Amazing how so much of what we discussed a decade ago is still relevant today. The more things change...the more they stay the same.

Must be the chaps.

Mind kinda guy. 

Music used by permission of the John Denver Estate. 

Fast forward to 2019, when Coastie veteran Mike Phillips came across one of our helicopters, CG 1459, sitting outside in a parking lot. What followed has been a seven-year roller coaster ride to see how we could save and restore not just a military aircraft we all flew in, but as it turned out, ourselves in the process.

Disclaimer: the podcast is 1:50 minutes long, because the story of the 1459 and the band of brothers who are dedicated to its restoration has been nearly 50 years in the making.

Photo credit: Steve Ewert

Lest we forget.

Music used by permission of the John Denver Estate.

Music by Mark Cleveland used by permission.

Darcy's Guitar by Pete Huttlinger used by permission.

Music used by permission of the John Denver estate.

Music used by permission of the John Denver Estate.

"It's About Time" used by permission of the John Denver estate.

They're all part of the ongoing purge of my vast Aurora Media Productions audio archives.

These vintage clips are like digging up buried treasure, because I haven't heard this stuff for years.

Add in a current offering from radio hall of famer Garry Meier, and you've got a solid half hour of common sense for uncommon times.

Time & Space by Rose Crelli ft. Tyler Reese, produced and recorded by Rossy Angelo, used by permission.

Music used with permission from the John Denver Estate.

I can tell you from the inside out, that the inner workings of the media is often built around the good, the bad and the ugly and cutting out trusted names, is a real blow to the community they serve and only benefits the shareholders. I remember my time at WGN Radio and when my ID stopped working...so did I.

Music used by permission of the Denver Estate.

The bottom line? We're all estate sales, garage sales, or yard sales in the making. Or, Goodwill inventory contributors.

A little musical backup from the great David Stoddard on this one.

Back in 2001, Chuck joined me to talk about his book "Three Dog Nightmare," in which he described his life as a high school athlete and a member of a successful rock band. He talked about his descent into drug abuse and attributes his recovery from heroin addiction to his turning to God in desperation after dropping out of more than thirty drug treatment facilities.

Chuck Negron passed away on February 2nd, 2026 at the age of 83-clean and sober.

Godspeed.

Born with a rare heart defect, Pete underwent a series of operations, beginning as a teenager, that ultimately failed to normalize the heart’s functions. In 2010, he suffered a stroke that his doctors initially thought would permanently immobilize him. But with characteristic determination, he returned to playing guitar within three weeks. His first performance was for his incredulous doctors.

Soon after, he suffered a heart failure so catastrophic that it kept him at the Texas Heart Institute in Houston for four months in 2011. Again, he worked his way back, first to proficiency and then to mastery of his instrument. He and his wife and manager, Erin Morris, chronicled his ordeal and recovery in their 2015 memoir, Joined at the Heart: A Story of Love, Guitars, Resilience and Marigolds.

Pete Huttlinger passed away ten years ago, on January 15th, 2026, at the age of 54.

My conversation with Pete and Erin, just about a month before he passed, in December of 2015, once again proves that your cause of death isn't nearly as important as your cause in life and Pete's mantra of "Don't just live, live well"...lives on.

Music used by permissIon of the John Denver Estate.

All music used by permission of the John Denver estate.

Memories and more from John Berry, Richard Hyman, Roger "The Immortal" Nichols, Ashlee Nichols, Hal Thau, Ronald Deustchendorf, Michael Martin Murphy & Annie Denver. 

The bottom line? History matters.

It all started back in 1980 when I volunteered to be the Santa at the NAS Glenview Air Base during my first year of enlistment. Then, the CO of CGAS Chicago asked me to do it for the Coast Guard Christmas party. Then, a few of the guys on the crew asked me to do it for their kids. The word spread, and eventually, I donned the red suit and beard, along with a sack of toys, to visit hospitals, homes, and participate in "Breakfast with Santa" for nearly 20 years.

