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In this episode of Fighting Matters, Steve Kwan and Mike Mahaffey connect a month of far-right imagery in combat sports: Nazi salutes and a swastika flag at a kickboxing event in Orlando, an ADCC finalist with a history of posting Nazi salutes, and a Tatami gi pulled over SS-style lightning bolts. They argue this keeps happening because the sport keeps making excuses for it, and that fans can change that by being deliberate about who gets their money. ⸻ 👥 Featuring: - Steve Kwan — https://bjjmentalmodels.com - Mike Mahaffey — https://instagram.com/oldbastardbjj ⸻ 🧠 Topics Discussed: - Nazi salutes at a Paul Miller kickboxing fight - Josh Saunders' ADCC final loss to Victor Hugo - Tatami's Autsiders gi and its SS-style bolts - Turning Point USA on the UFC BJJ mat - Fuji BJJ's event conduct policy - Voting with your dollars in jiu-jitsu - Buying local in a K-shaped economy ⸻ 📖 Chapters: 00:00 — A month of hate in fight sports 04:10 — Paul Miller's kickboxing salute 06:37 — Josh Saunders in the ADCC final 08:26 — Tatami's Autsiders gi controversy 14:46 — Josh Saunders' coaching business 17:29 — Voting with your wallet in BJJ 20:14 — Sports have always been political 23:02 — Turning Point USA on UFC BJJ mats 27:39 — Fuji BJJ's event conduct policy 34:53 — How the far right gets normalized 37:47 — Finding ethical jiu-jitsu coaches 40:10 — Far-right versus far-left threats 42:14 — The mood on the ground in the US 45:45 — Fascism and incompetent loyalists 50:39 — Local spending, K-shaped economy

In this episode of Fighting Matters, Steve Kwan and Stephan Kesting talk through the Canada-US trade war from the Canadian side of the border. They explain why this was never about tariffs, and why Americans are not hearing how much of their own economy runs on Canadian lumber, oil, electricity, and potash, the base ingredient in most fertilizer. Canadian boycotts have already done damage that dropping the tariffs will not undo. ⸻ 🔗 Links Mentioned: - FULL SPEECH | Carney explains why Canada suspended trade talks with U.S. — CBC News — https://youtu.be/l-WgOxbWUHk ⸻ 👥 Featuring: - Steve Kwan — https://bjjmentalmodels.com - Stephan Kesting — https://grapplearts.com ⸻ 🧠 Topics Discussed: - What the US demanded in the talks - French labeling and Canadian culture - 51st state rhetoric and sovereignty - Alberta separatism as a wedge - Potash, lumber, and US dependence - The odds of a hot war with Canada - Boycotts as the real pressure ⸻ 📖 Chapters: 00:00 — Two Canadians on the trade war 01:15 — The Welland Canal fake story 03:26 — What American media leaves out 05:49 — This started in January 2025 08:32 — The real reason talks collapsed 10:16 — Quebec and the French language 16:23 — Trump signed the USMCA himself 19:12 — Trust that takes decades to fix 25:10 — Hostile posts are policy now 29:50 — Could this become a shooting war 31:46 — Why Canada can hurt America 35:55 — Potash, lumber, and toilet paper 39:45 — Loyalty picked over competence 47:02 — Where are the American protests 51:33 — Boycotts and voting with dollars 55:10 — A Canadian insurgency and NATO

