6 Burst results for "Matthew Sharps"
Bear Grease
"matthew sharps" Discussed on Bear Grease
"Is working undercover at Lake Erie, and the two main fish up there that people are coaching is walleye and yellow perch. So people are coming to RT, they're selling him illegal wall eyes, illegal perch. And at one point, again, one of the bad guys accuses him of being a wildlife officer. And he's got somehow get out of it and prove that he's not. So at that time and he wore a white cowboy hat a lot, especially when it gets dressed up, which I think is very symbolic. You know, the guy with the white cowboy hats, the good guy. The good guy. But that particular day, he had a wire under his cowboy hat, okay? So he's recording this conversation. And so now he's got to put on a front that he's not the wildlife officer, so he accuses the other guy of being one. Oh, and he said, you're the wildlife. And I'll prove it. Let's strip down and we'll see who's wearing a wire who's not. So he strips down to his underwear and a party or something. There's other people watching. And he demands the other guy do the same thing. They both look at each other. They both don't see a wire and they go back to being buddies and drinking beer. The only catch is RT had the wire in his cowboy hat, which he never took off. That's a great story. That is a great story. Wow. So that's the types of things that when I talk about how he could react so quickly, very, very few people can do that. He did. An absolutely great job. That was author chip gross. He wrote the book about RT Stuart's career called poachers were my prey. Aside from cruising around in the poach coach, his four by four undercover van equipped with state of the art surveillance equipment during RT's time undercover, he was a master at thinking on his feet and appearing to keep his cool under pressure. However, just under the surface was the constant stress of being found out by the bad guys, causing RT to live in a constant state of fight or fight. Human response to stress and unusual situations is interesting to analyze because it's during these times that the veneers of our personality or any cheap socially accepted front we put on are cleared away and we see what's really inside of us. I often find myself disappointed when the outer layer of this human shaped puppet I live inside of is stripped off. Often I over calculate my abilities to respond to stress. However, when the systems are overridden and we flow on autopilot, amazing things can happen. Sometimes it's incredible. Humans have been chopping around and getting themselves into pickles for so long. I wonder if we have mechanisms at the DNA level helping us. We've all heard about humans having a 6th sense. But is that even real? I need to find out and like I've said so many times before, I'm interested in things that control us that were completely unaware of. Here's doctor Matthew sharps of the University of California Fresno. He's analyzing RT's stripping off his clothes at a party and demanding that the bad guy do the same. Doctor Sharpe is gonna talk to us about script violations. That's really brilliant. Yeah, because when you're suddenly surprised like that, you go immediately into a very high level of fight or flight. And that means a lot of the blood resources you'd have for your prefrontal cortex and part of the brain actually think the part of the brain that is involved in cognitive flexibility. Suddenly you don't have that. So what are you going to do? A lot of people suddenly start stabbing you. I'm not one, maybe you're one. I'm not one and suddenly they've had it. But that idea of shifting it into not only the rage, like my friend and the antidrug world, but into something very surprising. This year might be interested in. Human beings often have in fact pretty much on automatic. If I pick up a coffee couple I'm doing right now, it's not something that I'm thinking about. I just do it. But you have what we call a script, the automatic automated sequences of behaviors. Now if we showcase fair enough, here's a guy who is somebody who is in the other way. He has breakfast before he gets up every day. He's the richer poor. Everybody knows, he's rich as butler brings it to him, right? Well, years ago, who had breakfast before he got up today, but only today. Is he sick or well? Everybody goes sick. Now nobody's been asked those questions before, but we all know them because of the automatic scripts that we deal with in our world. So what the show did was just brilliant, okay? Because suddenly, when you're challenged like that, stripping off all your clothes and demanding that everybody else does too, that's a huge script violation of the script interruption. The turn the tables. The bad guys don't know what to do with you then. This sounds like a superpower. Being able to scramble the bad guys social scripts so they don't know what to do with you. Who knew the bad guys were such delicate social flowers? Social scripts are so deeply