Liberty Risk

Ryan Williams, Kevin Kent, Nick Betts

Mostly true tales of barroom brawls, bad decisions, and near misses. From former Navy SEALs to your average badass, every story walks the line between chaos and comedy. It's the stuff that happens when the uniform comes off and the liberty clock starts ticking. Some made it out clean. Some barely made it out at all. Either way, it's one hell of a ride. Pull up a stool. This is Liberty Risk.

  1. Ep. 51 • The Power of Tattoos: Pain, Purpose, & Self Discovery with Aaron Della Vedova of Guru Tattoo

    MAR 5

    Ep. 51 • The Power of Tattoos: Pain, Purpose, & Self Discovery with Aaron Della Vedova of Guru Tattoo

    Veteran and icon of the West Coast tattoo world pulls up a chair, pours a bourbon, and starts unpacking one hell of a life story - 3.5 hours with Aaron Della Vedova of world-famous Guru Tattoo. Aaron's path from punk-rock kid in Boulder City, Nevada to Coast Guard veteran to one of the most respected tattoo artists in the country was anything but a straight line. Following his dream he ran into con men selling "tattoo apprenticeships" in Vegas, faced off with a 6'6" biker tattooer who threatened to cut his hands off, and worked under a heroin-addicted "mentor" who once showed up to the shop barefoot, in his underwear, holding a Rambo knife and demanding a "loan". None of it knocked him off course. Aaron stayed steady at the helm of his vision for creating a tattoo culture that was more inclusive, more professional, and built around respect for the craft. Eventually that winding road led him to San Diego, where he opened Guru Tattoo and built it into one of the most respected studios in the country - holding strong for over 25 years in a business where most shops come and go with the seasons. Along the way he's tattooed thousands of clients, including both arm sleeves on longtime friend Joe Rogan. But this episode goes far deeper than tattoo stories. Aaron and the crew break down why people really get tattooed - and why the tattoo chair can become a unique form of therapy. The pain forces you into the present moment, the artwork becomes a permanent record of the chapters of your life you've overcome, and for some people it's a way to reclaim parts of themselves they thought were gone. One client even broke down crying in the parking lot mid-session - not from pain, but from years of pent-up emotion finally letting go. From there the conversation moves through psychedelics, consciousness, the tattoo industry's rise over the last few decades, military hazing culture, parenting, and the importance of focusing on what you can control when everything around you feels like it's falling apart. And because this is Liberty Risk… of course we also get into wild stories, relationships, and why drunkenly tattooing your husband's 🍆 at a wedding might be the ultimate expression of "love forever." Wild stories, unexpected depth, and plenty of laughs along the way.   🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️ Our Patreon page is LIVE! 🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️ Here you can get exclusive access to the behind the scenes action, the hidden conversations between breaks, a private community chat, and LOTS more, including discounts on Liberty Risk merch as well as some of our partner brands. Come check it out and join the conversation! https://www.patreon.com/LibertyRisk    Get to know more about Aaron & his ventures at the links below! ✖️ Aaron Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/aarondellavedova  ✖️ Guru Tattoo Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/gurutattoo ✖️ Chats & Tatts Podcast - https://www.instagram.com/chatsandtatts    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 (screen printing apparel) - https://www.industrythreadworks.com ✖️ Archive 3PL (fulfillment for E-com brands) - https://archive3pl.com ✖️ Krupto Strategic Media - https://kruptostrategicmedia.com ✖️ K-Squared Advising - https://www.k-squared.cc

    3h 30m
  2. Ep. 50 • Grant Harvey • Surviving Hollywood - Jungle Medivac, Sniper Training & Leprechaun Fight Club

    MAR 5

    Ep. 50 • Grant Harvey • Surviving Hollywood - Jungle Medivac, Sniper Training & Leprechaun Fight Club

