Fight-or-Fl1ght | Season 2, Episode 41 | Craig of Body By Craig, personal trainer and human performance coach, on preparing bodies for pageantry, athletics, and peak performance as a craft.

Four guests. Four creators. Four separate conversations. One question, asked in four different mediums.

Glenn McMahon (S2E38) builds brands. Steve Smith (S2E39) designs the sneakers in demand. George Esquivel (S2E40) hand-stitches leather into something that outlives a trend. Craig (S2E41) builds the body itself.

Some source fabric, leather, trims. Craig sources nutrition, recovery, physiology. Different raw material. Same discipline.

An OG of personal training and human performance, Craig has prepared bodies for pageantry, swimsuit photoshoots, and athletes competing at the highest level.

Peak human performance may have the broadest, most relatable TAM of all. It is you. We. Me. Who doesn't want to perform optimally? Set a new personal standard? Be better than yesterday. Miss America. A D1 scholarship. Different playing fields, co-joined by co-creation.

This is BTR™, applied knowledge. It is the maker's mark.

Self agency. Personal expression. Manifesting BTR™. If that's your jam, being better, feeling better, doing better, this month and yes, this episode nourishes.

Walk Worthy.

Fight-or-Fl1ght | Season 2, Episode 40 | George Esquivel, founder of the House of Esquivel, on childhood survival, faith, and building a bespoke luxury footwear brand from a garage.

Guns in the house. A father who was a career criminal. A mother who was conflicted. Always seeking better despite the oppression.

George Esquivel inherited a work ethic. Faith. Creativity. And the ability to FIGHT, for BTR™

Consider this resume: By fourteen he knew where the guns were kept. By nineteen he put his own father out. As a young adult, he owned his faith. And the notion that "hand made" meant more than the next hustle.

And along that journey, one garage and one mentor became an apprenticeship. A workshop towards self reliance, discernment, humility and capability. The House of Esquivel stands today as quiet luxury. The house has stitched shoes in Los Angeles for notables like Brad Pitt. LeBron James. The Rock. Janelle Monáe. Madonna. Laura Dern. George produces elegance. Art that simply fits.

This one is BTR™... Earned. & Honest.

We go deep. Father. Faith. Family. Mentor. Pain points. The Tutima watch collaboration that closed a circle thirty years wide. The lesson George learned from watching a man he loved become a man he refused to be.

"I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free." — Michelangelo

EPISODE CHAPTERS

00:00 - Audio problems before restarting the interview (Source: Riverside FM Audio)

01:13 - Reintroducing George and the three part opening

01:50 - George defines himself as father, husband, friend, and maker

03:28 - Why the work matters more than the image

04:05 - The clients who mean the most to him

06:01 - How his wife kept him grounded

08:03 - George's father and the start of a difficult upbringing

10:13 - Realizing the bike was stolen and growing up around crime

11:12 - Violence, threats, and surviving life with his father

12:41 - Taking on responsibility as the eldest child

15:29 - His father's later years and what George learned from him

16:26 - Learning what not to become

17:54 - Faith, his mother's wisdom, and surviving motel life

20:20 - From punk concerts and vintage clothing to custom apparel

22:13 - Searching for shoes that fit before the internet

24:48 - Meeting a retired shoemaker who changed everything

27:20 - The garage shop that produced thousands of pairs

28:57 - Learning production by cleaning the garage and making shoes

30:24 - Fit samples, low return rates, and a process that still works

33:16 - The challenge of building a business with no formal training

35:02 - Why small batch manufacturing is full of hidden problems

38:38 - Wholesale changes after the pandemic and the shift to direct sales

41:51 - Corporate fitting events as a new growth lane

43:55 - A lifelong dream realized through a Tutima watch collaboration

48:11 - Designing the watch kit and turning a loss into a win

50:02 - Other collaborations that pushed his creativity

51:32 - How to commission shoes or inquire about collaborations

52:07 - Advice for aspiring artists entering business

Commission custom work: [email protected] | Instagram: @GeorgeEscavelle

Past and present notable clients: Brad Pitt, LeBron James, Madonna, Janelle Monáe, Laura Dern, Diane Kruger, Sean Lennon, Tyson Chandler, Waris Ahluwalia, and others

Walk Worthy.

