Ep. 34 • BJ Welsh • The Evolution of a Warrior: Service, Fatherhood & Staying Dangerous ⚔️🏴☠️
Release Date: 11/14/2025
Ep. 46 • Greg Hake • Skull Surgery to Sniper Ops in Afghanistan: Keep Fighting
Liberty Risk
This episode is a long-form sit down with Greg Hake - Nebraska farm kid turned Navy SEAL, senior enlisted leader, and now Corporate Operator. We have some fun unpacking a 22-year career that took him from the conventional Navy all the way to retiring as an E8 in the Teams, with combat deployments across multiple theaters. Greg walks us through his not-so-linear road to BUD/S, including early fleet time that built the grit (and motivation) that ultimately got him through selection. That experience paid dividends later, leading to multiple deployments as a Sniper and JTAC - coordinating air...
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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...
info_outlineThis week on Liberty Risk, we sit down with former SEAL BJ Welsh as he shares some WILD stories from 34 years of service - from operating with West Coast Teams to working narcotics cases for the DOJ, these are some adventures you won’t want to miss! Chrome handguns, bar fights, meth chases, and the brotherhood that ties it all together… this one has everything.
BJ tells the real story behind the legendary El Centro Incident - SEAL Platoons, a "borrowed" pistol, a pissed off local, a tussle through saloon doors, off-duty officers who forgot they were on duty, and half of Imperial County law enforcement piling in the next day. It's a modern Western with more drama than Blazing Saddles and a legend that's only grown over 20 years.
From there, the stories only get more unhinged:
- The DUI that somehow made the admiral nostalgic
- The Ambien-and-airplane miscalculation that nearly ended in disaster
- Being "secured" to a Thailand hotel for going a little too hard on liberty 🍺
- An ex fiancée who "did" more platoons than BJ and Kevin combined
- The gun incident that ended with a girlfriend arrested in BJ's house 🔫
- BUD/S Instructor life and Team One's well deserved "No Fun One" reputation
- The old “surf & turf" uniforms that looked like you were "Porky Piggin' it" (shirt with no pants) 😂
- The meth chase up the 5 freeway with water-soaked narcotics flying out the window
Between the insanity, we also get to the real heart of BJ's story - a guy who served America for 34 years across multiple units, raised his kids, lost his father, built a second career in DOJ, and is now trying to age gracefully while still challenging himself and being dangerous when needed.
The boys dive into:
- The evolution of masculinity (why being aggressive 24/7 isn't maturity)
- Why warriors suddenly cry at Moana and the unique perspective of being a “girl dad”
- Learning to decompress after decades of hyper-vigilance
- Finding something that sharpens your edge after service ⚔️
- Domestic battles like dishwasher politics and the eternal toilet paper war
- Why how a person handles dog shit tells you everything you need to know about them 💩
BJ's honesty is unmatched. One minute he's sharing wild deployment stories, the next he's talking about breaking generational cycles or watching Golden Bachelor with his wife.
This is a three-hour masterclass in military humor, life after the Teams, total honesty, and the kind of brotherhood that goes beyond uniforms.
If you've ever wanted the actual story behind the El Centro incident, wondered what happens when SEALs discover a plane serves alcohol, or needed reassurance that crying during Disney movies is normal… this is your episode.
Listen now - and if you see a taco'd license plate outside a bar in El Centro, just keep driving. Trust us on this one.
Find out more about BJ and his adventures at the following links:
✖️ Personal Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/bj_welsh
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