    This episode we sit down with Grant Harvey - actor, adventurer, and living proof that sometimes the craziest stories in Hollywood happen off camera. Grant's path into acting started the way most good stories do: irrational confidence, a couple weird opportunities, and a last-minute decision to drive to LA with no money, no plan, and a mattress he pulled off the sidewalk. Somehow that turned into a career spanning film and television - including roles that required serious tactical training and working alongside real operators. But the wildest part of Grant's story isn't Hollywood. While filming a production in the jungles of Colombia, a simple day of shooting turned into a full-blown medical disaster. What started as heat exhaustion spiraled into toxic shock, ARDS, and a three-and-a-half week coma after a series of medical failures that nearly killed him. At one point doctors told his family he wasn't going to make it. Somehow he fought his way back, woke up after a month, and walked himself out of the hospital a week later. Naturally, the conversation goes everywhere from that near-death experience to sniper training for The Accountant 2, working with military advisors on Taylor Sheridan's new series, and the details that actually matter when you're trying to portray elite units on screen. Along the way we get into Hollywood insanity, getting knocked out by a leprechaun at a bar on Sunset blvd, being chased out of Jumbo's Clown Room with a baseball bat, and why Grant once turned down a potential $40 million lawsuit because he'd rather keep acting than cash out. It's a conversation about survival, authenticity, and the strange road that sometimes leads people from a small town in the Sierras to Hollywood sets, jungle comas, and back again.   🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️ Our Patreon page is LIVE! 🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️ Here you can get exclusive access to the behind the scenes action, the hidden conversations between breaks, a private community chat, and LOTS more, including discounts on Liberty Risk merch as well as some of our partner brands. Come check it out and join the conversation! https://www.patreon.com/LibertyRisk    Get to know Grant more at the links below! ✖️ Grant Harvey Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thegrantest  ✖️ Grant Harvey IMDB - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2908492    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 (screen printing apparel) - https://www.industrythreadworks.com ✖️ Archive 3PL (fulfillment for E-com brands) - https://archive3pl.com ✖️ Krupto Strategic Media - https://kruptostrategicmedia.com ✖️ K-Squared Advising - https://www.k-squared.cc

    1h 46m
  3. Ep. 49 • Tim Pyles • 30 Years In The San Diego Underground Music Scene

    FEB 25

    Ep. 49 • Tim Pyles • 30 Years In The San Diego Underground Music Scene

    This week we sit down with Tim Pyles - San Diego's "Mayor of Local Music" - for a long-form conversation that feels less like an interview and more like closing down a bar with someone who's seen every version of this city. Tim walks us through a 30-year run in radio that started with construction jobs and a late-in-life internship, then turned into a career at 91X, FM 94/9, KGB and beyond - all fueled by a genuine obsession with local bands and weird British records. We talk about the early days of The Casbah (local legendary small music venue), Tijuana in the wild '80s when Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins were playing at Iguanas, the mod scooter scene in La Jolla, and the underground rave era where you got an address, a Thomas Guide, and hoped you found the party before sunrise. We get into how deregulation changed radio forever, how "The Pyle Sessions" became a proving ground for local artists, and how Tim somehow survived a DUI, job losses, industry shifts, and still ended up back in the building decades later. Of course, because it's us, the conversation drifts into many side quests. 😂 We go from vandalized parking meters to AI-generated music, conspiracy rabbit holes, media distrust, and whether we're watching the slow collapse of journalism in real time. There are plumbing disasters (more than one), septic tank trauma, rave culture innocence, and a few stories that probably shouldn't have been recorded. At its core though, this one's about culture - how scenes are built, how cities change, and why the weird local stuff matters more than people think. It's part San Diego history lesson, part music nostalgia trip, part unfiltered chaos. Three hours. No script. Just fun stories with fun people. Thanks for being here with us!   🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️ Our Patreon page is LIVE! 🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️ Here you can get exclusive access to the behind the scenes action, the hidden conversations between breaks, a private community chat, and LOTS more, including discounts on Liberty Risk merch as well as some of our partner brands. Come check it out and join the conversation! https://www.patreon.com/LibertyRisk    Get to know Tim & his ventures more at the links below! ✖️ Tim Pyles Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thelocalpyle  ✖️ The Pyle Sessions - https://www.thepylessessions.com    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 (screen printing apparel) - https://www.industrythreadworks.com ✖️ Archive 3PL (fulfillment for E-com brands) - https://archive3pl.com ✖️ Krupto Strategic Media - https://kruptostrategicmedia.com ✖️ K-Squared Advising - https://www.k-squared.cc

    2h 55m
  4. Ep. 48 • Ink, Blood, and Brotherhood • Joey Hamilton and Big Ceeze Castaneda

