8158 Podcast: Stories of Sacrifice

Before he was a firefighter, he was a teammate. Before he wore turnout gear, he wore a lacrosse jersey. And long before he made the ultimate sacrifice, he was a husband, father, coach, and friend who dedicated his life to showing up for others.

On February 12, 2025, Firefighter John “JR” Gaudet, an 11-year veteran of the Binghamton Fire Department in New York, tragically lost his life when a building collapsed during a structure fire. He was just 40 years old, leaving behind his wife, Felly, and their three young children.

In this Fallen Heroes episode of 8158 Podcast: Stories of Sacrifice, Rico takes us beyond the tragic events of JR's final call to celebrate the extraordinary life he lived.

From his days playing collegiate lacrosse to coaching young athletes in his hometown, JR understood the importance of teamwork, dedication, and putting others first. Those same qualities followed him into the firehouse, where he became the kind of firefighter his brothers and sisters could always count on.

This episode explores JR's love for his family, his commitment to the Binghamton community, the heartbreaking events of February 12, 2025, and the legacy he left behind.

Because a fallen hero should never be remembered solely for the day they died, but for every life they touched while they lived.

💙 IN HONOR OF:

Firefighter John “JR” Gaudet
Binghamton Fire Department — New York
11 Years of Service
End of Watch: February 12, 2025
Age: 40

Husband. Father. Son. Brother. Coach. Teammate. Firefighter.

His final shift may have ended, but his legacy lives on through his family, fellow firefighters, the athletes he coached, and the community he loved.

Say his name. Tell his story. Never forget. 🇺🇸🚒

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#8158Podcast #StoriesOfSacrifice #FallenHeroes #JohnGaudet #JRGAUDET #BinghamtonFireDepartment #Firefighter #EndOfWatch #LODD #HonorTheFallen #NeverForget

🚒 Behind every fallen firefighter is a life, a family, a legacy, and a story that deserves to be remembered.

In this episode of 8158: Stories of Sacrifice, we shine a spotlight on the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF) and its mission to honor America's fallen firefighters, support their families, and help reduce firefighter deaths and injuries.

When a firefighter makes the ultimate sacrifice, the impact reaches far beyond the firehouse. Spouses, children, parents, fellow firefighters, and entire communities are left navigating a loss that changes their lives forever.

We explore the important work of the NFFF, including its National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Weekend, survivor support programs, and efforts to improve firefighter safety and wellness.

💙 In this episode, we highlight:

• The mission and lasting impact of the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation
• Honoring firefighters who died in the line of duty
• Supporting surviving families through grief and remembrance
• Firefighter safety, health, and wellness
• Why remembering the fallen means continuing to support those who serve

The sacrifice of a firefighter should never be reduced to a name on a memorial. Every name represents a person who mattered, a family who remembers, and a legacy worth preserving.

Their sacrifice will never be forgotten. Their stories will continue to be told.

🚒 Learn more about the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation: https://www.firehero.org/

🎙️ 8158: Stories of Sacrifice

Same conversations. A brighter tomorrow.

#8158Podcast #NationalFallenFirefightersFoundation #FirefighterHeroes #NeverForget #fyp

🎙️ From the Front Lines to “The Broken Responder” | Richard Burns

In this powerful episode of 8158 Podcast: Stories of Sacrifice, we sit down with Richard Burns, a Marine Corps and Navy veteran, former law enforcement officer, and now mental health advocate known as The Broken Responder.

Richard’s path into law enforcement wasn’t something he had planned. After serving in the military, an opportunity brought him into policing in his hometown of Kearney, Nebraska. His career would eventually take him to Pueblo, Colorado, where the realities of the job looked very different.

Richard shares stories from years on the job involving violent crime, drugs, overdoses, fatal crashes, mental health crises, and the situations first responders walk into that most people will never see.

But this conversation goes much deeper than the calls.

After years of exposure to trauma, Richard experienced his own mental health crisis. He was eventually medically retired from law enforcement due to PTSD and began the difficult process of figuring out who he was outside of the badge. He talks candidly about therapy, medication, depression, weight gain, suicidal thoughts, and the realization that he could no longer keep pushing everything down.

Richard also shares two moments he describes as divine intervention — including the phone call from his best friend battling cancer that arrived during one of the darkest moments of Richard’s life.

The conversation becomes an important discussion about something Richard believes the first responder community desperately needs to address: mental health before it reaches a crisis point.

