What Was That Like - True Stories. Real People.

Like a lot of people these days, I work from home. And I really enjoy that. But many years ago, I had a more traditional job where I worked in an office building with other people. And there was a thing I liked to do that some of my co-workers thought was a bit odd.We got an hour off for lunch each day. And sometimes I’d go to the breakroom and eat, or maybe a few of us would get together and go have lunch at a local restaurant. Pretty common stuff. But what I did some days is get in my car, maybe eat a sandwich while I’m driving, and go to the Sixth Judicial Court building. In this building are generally two types of people. There are those who are there voluntarily, because they work there. And the others are there, not because they want to be, but because they have to appear in court before a judge. These proceedings are pretty much open to the public. It’s just not something that a lot of people think about doing, unless you’re an oddball like me. I’d get there and quietly slip into one of the courtrooms where court was in session, and sit in what’s called the gallery. This is the open seating section where you might see family members of the person on trial, or newspaper reporters covering a case. Or people on their lunch hour with a weird curiosity about these things.Most of the time, the gallery is mostly empty. One time when I went in and sat down, the judge noticed me, and stopped what he was saying, and asked me why I was there, or how I was connected to this case. I told him I was just there to observe, and he continued with the proceedings.One of the times that kind of stuck with me was when I watched a sentencing hearing. The defendant had already been found guilty; I don’t remember what he had done. But he was there in the courtroom, in the orange prison jumpsuit, appearing before the judge. And I watched as the judge sentenced this person to spend ten years in prison. There was just something about that, that to me was really intriguing.And if that’s the kind of thing that YOU find interesting, I think you’ll enjoy this episode. My guest today is Jami. She lives in the Los Angeles area, and a few years ago she was opening her mail and found that she had been summoned for jury duty. And the case she was assigned to was a murder. Content warning for this episode – this story includes descriptions of violent domestic abuse, and murder. So please be aware of that going in.In the first half of our conversation, Jami explained the details of the case so you’ll know what happened. Then she’ll go through what she experienced as a juror – not only during the trial, but afterward when she was contacted personally by one of the family members of the murderer. Contact Jami through her podcast website (Murderish.com) or on Instagram (@MurderishPodcast).Jami’s NEW podcast is called Dirty Money Moves: Women in White Collar Crime. This show deep dives into cases involving a more rare type of criminal, women who commit financial crimes. In season one, host Jami takes listeners on a journey to investigate Mary Carole McDonnell, a self-proclaimed heiress and the CEO of a TV production company based in Los Angeles. This new podcast launches April 21, 2022.This episode is sponsored by the Wake Me Up Podcast – start your day with mindfulness, meditation, and motivation – WakeMeUpPodcast.com. This episode is also sponsored by Ghostbed – get 30% off sitewide at Ghostbed.com/WHAT. This episode is also sponsored by the Jordan Harbinger Show, a podcast I listen to all the time – JordanHarbinger.com/START. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do you remember the movie called The Fugitive? It came out in 1993, and it starred Harrison Ford as Dr. Richard Kimble, who was unjustly accused of murdering his wife. Throughout the movie, he’s working to find the REAL killer. But at the same time, he’s the target of a nationwide manhunt, led by a seasoned US Marshal – played by Tommy Lee Jones. It’s a really good one. In a scene from that movie, probably the most famous scene, Dr. Kimble is being chased through a tunnel in a dam and gets to the end, and stops – because it opens to a drop off of hundreds of feet down, into a huge amount of rushing water. The US Marshal catches up to him, and the chase is over for Dr Kimble, because there seems to be no way of escape. He has no way out. But then, he does the unthinkable – he jumps. The story you’re about to hear kind of made me think of that kind of scenario. My guest is Adam, and he was out on a mountain hike, enjoying the scenery and having fun. But suddenly, in a split second, he was in a precarious spot that he never expected to be in.  And he saw no way out. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp – online counseling. Get 10% off your first month by visiting BetterHelp.com/WHATWAS. This episode is sponsored by Babbel – language for life – purchase a 3 month subscription, and get 3 months free: go to Babbel.com and use the promo code WHAT Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Right now, I’d like you to take a minute, and imagine this scenario.I live in Florida, in the southeast area of the United States. I like it here. We have good weather most of the time, which means I can get out and bike almost every morning year round. My area is highly populated, so anything I need is readily available – grocery stores always stocked with food, lots of doctors and hospitals for medical care, and paved roads so I can drive my car anywhere I want. And if I need to go any distance, I have a major international airport about 20 minutes