ingrained in us that we don't even recognize we are abide by them until someone breaks one. The script change can be so destabilizing that it reroutes the focus of the moment. You might try this in a benign situation. When someone confronts you on something, do something surprising and put a subtle question that demands a response back from them. Don't be a jerk or be deceitful, but sometimes people want something from you that you can't give them and you need a way out. It's worth a shot. Our fight or flight responses, though often not consciously calculated are usually connected back to our training, whether formal or informal. After interviewing RT and seeing how many dangerous situations he was in, I wondered if he was ever in any physical altercations. Like fistfights. So that's exactly what I asked him. RT in this next section is going to refer to an article that was written by chip gross in the mid 1990s about Ohio's new undercover wildlife department. On episode one, chip told how the bad guys showed RT the actual magazine article when he was undercover. Got him in some trouble. Here's RT. Did you ever get in a fistfight or any kind of physical altercation just in the rough life that you had to live? I realized your cover never got busted. Never got bust, but did you ever I had a couple times where they matter of fact, that letter that the article about undercover. Brought it up. Well, I am the first day I remember many. That's what my buddy said that he was a game warden. Really? Nothing,
Bear Grease
"matthew sharps" Discussed on Bear Grease
"Hey, it's Steve from the meat eater podcast. If you spend a lot of time knocking around the Woods, on the mountains, Friends ranches, whatever? It's a lot of fun and very practical to get a dedicated rig. I have a can am defender. I use all the time and love that thing. We go down every year in January to hunt coos deer, took it down to sonora Mexico. I mean, it completely changed the experience another time. I had an oryx tag. Not on the white sands missile range, but off the off range tag outside the white sands missile range. I did it just because of circumstances we used a buddy's truck, then my buddy drew the same tag right after me. And I said, dude, take my can am down. I've made a huge mistake by not figuring out a way to get down there. He took it down. Our friends at around both hunts were like, that is the way to go. It was the perfect rig. I used to trap him in the winter. I use an ice fishing. If you're thinking about getting like a dedicated side by side, rig. Go with the can am. I like the defender. I got young kids. I got a four door and it's still got a bed. I think it's just a lot of fun. Head on over to can am off road dot com to learn more. Check out their full line of products. You can go in and like figure out, okay, this is the rig I want. I got a winch on mine. I use the winds 'cause we snow plot with it, right? Can am off road dot com. Come November big bucks are not gonna wait for your truck engine problems and this is not the time of year to be late to a date with your hunting buddies. Seafoam cleans harmful gum and varnish buildup from the entire fuel system. Using seafoam motor treatment in your fuel tank gives you one less thing to worry about this fall. Sea foam customers love talking about it because it works fast and it's easy to use, just pour it in your fuel tank and let it go to work. You can find sea foam everywhere. Your neighborhood, auto parts store, farm, and hardware stores, big retailers, you name it. Pick up a can today. On our la, I'm the osa, and I'm mala. And we are the host of locator radio. Is a radio phonic novella, which is just a very extra way of saying a podcast. Favorite podcast bringing interviews with your favorite LatinX creatives to the airwaves. You can listen to locator radio on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, the way I am. First day I remember many. That's what my bunny said that he was a game warden. Nothing, yeah. He said, yeah, I have guys good writing live with them. You know what I'm thinking? That's what we do. Wow. We're on our third and final episode of our secret agent man series with undercover Ohio wildlife agent RT Stewart. On part one, we learned about the big picture mechanics of undercover stings and how RT was a pioneer in the early 1990s for the Ohio department of natural resources. We learned that humans don't do well with chronic stress and discuss the personal toll placed on undercover agents and their families because of it. And in a climactic moment, I asked RT a cutting question was it worth it? You're too good. No. No. It wasn't. No. I look back at it. If I had to do it over again and I knew what I knew right now, I'd say no. But at the time, it's the only thing I knew and the only thing I wanted to do. On the second episode, RT told us about his biggest thing, operation redbud, where 26 men were convicted of over 275 wildlife crimes. They were taken by total surprise. I