Stories from the Center of the Universe

Jeff is back for round 2 to chat about Skull Games and his recently published book “Where Have All The Heroes Gone?” Jeff has enabled a useful learning opportunity for our listeners, Protect Your Family Course . The coupon is: skgtf2024 for a 100% discount. This course is one of the many positive aspects Jeff and his team enable through his non-profit, Skull Games, focused on counter-human traffic...

Earl Kinney had a busy time moving around in his first twelve years. He was born in West Virginia, moved to Richmond when he was six then went to New York City at eight and then his family settled in Ashland when he was twelve. They talked about his parents and what he did besides sports when he was growing up … which depended somewhat on where he was living! In sports, he was very good at both ba...

Tyler Owens grew up in Georgia and he and Paul talked about youth sports and how he dabbled in many, but settled on football. He talked about how he started playing later than his friends, but his hard work and how that led him to being highly recruited by some major college football programs. He then talked about how he was unfortunately injured in the first game of his senior year and the mental...

Rich Dalton joins the podcast for Part 3. Paul started off by talking about and thanking Rich for the guests that he has referred to the podcast. They did a recap of what they had covered the first two episodes and then Rich talked about his bout with Lyme Disease and how that related to his overall health. They then discussed his battles with addiction and depression. They discussed his first add...

Ben Ipson joins Paul through a connection with Mark Jenkins (Episodes 239 & 245.) Ben told the incredible story of his family who survived the Holocaust. He talked about the history of both the Russians and Nazis and their persecution of the Jewish people as well as mentioning Kristallnacht and other historical events. He traced some of the decisions made and miracles that occurred to his grea...

Ron Lazzeretti is a singer, song writer, writer, film maker and commercial director. Ron is from and lives in the Chicago area and grew up in an Italian family that had a cast of characters! He grew up loving music, playing neighborhood baseball and admiring comedians such as Steve Martin. Ron went to college at Northern Illinois and afterwards got a job in advertising. He has since worked on vari...

Sonja Kinney joins the podcast for the second time, this time for a full episode. The first time Sonja was on for a short interview when she was inducted into the Patrick Henry HS 2023 Hall of Fame Class. Paul and Sonja talked about what it meant for her to be inducted in the first class of the PH HOF. They then talked about her father-in-law Dr. John Kinney. Sonja spoke about growing up on Jamest...

Dr. Earl Wright II, Sociology Professor at Rhodes College, grew up in north Memphis in a single parent household. In his early years Dr. Wright didn’t have an interest in education and wasn’t really pushed. He did however have enough to meet Prop 48 requirements and went to college to play football. He told Paul after majoring in football and minoring in partying, he flunked out after two years. E...

Jim Malaugh is Jamie Malaugh’s (Episode 59) dad and is visiting Richmond from Alabama. Jim was born in Northern Ireland. He also lived in England and Scotland and then moved to Alabama in 1992. Paul and Jim talked about growing up in Northern Ireland, how to pronounce Irish names and a couple of his family’s traditions. They discussed the history of Ireland and how he and his family experienced so...

Chris Harper joins Paul via a connection with Andrew Mauck (Episode 11). Chris and Paul talked about his early life which included two separate incidents where Chris’s had to be medivac’d by helicopter by the time he was 15 years old. The first was a jet ski encounter and the other was when he was in an off road vehicle. Chris discussed how these two incidents have shaped his life and how he still...

Joey Beltran comes to the podcast via a connection with Rich Dalton (Episodes 220 & 232). Joey grew up in Carlsbad, CA and told Paul that his dream as a kid was to be a boxer. Joey spoke to Paul about how he went down the wrong path after high school, but also how he got back on track. They discussed his professional fighting career in various disciplines, his fighting style and how the mental...

Mark Jenkins returns for his second episode to continue to talk about Israel. Paul brought up that this is the first time Israel has declared a state of war since 1973. Mark talked about how that is different from past “operations” as well how there is a war of public opinion. Mark went on to discuss some key historical events regarding Israel, Palestine and the Jewish people. Mark addressed past...

Vern Glenn was born and grew up in Richmond, Va. and went to St. Christopher’s like Paul. They talked about growing up, attending St. Chris, playing sports and what his parents did for work. Vern knew in 10th grade that he wanted to be a sportscaster. He attended UVA and got his first sportscasting job in 1985 in Richmond, took his next job in Baltimore and then moved across the country to take a...

