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Behind The Shield

Podcast Behind The Shield
James Geering
Bringing the greatest minds in mental and physical wellness to the men and women who serve our communities.

Available Episodes

5 of 728
  • Dick Hoyt (Cerebral Palsy, Adaptive Athletes and the Power of a Father's Love) - Episode 293
    Dick Hoyt is a military veteran and one half of Team Hoyt. His son, Rick, was born with cerebral palsy and at age 15, asked his father if they could run a race together. This began a journey of over a thousand races, marathons, triathalons and Ironmans. We discuss Dick's early life, Rick's diagnosis, his parenting philosophy, Rick's alturism, adaptive athletes, removing barriers and so much more.The Early YearsRick was born in 1962 to Dick and Judy Hoyt. As a result of oxygen deprivation to Rick’s brain at the time of his birth, Rick was diagnosed as a spastic quadriplegic with cerebral palsy. Dick and Judy were advised to institutionalize Rick because there was no chance of him recovering, and little hope for Rick to live a “normal” life. This was just the beginning of Dick and Judy’s quest for Rick’s inclusion in community, sports, education and one day, the workplace.Dick and Judy soon realized that though Rick couldn’t walk or speak; he was quite astute and his eyes would follow them around the room. They fought to integrate Rick into the public school system, pushing administrators to see beyond Rick’s physical limitations. Dick and Judy would take Rick sledding and swimming, and even taught him the alphabet and basic words, like any other child. After providing concrete evidence of Rick’s intellect and ability to learn like everyone else, Dick and Judy needed to find a way to help Rick communicate for himself.With $5,000 in 1972 and a skilled group of engineers at Tufts University, an interactive computer was built for Rick. This computer consisted of a cursor being used to highlight every letter of the alphabet. Once the letter Rick wanted was highlighted, he was able to select it by just a simple tap with his head against a head piece attached to his wheelchair. When the computer was originally first brought home, Rick surprised everyone with his first words. Instead of saying, “Hi, Mom,” or “Hi, Dad,” Rick’s first “spoken” words were: “Go, Bruins!” The Boston Bruins were in the Stanley Cup finals that season. It was clear from that moment on, that Rick loved sports and followed the game just like anyone else.In 1975, at the age of 13, Rick was finally admitted into public school. After high school, Rick attended Boston University, and he graduated with a degree in Special Education in 1993. Dick retired in 1995 as a Lt. Colonel from the Air National Guard, after serving his country for 37 years.The Beginning of Team HoytIn the spring of 1977, Rick told his father that he wanted to participate in a 5-mile benefit run for a Lacrosse player who had been paralyzed in an accident. Far from being a long-distance runner, Dick agreed to push Rick in his wheelchair and they finished all 5 miles, coming in next to last. That night, Rick told his father, “Dad, when I’m running, it feels like I’m not handicapped.”This realization was just the beginning of what would become over 1,000 races completed, including marathons, duathlons and triathlons (6 of them being Ironman competitions). Also adding to their list of achievements, Dick and Rick biked and ran across the U.S. in 1992, completing a full 3,735 miles in 45 days.In a triathlon, Dick will pull Rick in a boat with a bungee cord attached to a vest around his waist and to the front of the boat for the swimming stage. For the biking stage, Rick will ride a special two-seater bicycle, and then Dick will push Rick in his custom made running chair (for the running stage).Rick was once asked, if he could give his father one thing, what would it be? Rick responded, “The thing I’d most like is for my dad to sit in the chair and I would push him for once.”The 2009 Boston Marathon was officially Team Hoyt’s 1000th race. Rick always says if it comes down to doing one race a year he would like it to be the Boston Marathon: his favorite race.
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  • Dr Ian Dunican (Shiftwork, Sleep Health and the False Economy of Understaffing) - Episode 1040
    Ian has 23 years of international professional experience in health, safety and business improvement within military, mining, rail, oil and gas, utilities and elite athletes. Combining scientific research and operational leadership, he supports organisations in reducing risk, lowering cost, and optimising productivity and performance. Ian applies Lean/Six Sigma and other scientific methodologies in significant projects to drive step-change improvement in performance while ensuring sustainability through associated culture change.In the mining, oil, and gas sectors, he has worked internationally as an advisor to major companies including Rio Tinto, Woodside, BHP, Anglo Gold Ashanti, South 32, Karara Mining, Peabody and Goldcorp. Other sectors include agriculture with CBH group and rail with Metro Trains Melbourne. He has been responsible for the development of global practices, integration, and project management across multiple product groups. This has entailed the quantification, analysis, and interpretation of multiple data streams to support health, safety, financial strength, and productivity. Within elite athletic groups, he has worked with the Australian Institute of Sport, West Australian Institute of Sport, Super Rugby, Australian Rules Football and Formula 1 to