Cal Poly Humboldt Podcast Asks Hard Questions About War

Many veterans know the military acronyms SNAFU and FUBAR.* For everyone else, they translate roughly to situations that have gone very wrong.

Those colorful expressions inspired the title of SNAFUBAR, a podcast produced by Cal Poly Humboldt’s College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences (AHSS) and hosted by AHSS Dean Jeff Crane, a historian and peacetime Army veteran, and Sara Hart, chair of the Applied Humanities Department.

The premise is simple: to take a closer look at military history, especially the military’s mistakes.

That doesn’t mean the podcast is interested in second-guessing the people who served. Quite the opposite. Throughout the series, Crane and Hart return to the experiences of veterans and the gap that exists between how Americans talk about military service and how they support veterans when wars end.

“We romanticize and fetishize the military,” Crane said. “As a veteran and a historian, I’ve always been interested in the gap between how Americans talk about supporting veterans and how we actually support them. Those aren’t always the same thing, and history gives us a lot of examples of that disconnect.”

The hosts bring different perspectives to the conversation. Crane is a Cold War-era Army veteran whose father served in Vietnam. Hart grew up in a family of combat veterans and has spent years working with local veterans’ organizations and studying the stories Americans tell about war, patriotism and national identity.

Together, they explore topics ranging from George Washington’s early military blunders, the history of Afghanistan to Cold War politics, military language and the concept of “American civil religion” — beliefs and myths that shape how Americans understand themselves and their role in the world.

“The humanities are really about understanding the human experience,” said Hart, whose teaching focus is America and its myths. “When we talk about war, we’re talking about ethics, sacrifice, grief, identity and responsibility. Those questions don’t disappear when the fighting ends.”

For Humboldt County veterans and military families, many of whom carry their own memories of military service, SNAFUBAR offers something increasingly rare: a chance to talk about war honestly. Not simply as a story of victory or defeat, but as a complicated human experience with consequences that continue long after the fighting stops.

SNAFUBAR, one of several podcasts produced by Cal Poly Humboldt, is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and airs on KHSU radio 90.5 FM every Sunday at 1 p.m. Visit humboldt.edu/ podcasts for more info.

Nicola S. Waugh, M.A., is a lecturer, Department of Art + Film, and a communications specialist in Marketing & Communications, Cal Poly Humboldt. *Note: Military acronyms SNAFU = Situation Normal All “Fouled” Up and FUBAR = “Fouled” Up Beyond All Recognition.