The guest
Mike Glover: Former Green Beret and CIA contractor; founder of Fieldcraft Survival and American Contingency, preparedness educator and author of the book Prepared.
What this episode covers
Mike Glover joins Joe Rogan to discuss his decades in Special Operations and the CIA, and how he built Fieldcraft Survival to teach 'modern survival' and resilience to civilians. A central thread is his claim that an FBI analyst's open-source assessment got him and his American Contingency group labeled domestic terrorists, triggering bans and account deletions across Facebook, Shopify, and PayPal with no recourse. They explore survival psychology (the 10-80-10 rule, hypoarousal/freezing, the illusion of centrality) drawn from his combat experience and from books like Survival Psychology and The Unthinkable. The conversation widens into the veteran transition crisis, loss of tribe and purpose, the comfort crisis, and how social media, algorithms, and political narratives are dividing the country.
Recommended on this episode
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Traeger Grill
Traeger
“which I love because it's so convenient”
“I always cooked on a Trager which I love because it's so convenient you know see it on your phone you know the temperature”— Joe Rogan
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Sentex Barbecue offset smoker
Sentex Barbecue (Central Texas Smokers)
“a real work of art it's incredible”
“that guy did a tremendous job it's like a real work of art it's it's incredible uh like just the craftsmanship”— Joe Rogan
BookRecommendedISBN verified
Tribe
Sebastian Junger
“great book great sum up of the experience”
“have you ever read uh Sebastian younger's book tribe great book great sum up of the experience”— Mike Glover
BookRecommendedISBN verified
The Comfort Crisis
Michael Easter
“are great books”
“The book Comfort crisis dopamine Nation are great books that talk about these kind of things”— Mike Glover
BookRecommendedISBN verified
Dopamine Nation
Dr. Anna Lembke
“are great books”
“The book Comfort crisis dopamine Nation are great books that talk about these kind of things”— Mike Glover
BookRecommended
The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes
Amanda Ripley
“it's a real good book”
“she she wrote the book Unthinkable and it's a real good uh book on why people live why people die I'm fascinated by that”— Mike Glover
The guest's own work
BookBy the guest
Prepared
Mike Glover
“I have a book called prepared that launches and we're hoping to have the app finished by June 6th uh which is dday”— Mike Glover
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
ProductReferenced
Dodge Ram 2500 pickup truck
Dodge
“get a Dodge 2500 pickup truck because the Toyota Tacoma is not going to cut it um we trimmed out everything”— Mike Glover
ProductReferenced
Titan reserve fuel tank
Titan Fuel Tanks
“Titan has a reserve tank about uh 30 gallons and then you can get an extended fuel tank”— Mike Glover
MediaReferenced
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi
“13 hours in magazi does depict the job well and there's some accuracies there but that that obvious catastrophe is unique”— Mike Glover
MediaReferenced
Naked and Afraid
“survival was that thing but not like Naked and Afraid survival not like Bushcraft um when I think about survival I think of Modern Survival”— Mike Glover
BookReferenced
Survival Psychology
John Leach
“I read a book uh called survival Psychology by John leech which talked about the reason people live and the reason people die”— Mike Glover
MediaReferenced
Black Belt Magazine
“Steven Hayes or yeah yeah I remember that dude he was always on the cover of Black Belt Magazine throwing stars”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
American Ninja
“was it was it uh American Ninja or was it white n there there was a bunch of movies there American ninja movies”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Bill Gates pandemic documentary
Netflix
“after watching Bill Gates documentary on basically Co U I think it was on Netflix and he was talking about pandemics”— Mike Glover
ProductReferenced
Glock pistol
Glock
“or maybe your friend because friends sit together in classrooms was it your friend or was it when the Glock was put against the back of your head”— Mike Glover
ProductReferenced
Sig Sauer rifle
Sig Sauer
“I have a a Sig rifle yes sitting in front of the in front of the uh on the elk 6x6 I'm I'm not showboating the death”— Mike Glover
ProductReferenced
Montana Knife Company knives
Montana Knife Company
“Josh Smith from Montana Knife Company deals with us all the time if you have a knife and you advertise it on Facebook”— Mike Glover
ProductReferenced
Ambien
“when we're using ambient to go to sleep because we can't sleep all these things we thought were normal because we're part of the culture”— Mike Glover
Big reveals from this episode
- Facebook flagged Fieldcraft Survival's canning-and-jarring classes as 'extreme,' the first sign Glover was being suppressed.
- An FBI analyst (Kyle Seraphin) flagged his American Contingency group as a militant violent extremist entity, cascading into bans.
- Shopify gave him 48 hours to pull his data before deleting his multimillion-dollar business with no appeal.
- He remains labeled a 'domestic terrorist' on Facebook/Instagram, confirmed by a screenshot from Meta's India moderation team.
- PayPal froze his account with $60,000 in it and removed him from the platform, citing unspecified policy.
- His mother's small-business salon Facebook account was deleted simply for reposting that she was proud of her son.
- In an Iraq firefight his elite Iraqi counterterrorism partner froze in the fetal position; Glover dragged him 20 yards under PKM fire.
Worth remembering
- His company demonstrated a self-sustained bug-out from Phoenix to the Canadian border on essentially one tank using a 75-gallon reserve.
- He is rated 100% 'total and permanent' disabled by the VA; his individual ratings summed to over 200%.
- John Leach's 10-80-10 rule: in disasters ~10% make rapid decisions and survive, 80% freeze, and 10% do fatal things.
- In the plot to kidnap Michigan's governor, 12 of the 14 people involved were federal informants.
- On average 93% of Americans' lives are spent indoors, leaving only 7% outside.
- The Virginia Tech shooter killed 32 people, shooting roughly 93% of victims in the head; one student survived by freezing/playing dead.
- About 10% of sexual assault victims report tonic paralysis (freezing) - more than the percentage who physically fought.
- US overdose/related deaths broke records: roughly 110,000 in 2022 and 107,000 in 2021.
- Native American warriors traditionally shared combat trauma fireside with the whole tribe, a burden-sharing ritual modern veterans lack.
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