Dan Calin - Old school toughness

For those who might not know, Dan Carlin is a history enthusiast who makes podcasts about various historical topics and often goes really deep into those stories, going on about it for hours. It's well researched and he adds a lot of clever insight.

He also has shorter podcasts covering very narrow topics. One of those is Old school toughness where he attempts to answer the question of whether a country of today (he talks about US but it doesn't matter which) could beat an equivalent country in a war (same equipment, population, area) that is made up of their grandparents in their prime. The whole thing can be summarized by his boxer analogy where young boxer trains in impoverished conditions and is hungry to kick ass and prove himself and win the title vs his later self who lives in opulence after he makes it and loses some of that hunger and drive that was born out of scarcity and tough conditions. “History is filled with the sound of silken slippers going downstairs and wooden shoes coming up.”―Voltaire

It's a great listen and there are many implications and parallels for Jordan's "strengthen the individual" ideas.

You can find it here http://www.dancarlin.com/product/hardcore-history-33-blitz-old-school-toughness/ and it's also up on tpb if you just search his name (all/most of his work is in a single torrent).