from my house. And like most Americans, I tend to take all these things for granted.Then one night, a large group of rebel fighters, heavily armed, lands on Clearwater Beach. They start going through the residential neighborhoods, throwing rocks through windows and setting houses on fire. People wake up in confusion, not understanding why they are hearing explosions and gunfire. Parents grab their children and run outside to escape their burning home, only to be shot to death in their front yard.News spreads quickly, by social media and by friends and family members calling to warn each other about what is happening. I get a phone call and realize we need to get out of the area as quickly as possible. My mom lives close by, so I call her and tell her quickly what’s happening and that we’ll pick her up in about 10 minutes.Then we frantically try to decide what to bring. For me, this would be very difficult. Whenever I go on a trip, I have a checklist of things way ahead of time, to make sure I don’t forget anything. Now I have just a few minutes to decide what to grab. Our dogs, obviously. My laptop. Some clothes, a toothbrush…but how do you even decide what to bring, when you don’t know where you’re going, or how long you’ll be gone? I don’t even know how much gas is in my car.But we’re able to escape, and we drive north. After about 7 hours in the car, we get to Atlanta. What we find is a large area where makeshift tents have been set up for the people who were forced to flee the state of Florida. This is where we live now. Our life is a tent community of Florida refugees, and we can never go back to where we used to live.For Americans, this sounds pretty far-fetched. We don’t really think about a situation like this, because it just doesn’t happen here.But for my guest today, Dee, it’s not just a made-up story. Dee lived with his parents and his siblings in a refugee camp in a village called Gatumba. This is in the country of Burundi, in Africa. Their community was attacked one night, and the violence that was carried out was so vicious, it made worldwide news. Even to this day, that massacre is what the village of Gatumba is known for. Dee witnessed some horrific things that night, and he was only 5 years old.And a note about listening. Dee speaks fluent English, but he still has that strong African accent. If you’d like to listen while reading the words on the screen, you’ll find the full transcript of our conversation at WhatWasThatLike.com/102.If you’d like to contact Dee, his email is dee0644@gmail.com. Want to discuss this episode with other listeners? Join us at Community.WhatWasThatLike.com. This episode is sponsored by Babbel US – language for life. Buy a 3 month subscription and get 3 months free by visiting Babbel.com, and use the promo code WHAT.This episode is sponsored by The Jordan Harbinger Show – fascinating conversations with amazing people – JordanHarbinger.com/START. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Deral Dean Ritter. Probably not a name you’ve heard before.In 1986, Ritter was 34 years old, and he was living in Waurika, Oklahoma. In fact, he was living in the Jefferson County jail. He was serving a 7-month sentence. The crime that landed him there sounds kind of silly, by today’s standards. He was convicted of possession of marijuana. Medical cannabis is now legal in Oklahoma, and there’s currently a strong push for the legalization of recreational marijuana as well, so that’s probably going to happen at some point. But back in 1986, getting caught with a baggie of weed in your pocket meant you were going to spend some time in jail.Well, Deral Dean Ritter was not happy about that, and he decided he was not going to stay. So he came up with an escape plan. At the Jefferson County jail, the cell doors were electronic. At night, a guard could flip one centrally-located switch, and all the doors would lock automatically. Well, one night, before the cell doors were all locked for the night, Ritter jammed a wad of paper in his door, which prevented it from being locked. He also made up his bunk to make it look like someone was sleeping there, so the guards wouldn’t suspect anything when they made their rounds overnight. I know, this sounds like a plot to a really low-budget movie.But Ritter’s plan actually worked. He was able to sneak out of his cell, and escape from the jail. Chances are he had been there a few times before this, so it helped that he knew the layout of the place. The next morning, he was discovered missing. Assistant District Attorney Glen Hammonds made a public statement to announce that they had an escapee, and that authorities were on the hunt for him.Of course, he was soon captured and brought back to the jail to finish his sentence, with some more time added because of the escape. And you’d think that maybe after that he’d get things figured out and start making some smarter decisions about his life. But 11 years later, he was back in the news. My guest today, Garrett, had an unexpected encounter with Deral Dean Ritter. And neither of them could have predicted how it would end.Want to discuss this episode with other listeners? Join us at Community.WhatWasThatLike.com.Garrett on Instagram: https://Instagram.com/ExtantPapaGarrett’s music: https://soundcloud.com/garrett-bollig-731380998This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp – online counseling. Get 10% off your first month by visiting BetterHelp.com/WHATWAS.This episode is sponsored by The Jordan Harbinger Show – thought-provoking conversations with amazing people – JordanHarbinger.com/start Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Remember