Jeff Tiegs is from a small town in Wisconsin and was in the U.S. Army Special Forces. Jeff was a reader from an early age, played all the sports early and then started focusing on long distance running. Jeff went into the military out of high school and then took a break from service to go to college. He finished his college education at Montana State and was in ROTC there which led to him going b...

Eric Doe joins the podcast via a recent guest, Clint Pearman. Eric is Clint’s nephew and Eric said that Uncle Clint has always had a big influence on him. Eric was born on Long Island, NY, moved to Florida for a while and then was back on Long Island for his formative years as a youth. He said it was a great place to grow up and he was a three sport athlete in high school. He talked with Paul abou...

With Veterans Day a few days away, we wanted to share the stories of more military veterans. Dr. Clint Pearman is the first of three veterans we’ve spoken to recently. Clint is a thirty-one year veteran of the United States Marine Corps and a holder of two doctoral degrees. Clint was born in Long Island, NY. Then his family moved to Florida when he was thirteen. He played a lot of sports growing u...

Mike Henry is most well known for being a voice actor on the Family Guy series and The Cleveland Show. He has voiced many characters and is an actor, comedian, writer and producer. Mike was born in Michigan, but grew up in the Richmond, VA area. He talked about his time and lessons learned at The Collegiate School and at Washington & Lee University as well as the unique nickname his class at W...

Mark Jenkins comes on the podcast at an opportune time, but we’ll come back to that. Mark, who grew up in the Richmond area, is a pastor at Berea Baptist Church in Rockville, Va. Mark spoke to Paul about having a huge family and being in two very different school systems growing up. They talked about him switching his major while attending Chowan College, discussed his various careers and how he w...

Dr. Ed Wallace joins the podcast via a connection with Njeri Kershaw (Episode 39). Ed was born in the Bronx, NY and grew up there. He was born into a family that loved and talked sports and he told Paul that sports as well as education played a big part in who he is today. He spoke about his Dad and his influence on Ed through teaching him several life lessons. They discussed Ed’s higher education...

Nick Wisner and Paul work together and Paul opened up about how Nick had an impact on him recently. They discussed Nick being born in Chesterfield, but going to high school in Hanover and being involved with a lot of different groups. Nick went to Virginia Tech and he told Paul about his experience there, an internship that led to him taking a semester off as well as why he stayed in Blacksburg fo...

This episode sets a record for number of guests in one recording! Paul attended the inaugural Patrick Henry High School Athletics Hall of Fame Banquet. Paul spoke with each of the eight inductees … Chris Tate (there for his dad, Ray Tate), Eddie Webb, Sonja Fridy Kinney, Donnie Morris, Damien Woody, Dominic Smith, Lizzie Powell Hissey and Coach Ray Long Jr. This was an impressive first class for t...

Michael Reynolds joins the podcast via a connection with Andrew Ting (Episode 40.) Michael was born in Nebraska and grew up in Sioux Falls, South Dakota which he said was a great place to grow up. He got into drama and singing in high school and that led in part to him attending Northwestern for college. After trying that for a couple years, he switched to Political Science and then went to law sc...

Chris Karpes lives in New Orleans and he and Paul met about six weeks ago. Chris was born in Tacoma, Washington, but grew up in Canada and was about thirty when he moved back to the states full time. Chris told Paul about the decisions he made and then the road those decisions took him down. For Chris, that meant he has had to battle addiction with alcohol and various drugs for a lot of his life....

In the last Downtown Ashland Association Series episode of Season 3, Paul talks with Carolyn Hemphill, Betsy Hodges and Tom Wulf about the Mid-Atlantic Railroad Park. They discussed why they’re calling it a “park,” how it got started and the groups involved in backing this project. The history of railroad in Ashland as well as other general history was discussed amongst Betsy, Carolyn and Tom. The...

Paul brings back Rich Dalton for Part 2 of a three part series. They completed a quick recap of Part 1 and then discussed life after the Marine Corps. Rich talked about his interest in law enforcement, but that he decided to go back to college and wrestle. He talked about living in California, but moving back to New Jersey for a brief time and then how he changed his career path and got certified...