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What if the maps we’re all using are lying to us?

In this episode we yank the curtain back and connect the dots most shows leave scattered: 

• The “devouring mother” vs. “tyrannical father” archetypes now fighting for control of America’s soul 
• How printed money and $38 trillion in debt quietly tax you every single day 
• Why a household “poverty line” just hit $140k in parts of the country — and why almost nobody wants to admit it 
• Healthcare’s textbook death spiral: community rating, third-party payer distortion, Medicare price floors, and the cartel that profits from it 
• China’s century-of-humiliation memory, Belt & Road resource grabs, fentanyl pipelines, and why their planners think in 50-year chunks while we argue in 24-hour cycles 
• The OODA loop as the antidote to mass psychology, narrative warfare, and orientation collapse

Three Gen Xers — Mark, Ponch, and Max Borders (Underthrow) — refuse to treat these as separate stories. Instead we stitch them into one coherent picture of unrestricted decline and show you exactly where the leverage points still exist.

If you’ve ever felt the system is rigged but couldn’t quite name how, this conversation hands you the mental models to see it clearly — and the agency to do something about it.

Watch or listen now. Then send it to the one friend who still thinks inflation is “transitory.”

John R. Boyd's Conceptual Spiral was originally titled No Way Out. In his own words: 

“There is no way out unless we can eliminate the features just cited. Since we don’t know how to do this, we must continue the whirl of reorientation…”

A promotional message for Ember Health.  Safe and effective IV ketamine care for individuals seeking relief from depression. Ember Health's evidence-based, partner-oriented, and patient-centered care model, boasting an 84% treatment success rate with 44% of patients reaching depression remission. It also mentions their extensive experience with over 40,000 infusions and treatment of more than 2,500 patients, including veterans, first responders, and individuals with anxiety and PTSD

John Boyd’s Conceptual Spiral was originally titled “No Way Out.” In his words:

Download a complete transcript of Conceptual Spiral for free by clicking here.

Stay connected with No Way Out and The Whirl Of ReOrientation

• Follow Us onX:
  • @NoWayOutcast
  • @PonchAGLX
  • @NoWayOutMoose
• Subscribe to our Substack – The Whirl Of ReOrientation
  • Long-form work on John Boyd, Orientation, and how to think and act inside the Guerrilla Information War.

Want to build your organization’s capacity for free and independent action?See how we help teams become more competitive, collaborative, and coordinated under pressure:

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A grain elevator turned upside down. A Chevy bumper cut in half. A Model T steering sector pulled from the yard. That’s not a lab; that’s the birth of the modern snowmobile—and the clearest proof that real creativity starts with what’s already in your hands.

We sit down with Mitchell Johnson to trace Polaris’s arc from a small Minnesota shop to a powerhouse that reshaped winter travel, ATVs, and utility vehicles. Along the way, we map John Boyd’s snowmobile metaphor to the shop floor: analysis breaks things apart; synthesis recombines them into something that works in the wild. Mitchell shares how his father and uncle—fresh from the Navy—built the first sleds, learned fast from failure when the track sank, and fixed it with canvas pockets. He walks us through Alaska’s transformation from dog teams to snowmobiles, and the cultural DNA that kept Polaris close to terrain, test riders, and customers.

If you care about innovation that survives contact with reality, this conversation is a field manual. Listen for practical insights on synthesis, OODA in practice, cross-pollination between domains, and customer-driven design that wins off-road and on ice. If this resonates, follow the show, share it with your boss,  and drop a review so more builders can find it.

Mitchell Johnson on LinkedIn

John R. Boyd's Conceptual Spiral was originally titled No Way Out. In his own words: 

“There is no way out unless we can eliminate the features just cited. Since we don’t know how to do this, we must continue the whirl of reorientation…”

A promotional message for Ember Health.  Safe and effective IV ketamine care for individuals seeking relief from depression. Ember Health's evidence-based, partner-oriented, and patient-centered care model, boasting an 84% treatment success rate with 44% of patients reaching depression remission. It also mentions their extensive experience with over 40,000 infusions and treatment of more than 2,500 patients, including veterans, first responders, and individuals with anxiety and PTSD

John Boyd’s Conceptual Spiral was originally titled “No Way Out.” In his words:

Download a complete transcript of Conceptual Spiral for free by clicking here.

