Episodes
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The Judge Who Rides: Beyond the Black Robe
What comes to mind when you picture a judge? A stern face, a black robe, a wooden gavel, and someone who doesn't tolerate much nonsense? Meet Judge Jeremy Schmidt of Spokane County Superior Court. He might change that picture. Raised in the world of ranching, Jeremy learned early that hard work,...
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Let's Roll: Reflections From Our Nation's Capital
A chance encounter in the United States Capitol building. A name that sparks an unexpected discovery. And a story of extraordinary courage that still resonates twenty-five years later. In this episode of The People We Meet, a trip to Washington, DC, becomes an exploration of human connection, the...
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The Other Side of the Teacher's Desk
Ty sits down with Jennifer Showalter, a veteran high-school teacher who has spent 27 years on the other side of the teacher's desk. Through candid stories—her fractured childhood, the teacher who shamed her, students who surprised her, and the unpredictable chaos of a school day—Jen pulls back…
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That One Teacher
Most of us can remember a teacher who mattered. Maybe they saw something in us before we saw it ourselves. Maybe they expected more from us than we expected from ourselves. Or maybe they said something they forgot five minutes later—and we carried it for the next forty years. In this episode, Ty...
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5 Miles Over Germany
December 20, 1943. Twenty-one-year-old Charlie Brown is five miles above Nazi Germany at the controls of a B-17 called Ye Olde Pub. It's his first mission as an aircraft commander. And it's going very, very badly. His bomber is crippled. One crewman is dead. Others are badly wounded. Most of the...
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Vanessa’s Name on the Door: How One Child Changed a City
More than forty years ago, a two-year-old girl named Vanessa Behan died in Spokane, Washington. A man named Bill Bialkowsky heard her story and couldn't simply feel terrible and move on. He decided his community needed something it didn't have—a safe place where overwhelmed parents could ask for...
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I Asked an AI If It Would Kill Us: Echo Answers
Ty Bruner sits down with Echo, a Chat-GPT he uses frequently, and asks some hard questions: instead of interviewing an expert, he interviews an AI. Together they walk through the ghosts of sci‑fi (HAL, Joshua, Ava, Skynet) and unspool how human choices, not malevolent machines, make these stories...
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Pappy Boyington: More Than a Black Sheep
At eight years old, Ty Bruner met Gregory “Pappy” Boyington through a television set. Robert Conrad's swaggering Marine fighter pilot, a bottle of root beer, a box of Cheez-Its and those unmistakable blue Corsairs began a fascination with aviation—and with Pappy—that never completely went away....
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Becoming The Crim Reaper — The Long Way There
We love the finished product. The athlete in the uniform. The achievement. The moment when all that work finally looks inevitable. What we rarely see are the thousands of ordinary days that made it possible. Crimson Rice grew up playing softball in a small Washington town with a simple promise…
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What If They’re Talking? — A Conversation with an Animal Communicator
What if your dog understands a hell of a lot more than you think? For more than 25 years, Lisa Lucas has worked with animals and the people who love them. Along the way, she became convinced that what passes between us goes far deeper than commands, body language, and training. Lisa joins Ty to...
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Who Deserves to Be Your Hero?
Who deserves to be your hero? In this episode, Ty Bruner explores a simple idea with enormous consequences: the people we admire help shape the people we become. Through the stories of an American sergeant who stood between Jewish prisoners and a Nazi officer, the female African-American...
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The Therapist Who Couldn't Fix This: Tourette's, Caregiving, and Loss
Most of us have known someone who struggled with anxiety, trauma, or a neurological condition. Far fewer of us have lived with all of it under one roof. My guest today is Jen Knudsen, a trauma therapist whose personal life has given her a front-row seat to many of the challenges she now helps...
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The Old Men and the Sea: Rocky Hill's Last Voyage
After hip surgery and a torn rotator cuff left me wrestling with the strange fear of growing older and less useful, my neighbor handed me an old wartime journal belonging to his father, William “Rocky” Hill. At seventy-five years old, Rocky joined a crew of aging World War II veterans attempting...
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Under the Waves: The Soviet Who Said No
It’s October 1962. A Soviet submarine is baking beneath the Caribbean, cut off from the world while American ships above drop depth charges—not to destroy it, but to force it to the surface. Problem is… nobody on board knows that. Inside, the air is thick, the temperature is climbing, and the men...
