The Silvercore Podcast with Travis Bader

Get the free bear guide Casey Braam and Travis Bader made, and enter to win an SAI Optics red dot, at : Silvercore.ca/bear Every download is a contest entry. Silvercore Club members are entered for free automatically, and can earn a second entry by downloading the guide. Wildlife artist Casey Braam hikes into wild places, paints what he finds, posts clues online, and gives the painting to the firs...

Get your FREE Authorization to Carry guide: https://www.silvercore.ca/authorization-to-carry Blair Hagen has spent 30 years fighting Canada's firearms laws, and now, days after the National Firearms Association lost its president Rick Igercich, he is the one holding it together. In this episode of the Silvercore Podcast, Travis Bader sits down with Hagen, executive vice president and now acting pr...

Jeff Evely served 20 years in the Canadian Armed Forces, with deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq. He came home, retired to his hometown in Cape Breton, and within months found himself arrested at a war memorial he was trying to guard, then later fined nearly $29,000 for walking in the woods during a Nova Scotia fire ban. He fought back. And he won. In this conversation, Travis sits down with Jeff...

Last Friday, the Pentagon released 162 declassified UFO files through a brand-new portal called PURSUE. The first formal federal release in 80 years. Some are calling it disclosure. Some are calling it a nothing burger. Rocky Swanson has spent his life inside the kind of system that handles this material. Joined the Royal Canadian Army Cadets at twelve. Served a full career in the Canadian Armed F...

Dr. Noah Schwartz is the political scientist who decided he could not write honestly about Canada's gun community without going through the licensing system himself. He took the PAL. He took the RPAL. He sat at 84 kitchen tables across this country. What he found is a story most Canadians have never heard. In this episode we cover the largest deliberate mass casualty event in Canadian history that...

George Bumann can hear a coyote two miles away and tell you there's a wolf on  the ridge. He's watched ravens rat out approaching eagles before they're visible. He's tracked a mountain lion by thinking like one until the birds around him started treating him like a predator. The uncomfortable truth? Every time you step into the woods, the entire landscape is already talking about you. Your locatio...

Torkel Norling does 200 to 300 wounded game recoveries a year. He gets called by Swedish police in the middle of the night to track traffic-hit wildlife, hunts brown bears and lynx with dogs he's bred himself, and just wrote the book on modern blood tracking. Literally. In this episode, we cover the massive differences between Swedish and North American hunting culture, what happens during a real...

Nathan James, known online as Sir Drifto, holds the world altitude record for the highest electric paramotor flight and has flown hundreds of miles in a vintage open cockpit biplane with his dad. He's also the kind of guy who once tried to fly a paramotor under a bridge and lost his sponsorship in the process. In this conversation, we talk about what happens when the risk-to-reward ratio flips, wh...

Josh Botha showed up to his first precision rifle match with a blind-magazine .204 Ruger and no idea what he was doing. A decade later, he's a four-time Team Canada World Championship competitor, senior designer at MDT (Modular Driven Technologies), founder of the BC Precision Rifle League, and the man behind North Star Precision Training. In this episode, Josh shares his journey from South Africa...

This episode introduces something new inside the Silvercore Club. It’s called The Outpost . A private weekly podcast for members where I share reflections from the field, lessons that stay with me, and thoughts that don’t always fit the format of the public show. In this episode, I explain what The Outpost is and why I created it, and then share one of those private recordings titled Bear With Me...

This was supposed to be a hot wing challenge. It turned into something else. We sat down to take on a melt your face off hot wing challenge and ended up in a real conversation about food, marriage, work, ambition, comfort, and the choices that shape a life over time. The heat ramps up fast. Talking becomes harder. Filters disappear. We talk about building something from scratch, walking away from...

What looks obvious on video often tells the least important part of the story. Chris Butler has spent decades inside high consequence decision making, as a search and rescue technician, a police inspector, a force science instructor, and an expert witness called into hundreds of use of force cases. In this conversation, we dig into how stress bends perception, why traditional training often fails...

Violence arrives fast and leaves a long shadow. Former British SBS Special Forces veteran Sonny Smith returns to the Silvercore Podcast for a grounded conversation on awareness, personal safety, and the realities of physical confrontation. Drawing from experience in UK Special Forces, executive protection, surveillance work, and professional bare knuckle boxing, Sonny talks through how people are...

