Jocko Unraveling

Unraveling 37: Battle of Ideas

Since Elon Musk bought Twitter, we've learned much about how thoroughly the information environment has been corrupted and manipulated by politically-motivated actors in Big Tech and the US government. Does the regime change at Twitter herald a new era, or ...

Unraveling 35: Side Effects May Include

Columbine. Virginia Tech. Las Vegas. Parkland. Buffalo. Uvalde. America has become the land of mass shootings. Jocko & Darryl discuss what might be behind this, and what, if anything, we can do about it. Link to Atlantic Ditch Run 800 ...

Unraveling 33: Repaid in Full

For most of history, and in much of the world today, there were no effective police, courts, prisons, or states. People and groups protected themselves according to the law of honor immortalized as the epitaph of the Roman consul Lucius ...

Unraveling 31: Out of The Frying Pan

The Second World War saw all sides engage in unrestrained violence. When the war ended, the US-led Western alliance was suddenly confronted with an aggressive, powerful, and paranoid Soviet Union - a country that had already murdered tens of millions ...

Unraveling 29: No Exit?

Foundational to both American and Soviet foreign policy during the Cold War was the view that direct confrontation between the nuclear-armed superpowers must be avoided. We managed to avoid war with the Soviet Union, but today Vladimir Putin's revanchist policies ...

Unraveling 27: All In Our Heads

What is a liberal democracy without a functional free press? The idea almost seems like a contradiction in terms. The mass media has become both more centralized and more politicized, driving us into closed silos of information and sense-making, and ...

Unraveling 25: Discipline & Punish

In episode #22, we discussed the pivotal year 1917, when the United States and the Soviet Union began their entry onto the stage of global power politics, and the tide decisively turned in the First World War. In this episode, ...

Unraveling 23: Unmitigated Disaster

Jocko & Darryl discuss the humiliating and catastrophic final days of the US war in Afghanistan. This episode is dedicated to the heroic efforts of the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines & civilians who put their bodies on the line to ...

Unraveling 21: I Guess We're Done Here

With the longest war in American history officially set to wrap up next month, Jocko and Darryl take stock of mistakes made, missed opportunities, lessons learned, and where things stand.

Unraveling 19: Lightning Milchamah: The Six Day War

In June 1967, Israeli aircraft, armor, and soldiers launched a massive surprise attack against the Egyptian forces of General Gamal Abdul Nasser, and changed the face of the entire Middle East. When the firing died down, the 19-year-old State of ...

Unraveling 17: Blood Red Fields

World War 1, the Russian Civil War, the Red Terror, Holodomor, the Great Terror, World War 2, Chernobyl, state collapse, two revolutions, and another civil war. Few countries have had a tougher 100 years than Ukraine. Recent weeks have seen ...

The Unraveling 15: The Devil Moves In Crowds

The Puritans had fled the iniquity of Europe to found a godly civilization in the New World, but in 1692 the devil tracked them down. Driven by wild accusations from a small group of young girls, Salem Village tore itself ...

The Unravelling 13: A People Drowning

Jocko and Darryl discuss the implications of a recent CDC report detailing a dramatic increase in substance abuse and mental health problems.

Unravelling 11: You Say You Want A Revolution

The Unravelling 9: What's Your Story, pt. 2

The Unravelling 7: The Sword of Destruction

Three years onto the Iraq War, the country is in flames and American support for the war is waning. Jocko leads Task Unit Bruiser into Ramadi, the capital of the al Qaeda caliphate, as a part of an effort to ...

The Unravelling 5: "Do You Guys Have Run-Flats?"

Jocko completes his first tour and heads back to the US as Iraq begins to come apart at the sectarian seams.

The Unravelling 3: A Festering Sore

The traumatic experience of Vietnam shapes the US approach to the Gulf War. The easy victory in Kuwait shapes expectations of the Global War on Terror.

The Unravelling 1: Defining The Enemy

Jocko and Darryl Cooper discuss the "beginnings" of the war on terror.