Stories from the Center of the Universe

Tom Greco returns to chat about the 2024 Presidential Election.   Happy Veterans Day to all who served!

Jamesetta Cleveland comes on the podcast to talk about her company Sports Mom University Consulting. Jamesetta and Paul talked about the company on a high level and how and why she founded it. Jamesetta will be joining Paul and Kevin on the Virginia is for Sports Podcast to talk more about her company and on the subject of NIL in particular. In this episode, Paul talked to Jamesetta about a variet...

Local real estate legend Woody Hogg joins Paul on the podcast. Woody and Paul talked about his many business ventures in banking, insurance, real estate and jobs he had when he was getting started such as being a taxi driver. They talked about the sports he played in high school and also during his time at East Carolina University. Woody told Paul the main three things that effect a house sale and...

In this next installment of the “Look Back” episodes, Paul, Rob and Brent take a look at Episodes 251-300. They each pick their Top 10 and a fun time was had by all!

James Hagler joins Paul and the first subject they covered was to talk about his relationship with his dad, Marvelous Marvin Hagler. They discussed James growing up with his dad, their differences in adulthood and how they reconciled before his dad passed away in 2021. James talked about going to the gym in his youth and the influence his uncle Robbie had on him. James told Paul about his family a...

Paidemoyo Charasika joins Paul courtesy of a connection with Chris Gaskell (Episode 262) as they played football together at Wake Forest. Pai was born in Nashville, but grew up in Louisville. Education was very important to Pai’s parents … especially his Mom! Pai attended Kentucky Country Day, a prep high school in Louisville and then looked at several really good academic colleges. He fell in lov...

Brent Scopel joins the podcast and is the guest for Episode 300! Brent has listened to almost every episode and he brought Paul some “brown water” to celebrate this momentous occasion. Brent grew up in Ohio and was adopted by his parents who raised him and his two brothers who were 14 & 16 years older than Brent . Growing up, Brent was drawn to music and started playing the drums when he was a...

Dwight Vick joined Paul on Episode 122 and is back with Paul and Kevin for a combination episode with the Virginia is for Sports Podcast. Dwight filled in Paul and Kevin on what’s been going on with his family and life since they last spoke. He spoke about his company Victory Life and how he relied on a very important person to come up with the company motto, “Leave a Legacy”. Kevin and Paul then...

In a unique episode, Ken Wakefield joins the podcast which is doubling with the Virginia is for Sports Podcast as well. Kevin Flippen joins Paul to talk to Ken about a myriad of subjects. Ken is from Buffalo, NY, has been coaching football since he was nineteen years old and is the current Head Football Coach at Patrick Henry High School in Ashland, VA. They talked about growing up in Buffalo and...

Leah is a realtor, a resident of Richmond, a force of nature and an absolute pleasure. 

Eric Ash grew up in Virginia Beach, moved to Mechanicsville when he was 11 and he told Paul it was a change going from city life to a more rural setting. He said he has positive memories of growing up in both places. Eric played baseball and football growing up, but he started training as a boxer when he was 12 and had his first organized fight when he was 15. Little did Eric know, but that was a...

Manny Fernandez grew up in Topping, Virginia in Middlesex County on a thirty acre farm with a nurturing mom and a Dad that he described as tough. He is very thankful for that combination which has helped him to be well mannered, respectful and have gratitude for what has happened in his life. What has happened is that Manny started fighting when he was 18 years old, has fought all over the world a...

John Finn joins Paul on the podcast to discuss growing up in Richmond, sports memorabilia and his family lineage to name a few. John grew up in different parts of Richmond and he and Paul discussed going to different schools and his experience with school integration. They talked about  the bad, but mostly good experiences and how his first year was very formative. Paul learned about John’s collec...

Joan Dorsey is a managing broker at Long & Foster Real Estate. She is also currently serving as the President of the Richmond Association of Realtors (RAR). Before becoming a managing broker, she founded and led her own real estate business. Check out our second installment with small business folks who have interesting stories to tell about business and life.

We recorded this one during Spring Break 2023. So why are we releasing this now? I wanted this to be a fun set of recorded memories just available for 2 families. The Gilmans and Colemans are on vacation again and the youngest of 5 kids (across both families) asked me for the 5th or 6th time to publish it to the world. So here you have it....two families reminiscing about Spring Break trips taken...

Kiara Robinson and Paul met in a unique way and discovered they had both been in the military. Kiara was active duty in the United States Marine Corps for five and a half years and had many different jobs/duties while in the USMC. She is from Long Beach, CA, but went to high school in Phoenix, AZ where she played a lot of sports and ultimately made the decision to enlist. They talked about her exp...

Weldon Bradshaw has been a coach, a teacher and a writer. He is still writing and his knowledge of Richmond, Virginia high school sports is unparalleled. Weldon taught and coached at the The Collegiate School for fifty years and retired two years ago. Before that he was covering sports for the old News Leader newspaper and the Times Dispatch. He is in his 56th year of covering high school basketba...

Paul asked Chris Gorres what he says when people ask him what he does for a living. He told Paul he is a Coach. We’ll come back to that. Chris moved to the United States from the Philippines when he was four years old. He grew up in Maryland and played all the sports growing up. That’s what he wanted to do and his Mom let him do it as long as he got the grades. The hard work on the field and in th...

Laura Redding joins the podcast as our first guest of an enduring series dedicated to telling the stories of entrepreneurs and their small businesses. Laura is the founder of Perfect Spaces Home Staging & More. In full disclosure, Laura and I are business partners in this company. As you can imagine, Laura and I are excited to share her story and discuss our business in this episode (SB1 = Sma...

Rich Brent is the Executive Director of The Big House Museum in Macon, Georgia. The Big House Museum is dedicated to the lives and memories of the Allman Brothers Band. Stu Brown (Episode 257) connected us to Rich. They grew up together in Hurt, Virginia and are great friends. Paul and Rich talked about growing up in Hurt, playing football and basketball and riding BMX style bikes. Rich talked abo...

Stewart Verdery joins Paul via a connection with John Hollis (Episodes 277 & 282). His family moved to the Richmond area when he was five and settled in Hanover on a fourteen acre farm that had had a long history. Paul learned of some very unique things that the Verdery family built on the farm in those early years. Stewart went to a couple of schools in the Richmond area before finishing his...

Paul told Ray Hedrick that he completed the trifecta for him. Ray, as the Head Baseball Coach at Randolph Macon College, now joins Pedro Arruza (Episode 99) and Josh Merkel (Episode 154) of being on the podcast and representing the three major sports at RMC. They discussed RMC and the athletic success they have been and are currently enjoying. He told Paul that it is not just three major sports, b...

Liz Dillon joins Paul for Series 4, Part 2 of the Downtown Ashland Association and we are so happy to have her on the podcast! Liz is a native of Florida and grew up on a farm in a small community so it is no wonder that she told Paul that she loves Ashland. Liz and her husband have settled in Hanover and when doing so, Liz saw an opportunity to live out her dream and follow a true passion that sh...

Barry Farmer comes to the podcast via a connection with Louise Keeton and the Downtown Ashland Association. Paul learned about what Barry knew about Ashland as a young person growing up in the city. They talked about his upbringing and how he was raised by his grandmother and what she meant to him. He discussed the close relationships he had with his siblings growing up even though they were livin...

John Hollis comes back to the podcast for the second time to talk about a book he wrote about SSG Rodney Davis. The Making of a Hero is a book about the actions of one man in one of the bloodiest and deadliest battles in the Vietnam War. John’s book focused on SSG Rodney Davis and how his act of heroism saved several lives. John talked about where Rodney came from and why he joined the United Stat...