The Silvercore Podcast with Travis Bader

John Barklow spent 26 years in the U.S. Navy, most of it teaching Naval Special Warfare how to survive the coldest, most unforgiving mountains on earth. After 9/11 the military needed mountain warfare experts and almost none were left. They picked a diver from Cleveland, Ohio, and his work went on to reshape cold weather survival training for a generation of special operators.
In this conversation, Travis Bader and John go far past gear. They get into the mindset that keeps you alive when things go wrong, the difference between chasing happiness and building satisfaction, and why the hunting and firearms communities are so quick to turn on their own. John breaks down his famous rewarming drill in full: what to do if you fall in cold water in the backcountry, why you keep your wet clothes on instead of stripping them off, and how your own body heat dries your system from the inside. He explains how to train it safely in your own backyard before your life depends on it.
He also tells the story of a British Columbia horseback hunt that nearly ended under 1,400 pounds of falling horse in the dark, opens up about two hip replacements and refusing to let the old man in, and shares, for the first time publicly, who wrote the foreword to his new book.
Some of the best survival lessons of your life are the ones John learned the hard way, so you don't have to.
John's first book, Knowledge from Storms, is available for pre-order now. This episode includes a giveaway. Details are in the show and on our channels.
Learn more about John Barklow:
Book: Knowledge from Storms (St. Martin's Press)
Website: knowledgefromstorms.com
Instagram: @jbarklow
Courses: outdoorclass.com
Free videos: Montana Knife Company YouTube, MKC Survival Guide series
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Silvercore Club - https://www.silvercore.ca/club
Online Training - https://www.silvercore.ca/
Other Training & Services - https://www.silvercore.ca/course/category
Merchandise - https://www.silvercore.ca/collections/all-merchandise
Blog Page - https://www.silvercore.ca/blog
Host Instagram - @Bader.Trav https://www.instagram.com/bader.trav
Silvercore Instagram - @SilvercoreOutdoors https://www.instagram.com/silvercoreoutdoors
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Timestamps
00:00  Cold open: they picked a diver
01:00  The best introduction he's ever had
02:00  Cleveland, Ohio does not grow mountain men
05:00  Enlisting in the Navy at 19
07:00  The cardinal direction: a heading he couldn't name
08:00  Breaking the script he was handed
10:00  Happiness versus satisfaction
17:00  The harder you work, the luckier you get
18:00  When it goes wrong in the mountains, who does he call?
21:00  COVID, and the birth of Knowledge From Storms
23:00  The inciting incident: his drill in a competitor's marketing
27:00  Why the hunting and firearms communities eat their own
28:00  The camo wars, and refusing to fight in public
31:00  Trust is slow to earn and fast to lose
34:00  Travis at 16: the station wagon, the cabin, and hypothermia
38:00  Where he learned cold: diving, the Sierras, and Mark Twight
41:00  After 9/11: rebuilding a lost cold weather capability
42:00  Making the soldier durable
45:00  The rewarming drill on camera, and Adam Foss
47:00  The static rewarming drill: clothing is shelter
48:00  Why building a fire can be the wrong first move
49:00  Trap the heat, then move
51:00  An hour in: the shivering stops
54:00  Do it in your backyard, not in the middle of nowhere
57:00  Granddad in denim, and what modern gear actually changed
59:00  The active rewarming drill: one bucket, any trailhead
1:02:00  Mark Twight wrote the foreword, announced here first
1:05:00  Extreme Alpinism: the book that prepared men for war
1:06:00  Going light without getting forced out: the margin of safety
1:09:00  Three days pinned in a Mount Rainier blizzard
1:11:00  Planning builds confidence, confidence builds decisions
1:13:00  Keeping your world small when the float plane leaves
1:16:00  We romanticize the mountains. Here is the rest of it.
1:19:00  The PPCLI research miss
1:20:00  The BC horseback hunt that went wrong
1:22:00  1,400 pounds of horse in the dark
1:24:00  Giardia, and the unforced error he owns
1:28:00  Two hip replacements, and not letting the old man in
1:32:00  Who the book is for
1:35:00  OutdoorClass and Montana Knife Company
1:38:00  Start higher on the mountain, but climb it yourself
1:39:00  Student of the game: enjoy where you are

Get the free bear guide Casey Braam and Travis Bader made, and enter to win an SAI Optics red dot, at : Silvercore.ca/bear
Every download is a contest entry. Silvercore Club members are entered for free automatically, and can earn a second entry by downloading the guide.