Stay connected with No Way Out and The Whirl Of ReOrientation

• Follow Us onX:
  • @NoWayOutcast
  • @PonchAGLX
  • @NoWayOutMoose
• Subscribe to our Substack – The Whirl Of ReOrientation
  • Long-form work on John Boyd, Orientation, and how to think and act inside the Guerrilla Information War.

Want to build your organization’s capacity for free and independent action?See how we help teams become more competitive, collaborative, and coordinated under pressure:

• AGLX
• AGLX Yo...

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What if relief wasn’t months away, but days? We sit down with ER physician and Ember Health cofounder Dr. Nico Grundmann to unpack how IV ketamine delivers fast, measurable change for people living with depression, PTSD, and suicidal thoughts—especially veterans and first responders under relentless stress. No hype, no mystique: just clear protocols, clinical guardrails, and results that hold up to scrutiny.

Dr. Nico explains why modern science views depression as stress- and trauma-driven neural pruning, and how a focused series of four infusions over two weeks can regrow synapses in emotional regulation circuits. The outcome isn’t euphoria—it’s alignment. Joy returns when life warrants it; grief shows up when it should; apathy loosens its grip. We also dig into the “neuroplasticity window” that follows each session, when therapy becomes easier and more effective, helping people integrate insights and sustain change.

We address the tough questions head-on: safety, misuse, and the difference between clinical dosing and recreational patterns; why benzodiazepines can blunt benefits; who should avoid treatment (e.g., schizophrenia); and how ketamine compares to SSRIs, alcohol, and emerging therapies. Access is changing fast: the VA now offers IV ketamine in many states, some insurers are coming on board, and reputable clinics can help with out-of-network reimbursement. You’ll hear a stark statistic—an 80% drop in suicidal ideati

John R. Boyd's Conceptual Spiral was originally titled No Way Out. In his own words: 

“There is no way out unless we can eliminate the features just cited. Since we don’t know how to do this, we must continue the whirl of reorientation…”

A promotional message for Ember Health.  Safe and effective IV ketamine care for individuals seeking relief from depression. Ember Health's evidence-based, partner-oriented, and patient-centered care model, boasting an 84% treatment success rate with 44% of patients reaching depression remission. It also mentions their extensive experience with over 40,000 infusions and treatment of more than 2,500 patients, including veterans, first responders, and individuals with anxiety and PTSD

John Boyd’s Conceptual Spiral was originally titled “No Way Out.” In his words:

Download a complete transcript of Conceptual Spiral for free by clicking here.

Stay connected with No Way Out and The Whirl Of ReOrientation

• Follow Us onX:
  • @NoWayOutcast
  • @PonchAGLX
  • @NoWayOutMoose
• Subscribe to our Substack – The Whirl Of ReOrientation
  • Long-form work on John Boyd, Orientation, and how to think and act inside the Guerrilla Information War.

Want to build your organization’s capacity for free and independent action?See how we help teams become more competitive, collaborative, and coordinated under pressure:

• AGLX
• AGLX Yo...

Send us a text

Conor McGregor just put ibogaine and Ambio on the map with 5M+ views in 24 hours. Former Navy "TOPGUN" Mark “Slider” Keller (now an Ambio host who has guided 250+ veterans and first responders through treatment) joins his old OCS roommate Ponch to pull back the curtain on what really happens during the 5-day ibogaine + 5-MeO-DMT program. No hype, no flowing robes—just raw stories of broken men walking in suicidal and leaving reborn. From sweat lodges to ego-death “toad” experiences, neurological resets, and why big tough dudes cry every single week. If you’ve ever wondered what actually happens inside the world’s leading ibogaine clinic, this is the closest you’ll get without buying a plane ticket to Mexico.

