The Jordan Harbinger Show

Former FBI hostage negotiator Kyle Vowinkel explains how to think clearly under fire, check your ego, and make hard calls before the heat of the moment.

Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1397

What We Discuss with Kyle Vowinkel:

• Words prevail where weapons fail. After gunfire and 12 flashbangs, Kyle reached the Boston bomber through preparation. An hour with the bomber's wrestling coach gave him a nickname and a shared bond, and "I know who you are, Jahar" and "finish the match" got him out of the boat.
• Under stress, emotion, and rationality sit on a teeter-totter — when one rises, the other falls. One trainee negotiator kept confirming a pizza order while his mock hijacker shot hostages. Tunnel vision is real, and even a five-second tactical pause to breathe and reset restores judgment.
• Ego is the enemy of the team. Kyle was passed over at his first HRT tryout for questioning an instructor and betting a paycheck on a shooting rematch. Good leaders speak last, push credit down, and act as an umbrella — closed when praise shines, open when blame pours down.
• Rapport is fragile and inputs must be verified. In the Alabama bunker, five days of trust vanished when the captor spotted a rifle barrel, a misheard medication request cost a day, and unchecked cables stalled the assault. Triggers set in advance are what finally saved Ethan.
• The takeaways: make hard decisions before the heat of the moment, while rationality is high. Set clear triggers in advance, take a timeout when tempers flare, and anchor confidence in real past wins: "I've done this before. I can do this." No wins yet? Start small and build up.
• And much more...

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AI can copy dance music's sound but not its soul. Grammy-nominated DJ Kaskade is here to share 30 years of lessons on art, failure, and savoring success.

Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1396

What We Discuss with Kaskade:

• AI isn't black and white for Kaskade — he's made music with machines for 30 years and welcomes help with mundane tasks, but push-button songs miss the point. What angers him is models clearly trained on his catalog while artists like him never see a check in the mail.
• When a generator caught fire before 40,000 fans at the L.A. Coliseum, Kaskade sat down with a Diet Coke while Deadmau5 raged at the crew — then held up his phone's flashlight. After months of prep and millions spent, the most memorable moment was the one nobody planned.
• Honest art means accepting it won't connect with everyone. undux, his introspective record after the fire, and a Christmas album cost him fans, but creating just to please the crowd never works. undux had to happen so Origin //, his return to big, celebratory anthems, could happen.
• A sober Latter-day Saint who teaches early-morning seminary, Kaskade found dance music as an escape from high school keggers. The rave scene welcomed this misfit, and he gets his high from the music and the community — proof there's room for everyone on the dance floor.
• What can you take away from this episode? Check in honestly about whether your work is working, and be willing to pivot to a neighboring role you still love; Kaskade's career grew from seizing each new opening. And when you win, savor it before asking what's next. You can keep improving and still enjoy the night.
• And much more...

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A hit podcast claims nonverbal autistic kids are telepathic. Michael Regilio doesn't need ESP to see through The Telepathy Tapes on Skeptical Sunday!

Welcome to Skeptical Sunday, a special edition of The Jordan Harbinger Show where Jordan and a guest break down a topic that you may have never thought about, open things up, and debunk common misconceptions. This time around, we’re joined by skeptic, comedian, and podcaster Michael Regilio!

Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1395

On This Week's Skeptical Sunday:

• How The Telepathy Tapes, a chart-topping podcast claiming nonspeaking autistic kids can read minds, sells extraordinary claims to parents who desperately want them to be true — and why claims that big demand far more than anecdotes and tests no one can see.
• Why 140 years of telepathy research — from the Creery sisters and Smith and Blackburn to J. B. Rhine's ESP cards — keeps producing impressive results that vanish the moment experimenters tighten controls or put the subjects in separate rooms.
• What James Randi's planted magicians revealed about psychic research: scientists can sincerely believe they've ruled out deception while leaving loopholes wide open, because they're trained to study nature, not to catch someone fooling them.
• How Spelling to Communicate and Rapid Prompting echo discredited Facilitated Communication, where controlled tests showed facilitators authoring the messages — a flaw that led to false abuse accusations that tore families apart.
• Why the strongest defense against self-deception is noticing how badly you want something to be true. When news sounds too good, tell yourself, "I hope it's true" — then account for that feeling and check the evidence before you believe it.
• Connect with Jordan on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. If you have something you'd like us to tackle here on Skeptical Sunday, drop Jordan a line at [email protected] and let him know!
• Connect with Michael Regilio at Twitter, Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, and YouTube, and check out War Bar, his comedy special!