Wildlife artist Casey Braam hikes into wild places, paints what he finds, posts clues online, and gives the painting to the first person who figures out where he is and hikes out to meet him. He calls it the Art Outside Project. In his second time on the Silvercore Podcast, 101 episodes after his first, Casey explains why he is doing it. The reason is bigger than art. It comes down to getting people outside and teaching them to actually see the world they live in.
Casey and Travis also go deep on spring bear hunting: reading sign, judging and selecting bears, why patience and selectivity make the whole thing richer, and the hard-earned rule that can save your hunt, shoot a bear until it is down and done. From there it opens up into what makes any outdoor experience richer over time, the value of risk and the "question mark," raising kids who get dirty in a world full of cameras, and why there is no fence between us and the natural world.
If you have ever felt like you walk through the woods on autopilot, this episode is about switching that off.
Free bear guide and SAI red dot giveaway: Silvercore.ca/bear
Gear and partners mentioned:
-IBI Precision rifles and barrels. - https://ibiprecision.com/
**Silvercore Club members get 10 percent off through the member portal.
- Norma Bondstrike ammunition-  https://www.norma-ammunition.com
- SAI Optics - https://armament.com/collections/sai-optics-riflescopes

Find Casey Braam and the Art Outside Project:
Website: https://www.artbycaseybraam.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cabraam/
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Silvercore Club - https://www.silvercore.ca/club
Online Training - https://www.silvercore.ca/
Other Training & Services - https://www.silvercore.ca/course/category
Merchandise - https://www.silvercore.ca/collections/all-merchandise
Blog Page - https://www.silvercore.ca/blog
Host Instagram - @Bader.Trav https://www.instagram.com/bader.trav
Silvercore Instagram - @SilvercoreOutdoors https://www.instagram.com/silvercoreoutdoors
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Timestamps
00:00 Why he gives his paintings away
01:53 The bear skulls, the invitation, and two styles of hunting
05:09 Hunting for the experience, not just the kill
07:35 Eleven bears in a day, and the animal he knows best
14:09 The free bear guide, and why every bear looks 400 pounds
16:20 A mama and cub at fifteen yards
18:28 "It's not the one": passing on a taker
21:00 The propeller-sound bear and a tactical retreat
25:00 Tiffany's shot, and the bear that got back up
28:44 Shoot it till it's down: tracking, anatomy, and lost bears
33:00 Why cranked magnification gets you killed up close
38:45 The Art Outside Project, and what sparked it
40:50 Why getting people outside changes them
45:24 Teaching your lazy brain how to actually see
52:38 Two hours on a shoreline he'd seen a hundred times
55:29 What makes a painting, or a meal, worth more
1:00:09 How any business can steal this playbook
1:04:07 The ingredients of a richer adventure
1:07:02 Closer to death, more alive: the question mark
1:17:12 Who's standing next to you when it happens
1:18:33 Raising kids who get dirty in a panopticon world
1:25:10 No fence between us and nature
1:29:41 The giveaway, the guide, and the gear

Get your FREE Authorization to Carry guide: https://www.silvercore.ca/authorization-to-carry
Blair Hagen has spent 30 years fighting Canada's firearms laws, and now, days after the National Firearms Association lost its president Rick Igercich, he is the one holding it together.
In this episode of the Silvercore Podcast, Travis Bader sits down with Hagen, executive vice president and now acting president of the NFA, for a clear-eyed look at where Canada's gun fight actually stands in 2026: the assault-style firearm confiscation, the Order in Council (OIC) bans, the handgun freeze, and the amnesty that keeps getting extended because almost no one is complying.
Hagen survived two armed robberies behind the counter of a Vancouver gun store, then was refused a permit to protect himself. He explains why firearms in Canada get banned for how they look rather than what they do, why a serious gun charge is the first thing a prosecutor drops, why the numbers behind the confiscation do not add up, and the one thing every gun owner can actually do that works.
What we get into:
Why "assault-style firearm" is a political marketing term, not a legal one
The "comply or become a criminal" trap inside the current buyback
Estates, the handgun freeze, and how a widow loses a collection's value
The NFA Save Firearms program and storing prohibited firearms legally
Whether you can still buy and transfer a handgun in Canada, and where an Authorization to Carry fits in
Whether you have owned firearms your whole life or have never touched one, this is a conversation about property, rights, and who decides what is yours.
