Terrible, Thanks for Asking: Semper Fi

Terrible, Thanks for Asking is a podcast that tells stories about the parts of life that hurt - the parts we're usually told to get through with quiet determination.

2017 / Nora McInerny / Hans Buetow / APM, USA

1ys9 semperfi.

Terrible, Thanks for Asking is a podcast that tells stories about the parts of life that hurt - the parts we're usually told to get through with quiet determination.

It was created by Nora McInerny who over a six week stretch in 2014 lost her second pregnancy, followed by her father dying, then her husband.

In this episode, Semper Fi , Nora considers her father's stories, the ones she can’t quite remember, and the ones she never knew. Like those from his time as a Recon Marine in Vietnam, working an assignment fraught with peril. So Nora decides to look up some of the men he served with, and discovers one day in 1968 that forever shaped a group of boys into the mercurial, complicated men they would become.

Find out how Terrible, Thanks for Asking producers Nora McInerny and Hans Buetow create "a pity-free space for emotional exploration" on the podcast, in our Behind the Scenes interview.

produced by

Nora McInerny

In 2011, Nora McInerny’s boyfriend Aaron suffered a seizure. Which turned out to be brain cancer. Which turned out to be terminal.

Hans Buetow

Hans Buetow (@hansbuetow) is a Senior Producer with American Public Media, where he develops and produces podcasts.

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