What a Hell of a Way to Dad

This week, Nate speaks with Afghan-American community organizer Arash Azizzada (@87films) about his group Afghans for a Better Tomorrow (@afghanstomorrow, @afghansforabettertomorrow on IG), the work they're doing to advocate for safe passage for Afghans, ways in which the US government could make it easier for people seeking refuge, and what he wishes Americans knew about our country's involvement in Afghanistan (which massively predates 9/11). You can read Arash's recent op-ed from the New York Times here: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/24/opinion/afghanistan-kabul-evacuations.html And sign the petition to lift refugee caps here: https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/president-biden-must-support-the-most-vulnerable-in-afghanistan-as-part-of-the-withdrawal-plan For this week's bonus, the Zoo Crew convenes to discuss Armenia, what being a tank crewman entails, Shocks' stories of nearly dying theatrically on a Coast Guard ship, and Joe accidentally calling a drill sergeant 'dad' because he was that used to getting screamed at. Get it on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/55148707 *SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT* We now have a storefront to sell the patches, buttons, and magnets that we also give out as flair for our $10 tier. Buy some sweet gear here: https://www.hellofawaytodie.com/shop We have a YouTube channel now -- subscribe here and get sweet videos from us in which we yell in our cars like true veterans: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwlHZpNTz-h6aTeQiJrEDKw You can follow the show on Twitter here: @HellOfAWay Follow Nate here: @inthesedeserts Follow Francis here: @ArmyStrang

We brought on Joe Kassabian of the Lions Led by Donkeys podcast to discuss the Taliban victory in Afghanistan, and we try to push back against the politicians' line that the Afghan military didn't want to fight--and ask call for everyone who can assist Afghan refugees (even if all you can do is humiliate your elected officials) to do so. For this week's bonus, we're reviewing films that everyone our age loved and that we're sort of embarrassed to like. In this case, Francis had never seen V FOR VENDETTA, and Joe was a shameful teenage fan of the comic books. So, we got the Zoo Crew together to discuss. Get it on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/54987946 *SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT* We now have a storefront to sell the patches, buttons, and magnets that we also give out as flair for our $10 tier. Buy some sweet gear here: https://www.hellofawaytodie.com/shop We have a YouTube channel now -- subscribe here and get sweet videos from us in which we yell in our cars like true veterans: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwlHZpNTz-h6aTeQiJrEDKw You can follow the show on Twitter here: @HellOfAWay Follow Nate here: @inthesedeserts Follow Francis here: @ArmyStrang

This week, Francis and Nate speak with reporter and author Spencer Ackerman about his new book REIGN OF TERROR, a comprehensive history of the War on Terror. Particularly, we home in on the concept of how the culture war created post-9/11 requires veterans to never question the war itself if they want to retain any respected status. It's a phenomenal book that we both loved, and we strongly recommend you go out and buy it. In fact, if you buy it here you can get it from a local independent bookstore: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781984879776?aff=TAPBookClub For this week's bonus, Francis speaks with defense journalist Kelsey Atherton about his recent piece on Substack covering the long usage-life of weapons and how there are in fact quite a few weapons that have been around for decades, if not centuries. Get it on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/54670319 Read the piece on Substack here! https://athertonkd.substack.com/p/the-deuce-the-buff-the-constitution *SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT* We now have a storefront to sell the patches, buttons, and magnets that we also give out as flair for our $10 tier. Buy some sweet gear here: https://www.hellofawaytodie.com/shop We have a YouTube channel now -- subscribe here and get sweet videos from us in which we yell in our cars like true veterans: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwlHZpNTz-h6aTeQiJrEDKw You can follow the show on Twitter here: @HellOfAWay Follow Nate here: @inthesedeserts Follow Francis here: @ArmyStrang