Some products are iconic. They move audiences to want more.

Others are functionally forgettable. A transaction. A moment. Never a movement.

Some designers iterate. Refine what exists. Others duplicate, chasing short gains.

A select few imagine what might be. New expressions of symmetry, function, form. BTR™. Better in style, performance, value.

An even smaller few deliver, repeatedly, with the unexpected. Content that captures imagination and consumer enrollment. Regardless of brand. Regardless of season. Regardless of channel. They simply do.

Is that innate? Or cultivated? Right place, right time, right room? Or talent, latent in some, robust in others?

Steven Smith is that guy. Creator, curator, communicator. His product designs have proven themselves next level, again and again.

We dive deep. What is great design. What's broken about the rest. Is rebellion necessary? Is the fight for individuality a supreme act of rebellion? Is the freest way to face an unfree world absolute freedom, existence itself as defiance?

Steven's ideology rejects conformity. Questions inherited norms. Refuses to submit, in the design room and beyond.

If you celebrate humanness. If you relish collaboration. You already walk among us.

Join the episode. Join the cohort.

🎧 Fight-or-Fl1ght | linktr.ee/fightorfl1ght

Walk Worthy.

Music courtesy of Riverside's music library.

Donna Karan. Dolce & Gabbana. Giorgio Armani. St. John Knits, sold in 2013. Then interim leadership and advisory work across fashion, tech, hospitality, and luxury appliances. Thirty years. Build it. Sell it. Save it.

Glenn identifies industry vulgarities and celebrates the imagination that moves audiences to enroll, not those who survive on forgettable transactions. Decisive. Gentle in delivery. Firm in the follow-through.

Inside this episode: complacency as the industry's most uncomfortable truth. AG Jeans and the return to core. The pattern behind Nike, Lululemon, and Under Armour's repeated missteps. Why On, Hoka, New Balance, Kith, Aimé Leon Dore, and Buck Mason are winning through community over hype. Resale as real commerce. Runway economics, and why the math stopped working. AI as a tool, not a replacement for merchant judgment.

Notable quotes:
"There's no shame in asking for help."
"Keep it simple. It's denim, stupid."
"Patience."

If you celebrate humanness, and what happens in collaboration, you already walk among us. Join our cohort. Welcoming ALL.

Walk Worthy

Dr. Pamela Potts-Arnell serves as President/CEO of 22Zero, a peer-led trauma healing model built to resolve in two to four sessions, not months. Myles Jeffrey presses into whether that's possible, and whether it's responsible.

The conversation moves through guided imagery and memory reconsolidation, the research pipeline behind the model (one published study, three in peer review, a joint study underway with Healing Springs Ranch, new university work beginning in Alabama), and the difficulty of getting the VA to take a serious look despite the data. It closes on the name itself, twenty-two veterans lost a day, the work aimed at zero, and Dr. Arnell's trip to New York, traveling in cohort with the 2026 NYC SEAL Swim, a 3.5-mile open-water endurance event founded by former Navy SEAL Bill Brown, running August 15th from Liberty State Park through New York Harbor and the Hudson River, benefiting Beyond the Brotherhood.

"People aren't broken. They've experienced something that has been traumatic, and there's healing for that."