back in the day, when everyone got up on Monday morning, and went to work?I’ve worked from home for a long time, but I do remember having jobs with that kind of routine. Wake up, take a shower, have some coffee and breakfast, drive to work, and come back home at the end of the day. Next morning, you do the same thing.In the past couple of years, because of the pandemic, a lot more people are working from home instead of going into an office. But still, even if you don’t leave your house, your work process means that there are things you do each day, day after day. To some extent that can get kind of boring. But in some ways, there’s a certain comfort in the routine, because you know exactly what to expect. When you go to work, you know – for the most part – what’s going to happen.My conversation today is with Jeff. He had a job that pretty routine. It was manual labor, not very enjoyable, but he knew what to expect. He knew each day what was going to happen when he got to work.Except one day.When he arrived at work on this particular day, he had no idea that this would be his last day working at this job. He also would never have guessed that even though he arrived at work that day with two arms, he would leave with only one.Golf video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INTwcIOZudoMore about Jeff:Website: https://JeffBardel.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/jbardel4Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeffbardel/This episode is sponsored by: DIE-ALOGUE: a true crime conversation – the thinking person’s true crime show. Listen at podfollow.com/diealogueThe Jordan Harbinger Show – thought-provoking conversations with amazing people – JordanHarbinger.com/startBabbel – language for life – purchase a 3 month subscription, and get 3 months free: go to Babbel.com and use the promo code WHAT Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sometimes, you see a phone call coming in and you just know that something bad has happened.I remember back several years ago, when my dad was still alive. He was in pretty poor health. He could still walk around, sort of, but it was with a walker, and it was very slowly. I’m the oldest of three sons, and of the three, I live the closest. It’s only about a 5 or 6 minute drive for me to get to my parents’ place, so if something happened, I’d be the one to get that call. Lots of times my phone would ring, and it would be my mom calling, quite upset and worried, because my dad had fallen and she couldn’t get him up. And you know, when a call comes in the middle of the night, it’s almost never going to be good news. We’ve had a few of those as well.For my guest today, Bill, life was good. He and his wife had two children – David, in high school, and Kristin, who had just graduated from college and was about to start a career. But then, Bill got a phone call. It was from a woman who identified herself as a police detective.The phone call was about Bill’s daughter.Bill’s book, WHEN DATING HURTS https://www.amazon.com/WHEN-DATING-HURTS-violence-daughters/dp/1734253703/ref=sr_1_1Bill’s website: https://www.whendatinghurts.com/Bill’s podcast: https://www.whendatinghurts.com/podcast.htmlResources:National Domestic Violence Hotline – TheHotline.org - 800-799-7233LoveIsRespect.org – 866-331-9474RAINN (Rape Abuse Incest National Network) – RAINN.org – 800-656-4673 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I believe that people, for the most part, are good. When a tragedy happens, we want to help.That’s really the whole basis for the GoFundMe website. You can read about someone who’s in some kind of desperate situation, whether it’s from an accident, or a critical illness, or something else – and you can literally help them.And when something really devastating happens, and it affects a whole city, we see an immediate result – the psychology of community. This is what happened in New York City right after 9/11. On any other day, people are out and doing what they need to do, going from one place to another, mostly preoccupied with what they have to do that day. But in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attack, that completely changed. Suddenly, New York City wasn’t millions of individuals. It was a group; a community. Everyone’s to-do list went out the window, and the immediate priority was to help those who needed it.And it wasn’t just the people in that city – all around the country, people donated money, there were long lines to donate blood for the injured, and some who were qualified literally went to dig through the rubble and find survivors. And one of the interesting effects of that tragedy was a surge in young people enlisting in the military. Our country had been attacked, and many people felt that signing up for the military was a way to perhaps prevent future attacks.My guest today is Michael, but he goes by the nickname CQ. He lived in New York City when 9/11 happened, and he was one of those young men who decided to join the military and help defend our country.But then something happened that brought his military career to an unexpected early end.CQ’s weekly live show – Pop Culture Warrior http://wtfnationradio.com/shows/popculturewarrior/This episode is sponsored by the LOL with Kim Gravel podcast – find it on any podcast player, or at LOLKim.com.Also mentioned in this episode is the School of Podcasting – that’s where you go to launch, grow, and even monetize your podcast. Go to SchoolofPodcasting.com/what and use the coupon code WHAT to get 20% off either a monthly or yearly membership. