500: Tamara Diller—The Mother of Mach

**Mike Rowe** (0:03)
Hey, guys, a couple weeks ago, I had a guest on here, a guy named Ethan Thornton, who dropped out of MIT when he was like 18 or 19 years old, to build a better missile. He was upset at what was happening in Ukraine, and he was concerned about what was happening in our country as well, and just felt like he could contribute in some way, use his enormous brain to build a better mousetrap, basically. Well, the response to Ethan's appearance was enormous. I've gotten thousands of comments since, from people who would like to know more about how a college dropout could go on to build a company in just a couple of years that's worth nearly $2 billion, and what he's doing down there in Huntington Beach and out there in the desert with these extraordinary weapons that he and his team of some 500 people are building as we speak. People wanted to know more, and so did I. I'm actually working on a project now with the Pentagon where we highlight companies like this who are focused on making the Department of War more efficient at what it does.
So I called Ethan, and I said, look, I know a lot of what you do is classified, but what do you think? Can I show up with some cameras, maybe have a look around the factory, maybe test some of these weapons? He said, sure.
So I go to see Ethan Thornton, and we spend the day filming, and it's incredible. We go out into the desert to test some of the platforms they're working on. I get a tour. I meet all these engineers who work for extraordinary companies that are now all focused on Mach Industries, and it was great.
But then, I met his Director of Communications and Marketing. It was an amazing woman named Tamara Diller. And as I talked to Tamara, I realized a couple of things about her job that were especially interesting, one of which was she's Ethan's mother. So I just, I know a lot of people who watch this podcast have kids in college. I know a lot of mothers watch this podcast. And aside from all the other things that I went there to learn from Ethan, I was also really interested in hearing from his mother about what it must have been like to have a front row seat, to see your genius kid walk away from a full ride scholarship to one of the most prestigious engineering schools in the world, to build missiles. And I'm so glad I did it. I thought it was just going to be a quick chat, but it kept going on for like 45 minutes. And what I learned from her about Ethan, and what I learned from Ethan about her might be useful to some of you who are trying to figure out what to do with your kids and how to deal with your kids and how to think about college and their future and maybe even the future of our country. It's just a really interesting, unexpected, great conversation that I feel really privileged to have had. They haven't talked publicly about this before. And I'm so glad they did here. This is an amazing company. Ethan's an amazing guy. In fact, you should check out the episode with him if you haven't seen it already. But his mom, his mom steals the show, in my opinion, which is why our 500th episode is called Tamara Diller, the mother of Mach, because she is. Enjoy. Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo.
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