Find the NFA: https://nfa.ca
NFA on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/national_firearms_association/
NFA on Facebook: https://facebook.com/NFACANADA
NFA on X: https://x.com/CanadasNFA
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Silvercore Club - https://www.silvercore.ca/club
Online Training - https://www.silvercore.ca/
Other Training & Services - https://www.silvercore.ca/course/category
Merchandise - https://www.silvercore.ca/collections/all-merchandise
Blog Page - https://www.silvercore.ca/blog
Host Instagram - @Bader.Trav https://www.instagram.com/bader.trav
Silvercore Instagram - @SilvercoreOutdoors https://www.instagram.com/silvercoreoutdoors
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Timestamps:
00:00 Cold open
00:46 Remembering NFA president Rick Igercich
02:28 How Blair got into the fight: the registry and David Tomlinson
08:38 Canada's gun culture, and a global audience listening
12:49 Two armed robberies behind the counter
17:00 Denied a carry permit in a store full of guns
20:19 "What can I do?" and the early '90s political wasteland
26:00 Property rights and the slippery slope
30:35 The amnesty extension and the courtroom no-win
34:32 Why gun charges get dropped first, and "assault-style" spin
40:49 Estates, the widow problem, and the caliber ban
48:24 "We do not make mistakes": the inheritance test case
50:44 Magazines, deactivation, and rules you can't comply with
57:03 OIC chaos and the meaningless word "variant"
1:03:15 Aesthetics over ballistics: why guns really get banned
1:09:41 Talking guns with someone who fears them
1:13:22 The handgun freeze and the Save Firearms program
1:22:00 The toll of 30 years on the line
1:24:45 Cooking the numbers: only 4,000 Mini-14s?
1:29:00 The quiet plan to put gun stores out of business
1:33:31 The Conservative Outdoors Committee and revolving-door courts
1:37:57 Which org to support, and what you can actually do
1:45:08 Closing, and Blair's goodbye to Rick

Jeff Evely served 20 years in the Canadian Armed Forces, with deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq. He came home, retired to his hometown in Cape Breton, and within months found himself arrested at a war memorial he was trying to guard, then later fined nearly $29,000 for walking in the woods during a Nova Scotia fire ban.
He fought back. And he won.
In this conversation, Travis sits down with Jeff to unpack the $29,000 ticket, the court win against the Nova Scotia government, the trucker convoy and Rolling Thunder arrests, and what it actually takes for one person to push back against institutions that have stopped listening. They also get into the Fourth Turning, stoicism, Carl Sagan and skepticism, the limits of the courts, why politics is downstream from culture, and the deepest personal cost Jeff has paid for standing on principle.
A conversation about courage, consequences, and what it costs to hold the line.
Find Jeff Evely:
Twitter / X: @JeffEvely
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Silvercore Club - https://www.silvercore.ca/club
Online Training - https://www.silvercore.ca/
Other Training & Services - https://www.silvercore.ca/course/category
Merchandise - https://www.silvercore.ca/collections/all-merchandise
Blog Page - https://www.silvercore.ca/blog
Host Instagram - @Bader.Trav https://www.instagram.com/bader.trav
Silvercore Instagram - @SilvercoreOutdoors https://www.instagram.com/silvercoreoutdoors
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Timestamps 
00:00 Cold open
00:42 Twenty years in, vaccine mandates out
02:00 Refused at the Legion, the lone protest begins
04:09 Trucker Convoy, taking down the fence
05:00 Arrested walking to the war memorial in his medals
07:00 Rolling Thunder and the limits of standing on your rights
10:10 The Fourth Turning and why institutions are collapsing
18:17 Anything currently going right
20:51 Portapique, gun policy, and the firearms debate
23:51 Wildfires, arson, and the climate narrative shift
25:28 How the Silvercore Club came to exist
35:42 The $29,000 fine and the court win
46:00 Why courts alone won't change the culture
48:15 Carl Sagan, skepticism, and a logical framework
52:20 COVID, the fog, and the totalitarian impulse
59:41 Anarcho-tyranny and the strategy to destabilize
01:03:00 Shame, accountability, and bringing consequences back
01:14:00 May Day Kids in Crisis and confronting Poilievre
01:22:32 Victimhood, cultural Marxism, and the trans question
01:28:40 The greatest price: his daughter
01:31:09 Raising kids on logic, what could change his mind
01:35:00 Hard times, strong men, and how we raise the next generation
01:37:13 Close

Last Friday, the Pentagon released 162 declassified UFO files through a brand-new portal called PURSUE. The first formal federal release in 80 years. Some are calling it disclosure. Some are calling it a nothing burger.
