It's hard to read the news these days without asking yourself, how did we get here?

Fiasco is a history podcast for the co-creators of Slow Burn.

In our first season, Bush v. Gore, we examine an unmistakable turning point in American politics,

the 2000 election, which resulted in a high-stakes stalemate, ended with one of the most controversial rulings in Supreme Court history.

So if you're trying to make sense at the present moment, check out Fiasco, Bush v. Gore.

Listen on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Warning, you're about to enter the arena and join the battle to save America with your host, John Parnell.

There were many times in Afghanistan when I contemplated life and death.

In fact, as my combat deployment war on, I thought about it more and more,

especially in those quiet moments, just back from a mission cycle in my hooch, by myself alone with my thoughts,

I survive today. Will I survive tomorrow? If you focus on that question too much, will I survive tomorrow? It will drive tomorrow. If you focus on that question too much, will I survive tomorrow? It will drive you

crazy. I've seen men become so obsessed with it that it handicaps your ability to not just

operate effectively in the field, but everything.

It colors how you think pervasive anxiety and fear take over.

It's utterly paralyzing.

So many of us learned to stop asking it all together.

In fact, many of us had to convince ourselves that we were dead already, that it was only a matter

of time and a question of how it would happen. When this reality set in, we function better in

combat, fear didn't color our decisions. There was no hesitation. The only thing that mattered

was the man to your left and right and doing everything

you could to make it back to the base home alive and win the day. About six months into my tour,

I started thinking a lot about legacy.

...