Eric Leja

Eric Leja

From First Time Go by Benjamin Duchek

April 24, 2026 · 28 min · Season 4 · Episode 22

About this episode

Eric Leja returns to discuss his provocative novella and the implications of its title in the film industry.

Watch This Episode On YouTube Only a Marine could get away with writing a novella entitled -- let me make I'm sure I got this right -- "Let's Murder the Fuck out of Baby Hitler." And even then, maybe only a Marine who is a filmmaker and screenwriter. Fellow redleg Eric Leja (servicemember assigned to the artillery branch) returns to the podcast to talk about his new novella which is he is hoping to turn into a feature or a series; the reaction to such a provocative title in an industry that claims to support free speech; the lumping of veterans immediately into the red hat crowd, and more. He asked me, are you sure you're okay with the title? Fuck yeah, I'm okay. I'm supporting fellow veterans till I die. We do touch on politics in this episode, which I'm usually loathe to do because you hear enough of this stuff on everything other than a film podcast. But if you do hear something you disagree with, certainly as it relates to the film industry, I'd love to hear why. And that brings us right back to where we started: Eric's novella. Spoiler alert, no babies are actually harmed. The whole point of it is to think about our current situation in a new and hopefully funny way. And to…

People in this episode

Host: Benjamin Duchek

Guest: Eric Leja

Topics covered

  • veterans
  • free speech
  • self-publishing
  • film industry
  • politics
  • novella

Keywords

  • Eric Leja
  • novella
  • free speech
  • self-publishing
  • film
  • veterans
  • politics

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Let's Murder the Fuck out of Baby Hitler

More episodes of First Time Go

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the First Time Go podcast page.