Steven Barger has dedicated 16 years to Fire and Emergency Services, demonstrating a deep commitment to public safety and community service. He currently serves as a shift commander at the Village of Bald Head Island Department of Public Safety, where he oversees operations and ensures the safety of residents and visitors. Steven holds multiple certifications, including National Registry of Paramedic Certification, North Carolina Advanced Firefighter Certification, and North Carolina Intermediate Law Enforcement Certification. Additionally, he has earned the esteemed Fire Officer designation from the Center of Public Safety Excellence and BS from Fayetteville State University. In addition to his role in public safety, Steven is an elected official on the Brunswick County Board of Education, where he serves as the chairman. His leadership on the board is marked by his commitment to enhancing educational opportunities and ensuring the well-being of students and staff. Steven has been married for 12 years and is the proud father of three daughters. He believes in the importance of family, community, and lifelong learning, and he is dedicated to making a positive impact through his professional and civic endeavors.

Dr Michael Lange is an optometrist, nutritionist and radio personality. We talk about vision, eye health, physicals, nutrition and much more.Dr. Michael Lange, optometrist has worked extremely hard at developing one of the top eye care centers in the country. Lange Eye Care and Associates was started on March 15, 1993 by Dr. Michael Lange. Ocala Florida was his very first location and the beginning of his dream to build a state of the art eye care center utilizing the latest in technology.Lange Eye Care has optometric physicians and ophthalmologists on staff to provide full coverage in some locations seven days a week. Michael Lange OD, CNS , the Ocala eye doctor, worked seven days a week, 18 hrs a day for the first ten years to build such an impressive organization of eye care specialists. Dr. Lange states, “If you work hard enough, long enough and truly have a passion for what you do, you will succeed.” He adds, “To be extremely successful it takes a lot of sacrifice as well”.Dr. Lange has been hosting his own live talk radio show called “Ask the Doctor” since April of 1993. This is a live call-in show that can be heard on multiple networks throughout the South and live video streaming throughout the world via the internet and on I heart radio and In tune Radio. The talk show is all about educating the public about the latest in eye care and nutrition.One of Dr. Lange’s first degrees is in psychology and he is also one of a select group of optometrists in the country that is a certified nutrition specialist. The combination of psychology, optometry and nutrition enables Dr. Lange to tactfully handle just about any question that comes over the air. His unique gift of discussing even the toughest questions with patients from all over the country in easy to understand terminology has made him one of the most popular talk show hosts in Florida and around the world. Dr. Lange also has a degree in physiological optics that only enhances and further qualifies him to answer a variety of questions.He always states, “This is for educational purposes only and never replaces a comprehensive eye exam”. He lectures to doctors and the public on the importance of proper nutrition, dietary modifications and lifestyle changes for overall health and good eye health.Dr Lange's website: http://www.langeeyecare.com/about-us/

Ben Iverson is a veteran Wildland Firefighter and Training Specialist for the US Forest Service. We discuss his journey into the world of firefighting, forging human performance, the recruitment crisis, learning from Line of Duty Deaths, addressing the increasing wildfires, his own powerful mental health story and much more.

Award winning author Sebastian Junger talks about human yearning to be part of a tribe. We discuss the effects of war on man and how the tribal culture is fundamental to First Responders.Sebastian Junger is the #1 New York Times Bestselling author of THE PERFECT STORM, FIRE, A DEATH IN BELMONT, WAR and TRIBE. As an award-winning journalist, a contributing editor to Vanity Fair and a special correspondent at ABC News, he has covered major international news stories around the world, and has received both a National Magazine Award and a Peabody Award. Junger is also a documentary filmmaker whose debut film "Restrepo", a feature-length documentary (co-directed with Tim Hetherington), was nominated for an Academy Award and won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. "Restrepo," which chronicled the deployment of a platoon of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley, is widely considered to have broken new ground in war reporting. Junger has since produced and directed three additional documentaries about war and its aftermath. "Which Way Is The Front Line From Here?", which premiered on HBO, chronicles the life and career of his friend and colleague, photojournalist Tim Hetherington, who was killed while covering the civil war in Libya in 2011. "Korengal" returns to the subject of combat and tries to answer the eternal question of why young men miss war. "The Last Patrol", which also premiered on HBO, examines the complexities of returning from war by following Junger and three friends--all of whom had experienced combat, either as soldiers or reporters--as they travel up the East Coast railroad lines on foot as "high-speed vagrants."Junger has also written for magazines including Harper's, The New York Times Magazine, National Geographic Adventure, Outside and Men's Journal. His reporting on Afghanistan in 2000, profiling Northern Alliance leader Ahmed Shah Massoud, who was assassinated just days before 9/11, became the subject of the National Geographic documentary "Into the Forbidden Zone," and introduced America to the Afghan resistance fighting the Taliban. He lives in New York City and Cape Cod.