If you or someone you love is struggling with PTSD, TBI, depression, addiction, or just feeling stuck—this episode is the most detailed, real-world look at what modern psychedelic-assisted therapy actually looks like from the people living it every day.

Watch “In Waves and War” on Netflix
Learn more about Ambio: https://www.ambio.life/

John R. Boyd's Conceptual Spiral was originally titled No Way Out. In his own words: 

“There is no way out unless we can eliminate the features just cited. Since we don’t know how to do this, we must continue the whirl of reorientation…”

A promotional message for Ember Health.  Safe and effective IV ketamine care for individuals seeking relief from depression. Ember Health's evidence-based, partner-oriented, and patient-centered care model, boasting an 84% treatment success rate with 44% of patients reaching depression remission. It also mentions their extensive experience with over 40,000 infusions and treatment of more than 2,500 patients, including veterans, first responders, and individuals with anxiety and PTSD

John Boyd’s Conceptual Spiral was originally titled “No Way Out.” In his words:

Download a complete transcript of Conceptual Spiral for free by clicking here.

Stay connected with No Way Out and The Whirl Of ReOrientation

• Follow Us onX:
  • @NoWayOutcast
  • @PonchAGLX
  • @NoWayOutMoose
• Subscribe to our Substack – The Whirl Of ReOrientation
  • Long-form work on John Boyd, Orientation, and how to think and act inside the Guerrilla Information War.

Want to build your organization’s capacity for free and independent action?See how we help teams become more competitive, collaborative, and coordinated under pressure:

• AGLX
• AGLX Yo...

Send us a text

Bubbles don’t start with hype.
They start with money that was never earned through prior production.

Frank Shostak walks us through the entire chain: how warehouse receipts became fiat, how suspension of redemption became “monetary policy,” how lowering interest rates without prior savings fakes a signal that society has become more future-oriented, and how that fake signal lengthens the structure of production until the subsistence fund is eaten and the whole thing collapses under its own weight.

Most analysts cheer when earnings beat.
Austrians ask one question: is this activity sustainable without continued money-printing?
If the answer is no, it’s a bubble — no matter how efficient the company looks.

This episode is the cleanest explanation you will hear in 2025 of why the current tech/AI boom is not “different” — it is the latest iteration of the same central-bank playbook that gave us tulips, dot-com, and housing.

Frank Shostak on Linkedin

AAS Economics

John R. Boyd's Conceptual Spiral was originally titled No Way Out. In his own words: 

“There is no way out unless we can eliminate the features just cited. Since we don’t know how to do this, we must continue the whirl of reorientation…”

A promotional message for Ember Health.  Safe and effective IV ketamine care for individuals seeking relief from depression. Ember Health's evidence-based, partner-oriented, and patient-centered care model, boasting an 84% treatment success rate with 44% of patients reaching depression remission. It also mentions their extensive experience with over 40,000 infusions and treatment of more than 2,500 patients, including veterans, first responders, and individuals with anxiety and PTSD

John Boyd’s Conceptual Spiral was originally titled “No Way Out.” In his words:

Download a complete transcript of Conceptual Spiral for free by clicking here.

Stay connected with No Way Out and The Whirl Of ReOrientation

• Follow Us onX:
  • @NoWayOutcast
  • @PonchAGLX
  • @NoWayOutMoose
• Subscribe to our Substack – The Whirl Of ReOrientation
  • Long-form work on John Boyd, Orientation, and how to think and act inside the Guerrilla Information War.

Want to build your organization’s capacity for free and independent action?See how we help teams become more competitive, collaborative, and coordinated under pressure:

• AGLX
• AGLX Yo...

Send us a text

A roaring flyover sets the tone for a fast, high-stakes conversation: how do we turn clean drills into game-winning decisions? We sit down with Coach David Cochrane to map the OODA loop—Observe, Orient, Decide, Act—onto basketball in a way that’s practical, challenging, and laser-focused on transfer. Forget perfect lines and cone choreography. We build context-rich reps that force players to read, adapt, and act faster than their defender.

