The David Rutherford Show

Venture investor Michael Thompson sits down with Navy SEAL and intelligence veteran David Rutherford for a forward-looking briefing on the technologies that will define the next decade: electric flying aircraft, small nuclear reactors, autonomous trucking, and the AI build-out underneath all of it. Thompson — an early backer of Joby Aviation and Oklo — breaks down why "the AI trap" is going to hit middle-management and ...

Most people never touch the top of what they're capable of — and it has nothing to do with talent. Navy SEAL David Rutherford breaks down the framework he's spent 30 years building: the four max states every human operates in — physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual — and the one variable that governs all of them. You'll learn how he evaluates elite athletes in real time, why your fundamentals collapse under s...

Jimmy Graham and David Rutherford went through Hell Week together in Class 208. Their paths split into different SEAL teams, different deployments, different wars — and converged again through the CIA's Global Response Staff. Today, Jimmy breaks down what actually happened inside Blackwater before the Fallujah ambush, what the Benghazi movie got wrong, why he punched a teammate on a memorial motorcycle ride, and how losing hi...

On this Memorial Day, former Navy SEAL and CIA officer David Rutherford does what his family does every year: he reads the names. Then he walks through the full cost of American warfare — from the 25,000 dead in the Revolutionary War to the 150,000 veterans who have taken their own lives since 9/11 — and makes the case that sacrifice is the single idea that holds civilization together. This isn't a generic tribute. This...

68 cents of every dollar in your wallet were printed in the last 18 years. The other 32 cents took 200 years to create. That's what the Federal Reserve actually did to your money.

Brian Wesbury is the Chief Economist at First Trust Advisors, former Chief Economist for the Joint Economic Committee of the U.S. Congress, and ranked the #1 economic forecaster in America by The Wall Street Journal. He's been warning about this f...

Look, I'm seeing it everywhere — people calling for raising militias, starting a new revolution, fighting back. And I get it. The frustration is real. But as a former Navy SEAL and CIA officer who's actually been in rooms where these operations get planned, I've got some bad news for your militia fantasy.

What you'll hear:
— David reads from the Declaration of Independence and highlights the line nobody ever...

Tom Rader spent 18 years in emergency medicine — from the streets of Dallas-Fort Worth to a Marine Reconnaissance Battalion in Iraq's Al Anbar Province. He's treated cardiac arrests in the Bronx, trained Marines to handle trauma before their first deployment, and watched his own mother revived in a non-viable state by a friend who didn't know when to stop.

David and Tom break down what combat medicine actually teaches...

Someone placed a $920 million crude oil short at 3:40 a.m. Seventy minutes later, Axios reported an Iran ceasefire deal was imminent. Crude dropped. The short netted $125 million. And nobody's asking who placed the bet. Former Navy SEAL and CIA officer David Rutherford breaks down the four stories the system doesn't want you connecting: the FISA 702 renewal that 193 Republicans just voted for — authorizing the same surveillan...

Jason Collinsworth — host of the I Hate Soccer podcast and 11-year youth soccer trainer — joins David to break down what's actually happening inside the multi-billion-dollar youth sports machine. You'll learn why 17 coaches in eight years can produce zero real development, why the leagues your kid is fighting to join are run as gatekeeping cartels, and why most coaches at the youth level can't even articulate a coaching...

Navy SEAL Dusty Turner spent 31 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. The man who actually committed it confessed in 2008. Dusty stayed locked up another 17 years anyway. He was finally released on March 5, 2026 — and 24 hours after sitting down for this interview, his parole officer had him arrested again on a vague "significant relationship" clause that a federal appeals court already ruled unconstitutionally vague....

On April 18, 2026, President Trump signed an executive order that opened the federal door to psychedelic therapy for American veterans — and the man who's been fighting for that breach for seven years sits down with David today.

Tommy Aceto is a former Navy SEAL medic of 16 years who lost his trident, his marriage, and access to his children in the same window — and rebuilt his life through ibogaine therapy. In this epi...

The mail-in ballot machine that decided Virginia is loaded and pointed at the 2026 midterms — and the Republican Party has almost no margin to absorb the hit.

Captain Seth Keshel joins David to break down what really happened in Virginia's redistricting referendum, why the Save Act is dead in the Senate, and the four symptoms of "electoral dysfunction" that have turned American elections into a multi-week guessing game. You'l...

David sits down around a fire in Idaho to answer this question with A-10 Pilot Dale Stark, and Green Beret Clay Martin. This is the question nobody on cable news will answer honestly. 

The answers are not what you'd expect.

Both men love the military. Both men would serve again in a heartbeat if they could go back to 20. Both men are getting messages every day from young people asking whether they should sign up right now &mda...

Dale Stark was living in his car at 19. At 25 he was flying close air support over Afghanistan in an A-10 Warthog. 

In episode 2 of the Idaho series, Dale sits down with David to break down how he went from rock bottom to one of the most selective pilot programs in the world — and what the training really does to you. You'll learn why the A-10 community calls themselves "cowboys and outcasts," what happens when pi...

📍How did Clay Martin become a warrior? Today Clay walks David through his entire career arc — the Chuck Norris movies that planted the seed, the "toughest gang" logic that put him in the Marine Corps, the Force Recon reputation that made him one of the most respected young Marines on the East Coast, and the moment after 9/11 when the most senior recon Marine in the Corps told the Commandant his own men weren't ready for war....

Dusty May just won a national championship at Michigan. Curt Cignetti went undefeated at Indiana. Cale Sanderson is on his 13th title at Penn State wrestling. What do they all have in common? They're true coaches — and David Rutherford breaks down exactly what that means. David is a former Navy SEAL, CIA-trained operator, and performance coach who's worked with the Green Bay Packers, Carolina Panthers, Boston Red Sox (2018 Wo...

A 22-year active duty Marine officer. Four combat deployments to Iraq. A wife who couldn't open a laundromat because the state made it impossible. Now Chris Burnett is running for Congress in one of the toughest districts in the country — Maryland's 6th — against two opponents worth hundreds of millions of dollars. David Rutherford sits down with Burnett to break down what's actually happening in Maryland: a $1.5 billio...

David covers four stories every operator and security-minded American needs to understand right now: 🔹 The Iran CSAR Mission — how 155 aircraft, hundreds of SOF operators, and a CIA deception campaign pulled off one of the biggest pilot rescues since Vietnam. David breaks down the escape and evasion tactics, the parallels to Operation Eagle Claw, and what the equipment losses mean. 🔹 Ben Roberts-Smith War Crimes — Aus...

Fear doesn't go away. Not for a 19-year-old Marine about to fly into Iran. Not for a 32-year-old watching AI eliminate their career. Not for a Navy SEAL who spent years wondering if he deserved to be forgiven. Courage is the thing that lets you take one more inch. Former Navy SEAL and CIA officer David Rutherford sits down alone on Easter weekend to break down what courage actually is — across philosophy, psychology, behavior...