Megan Lautz is a Registered Dietitian, Personal Trainer and the woman behind RescueRD. We discuss her joruney into nutrition, her immersion into the first responder world, the impact of shift work on health, caffeine, alcohol, forging performance and much more."I have been working as a full-time, embedded civilian dietitian for departments of +1,400 firefighters since 2017. I have trained for and passed CPAT, and am always up for a ride-along or a fitness challenge. I can often be found at a station or academy teaching nutrition, fitness, mobility, or just hanging out to learn more about firefighters. I am here to help firefighters maximize their energy levels, body composition, and retirement WITHOUT fads or yo-yo diets. I take the research on first responder health and translate it into firefighter language. My coaching programs help firefighters reach their goals while enjoying their favorite foods.​Nutrition is often overlooked in the first responder space, which is why RescueRD LLC was born in October 2020. I have strived to fill that gap one presentation, conference, workshop, or course at a time!"

Johnny Torgeson is an Army Veteran, Assistant Fire Chief of Operations and the man behind FireDawg Consulting. We discuss his early life, his journey into the military, his powerful 9/11 story, protecting military assets from a civilian fire department, the recuitment crisis, forcing teams, leadership and much more. In 2000, Johnny Torgeson (Dr. JT) started his career with the US Army as an NCO. He's worked for several fire departments in the US and different countries. He became a successful business owner and CEO in his mid-twenties. He obtained a bachelor's degree in business, a master's in leadership, and a doctorate in strategic leadership. Currently, he works as a chief officer, college instructor, author, and speaker.Dr. JT has achieved multiple life-saving awards and service distinctions throughout his career. He writes for multiple publications and speaks on leadership and team development around the nation. In his spare time, he spends time with his family, volunteers at church, and mentors veterans. Dr. JT has a passion for serving people and developing teams. Throughout his career, he’s developed award-winning teams and transformed lives through his distinct strategies.

Zack Ferguson is a former Navy SEAL team 7 veteran with multiple deployments to Iraq, Yemen, Africa, and the United Arab Emirates. He served as his platoons Lead Sniper/Pointman, JTAC, Combatives Instructor, and Weapons Ordnance Specialist. In this powerful conversation, he discusses his powerful mental health story and how psychedelics helped heal both himself and his family.Additionally, Zack is a competitive 10th Planet Jiu-Jitsu purple belt, as well as an amateur MMA fighter. His goal is to continue to reach and connect with people through his Jiu-Jitsu content to help show that there are other communities out there to join when veterans leave active duty. It is a great lifestyle to re-acquire a purpose and to be a part of a community. Ironically enough, Zack met DSG instructor Angel Cortes through his OG Pumpkin Jiu-Jitsu event.He is an instructor for the Graceful Warrior Project, a non-profit organization that aims to equip in-duress women in Africa and Congo with self-defense skills. Congo is considered the “rape capitol of the world.” Zack finds tremendous pride and satisfaction knowing that teaching his self-defense instruction will help save women's lives.He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Organizational Leadership from the University of Charleston. Lastly, he is the founder of Zackkferg.com where he designs and creates military-style Jiu-Jitsu rash guards.

Sam Quinones (pronounced Kin-YOH-Ness) is a Los Angeles-based freelance journalist, a reporter for 37 years, and author of four acclaimed books of narrative nonfiction. He is a veteran reporter on immigration, gangs, drug trafficking, the border. He is formerly a reporter with the L.A. Times, where he worked for 10 years. Before that, he made a living as a freelance writer residing in Mexico for a decade (1994-2004). His latest book, released in November, 2021, is The Least of Us: True Tales of America and Hope in the Time of Fentanyl and Meth.In The Least of Us, Quinones chronicles the emergence of a drug-trafficking world producing massive supplies of synthetic drugs (fentanyl and meth) cheaper and deadlier than ever, marketing to the population of addicts created by the nation's opioid epidemic, as the backdrop to tales of Americans’ quiet attempts to recover community through simple acts of helping the vulnerable.With The Least of Us, Quinones broke the story of how the methamphetamine now produced in Mexico has covered the U.S. and is creating widespread and rapid-onset symptoms of schizophrenia, becoming in the process a major driver in the country’s the homeless problem.In January 2022, The Least of Us was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) award for Best Nonfiction Book of 2021.The Least of Us follows his landmark Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic (Bloomsbury, 2015), which ignited awareness of the epidemic that has cost the United States hundreds of thousands of lives and become deadliest drug scourge in the nation’s history.Dreamland won a National Book Critics Circle award for the Best Nonfiction Book of 2015. It was also selected as one of the Best Books of 2015 by Amazon.com, the Daily Beast, Buzzfeed, Seattle Times, Boston Globe, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Entertainment Weekly, Audible, and in the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg Business by Nobel economics laureate, Prof. Angus Deaton, of Princeton University.In 2021, GQ Magazine selected Dreamland as one of the “50 Best Books of Literary Journalism of the 21st Century”Dreamland was selected as one the Best 10 True-Crime Books of all time based on lists, surveys, and ratings of more than 90 million Goodread.com readers. In 2019, Slate.com selected Dreamland as one of the 50 best nonfiction books of the last 25 years.For Dreamland, Quinones has testified before the U.S. Senate’s Health Committee, numerous professional conferences of judges, doctors, librarians, hospital administrators and at more than two-dozen town hall meetings in small towns across the country.A Young Adult version of Dreamland – for 7th through 12th graders -- was released in July of 2019.His first two books grew from his 10 years living and working as a freelance writer in Mexico (1994-2004). True Tales From Another Mexico: The Lynch Mob, the Popsicle Kings, Chalino and the Bronx was released in 2001. It is a cult classic of a book from Mexico’s vital margins – stories of drag queens and Oaxacan Indian basketball players, popsicle makers and telenovela stars, migrants, farm workers, a narcosaint, a slain drug balladeer, a slum boss, and a doomed tough guy.

