Stories from the Center of the Universe

Lionel Bacon is our guest this week. He is a former VCU basketball player and the youngest of twelve children. Lionel discusses his childhood and growing up in the Beecher Terrace neighborhood in Louisville, Kentucky. He told us how he got to VCU (an amazing mom, God and the ability to play basketball).  Lionel talked about his journey and how it has led him to a life of helping others. From his 2...

Kevin T. Eastman is the former assistant coach and VP for Basketball Operations of the Los Angeles Clippers. He also served as head coach and assistant coach in the college ranks, and was on Doc Rivers' coaching staff with the Boston Celtics for over a decade.  He is now a semi-retired motivational speaker for sports teams and businesses. Pictured: Kevin Garnett, Kevin Eastman, Doc Rivers

Kenny Wingle is a stand-up comedian and producer of the upcoming ROFL Comedy Series in Richmond VA. Kenny is a Detroit native, born to a Native American mother and Polish father. He has been a stand up comedian for years, and has produced comedy shows featuring the likes of Whitney Cummings. He is producing Richmond's Open For Laughs (ROFL) Comedy Series which you can enjoy at Atlas 42 (4032 Cox R...

Cla Meredith is a former MLB pitcher who played for the Red Sox, Padres, and Orioles. This episode he tells us about his Richmond roots, the origin of his name, and his athletic career, including some thoughts on teammates like Greg Maddux and Trevor Hoffman, and coaches such as Bruce Bochy. He now serves as a firefighter for Henrico County. 

Boomer Muth is a musician, entrepreneur, and soon-to-be father, and this episode we heard his story. At the tender age of 5, Boomer learned the truth about Santa in a way that will bring a tear to your eye and put hairs on your chest. In the 8th grade, he was a star Mathlete, and carries a love for math and music to this day. An entrepreneur, he is the co-founder of a successful point-of-sale fina...

Travis Herman is a brewmaster and co-founder of Scofflaw Brewery, an Atlanta based brewery founded in 2015.  Scofflaw experienced phenomenal growth, clocking in one of the fastest first-year expansions in craft-brewing history. Travis tells us about his origins, how he earned his wings as a brew master, meeting Rachel Ray, and what it takes to get a batch right and build a business. Read more abou...

DuBois Miller is an author and former correctional educator of 32 years. He grew up in Lynchburg VA, going to segregated schools and living in a house without electricity, but experiencing great cultural enrichment on the buzzing McKinley Street. He documents his coming of age in the 50s in his book "Ten on Tin," for which there is a sequel called "Three More on Tin."  DuBois spoke with us about h...

Justin Addison is a US Army Veteran, Jets fan, and Executive Chef at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation. He enlisted on 9/11, and was later deployed to Fallujah, Iraq as a PsyOps specialist. We were also joined by Mohammed Saeed, who served as the interpreter for Justin's team during deployment. They formed a natural connection and were effective teammates in the field. They now consider each ot...

Caroline Slaughter is a voiceover actor, filmmaker, and podcaster. You have probably heard her before as the voice for brands like Subway, Ford, and Holiday Inn. She just launched a podcast on iHeartRadio called Astray , an exploration into how far people go for enlightenment. Caroline joined us to tell us about her story and how she got into podcasting, and even to graciously offer us some podcas...

Wali Rainer is a former NFL linebacker who played for the Cleveland Browns, the Jacksonville Jaguars, and the Detroit Lions. In our conversation, Wali told us about growing up in the inner city of West Charlotte, and how football was like therapy for him to vent his anger and pain. We talk about his college recruitment and playing at UVA - which he attended on condition that his older brother also...

Rolando Lamb is a VCU Hall of Fame basketball player, Coach, pastor, and motivational speaker. In our conversation we discuss Rolando's upbringing in Portsmouth VA, the attention he received in high school as a result of being an athletic phenom, his career at VCU, getting drafted to the NBA, and how he has kept basketball in his life ever since.   We hear about some of the characters he interacte...

Brandon Nunnally is an Emergency Room Doctor.  In our conversation we discuss Brandon's med school experience -  the insane amount of work required,  the misconceptions that people have, and the type of people that succeed. He went to Randolph-Macon college for undergrad, then UVA for med school, and University of Pittsburgh for residency. He also tells us about his role as an ER Doc, including th...