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As human beings, one of the things we crave is community. We need social interaction, and we want to feel like we belong in a group. Whether it’s family, or co-workers, or a church, or a local club – it seems like we need to be with other people.But for some people, there are times when we like being alone. I ride my bike every morning, and it’s something I really look forward to – just being out there for an hour, just me and my own thoughts. And maybe a podcast or two of course.For some reason, in our modern society, there’s sometimes kind of a stigma with doing things by yourself. I know some people who would feel a bit awkward going to see a movie alone. That doesn’t bother me at all though. If there’s a movie that comes out that looks really good to me, it might be something that my wife wouldn’t want to see – so I don’t mind just going to see it by myself.My guest today, Karen, lives in South Africa, and she’s the same way. She always kind of liked being by herself, especially in the outdoors, with no other people around. One afternoon she was out on a solo trail hike, really enjoying the solitude and being surrounded by nature, with no one else around. But she wasn’t the only one on the trail that day.Karen’s Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/Karen-Runge/e/B00TK1Z1CWInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/karenrungewritesThis episode is sponsored by Babbel US. Get 6 months of language learning for the price of 3 – visit Babbel.com and use the promo code WHAT.The service I use for my website is Siteground and you can get your website hosting for as little as $5 per month. Use my affiliate link: WhatWasThatLike.com/hosting. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The subway system in New York City is pretty impressive.It opened in 1904 so it’s one of the oldest subway systems in the world. And it is definitely the largest, with 472 stations. And throughout its history, the subway has offered service 24 hours a day, 7 days a week almost continuously. The exceptions are usually emergencies and disasters, such as 9/11.You want to take a guess as to how many people ride the subway, on an average weekday? Go ahead, think of a number. Okay, it’s 5.6 million people. Per day!The subway system can be a little scary sometimes, but most of the time it’s safe. It’s just a large crowd of individual people, each one needing to get from one location to another location. Many of them will have ear buds in, or be engrossed in a book or newspaper, mostly unaware of what’s going on around them.What you’ll hear today is my conversation with Danny. Back when this happened, he lived in New York City with his partner, Pete. In fact, they still live there. Danny was one of those people on the subway. Head down, in a hurry because he was running late, just wanted to get off the train and up to the street. But on this day, he happened to notice something on the floor near the stairs.It was a baby.This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp online counseling. Get 10% off your first month by visiting BetterHelp.com/WHATWAS.This episode is sponsored by StoryWorth. Preserve your loved one’s memories in a keepsake book, and get 10% off your first order at StoryWorth.com/WHAT. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the morning of April 19, 1995, a former US Army soldier parked a rented Ryder truck in front of the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building, located in downtown Oklahoma City.Inside the truck was everything he needed to carry out his plan of terrorism and mass murder. He had a large bomb, which he created using agricultural fertilizer and some chemicals, including diesel fuel. After parking the car, he got out and walked toward his getaway car, a yellow Mercury Marquis.He ignited a timed fuse, and a second fuse as backup.Inside the building, in one of the office conference rooms, the Oklahoma Water Resources Board had just begun a 9 am meeting when the bomb exploded.The blast effect was equivalent to over 5000 pounds of TNT, and could be heard and felt 55 miles away. The blast either destroyed or damaged 324 buildings within a 4-block radius. 86 cars were either burned or destroyed, and a large section of the Federal building had been reduced to rubble. News crews were shocked when they first viewed the damage from their helicopter.Inside the building, 163 people were killed. Additional casualties were one person in the nearby Athenian building, one woman in a parking lot across the street, two people in the Oklahoma Water Resources building, and a rescue worker who was struck on the head by falling debris. In total, 168 people died that day. 19 of those were children. Almost 700 other people were injured.My guest today, Amy, was in the Federal Building that morning. She worked on the third floor, at the Federal Employees Credit Union. In this episode, you’ll hear her talk about what happened to her that day. But just as amazing is what has happened to her SINCE that day.Amy’s website: AmyDowns.orgAmy’s book: Hope is a Verb: My Journey of Impossible TransformationAmy’s TEDx talk: How Hope Can Change Your LifeThis episode is sponsored by the Sleep Meditation for Women podcast – listen to help you fall asleep and stay asleep.Also mentioned in this episode is the School of Podcasting – that’s where you go to launch, grow, and even monetize your podcast. Go to SchoolofPodcasting.com/what and use the coupon code WHAT to get 20% off either a monthly or yearly membership. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices