Daniella Mestyanek Young was born a third-generation member of the infamous religious cult, The Children of God, which has often garnered national and international attention for its unconventional and criminal practices including forced polyamory/polygamy, child marriages, religious prostitution, widespread pedophilia and the murder/suicide of the founder's son and heir apparent. As a 15-year-old, Daniella was excommunicated from the cult, moved to America alone and broke, attending school for the first time in her life. Upon graduating college, she commissioned into the US Army as an intelligence officer, serving for over 6 years, making the rank of Captain, and deploying twice to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. During her service, Daniella became one of the first women in history to conduct deliberate ground combat operations alongside her male counterparts, buried good friends who she'll never forget, led intelligence operations for a large area of Afghanistan, met the sitting President and received the Presidential Volunteer Service Medal. Today, Daniella lives in Seattle, where she is married to a Special Operations helicopter pilot, has a 3-year-old daughter who speaks three-languages fluently, is co-founder of an HR-tech company and is an activist for veterans, military spouses and many others who are going through their own intense cultural transitions. Find out more at https://daniellamestyanekyoung.com/ Find out more about the Zestful Aging Podcast at ZestfulAging.com.
No persons identified in this episode.
This episode hasn't been transcribed yet
Help us prioritize this episode for transcription by upvoting it.
Popular episodes get transcribed faster
Other recent transcribed episodes
Transcribed and ready to explore now
#2425 - Ethan Hawke
11 Dec 2025
The Joe Rogan Experience
SpaceX Said to Pursue 2026 IPO
10 Dec 2025
Bloomberg Tech
Donβt Call It a Comeback
10 Dec 2025
Motley Fool Money
Japan Claims AGI, Pentagon Adopts Gemini, and MIT Designs New Medicines
10 Dec 2025
The Daily AI Show
Eric Larsen on the emergence and potential of AI in healthcare
10 Dec 2025
McKinsey on Healthcare
What it will take for AI to scale (energy, compute, talent)
10 Dec 2025
Azeem Azhar's Exponential View