Episodes

The Suffering of the Emotional Toll Featuring Brian J. Bartiromo | The Suffering Podcast What happens when a man spends his entire life preparing to become a police officer—but never prepares himself for what the job, grief, and decades of buried emotion will do to him? Brian J. Bartiromo was born into law enforcement. Raised in Irvington, New Jersey, his father, stepfather, two uncles, and cousin all served with the Irvington Police Department. Some of Brian's earliest memories involve listenin...

The Suffering of Police Therapy | The Suffering Podcast What happens when the people trained to protect everyone else finally admit they need help themselves? Police officers spend their careers responding to humanity's darkest moments. They run toward danger while everyone else runs away. But when the shift ends, the trauma doesn't always stay behind. In this powerful episode of The Suffering Podcast, we explore The Suffering of Police Therapy—why so many officers hesitate to seek help, how ...

Donald R. Erickson Jr. has spent his life learning how to get back up. On this episode of The Suffering Podcast, Donald shares his journey from a difficult childhood marked by poverty, an abusive father, childhood sexual abuse, medical struggles, and being raised alongside four siblings by a single mother, to discovering purpose in the restaurant industry at just 13 years old. What began as a dishwashing job became a lifelong career as a chef, teaching him discipline, leadership, resilience, and...

What happens when the people who spent a lifetime teaching integrity watch their son become the center of one of New Jersey's most controversial criminal prosecutions? In this deeply personal episode of The Suffering Podcast, Barbara and Drew Oldrati share the emotional journey of standing beside their son, Mantua Township Police Corporal Salvatore Oldrati, following his indictment in connection with a fatal 2021 officer-involved shooting. They discuss how the case has affected their family, the...

After graduating from St. Rose High School in the summer of 2007, Alfred completed Marine Corps Boot Camp at Paris Island. Throughout the next year, he attended Military Police School and was selected to become a K9 Handler, sending him to Military Working Dog School in Lackland AFB San Antonio Texas. Brenner spent the next few years at Camp Pendleton California training for a 2010 deployment with his new partner Grief. During the historic deployment in 2010, Sgt. Brenner was severely injured b...

What happens when someone spends decades helping people navigate both financial challenges and life's deepest spiritual questions? In this episode of The Suffering Podcast, we sit down with Daniel Burrus—a husband, father of four, Enrolled Agent, ordained minister, author, and educator whose unique journey bridges the worlds of accounting, theology, and leadership. Daniel holds both a Master of Arts (MA) and a Master of Theology (ThM) and brings more than 23 years of experience in public and pri...

Many people also know Nick as the creator of the wildly popular "NJ Angry Driver" Instagram page, where dashcam footage and his signature commentary capture the daily chaos of driving in the Garden State. While the videos have built a loyal following among frustrated commuters, the mission is simple: entertain people, get a few laughs, and remind everyone to be a little safer behind the wheel.

Linda Scarpa grew up loving her father. The rest of the world knew him as one of the most feared men in organized crime. As the daughter of notorious Colombo crime family hit man and FBI informant Gregory Scarpa Sr., Linda lived a life few could imagine. Behind closed doors, she knew him as a devoted father and family man. Outside the home, he was a violent enforcer whose actions left a trail of fear, bloodshed, and unanswered questions. Reconciling those two realities has shaped Linda's entire ...

For more than 20 years, Tony Bova served in law enforcement and emergency medical services, spending much of his career as a State Police Homicide Detective. When lives were shattered and families needed answers, Tony was the person people trusted to remain calm under unimaginable pressure. What few people saw, however, was the personal cost of carrying that responsibility. While he excelled in one of the most demanding professions imaginable, Tony struggled with the same challenges that affect ...

Part 2 THE CONCLUSION Kelly Sutliff is a Licensed Professional Counselor, advocate, speaker, and the Founder and Executive Director of Kelly’s K9s, Tails of Courage, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing highly trained personal protection dogs to survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault at no cost. With over 20 years of experience in the mental health field, Kelly has dedicated her career to helping others heal, rebuild, and rediscover their strength. Her work as a psychother...

Part 1 Kelly Sutliff is a Licensed Professional Counselor, advocate, speaker, and the Founder and Executive Director of Kelly’s K9s, Tails of Courage, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing highly trained personal protection dogs to survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault at no cost. With over 20 years of experience in the mental health field, Kelly has dedicated her career to helping others heal, rebuild, and rediscover their strength. Her work as a psychotherapist, combined...

What happens when the career that defined your identity suddenly disappears? This week on The Suffering Podcast, we sit down with Erik Malmstrom, whose life journey is one of loyalty, loss, resilience, and rediscovering purpose after unimaginable change. Raised in the tight-knit neighborhood of Crum Lynne in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, Erik grew up surrounded by generations of family, lifelong friendships, and a home filled with both love and chaos. As a child, he often found himself in the m...

