The Danny and Park Novels Good News Podcast

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 in one episode? How could I turn that down? So sit back, relax and I hope you enjoy our conversation.

And after you listen, tell me what  think of Keanna and Dria.There’s just something about police dispatchers that amazes me. I’ve worked with them for over thirty years and can’t imagine doing the job that they do. They have to stay calm when nearly everyone else is in the midst of a crisis, be it a caller or a police officer. I’m not sure that I could do it. And touching on something else that they, as well as another Richmond dispatcher that I’ve interviewed, Demetria Ross, mentioned was therapy and simply needing someone to talk to. Someone that you can trust. I think that that’s so important in this crazy world that we live in and I sincerely hope that everyone has or can find, someone that they can talk to.

As always, take care of one another, and thanks for listening.

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 accomplishments and all the places that he’s been and the experiences that he’s had. However, within minutes of our conversation, he asked about my career in law enforcement and how important he thinks this podcast is.  I was truly flattered.

 I could probably talk and listen to Mike for hours. Like all great journalists, and anyone else for that matter, truth is what’s most important to him. Because truth leads to awareness and we should all be aware of injustices that take place in our world. It’s the only one that we’ve got and we’ve only got each other, so shouldn’t we strive to make this the best planet that we can? 

I’d like to thank Mike for taking the time to talk to me and I hope to talk to him again soon. I’d also like to thank you for tuning in. This podcast wouldn’t be what it is without my listeners and my guests and I’m grateful to you all.

Check out Mike's website here ⬇️⬇️⬇️

https://mikebondbooks.com

Until next time, take care of one another and treat others the way that you’d like to be treated.

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, better, healthier stories. So sit back, relax and I hope you enjoy our conversation. I need to add a program note, though. There was some static on the line that, unfortunately, transferred over to our interview. So it may not sound crisp, but, maybe that will just create a more old school, wax album kind of experience. Ya gotta think positive, right? 

Once you listen to the episode, let me know what you think.  As I mentioned in the interview, Lela and I have been trying to get our schedules to coincide for months and they finally did. Thank goodness. Lela was a joy to talk to and I love her outlook on life. I think we all need to remember that upheaval isn’t necessarily a bad thing and more importantly, people are people and we all just want to live out lives the best way that we know how. 

You can visit Lela's website here ⬇️⬇️⬇️

https://lelagrace.co/lela-tuhtan

Until next time, and as always, take care of one another, and thanks for listening. 

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 knows that in a addition to loving authors, I also have a soft spot in my heart for cops, so, obviously I’d love to have Lauren on as a guest. Plus, if you know Shayna, you know she makes offers that you can’t refuse. 

After you listen to it, tell me what you think. It’s always refreshing for me to talk to police officers who are still positive about the job and long to share that positivity with other officers, whether or not they’re older officers or new recruits. I’ve been around cops for the past thirty years and never realized how few women there really are in the profession. That’s crazy and I’m glad Lauren is working to try and correct those percentages. And not only to get more women interested in law enforcement, but once they’re in, to get them to go further and take leadership positions. Make sure that you check out Lauren’s Instagram, give her a follow, then tune in to her podcast. The more positivity out there the better.

Here's her Instagram ⬇️⬇️⬇️

@ladycoplauren

I want to thank Lauren for taking the time to come on the show and as always, I’d like to thank you for listening. 

Until next time, take care of one another and treat each other the way that you want to be treated. We’re all on this planet together. 

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 why. So sit back, relax and prepare to get it straight with no chaser. I hope you enjoy it.

That’s it guys. What’d you think of Keanna? I think she’s hilarious, insightful and just an all around marvelous person. And that’s the amazing thing about doing this podcast. I talk to so many people about so many things, many of whom I’ve never met before. But the main thing that they all have in common is their positivity. And my guests come from many different backgrounds, religions, etc. But here, in this place, what matters the most is what’s inside of them. Shouldn’t that be what’s important to all of us? I think so. 

Until next time, take care of one another, give it to each other straight with no chaser, and most importantly, thanks for listening.

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 is just yet. So why don’t you sit back, relax and enjoy our conversation and then tell me.....

What’d you think? Do you approve or disapprove of James putting a Trump 2024 post on his IG? I guess the more snarky question would be, do you approve or disapprove of free speech? James lost 3000(!!) followers because they couldn’t see past their hatred and didn’t hang around for his second post explaining the experiment. It just goes to show you how brainwashed people can be. Personally, I loved his experiment and thought that it was brilliant. Anytime someone can expose ignorance and spinelessness is a good thing. We’re all on this planet together. Let’s try to take care of one another, treat each other with respect and recognize that everyone is entitled to their own political opinion and regardless of that opinion, always, and I mean always, follow The Golden Rule.

You can find James' book here ⬇️⬇️⬇️

https://www.amazon.com/Town-Without-Name-James-Murray-ebook/dp/B09P2RZ946/ref=pd_ybh_a_d_sccl_1/136-1681419-4674432?pd_rd_w=nYmmk&content-id=amzn1.sym.67f8cf21-ade4-4299-b433-69e404eeecf1&pf_rd_p=67f8cf21-ade4-4299-b433-69e404eeecf1&pf_rd_r=FDTYGNJ1REVZ1KFZV45J&pd_rd_wg=Be9QG&pd_rd_r=8bcbc27a-a913-42ef-8a7e-5e0faba51ac4&pd_rd_i=B09P2RZ946&psc=1

Until next time, respect and take care of one another. And thanks for listening.