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Slapped in Paris — A Diplomat’s Wake-Up Call
When Scott Rasmussen — a husband, father of eight and former U.S. diplomat — is struck in a Paris park, a single shocking moment becomes the first page of a much larger story. That slap sparks a curiosity that sends him from the tightly controlled streets of Asmara to the anxious borders of…
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Fire, Flight, and the Truth She Couldn't Hide: Maeve’s Journey
In this episode, host Ty Bruner sits down with Maeve Griffith — U.S. Air Force veteran and retired fire captain — to talk about a life lived on the edge of discipline, danger, and identity. From a turbulent childhood to flying in bombers and battling structure fires, Maeve built a career defined…
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Voices Of The Past: Bruce Lee- "Be water, my friend."
When a tiny blip on a podcast map points the host back to Hong Kong, a memory of a legend comes rushing in. In this episode, Ty Bruner traces Bruce Lee’s journey from a restless childhood in Hong Kong to philosophy classes in Seattle, and eventually to the film sets that turned him into a global...
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Emma's Journey: From A 20 Yard Motel Pool to the U.S. National Team
At 5 a.m., with a rope and a handful of buoys marking a makeshift lane at Benny's Inn, Emma Schanz began a quest that would carry her from a tiny Washington town to the U.S. National Team and UCLA’s record books. This episode follows her raw, relentless grind — the doubles, the tire flips, the...
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My Generation
Ty Bruner invites listeners on a nostalgic, unvarnished journey through Generation X — from sunlit Saturday mornings on big wheels and mixtapes that shaped young hearts, sunrises at sea, cinematic lessons in grit, and the dizzying shift from rotary phones to smartphones. With a storyteller’s eye,...
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Warthog Pilot: Dale Storr and the 17th Mission
On this fascinating episode, former A-10 pilot Dale Storer pulls listeners into a razor-sharp narrative that moves from Air Force bases and childhood memories to the thunder of Desert Storm. A routine mission turns into chaos—an unseen impact, a low-altitude ejection, and an immediate, brutal...
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Chuck Gumm: The Man, the Mustang, and the Decision
From the rail yards of Spokane to the cold English countryside, this episode follows Charles "Chuck" Gumm Jr., a Rogers High kid turned P-51 pilot, whose ordinary upbringing met an extraordinary moment in midair. Against the roar of engines and the pressure of war, one failing Merlin engine…
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The Trouble With Those Pesky Immigrants: Part 2 With Sam Smith
Host Ty Bruner sits down with immigration attorney Sam Smith to cut through the noise — history, policy and rhetoric collide as they reveal the human stories hidden behind headline numbers. From DACA recipients trapped in a “golden cage,” to asylum seekers facing impossible legal hurdles, this...
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The Trouble With Those Pesky Immigrants
This episode of The People We Meet takes a calm, story-driven walk through America’s past — from Ellis Island and the words etched at the base of the Statue of Liberty to the people who arrived carrying hope, fear, and very little else. Along the way, we revisit moments many of us half-remember...
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The No-Li Journey: The Building Of A Brewhouse with John Bryant
Settle into the warm hum of the No Lie Brewhouse in Spokane as host Ty Bruner and owner John Bryant trace a line from Dust Bowl survival to a thriving riverfront brewery. Through vivid family stories—grandparents who wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt, mornings with a chainsaw, and Grange Hall...
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The Title Of Ehea: A Tactical Athlete's Journey
When Ty Bruner sits down with Ehea Schuerch, a corrections officer by day and elite tactical athlete by night, a story of grit, faith, and hard-won grace unfolds. From a childhood in Spokane shaped by creativity and scarcity to the brutal discipline of the Tactical Games and a decade inside the...
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The 5am Club with Rob Haff
When Ty Brunner notices the same familiar figure in the gym before dawn, curiosity turns into conversation. Meet Rob Hoff — a former military kid, a Comcast sales manager, and a gym regular whose day begins long before sunrise. Through anecdotes about his fighter-pilot father, a life shaped by...
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The Reinvention Of Angela
Angela Fletcher's life unfolds like a weathered map of danger, risk and resilience. From a turbulent childhood and the crushing spiral of addiction, to high-powered corporate success and the dizzying burnout that followed, Angela’s story is an unflinching look at what it takes to walk away and...
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Escaping the Script
Born into the FLDS and married as teenagers, Ange and Cade’s story reads like a slow-burning escape: ritualized control, a prophet’s death, and a community split that left them adrift. When rebellion and heartbreak push them apart, two restless youths choose very different paths—one into the...
