Steve Bradshaw from Tractor Boy returns to the podcast for a conversation that moves between politics, military service, music, and the strange reality of trying to make sense of the world right now.

We talk about ICE, the war with Iran, government propaganda, political loyalty, social media, and why it has become so difficult to agree on even the basic facts of what is happening around us. Steve also reflects on his time in the Army, the lasting effects of PTSD, the fear veterans face when criticizing the government, and how songwriting has helped him process some of those experiences.

Later, we get into Tractor Boy’s new album, Midwest Loud, the stories behind songs like “Blue Harvester,” “Broken GWOTer,” “Hive Mind,” and “Now It Can Be Told,” and why heavy music is sometimes the best way to explain class, war, conspiracy culture, and everything else rattling around in your head.

We also settle on some practical advice for surviving modern life: lift weights, spend less time online, listen to Van Halen in your garage, and drink a beer with your neighbors.

If you want to support the show, head to our Patreon for exclusive merch, extra content, and to help us build a more inclusive gun community.

Edited by Matthew Boerger

In this episode, we’re joined by James from Black Flag Civilian to talk about building stronger communities in a way that goes far beyond owning guns or waiting for politicians to save us.

We get into mutual aid, community defense, healthy masculinity, the failures of performative activism, and why real political power comes from people organizing and taking care of one another. James also explains why he makes preparedness content using normal working-class language instead of burying useful ideas under political theory and activist jargon.

We also talk about gun violence, anti-Zionism, electoral politics, creating left-wing cultural spaces for men, letting people grow beyond their past beliefs, ADHD, supportive wives, camouflage, radios, and why Darn Tough socks may be the greatest quality-of-life improvement you can make.

Find Black Flag Civilian on YouTube and support his work through SubscribeStar.

Support A Better Way 2A on Patreon for additional episodes and access to our Discord community.

Donate to RAINN

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Edited by Matthew Boerger

This one was super rad! Spose is a rapper from Maine, an independent artist, a dad, and the guy a lot of people first heard from “I’m Awesome.” His new EP, The American Flag Is a Red Flag, is a much sharper political turn, with songs like A World Without Billionaires and Open Their Wallets connecting with people who are sick of pretending everything is fine.

We got into political rap, capitalism, class war, being an independent artist, why America keeps pushing people toward desperation, and how his views on guns changed from “nobody needs these” to realizing the state should not be the only one with power.

We also talked about fatherhood, therapy, masculinity, public life, online weirdos, self defense, Palestine, war, Tom MacDonald catching strays, and why most normal people want the same basic things: safety, dignity, and a future for their kids.

We can't thank him enough for coming on!

If you want to support the show, head to our Patreon for exclusive merch, extra content, and to help us build a more inclusive gun community.

Edited by Matthew Boerger

We sat down with Dr. Butch Ware, the Green Party's 2024 vice presidential candidate and current candidate for governor of California. He's a tenured historian at UC Santa Barbara, half of a hip hop duo, a lifelong partisan of the black self-defense tradition, and the kind of politician you basically never see anymore because he's not on anybody's payroll.

Butch converted to Islam at 15 after reading Malcolm X's autobiography in one night. He grew up in and out of public housing in DC when it was the murder capital of the world. He's running for governor with zero corporate or PAC money, got kicked off the primary ballot over a technicality, and is fighting it in court right now. The establishment moved on him because his coalition looks like nothing they've seen before and that scares them.

This conversation went way beyond guns. We talked about why both parties serve the same donors and how he proved it by converting a Trump-voting couple into Green Party organizers on a 45 minute plane ride. We got into the black self-defense tradition going all the way back to maroon communities and slave resistance, why Malcolm said self-defense isn't violence but intelligence, and the fact that even King and SNCC were armed while practicing nonviolent direct action as a strategy. He broke down why California's strict gun laws haven't done anything to reduce violence and what actually works. And he wants to repeal the Mulford Act as governor.

The man quoted Malcolm, King, Fannie Lou Hamer, OutKast, and the Prophet Muhammad's cousin Ali in the same conversation. We need him back.

If you want to support the show, head to our Patreon for exclusive merch, extra content, and to help us build a more inclusive gun community.

Edited by Matthew Boerger

We sat down with Jarrett Sleeper and this one went way longer than planned because we could not stop talking. Jarrett is an actor, a jiu jitsu black belt with about 20 years on the mats, a shooter, and a guy who thinks about violence and identity more deeply than pretty much anyone we've had on this show. He also has ADHD so between the two of us this conversation went everywhere.

We got into why honest conversations about guns are so hard to have, the LARP that lives inside all of us and why nobody's actually John Browning their way out of this, what it feels like to hold a gun for the first time when you didn't grow up around them, why assault weapon bans don't actually do what people think they do and who they really end up hurting, treating shooting like a martial art instead of a static range hobby, the spiritual weight of living in a country built on violence it never answered for, why community trumps ideology most of the time, the DMV for guns idea and why it would work in a perfect world but not this one, and his motto "the real deal or nothing" and what that actually means when your morality gets tested for real.

This is one of those episodes where we didn't agree on everything but we were thinking out loud together the whole time. If you've ever felt stuck between wanting the world to be less violent and also wanting to be capable of violence when it matters, this one's for you.

