The Martial Brain

By Jeff Westfall

Sports & Recreation Amateur

What's The Martial Brain about?

The Martial Brain Podcast explores the intersection between the martial arts, scientific skepticism, critical thinking, and that wacky organ that floats between our ears. It is part of Jeff Westfall's effort to help lift the martial arts out of the quagmire of hundreds of years of magical thinking and misconception.

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235 The Forgotten War Pa...

05.18.2023

Remember the words of Voltaire who said "anyone who can convince you of absurdities can get you to commit atrocities."

The Martial Brain episodes:

05.18.2023 235 The Forgotten War Part 24 Remember the words of Voltaire who said "anyone who can convince you of absurdities can get you to commit atrocities."
05.10.2023 234 The Forgotten War Part 23 The Pulahans arose from a specific cauldron of local grievances, traditional values, and foreign interference that so often gives rise to millennial movements.
04.28.2023 The Forgotten War Part 22 The story of the Pulahan War is a sad tale of exploitation visited on the poorest of the poor Filipinos, leading them down the rabbit hole of fanaticism .
12.23.2022 The Forgotten War Part 21 The stories of these six regiments extend beyond the war in the Philippines.
12.13.2022 The Forgotten War Part 20 "I want to tell you that we are not bandits as the Americans have accused. but members of the revolutionary force that defended our mother country, the Philippines!"
11.28.2022 The Forgotten War Part 19 On May 6,1903, Makario Sakay proclaimed himself El Presidente Supremo of the "Tagolog Republic of the Philippines."
09.25.2021 The Forgotten War Part 18 The very idea of arming Filipinos and turning them loose in the countryside was utterly abhorrent to the American military brass.
04.27.2021 228 The Forgotten War Part 17 "These people are right and we are wrong...terribly wrong!"
03.09.2021 227 The Forgotten War Part 16 I hold Waller's actions in Samar as reprehensible, as egregious abuses of his constitutional privileges as a a military commander.
02.24.2021 226 The Forgotten War Part 15 In the meantime, General Smith's combined Brigade was following his orders to turn Samar into a "howling wilderness."
10.29.2020 225 The Forgotten War Part 14 As the now infamous town of Balangiga burned behind him, Capt. Bookmiller famously quoted the book of Hosea: "They have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind!"
09.17.2020 224 The Forgotten War Part 13 No matter what you call it, the event at Balangiga was the worst defeat of American troops since the Battle of the Little Big Horn!
09.01.2020 223 The Forgotten War Part 12 Funston, four other Americans, and a renegade Spaniard would pose as POWs in the "custody" of a group of Macabebe Scouts in captured Insurrecto uniforms.
08.25.2020 222 The Forgotten War Part 11 "To see nine men, the officers in their drawers and the privates naked, cross such a stream by such means, and drive off an entrenched force not less than ten times their number, in broad daylight, where their number must ...
08.13.2020 221 The Forgotten War Part 10 I find the story of David Fagen fascinating. We seldom rationally depict such figures in history.
07.21.2020 220 The Forgotten War Part 9 The leaders of the Philippine independence movement had tremendous admiration for the American founding fathers and the government they wrought!
06.16.2020 219 The Forgotten War Part 8 The depth and breadth, the sheer comprehensiveness of Filipino martial technology stands as a shining example, a tribute to defiance in the face of tyranny and oppression!
05.19.2020 218 The Forgotten War Part 7 But it turns out that the Filipino people didn't WANT themselves and their property to be the property of the United States!
05.01.2020 217 The Forgotten War Part 6 On June 12, 1898, the Filipino rebels officially declared independence from Spain, in a document that, ironically, in light of what was to come, drew elements from the American Declaration of Independence.
04.24.2020 216 The Forgotten War Part 5 Pershing was an instructor at West Point when the war broke out, and quickly sought to rejoin his old unit, the Buffalo Soldiers of the 10th Cavalry.
04.06.2020 215 The Forgotten War Part 4 In order to get to Santiago, his troops would need to get past the fortified San Juan Heights on its outskirts, which loomed across their path like a fortified roadblock.
03.24.2020 214 The Forgotten War Part 3 The history of the world in the upcoming decade would have played out quite differently if Teddy Roosevelt had perished on that hot June day in the Cuban jungle!
03.19.2020 Calm Down, People! If there's one thing that can be learned from human history, it's that there is no crisis so bad that it cannot be made worse by our tendency to engage in over-emotional, "monkeys in shoes" behavior!
03.03.2020 213 The Forgotten War Part 2 When you picture a scene from the old west in which the cavalry comes charging to the rescue, in reality at least ten percent of the time those "boys in blue"...were black!
02.17.2020 212 The Forgotten War Part 1 The epic story of the relationship between the USA and the Philippines started in war a little over a century ago.