As the year comes to a close, I reached out to a small group of past guests and asked them one question. What do you want to be remembered for? Their answers, and my own, are shared here. This episode is chaptered. Listen straight through, or move to the voices that resonate most with you. Take your time with it. This is the final episode of the Silvercore Podcast for 2025 This Year End project is...

Matt Barnett grew up dreaming about explosives. At fourteen he blew up his hand, looked death in the face, and kept going. Today he is one of the most fascinating figures in the world of high explosives, working with everything from avalanche control to government agencies and major media productions. This conversation goes far beyond blowing things up. Matt opens up about the accident that reshap...

Doug Patteson spent years overseas as a CIA case officer recruiting assets, running operations, and navigating a world built on secrecy and human psychology. After leaving the agency, he brought that experience into Hollywood, advising major studios on how the intelligence world actually works. In this conversation, Doug opens up about the realities of spycraft, the pressure of living a hidden lif...

Florian Wagner has lived a life that most people only dream about. A helicopter pilot, paragliding instructor, and celebrated adventure photographer, his work has appeared in National Geographic , Playboy , and Leica campaigns. From crossing Australia on a motorcycle to photographing Spirit Bears in Canada and flying through the Okavango Delta, Florian’s journey captures what it means to live clos...

What happens when someone decides to stop dreaming and start doing? In this heartfelt episode, Travis reconnects with Jesse Reardon , former cameraman for Jim Shockey and now the creator of The Fishing With Dad Show . Jesse sold his house to follow his dream, traveling Canada with his son, learning from other anglers, and capturing the bond between fathers, families, and the water. Travis and Jess...

When Rick Matney walked away from a medical career to build Chrome Chasers with his wife Dori, he wasn’t chasing money, he was chasing meaning. From guiding in the Alaskan wilderness to cooking world-class meals from what he catches and forages, Rick lives a life that blends science, survival, and soul. In this episode, Travis Bader travels to Wrangell, Alaska to discover what makes this place—and...

He’s the storyteller behind one of the most respected names in ammunition. Jonas Hellentin of Norma Ammunition joins Travis Bader for an inside look at how one of the oldest ammunition makers in the world continues to innovate while staying true to its roots. From the Swedish forests to the Norma factory floor, Jonas shares the brand’s 120-year legacy of craftsmanship, how their bullets are tested...

He grew up in the wide-open country of eastern Montana, chasing elk bugles and learning the outdoors with his dad. Today, Dylan Dowson has spent over a decade with OnX Hunt, shaping how hunters connect with the land through technology and storytelling. In this episode, we dive into Dylan’s journey from small-town Montana to the forefront of digital mapping, the secrets behind OnX’s explosive growt...

David MacDonald’s story is one of survival, service, and strength. After surviving 47 broken bones from an IED blast in Afghanistan, he rebuilt his life, helped others with PTSD, and now manages Beretta Defense Technologies in Canada. In this powerful conversation, we explore: The legacy and future of Beretta and its global brands. The reality of firearm laws and politics in Canada. The overlooked...

Phillip Millar went from soldier to lawyer, and he’s never stopped fighting battles that matter. In this episode we get into the lessons he carried from military service into the courtroom, the cost of speaking out, and why telling the truth can make you a target. This is a raw, unfiltered look at courage, conviction, and the price of standing your ground. https://www.instagram.com/theroguelawyer...

Zach Hanson was thriving in the world of AI and big tech...until the layoffs came. Two mortgages, a family to support, and no job in sight, he did what few with a white-collar background ever dare: he turned to trapping to survive. In this raw and timely conversation, Zach reveals how losing the comfort of corporate life reconnected him to skills that most of society has forgotten, skills that may...

Ron Spomer has hunted wild terrain across six continents, tested elite gear, written thousands of articles, and shaped how generations think about the outdoors. But none of that explains the man behind the rifle. In this rare and deeply personal conversation, Travis Bader sits down with the legendary outdoorsman to ask what no one else does: What’s he really been chasing? Ron opens up about the qu...