Dream Chasers and Eccentrics

Robot Gardener is a science-fiction short story, read by Paul Trammell, the author. 

I publish a new short story on paultrammell.substack.com on the first of every month, as well as occasional poetry, essays, and book reviews. Visit the link and subscribe for free to receive them in your mailbox.

Dr. Marion Nestle is Paulette Goddard Professor of Nutrition, Food Studies, and Public Health, Emerita, at New York University, which she chaired from 1988-2003 and from which she officially retired in September 2017.  She is also Visiting Professor of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell. She earned a Ph.D. in molecular biology and an M.P.H. in public health nutrition from the University of California, Berkeley, and has been awarded honorary degrees from Transylvania University in Kentucky (2012) and from the City University of New York's Macaulay Honors College (2016). In 2023, she was awarded The Edinburgh Medal (for science and society). She i...

Maya Rupert is a political strategist, social-justice leader, writer, and podcast host. In 2020, she was the campaign manager for Julián Castro's presidential campaign. She is currently the Executive Vice President of Blue State. Her latest book is "The Real Ones: How to Disrupt the Hidden Ways Racism Makes Us Less Authentic."

We talk about what a campaign manager does, January 6th and why Trump was not held accountable, how Trump has brought shame on the Republican party, sane-washing the absurd things Trump says, the rise of the modern right-wing movement, identity politics, what Democrats need to d...

Alexa is a sci-fi / thriller short story by Paul Trammell, narrated by the author. The idea was inspired by a comment made by Tina Erwin in an earlier episode. I was asking her why spirits frequented Ouija boards and tarot cards. The short answer was "tradition," but she went on to say that it's entirely possible that technology could offer them a new and more effective portal. Why not an Alexa, I thought, and the story was born.

Pete Goss is an explorer, adventurer, and sailor best known for his rescue of Raphael Dinelli in the 1996-1997 Vendee Globe race, for which he was awarded medals of honor from both the UK and France. He has also sailed across the Atlantic multiple times, led expeditions to the North Pole, kayaked around Tasmania, sailed the biggest catamaran ever built, and completed many other adventures. He wrote the book "Close to the Wind," and was written about in the book "Goodforsaken Sea." I interviewed Pete in 2019, and this was one of the first podcast interviews I ever did. 

Mark Astor is a lawyer who leads a legal team dedicated to helping families in crisis due to mental health disorders, substance use, and failed recovery efforts. They deal with navigating involuntary treatment laws like Florida's Baker Act and the Marchman Act, working closely with clinical teams and family systems, and helping families regain control when a loved one's condition threatens their safety, autonomy, or future.

We talk about the criminal justice system and how they deal with mental health and addiction cases, Mark's career and how it evolved, learning the entrepreneur side of law, starting a...

In 1966, Robert Mitchell was drafted into the Vietnam War. He became a helicopter pilot and served until a crash sent him back to the USA, where he continued to serve as a flight instructor. After the war, he went to Europe and spent 12 years seeking spiritual knowledge in Germany and Crete. He finally returned to the USA free from the burdens of a wounded soul. He then became a teacher and taught mathematics, English, and history. He earned a PhD in The History of Consciousness. He has spent the last 35 years teaching, lecturing, and writing about education in America...

John Bond is an author, publishing consultant, former editor, former librarian, and lover of books who has been immersed in books and the expression of ideas for over 35 years. His new novel is "To the End of Reckoning," high-concept speculative thriller that asks what happens when history stops being debatable. As a Publishing Consultant, John brings a deep understanding of getting started on writing and then publishing a book. He is also the author of a three book series, The Little Guides, which cover writing a book, but also authoring journal articles and giving poster presentations (by Bloomsbury Publishing).<...

Rand Timmerman is the author of "A Spiritual Passage," a book about hiking the Appalachian Trail with his brother, both in their seventies. He also a Vietnam Veteran with the Marines, a lawyer, and a recovering alcoholic. Through his work, he hopes to inspire people with physical, mental, and spiritual difficulties to achieve their dreams and goals and live a happy and fulfilled life. 

We talk about Vietnam, Mormons, losing faith in God during the war, polio, why he signed up for Vietnam, becoming a JAG officer and developing a leagal career, how Vietnam changed his view o...

This is a remastered version of episode 4, from 2023, when the podcast was new. It's such a great interview that I remastered it and republished it. Sam Trammell is not only a great actor, but a fascinating person who had a dream, chased it to fruition, and made it happen. He is probably best known for his role as the shapeshifter Sam Merlotte in HBO's "True Blood," and has also been in "The Fault in our Stars," "Homeland," "The Gray House," "Big George Foreman," and many other movies, TV shows, and plays. He is currently in "Euphoria" as the character...

