Full podcast episode: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/b7Z5gtJ7srPUpHU.html Lex Fridman podcast channel: kzfaq.info Guest bio: Ed Calderon is a security specialist who worked on counter-narcotics and organized crime investigation in Mexico.

When you ask a man about what to do in a street fight and he begins explaining anatomy, do not fight that man

"No one owns life, but anyone holding a frying pan owns death." Easily one of the most concise statements as to why de-escalation is so damn important.

Avoid it at all costs. If you absolutely cannot avoid it, be as violent as possible and end it as quickly as possible

I am 76. 44 years as a criminal defense attorney. I've represented several defendant's that killed someone as a result of a road rage incident. One of those was a single stab wound to the neck with a small push dagger. The victim bled out in a few minutes. As a former Navy Corpsman that did 25 months in Vietnam I am well versed in anatomy and the effects of combat wounds. I am also a life long martial artist well versed in several combat forms. After my initial four years in the Navy I worked as a contract mercenary and made enough money for college and law school. So... this. When you pull a knife in a grappling situation go for the opponent's ligaments. That will disable the hand or arm or leg immediately but not result in death... and murder charges. Your goal is to stop an assault, not to kill. Do not have a dramatic knife. Keep it simple - a simple flip opener with a legal sized blade. A prosecutor will shove a big Bowie up your ass at trial but a simple pocket knife is just a tool you happened to have on hand. Remember you will provably be on video... so act like a victim rather than an aggressor. Be deferential and try to deescalate and try to get away until you have no other recourse but to use your knife. I've gone empty handed against knives on several occasions and although I prevailed I always got cut and/or stabbed... twice requiring serious surgery and hospital stays. At age 30 (in a foreign country) I put down three knife attackers empty handed - two permanently. I spent about a month in the hospital and had to pay a lot of money to not be charged with murder. And this also... if you are not a "prohibited person"... get a gun. It's the best defense against a knife attack. There's actually an old saying about that... "Don't bring a knife to.... "

My grandpa told me when I was a young teenager to “never look an aggressive drunk man in the eyes unless you want to fight him”

I was a bouncer at a small bar and seen a guy mount another and hit him 2 or 3 times. We found out he died later that night, he went home and layed in his bed with a brain aneurysm and never woke up. It still haunts me to this day.

“Those who are capable with the sword, but disciplined enough to keep it sheathed, shall inherit the earth.”

Once I avoided a street fight/robbery by luck, because I'm not especially quick to answer. Four people came in my direction asking "hey buddy, where are you going this late at night?" and I answered "to the morgue, I have to identify a body" they just stood there for a second and went their way. Still have no idea how it came to my mind!

Step 1: dont get in a street fight

25:40 Ed is being more than transparent here and is definitely speaking from a lot of experience. This whole clip was badass. Senor Calderon is a truly awesome dude.

I trained in Silat and Kali under a teacher who was a butcher by trade. He was so so very scary with a blade in his hands. He was a lifelong martial artist as a hobby. And a full time meat cutter. A real guru. Greatest martial artist I’ve ever known.

#1 rule of a street fight: don't get into a street fight

15:10 I lost a good friend in this exact way. Slipped on a night out and hit his head on the ground, a couple of hours later he just dropped dead. It's no joke, if you hit your head on the ground you should go to hospital IMMEDIATELY

I like the way he thinks. What weirdly scares me most about getting in fights is stories of people who were hit, not by a particularly strong or trained person, but the wrong angle and the wrong conditions came into play and that person just died. What if I'm defending myself and that happens and now I've just killed someone. Avoiding the fight is always the best.

In my own life I've found eye contact to be a very tricky thing. Most of these ex-specialforces guys always go on about making eye contact and carrying yourself in a way that looks alpha. I've seen that approach backfire much more often than I've seen it be successful. From what I've seen, walking around with your chest puffed out, looking everyone you come across solid eye contact, *will* invariably at some point be taken as a challenge. Weather it's some young kid who's trying to prove something, or an actual prison hardened bad ass who wants to show you what happens when you eyeball him.

