Ep. 45 • Brian Price Part 2 • From Hell Week to Hamlet: a Hard Earned Second Act.
Liberty Risk
If Part 1 was Navajo roots, SEAL Team life, cryptids, and Brian trying to make sense of God and the unseen… Part 2 is where the mission shifts inward. After leaving the Navy, Brian finds himself standing at the edge of an entirely different world, one that has nothing to do with war zones or deployments, and everything to do with rebuilding a life from the ground up. What starts as a random trip to New York turns into a life-altering pivot, when he realizes the next chapter might not be combat at all… it might be purpose. Brian goes from growing up on the reservation to walking into...
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Ep. 44 • Brian Price Part 1 • Navajo Navy SEAL on Cryptids, Spirits, & Tracking God.
Liberty Risk
This episode of Liberty Risk goes somewhere we’ve never been before. We sit down with Brian Price, a Native American Indian & former Navy SEAL turned award-winning Shakespearean actor, for a conversation that moves from reservations to war zones, from BUD/S to the supernatural, and from elite military service straight into questions about God, reality, and what exists just beyond what we can see. Brian grew up on a Navajo reservation in Arizona, raised in a deeply spiritual, matriarchal culture shaped by medicine men, ancient traditions, and witnessing firsthand stories most people only...
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Ep. 43 • Kevin Macon • 31 Years in Policing - Leaving It All On The Field. 🏈
Liberty Risk
This episode is a deep, unfiltered sit-down with Kevin Macon, a recently retired San Diego Police Department sergeant with nearly 31 years on the job, 19 of them spent working gang units, and a lifetime of stories earned the hard way. Kevin takes us from a Midwest childhood in Michigan to making a reluctant family move to San Diego, where football became his lane. From Patrick Henry High School to San Diego State, he shares what it was like playing center alongside legends like Marshall Faulk, lining up against the real “U” Miami teams, and walking onto the Rose Bowl field for the first...
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Ep. 42 • John Wayne Freeman • The Art of Having Fun & Finding Your Lane at 40 🤙🏼
Liberty Risk
This week on Liberty Risk, we sit down with Jonathan Wayne Freeman for one of the most raw, hilarious, and unexpectedly heavy conversations we’ve ever recorded. What starts as jokes and side quests quickly turns into a no-shit, no-filter breakdown of a life built on big swings, spectacular failures, and a late-stage redemption nobody saw coming. Jonathan opens up about stories he’s buried for over 25 years - from washing out of Navy boot camp after a steroid-induced psychotic break, to flaming out of law enforcement and firefighting careers, to spiraling through mental health crashes that...
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Ep. 41 • Nik Hawks • From Navy SEAL to Sailing NAKED Through The Panama Canal & Other Adventures
Liberty Risk
This week on Liberty Risk, the crew sits down with Nik Hawks - former Navy SEAL, sailor, entrepreneur, and adventure connoisseur - for an absolutely WILD episode with story after story for almost 5 hours. From bouncing between the U.S. and England as a kid, to questionable high school decisions, to chasing the idea of becoming a SEAL thanks to a larger-than-life uncle, Nik’s path was anything but conventional. He breaks down the realities of BUD/S, platoon life, hilarious bar fights, practical jokes, and the kind of lessons you only learn the hard way inside the Teams. And when the uniform...
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Ep. 40 • Peter Lemke • From Party Bus Chaos to Breaking Into Costco. ☕🚀
Liberty Risk
This week on Liberty Risk, the crew sits down with long time friend and fellow entrepreneur, Peter Lemke for a wide-open conversation about business, relationships, risk, and learning things the hard way. Peter walks through his path from Arizona to Southern California, launching a limo bus business that came with equal parts cash flow and complete insanity - one employee even stole a party bus and some cash, they found the bus 24 hours later with the employee and a h00ker in the back. 😂 Between the party-bus chaos, unreliable employees, legal landmines, and the moment Uber and Lyft...
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Ep. 39 • Greg Froelick • Running Toward The Storm: a Brotherhood in The Flood. 🔱🇺🇸
Liberty Risk
This week on Liberty Risk, the crew sits down for what may be the biggest and most meaningful episode we’ve ever recorded - a roundtable with six guests bound by military service, Texas roots, and a deep commitment to showing up when it matters most. The episode kicks off the only way Liberty Risk knows how: inside jokes, supporter gifts, custom knives, and the kind of ritualized chaos that comes from real friendships. But it doesn’t take long before the conversation turns heavier. The group shares stories of brotherhood, loss, and remembrance, including a deeply personal account of...