If you don't like DadChat then skip this episode! This week, it's a DadChat with Nate and Francis. We discuss gardening, Francis' daughter starting her own podcast on her tablet, why libertarianism appealed to middle class white kids in the Midwest in the 2000s, our mutual fixation on Redwall books as kids, the underappreciated art of actually talented bass guitar players, and much more. For this week's bonus, Nate speaks with Alice Caldwell-Kelly from the podcasts Trashfuture, Well There's Your Problem, and Kill James Bond, about the 2009 Armando Iannucci film IN THE LOOP, in which the British TV series 'The Thick of It' visits the topic of the Iraq War and James Gandolfini plays a grumpy American Lieutenant General. Get it on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/54385089 *SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT* We now have a storefront to sell the patches, buttons, and magnets that we also give out as flair for our $10 tier. Buy some sweet gear here: https://www.hellofawaytodie.com/shop We have a YouTube channel now -- subscribe here and get sweet videos from us in which we yell in our cars like true veterans: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwlHZpNTz-h6aTeQiJrEDKw You can follow the show on Twitter here: @HellOfAWay Follow Nate here: @inthesedeserts Follow Francis here: @ArmyStrang

This week, Nate speaks with reporter, academic, and cyclist James Stout about the history of Antifa. What started as a reaction to European fascism became a movement often cited and rarely understood, but James's academic research is focused on this topic--and, particularly, the 1936 Popular Olypics, an anti-fascist international competiton cut short by the advent of the Spanish Civil War. You can support James's work on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/Jamesstout For this week's bonus, 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. Get it on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/54213692 *SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT* We now have a storefront to sell the patches, buttons, and magnets that we also give out as flair for our $10 tier. Buy some sweet gear here: https://www.hellofawaytodie.com/shop We have a YouTube channel now -- subscribe here and get sweet videos from us in which we yell in our cars like true veterans: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwlHZpNTz-h6aTeQiJrEDKw You can follow the show on Twitter here: @HellOfAWay Follow Nate here: @inthesedeserts Follow Francis here: @ArmyStrang

Dadchat/weather discussion until: 0:19 until 14:47 Transphobia in the UK discussion: 14:47 until 23:29 Repatriation of Pat Tillman jersey: 23:30 until end This week we discussed a recent story from Stars and Stripes about the repatriation of memorabilia from the Pat Tillman USO at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan. In case you didn't know, they named the USO after Pat Tillman despite his only real connection to Bagram being the fact that his remains were transported there and his body armor burned there in order to mask the fact that he died from friendly fire. We have thoughts on the prioritization of American feelings versus the humanitarian catastrophe of the war in Afghanistan. (Story is here: https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/07/19/what-happened-pat-tillmans-jersey-heres-how-last-americans-bagram-airfield-rushed-secure-mementos.html) For the bonus this week, Francis speaks with writer Erica X. Eisen about her recent Boston Review piece 'Blackness and the Bomb,' discussing the ways in which nuclear defense in the Cold War prefigured a segregated response that would ensure racial boundaries even in the event of a post-nuclear war future. Get it on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/53844158 *SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT* We now have a storefront to sell the patches, buttons, and magnets that we also give out as flair for our $10 tier. Buy some sweet gear here: https://www.hellofawaytodie.com/shop We have a YouTube channel now -- subscribe here and get sweet videos from us in which we yell in our cars like true veterans: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwlHZpNTz-h6aTeQiJrEDKw You can follow the show on Twitter here: @HellOfAWay Follow Nate here: @inthesedeserts Follow Francis here: @ArmyStrang

Dadchat ends at 17:43 We're going to cover the events in Haiti and Cuba next week, but for this week we decided to do an episode where we discussed England's performance in the Euros, the logistics of dropping fish into a lake from a plane, and what it's like for Francis to be a former Midwestern stoner now able to purchase legal weed. This isn't a politics-heavy episode but we enjoyed discussing our takes on what the end of weed prohibition (in certain areas!) means in practice. For the bonus this week, Francis and Joe discuss deranged weapons of the Cold War -- particularly, a nuclear recoilless rifle called the Davy Crockett and a plan for a nuclear-powered unmanned plane that, had it been constructed, would have flown low-level at Mach 3 delivering a fatal dose of nuclear radiation all over its flight path. Get it on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/53490393 *SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT* We now have a storefront to sell the patches, buttons, and magnets that we also give out as flair for our $10 tier. Buy some sweet gear here: https://www.hellofawaytodie.com/shop We have a YouTube channel now -- subscribe here and get sweet videos from us in which we yell in our cars like true veterans: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwlHZpNTz-h6aTeQiJrEDKw You can follow the show on Twitter here: @HellOfAWay Follow Nate here: @inthesedeserts Follow Francis here: @ArmyStrang