Rocky Swanson has spent his life inside the kind of system that handles this material. Joined the Royal Canadian Army Cadets at twelve. Served a full career in the Canadian Armed Forces, including a NORAD posting. Came home and became deputy fire chief in the town he grew up in. He was approached by the federal government to advise on a Canadian UAP initiative alongside sitting members of parliament. He was a guest co-host on a podcast that interviewed Lue Elizondo, the former Pentagon official who put UFOs on the front page of the New York Times in 2017. He got close enough to see the seams.
In this episode Travis and Rocky walk through the Pentagon release, the actual evidence in the new tranche, why three pilots are not the same thing as three radar tracks, why Skinwalker Ranch matters more than people think, what really happened inside AATIP, who Bob Lazar actually is, and why the most interesting UAP case Rocky has ever encountered did not come from the Pentagon at all. It came from an F-18 pilot over the Canadian Arctic.
Rocky believes in the possibility of life out there. He does not believe the people on stage right now are the ones who have found it.
If you came to this conversation looking for someone who will tell you what to believe, you are in the wrong place. If you came looking for someone who will tell you how to think about this honestly, settle in.
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Silvercore Club - https://www.silvercore.ca/club
Online Training - https://www.silvercore.ca/
Other Training & Services - https://www.silvercore.ca/course/category
Merchandise - https://www.silvercore.ca/collections/all-merchandise
Blog Page - https://www.silvercore.ca/blog
Host Instagram - @Bader.Trav https://www.instagram.com/bader.trav
Silvercore Instagram - @SilvercoreOutdoors https://www.instagram.com/silvercoreoutdoors
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Chapter timestamps
00:00  Cold open. The Pentagon just released 162 UFO files
01:50  How a mutual friend's UAP footage started this conversation
03:40  The conservation officer sighting that no one can explain
07:30  Reading the Diary of a CEO UFO episode like a detective
09:20  What an actual thermal imagery expert sees in the new footage
17:00  The Nimitz Tic Tac case is not what you think it is
21:00  Rocky admits he was starstruck by the Pentagon witnesses
24:00  Wile E. Coyote, age 9, and Rocky's own first UFO sighting
27:00  The 2016 moment that pulled him back into the rabbit hole
33:00  Applying arson investigator rigor to UFO claims
36:00  Why the Go Fast, Gimbal and Tic Tac videos were chosen
39:30  Why is Trump releasing the files now?
42:00  The intelligence friends who believe, and won't say why
45:00  What would actually change Rocky's mind
47:00  Rocky's CIA-adjacent contacts and how grifts get built
50:00  The isotopic ratio testing story that fell apart
51:00  When the Pentagon tried to read him in to NORAD programs
54:00  The Sky Canada Project, and what Canada is actually doing
56:00  Asking the base commander permission to study UFOs
57:00  F-18 pilots who saw things they couldn't explain
1:01:00  Japan Airlines Flight 1628 and the Arctic walnut-shape sighting
1:03:00  The Canadian general who became Rocky's most credible witness
1:09:00  Collective ignorance versus a cabal
1:12:00  Bob Lazar has the credibility of a Labrador retriever
1:15:00  Those who talk don't know. Those who know don't talk.
1:19:00  Skinwalker Ranch and the dino beaver problem
1:23:00  How Paul Hellyer got used by the UFO community
1:26:00  Religion, ufology, and the snake-kissing Pentecostal connection
1:28:00  Admiral Tim Gallaudet, hauntings, and pre-positioned belief
1:33:00  Why humans are drawn to this in the first place
1:39:00  Science asks questions. Ufology asks you to believe.
1:42:00  What Obama actually said. What Trump actually meant.
1:45:00  Don't be pulled down the rabbit hole
1:46:00  The series begins. What we'll do next.