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. 2D AGO

    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
  2. 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
  3. 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
  4. 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. Ep. 43 • Kevin Macon • 31 Years in Policing - Leaving It All On The Field. 🏈

    JAN 16

    Ep. 43 • Kevin Macon • 31 Years in Policing - Leaving It All On The Field. 🏈

    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 time knowing your life just changed. The brotherhood of the locker room, the reality check of seeing & competing with NFL Athletes up close, and coming to terms with the knowledge he wasnt going to go all the way in football. From there, Kevin transitions into policing San Diego, starting in his own neighborhood and eventually spending nearly two decades in gang units. He breaks down what that job actually looks like. Mutual respect with killers, 120 mph pursuits, park shootings with dozens of officers present, surgery rooms where bullets are recovered, and the constant balance between enforcement and coming home alive. It's candid, blunt, and stripped of Hollywood nonsense. The conversation also hits the culture shift after George Floyd, the toll it took on officers and families, and what it means to work a job where you're meeting people on the worst day of their lives. Kevin shares lessons on communication, restraint, and why professionalism kept him complaint-free in some of the most volatile environments imaginable. The crew also compares the many parellels between high stakes police work and the stress of combat deployments and relentless pressue in both professions. Between the heavy moments are classic Liberty Risk stories. Baker to Vegas chaos, being mistaken for Warren Sapp in Cabo, undercover mishaps, Midwest tailgates that restore your faith in people, and the humor that keeps you sane when things get dark. Now retired, Kevin opens up about identity after the badge, learning how to slow down, focusing on family, and what brotherhood really means when the uniform comes off. From football fields to gang units to retirement, this episode is about respect, purpose, and building a life you're proud to walk away from. Raw, hilarious, and grounded in lived experience - this is Liberty Risk at its best.   🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️ 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    Macon is currently enjoying the slower pace of retired life and doesn't have social media, or a website, although we're working on getting him to come hang out for the monthly cigar nights on our Patreon channel 🤞🏼🤞🏼 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

    3h 22m
  6. Ep. 42 • John Wayne Freeman • The Art of Having Fun & Finding Your Lane at 40 🤙🏼

    JAN 8

    Ep. 42 • John Wayne Freeman • The Art of Having Fun & Finding Your Lane at 40 🤙🏼

    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 nearly ended everything. He talks honestly about ego, shame, psych wards, and the pressure of trying to be "the guy" before he knew who he actually was. But this isn't a sob story. It's a comeback arc. Jonathan walks us through becoming a paramedic, hitting absolute rock bottom as a night janitor, and then accidentally finding his lane through comedy and social media. From running viral pages like Kook of the Day to working with brands like Bug-A-Salt and Pit Viper, he explains how being unapologetically himself finally unlocked everything he'd been chasing his whole life. Along the way, the stories are insane - psychotic breaks, humiliating street fights, paramedic calls you can't unhear, getting "banished" from Kauai, and the most aggressively wrong understanding of oral sex we've ever heard. Somehow it's laugh-out-loud funny and deeply human at the same time. At its core, this episode is about failure, redemption, timing, mental health, marriage, and why life sometimes doesn't make sense until way later than you planned. Jonathan's proof that trying, failing, and surviving still counts - and that your best chapter might not show up until you're 40. This is Liberty Risk at its most honest. If you've ever felt behind, broken, or like you missed your shot, this one's for you. 🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️ 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 John on Instagram! ✖️ John's Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jonathanwaynefreeman 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

    3h 47m
  7. Ep. 41 • Nik Hawks  • From Navy SEAL to Sailing NAKED Through The Panama Canal & Other Adventures

    JAN 2

    Ep. 41 • Nik Hawks • From Navy SEAL to Sailing NAKED Through The Panama Canal & Other Adventures

    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 came off, the adventures just became wilder. Nik walks us though his story of buying a small 22' sailboat and heading out solo from the West Coast, down through the Panama Canal, and across open ocean toward Florida, picking up hitchhiking deck hands along the way. No plan. No permenent crew. And sometimes no clothes. Just chaos, danger, and freedom in its purest form. The conversation dives into life after the military - the lessons lerned from failed businesses, hard resets, humility, and eventually finding success and building Paleo Treats and other unique ventures alongside his wife, Lee.  Packed with wild side quests, near-disasters, legendary pranks, and moments of real reflection, this episode is classic Liberty Risk - raw, funny, and honest. If you're into SEAL stories, adventure, entrepreneurship, or just hearing how someone survives doing everything the hard way (and sometimes naked), this one's mandatory listening.   🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️ 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 Nik and Paleo Treats at the following links: ✖️ Nik's Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/nikhawks  ✖️ Paleo Treats Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/paleotreats  ✖️ Paleo Treats website - https://www.paleotreats.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 - https://www.industrythreadworks.com ✖️ Archive 3PL - https://archive3pl.com ✖️ Krupto Strategic Media - https://kruptostrategicmedia.com ✖️ K-Squared Advising - https://www.k-squared.cc

    4h 44m
  8. Ep. 40 • Peter Lemke • From Party Bus Chaos to Breaking Into Costco. ☕🚀

    12/25/2025

    Ep. 40 • Peter Lemke • From Party Bus Chaos to Breaking Into Costco. ☕🚀

    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 flipped the entire industry upside down, it was one helluva ride. The lesson is clear: trust your gut, adapt fast, and understand that managing people is usually harder than the business itself. From there, the conversation moves into Peter's later ventures, including marketing, the ups & downs of restaurant ownership, and his current focus, Dropkick Brew. He breaks down acquiring and rebranding a coffee company during the pandemic, navigating manufacturing and distribution headaches, and what it takes to land major partnerships with brands like Tito's and retailers like Costco. Along the way, the crew dives into bigger questions: shifting work ethic across generations, how technology and social media are reshaping business and communication, and why adversity still matters. They also get real about relationships, therapy, and the unique pressure of working with a spouse or close friends in something as stressful as a business. It's honest, funny, and unfiltered. If you've ever thought about starting a business, scaling one, or just want to hear how things actually go when the plan blows up, this episode delivers exactly what Liberty Risk is about: real stories, hard lessons, and plenty of laughs along the way.   🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️🏴‍☠️ 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 Pete and DropKick Brew at the following links: ✖️ Pete's Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/petelemke  ✖️ DropKick Brew Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/dropkickbrew  ✖️ DropKick Brew website - https://dropkickbrew.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 - https://www.industrythreadworks.com ✖️ Archive 3PL - https://archive3pl.com ✖️ Krupto Strategic Media - https://kruptostrategicmedia.com ✖️ K-Squared Advising - https://www.k-squared.cc

    2h 53m
5
out of 5
87 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.

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