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Your wife and your fantasy football pal were a secret team. Is staying married smart parenting, or just making you a schmuck? It's Feedback Friday!

And in case you didn't already know it, Jordan Harbinger (@JordanHarbinger) and Gabriel Mizrahi (@GabeMizrahi) banter and take your comments and questions for Feedback Friday right here every week! If you want us to answer your question, register your feedback, or tell your story on one of our upcoming weekly Feedback Friday episodes, drop us a line at [email protected]. Now let's dive in!

Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1394

On This Week's Feedback Friday:

• If you want to close your eyes and drift across Gabe's silent meditation retreat post-game wrap-up, you can jump to timestamp 28 minutes and 40 seconds!
• You spent four years as a stay-at-home dad to three girls, only to learn your wife's "work trips" were cover for a years-long affair with your fantasy football buddy and family friend. Now she says she doesn't want a divorce. Do you go scorched earth, or quietly stay put for the kids' sake?
• Your sister-in-law's home was raided by the FBI, local police, and CPS after her husband's old crypto account was allegedly linked to purchases of child sexual abuse material. Now your niece is living with her grandmother, and the details keep getting murkier. How do you help, and is this the whole story?
• Recommendation of the Week: TurboScribe — Jordan's go-to for turning audio, video, or even a YouTube link into an accurate transcript, free for up to three 30-minute files a day, and they promise never to train AI on your words. Ready to give your typing fingers the day off?
• Your 92-year-old mom, a devoted show fan, decided to stop fighting her illness — then, after two nights of falling asleep to the show, rallied with new plans and projects. Now you're juggling joy, worry, and anticipatory grief. How do you support her, and yourself, through the unknown?
• Have any questions, comments, or stories you'd like to share with us? Drop us a line at [email protected]!
• Connect with Jordan on Twitter at @JordanHarbinger and Instagram at @jordanharbinger.
• Connect with Gabriel on Twitter at @GabeMizrahi and Instagram @gabrielmizrahi.

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Jet lag isn't just about time zones. FlyKitt founder Andrew Herr is here to explain what flying really does to your body — and how to fight back.

Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1393

What We Discuss with Andrew Herr:

• Flying wrecks you because of flight inflammation — cabins pressurized to about 8,000 feet mean 26% less air per breath, and rapid pressure changes trigger an immune response akin to mild altitude and decompression sickness. Brain fog, swollen feet, and even midair anxiety follow.
• Cabin air is a mixed bag — HEPA filters catch most germs unless you're within two rows of a sick passenger, but engine startup exhaust, oil fume events, and sprayed insecticides slip through. When possible, fly a 787 (no bleed air) or an A350, both pressurized to about 6,000 feet.
• Jet lag isn't just about time zones — inflammation disrupts sleep and blocks your circadian rhythm from shifting, which is why a long flight with a small time change still hurts. Melatonin alone won't fix it; light, meal timing, sleep timing, and supplements must work together.
• So-called immune boosters like zinc and vitamin C rarely help unless you're deficient — most people need a calmer immune system, not a boosted one. Omega-3s and polyphenols help; salty airline food and alcohol hurt. Abroad, spice and garlic won't kill bacteria, but cooking and salt help.
• Plan for how you want to feel when you arrive. Work out or sauna a few hours before flying, skip salty meals and alcohol, and drink plenty of water. At the hotel, request fragrance-free cleaning, set the room near 67 degrees, and clip curtain gaps shut with skirt hangers.
• And much more...

