#286 Ethan Thornton - This 22-Year-Old Built a .50 Cal Rifle Out of Home Depot Parts

The Shawn Ryan Show

Shawn Ryan Show

Society & Culture, Philosophy

4.9 • 46.6K Ratings

🗓️ 9 March 2026

⏱️ 241 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ethan Thornton is the Founder and CEO of Mach Industries, a defense technology company developing next-generation unmanned systems and hydrogen-powered weapons platforms to redefine modern warfare and energy logistics. Ethan left MIT after one semester in 2023 to focus on building Mach full-time. Originally from Texas, Ethan grew up on a farm where he began prototyping weapons in high school. Funded through car tech jobs, knife and furniture sales, and small engineering projects. His early hands-on ingenuity and deep sense of urgency, intensified by the war in Ukraine—motivated him to accelerate U.S. innovation in unmanned aircraft and weapon systems to help deter China and strengthen national defense capabilities. Under his leadership, Mach Industries has attracted backing from top venture firms including Sequoia Capital, Khosla Ventures, and Bedrock, and has secured major U.S. Army contracts while expanding manufacturing operations. Ethan’s work reflects a broader vision beyond defense. He frequently speaks on the strategic significance of Taiwan’s semiconductor industry, the U.S. dollar’s reserve status, the challenge of social decay and neo-feudalism, and the need for productive, post-partisan solutions that secure America’s technological and economic future. Follow the market - https://polymarket.com/event/china-x-taiwan-military-clash-before-2027 Shawn Ryan Show Sponsors: Go to https://calderalab.com/SRS. Use code SRS for 20% off your first order. Go to https://helixsleep.com/SRS for 25% off. Make sure you enter our show name after checkout so they know we sent you! Go right now to https://hillsdale.edu/SRS to enroll. There’s no cost, and it’s easy to get started. Ethan Thorton Links: X - https://x.com/ethanrthornton Mach Industries X - https://x.com/mach_industries Mach Industries - https://www.machindustries.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Dude, what's up?
0:06.9	Excited to be here.
0:07.9	Yeah, I'm pumped.
0:09.4	I got to tell you, ma'am, when we first talked, Alex Epstein actually sent me a text about you
0:15.1	and watched a good portion of the interview you did with him and then looked you up and I saw you
0:23.5	on my buddy Mike Ritland's podcast. He's a good friend of mine and and dude I just I love what
0:29.0	you're doing. Thank you. I really appreciate it. Thanks, Tom. It's it's it's just it's
0:33.2	impressive. It's it's I just love talking to people like you. And, uh, I'll tell you it was funny.
0:39.1	I mean, you're over there building drones and all this advanced tech shit. And you're like,
0:43.2	what are you up to? I'm like, uh, I was like, I'm embarrassed to say this, but I'm trying to figure
0:49.4	out how to run electricity to my kids fucking O scale train set.
0:54.5	I've been meeting asking you, you get it running?
0:56.2	I did.
0:56.7	Oh, great.
0:57.3	I got it.
0:58.4	So finally figured it out.
1:01.6	Thank God.
1:02.5	Yeah, it's kind of intimidating talking to guys like you.
1:06.8	I mean, fucking wicked smart.
1:09.5	So I'm trying to put a train set together. I don't I'm trying to put a train set together.
2:03.9	I don't know if I could put a train set together. But anyways, man, I'm really excited about this. Thank you. Thanks for having me on. I'm so excited to be here, so excited to talk everything through. Oh, man, it's my pleasure. It's my pleasure. Seriously. But yeah, and then, and then this morning at breakfast, do you know, Nick, see the ramen? Yeah, I do. Rathwauch. Yeah, he just, we walked in. He was, he was at the place we had breakfast at, and I was like, what are you still doing here? He was my last interview. I was like, what are you still doing here? He's like, man, I liked it so much. I brought my wife down, and now we're going to hang out here for a little bit. So I said, let me know when you need a realtor. There's all these guys, all these tech guys from California that come on the show, they get out here, and their eyes start opening up. and they're like, I think I'm gonna get a spot out here. That's nice.
2:02.9	What's that? that come on the show, they get out here and their eyes start opening up and they're like, I think I'm going to get a spot out here. That's nice.
	...

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