--- title: "Listen to accused deserter Bowe Bergdahl tell his story publicly for the first time" date: "2018-04-02" modified: "2020-10-21" authors: - name: "Blake Stilwell" job_title: "Editor-In-Chief, Air Force Veteran" link: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/authors/blake/" url: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-trending/wildly-popular-serial-podcast-features-accused-deserter-bowe-bergdahl-words/" categories: - "Afghanistan War" - "History" - "Military News" - "War History" --- # Listen to accused deserter Bowe Bergdahl tell his story publicly for the first time ![]() *This American Life's* wildly popular *Serial* podcast came to fame in 2014 with the story of Adnan Syed, a young man from Maryland who was convicted in 2000 for the murder of his ex-girlfriend and high school classmate Hae Min Lee. Syed's case was clouded with a number of possible discrepancies and suspicions not mentioned in his trial. The case was wild enough to merit retelling via the first season of the podcast, which earned the convicted Syed another hearing based on the new evidence. --- The much-anticipated second season of *Serial* features the story of accused deserter Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. Bergdahl is a U.S. Army soldier who spent nearly five years [held in captivity by the Taliban-aligned Haqqani Network]() after walking away from his outpost in Afghanistan's Paktika Province. His captors allege he was captured after getting drunk while off-base, while some of his fellow soldiers say he simply walked away from his post. Others say he was captured from a latrine. Bergdahl has, until now, mostly remained silent. The episode opens with a vivid description of Bergdahl's rescue and tells the story of his capture and rescue, laying out exactly what happened and why through the lens of host Sarah Koenig and filmmaker Mark Boal, with whom Bergdahl regularly speaks directly. ![]() Boal, a producer and director whose work includes many war films, including "Zero Dark Thirty," "The Hurt Locker," and "In The Valley of Elah," spoke with Bergdahl about everything from his experience in captivity to "motorcycles, God, and how good spicy salsa is." ![]() Through the context of Boal's discussion with Bergdahl, *Serial* attempts to address how Bergdahl's decision to walk away has "[spun out wider and wider... played out in unexpected ways from the start]()." *It reaches into swaths of the military, the peace talks to end the war, attempts to rescue other hostages, our Guantanamo policy. [What Bergdahl did made me wrestle with things I'd thought I more or less understood](), but really didn't: what it means to be loyal, to be resilient, to be used, to be punished.* - Sarah Koenig Bergdahl reveals in his own words why he left that base in Afghanistan in 2009, which led to a massive search where other U.S. troops died trying to find and rescue him. His story is the same as it always was, he wanted to create a crisis to get a meeting with higher-level commanders to address what he saw were leadership problems in his chain of command, but Bergdahl doesn't stop there. He wanted to show everyone he could be an outstanding soldier, *the* outstanding soldier. ![]() *A still from Bergdahl's capture video* "I was trying to prove myself," he told Boal. "I was trying to prove to the world, to anybody who used to know me, that I was capable of being that person." After 20 minutes into his sojourn, Bergdahl realizes he's made a huge mistake. "I'm going, 'Good grief, I'm in over my head,'" he says in the podcast. *Editor's note: The producers will be interacting with listeners as the show progresses. Ask them questions via [Tumblr](), [twitter](), [Facebook]() and [Instagram]().* ## Author Blake Stilwell is We Are The Mighty's Editor-in-Chief, covering military news, entertainment, and history, along with veteran education, employment and entrepreneurship. He is a former U.S. Air Force combat cameraman with degrees in Graphic Design, Television and Film, International Relations, Public Relations, Business Management and Middle Eastern Affairs. After leaving the military, he began working in film and television production in New York and Los Angeles, work that included ABC News, NBC Olympics, and HBO Sports. He then spent two years in Washington with White House Communications, before joining the Near East Foundation. At NEF he served as an International Development Fellow, then Communications Officer, and finally, Media Officer for the Middle East and Africa. Based in the Palestinian Territory, he coordinated strategic communications between eight country offices, international media, and government and NGO partners. He began a career focused on writing and editing in 2015 with We Are The Mighty. He left in 2019 for Military.com, but returned as Editor-in-Chief in 2025. Blake’s work has been seen on CBS News, Fox News, CBC, The Chicago Tribune, Task & Purpose, Military Times, Recoil, Skillset, American History, and was shockingly even used in a Supreme Court argument. He is an avid traveler and small business owner in Ohio, where he spends most of his energy fixing up a very old house. ### Author social links [Facebook]() [Twitter]() [Instagram]() [LinkedIn]()