When it Mattered

Ep. 71 —  A failed apprentice farmer turns into a renowned futurist / Thomas Frey, Founder and Executive Director, DaVinci Institute & Co-host, Futurati Podcast.

Born on a grain farm in South Dakota, Thomas Frey was an unlikely candidate to become a world-renowned futurist and public speaker. But then one day, when he was four years old, Frey’s parents received a big mysterious box that would change his life forever.

His mom p...

Ep. No. 70 — He built a career path at the age of eight to become a U.S. Air Force combat pilot and safe-keeper of U.S. nuclear weapons / Maj Gen Robert Wheeler, USAF (ret), CEO, Strategic Consulting Unlimited. 

When Robert Wheeler was just 8 years old, his mother took him to the Chicago Air Show. It changed his life. From that moment on, Wheeler became obsessed with an unwavering goal: To become a U.S. fighter pilot. 

Wheeler mor...

Ep. No. 69  —  A battered, bloodied, police officer proves her mettle during the January 6th insurrection on the U.S. Capitol / Officer Caroline Edwards, U.S. Capitol Police (USCP).

Officer Caroline Edwards of the U.S. Capitol Police’s First Responder Unit reported for duty on January 6, 2021, along with her colleagues, with little warning from her supervisors about the clear and present danger of extreme violence and the potentia...

Ep. 68 — He survived a near-fatal shooting by a hitman hired by his ex-wife to become one of Hollywood’s top stuntmen / Garrett Warren, Stunt Actor/Director.

On May 20, 2000, Hollywood stuntman Garrett Warren was hanging out at his home in Westlake Village, California with his mom when the doorbell rang insistently.

When Warren opened the door, he found himself facing the barrel of a gun. What happened next was not a stunt scene w...

Ep. 67  — He built a successful startup while waging a life-threatening battle against bipolar disorder / Andy Dunn, Co-founder, Bonobos, and Author, “Burn Rate: Launching A Startup And Losing My Mind.”

Andy Dunn would never have predicted that he would wind up naked and writhing on the floor of Bellevue Hospital’s psychiatric Emergency Room in New York — in the throes of a massive bipolar episode. Nor that when he would be releas...

Ep. No. 66 — Fired by President Donald Trump, a distinguished diplomat helps impeach him and reclaims her narrative / Marie Yovanovitch, Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine and author, “Lessons from the Edge”.

On April 24, 2019, in the dead of night, with no explanation, Marie Yovanovitch got a call from the U.S State Department, essentially removing her immediately from her post as Ambassador to Ukraine.

A few days later, back in W...

Ep. 65 — An epiphany in Peru results in a kidnapping in Mexico that galvanizes the evolution of a fair trade social entrepreneur / Patrick Struebi, Founder & Executive Chairman, Fairtrasa.

Patrick Struebi was eager to fly home to Switzerland on one of his periodic visits after spending eight years in Mexico establishing Fairtrasa, one of the world’s largest fair trade organizations for avocados and other fruits from Latin Amer...

Ep. No. 64 — Disobeying his boss turned a humanitarian crisis into a calling / Sasha Chanoff, CEO and Founder, RefugePoint and Co-Author, “From Crisis to Calling: Finding Your Moral Center in the Toughest Decisions”.

In 2000, refugee expert and humanitarian aid worker Sasha Chanoff was in the Congo on a mission to evacuate a very specific set of Tutsi refugees, who were on a UN resettlement list. But as he was about to leave with ...

Ep. No. 63 — Kidnapped and held hostage by drug kingpin Pablo Escobar revealed the best and worst of humanity / Francisco Santos Calderón, former Vice President of Colombia and former Colombian Ambassador to the United States.

For months, Pablo Escobar, notorious head of the Medellín drug cartel and journalist Francisco Santos Calderon — one of his fiercest critics in the press, had been playing a dangerous cat and mouse game.

Esc...