    FEB 20

    Ep. 48 • Ink, Blood, and Brotherhood • Joey Hamilton and Big Ceeze Castaneda

    Two worlds bound by ink.  This week we sit down with Joey Hamilton and Big Ceeze Castaneda - Ink Master Show alumni, black & gray killers, and two men who've lived more life than most people could handle. Joey went from 10 years in the Air Force - tattooing friends and PJs in the barracks - to inking celebrities and Vegas legends, building businesses, raising a family, and proving reality TV didn't define his career. Big Ceeze's story runs a different road. East LA gang life. Abuse. Drugs. Jail. Homemade tattoo machines powered by duct-taped batteries. A near-death overdose. Then a Valentine's Day in 1998 that changed everything - faith, family, and a deliberate decision to break generational cycles. We talk Ink Master chaos, gatekeeping in the tattoo world, the two sides of mentorship, celebrity stories, prison hustle days, and client moments so insane you won't believe they're real. And then it gets wild. Shop serial defecators. Convention disasters. Secret tattoos hidden in plain sight. Tinder horror stories. Clients passing out in ways you can't un-hear. We also get into marriage, redemption, raising sons into men, and why pain is part of earning your ink. Two artists. Two transformations. One wild ride. This is Liberty Risk. Let's go.   🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️ Our Patreon page is LIVE! 🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️ Here you can get exclusive access to the behind the scenes action, the hidden conversations between breaks, a private community chat, and LOTS more, including discounts on Liberty Risk merch as well as some of our partner brands. Come check it out and join the conversation! https://www.patreon.com/LibertyRisk    Get to know Joey & Ceeze more at the links below! ✖️ Joey Hamilton Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/joeyhamiltontattoo  ✖️ Big Ceeze Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/biggceeze  ✖️ The Inked Network - https://www.theinkednetwork.com    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 (screen printing apparel) - https://www.industrythreadworks.com ✖️ Archive 3PL (fulfillment for E-com brands) - https://archive3pl.com ✖️ Krupto Strategic Media - https://kruptostrategicmedia.com ✖️ K-Squared Advising - https://www.k-squared.cc

    3h 38m
  5. FEB 12

    Ep. 47 • Crew Cast No. 3 • Morocco, SHOT Show, & Shenanigans

    This week's Crew Cast is just the three of us back behind the mics - no guest, no guard rails, and no real plan… welcome to the Thunderdome! 😂 We kick things off catching up on the last few weeks - Kevin fresh off a month in Morocco prepping the stage for a major Hollywood production, while Ryan and Nick recap SHOT Show chaos in Vegas - from industry meetups to late-night Circle Bar degeneracy and catching up with some old friends and retelling forgotten stories. From there the conversation goes everywhere it's not supposed to - the collapse of journalism, commentary on what's become a political circus, augmented reality tech, the evolution of night vision, and what the future battlefield (and civilian world) might actually look like as tech keeps blending the digital world with the physical. Kevin pulls back the curtain and tells some behind the scenes stories - working with A-list actors, training stunt teams, and navigating the strange overlap between Hollywood and military culture - while we also trade stories about lost Rolexes, fake designer luggage disasters, overseas drinking culture, and why tequila is sometimes harder to find internationally than night vision. Naturally, it wouldn't be a Liberty Risk episode without touching on some darker topics - deployment memories (both good & bad), the realities of home defense, and the heavier things that stick with you long after the uniform comes off - of course balanced out with the usual bar stories, shooting range shenanigans, and the timeless tradition of talking just enough shit to keep life interesting. No script, no filter - just three bros catching up on life, work, and the strange world we're all navigating.   🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️ Our Patreon page is LIVE! 🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️ Here you can get exclusive access to the behind the scenes action, the hidden conversations between breaks, a private community chat, and LOTS more, including discounts on Liberty Risk merch as well as some of our partner brands. Come check it out and join the conversation! https://www.patreon.com/LibertyRisk    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 (screen printing apparel) - https://www.industrythreadworks.com ✖️ Archive 3PL (fulfillment for E-com brands) - https://archive3pl.com ✖️ Krupto Strategic Media - https://kruptostrategicmedia.com ✖️ K-Squared Advising - https://www.k-squared.cc

    3h 35m
  6. Ep. 46 • Greg Hake • Skull Surgery to Sniper Ops in Afghanistan: Keep Fighting

    FEB 5

    Ep. 46 • Greg Hake • Skull Surgery to Sniper Ops in Afghanistan: Keep Fighting

    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 assets in combat, managing everything from infil and exfil to close air support, sometimes juggling more aircraft than most people can keep track of Uber rides. We get into the realities of senior enlisted leadership - carrying responsibility for younger guys, the weight of losing teammates, and what it means to stay operational for over two decades. Greg also opens up about the physical toll of service, including emergency surgery to remove a brain tumor the size of a fist, along with enough orthopedic damage to keep the doc on speed dial - and overcoming it all to battle his way back to an operational platoon and deploy again. Naturally, the heavy moments get balanced out with the stories you'd expect - friendly rivalry between other branch's SpecOps units, instructor chaos, deployment absurdity, and the timeless SEAL tradition of talking just enough shit to create problems that you then have to solve. After retirement, Greg shifted lanes through the Honor Foundation into consulting, startups, and corporate leadership development - translating battlefield leadership into boardrooms and business strategy. It's a conversation about perseverence, reinvention, and staying mission-driven long after the uniform comes off - 22 years of service, senior leadership perspective, and what comes next when the Teams chapter closes.   🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️ Our Patreon page is LIVE! 🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️ Here you can get exclusive access to the behind the scenes action, the hidden conversations between breaks, a private community chat, and LOTS more, including discounts on Liberty Risk merch as well as some of our partner brands. Come check it out and join the conversation! https://www.patreon.com/LibertyRisk    Get to know Greg more at the link below! ✖️ Greg's Official Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/fatal.flaw.nation  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 (screen printing apparel) - https://www.industrythreadworks.com ✖️ Archive 3PL (fulfillment for E-com brands) - https://archive3pl.com ✖️ Krupto Strategic Media - https://kruptostrategicmedia.com ✖️ K-Squared Advising - https://www.k-squared.cc