Finally - somebody speaks the truth here! For me, it is so amazing, since I've lived in a quite violent neighborhood and a lot of these things that Mr. Calderon mentions, I've experienced and I've seen with my very own eyes. When I talk with people about things like awareness, eye contact, or even the dynamics of mugging and talking with your attacker, they cannot grasp it. There is some art/knowledge/intricacy to all of this. This part really resonated with me. "Facing Violence" would be also something similar (maybe without the self-defense part...)

As someone who has been stabbed a few times and had my ass whooped more times than I can count. I'm lucky that i'm still taking in air. If you aren't willing to die for whatever you are fighting for than you shouldn't be fighting in the first place. Something that I didn't quite understand until I was in my 30's. Every street fight is a life and death situation, treat it as such.

For anyone thinking about taking a training class with Ed, as a prior student I would highly recommend it. He is the real deal and I look forward to taking more of his classes.

In general I prefer reading over listening to a podcast, nothing against podcasts I just love the knowledge density of books. while on my way to the gym I put this on. I'm at gym and wish I could keep listening. This is a truly riveting conversation, I wanna say I think my heart rate went up several times. Lex keep doing what you do.

I'm 54, and when I was in Jr High through my 20s ppl fought with their fists, and fairly for the most part. At 21 I learned how to box and just the training with the heavy bag, crazy ball, and speed bag made me realize what a wuss I was. That said, I think guy's are either geared for fighting or they're not, and this holds true even for athletes. Also, every one of the toughest guy's I ever knew were NOT the boastful types that started fights, but they damn sure could finish them.

The more you learn about fighting, the less you want to get into a fight! Knowledge really is power

Remember folks, never let your ego do the talking. A hurt ego is better than a petty fight that turns into a life changing event.

There is no winning in a street fight outside of glory amongst peers. First of all, you are risking killing someone. If you knock them out and they hit their head on a curb, enjoy prison. Or what if you get knocked out, or killed, or severely injured. It just not worth it

Great guest, and an important conversation being had. So much valuable insight & info in this one.

An amazing guest and deeply engaging material

I'm a white guy and in the early 90s I went to predominantly black middle and high schools in Mobile, Alabama. I had to walk ~30 mins to and from school every day and had to walk through a couple of really rough neighborhoods. I would get jumped at least once or twice a week, sometimes more. It got so bad that my mom ended up taking me out of the high school I went to and put me in a faith-based private school. One thing I started doing if I noticed the tell-tale signs (which I got pretty good at) I was about to get jumped on was to act like I was mentally-handicapped. Not over the top but more subtly suggesting that I was mentally challenged. I feel bad that I had to do that and by no means was I making fun of anyone who really had a condition. It was just a method of self-preservation that did work every time.

It's hard to recover from a sucker punch. I was punched from the side and when it hit the side of my head it felt like I'd been hit by a baseball bat but thank God it didn't knock me out. Thank God the dude thought that's all he needed to do too. My body fought back naturally and I felt like a passenger in my own head. Training is crucial. Still the worst I've ever been rocked. I'm getting a headache just thinking about it.

My advice would be to go to an mma or kick boxing gym, learn the basics over a couple of months. Never go to the ground in a street fight. The other persons friends will most likely kick you in the head if you're going for a choke. The best option though is always to look for an exit. There are no rules in a street fight so they could have anything on them. Taking Basic kick boxing or boxing lessons can at least help if you can't find an exit and are forced to fight

Very very interesting interview. It is about to send me down an Ed Calderon rabbit hole. I hadn’t heard of him until just now.

Wildly Informative.

Hopefully you’re with a woman who is as trained and alert as you are, and doesn’t have an ego that’s easily manipulated by bullies and blowhards, and respects you more for having the self discipline to deescalate and walk away.