Margaret Bryden is a licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor, author, and founder of Sage Insight Therapy. She works with individuals and couples navigating anxiety, depression, trauma, addiction and life transitions. Margaret is the author of "How I Understand It: A Bad Poet's Guide to Mental Health & Resilience," where she introduces "bad poetry" as a powerful, accessible tool for emotional processing and insight. Through her work, she helps people start understanding themselves in a way that leads to real connection, clarity and resilience.

We talk about using poetry in therapy, getting patients and clients to write poetry, writing...

David Heska Wanbli Weiden is an award winning author, professor, and an enrolled citizen of the Sicangu Lakota nation. He received his MFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts, his law degree from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, and his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. He's professor of English and Native American and Indigenous Studies at Stony Brook University and also serves on the faculty of the Cedar Crest Pan-European MFA Program. He lives in New York and Colorado with his family.

Hw is the author of Wisdom Corner, f...

Lincoln Stoller is a quantum physicist, neuropsychologist, hypnotherapist, clinical counselor, psychonaut, mountaineer, author, and educator. His approach to psychotherapy is unique and antiauthoritarian, combining science, spirit, economics, and mental health through an understanding of the hard sciences, the psyche, and the behavior of groups.

We talk about quantum physics, psychotherapy, moutaineering, traveling and visiting other cultures, education, hypnotherapy, length of life, racism, ADD/ADHD and how it's diagnosis is abused, the problems with modern education, how psychotherapy started as a political tool, modern quasi-slavery, alternative schools, ecology, indigenous Panamanians, hope for the future, depression, Caribbean society, unemployment...

This is an episode I published in February of 2024, and it is so good that I remastered it to remove background noise and improve sound quality. Even if you listened to it two years ago, it is well worth a second listen. 

Dr. Emmett is a retired surgeon, sculptor, and author. He has a vast and unique knowledge of a level of consciousness that most of us don't perceive. We talk about self-image, the subconscious, intuitive knowledge, immortality, consciousness, meditation, telepathy, past lives, working with clairvoyants, the source of knowledge, the creator, history of religion, karma, the p...

Anthony Horowitz is a British novelist and screenwriter who has written over fifty books. He started with children's books and first found success with the Alex Rider seires, which has sold over 21 million copies and was made in to a TV series on Amazon. As his readers grew up, he began writing mysteries, including Magpie Murders, which initiated a series on BBC Television. He has also written for the Sherlock Holmes and 007 estates. He has written several television series including Foyle's War and Midsomer Murders. He was on this podcast in 2025 talking about his book "Marble Hall Murders." His...

Cornucopia is a short story about a mission to colonize another planet, written and narrated by Paul Trammell.

Subscribe to paultrammell.substack.com to get a freee short story in your mailbox on the first of each month.

Support the show through Patreon.

Phyllis E Leavitt graduated from Antioch University with a Masters' Degree in Psychology and Counseling in 1989. She co-directed a sexual abuse treatment program called Parents United in Santa Fe, New Mexico until 1991 and then went into private practice full time. As a psychotherapist, she treated children, families, couples, and individual adults for 34 years, and has worked extensively with abuse and dysfunctional family dynamics, their aftermath, and some of the most important elements for healing, including the intersection of emotional wellbeing and spiritual healing and connection. She has written three books, "A Light in the Darkness," "Into the Fire," and...

Phil Borges is a photographer and flimmaker dedicated to documenting the lives of indigenous cultures, and their shamans in particular. 

His work is exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide and his award winning books, which have been published in four languages, include Tibetan Portrait, Enduring Spirit, Women Empowered and Tibet: Culture on the Edge. He has hosted television documentaries on indigenous cultures for Discovery and National Geographic channels. Phil also lectures and teaches internationally.

During his work, he noticed similarities between shamans and the people we label as mentally ill - specifically schizophrenic or bipolar. His d...

Melvin Edwards is an author, journalist, and podcaster. His latest book is "Nuremberg Mississippi."

We talk about how laws affected blacks differently from whites and were used as tools of opression, such as not being able to use the front door of stores or to eat inside restaurants or for a black man to be driving with a white woman or to be black and in town after sunset in "sundown towns," segregation, the "Negro Motorist's Green Book," where racism comes from and how slavery started it and perpetuated it, why it's nearly impossible for Blacks to...

Space Man is a short story by Paul Trammell, published April 1 on paultrammell.substack.com

The story is narrated by the author. 