Tim Clark is the Chief Digital Officer at NASCAR. He is a Mechanicsville native, US Army veteran, and a great lover of sports.  This episode, Tim talks to us about growing up on a farm, what it's like to drive a tank, how his first job out of college was to spearhead Circuit City's ecommerce efforts, and about his work at NASCAR. NASCAR had a big year in 2020 which involved a COVID-inspired pivot...

Pete Silvester is a social scientist, entrepreneur, and proud Territorian who has traveled the world by virtue of a career in International Aid and Development. He has spent many years in SE Asia, and came on to give us his take on the events in Myanmar.  Myanmar, formerly Burma, was under military rule for 50 years before it began its experiment with democracy in the early 2010s. As it reopened t...

Amanda Ripley is a journalist and author whose work has been featured in Time Magazine, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and others. She has written three books on psychological and cultural themes varying from how we respond to disaster to how we get addicted to conflict. Amanda talked with us about growing up in central NJ, the public vs private school experience...

Dan Crain is the director of groups and mobilization at OneRace, an organization dedicated to addressing racism and racial division through faith, in Atlanta and beyond.   In our conversation Dan tells us about his life, the path of his faith, his inspirations, and the work he is doing with OneRace. To find out more and to support Dan and OneRace, head to OneRaceMovement.com. 

Garrison Coward is a proud Virginian and a former Republican candidate for the 2019 Virginia House of Delegates, a race which he lost narrowly.  He is currently a Managing Director working in the investment banking space. In our conversation we talked about whether running a political campaign is actually like House of Cards, how to deal with political division,  why local politics are undervalued...

Vincent Hill is a veteran, former police officer, author, and now a news anchor serving Tulsa, OK. He was born in Germany to a military family, grew up moving around a lot, then joined the military himself. He spent four years in the Nashville Police Department, and later spoke out in criticism of the police's narrative in Tennessee Titan quarterback Steve McNair's homicide. He ended up writing a...

Thomas Leachman has an affinity for doing things a little differently, be it from his days barefoot kicking on his college football team, to being one of the few proud UMBC fans courtside on the day of their fateful win over UVA. Thomas joined us to talk about growing up here in Ashland, his love of sports that led him to starting his own remarkable basketball event marketing company, and adventur...

"As one of the 27,000 “Lost Boys of Sudan”, John Dau has experienced challenges that most people could never imagine. As a young man, he fled his home during the Second Sudanese Civil War, spending much of his adolescence as a refugee fleeing hostile militias, fighting against extreme hunger and thirst, and leading thousands of young boys just like him across hundreds upon hundreds of miles in sea...

Darren McBurnett AKA McB is a former Navy SEAL and author of Uncommon Grit, a photography book documenting the famous and notoriously difficult Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL training. We had a great conversation covering McB's upbringing, his thoughts on BUD/S, some of his experiences in the SEAL Teams, and how his instagram has become a uniting refuge from the divisive norm. To find out more a...

Zachariah Hani Jambo is currently a student at the African Leadership University in Kigali, Rwanda. He was born in Khartoum, Sudan, although he is of South Sudanese origin - specifically, of the Moru tribe. His family moved to Cairo, Egypt when he was just three, and he grew up there under tenuous circumstances - for example, he and his family had to avoid the Egyptian authorities until his father...

Jamie Malaugh is a Northern Irishman from England who, in a serious culture change, ended up moving to Alabama as a teenager. He realized he was pretty good at math from a young age, and ended up getting his undergrad, master's, and PhD in Mathematics from the University of Alabama at Birmingham by the remarkable young age of 24. This episode we talk about all of that, his family, and his love for...

This is a lookback on the first 50 episodes that we recorded and ideas for the future, along with some general conversation. Featuring Katy De Koning and Roger Lee.

This episode we have Cheron Smalls on the show to share her refreshingly positive perspectives on things. Having led a 20+ year career in HR, she talks about why good HR is crucial for people and companies, what she loves about her work, and some common misconceptions people have about HR. We also hear from her on what it’s like being an older mom, and how she navigates raising black children. Fin...