First thing to deal with pre-fight is the adrenaline dump.People mistake it for fear.You have to know fear and use it to flip your switch to rage

Best advice to win in a street fight is to mention that you use Python

Interesting info. Thanks.

Damn the most fascinating podcast I've ever seen

That man's shirt says a lot about who he is. DOn't mess with Kali!

I'm an avid Brazilian Jujitsu practitioner,, martial artist since I was a child and as a bouncer I learned a life changing lesson thinking I can take a fight to the ground. I've done it twice and I've been kicked in the head and stabbed by people on their feet.

Best defensive street fight technique is the sucker punch and 40 yard dash

Street fights aren't about honor or respect. . When people talk about street fights they start acting like "nah you gotta fight 1v1 nah you can't use weapons!" Bro this a street fight, you always got to expect the unexpected . .you don't know if the person you're fighting against is thinking of just fighting or trying to kill you. . .you always got to be ready, and if you end up knocking out someone just walk away you won. .

This guy is a beast give him a podcast.

Ed Calderon is one facinating guest on every podcast!

a lot of street fights happen by surprise, so it's hard to prepare for that, especially if the other side has numbers or weapons.

I went to a buddy's hockey game back in high school and went outside for a cigarette during a break with two other buddies. I noticed this thugged out white dude about our age standing with some dude maybe 20 feet away just staring at me and kind of bobbing side to side. His face and demeanor made me nervous and I wanted to keep an eye on him. But I should have never glanced back, all it took was another glance or two to see if he was still staring and he ran over talking about why was I "giving hard looks." I was a little guy, a harmless nonviolent stoner. He wasn't very big himself, I got the sense he just wanted to fight somebody that night and I looked like an easy target. I was totally confused, HE was the one angrily staring me down. Never met this kid before in my life. I was dumbstruck and would have likely gotten beaten for absolutely no reason were it not for my my buddy telling the guy he was crazy and nobody was looking at him and we weren't looking for trouble. Maybe it was the odds changing but whatever it was made him leave me alone. I felt pretty bad about the whole thing at the time, but for different reasons than I do now. Then I was more worried about a bruised ego. Now, it just reminds me that there are people out there who like violence just for the sake of violence, and that I am likely unprepared to handle them. Good thing to be reminded of now and then.

"Before we fight, I got hep C" "Funny... as do I"

Video of subway fight in Philly was crazy. One straight thrust to the neck with a knife and this big dude just fell like a tree with blood spraying!

Your interviews keep getting better. How is that happening?

The best advice is to not take yourself too seriously and hang around with people of a similar mindset. This way you’ll be much less likely to ever find yourself in a situation like that. When you learn to laugh at yourself, you’ll be mostly immune to anger, offence or feeling disrespected. It has the added bonus of also removing jealousy and embarrassment from your life too. Give it a try.

Once you realized we're all a bunch of water balloons with sharp sticks inside, anything sounds dangerous.

This works! I just took out 3 NCAA Division 1 heavyweight wrestlers...thanks man.

Well, that was fascinating.

This dude is serious business

“That will give you the experience of flesh”… DAMN. I remember a martial arts teacher once told me if I wanted to see how difficult/easy it was to break bones on humans, try breaking a leg on a dead deer on the side of the road.

A few years ago I got into a fight in a very dodgy part of Town. It went from being one on one to me getting jumped by at least 15 other men. I fought them off for a short period and then decided to run or risk getting seriously hurt. Unfortunately I didn’t get very far before being hit over the back of the head with a bat, which rendered me unconscious. I was also kicked in face while unconscious on the ground. I regained consciousness in an ambulance and spent the next few days in hospital with a fractured skull and a broken jaw. Prior to that I have had military training and worked in private security so no stranger to violent situation. The moral of my story is that it doesn’t matter how prepared you are, if you put yourself in the wrong situation shit can turn bad fast.

