Ep. 21 • David B Meadows - From the SEAL Teams to Center Stage. 🔱🎥
Release Date: 08/08/2025
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...
info_outlineLiberty 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...
info_outlineLiberty 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...
info_outlineLiberty 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...
info_outlineLiberty 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...
info_outlineLiberty 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...
info_outlineLiberty 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...
info_outlineLiberty 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...
info_outlineLiberty 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...
info_outlineLiberty 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_outlineIn this episode of the Liberty Risk Podcast, the crew sits down with David B Meadows - former Navy SEAL, actor, humorist, pugilist, and true renaissance man.
David’s journey of discovery spans from the coal country of Wheeling, West Virginia, to the battlefields of Afghanistan, and finally to the thespian stages of Europe.
Raised by a single mother, during high school David envisioned a future that had nothing to do with the military: architecture, psychology, maybe med school - but as Shakespeare said, even the best laid plans often go awry.
As high school ended, David realized he wanted to take on one of the hardest challenges in the world, so he set his sights on becoming a US Navy SEAL.
After gettig to BUD/S David made it through the infamous Hellweek only to be dropped from training in 2nd Phase. Then seeing the towers fall on 9/11, he came back into training with a renewed purpose, graduating with Class 245. From there he went on to spend 13 years in the Teams, deploying multiple times to war zones as a SEAL, Sniper, and SDV Operator.
After his service, Dave pursued an entirely different challenge: acting.
Originally drawn to it while pursuing skills in intelligence gathering, he was soon immersed in the craft, and found himself studying the classics in Europe with the Prague Shakespeare Company.
Here are a few highlights from the MANY stories and topics we explore in this wide ranging episode with David Meadows.
• The common thread of childhood adversity in SpecOps warriors, and the benefits of it.
• Getting punched in the face for the first time and realizing you’re not made of glass.
• Never give someone the POWER to offend you.
• Most people are motivated by positivity, but there’s strength in the negative too.
• Learning to “talk civilian” in board meetings afer getting out of the military.
• BUD/S Instructors and the grudges they hold.
• Dave getting kicked out of 2nd Phase, coming back, and almost getting kicked out again.
• 30 foot tall stripper poles in Prague.
• The difference between being “hyper aware”, and appropriate vigilance.
• God, prayer, the law of attraction, and the reality of “manifesting” things.
• Spirituality, religion, and creating your own tribe.
• How psychedelics can make you a better communicator & entrepreneur.
Get to know David Meadows and his current projects at the links below:
✖️ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/officialdavidbmeadows/
✖️ Osiris Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=gfcW4kw21_o
✖️ Hollywood Grit Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xb3amV1fsZI&t=5s
Liberty Risk Hosts:
✖️ Ryan Williams - https://www.instagram.com/invictus5326/
✖️ Kevin Kent - https://www.instagram.com/therealkevinkent/
✖️ Nick Betts - https://www.instagram.com/n_betts/
Liberty Risk Podcast Sponsored by:
✖️ Liberty Risk Merch - https://www.liberty-risk.com/collections/shop-all
✖️ Industry Threadworks - https://www.industrythreadworks.com/
✖️ Archive 3PL - https://archive3pl.com/
✖️ Krupto Strategic Media - https://kruptostrategicmedia.com/
✖️ K-Squared Advising - https://www.k-squared.cc/