Kicked Out of the Navy SEALs — So I Joined the French Foreign Legion | Taylor Cavanaugh

Locked In with Ian Bick

Ian Bick

Society & Culture

4.9 • 606 Ratings

🗓️ 11 August 2025

⏱️ 96 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Taylor Cavanaugh’s journey is unlike anything you’ve heard. As a teenager with a criminal record, no one expected him to make it far—let alone become a Navy SEAL. But against all odds, Taylor completed BUD/S and joined SEAL Team 7. Just when it seemed like his life had turned around, legal trouble ended his military career. After being kicked out of the SEALs, Taylor spiraled into addiction and depression, eventually hitting rock bottom. That’s when he made a radical decision: to join the French Foreign Legion. In this interview, Taylor opens up about his fight for redemption, what it really takes to become a SEAL, and how he rebuilt his life from the ground up. #NavySEAL #FrenchForeignLegion #AddictionRecovery #TrueStory #RedemptionArc #VeteranInterview #LockedInWithIanBick #militaryjourney Connect with Taylor Cavanaugh: Website: www.taylorcavanaugh.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tcavofficial? YouTube: https://youtube.com/@tcavofficial? X: https://x.com/tcavofficial? Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ Get 50% off the Magic Mind offer here: https://www.magicmind.com/IANB50. #magicmind #mentalwealth #mentalperformance Presented by Tyson 2.0 & Wooooo Energy: https://tyson20.com/ https://woooooenergy.com/ Use code LOCKEDIN for 20% OFF Wooooo Energy Buy Merch: http://www.ianbick.com/shop Timestamps: 00:00 Rock Bottom and Redemption Teaser 00:52 Podcast Introduction & Host Greeting 01:46 Taylor's Troubled Teen Years 03:36 Downward Spiral: Crime, College, and Jail 06:46 Pursuing the SEAL Dream Against All Odds 09:05 The Challenge of Becoming a Navy SEAL 13:41 Family, Discipline, and Early Influences 15:37 High School Life & Personality 19:14 College Struggles & Changing Goals 22:32 Legal Troubles and Military Waivers 26:36 Making It to SEAL Team 7 28:26 Deployment, Success, and the Start of a Downfall 31:45 Self-Destruction: Legal Issues and SEAL Career End 35:15 Life in the Civilian World: Addiction and Pressure 37:00 Hitting Rock Bottom Again 40:44 Homelessness and Suicidal Thoughts 41:43 Moment of Clarity: Choosing Life 42:32 Joining the French Foreign Legion 46:32 Selection Process & Life in the Legion 51:41 Foreign Legion Missions and Brotherhood 57:12 Adapting, Identity Loss & Mindset Shift 01:03:02 Realizations in the Legion: Zen and Discipline 01:09:14 Letting Go & Finding Lasting Happiness 01:14:13 Exiting the Legion and Telling His Story 01:19:41 Legacy, Discipline, and Teaching the Next Generation 01:23:01 Lessons Learned: Regret, Pride, and Redemption 01:26:00 Life in the Legion: Hazing, Culture, and Punishment 01:29:37 Advice to His Younger Self & Parenting 01:31:48 Looking Ahead: Legacy, Purpose, and Impact 01:34:32 Final Reflections & Farewell Powered by: Just Media House : https://www.justmediahouse.com/ Creative direction, design, assets, support by FWRD: https://www.fwrd.co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I had a sought off shotgun on my passenger seat and sat there, bro, really thinking of,
0:05.1	dude, I'm just so tired of doing this. I couldn't see the way out of this one. I had just gone
0:10.0	through all that stuff and built myself back up into the high rise and now crushed it all
0:14.6	again and I just was exhausted. Taylor Kavanaugh defied the odds when, despite a criminal
0:19.7	record as a teenager, he fulfilled
0:21.8	his dream of becoming a Navy SEAL. He completed Buds, joined SEAL Team 7, and was living
0:27.7	his childhood dream. But after getting into legal trouble, he was kicked out of the SEALs,
0:32.6	and that's when everything spiraled. Taylor fell into addiction, depression, and hit rock bottom. Desperate for
0:39.0	redemption, he made a bold move and joined the French Foreign Legion. In this episode, Taylor
0:44.2	opens up about his rise, his fall, and the journey that helped him take his life back.
0:51.9	Taylor, welcome to Locked In Man. Ian, man. Thank you for having me, bro. And thank you for everybody for listening. Locked in. I love the name of that podcast, man. But that title was like, locked in because it's locked in, tapped in, tuned in, bro. It means a bunch of things, dude. I dig it. Yeah, it's like a play on words. Yeah. We interview people that went to prison, but it's also like you're focused, locked in, and there's just so many ways to go about it. Yeah, man. And that never give it up on yourself, right? Even behind those walls and when the chips are down, you got that redemption arc. And you're a good testimony to that dude that's for sure you
1:28.1	know looking at your story and and it's a trip being here kind of surreal like i had mentioned
1:32.7	coming in because i was in a foreign legion barracks room dude and i was watching you and then
1:37.4	kind of learned about your story a little bit i'm like damn dude because i mean you kicked off
1:44.1	your teenage years pretty hardcore and into your 20s.
1:47.1	I mean, you had, you know, created a mountain, a pile you kind of had to dig yourself out of.
1:52.3	And I'm very familiar with that, bro, of it looking insurmountable.
1:57.4	And then, you know, then just starting to fucking climb, dude, and climb out.
2:01.7	Yeah.
2:02.0	And the way I had anticipated climbing was looked totally different than what I ended up doing
2:08.1	to climb out of that hole too.
2:09.9	Yeah.
	...

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