Always gotta show up for an Ed Calderon clip.

I’m 62 years old I have never seen a gun fight I’ve never seen a knife fight I saw fistfight once on the side of the road two guys , I think the best weapon you can have is your car you can either run them over or you could step on the gas and get the hell out of there

Served many years in the Marines and Army. Now my professional practice is that of a ER Nurse. I know a lot about taking and saving lives, enough to be dangerous, but also enough to know that I have wayyyy more to learn.

Ed's last sentence in this video is truly mind blowing. 28:44

Understand how fragile the male ego is. Avoid getting drunk in public. Be aware of your surroundings at ALL times. Don't hang around people who like to start shit. Read the energy of a room and know when its time to leave. Be kind to strangers and treat people with respect.

I always carry ciggerates with me when going out to the bar, you be surprised how many guys I've gotten to calm down by just sticking a ciggerate in their mouth lighting it for them and asking them how there day was. Ps only works on really intoxicated people.😂

I stopped a street fight with my cup of hot coffee. One guy was really getting clobbered and i couldnt just watch it and walk away.

Thanks

A lack of symmetry in the environment is key to know. What an amazing way to explain it.

what jordan peterson says about the shadow is the same as what is being said here. I know Lex said 'not same context' but I believe it is. Recognizing your own ability to kill, learning that behavior of killing, is what protects you from the other killers. Then when you recognize it in yourself you are able to love your enemy.

Is it just me, or does that shirt he's wearing add a lot of intensity to his statements.

Street fight story: (Mexico City, Mexico) I had a black belt student. He also had a few years in boxing. He was fit and in his early 20's. The style I was teaching at the time is Sho Bo Kan... it harkens back to real combat days in Okinawa. It includes many Jiu Jitsu standing techniques as well as improvised and traditional weapons use. It is a true empty hand combat martial art. Knuckle push ups on wooden dojo floors were part of warm up. Anyway, I visited my student in the hospital and he told me this story: A thick guy charged him head down and he put a perfect reverse punch into the guy's face destroying the attacker's nose and also breaking an eye socket. The attacker pushed through; wrapped his arms around his waist; lifted him off the ground and slammed him onto the concrete... breaking my student's shoulder as well as giving him a concussion. Then the attacker walked away... minus his nose and with a broken eye socket. My student was the son of a prominent politician so the attacker was eventually arrested and jailed for several years. There are guys out there...

When I was younger, my older brother told me the best way to win a street fight. And this has always been advice that I take to heart. He said it's simple......If you know that a fight is imminent, don't pussy foot around. Don't talk shit or shove someone. You hit first, you hit hard and you make sure the guy stays down. He said in a street fight, against an untrained person, the one who strikes first almost always wins.

How to win a street fight: Don't get into one. Nobody wins in a street fight.

Knife fight - Winner gets to die in a hospital is all the difference you need to know. Have a great life ya'll.

Please see S12 in Nashville for TCCC training. It's also Jiu Jitsu and shooting.

Of my 9. I always made attempts to remove myself from the situation before hand. You never know what people are capable of. Or who they are. Never put yourself in the situation in the first place.

A great, thoughtful presentation. What is "hipsie"?

The best way to win a street fight is to be smart enough to not end up in one. The second best option is to be a fast runner

love that first advice "learn how to do emergency wound care." i should learn more about this. you have to tourniquet the bleeding area, if it's a limb, right? i sorta know about CPR although i've never done it in a real situation... no idea what to do for a torso stab or gunshot wound.

My rule of thumb is to recognize anything around that can be used against me or I may have to use as a weapon, and always watch your back for his friends to jump in when he’s getting his lesson in manners.

Horrifying talk. It is a violent scary world out there.

I once worked as a bouncer at rowdy bar in Missouri. The whole town was run by a business tycoon. An old friend and myself had to remove some of this guy's henchman from the bar which ended up with me getting stabbed. Things kept escalating until later when the towns people help fight back towards the end.

