The Danny and Park Novels Good News Podcast

Welcome back to the podcast, I'm Jamie Baynes. Johnnie and El-Amin are back to discuss their views on men's mental health. June is Men's Mental Health Awareness Month and since the discussions that I have with Johnnie and El-Amin focus on men's issues, we all thought that this topic would be great for discussion and, as usual with Johnnie and El-Amin, it was. We really had a great time discussing mental health a...

Welcome back to the podcast, I'm Jamie Baynes. For this fantastic episode, I'm talking to two more of my favorite people: Nikki Bailey, who's been a guest a couple times before, and a brand new guest, but someone that I've known for years, Trisha Venable. My initial plan was to have them act as a type of counterbalance to the episode with Johnnie and El-Amin that focused on men, but Nikki and Trisha immediately ...

Welcome back to the podcast, I'm Jamie Baynes. This episode's guest is Richmond police sergeant Michael Lewandowski, also affectionately known as Ski. Ski and I worked Patrol in 1st Precinct back in the late 90's. Recently I posted about how people compare the day-long riot on January 6th with the months long riots in the Spring and Summer of 2020. Ski posted his account of being at ground zero when the Richmond riot...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. A few years ago, I joined NetGalley, a website that has a library of books that haven’t been released yet. Some books are by well known authors and others are by new authors. I was looking through the titles and saw a book cover with the title Dead Safe and a really cool, eye-catching cover. I read the description of the novel and found that it was about an LAPD detective named Casey S...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. For this episode I’ve brought back two of my favorite people, El-Amin and Johnnie Calloway, Sr. I wanted to get their take on what it means to be men in today’s world. The point is not to say that men are better than women, nor is it to judge anyone. I wanted honest opinions from two people that I admire and respect and not surprisingly, that’s exactly what I got from Johnnie and El-Am...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. Today’s guest is my friend, former partner and current chief of the Richmond Police Department, Rick Edwards. I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to ask Rick to be a guest on the podcast. I probably assumed that he was busy running the Richmond Police Department and didn’t have time to talk to me for a bit. I recently interviewed Deputy Chief Sybil El-Amin and sent the interview to ...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. This episode’s guest is a woman that I’ve known for over twenty years, Richmond Police Department Deputy Chief Sybil El-Amin. Over the years, I’ve worked WITH Sybil and FOR Sybil and I always enjoy her outlook on police work and life in general. I decided to reach out to her and see if she’d be willing to come on the podcast and do an episode and she agreed, so here she is. I hope you ...

Welcome back to the podcast, I'm Jamie Baynes. I've been doing this small podcast for a few years now and I enjoy finding guests to talk to. Recently, I've been lucky enough to have publicists reach out to me and ask if I'd be interested in interviewing authors that they promote. I always say yes and for this episode, I have the honor of speaking with Bryan Gruley, a retired journalist and current author. So sit...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. About a week ago, I got an email from a woman who said that she listened to a recent podcast of mine, El-Amin’s first one, and she thought that Lt. Randy Sutton, a retired Lt. from the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department would be a great guest for my podcast. I’m always looking for more guests, so I replied back and said sure. Then I paused and thought, “Randy Sutton from the Vega...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes.  Today I’m happy to welcome back two of my favorite people, Johnnie Calloway, Sr. and El-Amin. As I mentioned in a previous podcast, I’m excited to have these men on as regular guests because of their attitudes about the world in which we all live. I wanted to get their opinion on how it seems as if human beings, at least in the United Sates, don’t seem capable of having civil debates,...

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. This episode, I’m honored to have two previous guests, Johnnie Calloway, Sr. and El-Amin. I’ve had Johnnie on twice and had El-Amin on a few weeks ago. After my interview with El-Amin, I knew that I had to have both of them on an episode and after we finished recording this one, I knew that I needed to have them on as regular guests. So here they are debuting together to talk about, we...

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 you listen, let me know what you think about El-Amin. I don’t think that I’ve ever spoken with someone who is...

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 ...

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 i...

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...

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...

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 k...

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 ...

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 ...