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Joe Rogan · 2024-06-27

Joe Rogan Experience #1885 Andy Stumpf & Mike Sarraille

Navy SEAL veterans Andy Stumpf and Mike Sarraille on brutal SEAL training, media attacks on the teams, MMA, and a record-setting charity skydive expedition.

Joe Rogan Experience #1885   Andy Stumpf & Mike Sarraille
The guest

Andy Stumpf & Mike Sarraille: Two retired Navy SEALs (Stumpf did 8 combat deployments; Sarraille a former Recon Marine and SEAL officer and author) who founded Legacy Expeditions and the Triple Seven skydiving fundraiser.

What this episode covers

Joe Rogan hosts retired SEALs Andy Stumpf and Mike Sarraille, who defend the brutality of SEAL training as essential preparation for combat and push back on media narratives that paint the teams as hazing-prone or politically corrupt. They discuss the viral CS-gas training video, the death of a recruit after hell week, the Eddie Gallagher case, and what BUDS really tests in a person's character. The conversation ranges widely into MMA fighting, Gordon Ryan's online behavior, weapons in cage fighting, and hip-resurfacing surgery. They close by promoting the Triple Seven Expedition, a seven-continent, seven-day skydive to raise $7 million for Folds of Honor, recounting a near-disastrous Iceland jump and Andy's parachute into Everest.

The guest's own work

BookBy the guestISBN verified

The Talent War

Mike Sarraille

“I wrote a book about this called the talent War how special operations and great organizations went on Talent”— Mike Sarraille
BookBy the guest

The Everyday Warrior

Mike Sarraille

“I've got a second book coming out January 10th uh the everyday Warrior and it's it's a self-help book but it's not about me”— Mike Sarraille

Also referenced (named, not recommended)

BookReferencedISBN verified

Extreme Ownership

Jocko Willink

“usually serve two to three combat deployments maybe maybe four um did a good job with extreme ownership”— Mike Sarraille
MediaReferenced

Full Metal Jacket

Stanley Kubrick

“if you look at any movie probably up to and including like full metal jacket... exposure to CS gas is something that you do in basic training”— Andy Stumpf
MediaReferenced

Seal Team

Paramount

“the Paramount Plus show you know Seal Team they are a funnel filler for recruitment for high performing kids”— Mike Sarraille
MediaReferenced

Band of Brothers

HBO

“you remember the Band of Brothers from HBO yeah I guarantee after 10 or 20 years like those guys started to drift apart”— Mike Sarraille
MediaReferenced

The Blair Witch Project

Dan Myrick

“the film crew led by Dan Myrick Remember The Blair Witch Project yeah that's Dan Myrick and that guy broke all the Indie records”— Mike Sarraille
MediaReferenced

Fear Factor

“we expose people to it on Fear Factor yeah again voluntary and if they face officers and if they didn't want to”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced

Red Man Chewing Tobacco

Red Man

“I remember the first time I did somebody give me Red Man Chaw and it was it was over I was just yakking everywhere”— Andy Stumpf
ProductReferenced

GoPro

GoPro

“the kettle boiled over a little bit and I forgot my GoPro was on so they got a good laugh about it at dinner”— Andy Stumpf
ProductReferenced

NAD+ IV therapy

“the the NAD plus which was relatively new to me was that was awesome yeah that's uh that's controversial that stuff”— Andy Stumpf

Big reveals from this episode

  • A viral video of BUDS students being exposed to CS gas on San Clemente Island triggered a Navy investigation, which the guests argue is a normal, standard training evolution.
  • A SEAL recruit and former Yale football captain died of a staph infection and bacterial pneumonia shortly after completing hell week.
  • Mike defends friend Eddie Gallagher, acquitted of murdering an ISIS detainee, and says NCIS bugged the defense lawyer's emails and was never held accountable.
  • A small, unassuming 'little Asian kid' Mike misjudged in BUDS, Dr. Johnny Kim, earned a Silver Star, became a Navy doctor, and is now an astronaut by age 34.
  • Disney attempted to trademark the name of the unit that killed Bin Laden until the government stepped in.
  • Extortion 17 was the largest single loss of life in Afghanistan, killing 31 Americans, mostly SEALs, leaving roughly 25 children without fathers.
  • On an outsourced Iceland jump, altimeters were set 750 feet wrong, jumpers landed 3-5 miles off the drop zone, and one woman broke her leg.
  • Dr. Kirk Parsley estimates the average SEAL undergoes 11 surgeries over a 20-year career.

Worth remembering

  • Andy accumulated 8 combat deployments at the elite tier versus the conventional SEAL norm of 2, cycling 90 days overseas and 180 days back.
  • An NCAA starting fullback didn't last two weeks of BUDS; a class that started with 250 men finished hell week with 25.
  • During hell week, candidates get roughly two hours of sleep total, around Wednesday, across a continuous Sunday-to-Friday grind.
  • The guests claim a Pentagon diversity chief wrote a book characterizing first responders as menaces and white supremacists.
  • Jiu-jitsu champion Gordon Ryan was canceled on social media for alleged bullying despite competing in a sport built on intimidation.
  • A doctor said Yoel Romero's eye ligaments and tendons are three times larger than a normal person's, and his fractured orbital healed unusually fast.
  • Michael Bisping fights with two artificial knees and one dead eye after his career; Dan Henderson's logo depicts him punching an unconscious Bisping.
  • Nine months after a hip-resurfacing surgery, Andy parachuted into some of the highest drop zones in the world near Everest.
  • Hip resurfacing is a 'young man's hip replacement' that lets hockey players and fighters like Frankie Edgar return to sport, but recovery is harder than a standard replacement.
  • Doctors can now inject stem cells directly into spinal discs, regenerating disc tissue and relieving bulging discs and pinched nerves.