think we ended up resting 26th that day. 26 people. That's a major operation. And at that particular time it was the largest turkey poaching ring in the country. And on this third episode, we're gonna hear about some close calls where RT was almost found out and explore the idea of human instinct or having a 6th sense or a premonition. But also how that compares with just pure wit, many believe decision making is purely based on observable data, but it sounds like some of our subconscious decision making mechanisms are hardwired into our DNA. We're going to hear about that from doctor Matthew sharps from the University of California and Fresno. So, we're going to explore some of RT's best stories of how he handled trouble and how he used this uncanny wit and intuition to deescalate situations. I really doubt you're going to want to miss this one. RT is calling a bird and the other officer just happens to let it slip out good calling RT. So within a few seconds, he comes back. Yeah, that's why they call me the real turkey RT. Just that quick. He smoothed it over so quickly and so well that there was no question. And he did that time after time after time. My
Bear Grease
"matthew sharps" Discussed on Bear Grease
"Getting close to somebody is something that you typically wouldn't think about. And the main reason I thought about it was because of Lou Dale and Charlie. Typically, we have a really easy, easy time, like just talking about a criminal just very derogatively. Just like, criminals, of course, anybody would, you know, go in undercover and would be thrilled to turn these guys in. Which is a true story. But it's a little more nuanced than that. And that's the whole thing about Louis Dillon Charlie. That was the whole story, the whole part of that series that was so interesting is that these were actually to many people really likeable people, but also these outlaws. And so I think that's and then, you know, RT is just a random agent. That kind of picked out of the hat. And I go to him and I say, hey, were you ever really close to somebody that you had respect for? And sure was. There was this one guy. So and then I talked to Matthew sharps, doctor Matthew sharps, who says this is really common. So that's interesting thing. And that's where you can't take the human out of the equation. And humans beings being susceptible to relationship. Susceptible to liking someone. Susceptible to seeing something good in someone, even if even if there's some bad stuff. I mean, I think that's a good thing. I was honestly surprised the other way, I felt like I was a little bit surprised that he only had a close relationship with one person. Like, I feel like when you're around people, and this probably speaks to the character of the people that he was around and that were making a career out of poaching. But just like, I feel like I can start to empathize with or have a person to person relationship with just about anybody if I'm given enough time around them, but I think that's kind of remarkable that there was really only one
Bear Grease
"matthew sharps" Discussed on Bear Grease
"To reality. I get to point, I didn't want to come home. This is where things get interesting and taken unexpected turn. What I appreciate most about RT is how open he is about his struggles. It's pretty rare to find a person willing to be as honest about himself as RT. At the time, there wasn't much known about the psychological effects of living a double life, but it turns out RT's experience of having difficulty going back and forth between reality and his undercover work is a common issue. Doctor Matthews sharps wrote a book called processing under pressure, stress, memory, and decision making in law enforcement. He's worked a lot with undercover agents, but it's an under researched area. I want to see what he says about this. We now know that brain cells, if a brain cell is active, when other brain cells are talking to it, these synapses, the connections tend to be strengthened. So if you're in the field for a long time, pretending to be a mafia pretending to be a drug dealer, what have you. If you're going to stows in this habit pattern, start to become a relatively automatic in you, okay? So when you go back home to your spouse, your family. Lots of times undercover people, will emerge back into the word emerge back into their undercover persona, and they don't know they're doing it. This is usually problematic an awful lot of our life is dealing in terms of automated behaviors. It's possible to be so deep undercover for so long that the functional mechanisms of our identity begin to become scrambled. And when you think about it, it's really an odd place for a human to occupy. Normal human existence is based on us functioning honestly in a state of reality, but people who work deep undercover have to live a life, which as it turns out, exerts an extreme amount of chronic stress on the body that we weren't designed for. If you think about our ancient