What a Hell of a Way to Dad

This week, Francis speaks with reporter Jasper Craven about the current state of the Department of Veteran Affairs–the fact that future administrations think the overall veteran population will shrink, the fact that veteran culture is in many ways synonymous with being a chud, and Francis' hesitancy to ever call anything we do 'veteran-owned.' Hope you enjoy! Check out Jasper's substack here: http...

Content warning: this episode contains discussion of suicide BritainChat ends at 31:42! In this episode, Nate talks about Britain's current energy crisis, how things got this bad so quickly (and over the course of 43 years), and how he and Cynthia are preparing. We also discuss a recent story about the Canadian VA offering medically assisted suicide to a veteran seeking care for PTSD–although we f...

It's a full episode of DadChat, in which Nate and Francis talk about the futility of trying to stay relevant to rude teens, Jacked Danny Elfman, Britain's current drought, why it's much more pleasant when you're not trying to live like a burnout 20-something in your 40s, and much more. Shouts out to Thomas O'Mahony, @gotitatguineas , who helped edit this episode and also sourced us a really great...

DadChat ends at 10:45! Nate and Francis discuss the PACT act and the burn pit registry, while trying to pay attention to the fact that the only people eligible for compensation are the people part of the group that did the burning (American military people), whereas everyone from third-country contractors to the civilian populations of the various countries occupied get nothing. We also talk about...

Nate is back and he joins Francis to discuss a recent article in Task and Purpose about a dress-uniform ribbon apparently becoming a more select award when it used to be given to everyone. So, why the change? Are we finally done with the GWOT? Is the Army going to stop giving out ribbons like candy? You be the judge. For this week's bonus, Francis pulls a Joe and runs a history lesson about a very...

Quick update for everyone: Nate is out with illness (not covid) and will return soon. In the meantime, Francis is covering down. This week, Francis speaks with Steve Beynon ( @StevenBeynon ) of Military dot com about a recent story he wrote in which a church set up a cult and strong armed veterans into funding it with their veterans' benefits, helped people submit false claims in order to steal th...

Quick update for everyone: Nate is out with illness (not covid) and will return soon. In the meantime, Francis is covering down. This week, Francis speaks with Sarah B. ( @barnacle_btch ) of the It Came From The Sea podcast ( @fromtheseapod ) on the topic of the Navy, being a linguist, her journey towards ocean science, and the fact that whales don't get cancer. We hope you enjoy! We have a Patreo...

Quick update for everyone: Nate is out with illness (not covid) and will return soon. In the meantime, Francis is covering down. It's another military news roundup with Davis Winkie ( @davis_winkie ), reporter for Army Times, and we're covering topics like 'What happens when the Texas National Guard abandons a vehicle in the middle of a nature preserve and leaves a loaded M4 with a full-auto mod i...

This week, Francis speaks with Task and Purpose reporter Hayley Britzky ( @halbritz ) about how the Dobbs decision means that the military now becomes the only abortion provider in some US states, despite the degree to which the Hyde amendment restricts the military from performing abotions in all but the direst circumstances.   We have a Patreon with bonus content dating all the way back to 2017,...

Due to some personal issues we weren't able to record a new episode this week. This week's episode is an unlocked bonus which originally appeared on our Patreon in February. Francis speaks with military tech journalist and friend of the show Kelsey Atherton ( @AthertonKD ) about developments in the autonomous robot realm. What if the cops were a dog that took your temperature (this exists)? What i...

It's a full hour of DadChat, in which Nate and Francis discuss jokes that small kids find funny, the pain of being owned by a teenager, the first time we can recall seeing our parents drunk, and much more. For this week's bonus, Francis speaks with Steve Beynon ( @StevenBeynon) of Military dot com about the recent Patriot Front mass-arrest in Idaho, the fact that a huge number of January 6 arreste...

DadChat ends at 24:09! This week, Nate and Francis discuss a recent story about a Chief Warrant Officer 3 in a Special Forces support unit who got hemmed up for selling millions of dollars of government property to civilians. We discuss the ways in which we've experienced defrauding the military, and how to avoid capture if you're up for a good, potential-criminally-indictable scam. Read the whole...