We dig into why perception and action must stay coupled if you want real results. David breaks down shooting that holds up under pressure: high release, true arc, guide hand discipline, and wrists and fingers doing the heavy lifting. Then we stress-test those mechanics with representative constraints—live closeouts from different angles, shot-clock pressure, and fatigue sprints—so a great stroke survives chaos. On the ball-handling side, we distinguish tight control from rhythmic flow, layering taped-box precision with float dribbles, weight shifts, and contact so players can change tempo and attack angles on command.

Team scenarios get the same treatment. We build situational inbounds as a discovery lab: change coverages mid-rep, add time limits, score the drill, and let players see what the defense is actually giving them. Instead of telling them every answer, we shape the environment—task, space, and individual constraints—so good decisions emerge. Along the way, we champion aggressive m

John R. Boyd's Conceptual Spiral was originally titled No Way Out. In his own words: 

“There is no way out unless we can eliminate the features just cited. Since we don’t know how to do this, we must continue the whirl of reorientation…”

A promotional message for Ember Health.  Safe and effective IV ketamine care for individuals seeking relief from depression. Ember Health's evidence-based, partner-oriented, and patient-centered care model, boasting an 84% treatment success rate with 44% of patients reaching depression remission. It also mentions their extensive experience with over 40,000 infusions and treatment of more than 2,500 patients, including veterans, first responders, and individuals with anxiety and PTSD

John Boyd’s Conceptual Spiral was originally titled “No Way Out.” In his words:

Download a complete transcript of Conceptual Spiral for free by clicking here.

Stay connected with No Way Out and The Whirl Of ReOrientation

• Follow Us onX:
  • @NoWayOutcast
  • @PonchAGLX
  • @NoWayOutMoose
• Subscribe to our Substack – The Whirl Of ReOrientation
  • Long-form work on John Boyd, Orientation, and how to think and act inside the Guerrilla Information War.

Want to build your organization’s capacity for free and independent action?See how we help teams become more competitive, collaborative, and coordinated under pressure:

• AGLX
• AGLX Yo...

Send us a text

What if thought has shape—and that shape guides what we notice, believe, and decide?

In this mind-expanding episode of No Way Out Podcast, Romanian researcher Tib Roibu unveils Polynon Theory—a revolutionary geometric framework where consciousness is primary, cognition is measurable spatial unfolding, and every polynon vertex = pure consciousness (non-event) while edges = holographic measures. 

Forget materialism vs. idealism. Tib charts a third path: a rigorous geometry of mind embracing paradox and precision. Revisit John Boyd’s OODA Loop through cognitive gravity—the invisible force where attention collapses around conceptual attractors, curving meaning, emotion, and decision trajectories just like mass bends space-time. 

Phenomena, fantasia, and noumena become coordinates in one cognitive space. The embedded observer is not external but a self-reflective function of consciousness, driving live feedback between perception and reality. Tib connects holographic edges, non-event vertices, cymatics, wave dynamics, and geometric deep learning to predictive processing, ecological psychology, conceptual spaces, and Eastern philosophy—without dogmatic orthodoxy. 

From psychedelic topology and meditative geometry to cogni

John R. Boyd's Conceptual Spiral was originally titled No Way Out. In his own words: 

“There is no way out unless we can eliminate the features just cited. Since we don’t know how to do this, we must continue the whirl of reorientation…”

A promotional message for Ember Health.  Safe and effective IV ketamine care for individuals seeking relief from depression. Ember Health's evidence-based, partner-oriented, and patient-centered care model, boasting an 84% treatment success rate with 44% of patients reaching depression remission. It also mentions their extensive experience with over 40,000 infusions and treatment of more than 2,500 patients, including veterans, first responders, and individuals with anxiety and PTSD

John Boyd’s Conceptual Spiral was originally titled “No Way Out.” In his words:

Download a complete transcript of Conceptual Spiral for free by clicking here.

Stay connected with No Way Out and The Whirl Of ReOrientation

• Follow Us onX:
  • @NoWayOutcast
  • @PonchAGLX
  • @NoWayOutMoose
• Subscribe to our Substack – The Whirl Of ReOrientation
  • Long-form work on John Boyd, Orientation, and how to think and act inside the Guerrilla Information War.

