!Please Remain Calm!

Retired LAFD Engineer Kelly Kilmartin tells us a harrowing story from the 1st night of the LA riots (4/29/92). Assigned to Engine 250, he began to pump water to a market fire in South Central LA, when he was approached by a man with an AK47 assault rifle who told him to let the fire burn. He proceeds to rob Kelly and his captain of their radios at gunpoint, then runs off. As Kelly begins to shut d...

Comedian Grant Cotter (Comedy Central, MTV) joins us & tells us all about losing his ENTIRE KNEECAP in a scooter accident in Cozumel, Mexico during the Vans Warped Tour Cruise he was booked to perform on. Read that sentence again if you need to. Yes there was a Vans Warped Tour Cruise (they only did one) & it turned into a nightmare during a shore excursion in Cozumel, when Grant was talked into t...

LAFD Engineer Rob Medrano was the 3rd engineer to arrive at a fully involved, single family dwelling structure fire in south central LA. Entering the backyard to do some exterior fireground work, he discovers almost all of the occupants of the house in the backyard, barely escaping the flames. Then one resident tells him they're missing 2 people inside. Without hesitation, Rob enters the house alo...

We are joined by LAFD legend, our dad, Benny Gonzalez. A 32 year veteran of the fire service, he breaks down how he wound up in LAFD instead of the Vietnam war, what the drill tower was like in the 70's, life in Downtown LA before gentrification, firefighting & living in the actual 1984 Olympic village, diversity posters, dangerous fire engine driving, & more. We also get a full breakdown of the f...

We're joined by world-traveling LAFD Firefighter Dan Ferrari (@wander_man_dan) who tells us all about how he uses the flexibility of the firefighter schedule to plan solo trips around the world. We learn all about how to get to exotic locales usually closed off to tourists. How to find the best fishing, scuba diving, & adventure spots, and get the best tips from local guides. Dan tells us all abou...

A 14 year old boy collapses on a baseball field. His stepmom calls 911, where she's given instructions on how to give CPR, which she relays to the boys mother, who starts chest compressions. What happens in those life or death moments when you're waiting for paramedics to arrive? We're joined by LAFD Firefighter Melissa Galleano who is assigned to the Metro communications division of the departmen...

For the 1st time ever we're joined by a blood relative as our cousin Nick Chavez talks about his job as the supply chain chief for the biggest hospital in San Antonio, Texas. We learn all about the challenges that a supply chain chief faces, & why every single one is really important to the entire hospital staff as well as the patients. He compares it to working at NASA mission control during Apol...

Ryan Talmo is a comedy workaholic who has hosted more hours of LA open mics and bar shows than nearly anyone in the past 7 years. He even kept on hosting shows while battling stage 3 Hodgkins Lymphoma for over a year. He talks to us about the whole ordeal. From early denial, to 12 rounds of chemo. From suicidal thoughts, to meeting his fiancee & having a baby after being told it was not possible f...

Ed Zubia worked 2 multiple year stints as a paramedic in a Federal Prison complex (FCC Victorville) & he tells us ALL about it. What does a prison medic do? How dangerous is it to be the only guy with pain meds & needles with hundreds of federal convicts? How do you make Pruno? How do the prisoners keep the peace? Why soap on the ground is dangerous, nortenos, surenos, & MORE. We even get a real p...

We have former NCAA Division 1 baseball player Adrian Nevarez (Loyola Marymount) who may be the only person in the history of sports to ever have half of their quadriceps muscle literally ripped out of their leg during batting practice. You read that right. He left practice with less leg than he started with. We learn how this happened & how you recover from a devastating injury that ends the care...

We discuss current LA events & problems with homelessness & the police that came to a head last week in Echo Park Lake. We give the backdrop to this showdown between cops & citizens trying to block a homeless sweep. Danny weighs in with his experience working in areas with a big homeless population, & we offer causes as well as possible solutions. We also clear up some online misinformation about...

This week we break down the stuff no one tells you about being a firefighter. The stuff that suuuucks, the top things that suck to be exact. Think you aren't afraid of heights? Danny describes situations where you can't help but be afraid, & are forced to immediately overcome that fear because you have no choice. Think being a rookie firefighter is just a little hazing & tests? Danny describes the...

