Skip to content
Modern WisdomModern Wisdom

Green Beret Teaches You How to Survive Any Situation - Mike Glover

Mike Glover is a former United States Army Green Beret, survivalist expert, CEO of FieldCraft Survival, and podcaster providing expertise on survival tactics and preparedness. Being prepared is arguably the most potent tool in any survival kit. However working out what to prepare for can be a daunting task. How do you decide the likelihood of potential threats and distinguish them from unlikely scenarios? How do you gear up for risks that present the most significant danger to you, and what do you need? Expect to learn how to best prepare yourself to survive a car accident, the biggest risks you should know about but aren’t preparing for, the surprising risk that always gets overlooked when using firearms, whether doomsday preppers in their bunkers are actually preparing correctly, the tool you should always keep handy that might save your life one day and much more... Sponsors: Get 20% OFF with our code MODERNWISDOM at https://calderalab.com/modernwisdom to unlock your youthful glow and be ready for summer with Caldera + Lab! Get £150 discount on Eight Sleep products at https://eightsleep.com/modernwisdom (discount automatically applied) Get an exclusive discount from Surfshark VPN at https://surfshark.deals/MODERNWISDOM (use code MODERNWISDOM) Extra Stuff: Get my free Reading List of 100 books to read before you die → https://chriswillx.com/books/ To support me on Patreon (thank you): https://www.patreon.com/modernwisdom #firearms #freedom #prepper - 00:00 Intro 00:21 Mike’s Background 04:07 Why Mike Was Labeled as a Terrorist 07:51 How Important is Preparedness? 17:38 The Biggest Risks Society Doesn’t Think About 22:10 Daily Basics of Preparedness 31:46 How to Eliminate the Freeze Response 39:06 What People Misunderstand About Personal Firearms 49:46 Importance of Situational Awareness 54:29 How Demeanour Can Be Weaponised 1:02:44 How to Prepare Your Home for Incidents 1:10:20 Mike’s Advice on Handguns in the Home 1:20:29 Where to Find Mike - Get access to every episode 10 hours before YouTube by subscribing for free on Spotify - https://spoti.fi/2LSimPn or Apple Podcasts - https://apple.co/2MNqIgw Get my free Reading List of 100 life-changing books here - https://chriswillx.com/books/ - Get in touch in the comments below or head to... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx Email: https://chriswillx.com/contact/

Mike GloverguestChris Williamsonhost
Jul 19, 20231h 21mWatch on YouTube ↗

At a glance

WHAT IT’S REALLY ABOUT

Green Beret Mike Glover Explains Real-World Preparedness, Not Doomsday Prepping

  1. Mike Glover, former Green Beret and CIA contractor, argues that modern society has outsourced too much responsibility to institutions, leaving individuals fragile and unprepared for likely emergencies. Rather than focusing on doomsday scenarios, he emphasizes statistics-driven preparedness for everyday risks like car accidents, mental health crises, overdoses, and home incidents.
  2. He explains how self-reliance threatens centralized systems, why governments may fear highly competent civilians, and how media skews our sense of risk by overemphasizing terrorism and mass shootings while underplaying vehicle deaths, fentanyl overdoses, and suicide.
  3. Glover outlines practical steps for building resilience: improving situational awareness, hard skills (first aid, defensive driving, weapons handling), and mindset (stress inoculation, understanding freeze response, decision criteria for force).
  4. The conversation also covers legal and moral complexities of self-defense, the cultural allure of ‘vigilante’ heroism, and how subtle behaviors, posture, and environmental awareness can deter threats and keep families safe.

IDEAS WORTH REMEMBERING

5 ideas

Prepare for probabilities, not cinematic worst-case fantasies.

Glover stresses that you’re far more likely to face car crashes, medical emergencies, or supply disruptions than terrorism or a ‘zombie apocalypse,’ so your training and gear should be built around those statistical realities.

Basic medical and vehicle preparedness can literally be life-or-death.

Keeping a proper trauma kit, a quality tourniquet, burn treatments, blankets, and knowing defensive driving techniques can prevent deaths from bleeding out, exposure, or avoidable crashes long before first responders arrive.

Situational awareness and demeanor are more important than gear.

Head-up observation, reading anomalies in crowds, and projecting confident, organized posture deter opportunistic criminals and buy you critical reaction time; most people are dangerously distracted by phones and comfort.

Resilience requires stress inoculation, not just technical skills.

People who shoot well on a flat range often panic or overreact in force-on-force scenarios; training must include decision-making under pressure (when to shoot, when not to) and understanding fight–flight–freeze and dissociation.

Self-reliance can put you at odds with centralized systems.

When citizens reclaim competence in security, health, and education, they reduce dependence on institutions, which Glover argues can make them targets of political or bureaucratic suspicion, as he experienced with his group being flagged as ‘extremist-capable’.

WORDS WORTH SAVING

5 quotes

A $29 piece of equipment and a little bit of training that you could literally get from YouTube could save your life. Why would you not pay attention to that?

Mike Glover

We advocate for self-reliance, and taking back that reliance in your life that you normally outsource to institutions… because the efficiency and the optimization that you bought into isn’t necessarily beneficial nowadays.

Mike Glover

A benefit, a proxy benefit of freedom is convenience. The problem with convenience is sometimes it gets so convenient, you’re complacent, and that complacency leads to risk.

Mike Glover

Everybody wants to focus on the nuance of shooting the gun into the paper… but those endorphins have nothing to do with the actual events that are gonna take place suppressed under stress.

Mike Glover

The best way to be on the up and up, to be a protector and a defender, is avoid conflict in the first place.

Mike Glover

Modern preparedness vs. stereotypical ‘prepper’ cultureSelf-reliance, government institutions, and perceived threats to centralizationReal statistical risks: vehicles, fentanyl, mental health, vs. media-driven fearsSituational awareness, demeanor, and behavioral cues in everyday lifeDriving safety and vehicle preparedness (defensive driving, trauma kits)Home defense: physical, technical, and canine security, plus firearm setupStress responses, decision-making, and legal/moral issues in using force

High quality AI-generated summary created from speaker-labeled transcript.

Get more out of YouTube videos.

High quality summaries for YouTube videos. Accurate transcripts to search & find moments. Powered by ChatGPT & Claude AI.

Add to Chrome