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. As many of you know, I’m a retired Homicide detective from Richmond, Virginia. Before becoming a Homicide detective, I was a Youth and Family Crimes detective, which meant that I often worked with Child Protective Services, also known as CPS, in the City of Richmond. Flash forward to my current position and I’ve been working with CPS again, which is where I met Abby. I thought that it would be great to have her on an episode to talk about the roles of CPS, so that’s what the first half of this episode is about. As we were talking about CPS, she mentioned that she and her mother, Brigette  Combs, were involved in legislation to make child marriages illegal in the US. I had to stop her and ask her what she was talking about because I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. She said that in 2024, there are only thirteen states and the Virgin Islands that have ENDED child marriage. I was and  am flabbergasted. So let’s cut this intro short and get right to it, shall we? I hope you enjoy this episode and, like I did, learn something from it.

Once you listen,  can you BELIEVE that child marriage is still LEGAL in so many states? I still can’t wrap my head around it.  Here's a list of the ONLY states that have ENDED child marriage:

Delaware

New Jersey

Vermont

Rhode Island

Connecticut 

New Hampshire

Massachusetts 

Virginia

Pennsylvania 

New York

Washington 

Minnesota

Michigan 

And the Virgin Islands.

Check out the links below for more information:

https://search.app/NHYwEEP9DmK9PfZd9

https://search.app/Mc6zhDvnzAkVWkFq5

https://search.app/PPXSMSe9cbYxdt5j6

https://preventforcedmarriage.org/

I’d like to thank Abby and her mom for coming on and educating me about this unbelievable situation, not to mention the incredible work that CPS workers do to protect the children.

Please spread the word and get involved.

And as always, take care of one another and thanks for listening.

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. Today’s guest is, hold on and let me go down the list.....

Bestselling author 

Forensic Anthropologist certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology 

A producer of the Fox show Bones, a show I might add is based partly on her fictional character Temperance Brennan AND  the author herself.

Mother of three kids......

Kathy Reichs!!

Kathy was kind enough to come on my small podcast and let me ask her a metric ton of questions. So sit back, relax and I hope you enjoy our conversation.

Then after you listen, don't you think that It’s absolutely staggering how much Kathy has done and still does. I can’t imagine trying to maintain the schedule that she does, yet she still finds the time to get peppered with questions by a retired homicide detective.

If you haven’t already, and if you haven’t, why not? Head over to her website or Amazon or anywhere else in the world and dig in to Kathy’s novels. And while you’re at it, check out Bones on Fox.

Check out her website here: ⬇️⬇️⬇️

https://kathyreichs.com/

As usual, take care of one another, and thanks for listening.

Kathy Reichs_credit Marie-Reine Mattera.jpg

Welcome back to the podcast, I’m Jamie Baynes. I’m honored to have back on the show, one of my favorite authors and more importantly, one of my favorite people: Yasmin Angoe. Now full disclosure, when I introduce her in the episode, I pronounce her name, correctly, then put my foot in my mouth ad drop the “y” and begin to call her ‘Asmin’…….how embarrassing. For me. Luckily, Yasmin is such a fantastic person that she takes it in stride and doesn’t hang up on me. Of course, when I told her about it, she said that it sounded like I was calling her an ass. Deep sigh. But I digress. So sit back, take a listen and I hope you enjoy our conversation as much as I did.

 Ans as I said after the first time that I spoke with her that it felt as if we’d known each other for years. And since it’s been a year since we spoke last, I still feel the same way. But I’ve got a feeling that anyone who speaks to Yasmin feels the same way. She’s just such a wonderful person, you can’t help but think that you’ve known her just about forever. We absolutely need more people in this world like Yasmin and I feel lucky that she counts me as one of her friends. 

Make sure you check out her book over on Amazon or at her website:

https://yasminangoe.com

So until next time, take care of each other, treat each other well and as always, thanks for listening.

What’s the first thing you noticed in the photo associated with this episode? If I were to guess, I’d say that it was the lettering on the ball cap. In fact, those four words elicit strong feelings from the left and the right. Some people who saw the photo may have clicked off the site and won’t be hearing these words or reading what I’ve written. That’s fine. This podcast is all about positivity and if people don’t want to hear about positivity, there are plenty of other podcasts that push hate and division. Along with the corporate media, local and national politicians and the entertainment industry. They make a lot of money off hate. I probably don’t make a dime off of positivity. That’s fine, too. What I do gain from this podcast is meeting and talking to fantastic people like Johnnie. So if you’re still here, sit back, relax and enjoy our conversation.

Then, after you listen....

Are you still here or did you leave once Johnnie mentioned that scary, scary word: Trump? It constantly amazes me how stubborn and hardheaded even the most educated people can be when it comes to politics. Religion, abortion and gender as well. Luckily, despite what the corporate world tries to push, regular, everyday people, no matter the color of their skin, their religious faith or lack thereof, their gender, etc. get along with one another, converse with one another and live in relative harmony with one another. 

So as this contentious election draws closer and the corporate world goes into overdrive trying to get us to hate each other, remember that we’re better than they are and that they need us. Not the other way around. 

And most importantly of all, take care of one another. No. Matter. What.

Thanks for listening.