Fight-or-Fl1ght

He ran 500 missions.Nobody asked him who he was.

Diego Ugalde gave fifteen years to Naval Special Warfare. Three wars. NATO partnerships. Hundreds of lives changed by the decisions he made in the dark. And when he walked away from all of it, he looked back at the whole thing: realized he had been a stranger to himself.

This is NOT a war story. It IS what happens after.

What it costs to give everything, and still not know the person doing the giving.

What does it take to turn the mission inward?

What happens when we explore "that" awakening: the crack? The moment plant medicine rearranged one's world view?

Did the God Molecule show him a more "powerful peace"?

Then there is Warriorside. From whom does storytelling heal? Why is sharing a story the most dangerous and necessary thing a person can do. Sit with that for a minute...

As we sat, with the question underneath all of it.

To whom much is given: what happens to the one who never stopped to receive?

No conclusions here. Only the conversation. Draw what you need from it.

--

WarriorSide.org — support, volunteer, donategivebutter.com/warriorside — contribute to veteran healinglinkedin.com/in/diegougalde — connect with Diego

Some creatives iterate. The great ones innovate. So what's the difference?

Is it mandate? Short-term profit grabs versus building something that lasts? Is it the people — designers who move culture versus those who mine it for trend cycles and move on?

Kevin Beard has lived both sides. Four design careers. Olympic medals won in shoes he designed. A motorsports footwear brand built from nothing, sold to a Fortune 500. Now shaping the next generation at ArtCenter College of Design.

In this episode we go deep on what separates beloved from forgettable — and why the answer has nothing to do with the product.

In This Episode:

• Why psychographics beat demographics every time
• The moment the iPhone changed what design even means
• How Nike and Apple lost their soul — and what that cost them
• Piloti: building a brand from a culture, not a category
• The future of craft, small-batch, and why imperfection is winning
• Design education in the age of AI — what machines still can't touch

Connect with Kevin Beard:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-beardArtCenter College of Design: https://www.artcenter.edu/

WHO SELF FUNDS, PRODUCES, AND OPENS A BRICK AND MORTAR RETAIL STORE and expects to make money in today's market? Naive? Or transformative? You decide.

Myles sits back down with Erick DeLeon, founder of Of The Lion in South Minneapolis. Erick is betting that authenticity, community, and curation will always beat convenience:

You might just agree.

They dig into the seismic shifts breaking retail, why fast fashion is losing to craft and character, the brands you need to know, and the Ice Cutters bandana story.

Get in. Get active. Support Local. Stay REAL. This is Of The Lion.

Connect with Erick: [email protected] | (630) 742-2285 | @ofthelion

S2E23 | He Came Home From Vietnam. Nobody Asked If He Was Okay | Keith Cole

He came home in 1967.

No one asked.

Somewhere after that, he lost his faith. Not dramatically. Not all at once. Just gone. And with it, everything else followed. Slowly. Quietly. The way things unravel when the anchor slips.

He kept moving. Marines do. Built a career. Built a life. Until he couldn't hold it anymore.

Keith Cole calls it the black box moment. I call it the thing nobody talks about until they have to.

This conversation is that.

Keith is a Vietnam veteran. Purple Heart. Marine. CPA. Author. And a man who found his way back through faith, humility, and a daily practice he built for the rest of us.

His story is not unique. That is exactly the point.

If you are carrying something you haven't named yet, press play.

Connect with Keith:🌐 recoverybyfaith.com📖 Burnout: God's Recovery Plan📖 God's Recovery Plan: The Workbook

Hosted by Myles Levin. New episodes every week.

Grief is a portal. Not a pit stop.

Dr. Laura Berman is not here for clinical platitudes. She brings a jagged understanding of the vibration of loss and the quantum mechanics of love.

After the tragic loss of her son, Sammy, to a fentanyl overdose, Dr. Berman moved past the professional shine of her career. She found the dirt. Grounding. The somatic. The cellular reality of how grief lives in the body.

This is a reconciliation with pain that manifests as disease. An exploration of why love is the only frequency capable of restructuring a shattered soul. We dig into the metamorphosis: from metastasizing "grief mush" into a bountiful appreciation for "what is."

