Standing By: The Terry and Ted Podcast · Terry and Ted

Season finale: Harden the F*ck Up

June 25, 2025·1 hr 20 min·5 clips

A veteran admits he didn't realize his worst injury from Afghanistan was psychological until it was almost too late.

The day starts sweaty. Recording on Fête Saint-Jean, Terry and Ted close the season with heat talk, holiday greetings, and a sponsor read that slips into the conversation like part of the show. The apartment is baking. Terry says two portable air conditioners are going full blast while a stationary-bike gauge still shows 91 Fahrenheit. Ted calls that comfortable, because of course he does. The banter wanders the way theirs usually does, from weather to apartment misery to half-improvised jokes that feel lived in. Then the episode turns. The guest talks about training for years, wanting deployment, and joining the military because he wanted to go to war. Family history sits close to it. His grandfather served in the Second World War, and the guest treats his own service as part of that Canadian Forces line. Afghanistan comes through as messier than a civilian picture of fear. He talks about fear and excitement sitting side by side, with responsibility making every movement feel sharper. Terry presses from a civilian place. Thunder rattles him, so he asks what a normal day feels like in a combat zone. The guest pushes back on the idea of constant terror. Rockets, mortars, and IED danger bring adrenaline, he says, but not the nonstop fear Terry imagines. He is careful with hero talk too. He says he did not have a busy tour in direct combat and never fired his rifle at anyone. Still, the danger was there. Avoiding IEDs becomes the blunt daily measure, and the conversation lets that land without dressing it up. The finale slides back into familiar rhythm at the end. They look toward coming back after Labor Day, joke through the subscribe bit, thank producer Matthew Borgeli and the executive producers, and send everyone off with a warm Bon été.

As heard by us

A hot-season closer that moves from easy local banter into a wartime story without losing its loose, lived-in charm.

Standing By ends its season in the middle of a sweaty Saint-Jean week, and Terry and Ted lean right into that. The heat, the holiday, and the usual sponsor chatter all get folded into the banter, along with the small stops and starts that make the show feel more like people…

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Why you'd press play

For a hot-weather season finale that starts with Saint-Jean chatter and ends in an Afghanistan recollection.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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