For the 1st time ever we have a patient that Danny helped on a 911 call. Richard Trapp was at the end of his rope, struggling with alcohol, ballooning to 427 pounds before his body broke down and anasarca caused him to swell up to 727 pounds in a matter of days!. That's when he called 911 and crossed paths with Danny, who had to figure out how to get a 727 lb man, who could not move on his own, do...

We're joined by certified Physician Assistant & wife of Danny, Bernadette Gonzalez, who tells us all about what a Physician Assistant is & does & how she became one. This is a super informative episode for anyone who wants to get into a PA program & the path you have ahead of you. She breaks down everything, including what it's like to work in a major LA emergency room at the height of the Covid s...

Stand up comedian and Licensed Vocational Nurse Michelle Stevenson (Buzzfeed) joins us to talk about what an LVN is and does and what it was like to work in Covid units in LA County nursing homes during the summer surge. We also get into case management, discharge planning, and all these other aspects of nursing that aren't talked about much. Plus, an inside look at how quickly Covid took over a m...

We have veteran LAFD Captain Charles Boswell, former mentor to Danny & current peer counseling group leader for the LAFD wellness & mental health unit. He tells us an incredible swift water rescue story from his 1st year as a captain. A rescue that resulted in Medals of Valor for his crew who put their lives in such a risky situation that even other firefighters and swift water rescue teams couldn...

We chop it up about chopped up body parts this week with cutting edge comic Cat Alvarado (Villains of History podcast). What happens when you cut your finger (or fingers) OFF? How often does it happen? What about that time Danny had an entire amputated leg he had to pack up & save? When do the doctors tell you your cut didn't make the cut, & they wont reattach it? How many things happen to peoples...

After a major LA County Covid surge forced us into a hiatus, we are finally back to talk about how that went down, & its A LOT to unpack. We talk mega overcrowding in the ER's & ICU's, closed hospitals, why Covid is ripping thru the lower income communities in LA, bulk body bag orders, & MORE. We also get into the Capitol riot, the Red Pilled FD guys who were there, how having "Conspiracy Brain" a...

We talk to Louie & Alba Abeyta, who had to live through every parents WORST nightmare. Louie witnessed a head on collision between his 6 year old son riding a small dirt bike & a grown man on an airborne quad out on a motocross track in Mexico. Louie, a trained firefighter & EMT, had to rescue his severely injured, unconscious son. With no medical equipment, he rushes his son thru the back roads o...

Comedian Alex Hooper has experience with being hated as the greatest roaster of Americas Got Talent, but he also had his own 911 story where the paramedics hated, each other! He tells us about nearly dying of a severe allergic reaction while the paramedics fought each other, with his mom sitting right there. We talk about looking like a gunshot victim from eating peanuts, partying on Benadryl & st...

We're back after a small break to talk about the Dodgers possible Covid outbreak at the World Series, election aftermath on the job, & the number one overdose call Danny gets in Venice. Then we get into our own personal emergency stories. Including; the only time our mom called the FD, the guy who pulled a shotgun on our dad, the car that blew up across the street, Danny getting attacked by a dog,...

We talk with our friend, Comedian (#1 album "Fathers Day" on iTunes) & host of the Private Parts Unknown podcast, Sofiya Alexandra about discovering a lump in her breast on vacation in Hawaii. She graciously explains the whole process of mammograms, biopsies, breast MRI's, chemo, radiation, blown IV's, ports, unnecessary tattoos, cold caps, frozen fingers, steroids, oncologists, & more. This was a...

LAFD Captain Mike James tells us about a dirt biking "fun run" in Baja California that was anything but. After getting separated from his group and off of the trail, he crashes his bike & suffers a serious kidney laceration, causing his abdomen to fill with blood, while no one even knows he's missing. An incredible series of events fall into place for Mike to survive and give this interview. We ge...

"Lucky" Leroy Rogers is a Captain with the LAFD who's had 2 separate major medical/trauma events, that happened to HIM, in the span of a few years. 1st he tells us about having a full blown stroke, on duty, while beefing with his captain, and even driving the Ladder Truck with 1/2 of his face "out of service". He goes from refusing care, to having to learn how to walk again, & it changes his whole...

We answer viewer questions & explain where our dad has been, why our mom is on Danny's case about F bombs, how to fix the healthcare system, all of the ways you can die on the job, why Ben got banned from a bar as soon as he could go to bars, the effects of irregular sleep, having a real hotel for a station, the differences between fire departments, how to pass a background check, & how Mr T liter...