Drew Forsberg served as a Navy SEAL, Class 243, SEAL Team 5, before becoming a father of four homeschooling on Oahu, and Executive Director of Beyond the Brotherhood.In this episode, Drew traces his path from Montauk fishing roots and California surf culture through 9/11, BUD/S, and the SEAL teams, then into the moment that tested everything underneath the uniform. In 2021, a vaccine mandate forced a choice between an oath to command and an oath to conscience. He filed a religious exemption, joined a First Liberty lawsuit, and later faced years of cumulative TBI, finally named, finally treated, finally understood.Drew's answer to where duty ends and defiance begins became the spine of this conversation. Identity is not a title. It is values, conduct, and stewardship, a north star built on faith, held under authority, still choosing conviction when conviction costs something.Drew now serves as Executive Director of Beyond the Brotherhood, a veteran-owned 501(c)(3) founded by Jimmy May. Drew and the team lead the organization's work screening and selecting Navy SEALs of character for their next mission in life through the SEAL² Process: Screen and Select, Equip and Engage, Assess and Align, Launch and Lead.Also covered: regenerative agriculture, jiu jitsu as therapy and discipline, SkillBridge partnerships, the real math of nonprofit leadership, and the 2026 NYC SEAL Swim, a 3-mile open-water swim through New York Harbor past the Statue of Liberty, open to Navy SEALs, veterans, and first responders.Learn more or get involved:Beyond the Brotherhood — beyondthebrotherhood.orgSponsor a Fellow — beyondthebrotherhood.org/donate2026 NYC SEAL Swim — beyondthebrotherhood.org/nyc-seal-swimThe Fight-or-Fl1ght Podcast — linktr.ee/fightorfl1ght

Twenty-eight years in the United States Navy. Twenty-six as a SEAL. Yes, the mission was the brotherhood of uniform. It was simultaneously greater. It was the people. The same mission, articulated differently. Command became craft. Craft was the "care".

Capt. Robert V. "Gus" Gusentine served as Director of Operations for Special Operations Command Pacific and was the former Course Director of the Strategic Leaders International Course at NAVSCIATTS, training senior officers from AFRICOM, EUCOM, CENTCOM, and INDOPACIFIC. He wrote haikus on deployment. He went on to teach at St. Benedict's Prep. He became a painter whose work has been featured on PBS's Curate. Proof that art holds what comes after: unity, connection, the collective.

This episode is stripped down. No sizzle, no filler. Just the man, speaking. Listen for what's said. Watch for what is not.

Capt. Gusentine spent a career defending people he'd never meet. He continues to give that same care to everything he builds. In conversation. In canvas. In every room he enters. Service: to others. A believer in the moral economy: acting with integrity, expecting nothing back.

My humanity is bound up in yours. For only in this way, can we become fully human.

Walk Worthy.
— Mj

The swim is why we sat down. Bill Brown — Navy SEAL, Iraq veteran, attorney, and the man behind the New York City SEAL Swim — joins us for a conversation that started with the swim and became so much more.

Service. Community. Perception. Mindset. The practical work of navigating today's complexities from a man who's already faced the hardest ones. Unedited. Unscripted. One man's journey to serve, support, inform, and love all that is dear to him.

This conversation includes discussion of active, ongoing litigation. Bill's account. Bill's words. His fight, his story, told whole.

In this episode:
→ The New York City SEAL Swim — Liberty, Ellis Island, 9/11
→ Life after the Trident and what identity means when the mission ends
→ Adventure therapy as a healthy outlet for stress
→ The transition every combat veteran faces
→ Why speaking up matters

The Swim: nycsealswims.com
Support the mission: Beyond the Brotherhood
Veteran mental health: 22Zero
Connect with Bill: linkedin.com/in/williambrown77
Bill's practice: Parlatore Law Group — parlatorelawgroup.com/team/brown-jr-william-d

Fight-or-Fl1ght. Real conversation. Real people. Real stakes.

Our meditation for all - Desmond Tutu said it best: "My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together."

Walk Worthy.

What does a biological attack actually look like?

Reality. It may feel and look like an outbreak. Like contaminated produce. Like a summer spike in gastrointestinal illness that public health systems are already calibrated to manage.

Right now 4,173 Americans are confirmed infected across 34 states. Cyclosporiasis. A microscopic parasite. Linked to iceberg lettuce. Six times higher than this time last year.

