Can we build a blueprint for how the right content can pressure institutions to evolve?

In episode 170, I sat down with my buddy Ethan Nagel — veteran infantryman and lethal filmmaker who lives at the intersection of modern warfare and modern media.

He breaks down exactly what he and the team at VET TV are building with BattleLab, a new live action show that drops two teams of elite operators into high pressure missions that push new military technology to its limits. 

This episode is a straight shot of reality: FPV attack drones are the new IEDs, and the next war is going to punish anyone clinging to comfort. Ethan explains how BattleLab fuses real-world lessons from Ukraine with hands-on experimentation — pitting elite, Tier One operators against emerging drone tactics to expose what works, what fails, and what gets people killed. He also gets brutally specific on storytelling and craft because BattleLab isn’t “tactical content,” it’s a serious training-adjacent series built by people who actually understand the battlefield and how audiences learn. Ethan walks through the production reality: why the first “sports broadcast” approach didn’t hold attention, how they rebuilt the format around after-action breakdowns, and how he balances cinematic filmmaking with capturing honest, usable footage that infantry leaders can actually apply.

Episode Sponsors:

Intro Song composed and produced by Cleod9.

SOCIALS:

https://www.instagram.com/veteranmade.ck/

https://www.instagram.com/ethan.nagel.films/

https://www.instagram.com/vet_tv/

https://www.instagram.com/battlelabhq/

https://www.instagram.com/jeddoc_labs/