Just as polio loomed over the 1950s, and AIDS stalked the 1980s and ’90s, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) haunts us in the early years of the twenty-first century. Over a decade into the United States’ “global war on terror,” PTSD afflicts as many as 30 percent of the conflict’s veterans. But the disorder’s reach extends far beyond the armed forces. In total, some twenty-seven million Americans are believed to be PTSD survivors. Yet to many of us, the disorder remains shrouded in mystery, secrecy, and shame. This week we speak with David Morris, former Marine turned war correspondent. While on assignment, David's humvee was hit by an IED (improvised explosive device) and his life was forever changed.  In this episode we discuss America's hunger for violence, the effect of war movies on our nation (specifically we discuss the newest blockbuster - American Sniper), the truth about PTSD, and much more. 

David is the author of the brand new best-selling book, The Evil Hours: A Biography of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. 

David Morris is a former Marine infantry officer. He worked in Iraq from 2004 to 2007 as a reporter for Salon and the Virginia Quarterly Review. His story “The Big Suck: Notes from the Jarhead Underground” was originally published in VQR and was included in The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2007. His writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Slate, The Daily Beast, The Los Angeles Times and elsewhere. In 2008 Morris was awarded a creative nonfiction fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts as well as residencies at The MacDowell Colony and the Norman Mailer Writers Colony in Provincetown, Massachusetts. 

"The only people who don't think that America has an empire are Americans."

- David Morris

Quotes from David: 

What we learn in this episode:

What is the mental and physical toll that war takes on a soldier?

How are war movies distorting our feelings towards war and violence?

What should the average person understand about post-traumatic stress disorder?

Resources:

The Evil Hours: A Biography of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

www.theevilhours.com

New York Times Article by David Morris

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