Stories from the Center of the Universe

Joining Paul on the podcast is Doctor Michael Amendola, who is the Chief of Vascular Surgery at the Central Virginia VA Healthcare System in Richmond, Virginia. Michael is from the Richmond area and went to William and Mary for his undergraduate degree as well as a masters in Chemistry. He spent some time after college up working in pharmaceuticals in New Jersey and then in 1998, he came back to R...

Paul met Cuong Phu (sounds like Kung Fu) Nguyen when he started going to a local Vietnamese restaurant. Paul was going there pretty regularly and he had a special order so Cuong Phu would remember Paul and his special order. Now Paul frequents Cuong Phu’s restaurant Pho Viet in the Ashland/Atlee area of Hanover County. They talked about Cuong Phu’s story which is truly an amazing story of love, co...

Paul has a friend whose son is interested in the military. He asked Paul to answer questions that he and his wife had about their son possibly going down this road. Paul and Courtney Ferrell (episode 51) get together to host this episode and their goal is to share some insights on things they wish they knew in their 20’s. To help his friend’s son, they brought back a past guest, Buck Sessoms. Buck...

Stephanie Becker is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Better2getherrva and she joins Paul via a connection with Mark Johnson (episode 332). Paul delved first into why and how Stephanie started this non-profit that benefits many children and their families in the Richmond area. Stephanie told Paul about how her son Jack, at age seven, got cancer and how she received some wonderful support fr...

Author and fellow Hanoverian Tracie Adams joins Paul to discuss western versus eastern Hanover, her life and her book. They first chatted about Tracie’s book, Our Lives in Pieces which is written as a collection of essays. In Our Lives in Pieces, Tracie tackles some very difficult and challenging issues that many of us have dealt with in our daily lives. Tracie and Paul discussed her life and how...

Stacey Jones and Misi Rose are the Executive Director and Director of Operations, respectively of Mercy Mall of Virginia. Mercy Mall was founded by Stacey and her family in 2011 soon after they had moved to Virginia from Arkansas. Misi joined Stacey about a year or so later as a volunteer and now helps Stacey run this wonderful “ministry that serves individuals and families that are overcoming the...

Barry Todd returns to the podcast, but this time he brought a friend, Sheriff Mark Lamb. Paul started by having both Barry and Mark give a high level summary of their backgrounds. Barry and Mark are, on the surface, unlikely friends. Barry had a terrible ordeal with the U.S. justice system and Mark was a two time elected Sheriff of Pinal County, Arizona. They are friends though because they are ho...

Mark Johnson grew up in Sutton, Massachusetts which was rural at the time and his family can trace their roots back to the folks that landed at Plymouth Rock. Mark and his family have been in Virginia for over 15 years and told Paul they had to make some changes when it came to the difference in pace between New England and the South. They talked about Mark’s brushes with the music industry. He ma...

Christian Ray Flores has led a very unique life. Christian was born in Moscow, Russia and by the time he was nine, he had lived in four countries and spoke four languages. When he was fourteen, he was back in Russia and in 1991, he received his master’s degree in Economics. Then in 1993, he entered the music entertainment industry as a singer and became an immediate success. One of his songs becam...

Bryan Kirk is a very good friend of Brett McCreight (Episode 323) and he joins Paul on the podcast. Bryan and Paul first talked about his wife Kristin, their three kids and about being a grandfather. He told Paul he grew up outside of Charlotte and that his parents had two sets of twins. They all attended a small Christian school which was a part of their church and he and his twin sister made up...

Barry Todd grew up in a military family and he spoke about his mom’s military service, her time working for the FBI and the fact that she spoke five languages. Barry grew up in many different places and enlisted in the United States Army in 1980. They discussed how he was very blessed during his twenty-one years in the U.S. Army, attending Ranger school and he told Paul about a very important less...

Amber Lancaster comes to the podcast through recent guest Brett McCreight. Amber grew up in an idyllic setting in Ohio and she and Paul had a quick chat about parenting and some of the differences between GenX and GenZ and how they raise their kids. Amber had a life changing experience when she went with her parents to visit some friends in Europe and she told Paul that she caught the travel bug....

