What a Hell of a Way to Dad

Francis and Nate discuss the conundrum of which of your childhood faves are appropriate when it comes to showing them to your own kids. We're elder Millennials and as such have a fondness for movies that are actually deep down a lot more flawed than our memories let us remember. For example: the Neverending Story, Labyrinth, The Black Cauldron, and many more. We also answer some 'Ask A Dad' questi...

Francis has never seen Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Nate simply can't believe that a 40-year-old guy raised on VHS cassettes hasn't seen this. We also talk about playing music for your kids, the strange career of They Might Be Giants, and ask-a-dad advice on getting weird stains out of various surfaces. We hope you enjoy! Like Hell of a Way? Check out our Patreon and get hundreds of hours of bon...

We're back with Tom and Shocks discussing the 2008 Colin Farrell film IN BRUGES, a singularly original film about an Irish guy who is ruining his own life for a variety of reasons related to... well, crime, the Irish experience, dealing with the English, European perverts, firearms, drugs, a race-war obsessed dwarf, and so much more. Get the whole episode on Patreon here! https://www.patreon.com/p...

For this week's free episode, Francis and Nate chat about Nate's impending fatherhood, teaching kids to love music (or at least to love messing with synthesizers), Francis' daughter deciding to start her own podcast, and much more. We very much hope you enjoy it! Like Hell of a Way? Check out our Patreon and get hundreds of hours of bonus content dating all the way back to 2017: www.patreon.com/he...

We're back at it, reviewing the '70s-'80s hit TV series M*A*S*H and all of the elements that have either aged okay or aged extremely poorly. This episode includes the full Zoo Crew of Francis, Joe, and Shocks, and we're simply diving headlong into 40+ year old TV tropes. Hope you enjoy! Get the whole episode on Patreon (and access to all our bonus content since 2017) here: https://www.patreon.com/...

For this week's free episode, Francis speaks with friend of the show and Army Times reporter Davis Winkie ( @davis_winkie ) about his recent news stories. In particular, they discuss an emerging court case that might remove federal control over the state units. It's of course related to Texas Governor Gregg Abbott wanting the state of Texas to be able to ignore DoD immunization requirements. It'll...

For this week's free episode, Francis and Nate reminisce about the difficulty of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles NES game, video game violence, and why nothing ever changes in the UK. We hope you enjoy. Like Hell of a Way? Check out our Patreon and get hundreds of hours of bonus content dating all the way back to 2017: www.patreon.com/hellofawaytodie *SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT* We now have a storefron...

We recorded an episode about Pat Robertson's death, among other things, and realized that a lot of people might not know how much of a cultural figure he was—in addition to being a huge bastard. We've been told it's not appropriate to celebrate someone dying, but guess what? We're gonna. Get the whole thing on Patreon here! https://www.patreon.com/posts/85542568 *SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT* We now have...

For this week's free episode, Francis is joined by historian and submersible expert Taylor …… to discuss the recent OceanGate disaster, what possibly went wrong, and how submersibles are more generally used outside of the military. We hope you enjoy. Like Hell of a Way? Check out our Patreon and get hundreds of hours of bonus content dating all the way back to 2017: www.patreon.com/hellofawaytodie...

For this week's free episode, Nate is joined by Tom and Joe to discuss recent news in the UK in which the government is planning on causing as much harm to queer kids as possible. This is basically the Hell of a Way pride month episode in which we explore grim topics, reminisce about Queen music videos from the 1980s, and laugh when Tom invents a slur for straight people. We hope you enjoy.   Like...

For this week's free episode, Francis speaks to reporter and academic James Stout about his recent experiences at the US-Mexico border, the ways in which the government is seeking to find new ways to deny people asylum claims, and the significant numbers of Afghans affected by the war getting denied their (legal!) right to asylum. We also touch on James's academic specialization: the history of an...

For this week's free episode, Francis speaks to someone who spent part of their career on a submarine, in order to ask the all-important question: why would you do that? And what is it actually like? Like Hell of a Way? Check out our Patreon and get hundreds of hours of bonus content dating all the way back to 2017: www.patreon.com/hellofawaytodie *SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT* We now have a storefront to...