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Extremist groups turn grievance into identity. Ex-neo-Nazi leader Jeff Schoep reveals how they recruit, why members stay, and what finally sets them free.

Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1392

What We Discuss with Jeff Schoep:

• Jeff wasn't recruited into neo-Nazism — he sought it out, reading Mein Kampf and Holocaust revisionism at 16. Doxxed on live radio at 19, he quit his rock band, shaved his head, and went all in. By 21, he was national leader of the National Socialist Movement.
• Hate is built on fear, and recruitment exploits a single grievance — crime, the border, a struggling paycheck. Get someone in the door on that one issue, Jeff explains, then pile on propaganda until a cult-like echo chamber does the rest and everyone outside it becomes the enemy.
• Extremist movements feed on persecution. Lost jobs, evictions, and street clashes became proof the cause was right, and a mass shooter was dismissed as crazy rather than radicalized. Meanwhile, the damage rippled outward — Jeff's notoriety even cost his mother a judgeship.
• No single moment changed him. Daryl Davis calmly refusing the bait, Deeyah Khan's story of childhood racism, a Jewish woman offering shelter, Black strangers fixing his car at midnight in Detroit — each was a crack in a worldview that took three years to fall apart.
• When someone voices an extreme view, don't yell back or roll your eyes. Lead with curiosity, ask genuine questions, and share your own story. Scolding and shaming push people deeper; seeing the human being across the table is what opens the door out.
• And much more...

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You nurtured your daughter's hacker mindset, and she turned it on you. Is her superpower a threat to contain, or a gift to guide? It's Feedback Friday!

And in case you didn't already know it, Jordan Harbinger (@JordanHarbinger) and Gabriel Mizrahi (@GabeMizrahi) banter and take your comments and questions for Feedback Friday right here every week! If you want us to answer your question, register your feedback, or tell your story on one of our upcoming weekly Feedback Friday episodes, drop us a line at [email protected]. Now let's dive in!

Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1391

On This Week's Feedback Friday:

• You're an analytics engineer who's raised your 12-year-old daughter on Darknet Diaries and security books — and she just used a broken keyboard, your SIM card, and a shoulder-surfed PIN to seize your Google accounts, then confessed. How do you nurture her gift while teaching her where the line is?
• You married a calm, quirky woman you adored, but since the engagement she's traded cycling for lying in bed, gaining weight, and waving off your concerns with talk of DNA. Now your attraction is fading and her immigration paperwork is pending. Is this really about weight, or something much deeper?
• You grew up in a tight-knit family, but as your Boomer parents have grown more devout and politically entrenched in retirement, you've drifted toward ambivalence and a quiet nihilism. With the big topics off-limits, how do you keep your bond from shrinking into phone calls about the weather?
• Recommendation of the Week: Darn Tough Tactical Boot Full Cushion Socks — Jordan discovered these merino-nylon wonders at Burning Man, where they kept his feet dry through scorching days and warm through freezing nights. Knit in Vermont and guaranteed for life, could these be the last socks you ever buy?
• You took a three-week solo trip through Portugal, Spain, and Greece — seaside swims, stupidly good food, new friends, and a fling with an Estonian guy — yet long stretches of unfamiliar loneliness left you shaken. Was the whole thing a false paradise, or was that loneliness trying to tell you something?
• Have any questions, comments, or stories you'd like to share with us? Drop us a line at [email protected]!
• Connect with Jordan on Twitter at @JordanHarbinger and Instagram at @jordanharbinger.
• Connect with Gabriel on Twitter at @GabeMizrahi and Instagram @gabrielmizrahi.

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When amateur mad scientists can leverage AI to engineer future pandemics, we need to be prepared to counter the threat. Rob Reid is here to tell us how.

Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1390

What We Discuss with Rob Reid:

• How a terrifying thought experiment reframes bio risk. Rob argues the scariest scenario isn't a Soviet-style industrial complex but the mere passage of time, since an exponential technology turns what a handful of elite specialists can do today into routine undergraduate coursework tomorrow.
• Why a $100 million USAID program called DEEP VZN struck Rob as a suicide pact. The plan was to hunt 15,000 undiscovered viruses, sort them for which posed the gravest threat, then publish the findings openly. Rob and MIT's Kevin Esvelt pushed until it was quietly defanged and later killed.
• What makes smart, well-meaning people defend this work. Rob points to an insider culture where open-science absolutism, confidence that we'd out-invent any bad actor, and vaccine promises that collapse under scrutiny combine into a stew that lets good people talk themselves into terrible ideas.
• Why Rob keeps returning to aviation as the model. America had 40 to 50 hijackings a year until basic airport screening arrived in 1972, and the next year there were zero. You can't make a threat impossible, but a high enough bar forces conspiracies big enough for law enforcement to catch.
• Fortunately, the countermeasures are cheap and already understood. Wastewater sequencing at major airports, stockpiled gear for frontline workers, and germicidal UV light in schools and hospitals would cost a sliver of the defense budget. Denial and despair both produce nothing.
• And much more...

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How did Russia's mafia become its government? Jamison Firestone, a Moscow lawyer who dealt with both, explains how Putin turned the courts into a racket.

Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1389

What We Discuss with Jamison Firestone:

• How Russia's justice system became a pay-to-play storefront where a rival could buy the whole package — investigation, arrest, jail, and conviction — with one respected opposition paper later pricing Sergei Magnitsky's arrest at $6 million.
• Why Putin's 2004 takedown of oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky was the turning point. Once investigators, prosecutors, and judges learned to railroad someone for the state, they realized they could sell the same service to anyone.
• What growing up around his father's crack habit, contract killers, and Manhattan's priciest brothel taught Jamison about handling mobsters, and how respect, humor, and non-yes-or-no answers helped him fire a Russian protection racket.
• How Magnitsky exposed a $230 million tax fraud, died in custody after being denied medical care, and was then blamed for the very crime he reported, and how the fight for accountability produced the Magnitsky Act's targeted sanctions.
• What Jamison learned from backing Yeltsin's 1993 assault on his own Congress — a crisis that cost him his best friend — and why guarding democratic institutions over any policy of the moment protects all of us, whichever side we're on.
• And much more...

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Do divorced dads always lose the kids and half their stuff in court? On Skeptical Sunday, Nick Pell shares how he got 50-50 custody and child support!

Welcome to Skeptical Sunday, a special edition of The Jordan Harbinger Show where Jordan and a guest break down a topic that you may have never thought about, open things up, and debunk common misconceptions. This time around, we’re joined by writer and researcher Nick Pell!

Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1388

On This Week's Skeptical Sunday:

• Family court's rep as a kangaroo court run by man-hating judges is a relic of the '80s. Every state now has gender-neutral custody and child support laws, "best interests of the child" is the North Star, and effective 50-50 parenting is increasingly the norm — not the exception.
• Accusations aren't evidence — and judges have heard them all before, probably that very morning. Without receipts like police reports or documented incidents, divorce-day abuse claims rarely stick, and calling your ex an "abusive narcissist" may sink your credibility, not theirs.
• The real villain isn't anti-father bias — it's billable hours. A roughly $50 billion divorce industry rewards lawyers who stoke emotions and feed the sunk-cost fallacy, turning a few-grand, few-month settlement into a six-figure, two-year slog that bleeds everyone dry.
• Many dads lose before the opening bell — they swallow the horror stories, panic at a bluffed custody evaluation, and fold. Meanwhile, "family court reform" activists want allegations treated as true until proven false, flipping innocent-until-proven-guilty on its head.
• How do you stand a chance at winning? Lawyer up fast, and pick one who favors a cooperative settlement over a bloodbath. Document everything, stay involved in your kid's life, and keep communication BIFF: brief, informative, factual, firm. Courts reward the calm adult in the room, so be that adult.
• Connect with Jordan on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. If you have something you'd like us to tackle here on Skeptical Sunday, drop Jordan a line at [email protected] and let him know!

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