In this episode of Fighting Matters, Jeff Shaw and Jesse Walker are joined by Jose Fernandez, a health economist and purple belt who chairs the economics department at the University of Louisville. He explains who pays for tariffs, why 70% of the world's gis coming out of one country matters for your gear budget, and what gym owners should do about prices and leases while their students are getting squeezed. ⸻ 👥 Featuring: - Jeff Shaw — https://bellinghambjj.com - Jesse Walker — https://roughhandsbjj.com - Jose Fernandez — https://louisville.edu/faculty/jmfern02 ⸻ 🧠 Topics Discussed: - The tight labor market and consumer sentiment - Gym pricing, leases, and rate freezes - Politics in the gym and local elections - Tariffs on gis and rash guards - The AI bubble and robot labor - The federal debt and taxing the rich - Insurance paperwork and doctor hours ⸻ 📖 Chapters: 00:00:00 — Introducing Jose Fernandez 00:03:57 — The indicators and the debt 00:06:47 — White belt signups slow down 00:08:51 — Leases, rent, and expansion 00:11:48 — Why you shouldn't cut prices 00:13:38 — Family discounts and freezes 00:19:05 — Politics in the jiu-jitsu gym 00:20:29 — Vote in your local elections 00:25:09 — Who pays the tariff on your gi 00:28:23 — Trade deals without tariffs 00:32:31 — Why the stock market climbs 00:38:00 — Robots replacing human labor 00:47:54 — AI, drones, and modern warfare 00:54:12 — Cheap gas and the oil reserves 01:00:03 — The debt and the sacred cows 01:11:24 — Insurers waste doctor hours

In this episode of Fighting Matters, Steve Kwan and Stephan Kesting pull up a screenshot of the UFC BJJ 10 mat and read the sponsors out loud: the Air National Guard, the AI drone company Anduril, and Turning Point USA. Dana White has spent years insisting the UFC is not political, and you can read the rebuttal off his own mat. They argue the money is there to launder reputations and buy the silence of athletes who do not have many other options. ⸻ 👥 Featuring: - Steve Kwan — https://bjjmentalmodels.com - Stephan Kesting — https://grapplearts.com ⸻ 🧠 Topics Discussed: - The sponsors on the UFC BJJ 10 mat - Anduril and Turning Point USA - Dana White on the UFC not being political - Exclusionary UFC BJJ contracts and ADCC - UFC BJJ viewership and visibility - What UFC BJJ athletes get paid - The chilling effect on athletes who speak out ⸻ 📖 Chapters: 00:00 — Stephan's Arctic expedition 02:21 — Dana White on being political 03:15 — The YAMMA bowl cage, revisited 04:24 — Reading the sponsors on the mat 05:33 — Anduril, the AI drone company 10:09 — Turning Point USA on the mat 16:28 — Could the left buy the same ad? 21:13 — The capture and kill strategy 24:00 — UFC BJJ's viewership problem 28:15 — Owning all of combat sports 32:09 — What UFC BJJ athletes get paid 43:41 — The Sartre quote on fascists 34:45 — The chilling effect on athletes 51:20 — What people can do about it

In this episode of Fighting Matters, Jesse Walker and Stephan Kesting (just back from thirty days in the Arctic wilderness) are joined by Dr. Clayton Green, a board certified dermatologist with a PhD in microbiology who worked face to face with patients through the whole pandemic. Clayton and Stephan take apart the conspiracies the pandemic left behind (nanobot tracking chips, the lab leak, RFK Jr.'s claims about Lyme disease) and explain why frightened people reached for them in the first place. Jesse's question runs underneath the whole thing: how did a community built on evidence-based martial arts end up rejecting evidence-based medicine? ⸻ 👥 Featuring: - Jesse Walker — https://roughhandsbjj.com - Stephan Kesting — https://grapplearts.com - Dr. Clayton Green ⸻ 🧠 Topics Discussed: - The Big Pharma payment myth, debunked - Fear, certainty, and bad decisions - Fauci as the scapegoat - Changing the guidance was correct - Grapplers rejecting evidence-based medicine - Ivermectin and the grifters targeting grapplers - The genetics that rule out a lab leak - Algorithms and radicalized coaches - Your phone tracks you better than any chip ⸻ 📖 Chapters: 00:00:00 — Introducing Dr. Clayton Green, dermatologist 00:01:53 — The Big Pharma payment myth, fully debunked 00:03:57 — Six years on, still no reckoning for COVID 00:05:49 — Fauci as the scapegoat for a whole government 00:08:07 — Fear and anger drive people to false certainty 00:10:12 — The early mask messaging that cost public trust 00:18:11 — Saving the mask supply for hospitals was right 00:23:01 — The vaccine claims held true until Omicron hit 00:26:51 — Reaching for ivermectin over actual medicine 00:29:13 — Operation Warp Speed, the win nobody will claim 00:31:42 — Grapplers rejected evidence-based medicine 00:37:02 — Pleading the fifth to dodge a perjury trap 00:41:45 — Genetic fingerprints rule out a lab leak 00:45:35 — Social media moderation and anti-Asian backlash 00:50:34 — YouTube radicalized Stephan's old instructors 00:53:35 — Debunking nanobot chips, 5G, and snake oil 01:00:37 — RFK Jr. is wrong about Lyme disease origins 01:03:06 — The AIDS-virus sequence myth, taken apart 01:05:17 — Whether we can get the public trust back