ancestors, they were hunters, and hunting presents tremendous acute stress, especially if you're doing it with a spear or a spear as a magazine capacity of one. So that's pretty damn stressful. But it's two or three days of a persistence hunt or the 5 minutes of jumping up and taking out a deer or back in the day at Ira shell. Cute. Now we had to be able to deal with acute stress because if you couldn't, you couldn't survive long enough to reproduce. But chronic stress, the second socratic chronic stress don't kill you until you're in middle age or for them was old age. And so we don't seem to have a good way of dealing with chronic stress. It gets us. One thing is that when you're under stress, you're in the human fight or flight response. And that ups your blood pressure, it ups your heart rate at up your breathing rate all the stuff is wearing on the body. It also produces aside from those three major chemicals involved, aldosterone, which is to do a salt balance, cortisol that gives you more energy, but it also has a erosive quality on some structures. There is research that indicates that cortisol can have some corrosive agency on a structure in the brain called the hippocampus where you actually process your memories. But then you have adrenaline, and that's what it puts your body into this higher state of being. It's just very, very expensive. And because you're using all of these really all of this high stress stuff, you tend to shut down the systems you don't need. Humans weren't designed for chronic or constant stress. Were equipped for short term stress, and it all goes back to our hunter gatherer roots. It's easy to listen to RT's stories and feel the excitement and James Bond style and intrigue of undercover work. But all things come with a cost and it certainly did for RT. Being an undercover agent is a dirty job that enables the rest of us to live normal lives, unaware, even oblivious to what's helping keep things stable. Born in the Midwest raised in the south black buffaloes everything you love about dip without the tobacco leaf. Some of the guys on the meat eater crew are using black buffalo and have been happy with the results compared to other tobacco, all alternatives. To speak to it from a personal perspective, here is meat eaters, property, and equipment manager, Austin, who goes by Chile, fresh out of the Marine Corps. I love it because coming from the military, I was just ripping darts like it was cool. And then as I'm getting older, kind of wearing on me. Gotcha. So, and then Hayden introduced me to black buffalo and yeah, I love it. I'm having one right now. I like the black buffalo, the mint pouches. So I go for it. There you have it, ladies and gentlemen. 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If you're thinking about getting a dedicated rig for hunting and fishing adventures, I'll give it some serious consideration to the can am defender series. So that's what I have. I have a four door with a bed on the back. This thing has changed the way we do a lot of stuff we do. For instance, every year we go down to hunt and sonora Mexico. And we're always down there with like personal vehicles, right, or Reynolds. It's rugged country. It's hard to get around in. You want to spend massive amounts of time trying to get places blown out tires, you're on roads that you can't fit down with a regular truck. It just kind of disasters. This year, we pulled down my can am. For hunting coos deer in January, down in sonora right across the U.S. border. Dude, it changed everything. We even like, we had a great year and had one of the better years we've ever had. And we're sort of like, why was this year so good? Honestly, I was sitting there talking to each other. We're like, a big part was having the can am down there because we could get everywhere we wanted to go. We could zip around quick. Everybody piles in and you just got to your hunting spots quick and you could get there to where you're gonna start walking in a hurry and with a lot of confidence and not worry about fitting, not worry about getting around, obstructions, climbing over stuff, rise dealing with creaks that wash out the roads. Before you be like, oh, not going any further here. We just be able to stare down the road. Climb down, throw a few rocks from, I don't climb up. It was phenomenal year. And then turn around. Use it all winter ice fishing. You know, we fish on a lot of stuff, you could drive your regular pickup out on the ice. These things are lighter. You're kind of more in tune, you know? You roll down the window, you can sort of read the ice better. I pull my little ice fish and trailer behind it. It's just easy to get in and out of dealing with kids and stuff. It's a great tool. I didn't realize how much I would love and use. Can am. Until I got one. Head on over to can am off road. Dot com to learn more and check out their full line of products. So you can get your own high quality lot of fun dedicated hunting fishing rig to.
