Back in early 2018, Jason Kander was riding high as one of the brightest young stars in American politics. After becoming the youngest statewide elected official in the nation and nearly toppling a Republican incumbent for a U.S. Senate seat from his native Missouri, Kander was invited to meet with Barack Obama, where the former president personally encouraged Kander to one day consider his own run for the White House, telling Kander, “You have what I had. You’re the natural.”

But Kander’s public presidential aspirations were derailed by a private battle with symptoms of PTSD, a result of service as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Army in Afghanistan. He struggled with anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, and eventually crippling bouts of shame as he finally confronted his diagnosis, and he quietly wished he could be a better husband to his wife, Diana, and better father to his son, True. On this episode of Paternal, Kander reflects on how he spent years in denial of the trauma that thwarted his political aspirations and damaged his personal life, how he used feelings of shame and anger to gain control of his life, and how therapy helped him reimagine what a man - and a father - is supposed to be. Kander’s new memoir, Invisible Storm, is available now.

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#64 Jason Kander: Politics, Parenthood, and PTSD