What a Hell of a Way to Dad

This week, Francis speaks with Military dot com reporter Steve Beynon ( @StevenBeynon ) about the misery of National Guard deployments to the Texas/Mexico border, a push among Guard soldiers to unionize, and much more.    For this week's bonus, Francis made Shocks read a listicle of 'Top Boston Movies' and they discuss it. Some surprising entries on here and some Wahlberg-centric ones, too. Get it...

DadChat/CovidChat ends at 15:57! This week, Nate and Francis discuss the Russian invasion of Ukraine and why it's sometimes better to not feel obligated to have a take. We didn't think the invasion was going to happen, and we think it's a human catastrophe that it did. However, when weighing in, it's often important to know what you're actually calling for. We go into this in detail, and more, in...

(Sorry for the delayed episodes--Nate is out with covid and Francis is out of town) This week, Nate and Milo discuss the peculiarly British phenomenon of calling for the Army to be deployed domestically--whether it's to quell a social conflict or fix a logistics issue. They love to call for the Army to be sent in. We get to the bottom of what this means, and why people want it. *SPECIAL ANNOUNCEME...

There's no Hell of a Way this week, as Nate has covid and Francis left on vacation before the war in Ukraine started. We'll hopefully be back next week. In the interim, we're crossposting a piece from Media Diversified ( @WritersofColour ) director and previous guest Samantha Asumadu, in which she speaks with author Matt Potter about information warfare (both as relates to Ukraine and in general)....

This week, Nate speaks with Brian ( @Spocks_Brian ), Josh ( @boshj ), and A.J. ( @TheFuzzyMask ) from The Worst of All Possible Worlds ( @TWOAPW ), a podcast by ex-evangelicals that documents case studies in the pop culture of a dying empire. We're talking how evangelical Christianity views the military, and the truly bizarre things that result when those two worlds come in contact. Get more TWOAP...

DadChat ends at 9:36! Nate and Francis discuss the true story of Captain Tom Moore, the World War II veteran who enchanted Britain by walking around his garden to raise money for the state-funded healthcare service that shouldn't need to receive charitable donations. He got knighted, he got commemorated, he got sent to Barbados on a charity publicity trip and then got covid and died. But it turns...

This week, Nate speaks with Sam Asumadu of Media Diversified ( @writersofcolour ) about her recent piece on the UK's war in Yemen–that is, the ways in which the UK arms industry's relationship with Saudi Arabia means that arms sales continue no matter what. We also discuss a lot about UK domestic politics and the relationships between reactionary movements in the US and the developing world. Read...

DadChat ends at 16:30! This week, Nate and Francis discuss a recent headline about the New Mexico National Guard being called out to serve as substitute teachers due to covid. It turns out it's a state employee volunteer scheme, but in the course of researching this episode (i.e. reading two articles) we discover that a number of neighboring states have simply reduced the barriers to becoming a te...

Dadchat ends at 17:02! Nate and Francis discuss the strange phenomenon of the Floridian 20-year-old twins named the 'Island Boys' who are receiving Cameo requests to make military-specific greetings–to include requesting that the Marine Corps not boot a guy for a DUI. We read about it here and you can too: https://taskandpurpose.com/culture/island-boys-military-tiktok-videos-cameo/?taid=61f01823df...

This week, Francis speaks with writer Jonathan M. Katz ( @KatzOnEarth ) about his new book "Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America's Empire." We learn about Butler's participation in the Spanish-American War (and in just about every other early-20th century imperial conflict), his exposure of an attempted fascist coup, and his role in subjugati...

This week, Francis speaks with writer Jonathan M. Katz ( @KatzOnEarth ) about his new book "Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America's Empire." We learn about Butler's participation in the Spanish-American War (and in just about every other early-20th century imperial conflict), his exposure of an attempted fascist coup, and his role in subjugati...

This week, Francis speaks with Task and Purpose reporter Haley Britzky about the water pollution crisis at Joint Base Pearl Harbor in Hawai'i, the ways in which the Navy effectively told its service members and dependents to pound sand, and how the Army surprised everyone by… communicating more than once. Read Haley's article here: https://taskandpurpose.com/news/navy-investigating-hawaii-fuel-lea...

