Stories from the Center of the Universe

Chuck Casey returns to Stories from the Center of the Universe from when he was on with John Hollis and Jeremy Bowling in Episode #309. Paul and Chuck touched on their organization, The Longest Climb Foundation and Paul reiterated his commitment to help the organization. They then started to talk about Chuck and his military background. Chuck accurately labeled his career as a Unicorn. Chuck’s pat...

Pai Charasika returns to the podcast to chat with Paul about a few different things. Pai first told Paul about his first hand experience dealing with Hurricane Helene. Pai is a high school football coach in Asheville, NC., an area that was hit very hard by the hurricane in late September 2024. Pai talked about the team having to miss games, but how the boys used that time to help the community whi...

Courtney Kimble used to work with Paul and they reconnected after Paul met Courtney’s dad Anthony last week. Courtney is from Middlesex County, Virginia and Paul and a couple of friends went to eat lunch at Something Different ( https://somediff.com ) in Urbanna which Anthony and his wife Sarah own. They talked about where Courtney grew up, what Urbanna and Middlesex County are known for and how h...

COL Jeremy Bowling makes a return to the podcast when he was last on Episode 309 with John Hollis and Chuck Casey. They discussed their efforts to honor Sgt. Rodney Davis as well as their overall goal of helping veterans. Jeremy told Paul that their 501(c)(3), The Longest Climb Foundation has become official, is growing and how it will help them meet their goal. Jeremy and Paul first talked about...

In Episode 181, Paul interviewed his son Zach after he had turned 21 and now it is daughter Lindsay’s turn! The whole family was together to talk to Lindsay and Lisa started by telling us about the day that Lindsay was born. It involved a trip to Target, Lisa’s Mom telling her  something when she got home and then a decision to go to the hospital. Lindsay being born that day (at 8:47pm) meant she...

John Hollis (Episode 277) returns to the podcast, but this time with a couple of friends, Chuck Casey and Jeremy Bowling. The last 2 times John was on, he and Paul talked about the story of Sergeant Rodney Davis (USMC). They delve more into that story by discussing the Davis family trip to Vietnam for the first time and other incredible stories as well as the 501(c)(3) that the three of them are w...

Teresa Ofoia comes to the podcast via her Mom and Paul meeting at a networking event. Teresa is a professional dancer and has made that her career for about the last eight years. Teresa was born in Hawaii and raised in Virginia, first moving to northern Virginia and then moving to the Chesterfield/Richmond area. They discussed some of the changes she went through when she moved of which wearing sh...

Silent Rob met Robyn D’Onofrio and suggested that she come on the podcast … Paul reached out and here she is! Robyn grew up in rural New Jersey where there were lots of kids around and there was always something to do. She attended high school and told Paul she was an “athletic goof-off” who wasn’t concerned with academics that much. That changed in college where she was a captain of the basketbal...

Tom Greco returns to chat about the 2024 Presidential Election.   Happy Veterans Day to all who served!

Jamesetta Cleveland comes on the podcast to talk about her company Sports Mom University Consulting. Jamesetta and Paul talked about the company on a high level and how and why she founded it. Jamesetta will be joining Paul and Kevin on the Virginia is for Sports Podcast to talk more about her company and on the subject of NIL in particular. In this episode, Paul talked to Jamesetta about a variet...

Local real estate legend Woody Hogg joins Paul on the podcast. Woody and Paul talked about his many business ventures in banking, insurance, real estate and jobs he had when he was getting started such as being a taxi driver. They talked about the sports he played in high school and also during his time at East Carolina University. Woody told Paul the main three things that effect a house sale and...

In this next installment of the “Look Back” episodes, Paul, Rob and Brent take a look at Episodes 251-300. They each pick their Top 10 and a fun time was had by all!