Want to build your organization’s capacity for free and independent action?See how we help teams become more competitive, collaborative, and coordinated under pressure:

• AGLX
• AGLX Yo...

Send us a text

Rob Gray, PhD on  Constraints-Led Approach (CLA) in Sports Coaching

Dive deep into Col. John Boyd’s OODA Loop through the Constraints Led Approach (CLA) with Rob Gray (Arizona State University, Perception-Action Podcast). Discover how ecological dynamics, feedback, and adaptive training create flow states and elite performance in sports — and beyond

Guest Rob Gray, a professor at Arizona State University and host of the Perception Action Podcast, shares his expertise on ecological dynamics, skill acquisition, and building adaptable athletes. Drawing from baseball, basketball, and beyond, Rob discusses how constraints enhance human performance, feedback mechanisms foster learning through failure, and cultural differences shape coaching strategies—bridging OODA's perception-action loop with real-world training.

Rob, author of "How We Learn to Move" and "The Ecological Coach," teases how CLA transforms rigid drills into dynamic, game-like environments for peak performance. 

Guest: Rob Gray, PhD
→ Podcast: https://perceptionaction.com/
→ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-gray-8232b417/

Subscribe & Never Miss a No Way Out Episode:
→ Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com › podcast › no-way-out
→ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5fzIKBmVR7ARosQ3I52uNC

Continue Your Whirl
→The Whirl of ReOrientation: https://thewhirl.substack.com/ 

John R. Boyd's Conceptual Spiral was originally titled No Way Out. In his own words: 

“There is no way out unless we can eliminate the features just cited. Since we don’t know how to do this, we must continue the whirl of reorientation…”

A promotional message for Ember Health.  Safe and effective IV ketamine care for individuals seeking relief from depression. Ember Health's evidence-based, partner-oriented, and patient-centered care model, boasting an 84% treatment success rate with 44% of patients reaching depression remission. It also mentions their extensive experience with over 40,000 infusions and treatment of more than 2,500 patients, including veterans, first responders, and individuals with anxiety and PTSD

John Boyd’s Conceptual Spiral was originally titled “No Way Out.” In his words:

Download a complete transcript of Conceptual Spiral for free by clicking here.

Stay connected with No Way Out and The Whirl Of ReOrientation

• Follow Us onX:
  • @NoWayOutcast
  • @PonchAGLX
  • @NoWayOutMoose
• Subscribe to our Substack – The Whirl Of ReOrientation
  • Long-form work on John Boyd, Orientation, and how to think and act inside the Guerrilla Information War.

Want to build your organization’s capacity for free and independent action?See how we help teams become more competitive, collaborative, and coordinated under pressure:

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• AGLX Yo...

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🎖️ **Royal Marine Commando Ben Ford** (software engineer, Haskell/category theory) joins *No Way Out* to expose the **OODA loop myth** most AI devs still believe.

  🔥 **Agentic AI runs John Boyd’s *real* OODA** — not the linear "observe-orient-decide-act" cartoon.  
  🔴 **LLMs are evolutionary dead-ends**: text-in, text-out, no destruction & creation, no real-time model updates.  
  🟢 **Active inference AI = fractal OODA**: destroys old models, creates new ones *every cycle* — at 1/1000th the energy.

  ---
  🧠 **KEY BREAKDOWNS**
  • **Orientation = the entire loop** (neuroscience + category theory proof)  
  • **Unfolding circumstances = affordances in 4D space-time** (Wardley Maps + spatial web)  
  • **Destruction & Creation = Active Inference** (FEP, Markov blankets, low-energy dominance)  
  • **Why Scrum fails, exploration wins** (knowledge *of* vs. knowledge *about*)  
  • **2026 AI forecast**: edge-device FEP agents, Verses AI, LLMs obsolete. 

💬 **QUOTE**
  > “LLMs are linear OODA. Active inference is *fractal* OODA. The difference? Real-time destruction and creation.” — **Ben Ford**

  ---
  🚀 **No Way Out Podcast** – Where Marines, AI devs, and systems thinkers decode dominance.  