But this episode isn't about crime. It's about redemption. After serving his sentence and walking out of prison, Richie faced the challenge that countless formerly incarcerated individuals know all too well: rebuilding a life from the ground up. Rather than allowing his past to define his future, he chose a different path—one built on perseverance, accountability, resilience, and personal transformation. In this powerful conversation, Richie shares his experiences with prison, organized crime, s...

In this episode of The Suffering Podcast, host Kevin Donaldson sits down with licensed psychologist Dr. Dorothy Novitskie to analyze one of the internet's most controversial conversations: Jubilee's "Surrounded: 1 Cop Vs. 20 Criminals." Unlike a typical reaction video, this episode dives beneath the surface of the debate to explore the psychology, trauma, emotions, and lived experiences driving every exchange. As the discussion unfolds, Kevin offers a unique perspective as the very police office...

Dave Velasquez grew up in chaos long before he ever wore a badge. Raised in Minnesota in a home consumed by addiction, instability, and repeated trauma, his childhood was defined by survival. With an absent father and a mother battling severe substance abuse and suicide attempts, Dave spent his early years moving from place to place, never knowing what “normal” looked like. At just 15 years old, he was abandoned and left behind — until one family connected through the Police Explorer program ste...

Samuel Taveras’s story begins before he ever had a chance to speak. Born prematurely at just six months in a developing country, he spent the first three months of his life fighting to survive through constant medical emergencies and uncertainty. Complications from his birth left him blind in one eye, but the physical challenges were only the beginning. By the age of five, Samuel had already witnessed death, violence, and chaos firsthand including a fatal car crash outside his home and a violent...

Born in Grand Junction, Colorado, our guest’s story begins in the rugged working-class towns of the American West and South—places where grit wasn’t optional, it was survival. Raised in a coal mining family, with both parents working under his grandfather and a father who spent years as a roughneck, he grew up surrounded by hard labor, discipline, and resilience. Life wasn’t always easy. His father battled alcoholism and could be harsh at times, but through the chaos came lessons in toughness, a...

Melony Feliciano is a media executive, producer, distributor, and entrepreneur from New York City. She is the Founder and CEO of B.A.R. TV Show, LLC, a multimedia company specializing in television, film, podcast production, distribution, and media consulting. Since launching B.A.R. TV in 2018, Melony has built a reputation for helping creators, filmmakers, and podcasters monetize and expand their brands across major platforms. She is also the host of the B.A.R. TV Podcast and has grown her medi...

Chris Stoddard’s story doesn’t begin with strength—it begins with survival. Raised in a financially strained household, Chris grew up watching his mother fight tirelessly to keep them afloat, while enduring the chaos of an abusive, alcoholic stepfather. On the other side, love from his biological father was complicated by manipulation and psychological pressure, leaving Chris feeling like the cause of his parents’ divorce and fundamentally broken from a young age. By third grade, he was already ...

Steve Morris is the host of the Peace • Power • & Purpose Podcast. He served his country as a commissioned officer in the United States Navy and later served his community as a police officer working patrol, bringing a leadership style grounded in discipline, accountability, and real-world experience.

On this episode of The Suffering Podcast, we sit down with Robert Ledogar, a former U.S. Marshal, to explore the weight behind one of America’s most historic badges. From the battlefields of Desert Storm to the relentless pursuit of justice on the streets, Robert shares what it truly means to carry responsibility in a profession built on courage, sacrifice, and integrity. This conversation goes beyond the job—it dives into the moments that test your values, the cost of standing up when it matter...

Frankie Anne is a multi-talented performer and stand-up comic, opening for comedy greats such as Mike Marino, Craig Shoemaker, Dana Eagle and more. With a diverse career that spans producing and directing shows featuring icons like Tom Bergeron (DWTS), Dee Wallace (ET), and Sam Tripoli, Frankie has also produced Showtime's Live Nude Comedy, which included Whitney Cummings, Chris D’Elia, and Tig Notaro. A former lead vocalist for Big Brother and the Holding Company, Frankie’s stage presence was s...

What does it take to tell the truth about something most people spend a lifetime trying to forget? In this powerful and deeply personal episode of The Suffering Podcast, Kevin Donaldson sits down with co-authors Sherrie Allsup and Dr. Dorothy Novitskie to discuss their new book, A Life Unfolding: Carrying the Secrets of Childhood Sexual Abuse. This conversation pulls back the curtain on what it really means to write from the depths of lived trauma while balancing the responsibility of telling th...

In this deeply powerful and unflinching episode of The Suffering Podcast, Sherrie Allsup sits down with host Kevin Donaldson to explore a reality many live with—but few are able to speak about: the lifelong suffering carried by survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Through raw honesty and hard-earned insight, Sherrie shares her personal journey of survival, healing, and reclaiming her voice after trauma. Together, she and Kevin navigate the emotional aftermath that lingers long after the abuse en...