John Streitmatter and Paul worked together a while back and they have reconnected to have a chat. They first discussed leadership, the journey of making changes to improve the workplace and the relationships between management and their employees. They discussed John growing up in Illinois, playing sports and becoming an Eagle Scout. John attended Indiana University, played a lot of pick up basket...

It’s couples week on Stories as Kerri Cobb Harrison joins the podcast. Her husband Tommy Harrison just talked to Paul the other day and Paul started by commenting that he has not met a couple so compatible as Kerri and Tommy. Kerri grew up in New Kent, Virginia and told Paul that she had a great childhood playing sports and spending time on the James River with her grandparents. Kerri was a two sp...

Gary Marx joins Paul through a connection with recent guest and friend Bret McCreight. Even though he has family ties to Germany from the 1800s, he told Paul he was no relation to Karl! Gary grew up in a military family and married his wife whom he met while they were in high school in Germany. After high school, his family moved back to the states and Gary went to James Madison and majored in Pol...

In this episode, Paul talks to Tommy Harrison who is from Ohio and had a ten year career in professional baseball. The first thing they discussed is how Tommy is an Ohio State fan and how he lives in a “house divided” because he married a fan of their rival school. They talked about growing up in an area that Tommy described as the country, but they still lived in a neighborhood. It was a whole lo...

Brett McCreight and Paul know each other from their time in the Virginia Army National Guard. Brett’s Dad was in the military as well and Brett told Paul he has lived in eighteen different houses throughout his life. They talked about his time on active duty and in the national guard. They discussed his many experiences throughout and they discussed the differences between the two as well as some...

Gray Lane (Episode 41) returns to Stories and to say he has had some dramatic changes in his life since the last time he and Paul spoke is an understatement. Gray discussed with Paul his beginnings with consuming alcohol. He soon recognized that he was different from most in that he drank more and longer than most of his friends. He told Paul how his drinking continued at VMI and how it surprising...

Tom Saunders and Paul used to work together at the “Bakery.” Tom was already there when Paul arrived and Paul recalled getting two pieces of sage advice from Tom about working in “Corporate America.” They reminisced and talked a lot about the people they worked with and how some were real characters! Tom has great memories of growing up in South Hill, Virginia where his dad was a doctor and he tol...

Matt Stemmler and Paul served briefly together in the Virginia Army National Guard and know a lot of the same people. Matt was a military kid as his Dad was career United States Coast Guard. He told Paul they moved all over. His first two years of high school were in Connecticut and his last two were in Virginia. He made a lot of new friends through sports and in high school, his sport was wrestli...

John Morgan is a teacher, writer and musician and comes to the podcast via a couple of mutual friends of his and Paul’s. John grew up in a small house where his Dad worked for the local utility company and his mom was a teacher. His dad went to St. Christopher’s and John’s parents decided to send him there as well. John and Paul talked about his experiences at St. Christopher’s and John told Paul...

Dave Lohr comes to the podcast via a round about connection to Bobby Malone (Episode 150). Dave is a VaTech graduate and his major and career was in Chemical Engineering. Paul first thanked Dave for talking to his son Zach who is also a Chemical Engineering major and a soon to be VT Alum! They then talked about The Indianapolis 500 which Dave will attend for the twenty-eighth straight time in May...

Jim's next gig is Saturday, March 22 at the Eastwood Farm & Winery at 2531 Scottsville Rd, Charlottesville from 12:30 to 3:30pm. After a twenty-eight year career, Jim O’Farrell retired from the Army about sixteen years ago. Jim has been playing a guitar since childhood and now between being in a band and singing solo, a lot of his retirement is filled with writing and playing music. He told Pa...

Dumi Mabhena had lived in four countries by the time he was 22 years old. The four countries were Zimbabwe where he was born, then Canada for a couple of years, South Africa for boarding school and Scotland for college. Dumi talked to Paul about what is was like growing up in Zimbabwe and why he, his mom and his sister moved to Canada for a period of time. He talked about the pros and cons of goin...

Colonel Winton ‘Dip’ Spiller comes to the podcast via a connection with Paul’s dad Larry (Episode 9). Colonel Winton Spiller was born in Hanover, Virginia and grew up in the Richmond area, mostly on a farm in Henrico County. They talked about how he got his nickname Dip, what his schedule was like growing up on a farm and him remembering when they first got a television. Dip graduated high school...