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Ep. 38 • Mike Mihalski • No Pants, No Rules, Full Auto Send - This Describes Our Whole Episode 🤘🏼😂🤘🏼
Liberty Risk
This week on Liberty Risk, we sit down with Mike Mihalski - founder of Sons of Liberty 🔫 Works, underground-casino alumnus, walking Texas legend, and the only man we know who partied so hard he changed state law. 🤘🏼🤠🤘🏼 Mike & Ryan have a long history, from meeting in an internet chat room 20+ years ago because of a mutual love of talking shit, to being ghost roommates, to being the best man at Ryan's wedding - what follows is a fast-moving, unfiltered conversation about entrepreneurship, culture, luck, faith, chaos, and the strange places life takes you when you keep...
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Ep. 37 • Crew Cast 2 • Aliens, Bigfoot & Bar Fights 🤘🏼👽🤘🏼
Liberty Risk
This week on Liberty Risk, it’s just the crew - no guests, no filters, and nothing off-limits. The guys sit down for a full-send, behind-the-scenes session that feels more like a late-night team room hang than a podcast. From the chaos inside the Patreon chat to the origins of the infamous “bat signal” 🍆🪽🔦 meme, the episode kicks off with pure Liberty Risk energy. The conversation rolls into what the veteran community looks like today: the good, the bad, the hilarious, and the downright weird. The hosts swap funny military stories, wild nights in Mexico, near disasters, and the...
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Ep. 36 •. Ernest Emerson • The Godfather of Tactical Knives, Forged in America. ⚔️🇺🇸
Liberty Risk
In this episode, the Liberty Risk crew sits down with Ernest Emerson, the legendary founder of Emerson Knives, for a fascinating and wide-ranging conversation about his life, career, and the evolution of the knife industry over the years. Ernest shares how his upbringing on a Wisconsin farm and his passion for martial arts led him to create his first knives out of necessity, eventually launching a career that would help define the tactical knife genre. Ernest discusses his transition from working as a machinist at Hughes Aircraft to becoming a full-time knife maker, and how mentorship from...
info_outlineJon Wechter grew up around Philly in a conservative household, which laid a strong foundation for him to explore and question many things as he finds his own path.
As a child, Jon was a little goofy, but even at that young age he knew he wanted to join the military, the Rangers specifically. His dad had been a great role model of service, and as the oldest son, Jon could think of no higher service than joining an elite unit and protecting his nation and family.
Jon was capable as a youth, but his ONLY mission was to join the military, so he didn’t take many things seriously in high school, from sports to education, he was always focused on a different goal.
Joining the Army at 18, Jon quickly achieved his goal of completing RASP (Ranger Assessment & Selection Program), and being assigned to the prestigious 2nd Ranger Battalion. From there he learned by drinking from a fire hose of knowledge, being surrounded by peers with dozens of combat deployments under their belts, Jon pushed himself hard to live up to the standards of the unit, and himself.
After a few deployments, he found himself at odds with the constraints of some of the leadership styles at the Battalion, which eventually led him to the decision there was more to life than the military, and he exited service at 22 years old.
From there he embarked on a journey of exploration, both of self, and the world, driving around the country and taking on any adventure, searching for the truth. Different location, different people, different drugs, it was all a tool for Jon to explore his sense of spirituality, and peel away the layers to find what’s REAL.
We explore a LOT of different topics in this episode, from the military to life after the mission, the meaning of God & spirituality, even the moral dilemma of abortion.
One through line of the episode is CHANGE, always searching for more understanding, more insight, finding the core of LIFE.
Here are some story highlights from the episode:
• One of the first times Jon met Nick was at a bu**hole waxing event.
• In the military, you can only bottle people up so much before they explode.
• The legend of “Black Mamba”.
• Difference between RASP, Ranger School, and Ranger Battalion.
• The impact of good and bad leadership, what that looks like.
• Why you shouldn’t try and fastrope with 550 cord.
• Exploring the power of perspective shift.
• Embracing going through hard things as a path to learning.
• The difference between religion and spirituality.
• How psychedelics can make you a better leader.
• The crux of abortion, and where to draw YOUR line.
• You always have a choice, but YOU are the one that bears the weight of it.
• The realization that society is a game, but you don’t have to play it.
We hope you enjoy this episode as much as we did filming it!
Get to know Jon Wechter more at his link below:
✖️ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/bebadfitness/
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