Unordinary People

Odessa Helm is a native of Rusk, ASL translator,and mural artist. a warm and personable spirit, her work can be seen all across East Texas, with a bold graphical style hearkening back to the 50s 60s and 70s. In our extremely enjoyable conversation we talk art, creativity, education, and mental health. I sincerely hope you join me as we meet Odessa Helm.     Odessa Helm Links:  ...

An update on the channel, why there hasn't been any new interviews, and the Future.  Thank you everyone who has been part of or supported Unordianry People! Unordinary People Channel Links: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtA_ZcmGRtu3JRdP_EgcnSw https://open.spotify.com/show/0ZwMrCX0se8hzloE3dPQWS?si=0662494cb4774eff https://www.stitcher.com/show/unordianry-people https://podcasts.google.com...

Callynth Finney is a Photographer, Philanthropist, and lover of people. She is genuinely one of the kindest, most open people I have ever had the chance to talk to and she was kind enough to discus, religion, homelessness, single motherhood, service, photography, art, beauty, charity, and accommodated what ever else my sleep deprived mind came up with. I dearly hope you will join me as we step int...

When discussing WWII much is said about heroism, great battles, great evil, and even the machinery that drove the war, but little is said about those caught in the middle. People who by no fault or action of their own were subject to the great hardships of war. Herman Walka was born four months into Germany’s annexation of Czechoslovakia breaking his family apart and leading to his people’s expuls...

If you have listened to ZZ Top If you know of John Fred and the Playboys, if you a heard of Chilli’s Baby Back Ribs then you are aware of Robbin Hood’s work. For Going on sixty years Robin Hood Brians has been running Robin Hood studios in Tyler, meeting all kinds and types of musicians, as well as working in advertising and TV recordings. In this interview we go over his incredible Career, whethe...

Tonya Harry has been fighting for kids since the early nineties first as a case worker for CPS, working her way up to administration, before finally changing careers to become the executive director for CASA of Deep East Texas. We talk about the role of CASA in the life of a child in the foster care system, the experience of working as agent for Child Protective Services, and what people can do to...

The story of Sasha and Levi Rodriguez is a love story, a story of great distances, big chances, of failure and learning from it, of locomotives, and flipping houses most of all service to others. What connects this story together? Perhaps a lot of coffee. A fabulously friendly and hospitable couple they are the owners of Jumpshot  Coffee in Tyler Texas behind Trinity Mother Francis and UT Hea...

Dr. Juan Mejia has been the president of Tyler Junior College since 2019. I met him in fall of 2021 when I started applying my self more and first started a podcast interviewing people who had an impact on me at campus. During our first interview I gained a great deal of respect for him. Post interview and afterward I learned that in every situation he embodies the principles of the school. He res...

A quick update on the channel 

Thom Spisak is a man of many hobbies, an engineer’s brain obsessed with the tiniest aspects of whatever he is working on, and the spirit of an artist experimenting with the interplay of those particulars in his search for perfection. In this conversation, I found that starting to run half Ironmans at the age of sixty-three was probably one of the less remarkable parts of his life. I hope you will...

JP or the Meal Prep Guy as he is better known both locally and online is a man driven by obsession. Obsession is what drove him to the top in the world of power lifting and that same obsession  now deployed in the world of business has lead to the astounding success of his company Meal Prep Guy 903. A mountain of a man physically, his intimidating stature gives way to a very friendly and open...

I had a great time doing this interview with Kelly and Yuli at Kelly’s Tattoos. The idea of putting your art permanently onto someone has always fascinated me, so when I first started assembling the idea for the podcast I knew I would have to get to know a tattoo artist. I was not at all disappointed  during the interview, setup and tare-down I met some genuine, big, and fun personalities. As...

Kevin Burgess is a Forged in Fire Champion bladesmith who is extremely passionate about his craft. In this industry lingo heavy episode we go into how he got started forging, how he learned his craft, what it was like being on Forged in Fire, and so much more. If you love to hear someone talk about what they love to do you will love this episode. Hopefully you will stick around as we nerd out over...

When I first formulated the idea of Unordinary People, my goal was to talk to people of all different points of view to hopefully expand our ideas of what and how people think. I heard about Sonny from a friend at work, having been born behind the iron curtain in Lithuania, and a former member of Soviet Special Operations, Sonny Puzikas offers up a different point of view. He is a man whose life h...

Sebastian Gerhardt  is a Norwegian born magician who at 22 was diagnosed with what was thought to be an inoperable brain tumor. However after two surgeries and learning to walk again he is back to preforming with an interesting out look on life and an interesting story to tell. I hope you will come and join me as we go to meet Sebastian Gerhardt, and lets all remember the glass is already bro...

This is not the first time I have told Billy Lanier’s story, the previous interview I did with him was for a podcast I did in college called the People You Will Meet. That episode titled “The Man With the Swastika Tattoos”won two first place awards from the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association, and given his incredible story Its not hard to see why. In this interview I wanted to go far more det...

In this line of work you try to not come into an interview with preconceived notions of how the interview will go, who the person will be, and what the answers they give will sound like. But when your preparing for an interview you can’t help but build these scenarios in your head. However I never supposed I’d find an country music star who was through with a corrupt industry, and a comedy club wi...

I met Natali Rosales in a photo journalism class at a local college. Her warm, sweet personality broke the stereotype of models being cold and aloof aiding to everyone in class fast becoming friends. Her success, like that of the other people I have interviewed, is based on going all in on what you want to achieve and marketing yourself, an act that takes more courage than you might think. I hope...

In this Episode I have a conversation with my friend Jim Lord about his  journey with radio, TV, and character education. Be sure to check out  his website bellow. https://thecharacternetwork.org/tcn-mornings/ Other links and social https://odysee.com/@UnordinaryPeople:5 https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtA_ZcmGRtu3JRdP_EgcnSw https://open.spotify.com/show/0ZwMrCX0se8hzloE3dPQWS https://...

Dace Kidd Is a Latvian American painter who trained at art universities in Latvia a Italy. We discussed her Classical education, how she came to America, and how she is helping to revitalize the Rose city by bringing an art scene to East Texas. So come along with me as we meet Dace Kidd.  https://dacekidd.com/ https://muralartisttx.com/ Other social https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtA_ZcmGRt...

We have all met that person who is just a step above ordinary. They live out life in a manor that  average people don’t sometimes it is just one small aspect of their life sometimes it is everything they do that makes them unordinary. I’m your host Isaac Belota and on my show Unordinary People I sit down with intriguing people and explore what makes them unique and interesting through convers...