optimise human performance in preparation for international competition and the Olympics.Ian is a regular speaker/chair at universities and international conferences in mining, transport, sports performance and physiology. He regularly contributes articles to media outlets such as the Australian Financial Review, The Australian, Men’s Fitness, Blitz Martial Arts, BJJ Scout and Huffington Post. He has spoken on the Health Report on ABC radio in Australia, ABC radio national and numerous podcasts. In addition, he has appeared on ABC television, Channel 7, 9 and 10 in Australia, and was a TEDx Perth speaker in 2017. He is author and co-author of numerous technical reports, scientific articles, and industry guidelines, and a regular reviewer for scientific peer-reviewed journals.An active athlete, I have completed over 20 ultramarathons to date, including the Ultra-Trail Australia 100km (7 times), Leadville 100 miler, numerous marathons and trail running events. My current focus is on improving my swimming to undertake long-distance open water swimming events (10-20km).
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  • Kegan "Smurf" Gill (Aviation, Writing, Traumatic Brain Injury and his Healing Journey) - Episode 1039
    LT Kegan "SMURF" Gill miraculously survived the fastest ejection in Naval Aviation history. Despite severe injuries, he overcame the impossible to return to the cockpit of the F/A-18E Super Hornet, and that was just the beginning of his journey. Despite years of struggle with physical and mental health challenges, Kegan has unlocked the key to overcoming the impossible.In this second conversation, we discuss the tolls he's amassed to continue healing after a pyschedelic retreat, writing his autobiography "Phoenix Revival", hormone therapy, sleep and so much more.
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  • Keith Hanks (Overcoming Grief, Emergency Medicine and Advocacy) - Episode 1038
    Keith Hanks is a retired Firefighter and EMT that dedicated 21 years of his life to the service of others. He serviced his community as a firefighter, EMT, certified educator and training officer along with fire prevention and code enforcement. Keith worked both inner-city EMS as well as municipal fire. Like many in the first responder community the job has its cost. From childhood trauma and sexual abuse, traumatic calls, the tragic passing of his first wife, Keith has faced many trials and tragedies that resulted in self-harm, substance abuse, lies and multiple suicide attempts. After decades of damage Keith began to put the pieces of his life back together. Keith was diagnosed with Complex PTSD in 2015. The job, the service, his dedication caused this injury, and consequently his retirement. What PTS didn’t change was the love and devotion to his community and to his fellow first responders. Keith has since dedicated his life to advocating for mental illness, substance and alcohol abuse recovery, and suicide awareness. Since starting this mission Keith built an international support group through Facebook for First Responders and Veterans for PTSI and other job-related mental health issues. Keith was asked to be a part of the Deconstructing Stigma Project and has a Billboard that hangs in the International Terminal at Logan Airport in Boston MA, along with the Manchester Regional Airport. In March 2022 he completed the filming of his 1st feature length documentary focusing on PTSD in the first responder community titled First Responders in Crisis and has since been featured in two other related documentaries. Keith is an international speaker/podcast personality, and published author. He is a contributing author at Fire Engineering, Firefighter Nation, The Volunteer Firefighter, Crackyl, and Smoke Showin’ magazines/forums. He also wrote a featured chapter in the ongoing Amazon best-selling series Scars to Stars Volume 3. He is known for saying that his life goal is to reduce suicide in the first responder community through education, support resources and to make it OK to reach out for help. In 2023, he launched his own LLC, Traumatic Strength, with its mission to bring proactive education, training, and action to combat the stigma on mental health. In June 2024, Keith released his first book, Allen, which tells the tragedies and triumphs throughout his life and how resilience was what led him to ultimate victory. He resides in New Hampshire with his wife and is the proud father to three incredible children.
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  • Chuck Liddell (Mixed Martial Arts, Head Trauma and The Power of Mentorship) - Episode 411
    Chuck Liddell is an MMA legend, author and actor. We discuss his early life, overcoming physical challenges, his grandfather's mentorship, altruism, his journey into the martial arts, intrinsic motivation, transitioning out of professional fighting and so much more.Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell burst onto the MMA scene in 1998 during his UFC debut fight win against Noe Hernandez in UFC 17. His rise to UFC champion includes most notable TKO wins against Randy Couture (UFC 52 & 57), Tito Ortiz (UFC 47 & 66), Wanderlei Silva (UFC 79) and the KO win that catapulted him into UFC stardom at UFC 31 against Kevin Randleman. Chuck reigned as UFC World Light Heavyweight Champion for two years, defending his title five times.
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About Behind The Shield

Bringing the greatest minds in mental and physical wellness to the men and women who serve our communities.
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