The Squad Room

I love it when I meet people who know their “why.” People who are bursting at the seems with joy about their Why, their purpose on Earth and their goal in life. People who live their Why everyday make me happy. Dr. ACE is one of those people… Dr. Alexandra Carswell Engle (Dr. ACE) is a Board Certified, Licensed Naturopathic Medical Doctor who specializes in personalized natural m...

For as long as I’ve paid attention to the UFC, Tim Kennedy has been my favorite fighter. Hands down. But honestly, it has very little to do with what he does inside the ring. It’s everything he does outside of it. UFC Fighter, Army Green Beret, Entreprenuer as a co-founder of Ranger Up, aspiring cop…. Wait, what? Aspiring cop? Well, not anymore actually but there was a time in Ti...

I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve become a bit of an Instagram addict. I deleted Facebook from my phone after reading too much idiotic crap from both sides of the aisle and all the anti-cop rhetoric. But Instagram, I couldn’t shake it. Turned out to be a good thing. Because one day I saw a user name that intrigued me after it “liked” a post: @huge_fat_loser . What...

Dr. Kirk Parsley (@docparsley) is back! He’s our first return guest and I wanted to have him back on the show because I, and many of you, had so many questions for him after his last appearance in episode 10. If you’re just diving into fixing your sleep hygiene, give episode 10 a listen first. This is almost a “part 2” kind of episode. We skip the basics we covered in episo...

Scott Mann spent 23 years in the U.S. Army, 18 of those as a Special Forces (Green Beret) officer. Scott retired from active-duty as a Lieutenant Colonel, after tours throughout South America, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Scott is on a mission to teach Americans how we can defeat ISIS. As a result, you’ve probably seen him on CNN, Fox and Friends, Bloomberg Television, The O’Reilly Factor, F...

James is the winner of the inaugural CrossFit Games, way back in the old’n days of 2007. Seems like a long ways away from the StubHub Center and the “sport of fitness” it is today. James is a huge supporter of first responders and he jumped at the opportunity to come on the show. We need more people like him in our corner. He understands the dynamics involved, and all of the nega...

Our guest is Dr. David Klinger, professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Missouri at St. Louis. Dr. Klinger is a former cop with both the Los Angeles Police Department and the Redmond (WA) PD. His personal story includes his own OIS as a young LAPD officer. You’ve got to listen to him tell it here on the show. If you aren’t familiar with him from his book &#82...

If you want to skip all these icky words and just sign up for the webinar, click here . Now, onto the show notes! MotorCop (@motorcop1 ), or “MC,”,  is the first active-duty officer to have a podcast before me (at least that I’m aware of). He and his friend Happy Medic run The Crossover Show about all things related to EMS, Fire and Police. It’s a fun show and you should li...

Aaron Barruga signed up for the Army after 9/11, and was offered a fast track into Special Forces (SF), eventually serving as a Green Beret. Aaron completed nearly 9 years of service along with 3 combat tours in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Pacific. After getting out of the Army, Aaron created Guerrilla Approach firearms training (that name will make more sense after listening to the episode). In th...

This episode is exactly the kind of episode I set out to record and bring to other LEOs when I started The Squad Room. It isn’t a fun topic (though I think you’ll certainly still find it interesting), but it’s vitally important to our survival. Dr. Jon Sheinberg is a military veteran, a board-certified cardiologist, a lieutenant with the Cedar Park Police Department (TX), a fathe...

KP is our guest on this episode. KP and her partner “DC” started the Instagram page @fitcops about two years ago with the goal of providing motivation and inspiration to other law enforcement officers in the pursuit of their own health and fitness. To say they’ve succeeded is an understatement. The Instagram account has nearly 60,000 followers at this point, and KP herself (@kpat...

David Silverman is the guest on today’s episode. David is a retired US Navy SEAL officer and the co-author of Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement in a Complex World. David’s co-author on that book is none other than four-star General Stanley McChrystal. General McChrystal wrote one of my favorite books on leadership and on reinventing old paradigms,  My Share of the Task . David is...

