Bonus #166 - McDade's Maniacs Vol. 11 w/ Shawn Murray [PATREON PREVIEW]

Summary

Stavvy’s World: Bonus #166 - McDade's Maniacs Vol. 11 w/ Shawn Murray

Date: February 5, 2026
Host: Stavros Halkias
Guest: Shawn Murray
(Patreon Preview)

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Episode Overview

This episode of "Stavvy’s World" dives headfirst into one of the wildest and most intense voicemail stories ever submitted to the show. Listeners join Stavros and his crew as they navigate a heavy, morally complex scenario: a former child soldier unexpectedly encounters the man who once commanded (and abused) him during the Balkan Wars—now as a client in a U.S. refugee organization. The crew respond with their trademark mix of dark humor, empathy, and irreverent insight.

Note: The episode contains explicit language, gallows humor, and frank discussions of war, trauma, and abuse.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

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1. The Caller’s Story: A Shocking Reunion

Timestamps: 01:13 – 04:31

• Background:
  The caller reveals he was a child soldier, ages 8–12, during the Balkan Wars (1991–1995). His family was killed, and he was conscripted under a brutal commander, Sergeant Nicola, who abused other boys but never the caller (because, as he puts it, "I slept with a knife").
• Post-war Life:
  After the war, he was taken in by the UN and adopted by a U.S. family. He now works at a refugee organization, helping survivors of torture and political violence—often acting as intake for Balkan refugees due to his language skills.
• The Twist:
  The caller is assigned an intake for a man whose name he instantly recognizes: Sergeant Nicola.
• Moral Dilemma:
  “If I report him, I have no evidence… My first thought was to kill him, but I’m not gonna do that to my family.” (Caller, 04:07)
  He asks the crew what he should do.

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2. Stavvy and Crew React: Gallows Humor & Grappling with Trauma

Timestamps: 02:07 – 04:46

• The hosts immediately acknowledge the heaviness of the story, with both jokes and audible discomfort.
  • “Worst way to get molested is you’re also a child soldier.” (Co-host 2, 02:07)
  • “And then you fucking put a grenade launcher on and burn an old woman alive… That’s brutal, dude. Jesus Christ.” (Co-host 3, 02:18)
• Acceptance that this episode’s theme has become a dark exploration of trauma and abuse.

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3. Advice & (Dark) Alternatives for the Caller

Timestamps: 05:15 – 09:05

• Comic Relief—The Podcast Solution:
  The crew riff that the caller should “start a podcast with him,” comparing it to the famous rapprochement between comedians Louie CK and Marc Maron.
  • “It’s like when Louie and Mark Marin finally sat down to hash it out.” (Co-host 1, 04:48)
• Serious Advice:
  They stress that the first thing is emotional safety—he shouldn’t be the one handling Nicola’s intake:
  • “You could just say, like, I know who this fucking guy is… you shouldn’t have to do his fucking paperwork.” (Co-host 3, 05:15)
  • "At the very minimum, you shouldn't have to deal with this guy." (05:40)
• On Reporting or Retaliation:
  The crew weigh the fantasy of vengeance against reality:
  • “The right thing to do is to report him. Like you said, the fun thing to do is bury him—just fucking go Jimmy Hoffa on this dude.” (Co-host 1, 08:31)
  • “We cannot give you that. ...We’d love to officially give you the advice of murdering him. Officially, we’ll say: do not do that. Report him. Tell your fucking boss, your supervisor.” (Co-host 3, 08:42)
• Passing it Along:
  All agree the caller has every right to recuse himself from processing this man’s paperwork—and should do so for his own mental health:
  • “If you pass the paperwork off to someone else, at the very least you’re like, okay. I just don’t have to think about… But if you process his paperwork, he’s going to know where you live.” (Co-host 1, 09:05)

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4. Humor as a Coping Mechanism & Side Riffs

