The Wild Chaos Podcast

“They Look Completely Normal” | Inside the Mind of an Online Predator
Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/cnBcPvSMqa4
Episode 130 of The Wild Chaos Podcast is streaming NOW on YouTube and all major podcast platforms!
Who is Garrett Gross, and what is Operation 17:2?
Garrett Gross is a former professional MMA fighter, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt, husband, father, Christian and founder of Operation 17:2, an organization focused on protecting children and exposing adults who attempt to sexually exploit minors online.
But the man doing that work today has a past most people would never expect.
Before Operation 17:2, Garrett's life was filled with fighting, arrests, cocaine, partying, addiction and chaos. He openly shares how violence became part of his identity at a young age, why he loved fighting, his journey into professional MMA, and how success still failed to give him the purpose he was searching for.
At one point, Garrett says he was offered $10,000 to travel across state lines and assault a man he was told was a child predator. He accepted.
That story becomes even crazier as Garrett describes cocaine, dangerous connections, and the world he was living in before eventually confronting the direction of his life.
Years later, Garrett's relationship with Jesus Christ, becoming a husband and father, and his desire to protect children helped completely redirect his purpose.
Today, that mission is Operation 17:2. To learn more about @Op17two visit: https://op17two.com/ or follow Garrett on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/officialgarrettgross/?hl=en
Garrett takes us inside how Operation 17:2 uses decoy accounts and online conversations to identify adults attempting to communicate sexually with people they believe are minors. He explains the grooming and manipulation patterns he says his team repeatedly encounters, including adults attempting to identify vulnerabilities in a child's home life and asking questions about whether the child's father is present.
One of the most disturbing lessons from Garrett's work?
The people they encounter don't necessarily look dangerous.
They can look completely normal.
Garrett discusses encounters involving fathers, husbands and people who appear to be ordinary members of their communities, reinforcing why parents cannot rely on appearances alone when teaching their children about online safety.
This conversation goes far beyond catching alleged child predators.
Bam and Garrett have an unfiltered conversation about what creates broken men, childhood trauma, violence, addiction, masculinity, Christianity, marriage, fatherhood, accountability, justice, forgiveness and redemption.
Can you have compassion for a person while still demanding consequences for what they've done?
Can someone genuinely change after years of destructive behavior?
What does biblical masculinity actually look like?
How can fathers better protect their children online?
Why are so many men struggling to find purpose?
And what does it mean to actually know God rather than simply claim Christianity?
Garrett argues that protecting the next generation doesn't begin only with catching predators. It also means building stronger men, stronger husbands, present fathers and healthier families.
His message to fathers is simple:
Your kids need YOU, not more things.
This is the story of a man who once used his strength to fight for himself and now believes his purpose is to use that strength to fight for others.
From professional MMA and cocaine to Christianity, fatherhood and Operation 17:2, Garrett Gross doesn't hide who he used to be.
Because without the old story, you can't understand the man he became.
Episode 130 of The Wild Chaos Podcast with Garrett Gross is streaming now on YouTube and everywhere you listen to podcasts.
Subscribe to The Wild Chaos Podcast for raw, long-form conversations about military service, law enforcement, survival, addiction, faith, fatherhood, redemption, entrepreneurship and the stories most people are afraid to talk about.
GARRETT GROSS / OPERATION 17:2 TOPICS:
Garrett Gross
Operation 17:2
Garrett Gross MMA
Garrett Gross podcast
professional MMA fighter
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt
online child predators
online child safety
child grooming awareness
protecting children online
predator decoy operations
Christian testimony
Jesus Christ
addiction and redemption
cocaine addiction
fatherhood
biblical masculinity
Christian men
men's mental health and purpose
marriage and fatherhood
Wild Chaos Podcast
Bam Marshall
#WildChaosPodcast #GarrettGross #Operation172 #ProtectOurChildren #MMA
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Marcus “Doc” Haralson: The Man Who Refuses to Live a Normal Life
Episode 129 of The Wild Chaos Podcast is streaming NOW on YouTube and all major podcast platforms! Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/Mf-C-qkBa3Q
Marcus “Doc” Haralson has spent most of his life refusing to live normally.
A former Navy Corpsman who served alongside Marines, Afghanistan contractor, longtime fly-fishing guide, entrepreneur, sailor and self-described adventure junkie, Doc has spent decades chasing the next challenge, the next destination and occasionally the thin line between adventure and disaster.
Bam and Doc go back years. They met while working in Afghanistan, and Episode 129 is less of a traditional interview and more like two old friends sitting down and unpacking a lifetime of chaos.
Doc opens up about growing up in Corpus Christi, fighting constantly as a kid, leaving home young, complicated family relationships and the experiences that built his obsession with independence and freedom.
They dive into life as a Navy Corpsman attached to Marines, Marine Corps culture, hazing, barracks stories, combat medicine, ridiculous medical calls and why the relationship between Marines and a trusted Corpsman is unlike almost anything else in the military.
Then Doc tells one of the wildest stories of the episode.
While attempting a roughly 200-mile solo sailing challenge in Texas, a storm overtook him. His boat flipped, his gear scattered across the water and Doc spent an exhausting fight trying to recover before reaching the point where he could barely use his arms.
The Coast Guard started looking for him.
Strangers eventually found him.
And afterward, Doc realized something much bigger about the way he'd been living his life.
For years he thought he was chasing adventure.
Looking back, he believes he was actually chasing death just to feel alive.