This is a minisode – a short, spoken essay on a topic relevant to the journey towards lifestyle optimization. Today, I wanted to talk about the nearly impossible task of creating from the place of scarcity. When we’re taxed, mentally, physically or emotionally, we are not capable of creating the opportunities we want out of life. This episode is my mental review of some of my challenge...

Click here to purchase Lean & Fierce: Tactical Fitness for Sheepdogs if you’re reading this on the show notes, go to thesquadroom.net/episode31 George is just a good guy. These days, there’s just less of him. A lot less. George is a peace officer in Ohio in the Cleveland area. In college I dated a girl from Cleveland and I grew up a Broncos fan so that makes George my favorite thin...

After having Whole Life Challenge co-founder Andy Petranek as a guest on episode 20 , I wanted to try another one. My wife and I participated in the Whole Life Challenge that started in January. We both had a lot of success – and a few missteps. My wife, of course, killed it and exceeded her goals. Me? I got close and as usual, I was my own worst enemy. This minisode is a quick recap of my e...

Today’s guest is Nick Massie. Nick is better known to some of you as PaleoNick. Nick is CrossFit’s resident chef and a lot of his videos are featured on crossfit.com and in the CrossFit Journal . He’s also the instructor for the CrossFit Culinary Ninja course. Nick is a classically trained chef who has worked in some of the world’s best restaurants. What I didn’t know was that Nick is also a gym o...

This show has an awesome giveaway – more on that below!  If you’ve been waiting for an episode that will give you tips and advice on how to combine your nutrition and your training, this is it. If you’ve been waiting for an episode where we don’t talk about CrossFit the entire time, this is it too! Nick Shaw is a competitive body builder and CEO of Renaissance Periodization...

This episode is an 8 minute guided meditation run by Traver Boehm. I’m doing it along with him. It’s a great “starter” session for someone looking to try it, and not sure where to start.

In this episode you’ll get a chance to learn  more about how Traver taught me to meditate, and he’s going to help you too. After a few minutes of amusing ourselves, we jump into a guided meditation together. Give it a shot if you’re “meditation curious” but still identify as a non-meditator. Also, in episode 27b, we cut out all the witty banter and leave you with just...

I first heard of Chief Jim Band as some of you did, through a video posted to the CrossFit Journal website. You can check out the article here and the video here . This was long before this podcast was even a shimmer in my eye, but even then I thought that I’d hope that someday I’d have a reason to have a conversation with Chief Band. He just seemed like a genuine, caring leader and so...

This mini-episode is an essay I wrote after a horrible week of line of duty deaths recently. Rest in Peace Sergeant Jason Gooding Seaside (OR) Police Department EOW February 5, 2016 Sr. Deputy Patrick Dailey Deputy First Class Mark Logsdon Harford County Sheriff's Office (MD) EOW February 10, 2016 Deputy Derek Greer Mesa County (CO) Sheriff's Office EOW February 10, 2016 Deputy Scott Ballantyne Tu...

Check out our first t-shirt to support the show at teespring.com/thesquadroom   Diane Urban is the Chief of Police of Hayward, CA. Obviously she wasn’t appointed chief straight out of the academy. So how’d she get there? She busted her ass and worked hard. It’s the same work ethic that got her to the CrossFit Games as a masters athlete. Even in 2016, being a woman in law enf...

This is a unique episode because we’re turning the tables on Traver as he becomes the subject of the episode. This episode is also going to require that you keep an open mind. But more on that later. Almost a year ago to the day of this release , I came to Traver with the idea of starting this podcast to dive into the issues of health and wellness that affect first responders, using myself a...

In this episode, we recap 2015 and my plans going in to 2016. Traver joins me again to talk about all the gritty personal stuff we haven’t covered with recent guests. Some highlights: 2015 was my year of getting waaaaay strong. Like scary strong – at least for me. But, I’m still too big. 2016 is the year to banish the extra body weight. But can I do it without losing the strength...

Our guest for this episode is Clint Bruce. I’m not sure where to start with Clint’s resume. U.S. Naval Academy graduate NFL football player Navy SEAL officer (SEAL Team 5, BUD/S class 217) Veteran and first responder advocate. And frankly, that just scratches the surface. I had the fortune to hear Clint speak on Marcus Lutrell’s Patriot Tour this past fall. I cornered him in the...