    3h 35m
  7. Ep. 45 • Brian Price Part 2 • From Hell Week to Hamlet: a Hard Earned Second Act.

    JAN 23

    Ep. 45 • Brian Price Part 2 • From Hell Week to Hamlet: a Hard Earned Second Act.

    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 Columbia University, learning in real time that reinvention doesn't require permission, it just requires a willingness to step into the unknown, and do the work. We talk about the hard transition after service, the quiet discipline of starting over, and how acting became a form of healing… not as an escape, but as a way of reconnecting with emotion, identity, and meaning. From working on Transformers to getting personal advice from Michael Bay that changed his trajectory, Brian's story becomes a reminder that sometimes the most important transformations happen after the uniform comes off. That road eventually leads to LAMDA, one of the most elite classical acting programs in the world, where Brian finds a new brotherhood, a new craft, and a new way to serve through storytelling. This episode is funny, thoughtful, and completely unlike anything else… a SEAL turned Shakespearean actor learning how to live a full life in the second act. Part 2 is here.   We split this 4 hour episode into 2 parts because the conversations in each half were SO different. Part 1 of Brian's episode was released last Friday.   🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️ Our Patreon page is now LIVE! 🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️ Here you can get exclusive access to the behind the scenes action, the hidden conversations between breaks, a private community chat, and LOTS more, including discounts on Liberty Risk merch as well as some of our partner brands. Come check it out and join the conversation! https://www.patreon.com/LibertyRisk    Get to know Brian more at the links below! ✖️ Brian's Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/therealbwprice  ✖️ Brian's IMDB - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm9067705  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

    1h 38m
  8. Ep. 44 • Brian Price Part 1 • Navajo Navy SEAL on Cryptids, Spirits, & Tracking God.

    JAN 23

    Ep. 44 • Brian Price Part 1 • Navajo Navy SEAL on Cryptids, Spirits, & Tracking God.

    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 hear whispered about. That upbringing followed him into adulthood and, eventually, into the SEAL Teams. After graduating BUD/S and deploying to Afghanistan, Brian found himself navigating not just combat, but encounters he believes crossed into the paranormal - from unexplained figures & giants in the mountains to rituals and carved symbols that he recognized from his childhood. After leaving the teams, things got darker. Brian opens up about depression, spiritual experimentation, and a terrifying period marked by sleep paralysis, physical attacks, and what he describes as direct encounters with demonic entities. What followed was a complete reckoning. He began a decade-long search for answers, studying world religions, philosophy, and science, eventually landing on a belief system shaped by faith, experience, and a brutal process of elimination. We talk cryptids, skinwalkers, giants, spiritual warfare, the limits of human perception, and the idea that reality itself may be far stranger than we're taught. But at its core, this episode is about identity, purpose, and what happens when someone who's lived in multiple worlds finally tries to make sense of all of them. It's raw, unsettling at times, deeply personal, and unlike anything else we've released. Whether you agree with Brian or not, this is one of those conversations that sticks with you long after the microphones are turned off.   We split this 4 hour episode into 2 parts because the conversations in each half were SO different. We'll be realeasing Part 2 of Brian's sit down with us next Friday as Episode 45.   🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️ Our Patreon page is now LIVE! 🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️ Here you can get exclusive access to the behind the scenes action, the hidden conversations between breaks, a private community chat, and LOTS more, including discounts on Liberty Risk merch as well as some of our partner brands. Come check it out and join the conversation! https://www.patreon.com/LibertyRisk    Get to know Brian more at the links below! ✖️ Brian's Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/therealbwprice  ✖️ Brian's IMDB - https://www.imdb.com/name/nm9067705  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

    2h 24m
5
out of 5
91 Ratings

About

Mostly true tales of barroom brawls, bad decisions, and near misses. From former Navy SEALs to your average badass, every story walks the line between chaos and comedy. It's the stuff that happens when the uniform comes off and the liberty clock starts ticking. Some made it out clean. Some barely made it out at all. Either way, it's one hell of a ride. Pull up a stool. This is Liberty Risk.

You Might Also Like