In this episode of Fighting Matters, Jesse Walker and Mike Mahaffey catch up on a run of recent news where powerful people did awful things and faced no real consequences: Andrew Tate arrested on 42 charges he may never answer for, ICE killings at traffic stops with the FBI reportedly stepping back, an FDA food-safety scare that ended in an apology to a Trump donor, and a Kentucky senator who has vanished while still collecting his seat. What ties it together is a question that hits close to home for two jiu-jitsu coaches: what happens to a country, or a gym, when people only look out for themselves? ⸻ 👥 Featuring: - Jesse Walker — https://roughhandsbjj.com - Mike Mahaffey — https://instagram.com/oldbastardbjj ⸻ 🧠 Topics Discussed: - Andrew Tate's arrest in Florida and the 42 charges waiting for him in the UK - Why the manosphere and the administration still hold him up as a model of masculinity - Two ICE killings at traffic stops, deaths in detention, and who answers for them - Voting your pocketbook, and what a community loses when people only care once it hits them - Class versus culture: who is actually making your life harder - The "diarrhea lettuce" scandal and the FDA's apology to a major Trump donor - Mitch McConnell's disappearance, Kentucky's empty seat, and the octogenarian problem - Team-first versus me-first, in politics and in jiu-jitsu ⸻ 📖 Chapters: 00:00:00 — Judo at an advanced age and teaching EMS crews to fall 00:02:40 — Andrew Tate arrested, 42 charges, and the purple blouse 00:11:44 — Two ICE killings and the accountability that isn't coming 00:21:03 — Detention deaths and what you'd do if they came for you 00:25:00 — Coaches cheering this on while their communities suffer 00:28:44 — Why people only wake up when it hits their wallet 00:32:06 — Phone banking and the voter just trying to survive 00:37:11 — Nobody survives alone, and who's really to blame 00:40:04 — Diarrhea lettuce and the FDA's apology to a donor 00:44:03 — The jiu-jitsu parallel: team-first beats the selfish island 00:47:31 — Where is Mitch McConnell, and the octogenarian problem 01:00:08 — Photobombing Master Worlds and signing off

In this episode of Fighting Matters, Steve Kwan is joined by Jesse Walker of Rough Hands BJJ to talk about Graham Platner, the Maine Senate candidate whose campaign has come apart under a run of scandals: a Nazi-associated tattoo, credible sexual assault allegations, and more. They use his collapse to get at a harder question that runs through both politics and jiu-jitsu: why we keep excusing disqualifying behavior from people we want to believe in, and what it costs us when we do. ⸻ 👥 Featuring: - Steve Kwan — https://bjjmentalmodels.com - Jesse Walker — https://roughhandsbjj.com ⸻ 🧠 Topics Discussed: - Who Graham Platner is and how his campaign fell apart - The Totenkopf tattoo and the "I didn't know what it meant" defense - AIPAC, the rise of antisemitism, and where criticism of Israel ends and conspiracy begins - Why we keep handing passes to people with disqualifying histories - "Due process trolls" and why a courtroom standard isn't the bar for who we associate with - How tolerating bad behavior normalizes it, and the Trump parallel - The same rot in jiu-jitsu: protecting bad actors because they win or teach well - Term limits, aging politicians, and elevating grassroots talent over big names ⸻ 📖 Chapters: 00:00 — Why Fighting Matters isn't a left-wing podcast 01:11 — Who is Graham Platner? 03:24 — The Totenkopf tattoo and the "I didn't know" defense 05:23 — A campaign in freefall 09:15 — AIPAC, antisemitism, and drawing the line 14:11 — Nazi tattoos are disqualifying, even accidental ones 16:38 — Two sets of rules and the Fetterman problem 20:00 — Purity tests vs. keeping your moral compass 24:10 — The jiu-jitsu parallel: bad teammates and PEDs 25:54 — Due process trolls 32:02 — Mamdani and elevating outsider talent 44:34 — Supporting bad actors in jiu-jitsu (Josh Saunders) 49:24 — Being good at jiu-jitsu is not a competitive edge 53:29 — Geriatric politicians and term limits 59:07 — Wrapping up: accountability in practice