This week's guest is America's most infamous farmer. Featured in the documentaries Food inc, Fresh and Polyfaces. Joel is a pioneer in a return to holistic sustainable farming. He prides himself in not using chemicals or medications in his livestock and poultry. Joel uses a transient grazing model to ensure that the food his animals is optimized.Joel Salatin, 59, calls himself a Christian libertarian environmentalist capitalist lunatic farmer. Others who like him call him the most famous farmer in the world, the high priest of the pasture, and the most eclectic thinker from Virginia since Thomas Jefferson. Those who don’t like him call him a bio-terrorist, Typhoid Mary, charlatan, and starvation advocate.With a room full of debate trophies from high school and college days, ten published books, and a thriving multi-generational family farm, he draws on a lifetime of food, farming and fantasy to entertain and inspire audiences around the world. He’s as comfortable moving cows in a pasture as addressing CEOs in a Wall Street business conference.His wide-ranging topics include nitty-gritty how-to for profitable regenerative farming as well as cultural philosophy like orthodoxy vs. heresy. A wordsmith and master communicator, he moves audiences from laughs one minute to tears the next, from frustration to hopefulness. Often receiving standing ovations, he prefers the word performance rather than presentation to describe his lectures. His favorite activity?–Q&A. “I love the interaction,” he says.He co-owns, with his family, Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia. Featured in the New York Times bestseller Omnivore’s Dilemma and award-winning documentary Food Inc., the farm services more than 5,000 families, 50 restaurants, 10 retail outlets, and a farmers’ market with salad bar beef, pigaerator pork, pastured poultry, and forestry products. When he’s not on the road speaking, he’s at home on the farm, keeping the callouses on his hands and dirt under his fingernails, mentoring young people, inspiring visitors, and promoting local, regenerative food and farming systems.Salatin writes The Pastoralist column for Stockman Grass Farmer, granddaddy catalyst for the grass farming movement, and the Pitchfork Pulpit column for Mother Earth News, as well as numerous guest articles for ACRES USA and other publications. A frequent guest on radio programs and podcasts targeting preppers, homesteaders, and foodies, Salatin’s practical, can-do solutions tied to passionate soliloquies for sustainability offer everyone food for thought and plans for action.Mixing mischievous humor with hard-hitting information, Salatin both entertains and moves people. Seldom using a power-point and often speaking from an outline scribbled in a yellow legal pad, he depends on theatrics, style, and compelling content to hold attention and defend innovative positions. The rare combination of prophet and practitioner makes him both a must-read and must-hear in a time desperate for integrity leadership and example.

In the intensely demanding world of first responders, Michael emerges as an advocate of unwavering commitment and innovative approaches to mental health. His journey, spanning over two decades in healthcare innovation and dedicated service as a Firefighter/EMT, ofers a vivid testament to his firsthand understanding of the deep-seated mental health challenges facing our nation's first responders. After personally experiencing the healing potential of psychedelic medicines, he recognized its transformative benefits, especially for fellow first responders and veterans.This realization led Michael to help his peers find their own healing through an ongoing psychedelic medicine group comprised of first responders and veterans. Through this initiative, Michael stands at the vanguard of a mental health therapeutic revolution. Articulate and deeply informed, Michael, with his characteristic blend of passion and subtle humor, offers a novel perspective on the nexus between frontline Emergency Medical Service, profound and personal healing with psychedelic medicines, and the unique experiences as a medic at Burning Man—an annual gathering celebrated for its focus on community, art, and radical self-expression.Inviting Michael to speak beckons listeners on an evocative journey, exploring the heart of a first responder fiercely dedicated to shining light on the potential of psychedelic medicine to combat the pervasive mental health crisis among our nation’s first responders and veterans.