  #OODA #AgenticAI #JohnBoyd #ActiveInference #FreeEnergyPrinciple
💬 **QUOTE**
  > “LLMs are linear OODA. Active inference is *fractal* OODA. The difference? Real-time dest

John R. Boyd's Conceptual Spiral was originally titled No Way Out. In his own words: 

“There is no way out unless we can eliminate the features just cited. Since we don’t know how to do this, we must continue the whirl of reorientation…”

A promotional message for Ember Health.  Safe and effective IV ketamine care for individuals seeking relief from depression. Ember Health's evidence-based, partner-oriented, and patient-centered care model, boasting an 84% treatment success rate with 44% of patients reaching depression remission. It also mentions their extensive experience with over 40,000 infusions and treatment of more than 2,500 patients, including veterans, first responders, and individuals with anxiety and PTSD

John Boyd’s Conceptual Spiral was originally titled “No Way Out.” In his words:

Download a complete transcript of Conceptual Spiral for free by clicking here.

Stay connected with No Way Out and The Whirl Of ReOrientation

• Follow Us onX:
  • @NoWayOutcast
  • @PonchAGLX
  • @NoWayOutMoose
• Subscribe to our Substack – The Whirl Of ReOrientation
  • Long-form work on John Boyd, Orientation, and how to think and act inside the Guerrilla Information War.

Want to build your organization’s capacity for free and independent action?See how we help teams become more competitive, collaborative, and coordinated under pressure:

• AGLX
• AGLX Yo...

Send us a text

Momentum favors those who move first. We sit down with Lou Hayes to trace how real-time crime centers (RTCC) rooftop drones, and secure collaboration tools are compressing response times from minutes to seconds—and what that means on the street where handcuffs still close the loop. Lou explains how small suburbs in Chicagoland connect with city, county, state, and federal partners to build a shared picture, crowdsourcing intelligence from 911 centers, analysts, air units, and even organized retail teams. The result is faster orientation and clearer guidance, but also a new dilemma: how much transparency helps the public understand the tools without giving criminals the countermeasures they need.

The conversation goes beyond gadgets. We examine the human cost of screen fixation, the quiet erosion of interview craft, and why de-escalation and calm radio work keep the frontal cortex in the fight. Lou walks through how strategy must evolve when new sensors come online, why canine and overhead assets change ground tactics, and how criminals adapt—ghost plates, tree canopies, tunnels—faster than policy can catch up. We talk scams targeting older adults with fake dashboards and urgency scripts, the role of facial recognition in challenging ID cases, and the harsh realities of human trafficking where victims are coerced into other crimes.

Recruiting and retention surface as critical constraints: smaller talent pools, vocational drift

John R. Boyd's Conceptual Spiral was originally titled No Way Out. In his own words: 

“There is no way out unless we can eliminate the features just cited. Since we don’t know how to do this, we must continue the whirl of reorientation…”

A promotional message for Ember Health.  Safe and effective IV ketamine care for individuals seeking relief from depression. Ember Health's evidence-based, partner-oriented, and patient-centered care model, boasting an 84% treatment success rate with 44% of patients reaching depression remission. It also mentions their extensive experience with over 40,000 infusions and treatment of more than 2,500 patients, including veterans, first responders, and individuals with anxiety and PTSD

John Boyd’s Conceptual Spiral was originally titled “No Way Out.” In his words:

Download a complete transcript of Conceptual Spiral for free by clicking here.

Stay connected with No Way Out and The Whirl Of ReOrientation

• Follow Us onX:
  • @NoWayOutcast
  • @PonchAGLX
  • @NoWayOutMoose
• Subscribe to our Substack – The Whirl Of ReOrientation
  • Long-form work on John Boyd, Orientation, and how to think and act inside the Guerrilla Information War.

Want to build your organization’s capacity for free and independent action?See how we help teams become more competitive, collaborative, and coordinated under pressure:

• AGLX
• AGLX Yo...