Episodes

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. This episode’s guest is someone that I’ve wanted to have on for quite awhile: RPD Officer Alexander El-Amin, or El-Amin for short. I’ve followed his Facebook page for years and every photo simply exudes positivity. So sit back, relax, and I hope you enjoy our conversation. After youn listen, let me know what you think about El-Amin. I don’t think that I’ve ever spoken with someone who is so passionate about what they do. His compassion and honesty ...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. This episode’s guest is bestselling author G.T. Karber. A publicist sent me an email asking if I’d like to interview an author who created murder mystery logic puzzles online, then put those puzzles in a series of bestselling novels. Well, anyone who knows me knows that I’ll talk to anyone as long as they’ve got a positive message to share. And I especially like talking to authors, so the fix was in, so sit back, relax and I hope you enjoy our conve...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. On this episode, I’m bringing back Keanna, the current esthetician and former Richmond Police dispatcher. I enjoyed talking to her so much, I asked if she could find any other people who wanted to come back with her.. In about two seconds, she shot me a text and said that Dria, a friend of hers, and a dispatcher wanted to come and do an episode. Two former Richmond police dispatchers in one episode? How could I turn that down? So sit back, relax and...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. On this episode, I’m honored to be speaking with bestselling author, poet, ecologist and journalist, Mike Bond. Mike has written thirteen fiction novels, though as you’ll hear in our conversation, they’re all true because they’re based on his life. He's also written two tomes of poetry. To be honest, I was a little intimidated at the thought of interviewing Mike because of all his accomplishments and all the places that he’s been and the experiences...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. This episode’s guest is Lela Tuhtan. Lela was an educator for over ten years, then decided to transition over to coaching adults. Lela’s philosophy is that we’re all raised with certain sociological stories that can limit us in our personal and professional lives. What Lela does as a coach is to dig up those embedded stories and, in her words, compost them in order for us to create new, better, healthier stories. So sit back, relax and I hope you en...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. A few weeks ago, a good friend of mine, and past guest on the podcast, Shayna Perlstein, shot me a text and suggested that I bring on Henrico County Assistant Chief Lauren Edwards as a guest. Shayna said that Lauren was in the process of starting a podcast about women leaders in law enforcement and Shayna thought that Lauren would be a fantastic guest. Well, everyone who who knows me knows that in a addition to loving authors, I also have a soft spo...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. Today’s guest is Keanna, an esthetician who was a Richmond Police dispatcher for over fifteen years. She and I follow each other on Instagram, but I never knew that she had been a dispatcher until just recently. Now, if you’re a regular listener to the podcast, you know that police dispatchers are some of my favorite people and after you listen to our conversation, I think you’ll see why. So sit back, relax and prepare to get it straight with no cha...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. Today’s guest is author and Instagramer James Murray. I’ve followed James on Instagram for quite awhile. After all, his IG handle is the_80’s_author and I love the 80’s and I love authors, so me following him was a forgone conclusion. Well, recently James tried a social experiment about democracy on his account and my oh my, what an experiment it was. I’m not going to tell you what it is just yet. So why don’t you sit back, relax and enjoy our conve...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. As many of you know, I’m a retired Homicide detective from Richmond, Virginia. Before becoming a Homicide detective, I was a Youth and Family Crimes detective, which meant that I often worked with Child Protective Services, also known as CPS, in the City of Richmond. Flash forward to my current position and I’ve been working with CPS again, which is where I met Abby. I thought that it would be great to have her on an episode to talk about the roles ...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. Today’s guest is, hold on and let me go down the list: Bestselling author Forensic Anthropologist certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology A producer of the Fox show Bones, a show I might add is based partly on her fictional character Temperance Brennan AND the author herself. Mother of three kids...... Kathy Reichs!! Kathy was kind enough to come on my small podcast and let me ask her a metric ton of questions. So sit back, re...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. I’m honored to have back on the show, one of my favorite authors and more importantly, one of my favorite people: Yasmin Angoe. Now full disclosure, when I introduce her in the episode, I pronounce her name, correctly, then put my foot in my mouth ad drop the “y” and begin to call her ‘Asmin’…….how embarrassing. For me. Luckily, Yasmin is such a fantastic person that she takes it in stride and doesn’t hang up on me. Of course, when I told her about ...

