This week's fucked up story is about trauma, addiction, and recovery.

Sean Young is a combat veteran, has enough ex-wives that I lost count during the episode, sports a beard that's longer than Dan and Scott's combined, and hosts two podcasts (Recover Out Loud and Beyond the Veil). If you noticed this episode is longer than recent releases, go back and read that sentence again. Do you think we could cover that in 55 minutes? And do you think we wanted to? I only ended it because Producer Dan was one question away from asking Sean if he could leave to be Sean's co-host.

Sean was inspired to join the Army because of 9/11. He admitted to that kind of sheepishly, but it was true. He was only in 7th grade in 2001 and was naive like any kid of that age. By the time he actually had to make a choice, he'd decided his true calling was to be a pastor. He told Dad about that plan and it was a no-go. They had a falling out and Sean enlisted that day. 

The Army was great for Sean - for a minute. He got to leave his small town, he thrived in Basic Training, and he even got to jump out of airplanes. He was (and is) afraid of heights, but fuck it. Why the hell wouldn't he jump out of a perfectly good plane? It was a hell of a rush. 

Sean's first deployment sent him to Italy. He was eighteen years old, on his own for the first time, and was able to legally drink. That is where this story starts to take a turn. From there he drinks and drinks some more, marries and marries some more, and in between he fought against the Taliban. He didn't come out unscathed.

Sean is finally in a good spot in life and is out there helping others in his Recover Out Loud podcast. Settle in Terrible Listeners, today's episode is going to be Positively Terrible.

FROM THIS EPISODE
Films about Sean's Afghanistan Deployment
Restrepo
Korengal