In this episode of the Fighting Matters podcast, Steve Kwan is joined by Jesse Walker of Rough Hands BJJ and Mike Mahaffey of Old Bastard BJJ on the eve of America's 250th Fourth of July. They open with whether there's anything left to celebrate and end up somewhere harder: the same instinct to look away that got the country here is alive in jiu-jitsu too. The clearest example is Izaak Michell, invited to ADCC while wanted in Texas on sexual assault warrants, and the string of accused and convicted men the sport keeps platforming anyway. 🔗 Links Mentioned: - The Find Out Podcast, "Ex-MAGA influencer explains why he abandoned Trump" — https://youtu.be/ylPlpgQygdU - Magic BJJ — https://magicbjj.com ⸻ 👥 Featuring: - Steve Kwan — https://bjjmentalmodels.com - Jesse Walker — https://roughhandsbjj.com - Mike Mahaffey — https://instagram.com/oldbastardbjj ⸻ 🧠 Topics Discussed: - America's 250th and the state of the July 4th "celebration" - Rebuilding the country instead of defending the old institutions - The normalization that links national politics to jiu-jitsu - Izaak Michell, his ADCC invite, and the Texas arrest warrants - Josh Saunders, Nazi salutes, and the "keep it non-political" excuse - Why "innocent until proven guilty" doesn't settle the ethics - How the sport risks going radioactive the way MMA once did - Redemption tours, silence, and what speaking up actually does ⸻ 📖 Chapters: 00:00 — Big heads, Ace of Bass, and July 4th 02:40 — America's 250th: did the country even make it? 06:33 — Rebuilding the country, not restoring it 10:29 — Mask-off politics, the courts, and the truth 18:23 — How a MAGA influencer's fever broke 20:36 — Holding your nose, in politics and on the mats 24:10 — Who is Izaak Michell, and why ADCC invited him 30:01 — Josh Saunders and "keep it non-political" 35:34 — "Innocent until proven guilty" isn't a free pass 40:15 — What happened to MMA could happen to jiu-jitsu 44:47 — What will you tell your grandkids? 49:19 — No clean leagues left for ethical athletes 51:44 — The redemption tour: Tyson, McGregor, and ADCC 53:07 — What we can actually do about it 56:50 — Closing thoughts and where to find everyone

In this episode of Fighting Matters, co-hosts Jesse Walker and Mike Mahaffey take on Conor McGregor's UFC comeback and the media tour selling it: a man found civilly liable for sexual assault, platformed on Jimmy Fallon like none of it happened, with no apology and no amends. They get into what redemption actually requires, why comedians stopped holding power to account, and the jiu-jitsu community's own habit of looking the other way when the person on the podium has hurt people. ⸻ 🔗 Links Mentioned: - Old Bastard BJJ on Patreon — https://patreon.com/oldbastardbjj - Old Bastard BJJ on Instagram — https://instagram.com/oldbastardbjj ⸻ 👥 Featuring: - Jesse Walker — https://roughhandsbjj.com - Mike Mahaffey — https://magicbjj.com ⸻ 🧠 Topics Discussed: - Conor McGregor's UFC comeback and the media tour behind it - Why the media keeps platforming people who have caused harm - What real redemption requires, and why owning the harm is the price of it - Whether some actions put someone past the point of a comeback - How late-night hosts and comedians stopped holding power to account - What your attention and your money actually endorse - The jiu-jitsu community's habit of platforming people it shouldn't ⸻ 📖 Chapters: 00:00 — Welcome and teeing up the topic 01:16 — McGregor's comeback, and how he got here 04:47 — Turning MMA trash talk up to eleven 08:25 — Pro wrestling, except the harm is real 10:27 — The fall and the Hollywood comeback 13:23 — Does anyone deserve a comeback? 15:27 — Redemption means owning the harm 20:43 — What Mike learned in vocational rehab 26:12 — Our court jesters are failing us 32:36 — When "comedy is back" means punching down 36:37 — No redemption, and whose pocket you fill 47:33 — The IBJJF problem, and being a thoughtful consumer 55:38 — Where to find Jesse and Mike