This week, Nate and Francis discuss heeding the fatherly urge of making home repairs while dealing with the 'landlord special', the state of Midwest public transportation, and a recent story involving a group of unruly California teens overpowering three Marines in a viral video that's making Facebook uncles absolutely furious.   Like Hell of a Way? Check out our Patreon and get hundreds of hours...

This week, Nate and Francis discuss the possibility of upcoming moves (Nate to Switzerland, Francis to Illinois, maybe). Nate also discusses the story in which he wrote down that, in the event of him dying during military service, he wanted to have his ashes scattered in Lake Geneva within sight of the statue of Freddy Mercury (it seemed funny at the time). All this, and much more! Like Hell of a...

This week, Francis and Shocks get Joe to explain Eurovision to them. After having moved to the absolute extremity of southeast Europe, Joe has found himself surrounded by people who watch it and enjoy it. So, for the benefit of unreconstructed Americans like the rest of his cohosts, he explains what it is and why people care. Hope you enjoy! Like Hell of a Way? Check out our Patreon and get hundre...

This week, Francis speaks Army Times reporter Davis Winkie ( @davis_winkie ) about a recent investigation he published, which discusses how the Army often administratively discharges soldiers for domestic violence–sparing them a possible criminal conviction even when military prosecutors wanted to refer the cases to the civilian justice system. According to the report, around 450 people discharged...

This week, Francis speaks with Military dot com reporter Steve Beynon ( @StevenBeynon ) about recent topics he's covered: more coverups of a woman soldier's murder at Fort Hood, lengthy training deployments away from home despite the military being declared as 'no longer on a war footing,' and much more. Grim subject matter aside, we hope you enjoy! Check out all of Steve's recent military dot com...

This week, Francis and Shocks discuss the recent Discord leaks, in which a Massachusetts-based Air National Guard guy got so mad about an argument online that he decided to leak classified information about NATO activity in Ukraine, on Discord, for months before he got caught. On one hand, whom among us has not gotten mad online. On the other, might we be the first to ask: what? And why? Like Hell...

DadChat ends at 20:50! This week, Nate and Francis discuss a recent story about a 21-year-old Air National Guardsman who took a parody site very, very seriously, to the point that every federal agency jumped in to get him on record incriminating himself. We advise against taking Web 1.0 parody sites seriously, especially if you (one weekend a month, two weeks a year) work for the government. Read...

DadChat / sandwich chat ends at 13:26! Francis found a story at Task and Purpose about a drone opera. Well, it's an opera about being a drone operator, it's sponsored by General Dynamics, and it's running in Washington DC only for two weeks this fall. Now, Nate and Francis are no strangers to the discussion around the idea of veterans sharing their stories (cough cough), but this…seems extra? Read...

DadChat / sandwich chat ends at 27:03! This week, Nate and Francis discuss an article from Military dot com in which the authors try to do straight reporting on a Heritage Foundation report about 'wokeness is killing military recruitment.' It turns out that, according to their laughably flawed survey, something entirely else is making people wary about joining. However, Nate basically burst a bloo...

This week, Nate and Francis conduct a DadChat on a special day: it's Francis' 40th birthday and we are officially Old. However, we don't dwell on that too much, but instead discuss the travails of being the one person at work who knows how computers work (and network management, and hardware management, and knowing different kinds of USB plugs). But more importantly, we discuss the storied history...

We recorded an episode on the morning of the day that Donald Trump claimed he was going to get arrested. We decided to offer our predictions on what we thought might happen, fully knowing that the situation would most likely change between recording time and publication. Call it a compass check–an assessment of whether or not we know anything at all. We also respond to your Ask A Dad questions. Ho...

This week, Francis speaks with Military Times senior editor Sarah Sicard about the absolute worst military films to grace our screens in 2022. They're almost always bad, but last year they might have been worse? Check out Sarah's writing here: https://www.militarytimes.com/author/sarah-sicard/   Like Hell of a Way? Check out our Patreon and get hundreds of hours of bonus content dating all the way...

A banner week for DadChat: Nate and Francis discuss how to combat the feeling that you've got so much stuff left to do that you can't relax. We also discuss the Army bringing back its 1980s-vintage recruiting slogan 'Be all that you can be,' why ductless mini-split heat pumps are amazing, and offer responses to your 'Ask a dad' questions. Hope you enjoy! Like Hell of a Way? Check out our Patreon a...