In this heartfelt and witty collection of autobiographical anecdotes, Mo Barrett invites listeners to keep laughing, learning, and thinking through all of life’s ups and downs.

As a retired air force colonel, Mo reflects on defining moments, both poignant and comical, throughout her personal and professional life, from navigating the military as a gay female pilot to caring for her aging parents. Such moments include:

• Surviving a purple child-eating dragon at the community pool at the fragile age of five
• Inappropriately groping instructors’ legs (yes, that’s plural) when learning how to stall an airplane
• Performing in a female barbershop singing group inadvertently dressed as a Japanese drag queen
• Shocking residents of small Central American villages by being a female pilot
• Scoring for the wrong team (and playing for the other) and learning to not throw like a girl
• Proving her high school guidance counselor right by failing to get into the Air Force Academy (spoiler alert: eventually she gets in)

In Pardon My Quirk, Mo gracefully models how to find humor (and puns) in the face of adversity, uncovering deeper meaning that inspires growth, connection, and optimism. Her grounded stories remind listeners that we are more than our labels and that we all have something important to contribute in this world — we just have to pull our heads out and keep on smiling.