The science of heart coherence is not ideology. It is the enigma of existence. Physics and spirit bridging the gap to heal in a powerfully liberating manner.

• The Frequency of Loss: Why grief is stored in the marrow.

• Quantum Love: Energetic frequency grounded in science.

• The Body Keeps the Score: The link between unexpressed emotion and cancer.

• Beyond the Veil: Spirit communication and the architecture of consciousness.

• The Forgiveness Ledger: Releasing the "charge" as a mechanical necessity.

Resources:

• Crying Out Loud: A Path Through Grief into a Life Reimagined . Dr. Laura Berman

• Parent Collective: https://parentcollective.org/

• Dr. Laura Berman Official: https://drlauraberman.com/about/

• HeartMath Research: https://www.heartmath.org/

Fight-or-Fl1ght. Voices from the edge. Lessons from the fire.

B reMARKable / Mj

S2E22 | Dr. Laura Berman: The Architecture of Soul.

In this transmission:

What is the one thing a TOPGUN pilot is never contemplating?Surrender. Period.Sit with that for a moment.Wiz Buckley. Top 1% of all Naval aviators. Boots on a bathroom floor. Despair. No altitude. No exit.His next sortie, the antithesis of 15 years of training and every primal instinct:Letting go.What happened next is why you are here.The most self-sufficient human the military can produce accepted help. And the moment he did, everything changed. Now he spends every day making sure others do not wait as long as he did.Wiz Buckley is a Navy TOPGUN fighter pilot, combat veteran, entrepreneur, bestselling author, and founder of Sacred Warrior Fellowship. A 508(c)(1)(A) religious organization built to give veterans, first responders, and their families legal, sacred access to the healing most of them were never offered. Psilocybin. Ibogaine. 5-MeO-DMT. Not recreation. Sacrament.In this conversation we go deep.What combat does to a warrior's nervous system long after the guns go quiet. Why the government fears these substances and why veterans are leading the charge to access them through faith. What the "God molecule" actually is. What it really means to turn a warrior into a peacemaker without stripping away the warrior.This is not a conversation about drugs.This is a conversation about God, identity, trauma, and what it costs a nation when it sends its best and never fully brings them home.Connect with Wiz Buckley:sacredwarriorfellowship.comnofallenheroes.comWatch: How to Change Your Mind — NetflixWatch: In Waves and War — NetflixIf you are struggling, reach out. You are not broken. Nothing is missing.If this episode reaches you, pass it forward.

What happens after the rescue?

Most people remember the headline. 93 days. Somalia. SEAL Team Six. President Obama gave the order. The raiders went in at night. They brought her home.

What most people do not know is what came next.

Jessica Buchanan was 32. A teacher. In Somalia to help children avoid land mines. Abducted at gunpoint. Held in the desert. Starving. Threatened. Waiting.

The rescue was real. The celebration was real. And then everyone went home.

She did not get to.

The trauma stayed. The negligence of the organization that failed its duty of care stayed. The hard, ugly, nonlinear work of figuring out who you are after something like that. That stayed too.

This conversation is about all of it. The before. The during. The after; that which nobody talks about.

She shares her RISE framework. Reckon, Identify, Seek, Embody. Not a self help slogan. A survival map built from actual survival.

She does not pretend. She does not perform. She is honest in a way that is rare and a little uncomfortable and completely necessary.

This one is worth your time.

🔥 THE FIGHT OR FL1GHT PODCAST with Myles Jeffrey Levin Apple Podcasts → https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fight-or-fl1ght/id1840181942 

Spotify → https://open.spotify.com/show/4ZeDZf8ofdJ0g6tgTOX4Cg Instagram → @fightorfl1ght

Connect with Jessica → @jessicaCBuchanan | jessicabuchanan.com [email protected] | stellaiam.com | LinkedIn: Myles Jeffrey Levin

26 times. That is the number of times the phone rang to tell Ryan Lavarnway to pack his gear and move. Eight different jerseys. 26 separate call-ups. To the casual observer, that is ajourneyman’s life. To the professional, that is a masterclass in readiness and the refusal to let a moment pass without conviction.