The conversation also dives into van life, marriage, freedom, entrepreneurship, building Dillo Light from an idea into a real product, leaving conventional careers behind and the uncomfortable reality of betting on yourself.
This episode is funny, reckless, philosophical and exactly what happens when two friends with years of history stop interviewing each other and just talk.
Episode 129 of The Wild Chaos Podcast with Marcus “Doc” Haralson is streaming now.
Watch on YouTube or listen everywhere you get your podcasts.
🔔𝐃𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐮𝐛𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐥 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐮𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬. https://www.youtube.com/@wildchaospod/?sub_confirmation=1
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He goes from “tip of the spear” to starting over in a single blast and he’s painfully honest about what that actually feels like.
Watch here at: https://youtu.be/Np6lE6zrtU0
We talk with Josh Sweeney, a United States Marine Corps scout sniper who deploys to Afghanistan, gets hit by an IED, and loses both legs above the knee along with major hand injuries. Josh walks us through the moments people rarely hear about: the delayed medevac, the tourniquets, staying awake because the wrong meds could make him bleed out, and the strange fog of ICU drugs and hallucinations. Then we move into the harder fight: rehab, loss of control, and the identity crisis that hits when the uniform and the body you trusted are both gone.
From there, adaptive sports becomes the doorway to a new life. Josh explains how sled hockey brought back team culture and accountability, how his “hockey sense” got him onto Team USA, and what it’s like to play for gold in Russia and score the game-winning goal at the Sochi 2014 Paralympics. He also shares the real cost of elite competition, stepping away for family, rebuilding after divorce, and later finding a new lane in Para Nordic skiing and Paralympic biathlon, including the pressure and strategy of relay racing at the highest level.
We also dig into performance and recovery details that matter: prosthetics realities, sweating and temperature changes after amputation, sleep and recovery as training multipliers, and why he now builds adaptive sports equipment through JS Adaptive Sports to help others get outside and compete. If you care about veteran resilience, mental toughness, adaptive sports, and what it takes to rebuild after trauma, this conversation delivers.
Subscribe for more long-form conversations, share this with a friend who needs a “what’s next” mindset, and leave a review with the biggest takeaway you’re applying this week.
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Former Navy diver and San Diego County law enforcement veteran Ali Perez survived an encounter that should have ended his life. What began as an operation to arrest a suspected child predator turned into a close-range gunfight after Ali entered a darkened apartment and was met by a rifle.
Watch the episode here: https://youtu.be/8MHOYdFxiIw
Ali describes being shot multiple times, suffering catastrophic injuries, becoming trapped inside the apartment with the gunman, continuing to fight while severely wounded, running out of ammunition, and eventually believing he was about to die.
Then the story takes a turn that Ali says changed the rest of his life.
This conversation goes far beyond that single day.
Ali takes us inside Navy dive school, including the brutal underwater training and what happens to the human mind nearly 200 feet beneath the surface. He recounts responding to a school shooting and helping apprehend the teenage shooter, the psychological aftermath of seeing children killed, his thoughts on law enforcement response during active-shooter incidents, and the disturbing reality of investigating physical and sexual crimes against children.
He also walks us through the aftermath of his own shooting: massive blood loss, emergency surgery, his family being warned that he likely would not survive, years of recovery, 43 surgeries, faith, forgiveness and rebuilding a life after everything changes in seconds.
Whether you share Ali's beliefs or question what he experienced, this is a conversation about what happens when a man reaches the absolute edge of life and has to decide what comes next.
Watch Episode 127 now on YouTube, or listen everywhere you get your podcasts.
Suicide & Crisis Support
If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide or experiencing a mental health crisis, help is available. In the United States, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, available 24/7. If there is an immediate danger or medical emergency, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department.
You do not have to face a crisis alone.
U.S. Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: Call or text 988
Immediate emergency: Call 911
Subscribe to The Wild Chaos Podcast for extraordinary people, uncomfortable conversations and stories most people never get the opportunity to hear.
🔔𝐃𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐮𝐛𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐥 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐮𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬. https://www.youtube.com/@wildchaospod/?sub_confirmation=1
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What really happens inside police Internal Affairs and can the system itself get it wrong?
In Episode 126 of The Wild Chaos Podcast, Bam sits down with retired LAPD Sergeant Marlon Marrache, a 24-year law enforcement veteran who experienced police discipline from both sides: first representing officers accused of misconduct, and later working inside Internal Affairs. Both sides of the fence.
Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/6r-psAzvW-g
This isn't a surface level conversation about police policy.
Bam puts Marlon directly in the hot seat with questions submitted by cops themselves.
Can Internal Affairs be weaponized?
Do innocent officers get found guilty?
Can politically connected officers receive different treatment? Do cases ever simply disappear?
Who investigates Internal Affairs when Internal Affairs gets it wrong?
Marlon breaks down misconduct investigations, false and misleading statements, officer-involved shootings, compelled interviews, administrative hearings, police discipline, departmental politics, and the mistakes that can destroy an officer's career.
He also explains why something seemingly minor can become career-ending when an officer isn't truthful during an Internal Affairs investigation—and why he believes departments need better checks and balances.
But near the end of the conversation, the badge disappears. And when asked what he ultimately wants the world to remember about him, it isn't LAPD, Internal Affairs, rank or career. It's being a great dad.
This episode is about accountability inside law enforcement—but it's also about identity, family, purpose and what remains when the career finally ends.
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🔔𝐃𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐮𝐛𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐥 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐮𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬. https://www.youtube.com/@wildchaospod/?sub_confirmation=1
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