Tony on the Mic

Today on the podcast – Katy Perry! The Rock! Ryan Reynolds! Gal Gadot! John Mayer! Alyssa Milano! ... All had their caricature drawn by this guy… Caricature artist to the stars – Greg Dohlen. AKA – the King of Sting! That’s a nickname he was given on the comedy central show Nathan For You. We talk about his humble beginnings, from drawing his crush in high school, to touring a children’s hospital with Alyssa Milano drawing the kids to cheer them up and chatting about caricatures with John Mayer. He also did a deep dive into 3D drawing (which I cut most of it out – you’re welcome) designed a float in this year’s Rose Parade! He also pulled out all the stops to propose to his wife!

Today my guest is a former fighter pilot and Blue Angel, and also commercial pilot for Southwest Airlines. His biggest fear was not a Mach 1 barrel roll maneuver, but general seating on a southwest flight from LA to Vegas. He tells us how real Top Gun 1 and 2 are, he shares his flight name, spoiler alert, not near as cool as Maverick or Joker or Viper. He does a terrible Russian accent, describes a real life encounter with a MIG and how he proposed to his wife four days after their face to face meeting – they were pen pals for a long time. He also spent some time caddying on the pro golf tour and had an encounter with Arnold Palmer! I made up the Mach one barrel maneuver, but Jerry tells real stories with real terms in the pod! 

Today’s guest is a return guest, Jerome Gross – fitness coach, yoga and spiritual guide and, wait for it, hypnotist. We talk more about the mind body connection and the importance of mental and spiritual health for how it affects us and our bodies. We talk about how it takes practice, commitment and most of all a willingness to be better. Most of us, me included are afraid to be better. It is a lot easier to poke fun at stuff that is faulty, than try to rise above it. We talk about past lives, death and the afterlife, and the effects of affirmations. We talk about savants (for lack of better word) There are lots of examples of people who have inherent skills and gifts – Beethoven, Einstein, Darwin, Mozart, Socrates, Isaac Newton – those are extreme examples, and semi easily defined. But it tells you what is possible, what is in us. We can do so much more than we do, the possibilities are infinite! 

So sit down, strap in, turn on and turn up this hypnotic episode of Tony on the Mic! 

Before we start, you should check out Jerome’s cites and classes mindbodyfitsd.com He has zoom classes and activities and in person group and individual training – physical and spiritual and mental. 

Tony DeBlois Learned to play piano at 2 years old. Plays 20 instruments and plays any type of music. 

Daniel Tammet can “see” numbers, recite pi from memory up to the 22,514 digits. He learned the Icelandic language in one week and made up a language. 

Stephen Wiltshire, an autistic mute, is an accomplished artist has the ability to draw from the finest details from memory. After Viewing Rome from a helicopter one time, he created a 15 foot mural in great detail.

Today my guest is former CA judge and current Family court attorney Deann Salcido. She was the youngest Latina ever appointed to judgeship in CA. We talk about her ascension to judgeship and the conflicts she had while serving. We hear how she tried to do it her way and stand up for the little guy in her own way. We talk about some cases, some sentencing and, as usual, some nonsense.

On today’s episode Cyber expert Jim Stickley leads us down a dark, scary rabbit hole into the Dark Web. We teach you step by step how to access the dark web. No it is not WWW.Darkweb.com – but it’s not far from that. You learn how to search anonymously for everything thing from poison, to flamethrowers, to hitmen, to kidneys to weed infused girl scout cookies, and obviously much more, and some really dark stuff. We talk a bit about how to protect your computer while you do it, and how to talk to your kids about what is out there. I learn way too much about Jim and his family’s communication techniques and he has a good laugh at how naïve I am.

Scooch over Cinco De Mayo, St. Patrick’s Day, Octoberfest – there is another reason to celebrate! Juneteenth is here and an official federally acknowledged Holiday! Learn why this is an important date in American History and, as importantly – celebrate! There are never too many reasons to celebrate. There are Juneteenth celebrations springing up all over the country – find one near you, check it out and join in the revelry. Today we talk a little about the local La Mesa celebration, but there is sure to be one near you! 

My guest today is Anthony Jerome –  A yoga enthusiast, mind body and spirit counselor, energy healer, hypnotherapist, and intuitive reader. He balances my chi, eases some of my pain – for real – as I try to walk the line of being open minded while pushing back a little. He is also a fitness enthusiast and trainer. Has worked with professional athletes and was a record-breaking track athlete. He grew up in San Diego and has traveled to India 5 times as part of his spiritual journey. He works with people to give you the tools to navigate stress, fears, sadness, anxiety and other obstacles to health, happiness, balance and productivity. We talk about his early exposure to the energy he got at home from his mom, and I his travels and studying under other gurus. He tells us about being a vegan in high school (before being a vegan was a thing, or cool) how your consciousness can heal your body and mind. We also have set up another episode where he will heal my energy, hypnotize me, and get me on the path of enlightenment – I take this seriously, and hopefully will benefit greatly from some of the practices.   

My guest today is award winning magazine ad man, our own little Don Draper – Jay Carter!  He has spent a career is pharmaceutical advertising and serving. Some might say the two are mutually exclusive. We talk about his job and his journey, the ethics of prescription drug pricing, and his broad recognition in the field: including 2018 Alumni of the year from University of Michigan pharmacy college, and 2022 winner of a Pinnacle and a Manny – both anointing person of the year in the field! Jay is one of the best guys I know and one of the most annoyingly humble guys also.. So, when he starts to drone on and deflect instead of bragging (which is just telling the truth) I inject a little random Benny hill in the background or other zany sound effects. He tells the fascinating story of the adoption of his youngest, the origins and costs of Viagra, how he was one of the first people to try on-line dating on “Love at AOL,” which evolved into Match.com – and how me met (some say trapped) his wife there. He tells us about his massive wine collection and involvement in and appreciation of the girl scouts. 

As a companion piece to the Richard Lawrence interview, we revisit a couple of hip, young, dedicated activists... at least that is what they were in the 60s, when they both were involved with the famous Selma to Montgomery march. The met through coincidence (grandkids in little league) and 10 years after they met, they realized through casual conversation that they had worked side by side 50 years earlier in Alabama! Hear how a black minister from the south side of Chicago and a white seminary student from San FRancisco saw the events in Selma. 

Today’s episode is a little different. Reverend Richard Lawrence, who protested with Martin Luther King Jr, and was also a part of the historic march from Selma to Montgomery Alabama, was featured a little while back on Popular Nation, where he discussed a lifetime of dedication to social justice, civil rights and equality. He talks about his early days in the church and the movement, how he picked his specific church – spoiler alert, it was because they had a baseball team. He compares the issues and efforts, then versus now. He also talks about the wins, the losses the progress and the toll it took on his life and relationships.