Behind The Shield

Mark was born in West-Berlin, Germany, and has lived in the USA, India, and Germany. From an early age he has been fascinated with the spiritual quest of the human soul, which eventually led him to the study of indigenous traditions and native wisdom. Mark has a degree in Theology and a PhD in Clinical Psychology. He is a founding member of Ken Wilber’s Integral Institute, an Advisory board member...

Mike Dugan is a retired FDNY firefighter, podcast host and speaker. We discuss the impact of WWII on his family, his journey into the fire service, the importance of training, fitness, contrasting both of the WTC attacks he responded to, mental health, cancer and so much more. Michael M. Dugan is a 42-year veteran of the fire service and a 27-year veteran of the New York City Fire Department (FDNY...

During his service, Flip participated in more than 75 real-world rescue and medical missions and served as a lead advisor for MEDEVAC operations during the Fukushima disaster response. He also supported large-scale emergency planning initiatives, operational readiness programs, and leadership development efforts across organizations totaling more than 4,000 personnel. Following retirement from mil...

Andrew Prisco is the founder of Jumpstart Mastery, an elected Fire Commissioner, and a nationally recognized authority on human performance, leadership, crisis de-escalation, and organizational culture. For more than 25 years, his career has been dedicated to improving how people and organizations perform when the stakes are highest. Since beginning his behavioral health career in 1999, Andrew has...

Emmy® award winning makeup artist Brian Sipe has been working professionally since 1989 as a freelance artist and through his company, Gamut Studios. Several Hollywood makeup effects companies and production studios have taken advantage of his extensive knowledge and experience as a character effects designer and project manager. Brian has had his professional makeup work featured in films and tel...

Frank Meeink became a skinhead at thirteen. By eighteen, he was roaming the country as a skinhead leader and neo-Nazi recruiter with gangs that would beat people indiscriminately. In Illinois he had his own cable-access TV show, “The Reich.” He was finally arrested and convicted of kidnapping and beating a member of a rival skinhead gang. While in prison he befriended men he used to think he hated...

Dr. Kellie O’Dare is a nationally recognized researcher and educator focused on advancing mental wellness, suicide prevention, and organizational resilience within public safety. In this second conversation we discuss the successes seen by deparments that moved to the 24/72, the corrolation between organisational betrayal, finding accurate fire service suicide statistics and so much more. Kellie s...

Mitch Dryer was a Firefighter for the City of Oneida, NY and also a member of the New York State Air National Guard, 174th Fighter Wing at Hancock Field, Syracuse, NY. His brief career included a 2006 deployment, taking part in Operation Iraqi Freedom. On April 22, 2007 he was injured when responding to a structure fire, in which the roof collapsed, causing 3rd & 4th degree burns over 20% of h...

Tara is the Founder of FLAME Natural Decon. She is also a Navy Veteran and the sister of a San Diego firefighter. Tara founded FLAME when she realized there was a need for a product developed specifically for firefighter personal decon. After a year of extensive R&D, Tara launched FLAME in 2020 with their bar of Soap and Shampoo + Body Wash and since then she’s developed decon Hand Soap, Laund...

Tom Beaver is an elite endurance athlete, welder and the founder of BeaverFit. We discuss farm life, bridge building, SAS selection, creating strength and conditioning equipment elite tactical athletes, bringing solutions to strength and conditioning space challenges, his incredible endurance feats, rhinos and so much more. Tom has always had a passion for exercise. He has competed in some of the...

Tyler Grey spent the better part of a decade operating in environments most people will never see. As a member of Delta Force, a US Tier 1 military unit, he deployed multiple times during the War on Terror. On a night raid in Sadr City, Iraq, an IED explosion left him approximately twenty seconds from bleeding out. He survived, by what came after the survival was harder. The recovery involved year...

Justin Eaton was born in Lawrence, MA. After years of Gymnastics and Martial Arts Justin found himself doing live shows out of Southern California and in the early 2000’s got introduced to the idea that “stunts could be a real job”. Since then he has managed to double for some of the biggest names in Hollywood. Ryan Gosling, Michael Fassbender and Brad Pitt to name a few. Spending over half of a 2...