Timestamps: 09:23 – 12:00

• The crew riff on how a movie would handle this scenario versus real life, with tongue-in-cheek references to war movies and pop culture.
• They share a story of a high school gym teacher who “borrowed” all his Vietnam stories from The Things They Carried and Apocalypse Now.
• Analogies to dealing with loathed clients in customer service, drawing a parallel with how the caller might "opt out" of dealing with Sergeant Nicola.
  • “Make their life hell in the customer service type of way.” (Co-host 2, 11:10)
• Everyone acknowledges just how wild—and heavy—this call is.
  • “That’s one of the wildest things I’ve ever heard.” (Co-host 1, 11:16)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• The Heart of the Dilemma:
  “I still can’t even believe it’s him after all these years. But yeah. Bit of a heavy one. Would love your guys input.”
  (Caller, 04:21)

• On the Call’s Impact:
  “Good on you for being able to even do that… even though your first instinct was to kill him—which is completely fair.”
  (Co-host 3, 07:15)

• On Fantasizing Revenge (But Facing Reality):
  “If this is a movie, I’m saying earn his trust and then torture and kill him… but this is not a movie. You’re a real guy, you’ve worked really hard, you have a beautiful adopted family… violence is not the answer, unfortunately.”
  (Co-host 3, 07:31)

• Their Official Advice:
  “We’d love to officially give you the advice of murdering him. Officially, we’ll say: do not do that. Report him, yes. Tell your fucking boss, your supervisor… at the very least you shouldn't have to process this guy.”
  (Co-host 3, 08:40)

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Important Segment Timestamps

• [01:13] Caller’s voicemail begins (life as a child soldier, losing family, experience with Sergeant Nicola)
• [03:04] Caller describes working at refugee org and the fateful intake with Nicola
• [04:07] Caller asks what to do, wrestling with urge for revenge vs. legal/moral limits
• [05:15] Crew gives earnest practical advice (don’t process his paperwork; consider reporting)
• [07:31] The hosts reflect on wishing life was like a movie, but offering real-world caution
• [08:40] Official advice: don’t seek revenge; inform supervisors; distance yourself
• [09:33] Mental health impact—“the more you spend thinking about this guy, it’s going to drive you insane”
• [11:16] Co-hosts react to the wildness of the entire call

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Tone and Style

• The episode balances intense subject material with the hosts’ signature dark, irreverent humor.
• While the hosts riff, joke, and imagine outlandish scenarios, they ultimately land on reasonable, real-world advice rooted in empathy.
• The show's vibe remains loose, supportive, and brutally honest—even when it’s uncomfortable.

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Summary Takeaway

This episode of Stavvy’s World is a raw, uniquely intense ride: a testament to the kind of real-world wildness that can land in your inbox when you host an “advice” podcast. The hosts respond with a mix of shock, gallows humor, and practical wisdom—ultimately advising the caller to safeguard his mental health and recuse himself from dealing with his abuser, rather than seeking vigilante justice or suppressing his trauma. The result is an episode that’s both unforgettable and surprisingly heartfelt, all delivered in Stavvy’s signature bro-down style.

Transcript

[Host]

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[Co-host 1]

I told you it was the holiday.

[Host]

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[Co-host 2]

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[Host]

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[Guest or Minor Speaker]

Maybe we still got time for another plan.

[Host]

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[Co-host 1]

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[Co-host 3]

What else we got?

[Co-host 4]

LD I have one that might even be too maniacal for McDonald's.

[Co-host 2]

Our boundaries have never been tested.

[Co-host 3]

Let's find out.

[Co-host 1]

Keep it twisted.

[Advertiser/Promo Voice]

Level.

[Co-host 3]

Let's find out.

[Caller/Guest]

Hey. Stuff. Eldest guest. There's a lot to this. I'm just going to get into it. I was a child soldier from 8 to 12 in the Balkan Wars. No, from 91 to 95, my village got taken out. Not gonna say where, so people can't look it up. But after my family was killed, I got taken in by a guy named Sergeant Nicola. That was who I. I guess you would call it. Served under what he was. He was a real piece of work, you know, he was abusing some of the other boys who were also fighting. Never got me though, because I slept with a knife and I think, you know, I'd stick him.