He talks about anger as an early warning sign, the cumulative effect of constantly witnessing trauma, the difficulty many first responders have asking for help, gaps in access to mental health treatment, and why the culture surrounding mental health needs to change.

Richard isn't speaking about these issues from the outside looking in.

He lived them.

Today, he wants to use that experience to reach the people still standing on the front lines and remind them that asking for help doesn't erase everything they've done or everything they've survived.

🎧 Listen now to Richard Burns — The Broken Responder — on 8158 Podcast: Stories of Sacrifice.

⚠️ CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains detailed discussions of suicide, suicidal ideation, PTSD, addiction, drug overdoses, self-harm, death, and traumatic incidents. Listener discretion is advised.

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If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

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On March 22, 2021, Boulder Police Officer Eric H. Talley responded to an active shooter at the King Soopers grocery store in Boulder, Colorado. Within seconds of arriving, the 51-year-old father of seven ran toward the danger.

He would not make it back out.

But Eric Talley’s story didn’t begin that afternoon.

In this Fallen Hero episode of 8158 Podcast: Stories of Sacrifice, Rico goes beyond Eric’s End of Watch to remember the man behind the badge—a husband and father, big brother, computer scientist turned police officer, Star Wars fan, golfer, department “tech guru,” drone team member, and even the officer who once crawled into a drainage area to rescue a mother duck and her eleven ducklings. Pasted text Pasted text

At age 40, Eric left a successful career in technology to pursue a calling to law enforcement. Eleven years later, when the moment came that every officer hopes never comes, Eric made the choice he had once told his mother he would make: he went inside. Pasted text Pasted text

This episode honors Eric’s entire life—not simply the way it ended—and remembers the nine civilians whose lives were also taken that day. Pasted text

💙 Officer Eric H. Talley
Boulder Police Department, Colorado
11 Years of Service
EOW: March 22, 2021
Age: 51

His shift ended that day. The light he left behind did not. Pasted text

#8158Podcast #StoriesOfSacrifice #FallenHero #EricTalley #BoulderPolice #EndOfWatch #EOW #LODD #HonorTheFallen #NeverForget

⚠️ CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains conversations about suicide, mental health struggles, trauma, PTSD, grief, and the loss of a spouse. Please listen with care.

What happens after the story everyone remembers?

In this episode of 8158: Off Duty, Rico welcomes back Libby, a military spouse whose powerful story left a lasting impact when she first joined 8158: Stories of Sacrifice.

Nearly two years after losing her veteran husband to suicide, Libby returns to talk about what life looks like now — not just surviving the aftermath, but learning how to live again.

Libby opens up about raising four children through grief, completing school, connecting with other families who have experienced similar losses, and discovering just how important support can be for the spouses and children standing beside veterans struggling with trauma.

She and Rico discuss the gaps families can face when treatment programs end, the need for continued mental health care and trauma-informed resources, and why supporting a veteran has to include supporting the family around them. Libby shares how her own experience left her wishing she had known more about the resources, warning signs, and support available while her husband was still alive.

The conversation also turns deeply personal as Libby explains how she helps her children navigate grief — allowing them to be angry, cry, talk about their dad, visit his grave, and keep his memory present in their everyday lives rather than treating him as someone they are supposed to leave in the past.

But this episode isn't only about loss.

Libby has remarried, is blending a family of eight children, and has discovered something she wasn't sure she could have said the first time she sat down with Rico:

There is still joy. There is still happiness. There is still more life ahead.

Her experiences have also given her a desire to help other spouses understand that they don't have to carry everything alone. Sometimes healing comes from allowing someone else into your story — and sometimes helping another person through their darkest moment helps you heal, too.

Rico and Libby also talk about advocacy, peer support, trauma-informed mental health care, service animals, funding for veteran programs, and the possibility that Libby's next chapter could include using her own voice to reach even more military spouses and families.

This is a conversation about grief without pretending grief disappears.

It's about trauma without allowing trauma to become the entire story.

And most importantly, it's a reminder that the hardest chapter of your life does not have to be the final chapter.

🎙️ 8158: Stories of Sacrifice — Off Duty

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If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the United States. If there is immediate danger, call 911.