John Nittolo has spent 31 years inside public education proving a thesis most of the field only theorizes about: that healthy bodies and disciplined minds aren’t enrichment — they’re the foundation everything else is built on. He has served at nearly every level of a school system along the way — classroom teacher; Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment; Director of Personnel and Staf...

Jeffrey L. Schwartz is a University Professor in Criminal Justice. Dr. Schwartz has numerous certifications and ongoing practical experience in the law enforcement and security field. He is a retired police officer, served as an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps, a former Department of Defense contractor as a manager of a guard force and instructor, an approved trainer with the Federal Protective S...

Tim Houweling and Angela Graham-Houweling are two firefighters with almost 40 years of experience combined in emergency services including Fire, EMS, and Search & Rescue. They have witnessed firsthand the growing mental health challenges faced by first responders. Over the years, they have lost several friends and family members to depression and PTSD. After navigating their own mental health...

Justin Wren is an MMA Heavyweight and founder of the organization "Fight for the Forgotten". We discuss his early life, bullying, combat sports, addiction, the pygmies and much more. Almost a decade ago the world got to know Justin Wren through his successful mixed martial arts career in the UFC – from starring in the Spike reality show “The Ultimate Fighter,” to becoming a dominating force in the...

Captain James Owen is a retired Long Beach Fire Department Captain, author of The Last Patient: A Memoir of Resilience and Recovery, speaker, recovery advocate, and founder of Camp Pivot, a platform dedicated to helping first responders, veterans, high-stress professionals, and their families confront trauma, rebuild trust, and recover with discipline. James spent nearly three decades in emergency...

Michael Easter is a journalist, professor and the author of "The Comfort Crisis". We discuss his journey into writing, the metamorphosis of the magazine industry, the concept of Misogi, the obesity epidemic, seeking discomfort, the importance of boredom and so much more. Michael is a leading voice on how humans can integrate modern science and evolutionary wisdom for improved health, meaning, and...

Charles R. Johnson is an entrepreneur, operator, and strategist with over two decades of experience spanning entertainment, technology, economic development, and consumer products. As the Founder and CEO of The Bump Serum, he leads the development and growth of a performance-driven skincare brand focused on solving pseudofolliculitis barbae (PFB), commonly known as razor bumps—a condition he spent...

Jorge Carvajal is a veteran Performance Coach and Tactical Performance Consultant with more than 30 years of experience developing elite athletes and high-performance operators at the highest levels. His background includes training thousands of athletes at the University of Florida, University of Nebraska, and the U.S. Olympic Training Center, along with professionals from the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL,...

Dr. Stacy Cecchet, Ph. D., ABPP, is a forensic and operational psychologist with over a decade of experience supporting law enforcement, tactical teams, investigative units, and other high-demand professionals. Her work focuses on behavioral analysis, investigative strategy, offender typologies, interview strategy, human performance under stress, and functional wellness in operational environments...

Nathanael “Nate” Block is a leadership and culture development coach, crisis de-escalation instructor, and public-sector leader committed to helping people and organizations operate with clarity, courage, and purpose. He is the owner of Stewardship Dynamics, where he teaches leadership, communication, and culture development to teams seeking to build healthier, more effective organizations. Nate a...

Dr Kelly Starrett is a Doctor of Physical Therapy, the author of the Supple Leopard books and the co-founder of The Ready State. We discuss the importance of hydration, the power of sleep, the aging athlete, overcoming injury, forging wellness in our schools and so much more. Kelly is a Doctor of Physical Therapy, 3x New York Times bestselling author, and the person behind the movement systems use...

Mitchell Brown is an Air Force Medic veteran, one of the orginal paramedics from Pittsburgh's Freedom House and retired Columbus City Councilman. We discuss how the loss of his mother sent him into medicine, physical and mental trauma in Vietnam, America's first paramedics, the origin of CPR, the opiod crisis, leadership and so much more.

Walt Dix is the IAFF 12th District Vice President and 38 year veteran of the fire service. We discuss joining the fire service in the 1970s, the evolution of fire attack, the firefighter work week, the truth behind the FLSA, mental health, fitness standards, forging journeymen and so much more. Born and raised in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Walter, a native of South Florida, dedicated his career to...