If you want to support the show, head to our Patreon for exclusive merch, extra content, and to help us build a more inclusive gun community.

Edited by Matthew Boerger

We brought Brian Recker on the show because a ton of people were curious about his views on guns and the Second Amendment. Brian's a former Marine officer, a father, a self-described stubborn Christian, and the author of a book about why the concept of hell is a toxic doctrine. He also doesn't own a gun and favors common sense gun control. So we knew this one was going to be interesting.

What we got was one of the best conversations we've had on this show. We got into the myth of redemptive violence and why Christians keep backing every American war, John Brown and whether violent resistance can ever be justified, how the Second Amendment was never designed to protect Black people or marginalized communities, the killing of Alex Pretti and the hypocrisy of conservatives who support gun rights until the wrong person is armed, arming trans communities and why Brian sees beauty in marginalized people exercising their rights even though he personally chooses nonviolence, the militarization of police and how you can draw a direct line from fugitive slave patrols to modern law enforcement, and why the left has a massive messaging problem that keeps alienating the exact people it should be reaching.

Brian came in not agreeing with us on a lot and we didn't agree with him on everything either, but we had an actual conversation about it without anybody feeling like an enemy. That's the whole point of the show and this episode is a perfect example of it.

Brian's book: Hell Bent

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Edited by Matthew Boerger

Ammon Bundy was acquitted of all federal charges in two major trials, spent two years in federal prison, and had $5 million in assets seized through lawfare. He supports BLM, condemns the killing of George Floyd, argues for open borders, and thinks ICE raids separating families betray the constitution. His old conservative allies turned on him for it. We had to talk to this guy.

Most people know Ammon from the 2014 armed standoff at the Bundy Ranch in Nevada and the 2016 occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon. Since then he's run for governor in Idaho, built the People's Rights Network, and ended up on a political island because he refused to tie himself to MAGA or any one party. An Atlantic profile on Ammon is actually what got our attention and led to this conversation.

We got deep into the backstory of both standoffs, the killing of LaVoy Finicum and why the same people who protest police killings stayed silent on that one, the Alex Preti shooting and how the Second Amendment crowd immediately turned on a guy who was armed at a protest because the politics didn't line up, Ammon's firsthand experience in federal prison watching the system keep inmates divided by race so a single guard can control a hundred men and how that maps directly onto how the 1% controls the rest of the country, the Baby Cyrus medical kidnapping case and how the Idaho establishment used a defamation lawsuit to take his home, his businesses, and hit him with a $53 million judgment to shut him up, why the federal government controls over 80% of Nevada's land while it sits on some of the richest mineral deposits in the country and remains one of the poorest states, and his views on immigration and why he believes our duty is to convince people, never to use force against them.

Whether you agree with Ammon on everything or not, this is a dude who has actually bled for what he believes in and hasn't changed his principles when it got inconvenient. We think you're gonna get a lot out of this one.

If you want to support the show, head to our Patreon for exclusive merch, extra content, and to help us build a more inclusive gun community.

Edited by Matthew Boerger

In this episode, Jordan talks with Stephen Jones of Ships Co. about martial arts, creativity, masculinity, and what it means to build something with actual character in a space that often rewards posturing. They get into the culture around jiu-jitsu and Muay Thai, why so many people feel alienated by the politics and ego that can come with combat sports, and how Stephen carved out a different lane by making gear that feels playful, personal, and rooted in his actual values. The conversation also moves through self-defense, escalation of force, community, the strange gifts and downsides of social media, and the way martial arts can teach humility, patience, and discipline far beyond the gym. It’s a thoughtful and easygoing conversation about staying grounded, making good work, and refusing to become the kind of person the culture expects you to be.

If you want to support the show, head to our Patreon for exclusive merch, extra content, and to help us build a more inclusive gun community.

Edited by Matthew Boerger

In this episode, Jordan sits down with Connecticut gubernatorial candidate Adrian Bonenberger for a conversation about community, decentralization, gun rights, and what real local resilience could look like in a moment when trust in institutions feels thinner than ever. They dig into Adrian’s proposal for a large voluntary state guard in Connecticut, why he sees it as a way to rebuild civic responsibility without coercion, and how local organization could strengthen disaster response, public safety, and community ties at the same time. The conversation also gets into the failures of both parties on guns, the difference between root causes and political theater, and why so much of what people call security now depends on systems that feel farther and farther removed from the people they’re supposed to serve. It’s a thoughtful, wide-ranging episode about power, responsibility, and what it might look like to build something more durable close to home.

If you want to support the show, head to our Patreon for exclusive merch, extra content, and to help us build a more inclusive gun community.

Edited by Matthew Boerger

Jim from Pipehawk Consulting joins the show for one of those episodes that goes everywhere and still somehow works. We bounce from workplace stories and dry humor into heavier conversations about Trump, authoritarian creep, historical revisionism, 3D printing laws, mesh networks, drones, and the gear that’s actually worth spending money on. Along the way, we get into medical kits, tourniquets, civil disobedience, and the weird reality that practical preparedness matters a lot more than internet posturing. Equal parts useful, ridiculous, and bleakly funny.

If you want to support the show, head to our Patreon for exclusive merch, extra content, and to help us build a more inclusive gun community.

Edited by Matthew Boerger