I recounted those Santa moments in my 2nd book, "Every Moment Matters," and how much like Superman putting on his cape, every Christmas Eve when I put on the Kringle gear, I felt a bit supercharged, and watching the faces of young and old alike break into a smile when I was near was like winning the lottery. 

Music used by permission of the John Denver estate. 

There's just something about the Virginia lilt in his voice, his down-home way, and simplistic way of seeing the world, that I needed to be reminded of this morning. 

When Earl passed in 2016, he did so while listening to "Rocky Mountain High" by John Denver.

Music used by permission of the Denver Estate.

Four years later, this incredible piece of work is now available worldwide. I'm thrilled to have this conversation with Michele, a true force of nature, a wide-eyed optimist who wears her heart on her sleeve right where it belongs and is leading people back to life, liberty, and the energizing of their own happiness.

"Farewell Andromeda" used by permission of the John Denver Estate.

Everything else is going into the Techno-Trash can.

At the very top of the "keepers list" is my last on-air conversation with the late, great Capt. Jerry Coffee (USN Ret.), who was one of the longest held POWs in Vietnam and the author of "Beyond Survival."

Jerry insisted that the most powerful thing you can do to change your life for the better, is to look for the purpose in everything, including the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Before Tony Robbins filled stadiums, before The Secret became a global phenomenon, before transformation became a multi-billion-dollar industry, there was Erhard Seminars Training (est). And behind est was a young woman who would help build one of the most influential personal development organizations in history—while struggling to find her own authentic voice in the process.

In Sex, Power, and Transformation, Marcia Martin takes you inside the explosive rise of the Human Potential Movement, revealing the untold story of how a small San Francisco seminar exploded into a cultural phenomenon that transformed millions of lives.

Mine included.

"Neils Petersen will not be forgotten."

As Buckminster Fuller said, "Our technology is surpassing our humanity."

A little backup from John Denver on this one, and as always, JD's music is used by permission from the Denver Estate.

Of the dozen or more books I've helped bring into the world, that sense of the unseen hand guiding me to someone was never more apparent than when I met Trudy Gronning in 2015.

She'd grown up in Munich when it was under the rule of Hitler during WWII. She'd witnessed terrible things, endured the death of her beloved father, who was a renowned violinist, and the horrors of The "Night of Shattered Glass," commonly known as Kristallnacht. She battled MS since her mid-20s and was a single mom back when that was a serious liability as a German living in post-war America. 

Trudy's life was a testament to faith and her belief that tomorrow would be better than today.

After two years of work, her book "A Matter of Grace" was published in 2017 when she was 88 years young, and we became very close friends during the process. I was saddend to hear the news that Trudy Gronning has passed away at the age of 96.

This tribute/rememberance episode features audio from some of our most intimate conversations about her incredible life. 

Godspeed my dear friend.

We're paying it back by paying it forward.

On a day when thousands will protest against something without knowing if it will change anything, a few hundred of us will be taking action that we absolutely know will make a world of difference. 

His voice still matters.

Music is used by permission of the John Denver Estate.

She was also a single mother to four boys - leading her to become somewhat of an expert on work-life balance.

All that and more has led her to write "Shards in My Hair-Tales From Breaking the Glass Ceiling" which is part a Devil Wears Prada coming-of-age story, part career advice, and part memoir - a story of the chaos and the sometimes unfair and challenging aspects of business.

Wait, what? Sluggish sales? Portillos? 

Holy celery salt Batman!

How is it possible that the iconic Chicago restaurant is in hot dog retreat? What's next for the weiners and beefs and what does Jurassic Park have to do with it all?

Impossible for me not to draw parallels to my own life cycle and how important it is to squeeze as much juice out of life as possible, because tomorrow is promised to no one, and one day, I'll be the last tomato.

We take a deep dive into his career with honesty and insight and he gives a rare picture of American history and broadcast journalism. 