[Co-host 3]

But those other guys were pussies. Wow. This really has been a thing about getting molested. That's the running theme of this episode.

[Co-host 2]

We've not found the worst way to get molested. Worst way to get molested is you're also a child soldier.

[Co-host 1]

When it happens. Yeah, we found it. We found both sides of the full scene.

[Co-host 3]

And then you fucking put a grenade launcher on and burn an old woman alive. That's how you fucking like calm down after getting molested? That's brutal, dude. Jesus Christ. Whatever.

[Caller/Guest]

But after the war, Nicola just kind of vanished. We Got taken in by the UN. This guy's 60 UN forces that were operating in the Balkans. Long story short, I got adopted by a family here in the States.

[Co-host 3]

Nice.

[Caller/Guest]

I love my adoptive family, they are my family. Super grateful for them. But here, you know, I got the chance to go to get my ged, go to college.

[Co-host 3]

Nice.

[Caller/Guest]

Right now I'm working at a refugee organization that takes in specifically SOT survivors of torture and victims of political violence. So I do the intakes for a lot of them and they always have me do the intakes for the folks from the Balkans who speak Servo Croat, because I speak it too. So last week I got given the slip for an intake for one E. Cola. I'll say his last name, but it's unique enough that I recognized it. And then sure enough, when I sat down in the intake, it was Sergeant Nicola. He's older and fatter now, but I recognized him. He didn't recognize me because obviously, you.

[Co-host 3]

Know, yeah, you're not sexy, but you're not hot to him.

[Caller/Guest]

I don't really know what to do. I. Guys, if I report him, I have no evidence of what he did. My first thought was to kill him, but I'm not gonna do that to my family.

[Co-host 3]

No, don't kill him.

[Caller/Guest]

Right? I'm past that kind of shit.

[Co-host 3]

Yeah, no more killing.

[Caller/Guest]

I don't know what to do. Do I bring it up my supervisor?

[Co-host 2]

I don't.

[Caller/Guest]

I just don't know what to do.

[Co-host 3]

Yeah, you do.

[Caller/Guest]

I still can't even believe it's him after all these years. But yeah. Bit of a heavy one. Would love your guys input.

[Co-host 2]

Jesus, start a podcast with him. Yeah.

[Co-host 3]

Well, I will say that I looked up Sergeant Nicola and there appears to be a novel about someone named Sergeant Nicole.

[Co-host 2]

I was gonna say if this was a fake call. Riveting screenplay, top notch.

[Co-host 3]

Yeah.

[Caller/Guest]

Yeah.

[Co-host 2]

It's good fiction if it is fiction.

[Co-host 1]

Yeah. I think podcast is the way to go. It's like when Louie and Mark Marin finally sat down to hash it out.

[Co-host 2]

At the end it's like, so are we good, Sergeant? Cool.

[Co-host 3]

Yeah, dude.

[Co-host 1]

I was just jealous the whole time. That's all it was.

[Co-host 2]

You were young, you were the best sniper in the unit.

[Co-host 1]

You had a whole future ahead of you.

[Co-host 2]

I was.

[Co-host 1]

I was jealous. You and the other boys.

[Co-host 3]

Fuck, dude. Yeah. I mean, I think you can snitch on this. Like first of all, you can tell he says he works for an organization that like, you know, helps people, survivors of political violence, you know, all this kind of stuff. You could just say like, I know who this fucking guy is. And at the very minimum, you shouldn't have to deal like, all right, you don't have proof, whatever. You shouldn't have to do his fucking paperwork.

[Co-host 2]

Yeah, right.

[Co-host 3]

Like, at the very least you should be like. And also the people that work with, you know, like, they know these types of people, you know, they're versed in exactly this kind of shit.

[Co-host 2]

So although you could fuck up all the paperwork, you could put them in bureaucracy hell where you're like, do the.

[Co-host 1]

Intake and send them back to the fucking balcony.