Links are on the podcast shownotes page

support the show through either substack, if you want more short stories, or Patreon

Amjad Tadros was CBS News' Middle East producer from 1990 to 2023, during which he managed regional coverage of transformative events, including Iraq's wars, the September 11 hijackers' backstories, the Arab Spring, and Syria's chemical attacks on civilians. His commitment to truth earned him four Emmy Awards, including for stories about Syria's chemical gas attacks (2016) and White Helmets (2017), a 2008 Peabody Award, and two Alfred I duPont Awards from Columbia Journalism School. He is also the author of the recently published book The Fixer: A Journalist's Accidental Journey Through the Middle East.

We talk about current events in the Middle East...

Eric Robinson was a Baptist pastor before becoming an FBI agent. He was a SWAT operator for 15 years, a tactical and firearms instructor, and worked in Human Intelligence, National Security, and most of the criminal offenses covered by the FBI. He recruited informants, dealt with teen prostitutes, interrogated terrorists, arrested drug dealers and peadophiles, and much more. Two of his cases won the Attorney General's Award. He is writing a book, not released yet, titled "Irreverend."

We talk about becoming an FBI agent, morals and ethics in work, why he left his ministry to join the FBI...

J. R. Thornton was born in London and graduated from Harvard College in 2014, where he studied history, English, and Chinese.  He later competed for Harvard as an internationally ranked junior tennis player on the men's professional circuit. 

Shortly after graduating from Harvard, J. R. published his first novel, Beautiful Country, loosely inspired by experiences he had living in Beijing as a teenager. The novel became a best-seller in China, and the film rights were subsequently purchased by WME/IMG.

J. R. returned to China in 2016 as a member of the inaugural class of Schwarzman Scholars, ear...

PJ Glassey started personal training in 1987 and successfully grew his business over the following 11 years, training clients in their homes and at local area gyms. With the help of these clients as test subjects, and armed with his degree in Exercise Science, PJ invented his "multi-protocol" concept and refined it through 1998, when he founded the X Gym. He is also the author of the book "Cracking Your Calorie Code" and the inventor of his Brain Type Test, which helps people achieve health and fitness results much faster through specific brain wiring techniques tailored to their unique brain type.

Douglas Ell grew up in Connecticut, and graduated early from MIT, where he double majored in math and physics. He then obtained a masters in theoretical mathematics from the University of Maryland. After graduating from law school, magna cum laude, he became a prominent attorney. His legal training and work, combined with his academic science background and a lifetime of independent study, has given him a uniquely grounded approach to science, religion, and philosophy. He is a proponent of Intelligent Design and takes the Bible literally. 

We talk about math and art, physics and how it led h...

Lorie Kleiner Eckert is a slice-of-life blogger, motivational speaker, and author of five books. Her latest is Chai on Life (pronounced "High on Life") and is a collection of 36 short stories or memoirs with themes of gratitude, happiness, family, and self-help. It's a delightful book, and Lorie is a wise and delightful person with lots of insights on life to share.

We talk about her book, finding gratitude even in difficult situations, avoiding the intrusiveness of modern technology, writing, happiness and how to find it, sobriety, meditation, chasing numbers, solitude, avoiding the covid lockdown in The Bahamas...

This February marks ten years without smoking marijuana and eleven years without drinking alcohol for me. In this episode, I talk about how I quit, and why I quit, both of these addictive drugs.

Links and photos are on the podcast shownotes page

Support the show through Patreon

Poetry by Paul Trammell, read by the author. 

click on this   substack link  to get a short story every month, as well as poetry and book reviews

 Support the show through Patreon

Links are on the podcast shownotes page

Cheryl Drury, a lifelong reader, is on a misssion to read a long list of classic books which she found on Ted Gioia's Substack page. She now has her own Substack page that features her podcast "Crack the Book" about classic books.

We talk about The Great Gatsby, The Red Badge of Courage, Romeo and Juliet and other works of Shakespeare, The Odyssey, David Foster Wallace, James Joyce's Ulysses, Swann's Way, Les Miserables, Louise May Alcott's Little Women, Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice, reading on a Kindle vs hardcopies, things we learn about life and human nature...

Just Like Meat, or Prosthetics, is a sci-fi short story by Paul Trammell (the host). 

If you like short stories and want to receive one of mine on the first of every month, for free, sign up for my Substack "newsletter"

You can support the podcast through Patreon

More info can be found on the podcast shownotes page

Kepp an eye out for my latest novel Identity Crisis  releasing March first, available for preorder now.

Remember to alway stand on the side of love, and that relentless peaceful protest is...