His musical journey is hard-won, overcoming a brain tumor and throat cancer along with a list of other challenges that would have stopped most people in their tracks.

It's a great convo about his influences like James Taylor, Neil Young, and John Denver. Time spent with Charlie Daniels, how his version of "O Holy Night" has become one of the most requested renditions on the radio every Christmas, and what it was like to record a duet with the great Patsy Cline.

Any chance I get to support JB's music, I'm all in.

I'm heartbroken that he is gone, but in the same breath, so very glad he was here. I wouldn't be the man I am today without him.

Total clickbait B.S. 

As this technology continues to become an invasive species, honing our human intelligence might be the final firewall of common sense for uncommon times.

A powerful conversation with an incredible author and reluctant prophet on what it's like living through unrelenting grief, and finding a measure of purpose in unimaginable loss.

Those concerts were captured by the brilliant Roger "The Immortal" Nichols on a digital recording rig he built that fit into a couple of suitcases, forever cementing Denver's voice and message into the archives of history.

On this podcast, I talk with Roger's daughter, Ashlee Nichols, about how her dad designed and produced the recordings, as well as comments from John's brother, Ron, about the CD that would eventually be produced. Also, Dr. Cheryl Charles joins me to talk about Denver's "Windstar Foundation" that was a pivotal part of that time as a global think tank and action center in the Rocky Mountains, and last but not least, some incredible archived audio from Denver's concert in the USSR and subsequent appearances on American television with Maria Shriver and David Letterman. 

"Though the singer is silent, there still is the truth of the songs."

I've grabbed some audio from previous JAWS episodes, including my pal Jimmy Brinks (who, along with Donnie Scheffler, went with me to watch it the first time). Carl Gottlieb, who played Harry Meadows in the film, as well as being a main script writer, and my friend Richard Kaufman, who played on the original movie soundtrack. And, in homage to Robert Shaw's brilliant USS Indianapolis monologue, I do my own read (in lieu of paying serious coin to use the orginal audio) of that powerful piece of movie history 

There's nothing happy about it.

Like many things, it's been hijacked by retailers as another way to sell mattresses, tires, and furniture, but the other side to all that stuff is the Gold Star families who will forever mourn the loss of their loved ones who died in combat. To that end, this is a composite episode of my other Memorial Day podcasts all rolled into one.

Lest we forget.

Lest we forget.

The lessons of resurrection are many and often lost in the endless erosion of life. So, it's important to look back on your life and remember the times that you had a rebirth of sorts from circumstances and situations that no longer existed as they once did. 

And, for those who have always wondered where the tradition of Easter eggs started...I got ya covered.

If you are someone who thinks that empathy is a flaw in human nature and that diversity, equity, and inclusion are the cause of all the misery in the world, don’t bother listening to this rant.

You won't get it.

DEI attempted to erase the "Enola Gay" (for obvious reasons) Maj. Gen. Charles C. Rogers MOH recipient (he was Black) now they are on to the Navajo Code Talkers (Native American) in some whitewashing attempt at reframing history.

But, what about herstory?

To gain some perspective, I reached out to someone I have the utmost respect for, someone I served with in the United States Coast Guard (she went on to become a Chief Petty Officer) and who's uniform hangs in a museum. 

She's got the DEI Double Whammy-a woman, and Black.

I learned a lot-what a concept.

But what about how the Flintstones have been subliminally grooming kids since the '60s? And that line from "Deck The Halls"  that insists you "don your gay apparel?"

And, what about attending the Trans-Siberian Orchestra Christmas show or watching "The Gay Divorcee?"

Ratings gold! 

Also, a little background on the rise of "reality" TV and how easily humans confuse highly produced reality with real life and how that eventually helped to put a former real estate developer in the White House-twice.

There was a time that I paid my bills pumping gas, checking oil and doing tune-ups and when the man who was my boss on half-century ago agreed to meet for breakfast, it was a serious full circle moment.