Natural occurrence. Probably.

The question this episode is built around is harder than the headline.

If a deliberate actor engineered something to operate inside that window. At scale. Optimized to look natural long enough to blur attribution. How would we know the difference?

The difference between an outbreak and an attack is intent. And intent leaves no fingerprints.

Two guests. One conversation. Both have spent their careers inside the architecture of that question.

Laura Calabria is the Founder of Livian, a national security writing and advisory firm. Twenty years inside American national security intelligence. CIA Chief of Strategy within the Science and Technology Directorate. Chief of Strategic Communications within the Office of General Counsel. Chief of Staff at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. She knows how the system reads a signal. More importantly she knows how it misses one.

Dr. Vahan Simonyan is the Chief Scientific Officer and Founder of DNA HIVE. Inventor of the cloud infrastructure the FDA uses for Next Generation Sequencing analysis. Twenty-five years across life sciences, biotechnology, bioinformatics, physics, chemistry, and nanotechnology. Author of nearly 100 published scientific papers. He built the science of detecting what a pathogen leaves behind in genomic data.

Together they are building BIONET. A biological defense surveillance network designed to address exactly this class of threat.

This conversation covers the difference between a biological threat and a kinetic one. What genomic biology enables in the wrong hands. COVID as a case study in preparedness versus assumed preparedness. China's investment signal and what the 2026 ODNI Threat Assessment tells us about adversary intent. The detection paradox. The political will question. And whether our institutions know how to act on warning signals before the event rather than after it.

The 9/11 Commission Report named the greatest failure leading to September 11 as a failure of imagination.

BIONET asks whether we are ready to do that differently in the biological domain.

One hour and five minutes. No filler. No easy answers.

Fight or Fl1ght. An independent podcast. Season 2. Episode 33. Published every Tuesday. Walk Worthy.

linktr.ee/fightorfl1ght

Good is a compliment. Great is a discipline.

Most teams chase the first. Season. Quarter. Whatever the calendar demands. Few chase the second.

Amy Toth does. Every time.

In this episode, Amy — a technical design leader who built a Bra Center of Excellence from scratch — takes us inside the most unforgiving category in apparel. Millimeters matter. Bodies change. The engineering doesn't care about the mood board.

We talk about feeding the commercial machine without letting it eat the art. Reading the noise. Protecting the origin story. Standing in the room and saying no, we're not using sponges, we'll find another way — and meaning it.

Standardization. Consistency. Rigor. And underneath all of it: what is great design, actually?

In this episode: Amy's journey from technical designer to industry thought leader. Building the Bra Center of Excellence from the ground up. Rethinking bra sizing and the case for industry-wide standards. The engineering marvel behind support, and why bras are more technically complex than most garments. How fit shifts with body composition changes, including from GLP-1 medications. Setting new precedent: the move to eliminate sponges and other outdated materials. Small brands' agility vs. large companies' resource walls. What separates emotionally resonant design from functionally forgettable design.

Timestamps
00:00 Introduction to Amy's journey and core values
02:30 Humility and authentic relationships
05:11 Building the Bra Center of Excellence
07:10 Rethinking bra sizing and industry standards
08:11 Evaluating design concepts for stakeholder buy-in
10:04 The stage-gate process for apparel innovation
12:10 Setting new precedent: eliminating sponges
13:53 The complexity of bra engineering and fit
15:50 Fit and body composition shifts from medical innovation
18:23 Standardization challenges across brands
20:52 When fitting happens in development
24:17 Impact of GLP-1 and weight fluctuation on fit
27:00 Niche brands thriving through focused innovation
29:30 Deep customer understanding in design31:47 What is great design? Emotional connection and purpose

Connect with Amy: linkedin.com/in/amy-toth-0509a820

Fight-or-Fl1ghtWalk Worthy.
linktr.ee/fightorfl1ght