility, as well as the pre-attack indicators that several people observed before t...