Energy will always change form.

Thx Lex

You should always try to avoid physical confrontation in the event you can't escape, I've only witnessed 2 fighting styles worth a dam on the streets seen tons of street fights quick effective and allows escape quick, boxing and judo only the throws not the locks or chokes

The nicest guy I know was once in a small verbal altercation with an old lady that worked overnight at a laundry mat. She locked the door with a key so he couldn't leave and said she called some people to come straighten things out. As soon as he realized that key was the only way he was leaving he told her she had 10 seconds to hand it to him before he took it physically.

amazingly if you remind someone that if a fight occurs not only will both parties have potential injuries but that even if they win they're likely to deal with legal ramifications most people are likely to reconsider their engagement. because most fights aren't one sided and if they are, it's practically impossible to get away with street violence and just like how animals avoid fights, they are more likely to injure each other so severely that if one dies, the other will later succumb to the injuries through infection or otherwise later down the road. an intelligent animal avoids fighting their rivals, because it's more worthy to pursue food than anything else. most human fights are ego based rather than raw survival. the best way to win a fight is to walk away.

Ed is awesome. His first appearance on JRE is even more fascinating and engaging. Great podcast here, though.

The girl fight story reminded me of my ambulance days. Picked up this girl bleeding from the head. She was all shook up and couldn’t tell us what happened. Finally during transport she chilled out enough to tell us the story. She was out with a friend and her friend wanted to go home and she said she wouldn’t leave because she was too drunk to drive. Her friend demanded and she still said no so her friend pulled off a high heel and beat her in the head with it

I've been in quite a few fights on basketball courts or school yards. Street fights have little to do with who is "tougher"; the winner is the person or group willing to escalate the violence to a different level fastest. Punching a guy in the face and probably breaking his nose did nothing to stop the baseball bat smashing into my face or inspire two of my closest friends into joining us and even the odds. We brought no weapons, only testosterone and stupidity. Don't get in street fights unless you're ready to kill someone if you have to and it's never worth that.

Some good info. This man has had the abyss staring into his soul for a long time.

True knowledge is scary!

Being aware of your surroundings and environment is the number one thing when it comes to self defense, not only from people who may be threats, but things in the environment that might be as well. It amazes me just how little so many people pay attention to what is going on around them, even while doing incredibly dangerous task like driving a car.

I’m going to learn tech window

Just goes to show how quick it can all end and how fragile we are as humans..

My brother in law was into pub brawls and 1,000 cc motorbikes when he was young. He was a well built bloke. He told me most pub fights are over in seconds. You don't stand there mouthing off. Grab and heavy glass ashtray (which they had back in the day) or failing that the biggest, heaviest object around, a bottle, a chair a bar stool, and smash it over their head. Then get out of there. You're enemies years of BJJ or whatever goes out the window. Over in seconds.

Yoel Romero evolved different, without a neck that is, for an extra layer of protection.

Reminds me of my sensei from. Kempo Jiujitsu. Mike Hurst. Heard much the same from him back in the 90s. Honesty in the brutal truth of fighting.

The meat vehicle realization is an easy bad trip scenario.

Made me think of that scene in "gangs of new york"

I know how Lex feels about the feeling you get when you're around these desperate crazy younger people. But it's funny when they actually get caught and justice actually sends them to prison. They end up crying like B's

Best excuse I ever heard to get out of getting shot: skater told me a homeless guy pulled a gun on him and was threatening to kill him. Skater said, “I’m so sorry so, but I’m having a poo crisis and need to go right now!” Skater said he picked up his board and walked away, homeless guy was so confused that he just turned and walked away.

Lol at the thumbnail 😄

*fight going on* Ed: WORLDSTAR

First rule of street fighting there’s no such thing as paranoia prepare now for any and every situation so when it happens you’ll be ready if u never have to use it even better but it’s better to have something and not use it than to not have anything when u need it