Andy Stumpf is an American former Navy SEAL, author and podcast host. After 17 years in the Navy, including service with SEAL Team Six, he was medically retired in 2013 and built a second career as a speaker and as host of Cleared Hot, a long-form interview podcast sponsored by Black Rifle Coffee Company. His contact with UAP subjects comes through that show and his guest appearances, chiefly a September 2026 episode with the whistleblower Matthew Brown.

Born and raised in Northern California, Stumpf says he decided at age 11 that he wanted to become a SEAL, and he enlisted in 1996. According to his biography, he was assigned to SEAL Team Five in Coronado after BUD/S, joined SEAL Team Six in 2002, and from 2006 served as leading petty officer for the second phase of BUD/S training. In 2008 he became, by his account, the first E-6 in Naval Special Warfare history selected for a commission through the Limited Duty Officer Program, then served with SEAL Team Three, making his final combat deployment to Afghanistan. During one combat deployment he was shot at close range by an insurgent, and his decorations include five Bronze Star Medals, four with valor, and a Purple Heart.

After leaving the Navy in June 2013, Stumpf jumped from 36,500 feet in 2015 and flew more than 18 miles in a wingsuit, a flight his biographies describe as setting two world records, as part of an effort to raise $1 million for the Navy SEAL Foundation. He is a sponsored skydiver and BASE jumper, has worked as a corporate pilot and in corporate development for a fitness company, and founded a leadership consulting firm. In 2017 he was credited as an operations supervisor on CBS's manhunt competition Hunted. St. Martin's Press published his book Drownproof: Eight Life Lessons to Keep Your Head Above Water, with a foreword by Jocko Willink, on April 14, 2026.

Cleared Hot releases a long-form interview each Monday and a listener question episode on "Full Auto Fridays," with guests drawn from the military, fitness, mental health and business. Around the book's release he appeared on several large podcasts, including episode 2482 of Joe Rogan's show on April 14 and Modern Wisdom, and UAP accounts circulated a clip in which Rogan and Stumpf discussed UFO disclosure. In March, a teaser posted by the media account IRONCLAD showed former CIA officer Marc Polymeropoulos, described in the post as a Havana Syndrome victim, telling Stumpf that Iran, China and Russia likely possess directed-energy and microwave weapons.

Brown's appearance on episode 474, released at the end of September 2026, put the subject at the center of a full episode. Brown described his Pentagon counter-WMD work, his approach to Congress in August 2023 and his claims about the alleged Immaculate Constellation program, while Stumpf asked whether the material could have been a war-game briefing and what public evidence would establish it. Stumpf's standing rests on his special operations career and the media business he built after it, and the Brown interview carried a contested whistleblower account to a military-focused show outside the usual UAP circuit.