My name is Cole Poulter. I’m a U.S. Navy veteran with a background in psychology, education, and trauma-informed research. I’ve spent years studying how human nervous systems, belief structures, and power dynamics shape behavior — not just at the individual level, but across families, institutions, and entire societies.

I created Different Circus, New Clowns because I’ve always been driven to look beneath the surface of events and ask what patterns are really operating underneath. History, psychology, and lived experience all point to the same conclusion: while the names, technologies, and leaders change, the emotional and cognitive machinery of humanity remains remarkably consistent.

My work is grounded in research, but also in lived observation — in classrooms, in military service, in systems where authority, loyalty, fear, and identity collide. I’m less interested in taking sides and more interested in understanding why people behave the way they do when uncertainty rises and structures begin to strain.

This podcast is an invitation to step back from the noise, slow the nervous system, and examine the long arc of human behavior with clarity, honesty, and compassion — not to inflame, but to recognize the pattern and learn how to stay grounded inside it.