!Please Remain Calm!

We tell you whats actually happening in LA the past 2 months and the difference between protests and the actual riots we've lived through in LA in our lives. We talk about the media & administration blowing this out of proportion to the point where we had the Marines & National Guard sitting around the jail in Downtown for 6 weeks while everyone in LA was having brunch & living their lives. We tal...

LAFD Firefighter Paramedic Tom Rodriguez tells us the story of a routine big rig fire that was anything but routine. This truck had a CNG natural gas tank that caused a huge explosion with Tom standing right there. This explosion injured the entire responding crew fighting the fire, with only one firefighter able to radio for help. We hear what happens when a routine fire becomes a mass casualty i...

We have returned, again, and now Danny can finally discuss his lawsuit with the LAFD and city of LA. He can discuss it because its over and he WON a big victory for his fellow LAFD frontline members. He explains how his lawsuit came to be, the deeply ingrained traditions of the LAFD and how that culture can sometimes be to the detriment of the staff. We talk about how hard it actually is to attemo...

We're back with another serious injury episode. Sabrina Cognata is a writer and producer who has survived multiple traumatic events, including: falling off of the roof as a kid, being held hostage by a neighbor after a hail of gunfire as a kid, & nearly dying in a car wreck that broke her neck. She tells us how a traumatic brain injury changed her personality & beating death shaped her decisions a...

We're joined by LA street journalist "Storm", the person behind the LA County Unleashed social media accounts providing live video of some of the craziest incidents on the LA streets any given night. We talk about the explosion of 911 incident content on social media, the role of Stringers and street jouranlists who show up to incidents, sometimes before the police arrive, film the incidents and s...

Meet Bubba Willis. Bubba is a retired LAFD Firefighter who has been fighting fires with the busiest companies since he was a 14 year old explorer in South Central LA. He rose thru the department, working with a slew of LA Firefighting legends, & landing on the first LAFD Urban Search and Rescue task force. Bubba becomes a USAR expert and instructor, which he does to this day. We hear about the LAF...

We talk to LAFD Firefighter Nathan Espinosa who survived a roof collapse on a major commercial structure fire as a first house rookie. We show video of the incident and you see why his crew assumed he didnt survive. Nathan tells us how he made it, the thoughts that went thru his mind after he fell thru the roof, & what kept him from giving up hope. He talks about how his training saved his life, &...

We talk to LAFD firefighter, and host of the GRAB LIVES podcast, John Vargas. John goes deep into the holistic approach he takes to a firefighting career, health, and mental health. We talk about the stigma that existed surrounding mental health in the fire department and whats being done to change it. How changes in demographics led to changes in the department and changes in attitudes. John shar...

We have LA County Firefighter/Paramedic Mike Anderson with us this week. Mike is the only Firefighter to appear on 2 different firefighter reality tv series, as a member of 2 different fire departments. Nearly 2 decades ago as a member of the Compton FD Mike appeared on BET's "First In". Then, after 15 years with Compton, Mike joins the LA County Fire Department & winds up being featured on NBC's...

We break down all of the Fire Department tv shows & movies of our lifetime. Scripted network tv shows from "9-1-1" to "Rescue Me" to "Emergency". We tell you why things hit or miss & how dumb technical mistakes can ruin these shows for firefighters & paramedics. We tell you why the great ones are so great, & what would make a perfect show for us. Then we do the same thing with movies, we tell you...

We talk about unexpected things in life, like more crazy airline incidents after our last airport episode, planes coming apart midflight, an earthquake on vacation, auto fire operations gone wrong, Danny's first fire, the Katt Williams interview, Hollywood child actor life, & Harvey Weinstein. Plus, Danny tells his "Weekend at Bernies" call story of a guy partying with his not alive friend for a w...

We're joined by LAFD Firefighter Dan Meier, who joined the department at the ripe age of 48. Dan is super interesting & has worked literally every firefighting job you can think of: US Forestry, Bureau of Land Management, Air Force, dispatcher, Airport firefighter, aircraft firefighting instructor, & even the airport police. Dan tells us about working as a dual firefighter/policeman at the Ontario...