James Hagler joins Paul and the first subject they covered was to talk about his relationship with his dad, Marvelous Marvin Hagler. They discussed James growing up with his dad, their differences in adulthood and how they reconciled before his dad passed away in 2021. James talked about going to the gym in his youth and the influence his uncle Robbie had on him. James told Paul about his family a...

Paidemoyo Charasika joins Paul courtesy of a connection with Chris Gaskell (Episode 262) as they played football together at Wake Forest. Pai was born in Nashville, but grew up in Louisville. Education was very important to Pai’s parents … especially his Mom! Pai attended Kentucky Country Day, a prep high school in Louisville and then looked at several really good academic colleges. He fell in lov...

Brent Scopel joins the podcast and is the guest for Episode 300! Brent has listened to almost every episode and he brought Paul some “brown water” to celebrate this momentous occasion. Brent grew up in Ohio and was adopted by his parents who raised him and his two brothers who were 14 & 16 years older than Brent . Growing up, Brent was drawn to music and started playing the drums when he was a...

Dwight Vick joined Paul on Episode 122 and is back with Paul and Kevin for a combination episode with the Virginia is for Sports Podcast. Dwight filled in Paul and Kevin on what’s been going on with his family and life since they last spoke. He spoke about his company Victory Life and how he relied on a very important person to come up with the company motto, “Leave a Legacy”. Kevin and Paul then...

In a unique episode, Ken Wakefield joins the podcast which is doubling with the Virginia is for Sports Podcast as well. Kevin Flippen joins Paul to talk to Ken about a myriad of subjects. Ken is from Buffalo, NY, has been coaching football since he was nineteen years old and is the current Head Football Coach at Patrick Henry High School in Ashland, VA. They talked about growing up in Buffalo and...

Leah is a realtor, a resident of Richmond, a force of nature and an absolute pleasure. 

Eric Ash grew up in Virginia Beach, moved to Mechanicsville when he was 11 and he told Paul it was a change going from city life to a more rural setting. He said he has positive memories of growing up in both places. Eric played baseball and football growing up, but he started training as a boxer when he was 12 and had his first organized fight when he was 15. Little did Eric know, but that was a...

Manny Fernandez grew up in Topping, Virginia in Middlesex County on a thirty acre farm with a nurturing mom and a Dad that he described as tough. He is very thankful for that combination which has helped him to be well mannered, respectful and have gratitude for what has happened in his life. What has happened is that Manny started fighting when he was 18 years old, has fought all over the world a...

John Finn joins Paul on the podcast to discuss growing up in Richmond, sports memorabilia and his family lineage to name a few. John grew up in different parts of Richmond and he and Paul discussed going to different schools and his experience with school integration. They talked about  the bad, but mostly good experiences and how his first year was very formative. Paul learned about John’s collec...

Joan Dorsey is a managing broker at Long & Foster Real Estate. She is also currently serving as the President of the Richmond Association of Realtors (RAR). Before becoming a managing broker, she founded and led her own real estate business. Check out our second installment with small business folks who have interesting stories to tell about business and life.

We recorded this one during Spring Break 2023. So why are we releasing this now? I wanted this to be a fun set of recorded memories just available for 2 families. The Gilmans and Colemans are on vacation again and the youngest of 5 kids (across both families) asked me for the 5th or 6th time to publish it to the world. So here you have it....two families reminiscing about Spring Break trips taken...

Kiara Robinson and Paul met in a unique way and discovered they had both been in the military. Kiara was active duty in the United States Marine Corps for five and a half years and had many different jobs/duties while in the USMC. She is from Long Beach, CA, but went to high school in Phoenix, AZ where she played a lot of sports and ultimately made the decision to enlist. They talked about her exp...

Weldon Bradshaw has been a coach, a teacher and a writer. He is still writing and his knowledge of Richmond, Virginia high school sports is unparalleled. Weldon taught and coached at the The Collegiate School for fifty years and retired two years ago. Before that he was covering sports for the old News Leader newspaper and the Times Dispatch. He is in his 56th year of covering high school basketba...