#8158Podcast #StoriesOfSacrifice #VeteranMentalHealth #SuicideAwareness #MilitarySpouse

Twenty-five years in emergency services leaves you with a lot of stories—and sometimes, a weight you don’t realize you’re carrying until there’s nowhere left to put it.

In this episode, Rico sits down with The Blakery Content, a firefighter/paramedic turned flight nurse, educator, content creator, and host of Reducing the Pucker Factor.

His first day at the fire department was September 11, 2001. From there, his career would take him through 15 years as a firefighter/paramedic, pediatric flight medicine, nursing, trauma and intensive care, and eventually back into the air as a flight nurse specialist.

But this conversation goes far beyond the job.

The Blakery opens up about the cumulative trauma of 25 years in emergency medicine, the pediatric call that finally made him realize he had reached his limit, and the advice he received early in his career that stayed with him:

You didn’t cause it. You’re there to make the situation a little better—and don’t bury what you’re carrying. Talk about it.

Rico and The Blakery discuss first responder mental health, trauma-informed counseling, his personal experience with an SGB treatment, the Mental Health Awareness Summit in Wilmington, and why our community needs to move beyond simply talking about mental health and start taking action.

They also dive into The Blakery’s passion for pediatric readiness and his mission to help EMS providers build confidence when treating pediatric patients through education, persistent exposure, and his Reducing the Pucker Factor platform.

This is a conversation about experience, vulnerability, education, and recognizing when it’s finally time to ask for help.

🎧 Listen to 8158 Podcast: Stories of Sacrifice

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Find The Blakery Content:
Facebook • TikTok • Instagram • YouTube — The Blakery Content

🎙️ Reducing the Pucker Factor Podcast — available on Spotify and YouTube.

#8158Podcast #StoriesOfSacrifice #TheBlakeryContent #FirstResponderMentalHealth #FirstResponders #EMS #Paramedic #FlightNurse #Firefighter #PediatricEMS #MentalHealthMatters #ReducingThePuckerFactor

There is a difference between surviving something and being okay afterward.

In this episode of 8158: Stories of Sacrifice, Rico shines the Organizational Spotlight on Save A Warrior®, a nonprofit dedicated to helping active-duty military members, veterans, and eligible first responders struggling with the invisible wounds that can remain long after the uniform comes off.

This conversation goes beyond PTSD. Rico explores Complex Post-Traumatic Stress, moral injury, guilt, shame, isolation, suicidal thoughts, and the survival mechanisms that may keep someone alive during trauma—but make returning to everyday life incredibly difficult.

We also take a closer look at Save A Warrior's intensive 72-hour program, their approach to trauma recovery, the importance of their alumni community, and the powerful philosophy behind four simple words:

“We Came Back For You.”

Because sometimes the person everyone depends on becomes the person who needs someone to come back for them.

Save A Warrior serves active-duty military members and veterans from any era. Current eligibility for its first-responder program includes Police, Fire, EMS, Corrections and Dispatch personnel serving in Ohio. Combat service is not required.

🌐 Save A Warrior Official Website
📝 Apply to Save A Warrior
💙 How the Program Works
🤝 Support Save A Warrior
📩 Contact Save A Warrior

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⚠️ Crisis Resource: This episode discusses suicide and suicidal thoughts. If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental-health crisis in the United States, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. If there is immediate danger, call 911.

Same warriors. Different battles. Same purpose.

#8158Podcast #StoriesOfSacrifice #SaveAWarrior #VeteranMentalHealth #FirstResponderMentalHealth

What happens to the people who spend their careers showing up for everyone else’s worst moments?

In this episode of 8158 Podcast: Stories of Sacrifice, Rico sits down with Kristen Tosaw, MSN, RN, FNP, a nurse practitioner, former flight nurse, educator, frontline professional, and founder of Heal the Help.

Kristen’s career has taken her through ICU, emergency medicine, critical-care transport, flight nursing, labor and delivery, palliative care, hospice, and education. During her years in flight medicine alone, she transported approximately 700 patients.

But even after the shift ends, some calls stay with you.

Kristen shares how trauma from one of the worst calls of her career resurfaced years later, reinforcing something many frontline professionals know all too well: trauma doesn’t always show up immediately.

She also shares the encounter that helped solidify her mission. While working in hospice and palliative care, Kristen met a retired pediatric nurse in her 90s who was still carrying the memory of a child she couldn’t save decades earlier. Kristen knew we had to do better for the people who spend their lives helping others.