02.08.2020 211 Syncope, Hypnagogia, Barnyard Animal Behavior, and Sex Demons Part 2 Despite the fact that ethical jiujitsu players shouldn't SEEK to render their opponent unconscious, it's not at all uncommon for unintended "choke-outs" to occur.
01.26.2020 210 Syncope, Hypnagogia, Barnyard Animal Behavior, and Sex Demons Part 1 It's almost like taking out an opponent with Mr. Spock's Vulcan nerve pinch!
01.21.2020 209 Inter-species Combat Part 2 The myth that chimpanzees are 3 to 5 times stronger than humans stems from a poorly done study that was done nearly a century ago.
01.14.2020 208 Inter-species Combat Part 1 The Roman practice of pitting humans against animals in the arena not only slaked the blood-lust of cheering crowds, it also appealed to the human obsession with hierarchical organization; in particular seeking evidence to help answer who and what would ...
12.24.2019 207 Tis the Season…to Rage Against the Dying of the Light How deeply frightening must if have been to people who had no idea that they lived on a giant sphere spinning in space as it also orbits around the sun, spinning on an axis that is tilted relative to the ...
12.07.2019 206 You Can’t Force Balance So, of course, before the science was more thoroughly understood the supplement industry promptly built the bandwagon and then enthusiastically jumped on it; producing, selling, and heavily advertising antioxidant supplements.
11.25.2019 205 In the Darkness, a Shining Blade I Hold If you would like to be "that person" who always seems to have a thoughtful, logical point of view in any discussion, who doesn't easily fall prey to scams and pseudo-science, who doesn't allow the primitive parts of his brain ...
10.15.2019 204 Heroes of the Rising Phoenix Martial Arts Academy Part 1.2 I had been forced to endure the presence of bullies for much of my young life; I would be damned if I was going to add to macho martial culture by producing martial arts bullies through my teaching!
09.17.2019 203 Heroes of the Rising Phoenix Martial Arts Academy Part 1.1 When I contemplate what a dark place my mind was inhabiting prior to Dave's visit, it's perfectly possible that he saved my life that night.
08.23.2019 202 The Intersection of Survival and Self-Expression The study of the martial arts lies precisely at the intersection of the worlds of survival and self-expression.
08.11.2019 201 Toxic Sparring Culture When sparring is done badly it's at the very least a poor use of training time, is probably very frightening, dangerous as hell, and really painful to watch.
07.31.2019 200 Authenticity, Inauthenticity, and the Martial Arts Part 2 If such a student leaves the academy before being "certified" by his instructor, and then starts his own academy many people will label him as "illegitimate." A martial arts "bastard," if you will.
07.24.2019 199 Authenticity, Inauthenticity, and the Martial Arts Part 1 Here's a thought...Is it a stretch to substitute the word "competent" for the word "authentic" when referring to a martial artist?
07.19.2019 Did You Miss Me? Did I mention that I have new shoulders?
05.29.2019 198 Make a Note of This! In a preliterate world if you wanted to remember something you had to do just that, REMEMBER it!
05.19.2019 197 The Master Meets the Skeptic Part 2 There is a significant fraction of humanity that really wants magic to be real, and will perform impressive mental gymnastics of rationalization and confirmation bias in order to satisfy that desire.
05.10.2019 196 The Master Meets the Skeptic Part 1 Please keep in mind that these are the words of a fictional character, not mine.
04.20.2019 195 Maintaining Your Martial Relevancy If you run a martial arts academy, keep in mind that it's more productive to think in terms of business and science instead of the kind of personal politics that is a tired artifact left over from our heritage as ...
04.14.2019 194 The Art of Listening Many budding martial artists pay only enough attention to their opponents to know where they are, and maybe if they are trying to do something right this second that you, as their adversary, don't want them to do.
03.31.2019 193 I’m Not As Good As I Once Was, But I’m As Good Once As I Ever Was Part 2 My fascination, indeed my QUEST, is to hit the sweet spot in this equation as many times as possible from now until I die.
03.26.2019 192 I’m Not as Good as I Once Was, but I’m as Good Once as I Ever Was! Part 1 If one more "twenty-something" says to me that "age is just a number" or "you're as young as you feel" I'm going to hit them with my cane!
03.09.2019 191 Bright Lines and Blurred Lines Part 3 Isn't it ironic that exercising a lot can make you weaker?
03.02.2019 190 Bright Lines and Blurred Lines 2 Most of us are aware of the martial arts movie trope of the hero or villain who is supremely, indeed magically aware of his surroundings at all times.
02.24.2019 189 Bright Lines/Blurred Lines Part 1 Is it possible to become too detail-oriented? It can be if it causes you to lose sight of the bigger picture.
02.12.2019 188 The Brain is the Deadliest Organ While the natural weapons of your body like your fists, shins, elbows, and knees can be quite formidable; without the brain to run things they are only parts to memorize for an anatomy test.

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