Bear Grease
"matthew sharps" Discussed on Bear Grease
"Man you secret. But there is an underground layer of crime that is very difficult for a person in uniform to stop. And that's where another layer of guile or cutting action of the good guys kicks in. At some point in history, the undercover agent arose. And while you are courage, mister. Soviet trench. I admire your luck. Mister. Bond. James Bond. Mister Bond, I suppose you wouldn't care to raise the limit. I have no objections. Thank you not to get me. The idea of a world famous secret agent like James Bond is kind of ludicrous. Typical of Hollywood, they glamorize stuff that often isn't glamorous at all. Doctor Matthew sharps is a Professor of psychology at California state university in Fresno. He studied undercover agents for a long time. Here's what he has to say about old James Bond. James Bond, there is a Sean Connery back in the day, but the one I like anyway. And there he is, where in his life tuxedo in a casino, right? And he's like, fort stalling everybody else and get two beautiful women on each army, et cetera. And everybody else wearing jeans and a T-shirt, he's in his tuxedo, right? He's a world famous secret agent. There's a little song, the second best secret agent in the whole wide world. But he's a world famous degree. Well, I want to ask an actual spy and undercover man who spends his life deliberately being as nondescript as possible. What would happen to James Bond in real life? He didn't even have his need to be dead in 5 minutes. You can't be a world famous secret agent. There's no future in it. But you'd like that recognition and the gliders and services outside police work. It must be very, very difficult because you may get metals where you don't even get to take them home. And there you are with your veterans of this and that service, you can't talk about it. Those stresses have not really been addressed, but they are a big problem. There's no future in being a world famous secret agent. That's funny. Understanding the psychology of undercover agents is a brand new field. I guess studying it is an indicator that we're in advanced society. Our needs are met to the point we now have resources to study the people hired as law enforcement that we've commissioned to act as criminals and break the law in order to catch the real criminals. When you start thinking about it, it's a complex space. And I'm not sure if that means our society is advanced. Maybe it's regressing. Undercover work is a necessary evil, one that we're all thankful for whether we realize it or not. And it lies in an odd philosophical and ethical spot. It takes a special breed of person to do this and we're learning it often comes at a high cost to the individual, but a net gain for society. It's rare that we get a glimpse into the real life of an undercover agent. In 2012, the Kent State university press published a book written by chip gross titled poachers where my prey. The book is the real life story of this undercover agent RT Stuart. It's a tell all book and it's publishing came with its own share of controversy, but in it RT tells about his top ten covert operations. Busting the rough again outlaws of southeast Ohio and West Virginia. Here's author chip gross introducing us to RT. It just seems like some people in this world are perfectly matched for the jobs they do in our T store is definitely one of those people. But first of all, he's a very skilled woodsman. He knows how to hunt. He knows how to fish. She knows how to trap. When the bad guys see that, that is a positive in their mind. Okay, this guy is for real. And he's very congenial. He could get the bad guys to like him and trust him very, very quickly. Sometimes with just within a few days, he just got that back about him. He's a very likeable person. Like, what does it take for a person to have that to be able to do that? I'm not sure because I don't have it. And I don't think a lot of people do, but RT does, he's a real chameleon in that he can adjust to a lot of different situations. As he talked about, he can relate to the kind of scumbag poachers or he can go to Lake Erie and deal with Marina owners up there and charter boat captains that are running boats worth tens of thousands of dollars and still slide in and become a member of that group. So I think it's a lot of it is kind of a natural ability, a natural skill, and he's very, very good at what he does. He can think on his feet very, very quickly. He mentions in the book that in every undercover operation that he was on the poachers at one point or another accused him or ask him if he was an undercover wildlife officer. You know, because they've always got that in the back of their mind. We know we're doing bad stuff. Who's