DadChat ends at 15:45! This week, Nate and Francis discuss recent news that a group of Navy SEALs have filed an injunction to get religious exemptions from the DOD's vaccine mandate (which we argue is funny and also a very bad thing to entertain). In order to familiarize everyone with the topic at hand, we also read the original Navy SEAL Copypasta (for subject matter awareness). For this week's b...

This is an unlocked bonus from earlier this year--we'll return with a new episode next week. Joe and Shocks join Francis to discuss historical instances of draft dodging that involve fleeing into the woods of Alaska, fleeing to Germany, and much more. If you want more bonus episodes, get them on our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Hellofawaytodie *SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT* We now have a storefront to...

CONTENT WARNING: Nate discusses having witnessed a situation involving a lot of severe child neglect, which some listeners might find distressing. This segment runs from 9:10 to 15:02. This week, it's a holiday-themed DadChat in which Nate and Francis discuss coffee mostly, and intensely difficult Army schools that are difficult for no reason, and what happens if you refuse to jump out of an airpl...

This week, Francis speaks with Army Times investigative reporter Davis Winkie ( @davis_winkie ) about his recent story covering troop deployments at the US-Mexico border and the spate of incidents–to include deaths, serious injuries, and enormous amounts of UCMJ–and the fact that soldiers and officers at every echelon are reaching out with one very important statement: they shouldn't be there. Rea...

This week, Francis speaks with farmer and legendary poster Eric Peacock (@UweBollocks) about his experience as an organic farmer in northwest Ohio, what he grows in his own garden, the ethical dilemma you face when confronting the intelligence of pigs, and so much more.   Check out Eric's podcast Soundtracker ( @soundtracker_ ) here: https://feeds.buzzsprout.com/1840875.rss   For this week's bonus...

This week, Nate and Francis discuss the fact that the Department of Defense has zero time for service members refusing to get vaccinated, even if they're the commanding general of the Oklahoma National Guard, and we ponder why things have gotten to this point. We also talk about a British F35 falling off an aircraft carrier (which you can see here: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/f...

A bit of a hybrid DadChat / Thanksgiving themed episode in which we discuss our various military Thanksgiving experiences, Francis seeing the band Lit while in Kuwait somehow, reminiscences of the BDU era, and much more. Happy Thanksgiving, and hope you enjoy! For this week's bonus, Francis made Joe and Carey watch the 1970 film M*A*S*H*, not the series but the film itself, and react to all of the...

DadChat ends at 14:13! This week, we examine a recent story about an Army Colonel getting a formal reprimand for stealing a pair of $45 sneakers at a PX in Kuwait? Which is something that legitimately took place, we guess (you can read the story here: https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2021/11/16/colonel-punished-for-shoplifting-shoes-at-kuwait-px/ ). We also discuss weird crimes we've seen...

We get to the point at 17:51! This week, we discuss adventures in soundproofing, how to de-Ba'ath-ify yourself from the effects of the military making you react emotionally, Veterans' Day, the 5-year anniversary of this podcast, and much more. However, we also focus specifically on a story about a metallurgist in Tacoma who faked the test results of decades' worth of Navy metal castings for submar...

We get to the point at 23:04! This week, we're discussing horror stories of Army physical training, inspired by this article ( https://taskandpurpose.com/news/army-holistic-health-fitness-82nd-airborne/ ) in which the Army apparently confronts the fact that its previous approaches to physical training completely wreck people's bodies. Hope you enjoy! For week's bonus, Francis and Joe discuss the h...

This is a full episode of DadChat, so if you don't enjoy them then it's probably better to skip it! Nate and Francis go full dad mode and discuss cooking, their least favorite chores, the benefits of pressure cooking for home canning, favorite winter all-day recipes, and a story about Nate finding a cast iron pan on the street and it somehow leading to an unexpected magical night in DC. Hope you e...

DadChat ends at 13:25!   This week, Nate and Francis discuss the recent death of Colin Powell, the first Black American to serve as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the man who lent his reputation to sell the Iraq War more than any other politician. We argue that you should in fact judge him for this, immediately, because he failed the moral test of his lifetime. We also discuss a recent...

Nate is out this week, and Francis speaks with defense journalist Jasper Craven (@jasper_craven) about a recent trend: trying to portray the U.S. military as ecologically concerned--call it 'military greenwashing' if you'd like. And it turns out, it's not really possible when the military doesn't disclose how much fossil fuel it consumes, not even to Congress. Read Jasper's article here: https://t...