Fill To Capacity (Where Heart, Grit and Irreverent Humor Collide)
Podcast for people too stubborn to quit and too creative not to make a difference!Join visual artist Pat Benincasa in conversation with a riveting roster of guests to uncover extraordinary stories of everyday people. Listen as they share their quirky wisdom, unlikely adventures, and poignant life lessons! Fasten your emotional seatbelt for this journey of heart, humor and grit!
Episodes
When Sue Abderholden took the reins at the Minnesota chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) in 2001, the organization ran on duct tape, a few staff, and big hopes.
Two decades later, NAMI MN has become a statewide leader and national model—transforming how mental health is addressed in schools, jails, hospitals, and homes.
In this candid conversation, Sue reflects on 24 years of advocacy, the power o...
What happens when bedside stories we almost never hear step into the light—and sing? In this episode, Ben Kintisch—chaplain, Cantor, and playwright behind “Life Review: The Hospice Musical” —shares how end-of-life moments became songs that make you laugh, weep, and reach for someone you love.
We get honest about what hospice really is: the power of moments over months, the chaplain’s craft of presence, turning private ...
When the world goes hard, softness isn’t weakness—it’s strategy. This quick episode is about what happens when you answer cruelty… with a seat at the table.
Please Note: The views expressed by our guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the podcaster.
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Plot twist: Gen Z, first to grow up with smartphones and social media 24/7- decide now to unplug?
Meet Olivia Telecky, a 20-year-old Minnesota college student whose article “The Dumb Phone Trend—And Why I Bought Into It” made waves.
With honesty and humor, Olivia explains why she turned her iPhone into a dumb phone—and what that choice reveals about a generation pushing back on doom-scrolling, questioning the pressure...
🐾 What does it mean to truly give someone their life back?
Alyssa Golob, Executive Director of Helping Paws, takes us inside their mission to train service dogs for people with physical disabilities, veterans, and first responders with PTSD.
From a mother's loving calls to her struggling son—"go play with the dogs"—to a 15-year-old girl opening her bedroom door independently for the first time, these sto...
What happens when a veteran’s truth is shaped by a writer, interpreted by an artist, and transformed into something the world can finally see? When the silence of war is met—not with politics—but with art?
With unflinching honesty, Marine Corps veteran and writer Robert LeHeup shares the story behind Bullets and Bandaids, a nonprofit that pairs veterans with writers and artists to turn lived experience into collaborati...
The high-voltage impact of the ordinary-in this quick episode!
Please Note: The views expressed by our guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the podcaster.
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While the world scrolls through chaos and cruelty, something else is happening—quietly, insistently, beautifully. This episode is a dispatch from that other world. The one where people are building, healing, creating, and connecting—right in the thick of it. Not in spite of the madness, but through it. Because beyond the headlines, the human spirit is busy at work
Please Note: The views expressed by our guests do ...
What happens when wood becomes voice, and craft becomes calling?
Luthier Nina Poots doesn’t just build string instruments—she brings them to life. Born in the Netherlands and now working in the Scottish Highlands, Nina’s journey has taken her from art education to centuries-old violin-making traditions, with stops at Glasgow Clyde College and the renowned Newark School in England.
She reveals how tea leaves and vibratio...
In this riveting episode, Joel Sosinsky and Andi Sosin take us inside the 1911, Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire—one of the deadliest workplace disasters in U.S. history—and the fierce determination to make sure it’s never forgotten.
146 immigrant workers, mostly young women. Locked exits. A burning building. And out of the horror—a reckoning. Labor laws. Fire codes. Frances Perkins. The seeds of the New Deal.
Joel and ...
When was the last time you really saw the stars? Not just a few twinkles—but the Milky Way stretching overhead like a cosmic river?
Caroline “Siffy” Torkildson—geographer, explorer, and author of the new book “My Home Is Where My Trunk Is”—has spent a lifetime chasing eclipses, hiking sacred landscapes, and advocating for the night sky.
We dig into light pollution—the silent invader erasing our stars, disrupting wildlif...
🚗 She left a marriage, packed her life into a Kia, and drove straight into the unknown. What Brittany Colt found on the other side wasn’t just a new beginning—it was a radical reclaiming of self.
📷 Brittany’s photography doesn’t just capture beauty—it captures reckoning, release, and raw presence. Her images, both portrait and landscape, are striking, soulful, and unforgettable. From her time at the Ansel Adams Galle...
What kind of person runs toward the fire — not away? Kristianne Schultz has lived many lifetimes in one: firefighter, EMT, surgical tech, acupuncturist, healer. But behind every role is one relentless search — for healing, for wholeness, for a self-reclaimed from childhood pain and trauma.
In this episode, Kristianne opens up about surviving Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy, learning to control pain through mind-body pract...
What happens when the justice system gets it wrong—devastatingly wrong?
In this riveting episode of Fill To Capacity, attorney Chris Renz shares the harrowing story of how his legal team at Chestnut Cambronne—working with the Great North Innocence Project—helped exonerate Robert “Bobby” Bintz, who spent 25 years behind bars for a brutal crime he didn’t commit. Through persistence, forensic genealogy, and a relentless p...
⚖️ When truth stands alone, it still stands—just ask Joan of Arc. 🛡️⚜️
Joan of Arc Scroll MedalThis brass alloy medal can be worn on a necklace, a keychain, dogtags, on a bag, or in your car.
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Please Note: The views expressed by our guests do not necessarily reflect the view...
Who cares for the caregiver?
In this powerful and tender conversation, Mandy Barr—President Carter’s great-niece and Engagement Specialist at the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers—opens a door into the heart of caregiving in America today.
With raw honesty and lived experience—as a caregiver, military spouse, and mother of a medically complex child—Mandy Barr brings depth, resilience, and grace to a role millions...
In this revealing episode, we go to the heart of a crisis too many parents carry in silence. Dr. Kate Gawlik—Doctor of Nursing Practice, researcher, professor, and mother of four—exposes the quiet toll of parenting—burnout and the loneliness no one talks about.
We dig into what the data reveals, how the pandemic reshaped family life, and what it means to juggle the nonstop demands of parenting, work, and school schedul...
What do Bugs Bunny, a book of Italian love poems, and a burned diploma have in common? Me. And Papaco.
In this episode, I trace a line from my grandfather’s one-armed resilience to my own battle with shame, dyslexia, and teachers who said, “college isn’t for you.” From Calabria’s poverty to the Welland Canal’s brutal cost, from war-time fear to artistic fire, I unravel a legacy forged through poetry, grit, and stubborn...
Pavement is everywhere—trapping heat, polluting water, and cutting us off from nature. But what if we could tear it up and bring life back to our cities? Enter Depave, a dynamo organization transforming urban spaces by tearing out unnecessary pavement and replacing it with thriving green landscapes.
In this episode, Katherine Rose of Depave, reveals why pavement is both an environmental and social justice issue—and how...
In this moving episode, Aidan Ryan—writer, publisher, and filmmaker discusses his deeply personal book, I Am Here - You Are Not - I Love You. The book unearths the extraordinary yet overlooked lives of Cindy Suffoletto and Andy Topolski, two groundbreaking artists who came out of Buffalo’s raw, experimental 1970s art scene and made their mark in the intense 1980s–90s New York art world.
As Aidan retraces their artistic...
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