Ep. 62:  She went from poverty in communist-era Poland to becoming the artist of choice of Silicon Valley billionaires for her renaissance-inspired conceptual art of machines and robots/ Agnieszka Pilat, Conceptual Artist. Born in the shadow of communism, in the grip of poverty, in the cradle of post-industrial Central Poland, Agnieska Pilat acted on her burning desire to leave her homeland and headed to America in 2004.    She lan...

Ep. 61 — He became a celebrated anti-landmine crusader after a horrific landmine accident but then began questioning his superhero narrative / Jerry White, Nobel Peace Laureate / Author / Professor of Practice, University of Virginia. In 1984, Jerry White went to Israel for his junior year, “study abroad” program at Hebrew University. On their spring break that April, White, and his two American roommates went out hiking in the Gol...

Ep. 60 — How history, geography, lineage, and duty converged to shape this retired four-star General’s decorated career / James L. Jones, Commandant, United States Marine Corps, Commander, United States European Command, Former Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, & Chairman, Jones Group International. It was by no means pre-ordained but perhaps it was inevitable. Born in 1943, the son of a Marine in WWII, in a family of Marines, ...

Ep. 59 —  A Portuguese Roman Catholic janitor and immigrant to Canada becomes the “Bar Mitzvah Photography king” of Montreal / Braulio Rocha, Photographer & Co-Founder, Rocha Studio. I thought it would be so nice to start the New Year with a heartwarming success story. This is the rags-to-riches journey of a Portuguese Roman Catholic immigrant to Canada named Braulio Rocha, who, just five years ago, was a humble janitor at the ...

Ep. 58 — A shocking loss leads a grieving daughter and budding communications leader to rethink the meaning of human connectivity / Susan McPherson, founder and CEO of McPherson Strategies, and author, “The Lost Art of Connecting: The Gather, Ask, Do Method for Building Meaningful Relationships.” When Susan McPherson was 22 years old, her parents were on vacation in Puerto Rico when the unthinkable happened. It was New Year’s Eve, ...

Ep. 57 — The Journalist and Author who Predicted the Rise of Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda Examines the Legacy of the 9/11 Mastermind and the Global Jihad that he Spawned / Peter Bergen, CNN National Security Analyst & Author, “The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden.” In 1983, a British university student named Peter Bergen traveled to Pakistan with two friends to make a documentary called Refugees of Faith, about the Afghan refug...

Ep. 56 — A Retired Police Executive Returns to Duty to Help Rebuild the United States Capitol Police after the Violent January 6 Insurrection  / J. Thomas Manger, USCP Chief of Police. After 42 years in policing, including for two of the largest police agencies in the National Capital Region, J. Thomas Manger had retired and was enjoying his life as a security consultant and public citizen. Then on January 6, thousands of white ext...

Ep. 55 — A fighter pilot and great-granddaughter of a SciFi pioneer sees a UFO and connects with the vast community of UFO believers / Lt. Cmdr. Alex Dietrich, U.S. Navy (retired). Lt. Cmdr. Alex Dietrich was going about her business this spring, getting ready to retire from active duty as one of the first female fighter pilots in the US. Then she got an unexpected feeler from 60 Minutes, the CBS television show. The U.S. Governme...

Ep. 54 — How writing a best-selling book on the deadly 1918 influenza pandemic positioned this author to become a prescient thought leader on the COVID-19 pandemic / John M. Barry, Author, Distinguished Scholar, Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. John Barry remembers the exact moment he gave up his boyhood dream of doing medical research for his other boyhood dream of writing. He was 13 years old and had returned...

Ep.53 — A journalist upends her life and career to help identify and bring to justice the network of militants who murdered her friend and fellow correspondent at The Wall Street, Daniel Pearl / Asra Nomani, journalist, author, activist and co-founder, The Pearl Project. On January 23rd, 2002, Asra Nomani was waiting at her home in Karachi, Pakistan, for her dear friend, Daniel Pearl, a correspondent at The Wall Street Journal, to ...