[Co-host 2]

Reject his application, return to Senate.

[Co-host 1]

Yeah, exactly.

[Co-host 3]

Yeah, yeah. What can you do to fuck up his application?

[Co-host 4]

This is one where maybe you should forward the papers to ICE and let them sort Sergeant Nick a while.

[Co-host 3]

Yeah, if ICE has to come in in a, in a rented minivan with fucking masks on.

[Co-host 2]

But then take one guy, all right, put it in the white pile. The white ones will get to later.

[Co-host 3]

Yeah, they're just going to. Former fat white war criminals are like, oh, dude, you're good.

[Co-host 2]

Like, hey, you're. You're good at finding children.

[Co-host 3]

We have a bunch of kids that we don't even know whose parents they are anym anymore. Yeah, dude, we can't pay you. But listen, every Monday you get three hours in the.

[Co-host 2]

You didn't work with kids who were off the grid.

[Co-host 1]

He's going to be leading an ICE splinter cell.

[Co-host 3]

They'll just put him to work making a child soldier brigade of ICE for sure. Nine year old Mexican.

[Co-host 1]

You're gonna see Sergeant Nicola down in Venezuela blowing up boats.

[Co-host 4]

The first time my life has had purpose since the Balkan wars ended.

[Co-host 2]

Yeah, he's gonna start like the whatever the Hitler youth equivalent of.

[Co-host 3]

Absolutely, dude.

[Co-host 2]

Just having a con, having to sit across the table.

[Co-host 3]

Yeah, I mean, first of all, good on you for being able to even do that.

[Co-host 2]

Yeah.

[Co-host 3]

And it's good that even though your first instinct was to kill him, which.

[Co-host 1]

Is with the skills that he taught you.

[Co-host 3]

Completely fair. It's kind of poetic. If this is a movie.

[Co-host 1]

Yeah, that's the way it ends.

[Co-host 3]

If this is a movie. I'm saying earn his trust and then torture and kill him for everything. But this is not a movie. You're a real guy. You've worked really hard. You have a beautiful adopted family you're probably gonna start, you know, you probably have your own family or starting your own family, whatever that is not in real life violence, unlike in cool movies, violence is not the answer, unfortunately.

[Co-host 2]

Yeah, if you did torture this guy to Death, as we'd all like to see it, would probably up your life more.

[Co-host 3]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. You're just risking. Honestly, I won't even say it necessarily will fuck it up. You're just risking that it will. Because if you get away with killing him, it's probably. Would feel awesome.

[Co-host 2]

Yeah. Yes.

[Co-host 3]

Right. But. But in the moment.

[Co-host 2]

But then you're looking over your shoulder. I don't know.

[Co-host 3]

I think I could probably kill a guy who wronged me and. And more. And, like, my conscience would be okay. I just wouldn't want to go to jail.

[Co-host 2]

Right.

[Co-host 3]

You know what I mean?

[Co-host 1]

That's my. Yeah, that would be my big fear. I'm not losing any sleep.

[Co-host 3]

This guy's a complete piece of. He deserves to die and go to hell.

[Co-host 1]

The right thing to do is to report him. Like you said, the fun thing to do is bury him. Just fucking go, Jimmy Hoffa on this dude.

[Co-host 3]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Co-host 1]

Put him under the metal lanes.

[Co-host 3]

We cannot give you that. We can't. No matter how much we'd love to officially give you the advice of murdering him. Officially, we'll say, do not do that. Report him. Yes. Tell your fucking boss, your supervisor, even if you don't. Worst case scenario, you shouldn't have to process this guy.

[Co-host 1]

I'm gonna say, yeah. Make sure you're not the one doing his paperwork.

[Co-host 3]

Like, you give him a strong thumbs down. Yeah. You're not probably.

[Co-host 1]

You're probably not gonna get, like, a happy resolution to this, but if you pass the paperwork off to someone else, at the very least, you're like, okay. I just don't have to think about, like, you know, he's out there, but it's like, you knew he was out there before. You know what I mean? But if you. If you try to process. If he processes the paperwork, he's going to kill him because he's gonna know where he lives.