That mission became Heal the Help.

Through trauma-integrated coaching, Kristen works with frontline professionals—including nurses, EMS, firefighters, law enforcement, dispatchers, respiratory therapists, coroners, tow operators, and others exposed to difficult and traumatic situations through their work.

Rico and Kristen discuss post-traumatic stress, stigma, delayed trauma, mental health resources, supporting spouses and families, the importance of talking with someone who understands the job, and why asking for help should never be viewed as weakness.

Because you may have witnessed someone else’s worst moment—but you don’t have to carry that moment for the rest of your life.

Learn more about Kristen’s work, trauma-integrated coaching, and resources for frontline professionals:

Heal the Help — healthehelp.care

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In this episode of 8158: Stories of Sacrifice, we honor the life and legacy of Bardstown Police Officer Jason Scott Ellis — Badge 139, whose End of Watch came on May 25, 2013.

Jason was so much more than the circumstances surrounding his death. He was a husband to Amy, a father to Hunter and Parker, a son, brother, friend, youth baseball coach, former professional baseball player, award-winning police officer, and K-9 partner to Figo.

Before Badge 139, he was Number 5.

Jason built an incredible baseball career at the University of the Cumberlands before playing professionally in the Cincinnati Reds organization. After baseball, he found another calling in law enforcement, joining the Bardstown Police Department in 2006.

In the early morning hours of May 25, 2013, Jason finished his shift and began his drive home. At Exit 34 of Kentucky's Bluegrass Parkway, he encountered branches deliberately blocking the roadway. Jason stopped to clear the obstruction so other motorists wouldn't be endangered.

Investigators believe it was a planned ambush.

Jason was shot and killed. He was just 33 years old.

More than thirteen years later, his murder remains unsolved.

In this Fallen Hero episode, we go beyond the End of Watch to remember the man behind the badge—from Jason's baseball dreams and love story with Amy to fatherhood, Figo, his law-enforcement career, his final shift, the investigation that followed, and the family and community that continue to keep his memory alive.

💙 Someone knows something.

The FBI continues to seek information regarding Jason's murder and offers a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of those responsible. Anyone with legitimate information can contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324).

Officer Jason Scott Ellis
Bardstown Police Department
Badge 139
End of Watch: May 25, 2013
Age: 33

Gone, but never forgotten.

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Please share this episode. Not for the download—for the possibility that Jason's story reaches the person who knows the missing piece. 💙🖤

Josh Cote is back on 8158 Off Duty, and this time there’s no formal interview agenda—just an honest conversation about EMS, life outside the uniform, the things that keep us grounded, and everything in between.

Josh starts with a story that could have ended very differently: an ambulance crash caused by another driver crossing the center line while Josh and his partner were responding to a call. Thanks to his partner’s quick reaction, they avoided a much worse outcome, and despite significant damage to the ambulance, everyone walked away without injury.

But this is Off Duty, so the conversation quickly moves beyond EMS.

Josh talks about his involvement with Old Dogs New Digs, helping foster senior animals and giving dogs like a little Chihuahua named Diablo another chance at a happy life. That opens the door to stories about rescue dogs, the bond we form with animals, and why sometimes the ones who have been through the most become some of the best companions.

They also dive into Josh’s passion for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, why he considers it both a physical and mental outlet, and the importance of finding something outside of work that allows you to unplug, stay active, build community, and simply be present.

The conversation takes a more serious turn as Rico and Josh discuss substance use within the first responder community, alcohol, nicotine, unhealthy coping mechanisms, and Josh’s personal decision that if he drinks, he drinks to celebrate—not as a response to stress or sadness.

From there, nothing is really off limits. They talk about health, martial arts, video games, writing, AI, media literacy, personal bias, the economy, working-class life, community, empathy, and what we can learn when we actually listen to people whose experiences are different from our own.
One of the biggest takeaways comes from Josh himself:

“If you want to make your life matter, you should make someone else’s matter.”

For Josh, continuing his career as a paramedic gives him the opportunity to do exactly that—to use the knowledge passed down by his mentors, help people through some of their hardest moments, and hopefully leave behind a few stories about lives he made a little better along the way.

That’s what 8158 Off Duty is all about.

No script. No polished answers. No pretending the uniform is the entire person.

Just real conversations with real people about who they are when they're OFF DUTY.

🎙️ 8158 Podcast: Stories of Sacrifice

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