Garden of Thought

Mental Health is a huge topic over recent years. Or at least it's finally being spoken about without stigma. But when mental health issues impact the social contract, there is a conflict between pre-emptive State action and civil rights and individual freedom. Families and health care professionals are often caught in the middle, with no clear or beneficial solutions obviously present. Resources a...

West Point graduate and Estate Planning attorney, Dominique Braggs, joins us to talk about her true calling: dragons! Traveler beware, here there be dragons. Are they demons, the serpent, gods, and some attempted explanation for dinosaur or other bones/fossils? What are the similarities, differences, myths, and lore. We'll explore historical depictions as well as popular literature and media. Be n...

The Inhumanz from the Inhumanz Experience return after a long absence from the Garden. We revisit the Annunaki and discuss some miscellaneous stuff like what's Dark Wave music and pop culture.

Eric Steiner is an attorney who focuses on the laws regarding finances and credit. This is often called Commercial Law. This often includes personal consumer aspects. We discuss the basics of commercial law, collections, lawsuits and enforcement, liens, the UCC, Bankruptcy and more. All in about 1 hour. You're welcome, world.

Michael Hilliard is the host of The Red Line podcast, the best geo-political podcast in my opinion. He's been a war correspondent all over the world and speaks Russian. He gave me the choice of any topics from his ample inventory. Of course, I chose many and he obliged. We're talking about warfare in space, the Stans. soft and hard power, and other great stuff.

We continue our parallel explorations of laws of this Earth and extrapolation to emerging laws of space. Today we consider labor laws. Specifically, those of the crew and the port workers. Todd Lochner returns to discuss the Jones Act, and the laws regarding seamen. Mark Miller, the editor of the Longshoreman's Act section of the Maryland Workman's Compensation manual also joins us to discuss the...

Ken Goudsward is a best selling author of both fiction and non fiction. His latest book is entitled "UFOs in the Bible" and covers many of the more famous stories and figures of the Bible and concludes that there were descriptions of UFO encounters. To support this conclusion, he studied the syntax and grammar and corrected mis-translations. The results are startling. Perhaps equally startling is...

Patrick J. Best is an attorney licensed in multiple States, who is an advocate for clients dealing with student loan debt. We discuss the various types of student loans, typical repayment and deferral routes, and the discharge options. We also engaged in a policy discussion and I just might be a progressive on this for a very conservative reason. Although I may have changed my mind back since.

Mitchell Greenberg re-enters the Garden and we discuss gargoyles. From their historic architectural beginnings to theories about why they appear the way they do. As is often the case, I have a theory that should draw lightning. Yet I still stand unsinged. We also discuss them in pop culture and the meanderings, the Garden has become famous for.

Kurt Wolfgang is an attorney who started his career as an advocate for victims of crime. He's had a four decades career that including being a combat zone pilot in multiple countries. He's been a prosecutor; worked with the DOJ; been an Assistant Attorney General; and staff counsel and now director of a Victim's Rights Tax Exempt in Maryland. This is his story and the rights this victim's have in...

Andy, host of the History of Africa, re-enters the Garden to explore the question of who are the Berbers. Is it a slur meaning barbarian? Are they Africans? What's their history, culture and religions? All of these questions have answers and Andy evades all my digressions and answers them in detail. We do, of course, get into Noah and Ham.

Dan Gaskill has been many things. He twice got kicked out of University for drunken fighting. Enter the Marine Corps. His GPA went from a 0.13 to over a 3.8 and his wife told him to go to law school. After a suggested meeting, he made contact with Tom Fay, who became his mentor, friend, and partner in trying to help particular people against particular Defendants. Both were personally offended tha...

The leader of the Righteous and Horror, Inc. enters the Garden: Vincent, the Horror King! You might know him from Ring of Honor and Impact Wrestling, but you're going to hear a conversation about horror films and some movies he's worked on. Of course we discuss some wrestling, but not the standard fare. See if your favorites are his favorites.

Luke Michael Ironside knows a lot. He insists he doesn't know everything, but it sure felt that way. He defines Theosophy and we discuss the underpinnings of Lucifer and many things that spring from that. We also discuss linguistics, but our focus is on Lucifer. What can go wrong?

Troy Nussbaum's legal practice primarily involves representation of those denied or facing revocation of a security clearance granted by the United States Federal Government. We discuss the different clearance levels and further specific class clearances. He also discusses the rights, procedure, and challenges he and his clients face.

This episode, we explore the literary world of H.P. Lovecraft. Our guest, Emory Potter, has read and re-read these works. He introduces us to the groundbreaking themes and concepts of Cosmic Horror. We discuss the short stories and major books, as well as many of the characters and media that have been spawned and influenced by Lovecraft.

Andy Gross is a do gooder. He's represented children poisoned by lead paint. He's been an Assistant State's Attorney. He's been a reservist (twice) and active duty Army. He was a member of the Judge Advocate General representing service members in criminal defense and against Courts Martial and similar processes. Most recently, he's advocated for Veteran's denied benefits. He gives us a primer on...

Dr. Irena Scott has done pretty much everything one can including holding Top Secret + clearance and working for the Defense Intelligence Agency. She's the author of 4 books and joins us to discuss her latest, involving the 1973 close encounter and abduction of 2 Mississippi shipyard workers.

Captain Julius Blattner is an attorney currently activated with the Maryland National Guard's Judge Advocate General detail. He's served two combat zone tours and opened 2 law practices. He's an authority on the Law of Armed Conflict. This includes war, defensive military actions, Police Actions, the War on Terrorism, and domestic military deployments. Capt. Blattner discussed the United Nations,...

Our guest this week is Darius Kamali, author of 2 books and the host of "The Persian Version" podcast. We discuss the historic and geographic origins of the Iranic peoples; some older customs, linguistics, and religious aspects; their enormous impact on the regions from Central Asia into Europe & Africa; but mostly how Iran emerged. Our journey visits upon Cyrus the Great; the massively influentia...

Jobeth Bowers is an attorney and 1 of approximately 800 Registered Sports Agents with the NFL. He and his partner built 1st Down Sports from scratch and they tell the tale of what is truth and what's on the show "Ballers". This is a rare discussion on the inside of something we probably imagine one way, but, in reality, is something quite different.

Building upon our prior episode "Final Frontier", our Start Trek panel of Brian and Elle provide us with a deep space 9 dive into the characters, relationships, sex, conflicts, space fairy babies, and kids in the Star Trek universe.

Thalia Lightbringer is an artist, poet and author. She hails from California but lives in Italy. She's studied under a prominent Lakota Chief and shares with us some of the tales she's converted into the written word from the Zuni, Lakota, Cherokee and others. We discuss the Anasazi Hopi Zuni connections to Egypt and elsewhere; the prevalence of the Thunderbird; and the many connections between No...

Cryptocurrency is a new and trending phenomena, and it just may be the future. There is a lot of misunderstanding about it. Including on the part of your host. Enter Geoff Robertson, a pioneer in studying the impacts of cryptocurrency. He teaches a Masters' degree course on it at the University of Maryland. We discuss the origins of cryptocurrency, the basic structure of the block chain, and the r...