this new guy? And they're looking at him is this the, is this our worst nightmare that we don't know about yet? And he was able to talk his way out of it every single time. And when I ask him how he did it, he said, I don't know. He said it's something I prepared for, but I knew I was going to get the question, but every time it came up, I had to work around it a different way. RT Stewart is now in his 60s, and he's been retired from Ohio DNR for over a decade. I don't know how to say this without just saying it. When you're medium, he doesn't have the vibe of a career law enforcement man. He's got a pen full of bluetick coonhounds, and he's got duck boat stuffed under every shed on his place. And his southeast Ohio drawl is surprisingly thick, but that's exactly why he was one of the best undercover agents in Ohio DNR history. Today is hair is trimmed tight, and it looks like he hasn't shaved in a couple of days. But at one time, he looked like guitarist from ZZ-Top. Here's RT. I guess it was a kid I used to watch all these and, you know, and I always liked I always liked the idea of a ranger or a game worker or something of that nature. So you grew up hunting and fishing. Absolutely grew up hunting aficion. My dad was a major he ruined a gun shop for 40 years and so how did you become a Game Boy and what age were you and what was your career progression? Living in a small town and got married and I ended up working in a coal mine. You got kids, you got to make a living. You know, that wasn't that wasn't my dream, obviously, but you got to make a living, and that's how and around here, being uneducated. And so I went to work in a coal mine, and then I left there and went to steel mills and got laid off in 1981. And I was 29 or 30, and when I got laid off, I first time there laid off my life. I remember telling them people that I was going to
Bear Grease
"matthew sharps" Discussed on Bear Grease
"Hey, it's Steve from the meat eater podcast. If you spend a lot of time knocking around the Woods, all the mountains, Friends, ranches, whatever. It's a lot of fun and very practical to get a dedicated rig. I have a can am defender. I use all the time and love that thing. We go down every year in January to hunt coos deer, took it down to sonora Mexico. I mean, it completely changed the experience another time. I had an oryx tag. Not on the white sands missile range, but off the off range tag outside the white sands missile range. I did it just because of circumstances we used a buddy's truck, then my buddy drew the same tag right after me. And I said, dude, take my can am down. I've made a huge mistake by not figuring out a way to get down there. He took it down. Our friends at around both hunts were like, that is the way to go. It was the perfect rig. I used to trap him in the winter. I use an ice fishing. If you're thinking about getting like a dedicated side by side, rig. Go with the can am. I like the defender. I got young kids. I got a four door and it's still got a bed. I think it's just a lot of fun. Head on over to can am off road dot com to learn more. Check out their full line of products. You can go in and like figure out, okay, this is the rig I want. I got a winch on mine. I use the winds 'cause we snow plot with it, right? Can am off road dot com. A hundred men for a living. That's how I looked at it. I went from hunting animals to me and when I capture them, that was my trophy on the wall. On this episode of the bear grease podcast, we're going deep undercover in the rough country of southeast Ohio to learn about the secret lives of wildlife poachers and the life of an undercover wildlife agent by the name of RT Stewart. He worked 18 years for the Ohio department of natural resources. He was one of the lead agents on the largest turkey poaching sting in U.S. history. He's a decorated law enforcement officer known for going deep undercover even years at a time and willing to do whatever it took to bust the outlaws. And in his career, he never had a single one of his targets suspects not be convicted of crimes. If the bad guys had known him, they'd have feared him. But they didn't, because he was a ghost. We'll hear from author chip gross, who wrote a book about RT and will interview doctor Matthew sharps of California state university about the psychology of undercover agents and the personal cost that comes with living alive. In the first episode of this series, yep, I said series, we'll meet RT and he'll show us the life of an undercover agent. And on part two we'll talk about his biggest job. You're gonna laugh, be intrigued, and you're gonna cry. I really doubt you're gonna wanna miss this one. Your whole life is lie. So you talk about stress, but when you're young and dumb, you don't even