In this episode of Fighting Matters, Steve Kwan is joined by Jesse Walker of Rough Hands BJJ to talk about the fallout from UFC Freedom 250, the fight card staged on the White House lawn for America's 250th anniversary. Neither of them watched it, because the fights were never the issue. They get into the corruption, the crypto payouts, the comment aimed at Michelle Obama, and why "keeping politics out of fighting" was never a real argument once the President turned the country's 250th birthday into his own fight night. ⸻ 👥 Featuring: - Steve Kwan — https://bjjmentalmodels.com - Jesse Walker — https://roughhandsbjj.com ⸻ 🧠 Topics Discussed: - Why UFC Freedom 250 was a problem even if the fights were good - The difference between promoting a sport and running a propaganda event - Crypto payouts and the "company store" comparison - The comment aimed at Michelle Obama, and why it was deliberate - Free speech absolutism as a dodge - The alleged Daniel Cormier and Eric Trump text exchange about fixed fights - The paradox of tolerance and why you can't platform extremists - What the UFC would have to do to win fans like Steve and Jesse back ⸻ 📖 Chapters: 00:00 — What UFC Freedom 250 actually was 05:05 — A for-profit event on the people's lawn 09:10 — Defending the UFC as legitimate sport 14:48 — Propaganda, grift, and crypto payouts 16:40 — The Obama basketball tournament test 22:29 — Was it worth it for the UFC? 27:05 — MMA is an immigrant story 31:05 — The Michelle Obama comment was deliberate 41:26 — Free speech absolutism as moral cowardice 45:52 — The alleged Cormier and Eric Trump texts 51:54 — You can't break bread with extremists 59:33 — What would fix the UFC? 01:07:56 — Where to find Jesse Walker

In this episode of Fighting Matters, Jeff Shaw is joined by Jesse Walker, Mike Mahaffey, and Stephan Kesting to take apart UFC Freedom 250, the card being staged on the White House South Lawn on June 14th. Four martial artists who spent decades loving this sport walk through why an event at the people's house, held on the president's birthday and billed as a celebration of America's 250th, leaves them cold. They get into the spectacle, the money, the sportswashing angle, and the version of this card that could have meant something. ⸻ 🔗 Links Mentioned: - Old Bastard BJJ Pride Month Fundraiser — https://patreon.com/oldbastardbjj - Salus Center — https://www.saluscenter.org - Growing Veterans — https://growingveterans.org ⸻ 👥 Featuring: - Jeff Shaw — https://bellinghambjj.com - Jesse Walker — https://roughhandsbjj.com - Mike Mahaffey — https://instagram.com/oldbastardbjj - Stephan Kesting — https://grapplearts.com ⸻ 🧠 Topics Discussed: - Why a UFC card at the White House reads as fascist spectacle - The June 14th birthday timing and the "America 250" cover story - The "keep politics out of sports" double standard - Empty seats, military tickets, and who foots the bill - Cage fights as diplomacy, and what sportswashing really is - Theodore Roosevelt, immigration, and the event this could have been - What MMA lost when it stopped being outsider art ⸻ 📖 Chapters: 00:00 — Introducing the panel 02:40 — Fascism, spectacle, and macho posturing 04:30 — A birthday dressed as an anniversary 07:05 — Theater and a regime that believes in nothing 10:16 — Dead enthusiasm and a tourism slump 14:09 — Empty seats, military tickets, and June heat 16:32 — Rogan ringside and bread and circuses 18:53 — Who pays, and who gets held accountable 25:41 — But Roosevelt did it too 30:06 — Cage fights as diplomacy and sportswashing 34:53 — How you'd do it right, and why they can't 40:13 — Can this work at the White House at all? 46:18 — Outsider art and what's been lost