Dadchat ends at 14:57 This week, we read a special investigation about an Army lieutenant colonel who's managed to push the edge of the military's (insane) adultery laws--by faking deployments, faking the death of one of his children, and juggling 6 partners on the side. It's wild! Get the news story here: https://taskandpurpose.com/news/army-officer-affairs-women/ For this week's bonus, Nate explains the 4th of July to Milo and forces him to listen to a deranged listicle from Military dot com about how to make the day even more patriotic. Brain damage was suffered on this episode but we hope you enjoy it. Get it on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/53328558 *SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT* We now have a storefront to sell the patches, buttons, and magnets that we also give out as flair for our $10 tier. Buy some sweet gear here: https://www.hellofawaytodie.com/shop We have a YouTube channel now -- subscribe here and get sweet videos from us in which we yell in our cars like true veterans: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwlHZpNTz-h6aTeQiJrEDKw You can follow the show on Twitter here: @HellOfAWay Follow Nate here: @inthesedeserts Follow Francis here: @ArmyStrang

Dadchat ends at 16:28 This week, we discuss news that a shady Republican billionaire is funding a National Guard deployment to the US-Mexico border. This wouldn't happen if South Dakota wasn't run by a psycho, but we're slightly concerned about the precedent. We also discuss the cultural freakout of a large chunk of white Americans over the past 13 years, and what it means given that history, as ever, is repeating itself. This is the piece we read, replete with military dot com comments sections: https://www.military.com/daily-news/2021/06/29/billionaire-gop-mega-donor-funds-national-guard-mission-us-mexico-border.html For this week's bonus, we've reconvened the Zoo Crew to discuss Madison Cawthorn being at it again. The political right in America sure do love some freaks, and it seems that it's only getting worse the further down the QAnon rabbit hole these guys travel. Get it on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/53005374 *SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT* We now have a storefront to sell the patches, buttons, and magnets that we also give out as flair for our $10 tier. Buy some sweet gear here: https://www.hellofawaytodie.com/shop We have a YouTube channel now -- subscribe here and get sweet videos from us in which we yell in our cars like true veterans: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwlHZpNTz-h6aTeQiJrEDKw You can follow the show on Twitter here: @HellOfAWay Follow Nate here: @inthesedeserts Follow Francis here: @ArmyStrang

Dadchat ends at 11:10 We review two pieces this week. First, we discuss news that the Taliban have captured a huge chunk of Afghanistan's provincial districts since May: https://edition.cnn.com/2021/06/22/americas/afghanistan-taliban-districts-intl/index.html We also discuss a story from the Washington Post about the National Guard reporting food scarcity and money insolvency because, as Guard veterans know, they intentionally schedule deployments and activations to avoid paying Guard troops the benefits they'd be entitled to on active duty: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/06/22/hunger-national-guard-reserves/ For this week's bonus, Francis found an article about how astrology applies to the military, and in order to really get to the heart of this, he spoke with astrology enthusiast and Army PAO Kelsey in order to discuss. Let's just say this piece goes in some wild directions. Get it on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/52722111 *SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT* We now have a storefront to sell the patches, buttons, and magnets that we also give out as flair for our $10 tier. Buy some sweet gear here: https://www.hellofawaytodie.com/shop We have a YouTube channel now -- subscribe here and get sweet videos from us in which we yell in our cars like true veterans: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwlHZpNTz-h6aTeQiJrEDKw You can follow the show on Twitter here: @HellOfAWay Follow Nate here: @inthesedeserts Follow Francis here: @ArmyStrang