What’s the first thing you noticed in the photo associated with this episode? If I were to guess, I’d say that it was the lettering on the ball cap. In fact, those four words elicit strong feelings from the left and the right. Some people who saw the photo may have clicked off the site and won’t be hearing these words or reading what I’ve written. That’s fine. This podcast is all about positivity and if people don’t want to hear about positivity, there are plenty of other podcasts that push hate...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. Today’s guest is Wes Hartkemeyer, a patrol officer in Wisconsin and co-founder of Ireport. Recently, I received an email from a listener of one of my recent episodes who introduced me to Wes. She said that Wes and his co-founder designed self-reporting software that allowed citizens to make police reports online, thereby freeing up patrol officers from lengthy report calls and instead letting them focus on establishing personal connections within th...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. This episode’s guest is bestselling author and appellate judge David Ellis. A few months ago, I got an email from his publicist asking if I’d like to have him on as a guest. Now I’ve been before quite a few judges in my lifetime and interviewed quite a few authors so obviously it was a toss-up…….just kidding. I agreed immediately and here he is. I hope you enjoy our conversation. After you listen, let me know what you think. Prior to recording the ...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. Today’s guest is journalist and author, Liz Collin. You may remember hearing about Liz and her husband back in 2020. Liz was an anchor on a Minneapolis television station and her husband was a Minneapolis Police Lt. who handled union matters. After the death of George Floyd, Liz and her husband, as well as the police officers and citizens of Minneapolis were put through hell during the protests and riots following Floyd’s death. I watched the docume...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. This episode’s guest is Taqdees Razzaq, an entrepreneur, life coach and a firm believer in empowering women to be the best that they can be. A representative of Taqdees reached out to me and asked if I would like to have her on an episode. Well of course I would, so here she is. I hope you enjoy our conversation and after you listen to it, let me know what you think of Taqdees. Personally, I loved what she said about negative energy versus positive...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. Today’s returning guest is bestselling author, Tim Hendricks. I had Tim on about a year ago to talk about his debut novel, The Instructor, which became a bestseller. Flash forward to April 2024, and he’s released his second novel, The Infiltrator, which is predicted to be yet another bestseller. Once The Infiltrator dropped, I reached back out to Tim to see if he’d be willing to talk to me again and he replied, “Let’s do it!”, so we did. After you ...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. I went to an officer safety and wellness conference in Louisville, Kentucky and sat in on about twenty lectures, given by professors, psychologists, social workers and my favorite group, police officers. Out of all the presentations, one stood out and moved me the most. It was given by Ashley Ferris, a police officer from Lakewood Colorado. What did she talk about that had such an impact on me? Listen to our conversation and find out. Once you list...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. Today’s guest is a #1 New York Times bestselling author, and TV producer, Lee Goldberg. Lee has written sixty novels, that’s 6-0, so far and has produced multiple television shows which include Monk and Diagnosis Murder. I recently began reading an advanced copy of Ashes Never Lie, the second in the Sharpe & Walker series and decided that I’d like to interview him for an episode. I went to his website, found a contact form and sent him an email. He ...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. Today’s guest is actor and bestselling author, Jon Lindstrom. As you’ll soon learn, Jon caught the acting bug when he woke up in the middle of a James Bond film and saw two guys on the screen, fighting to the death. With that goal in mind, he set a course for Hollywood and all the hard work and frustrations associated with the actor’s life. Apparently feature films, various television shows, a regular stint on General Hospital and Port Charles and r...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. I’m honored to have Jeff Katz on as this episode's guest. Jeff has had a show on Richmond radio station WRVA for over thirteen years, and has been on air nationally too many times to count. Despite all of that fame, as you’ll soon find out, Jeff is the most down to earth guy you’ll ever meet. I’ve been a fan of his for years and I’m sure that that fandom will come through on the interview you’re getting ready to listen to, but I can’t help it. Jeff ...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jame Baynes. For this episode, we’re flipping the script a bit, as the cool kids say. My dear friend, Dr. Richard Groover texted me with an idea. He said he thought that my listeners might enjoy hearing about me, so he suggested that he interview me. I thought, why not? I’m all about positivity, so I agreed to it. Actually, I don’t like talking about myself and I specifically tailor my podcasts to be about my guests, not me. But I thought that it might be fun to ...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. Today’s guest is Devin, a former Richmond police officer. I was working on a case recently and was talking on the phone with a detective from another jurisdiction. After we hung up, my phone rang again immediately and showed that detective’s number. I answered and to my surprise it was Devin. He’d gone to work for another agency, was with the detective that I was talking to and recognized my name once that detective told him he was talking to Invest...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. Today’s returning guest is the one and only, Johnnie Calloway. The last time Johnnie and I talked was back in May, 2022. I’ve been following Johnnie on Instagram since then and always enjoy his posts. One of his recent posts was of him and three of his sons, standing outside in the snow, shirts off and flexing for the camera. I saw that and thought of one word: Fatherhood. So I reached out to him to see if he’d be willing to come on and do another e...