Navy SEAL on China-Funded Meth Soldiers, BlackRock in Ukraine & God | Ephraim Mattos • 338
Julian Dorey · 22 Sep 2025 · 3h 13m
Guest: Ephraim Mattos · Host: Joey Def, Julian Dorey
A Navy SEAL veteran who now runs a nonprofit medical evacuation and advisory operation in Myanmar's civil war returns to discuss family life since his last appearance, then moves into much heavier territory. He describes the physiological aftershocks of surviving an airstrike that leveled a building he was sheltering in, and the cold-water exposure routine he used to reset his nervous system afterward. Much of the conversation is a detailed geopolitical explainer on Myanmar: how the military junta, backed by China and Russia, is fighting ethnic minority resistance groups, why the country's coastline matters strategically as a backdoor into China bypassing any potential naval blockade, and how methamphetamine ('yaba') is used to fund the military and administered to soldiers before combat, producing what he calls zombie-like aggression. He recounts specific combat and bombing experiences, describes sexual violence and atrocities committed against civilians, and argues the ethnic hierarchy and lack of Western-style values around protecting women underlie the brutality. The discussion widens into broader foreign-policy territory: USAID's collapse and how it pushed local allies toward China, a debate about military-industrial-complex overreach versus isolationism, BlackRock's involvement in postwar Ukraine reconstruction plans, and AI's growing role in battlefield analysis and drone warfare. The episode closes on a personal note, with the guest explaining how his Christian faith accounts for human evil through free will rather than blaming God, and describing the ambulance and rescue operations his organization runs for war-injured civilians.
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What comes up
Timestamps link into the episode on YouTube.
- Becoming a father, family life update
- Meeting his wife, a Karen refugee
- SEAL training (BUDS) and mental fortitude
- Cold water therapy to reset nervous system
- US foreign policy: soft power vs isolationism
- USAID collapse pushing allies toward China
- BlackRock and Ukraine reconstruction deal
- AI's growing role in warfare and drones
- History and geopolitics of Myanmar's civil war
- Atrocities against civilians and ideology of evil
- Building Stronghold's ambulance operations
- Faith, free will, and the problem of evil
Said on this episode
Quoted from the auto-generated transcript, which mishears names and technical terms. podcite.com reports what a show said; it does not endorse or fact-check it.
“They will give their soldiers this crystal before they go to battle. And these guys, they're like zombies. They become like demons.”
“I'm still alive because I'm thinking. I'm still alive because I'm thinking. And I was like, Am I dead yet? Am I dead yet?”
“I'm glad I'm glad that you can't understand because if you did understand, that means that we didn't do our job. That means that things have gone horribly wrong here.”