Colin Corby is a Leadership, Wellbeing, Digital Detox, and Mindset Coach. He is also a TEDx Speaker, a technologist, and an endurance athlete. He created 'The Digital Detox Coach' in 2018 as he was fascinated by the collision between technology and psychology and how this relationship was changing the world, our health, and even the way we think. He is passionate about helping people and organisations achieve a healthier, more productive, and ethically sustainable relationship with technology. He has over 30 years' experience in leading technology companies. He brings this and the mindset of an athlete to his technology wellbeing practice.<...

A life long search for freedom took Eli Jaxon-Bear around the world and into many spiritual traditions from a Zen monastery in Japan to a Sufi circle in Marrakesh, among others. His search ended when he was drawn to India (1990) where he met his final teacher, Sri H.W.L Poonja, lovingly known as Papaji; a direct disciple of the renowned Indian Sage Ramana Maharshi.

Confirming Eli's realization, his teacher sent him back into the world to share his unique psychological insights into the nature of egoic suffering in support of self-realization.

Eli infuses his...

This week's episode is a short story by Paul Trammell, narrated by the author. A Ship Without Time is a short work of science fiction. If you like short stories, and would like to get a free one in your mailbox on the first of each month, sign up for Paul Trammell's Substack newsletter, for free (or donation) at paultrammell.substack.com.

Catia Batalha is a psychotherapist, spiritual teacher, author, and mystic, devoted to guiding souls on their journey of awakening, healing, and self-discovery. Moved by a deep reverence for the hidden wisdom that flows through all traditions, she has spent much of her life immersed in the holistic philosophies of the East and the psychological sciences of the West.

We talk about growing up in Portugal, discovering yoga, how our external realities reflect our internal realities, moving to New Zealand, traveling during Covid, elevating our frequencies, the importance of avoiding fear, yoga, tantra, changing our states of conscience...

Libbie Grant, who writes as Olivia Hawker, is a Washington-Post Best-selling author and a UFO enthusiast. She and I have both seen UFO's, and she wrote a historical fiction novel, "The Stars and their Light," about the Roswell incident in 1947.

We talk about UFO's, her book "The Stars and their Light," religion and how UFO sightings can affect our beliefs, biblical references to possible UFO's, the possibility of UFO's hiding in bodies of water, the Baltic Sea structure, my UFO sightings, other UFO sightings, Terrance McKenna, where here ideas come from, smoking weed, 3I/Atlas, and more.<...

Danny Johnson's hilarious, clean stand-up has entertained audiences in comedy clubs, corporate events, and churches nationwide for over 15 years. Danny's work as a stand-up comedian has been humbly compared to Jerry Seinfeld, Kevin James, and Jackie Gleason, blending his original material with his renowned facial expressions. Danny's show is relatable, entertaining, and always evolving. Danny has starred in numerous TV commercials, Comedy Central's Laugh Riots, Florida's Funniest Comedian Top 10 Finalist, Winner-Carnival Cruise line Comedy Challenge, Finalist in Search for the One Christian Comedy contest, recently filmed his wildly popular Dry Bar Comedy Special (now available on Apple TV, Amazon...

John David is the author of the novel "The Bystander," which I read and loved. It's a thriller about a journalist who films an active-shooter incident and a "good samaritan" with a concealed weapon taking out the shooter. However, things are not what they seem.

We talk about writing fiction and nonfiction, writing about a real location, setting, the second amendment and concealed weapons, heros, his work in crisis management, school shootings, writing technique and routine, publishing, querying agents, plotting vs pantsing, art, books he reads, other authors, his other book, "How to Protect Your Reputation Online,"...

Libbie Grant, who also write under the pan name Olivia Hawker, is a Washington Post best-selling author of historical fiction and literary fiction. I recently read her novel "The Ragged Edge of Night," which tells the story of a Franciscan Friar in Nazi Germany struggling to maintain his sense of morals and doing what he can to thwart the efforts of the Nazis. Libbie has written and published 46 books under various pen name and is one of my favorite modern authors. 

We talk about the real-life story that inspired "The Ragged Edge of Night," the research that w...

Inna Segal is a pioneer in the field of energy medicine and human consciousness. She is also the bestselling author of "The Secret Language of Your Body," which has been translated into 26 languages and has sold over a million copies worldwide.

We talk about her roots as a healer, clairvoyance, pain, anxiety, meditation, exercise, living consciously, intuitive healing, food choices, understanding what gets into our bodies, emotional wisdom and how to improve it, learning from other people's mistakes, narcissism, boundaries, her book "The Secret Language of Your Body," color, how there is always an opportunity to learn...