Episodes

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. I feel as if I start every intro with, “A few weeks ago, a publicist emailed me about….” But it’s true, and I love it. So, I get this email about a retired cop who’s a podcast host (these retired cops, is that all they do?) who was with LAPD Internal Affairs. Would I like to interview him? Well, what cop could refuse an offer to flip the script and put IA in the hot seat? Little did I know he’d flip the script back with the oldest trick in the book:...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. A few weeks ago, I received an email from a publicist (long-time listeners may have noticed that I often start my intros with this sentence) asking if I’d like to interview author Neil Adams. Neil, the publicist wrote, had written his debut novel, From the Pile, A 9/11 First Responder Story, and would I be interested in interviewing him. Long-time listeners will also know my response: Absolutely, I would. So, here he is. I hope you enjoy our convers...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. As many of you know, I’m on the Peer Support Team for my agency, and from time to time, we have amazing people who come speak to our group. After they’re done, I corner them and ask them if they’d like to be a guest on my podcast. Meghann Holloway is one such amazing person, and here she is. I hope you enjoy our conversation. After you listen, tell me what you think of Meghann? She’s incredible, right? Among the many things that truly impresses me ...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. Recently, I was at an officer wellness conference in New Orleans, as I mentioned in a previous episode. Another amazing speaker was Chief Melinda Linas, from the Lindenhurst (IL) Police Department. I could tell you about what she talked about, but instead, let’s jump right into my chat with this amazing person. I hope you enjoy our conversation. After you've listened, let me know what you think about Chief Linas. I know that I sound like a broken r...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. A couple of weeks ago, I got an email from a publicist asking if I’d like to interview an author who retired from the US Air Force as a Special agent. Let’s see, do I want to interview an author, a veteran AND a special agent? Yes, yes, and hell yes. So here he is. I hope you enjoy our conversation. After you listen, let me know what you think of Derrick. It blows my mind that despite not being an avid reader, he’s written two books and is working ...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. A few weeks ago, I got an email from a publicist asking if I’d like to interview Dr. David Woo, an economist, investment strategist, and former head of macro strategy at Bank of America. Oh, and he’d also just written a novel and lives in Israel. So was I interested? What I was was intimidated. I haven’t the slightest knowledge about economics or macro investments, though I am an avid reader. So I replied to her and told her that I’d absolutely be i...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. I’m thrilled to have back on the show, Donna Mensah, from the UK. Donna is one of my all-time favorite people, and we connected through Instagram. The first time we spoke was, unbelievably, four years ago, so we were long overdue to catch up. I hope you enjoy our conversation. After you listen, be honest.... Did you miss Donna as much as I did? Of course you did. I swear it doesn’t seem possible that it’s been four years since we’ve spoken, but tim...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. A few weeks ago, I was at an officer wellness conference in New Orleans. At this conference, there were multiple workshops to attend, and I sat in on some good ones and some not-so-good ones. My co-workers caught a great one hosted by an amazing trauma therapist named Cinnamon Reiheld and told me that I should try to get her on my podcast. So, here she is. I hope you enjoy our conversation. After you listen, let me know what you think. She’s awesom...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. A few days ago, the Richmond area was under a pretty scary weather watch that included the possibility of historic high winds and the chance of tornadoes. Luckily, neither happened, though we did get a decent amount of rain and a severe evening thunderstorm. Then a crazy thing happened: people complained that the forecast was wrong. Were they actually upset that property wasn’t damaged and lives weren’t lost? I reached out to WRIC Chief Meteorologis...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. It’s been a few months since I last had Johnnie and El-Amin on the podcast, so I reached out to them to set up this episode, and they readily agreed. The plan was for us to discuss gratitude, and that’s how it started, but as you’ll soon see, it snowballed into a whole other topic. Now, let me preface this episode by saying that the language used is salty and may offend some people. However, Johnnie and El-Amin are always honest, direct, and respect...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. One of the things I truly enjoy about doing this podcast is discovering writers that I’m not familiar with, but find out that they’ve written a lot of books. Valerie Burns is just such an author. She’s written numerous books under various names, and as you’ll soon see, she’s an absolute joy to talk to. I hope you enjoy our conversation. After you listen, let me know what you think of Valerie. Her saying that she started writing because the books th...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. This episode’s guest is a good friend of mine and Hanover County Emergency Communications Center dispatcher Shannon Harell. I’ve known Shannon for years, but never had the opportunity to pronounce her last name, so I texted her just before the episode and asked her how to do so. She told me, and I still mispronounced it. Luckily, since she’s a dispatcher, she’s used to officers’ verbal flubs. Regardless, she’s a wonderful person, and I hope you enjo...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. This episode’s guest is Tori Zobel, owner of Tori Renayyy Photography. We follow each other on Instagram and Facebook, and she posts AMAZING photos. Recently, she’s branched out and has been posting boudoir photos that are simply beautiful. I reached out to her to see if she’d like to do an episode, and luckily for all of us, she said that she would, and here she is. I hope you enjoy our conversation. I never know where these conversations are goin...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. This episode’s guest is Jenna Crockett, a former volunteer firefighter, former Richmond Ambulance EMT, former Richmond police dispatcher, former.,.,,I could go on, but Jenna currently is a nurse practitioner, wife, and mother. And she did NOT like it when I cut the interview short due to time constraints! But she’s a fabulous person and makes me laugh. So, here she is. I hope you enjoy the episode. After you listen, let me know if you heard the sur...

Welcome back to the podcast, I'm Jamie Baynes. This episode's guest is Katherine Boyle, the host of the fantastic podcast, Beyond the Uniform with the LT's Daughter. I'm on the Peer Support team for my agency, and one of the guest speakers was Katherine. After she spoke, I was so impressed with what she had to say and the focus of her mission, I wanted to have her on my podcast, and here she is. I hope you enjoy our conversation. Then, after you listen, let me know what you think of K...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. For this episode, I’m thrilled to have back bestselling author and my friend, Yasmin Angoe. Yasmin just released her 5th, yes 5th, novel, and we talk about that, her book writing process, and, of course, crinkly or wrinkly fries? Regardless, here she is. I hope you enjoy our conversation. As always, I want to thank Yasmin for joining me again to talk about this and that. She’s a joy to talk to and one of my favorite people on the planet. Be sure to...