[Co-host 3]

The more you.

[Co-host 2]

True, true. Yeah.

[Co-host 3]

And the more you spend thinking about.

[Co-host 1]

This guy, it's going to drive you insane.

[Co-host 3]

That's a good point. You knew he was out there somewhere. I guess you were hoping he was killed.

[Co-host 1]

Right.

[Co-host 3]

Wars. But, you know. Yeah. Get this off your plate. But, man, this actually would be a sick movie.

[Co-host 4]

That's.

[Co-host 2]

Yeah, that would be awesome. Yeah. Right, right. About this. Right?

[Co-host 3]

About this movie telling us.

[Co-host 2]

Yeah.

[Co-host 3]

Just telling us the fucking story of a movie. Yeah.

[Co-host 1]

I can't wait to find out that.

[Co-host 4]

We were in, like, a very.

[Co-host 2]

We had a teacher in high school, a gym teacher, who told us all, like, stories from Vietnam, and one of them was like, yeah, there was a village a couple clicks south of us and, you know, launched artillery. And it turned out, like, he thought it was an enemy camp. And we actually blew up a village. And, like, that exact story is from a book called the Things They Carried about Vietnam. Yeah. He's like, we shot what we thought was a.

[Co-host 3]

It was a water buffalo lie in such hilarious ways.

[Co-host 1]

He was like, we finally made it across the river. There was this weird tribe. Colonel Kurtz was in the kingdom. He was sitting in the dark.

[Co-host 2]

But we actually work for the same company briefly. Yeah. And bleep it out. Yeah, we. There were incredibly annoying customers. And I was just trying to think, like, about this guy's story. Like, how do you treat incredibly annoying customers that you don't want to deal with? And when there was a guy who hated me and I hated him, and we just mutually detested each other.

[Co-host 3]

Yeah.

[Co-host 2]

And then, like, he called on the phone. He'd be like, hey, can. Can anyone else help me? Not you. He would literally say that. And then he, like, came into the store when we were really busy, and, like, he was in a rush and, like, frantically looking for, like, supplies for some job. And he was like. Came to my desk to try to get some help, and I was like, someone else can help you. It's a nice, satisfying.

[Co-host 3]

Must have felt awesome.

[Co-host 2]

Like, crap. Yeah.

[Co-host 3]

Give him the old run around.

[Co-host 2]

Yes. Oh, make their life hell in the customer service type of way.

[Co-host 3]

Yeah, man. Good luck. This is insane.

[Co-host 1]

That's one of the wildest things I've ever heard.

[Co-host 3]

I could have been you eldest if Greece didn't take you in your family and his refugees.

[Co-host 2]

I'll just slit the throat of the guy who was trying to kidnap him into the child brigade and he fled to America.

[Co-host 4]

I wish it was me. Kind of like how I wish I joined the military.

[Co-host 3]

Right, you wish you were getting molested and having to murder people at 9 years old.

[Co-host 4]

I wish I had this cold, emotionless demeanor of our caller here.

[Co-host 3]

Yeah. I'm sure his day to day is a lot easier than yours.

[Co-host 1]

You could have had whatever the Albanian equivalent of a Dodge Charger is.

[Co-host 2]

A donkey.

[Co-host 3]

A horse without not missing any teeth, A crippled mule.

[Guest or Minor Speaker]

Why have I asked my electrician I found on Angie.com to bury my pet hamster? I was so moved by how carefully he buried my electrical wires, I knew I could trust him to bury my sweet nibbles after his untimely end.

[Host]

This is very strange, Angie. The one you trust to find the ones you trust find pros for all.

[Co-host 3]

Your home [e-mail] hey listeners, Stavi here. Thank you for tuning into Stavi's World each week. If you want to hear new episodes ad free, subscribe to Sirius XM podcast plus on Apple Podcasts or visit siriusxm.com podcastplus to listen with Spotify or another app of your choice.