We come back after taking most of last year off & catch up on all kinds of stuff: Dannys pool, the economy, the good and bad of too much overtime, staffing crisises at both of our jobs, stacking PTO vs using it up, flunking a paramedic intern, open neck wounds, freezing on calls, what its like being a Fire Inspector, Grey's Anatomy, promoting vs being happy at work, missing your partner, real life...

We're back with a deep philosophical dive into focus on the job, how you view interactions with patients & coworkers, flow state on the fireground, holographic multiverse, aging, synchronicity, losing weight, how we got into fitness, Mexican psychic readings, zen philosophy, & the final update on Danny's pool (it's done). 

We're joined by Army Veteran, & veteran Fresno County paramedic Mario Torralva. Mario was enjoying the county fair with his wife and friends, when he began to feel ill. He rapidly got worse, & his wife called for help and had him transported (by his coworkers) to the nearest ER. Doctors assumed he had a stroke based on his symptoms, but all scans were negative. When Mario would improve and be clos...

We're joined by LAFD Firefighter, fitness influencer, & business owner Crystal Reneau (@ketowithcrystal) who tells us what its like to be one of the "faces" of the LAFD after a year on the job. We learn what its like to be a rookie when everyone in your new station already knows who you are. How to hold a relationship together during your rookie year. How every new firefighter featured on the LAFD...

Friend and comedian Alex Hooper (Americas Got Talent, Comedy Central) is back on our show after telling us a hilarious story on episode 26 (Anaphylaxis). While we're happy to have him back, unfortunately that means something else has happened to him if he wound up on PRC twice. Alex was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma in August of 2022. He shares his whole journey. From symptoms at a music festiv...

We talk to LA County Firefighter Trevor Williams, inventor of the Williams Key, a very cool and effective forcible entry tool used by firefighters everywhere. We talk about how he came up with this tool, but we take a long and windy road to get there cuz Trevor is SUPER INTERESTING. He tells us about growing up in Zaire in a missionary family during a civil war & a genocide, then returning to the...

We examine 3 significant recent cases that made national news involving PD & EMS that had tragic outcomes. The first case happened right by Danny's station in Venice, CA. LAPD struggle with an agitated guy after a traffic collision, who dies hours after being tased multiple times. We discuss whats seen on the extensive body cam coverage of the incident, as well as the different ways this incident...

Our 100th episode features the guy who goes back the furthest in Danny's fire life, LAFD Engineer Don Nash. Don was Danny's explorer post advisor at station 63 when we were teenagers. In additon to telling us some Danny history, Don also works with the LAFD historical society & breaks down all kinds of stuff we never knew about the layout of the LAFD throughout the years, station segregation, why...

Comedian and former Pediatric Oncology RN Taquita Love joins us for a deep conversation about healing thru laughter, the resilience of children and the lessons she learned working in a Childrens Hospital and then in the Pediatric wing of the biggest cancer hospital in LA. We talk about work/life balance, & how you realize whats really important. She also tells us how her family got her into medici...

We talk about where we've been the last few weeks, Danny pays respects to a friends wife who recently passed & talks about how the fire family comes together at times like these. Then we discuss the LA mayoral race & the endorsement of Danny's union and how that process does and does not work. Finally, we get into our side gigs as Danny talks a bit about being a tv actor & some recent big audition...

We answer questions from the listeners/viewers. We talk about burn out, working with other departments and agencies on incidents, switching from a smaller department to the LAFD, what to do with all of your new money, & how to keep traditions alive in the Fire Department. We talk about horses, special cookies, proving yourself, learning tricks, rolling turds, wagons, yelling out of necessity, real...

We have former professional boxer & current LAFD civilan staff, Luis Mora telling us how he blew out his bicep during an intense session punching a heavy bag. The blowout was so severe that Luis had to have a donor bicep transplanted into his arm. He tells us the story of his journey from the streets of Northeast LA, trying (not always succesfully) to stay out of gangs, which led him to boxing, wh...

We talk about all of the partners a paramedic & EMT has in the private ambulance world, & how its different from the FD. From the people who are passing thru on the way to another job, on to the lifers, guys who never sleep, magicians on meth, regular people on meth, weird company owners on drugs, drinking off duty, caffeine abuse, insane diets, old timers,random stations, posting for hours, the o...