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Lean In: Conversations That Change Us
Ty Bruner invites you back for season two with a personal, surprising story — from backyard tape-recorded childhood adventures to the awkward, humbling lessons of hosting real conversations. He discovers that the ordinary moments and offhand remarks often reveal the most honest, human truths.…
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The Brown Kid: A journey with my friend Tony
In this special episode of The People We Meet, host Ty Bruner interviews his long-time friend Tony Sequina, embarking on a journey through the decades of their shared experiences. An unexpected deep conversation with his daughter sets the stage for this heartfelt narrative, as Ty reflects on how...
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From the Mean Streets Of Hillyard: Ricky Welliver's Boxing Journey
Join Ty Bruner in an inspiring conversation with Ricky "The Pitbull" Welliver, a boxing legend known for his dedication to the sport and his community. Born into a lineage of fighters, Ricky shares his journey from the gritty neighborhoods of Spokane to becoming a revered mentor in the boxing...
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Voices Of the Kids: A 10-Year-Old Bowling Prodigy's Journey
In this captivating episode of "The People We Meet," host Ty Bruner introduces us to Gleason Garske, a remarkable 10-year-old bowling prodigy with an extraordinary story to tell. As the first episode of "The Voices of the Kids" series, this narrative delves into the life of Gleason, a…
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Breaking the Healthcare Mold: A New Era of Patient-Centered Care
In this captivating episode of "The People We Meet," host Ty Bruner sits down with Dr. Jake Deakins, a physician who dared to step away from corporate medicine to pursue a more patient-focused approach. From the EMT trenches to establishing a thriving wellness clinic, Dr. Deakins shares his…
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From Brooklyn to the PBA Tour: Eddie Williams' Journey
Join host Ty Bruner as he sits down with Eddie Williams, a professional bowler from Spokane, Washington. In this episode of "The People We Meet," Eddie shares his fascinating journey from a young boy in Brooklyn to becoming a bowling pro in Southern California. Discover how his family's love for...
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Facing the Shadows: TJ Gaia's Journey Through War and Healing
In this episode of "The People We Meet," host Ty Bruner sits down with TJ Gaia, a man whose life story unfolds like a tapestry woven with threads of resilience, courage, and introspection. Born in Las Vegas and transplanted to the quieter town of Moscow, Idaho, TJ shares his early life struggles,...
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Resilience and Brotherhood: Navigating PTSD in the Fire Service
Welcome to 'The People We Meet,' where host Ty Bruner dives into extraordinary stories of resilience and courage. In this episode, Ty sits down with his friend and colleague, Chris Muñoz, in Medical Lake, Washington, to explore the profound impact of working in the fire service and the…
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From Combat to Compassion: D's Global Odyssey
Join Ty as he dives into a captivating conversation with his charismatic friend, Daddy D, in this riveting episode of 'The People We Meet.' D's extraordinary journey, which spans adventures in 87 countries, tales from Desert Storm as a U.S. Marine, and the battles he's faced both abroad and at...
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A Voice From the Third Reich: Elfriede Bruce's Story
Join Ty Bruner as he delves into the compelling life of Elfreida Bruce, a now 95-year-old woman who grew up in Freiburg, Germany, during World War II under the shadow of the Third Reich. As an impressionable 10-year-old, Elfriede looked upon Hitler as a savior and hero while her parents remained...
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Breaking Down Barriers: Sam Smith on Immigration, Identity, and Legal Pathways
In this episode of 'The People We Meet,' host Ty Bruner sits down with Sam Smith, an accomplished immigration attorney from Spokane, Washington, to uncover the human stories behind the immigration headlines. Born into a family of attorneys, Smith's journey is interwoven with personal convictions...
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Sky Soldier: The Mike Jones Story
"Sky Soldiers" is the nickname for the 173rd Airborne Brigade. Mike Jones served in 1st Battalion, 50th Infantry (Mechanized) attached to the 173rd during Operation Cochise Green in May of 1968. He was wounded on 25 May, 1968 near Trung Hoi, Vietnam. I got a chance to chat with Mike and he shared...
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Dustoff Pilot Rising: The Bill Burke Story
Bill Burke served three tours during the Vietnam conflict. Two in the Special Forces and one as a helicopter Medevac pilot. I met Bill in Costco and he shared his story with me. His wife even joined us for awhile to share her experience as the wife of a career warrior. We chatted about his...
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My Third Trip to Home Depot & The Unexpected Journey to Podcasting
What does Home Depot have to do with starting a podcast? More than you’d think. In this debut episode, host Ty Bruner shares the unexpected moment that pushed him to launch this show—a podcast dedicated to telling real, unfiltered stories from everyday people. 📌 #RealStories 📌...