Ep. 924: MrBallen on SEALS, the War in Afghanistan, and a Career in Storytelling
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What is the opening intro and sponsor messages?
This is an I Heart Podcast. Guaranteed human.
This is the Meat Eater Podcast coming at you, shirtless, severely bug bitten, and in my case underwearless. The Meet Eater Podcast. You can't predict anything. Brought to you by First Light. When I'm hunting, I need gear that won't quit. First Light builds, no compromise gear that keeps me in the field longer. No shortcuts, just gear that works. Check it out at firstlight.com. That's F-I-R-S-T-L-I-T-E.com. All right, hot damn everybody. Uh joined today by John Allen, known as Mr. Ballin. And I finally found I I I finally found out how he became Mr. Ballin.
Oh yeah?
John B. Allen. There it is. People don't know that. It's like a it's like a secret. People assume it's John Ballin. It's not. It's John B. Allen. Yeah. Joined today by John Allen, who uh uh has many millions of YouTube subscribers, um, where he tells dark and mysterious stories. Many right in our wheelhouse of like wilderness experiences. Crazy stuff out in the woods, people vanishing out in the woods. Yeah. A lot of wild stories. You have a real penchant for for wilderness wildness. Uh, former Navy SEAL came out of that world and got into storytelling. Um, we're gonna talk a lot about his life, the stories he tells, the mysteries that kinda haunt him. Um The ones that uh that that you kinda know what was going on, I'd like to talk about a couple where you kinda know what's going on and some where you legitimately
are perplexed. Yeah. Yeah. Uh before we get into that though. We got our annual Christmas tour coming up. So Me uh The Lavian lover, Yanni's gonna be there. Clay, Brent. Phil the engineer is gonna be there. Uh Dr. Randall's gonna be there. We're doing our annual Christmas tour. We got six stops this year's Christmas tour. First, home state, uh going to Grand Rapids, Michigan, December 14th. Uh Twenty Monroe Live is the place. Tuesday, December fifteenth, we'll be in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at Turner Hall. Wednesday, December sixteenth, Madison, Wisconsin at Barrymore. Bubbly Doug Durin's gonna join us on that one. Thursday, december sixth seventeenth, Des Moines, Iowa at Val Air Ballroom. Friday, december eighteenth, Minneapolis, Minnesota at Pantages Theater.
And then this is the first time we've ever done this town. Saturday, December nineteenth, Fargo. At Fargo Theater. I I I you are guaranteed if you come to the live show, here's my guarantee to you, you will laugh your ass off. I would say I guarantee you win something, but not everybody's gonna win something, but you will laugh your ass off. You'll have a great time. Go find anybody that's come to the Christmas tour before, and they will tell you it's uh two thumbs up on all things Christmas tour. Can't wait to see you guys at those shows. Tickets aren't on sale yet, though. This is like a pre-deal. This is a pre pre. So this is the pre, and then the next pre is pre sale, and then it's the it's it's kinda dumb.
But um Someday you'll be able to buy tickets. When can they buy tickets, Nate? Sixteenth. We're also gonna interview at the Grand Rapids show, we're gonna interview the last American smelt dipper. Who I grew up with. If that don't if that don't grab you by the boo-boo, what we'll we'll see in Grand Rapids. What's a smelt dipper? Oh, dude. So How familiar with Great Lakes? You grew up in that negative I mean,
I went to boot camp in the Great Lakes, but I was mostly indoors getting scolded by my drill sergeant equivalents.
Okay. The Great Lakes is like America's experimental aquarium. You know, there's the stuff that was there originally and some vestiges of it are still around. And there's all the stuff that's been released on purpose, on accident, into the Great Lakes. Like the common carp was let go in the Great Lakes on purpose. They brought in these th these alewives came in there and the alewives blew up and there millions of 'em are dead on the beach. So they're like, We'll need to bring in something to eat the alewives. You know what I mean? We'll bring in something to consume the alewives and and it just goes on and on and on and on and on.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the opening intro and sponsor messages?
0:00–5:35
2
How does Steven introduce MrBallen and talk about the upcoming Christmas tour?
5:35–25:48
3
What motivated John Allen to join the Navy SEALs and what was his training like?
25:48–1:05:21
4
How does John describe his combat experience in Afghanistan, especially the Zargenshar ambush?
1:05:21–1:09:34
5
How did MrBallen’s medical retirement and post‑deployment reflections shape his view of the SEAL role?
1:09:34–1:29:20
6
What prompted the shift from a military career to becoming a full‑time storyteller on social media?
1:29:20–1:49:15
7
Why does MrBallen consider the Dyatlov Pass mystery a perfect fit for his dark‑mysterious storytelling brand?
1:49:15–2:07:11
8
What practical wilderness‑survival advice does he share after recounting the Alaskan photographer tragedy?
2:07:11–2:19:42
Speakers
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