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The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe

All good stories have a twist, and all great storytellers are just a little twisted. Join me for a different take on the people and events that you thought you knew, from pop culture to politics, Hollywood to history… The Way I Heard It is a series of short mysteries for the curious mind with a short attention span.

DISCLAIMER: Each episode of The Way I Heard It is a true story about a real person, place, or thing. With respect to the facts, I try to be as accurate as possible. However, the Internet is full of conflicting accounts, and it’s entirely possible you might hear me say something about a person or an event that contradicts something you heard or read elsewhere. If so, feel free to bring any discrepancy to my attention. Just remember – I’m not wrong. It’s just the way I heard it…

  1. All Episodes
  2. 497: Ethan Thornton—I Like a Lotta Problems

Aug 4, 2026

Ethan Thornton doesn’t shy away from problems—he goes looking for them. At just 22, the founder of Mach Industries is tackling some of the biggest challenges in American defense manufacturing, rethinking how weapons are designed, built, and produced.

In this episode, Ethan takes Mike deep into the problem he believes America can no longer afford to ignore: How did we get to a place where China has such an enormous advantage in manufacturing, production capacity, and the ability to produce things at scale? And, more importantly, what are we going to do about it?

Ethan explains why the future of American defense may depend less on building increasingly sophisticated—and increasingly expensive—weapons, and more on figuring out how to build more capable weapons that cost dramatically less. He breaks down the theory behind that approach, why affordability and scale can be weapons in their own right, and why innovation in defense manufacturing isn't simply about creating better technology—it's about changing the economics of warfare.

And that may be the biggest problem Ethan is trying to solve: not simply how to build the next generation of weapons, but how to build them faster, cheaper, and at a scale that can restore America’s manufacturing advantage. Because when it comes to solving big problems, Ethan doesn’t just like a challenge—he likes a lotta problems.

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