We spend our lives chasing greatness, approval, and connection. We fit ourselves into shapes that are just constraints. Have you noticed the more you chase the highlight reel, the farther you drift from what actually fulfills you?

Productivity, consistency, wins, and losses are the hallmarks of the diamond's most treasured athletes. But the legacy isn’t just on the field.

The real contribution is the awareness that it was never about what they thought of you. It was always about whether you listened to yourself.

Ryan Lavarnway transmits a confidence born from the rigor of self-awareness and gratitude. He mastered the art of the resurrection: climbing out of the slumps and meeting the highest level of competition. He operates with presence, purpose, and patience: advice well served regardless of modality.

This is a conversation for anyone staring down CHANGE. This is about one's ability to set personal goals and the self-agency to achieve them, regardless of the game.

Quiet the applause. Tune it.

The Record:

2013 World Series Champion.

NCAA Batting Leader at Yale (.467 AVG).

9 Home Runs and 50 RBI across 165 Major League games.

2017 WBC MVP and 2020 Tokyo Olympian.

The Transmission:

(00:00) The 26-Man Reality

(05:49) Beyond the Box Score

(11:38) The Silence of the Slump

(20:34) Small Wins and the Internal Compass

(26:14) Reclamation

Connect with Ryan: https://ryanlavarnway.com/

Play ball.

IMHO: When did creative agencies become "soul"-blind?

Most sell technical prowess, optimize location scouting, and script for the sizzle while missing a heartbeat. They polish the pixels. Whitewashing the Human Condition for clickbait, likes and worse.

S2E17: Vicki and Mark Leffingwell at Humnkind Films operate from a different frequency.

They protect that je ne sais quoi intertwined in earned talent and perspectives layered from living it all. The epic wins. The emotional hard stops. The mess in between. Humnkind remains the boutique film agency delivering blockbuster results where others are fighting for relevance.

The Pulse:

• The Reality Modality: Why technical skill is secondary to human empathy.

• The Mess: Capturing truth in uncontrolled environments.

• The Moat: Why your life journey is the only thing AI can’t replicate.

• The Output: Distilling reality into visual content that actually pulls people in.

Connect with Humnkind Films:https://www.humnkndfilms.com/about

Subscribe & Listen to The Fight-or-Fl1ght Podcast:

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4k9oNIn9P6Z7k4XU8XG0Ue

• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fight-or-fl1ght/id1840181942

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FightorFl1ght/videos

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fightorfl1ght/

🔥 B reMARKable / Mj

#Storytelling #Branding #HumanCondition #FilmProduction #FightOrFl1ght #Authenticity #NoAISlop

"There are two types of pain in this world: The pain that hurts, and the pain that alters."

In 2006, Brian Morrison crossed the finish line of the Western States 100-Mile Endurance Run in first place—only to be disqualified for receiving physical assistance in the final yards during a total metabolic collapse.

In this episode of The Fight-or-Fl1ght Podcast, we go beyond the "Pain Cave." Brian shares the harrowing details of that day, the emergency room aftermath, and the decade of emotional turmoil that followed. We discuss the "most honest version of self" that emerges during a crisis and how he transformed a catastrophic public failure into a blueprint for grace, humility, and mental fortitude.

We also dive into Brian’s newly released book, GIVEN TO FLY, which chronicles this improbable journey of triumph and realization.

In this episode, we cover:

• The physical and mental demands of elite ultra-running.

• The anatomy of the 2006 Western States disqualification.

• Mental models for overcoming public adversity and trauma.

• How to desensitize yourself to distractions and focus on "Signal Over Noise."

• The intersection of athletic endurance and emotional resilience.

Connect with Brian Morrison:

• Official Website: https://www.briantmorrison.com/

• Get the Book: GIVEN TO FLY on Amazon

Follow The Fight-or-Fl1ght Journey:

• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fight-or-fl1ght/id1840181942

• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4ZeDZf8ofdJ0g6tgTOX4Cg

• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FightorFl1ght/videos

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fightorfl1ght/

Contact & Collaboration:For guest referrals, comments, or strategic inquiries:[email protected]/