In this episode of Fighting Matters, Steve Kwan talks with Mike Mahaffey of Old Bastard BJJ about the trans hate pouring out of combat sports, and the fighters who have figured out it pays. They start with Sean Strickland's AI video of himself beating up a trans woman, then get into why guys like Strickland and Jake Shields keep posting this stuff: it riles up a certain kind of fan, and that attention is the product. Recorded during Pride Month, it is also about what the jiu-jitsu community owes its trans members, who take the brunt of this. 🔗 Links Mentioned: - Old Bastard BJJ on Patreon (buy "Introduction to Base" in June, all proceeds go to the Salus Center) — https://patreon.com/oldbastardbjj - Salus Center, Lansing — https://www.saluscenter.org ⸻ 👥 Featuring: - Steve Kwan — https://bjjmentalmodels.com - Mike Mahaffey — https://instagram.com/oldbastardbjj ⸻ 🧠 Topics Discussed: - Sean Strickland's anti-trans AI video and the threat behind it - How the "fairness in women's sports" debate gets used as cover for violence - Active clubs, fascism, and the far right's foothold in fight sports - Mike's advocacy work and the threats it brings - The harassment trans grapplers face just for showing up to train - Why fighters profit from anti-trans content - Why "keep politics out of jiu-jitsu" is a cop-out - Raising a trans daughter and changing minds through storytelling ⸻ 📖 Chapters: 00:00 — Welcome and why a Pride episode 02:26 — The Strickland video and the "fairness" cover 08:47 — Active clubs and the far right in fight sports 11:20 — Mike's advocacy and the threats it draws 17:46 — Spite-based activism and trans grapplers under attack 22:30 — Why fighters monetize trans hate 30:04 — Staying neutral is a choice, and the politics myth 34:08 — Pride, gender, and changing norms 40:17 — You don't have to get it to defend it 42:36 — Mike on supporting your trans friends and family 47:35 — Why martial artists have to speak up 51:06 — Mike's fundraiser for the Salus Center

In this episode of the Fighting Matters podcast, Steve Kwan is joined by Jeff Shaw of Bellingham BJJ, Mike Mahaffey of Old Bastard BJJ, and Dr. Clayton Green, a board-certified dermatologist and BJJ practitioner. They get into what happened at UFC BJJ when Mikey Musumeci defended his title against Kevin Dantzler with an active staph infection, went back to the hospital right after the match, and defended the decision by saying he had covered the infection with spats. The conversation covers why staph is more dangerous than people realize, how the UFC has stopped fights like this before but didn't this time, and what gyms and competitors can actually do to be safer. 🔗 Links Mentioned: - NFHS Wrestling Skin Lesion Form — https://a-us.storyblok.com/f/1022696/x/87b3155d73/2025-26-nfhs-wrestling-skin-lesion-form-final-april-2025.pdf ⸻ 👥 Featuring: - Steve Kwan — https://bjjmentalmodels.com - Jeff Shaw — https://bellinghambjj.com - Mike Mahaffey — https://www.instagram.com/oldbastardbjj - Dr. Clayton Green ⸻ 🧠 Topics Discussed: - What happened at UFC BJJ and Mikey's hospital readmission - Why "I covered it with spats" isn't a defense - How close Ben Askren came to dying from MRSA - Whether BJJ is losing community knowledge about infection risk - How pandemic-era science denial is showing up in jiu-jitsu - How the UFC stopped fights like this before, and didn't this time - The wrestling skin check form and how gyms can use it - Institutional accountability vs dogpiling on the athlete ⸻ 📖 Chapters: 00:00 — Introducing the panel 02:39 — What happened at UFC BJJ 05:16 — Spats aren't condoms 10:09 — How dangerous staph actually is 18:08 — Are we losing community knowledge about infection risk? 25:21 — Why didn't the UFC stop this? 26:34 — Pandemic-era science denial in BJJ 33:13 — The wrestling skin check form 36:45 — How gyms model and enforce safer behavior 40:48 — Advice for young competitors under pressure 50:22 — Institutional accountability vs dogpiling the athlete 53:02 — Closing thoughts