This week, Francis and Nate discuss Memorial Day, the slow retreat of troop discounts (we think this is a positive thing), some experiential differences between life as a PAO and life as an infantryman, and–perhaps unsurprisingly–yet another story about how Navy morale is so bad that record numbers of sailors are going AWOL. Get the article here: https://taskandpurpose.com/news/sailors-deserting-n...

This week, it's something slightly different: Nate and Cynthia discuss the 22nd season of Law and Order, a show that's definitely copaganda but has the distinct honor of also becoming a hollow shell of its former self. Gone are the glory days of Lenny Briscoe, and instead we're met with a world in which computers can solve everything and juries convict podcasters of murder charges, because of thei...

This week, Francis speaks with Davis Winkie of Army Times about some recent stories he's reported on, to include a retirement ceremony where a female NCO was 'motorboated' by her commander. This wasn't a spur of the moment thing, either–he'd made it very clear in advance he was going to do this. Anyway, make sure you attend SHARP training, or something.   *SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT* We now have a store...

DadChat ends at 19:01! This week, Nate and Francis discuss a recent ad put out by the U.S. Army's psychological operations recruiting unit (should we be calling them MISO? PsyWar? We can never tell) that ascribes a hell of a lot of power to a small section of the military. If you join them, you can help inspire the next Tiananmen Square (??) but also put on Joker makeup. Fires burn backwards becau...

This week, Francis speaks with Shocks about male birth control. Well, one particular part of it: getting a vasectomy. There's been a lot of discussion about vasectomies in light of our howling fundamentalist Supreme Court motioning that it plans to allow abortion bans in America. Francis has actually had a vasectomy and discusses it with Shocks in hopes of demystifying the process.   For this week...

This week, Francis, Joe, and Carey discuss a recent proposal from slenderman freak and notably virile figure U.S. Senator Josh Hawley, who has jumped on the bandwagon blaming America's woes on the 'demonization of masculinity.' It is of course a weird fixation with no grounding in reality, but this is Francis' Senator and we feel like it's worth examining in detail. This is an unlocked bonus episo...

This week, Francis speaks with defense journalist and subject-matter expert on drone warfare Kelsey Atherton ( @athertonkd ) to discuss the history of drone warfare, its current manifestations, and what new sorts of machines we can expect to see as the technology of distributed, long-distance warfare becomes more and more common. Read Kelsey's writing on Substack here: https://athertonkd.substack....

This week, Francis speaks to military dot com reporter Thomas Novelly about his recent article covering post-9/11 veterans' experiences with the VFW and similar organizations. Thomas makes the point that, after his piece ran, he was inundated with email from younger veterans whose experiences had been almost all overwhelmingly negative. So, what is the future for veterans' organizations that claim...

Dadchat ends at 16:19! Nate and Francis discuss whether or not it's a good idea to even attempt to save old veterans' social organizations and fraternal orders. We read a very ill-advised statement from the American Legion's commander in 2020 where he compared the Black Lives Matter protests to covid-19, discuss the idea of a hostile takeover of VFWs by antifa supersoldier vegan bodybuilder vetera...

This week, Francis and Nate are joined by our former cohost Adrian Bonenberger ( twitter.com/AdrianBonenber1 ), who's been reporting from Ukraine for years and recently traveled there to help evacuate his family. We speak about what he experienced there, the narratives surrounding the war, the lessons we can learn from it, and the one thing we all can agree on: Russia not doing any maintenance on...

In the first episode for this week, Nate speaks with Sam Asumadu of Media Diversified ( @WritersofColour ) about far right in places like Ukraine, Myanmar, and the militaries of countries like the UK and US. She's currently researching an article to try and thread the needle of all these stories, and we hope you enjoy this discussion. Also: Media Diversified is currently on strike in an attempt to...

Dadchat ends at 18:39! It is the official position of the What a Hell of a Way to Die podcast that Madison Cawthorn is nowhere near cool enough to get invited to cocaine orgies. But he claims to have been, and this has touched off a lot of stupid discussion in the US. Nate and Francis discuss it, and Cawthorn in general, and an argument for why drug prohibition creates the overwhelming majority of...

This week, Francis speaks with Army Times reporter Davis Winkie ( @Davis_Winkie ) about a number of stories he's been working on: military vaccination news, a story about the Army ignoring domestic violence, how the military funded militias in Ukraine as early as 2014, and plans for a new rotational training center in Alaska.   Read all of Davis' bylines here: https://www.armytimes.com/author/davi...