In this episode of Fighting Matters, Steve Kwan is joined again by Dr. David Riedman: 17-year jiu-jitsu practitioner, MIT-trained data analyst, and PhD researcher whose dissertation focused on measuring the accuracy of large language model outputs. David is also the author of the Riedman Report, one of the most popular Substacks on risk, AI, education, and security. The conversation is broken into three parts. Part one is a broad explanation of what modern AI actually is and how it works. Part two covers the cultural and social impact of AI on public life. Part three is about how AI will affect the business of jiu-jitsu and the people who train and run gyms. Steve walks out of the conversation with a take he didn't expect: martial artists may be in a stronger position than people working in tech. ⸻ 🔗 Links Mentioned: - The Riedman Report — https://riedmanreport.substack.com - K-12 School Shooting Database — https://k12ssdb.org ⸻ 👥 Featuring: - Steve Kwan — https://bjjmentalmodels.com - Dr. David Riedman — https://riedmanreport.substack.com ⸻ 🧠 Topics Discussed: - Why LLMs don't actually think, and why that matters - The political split on AI adoption and why both sides are partially right - Where AI genuinely helps a small business and where it creates risk - Model drift, context dilution, and how guardrails break down in long conversations - Why AI tutorials and AI video can't teach jiu-jitsu - What it means for a sport without a unified registry when anyone can fabricate credentials - The trillion-dollar lock-in: why we may be stuck with LLMs even if they don't work - Why human-service work like coaching may be more durable than tech work ⸻ 📖 Chapters: 00:00 — Reintroducing Dr. David Riedman 03:25 — PART 1: What modern AI actually is 15:39 — Why a confident-looking LLM output can still be wrong 23:12 — PART 2: The cultural and social impact of AI 35:09 — When the stakes are too high to outsource 42:09 — When AI is used to plan a war 50:54 — Model drift and how the guardrails erode 58:23 — PART 3: AI and the business of jiu-jitsu 01:03:11 — Automating the soul out of your gym 01:14:20 — The trillion-dollar bet on a tool that may not work 01:22:06 — Three futures and none of them are good 01:29:46 — What gym owners and practitioners should actually do

In this episode of Fighting Matters, Steve Kwan is joined by Andrea Tang: novelist, brown belt at District Martial Arts, and host of BJJ Today on the BJJ Mental Models Premium Network. Three years ago, a serial home invader broke into Andrea's apartment at 4am and tried to sexually assault her in bed. She fought him off using day-one white belt basics. This is a conversation about that night, the years of court proceedings that followed, and what watching the BJJ community treat survivors has taught her about who actually has the courage to speak up. ⸻ 👥 Featuring: - Steve Kwan — https://bjjmentalmodels.com - Andrea Tang — https://andreatangwrites.com ⸻ 🧠 Topics Discussed: - Surviving a home invasion at 4am using basic jiu-jitsu - What the court process actually looks like for sexual assault survivors - Why women don't speak up, even with airtight cases - The "porcupine strategy" and why white belt basics matter most in real attacks - Why stranger violence and instructor abuse should not be treated as the same problem - The identity crisis that hits women martial artists when they become victims - How women in combat sports absorb toxic masculinity (and why it costs them) - Busting the "no woman could beat a man" myth ⸻ 📖 Chapters: 00:00 — Welcome and book plug 02:29 — The night a stranger broke in 06:02 — The aftermath and the marks it leaves 09:26 — What the court process actually costs survivors 12:52 — Why so few women ever speak up 26:15 — When muscle memory wakes up before your brain does 33:53 — The porcupine strategy: being a hard target 39:50 — Stranger attacker vs. instructor abuser 44:28 — When the victim is a martial artist 48:56 — Toxic masculinity isn't a men's thing 55:47 — What jiu-jitsu is actually for