Stories from the Center of the Universe

Episode 96: Jeremy Moulder

Today, Paul is talking to Jeremy Moulder.  Jeremy is from Pensacola, FL where he grew up fishing, going to the beach and learning woodworking with his grandfather. He played football in high school which was the same school that Emmitt Smith attended.  After high school, Jeremy tried junior college while he was also getting trained as a fireman and EMT.

Jeremy decided that JUCO was not for him and coming from a family of patriots, Jeremy joined the U.S. Army.  He was going for the infantry, but the Army said no, you’re going to be a Combat Medic.  He attended basic and then spent time at Fort Sam Houston, Fort Lewis and Fort Benning. Jeremy did two tours in Afghanistan and talked about the different missions they were asked to perform while there.

After leaving the Army, Jeremy has now, with the help of a business partner and his wife, started a business called USA Flag Works.  Jeremy makes incredible wooden USA flags and can personalize them for his clients.  Jeremy ended by talking about his wife Madelyn who is his rock and their son Jake.  Madelyn joined him on the podcast for a couple of minutes and they talked about Jake and how he plays travel ice hockey.

Episode 95: TJ Gwynn

TJ Gwynn was born in Chapel Hill, NC and grew up in Burlington, NC which is in Alamance County.  Basketball was the only organized sport he played until he got to middle school.  He started in recreation and then started playing AAU when he was 10 years old. In high school, TJ also played football and track, but he said that was mainly so he could hang out with his friends.  He did mention that it didn’t hurt to get out of school early as well!

Basketball was TJ’s focus though and at 6’4” in 9th grade, he was making an immediate impact on the court.  TJ said he was skinny, but tough due to his older brothers Brandon and Jamaal. He started to get noticed by colleges in 9th grade when his high school won the state championship and TJ was named the tournament MVP. TJ got a lot of interest and offers, but decided to take his talent to Virginia Commonwealth University.

At VCU, TJ had a very good career, but learned that college basketball was a business. Amazingly, and TJ believes he is the only college player to experience this, he had three head coaches during his time at VCU.  He discussed with Paul and Kevin the ups and downs of that experience.  TJ ended by talking about his family.

Episode 94: Downtown Ashland Association

Joining the podcast is Maggie Longest who is the Director of the Downtown Ashland Association (DAA).  Paul and Maggie discuss the role of the DAA and how the organization brings local businesses, citizens and the town government together.  They talk about the history of Ashland, the present and future opportunities for businesses in Ashland and the relationships with major stake holders such as Randolph-Macon College.  Maggie also spoke about the events they promote including Train Day which is attended by about 10,000 people.

Paul also had Maggie talk about her life.  Maggie hails from Blacksburg, Va. and went to Virginia Tech for her undergraduate degree in Agriculture Economics.  She worked in Washington DC as a lobbyist and in a senator’s office.  She then decided to go to graduate school at NC State and worked in the NC governor’s office after getting her Master’s degree.  She met her husband in NC who was from Hanover and they decided to move back to Virginia.  They have a 5 year old daughter Linda who is high energy, creative and empathetic and is looking forward to starting kindergarten this fall.

Episode 93: Phil Stinnie

Joining the podcast is Phil Stinnie.  Phil is a former VCU basketball player and was connected to Paul through another VCU player, Lionel Bacon (Episode 81.) Phil talked about the bond that is formed by VCU players and how Lionel is his “little brother.”

Phil is from Charlottesville, Virginia and he discussed how his Mom had him when she was only 14 years old.  He was an only child, but they had a large extended family and he was like a little brother to his aunts and uncles.  His mom was tough, but had lots of love to give and this helped Phil go down the right path of life.

He discussed not really playing sports growing up and how he got a late start playing basketball.  He did not play AAU and college interest in Phil happened because of the hard work of his high school coach. VCU eventually won out because Phil said it felt like home.  He discussed his most memorable moment at VCU, getting drafted by the NY Knicks and his basketball career after VCU.

We ended by talking about his family.  He has two sons who both played college football.  Brian is a Medical Device Representative and Aaron is still playing football in the NFL … currently for the 2021 Super Bowl Champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Phil gives credit for Brian and Aaron’s success to his wife!

Episode 92: Jay Strath

Jay Strath joins the podcast thanks to a connection with guest host Kevin Flippen … they married into the same family! Paul, Kevin and Jay started off by talking about Jay growing up on a farm in eastern Henrico.  Jay said he worked on the farm a lot with his dad.  He said there was only one reason that his dad let him out of that work and that was sports.

Jay discussed with Paul and Kevin the change in culture in youth sports and how it has effected the kids, the coaches and the parents.  Jay believes you can see the difference today even in the professional ranks, specifically the NBA. Jay talked about his sports experience growing up and how one catch in a football game got some really big name programs interested in him.

Jay spoke about how he decided to attend UVA and some of the famous players he got to be around and play with during his UVA career. Jay finished up by talking about his sons Evan and Gavin, his daughter Taylor and being a dad. He answered the end of the podcast question from Kevin and had a final message which was, “Be good to your neighbor!”

Episode 91: Dave Thach

David Thach (pronounced Tot) joins the podcast because of his relationship with Paul. Dave has been Paul’s barber for over a decade. Dave grew up in Maryland, but has called the Richmond area home for about fourteen years. Dave’s parents are Cambodian, but Dave considers himself Vietnamese. Dave spoke in Vietnamese and even taught Paul and Kevin a word or two in Vietnamese during the podcast.
 
Dave gave his parents a great deal of credit for his work ethic which he is in turn passing on to his sons. Dave has a barber shop in Hanover County and he stated he has a lot of loyal customers.  Dave, Paul and Kevin talked a lot of sports. Dave is a huge sports fan and is a Washington Football Team (he still calls them the Redskins) fan as well as an Orioles fan. Dave stated that Sports Center is the only thing on the TVs in his barber shop.
 
Dave also spoke about becoming a barber and his brothers influence on that career choice.  His philosophy on the art of being a barber is to “keep it simple.”  Dave talked about his wife Carrie (she’s not a sports fan), how they met and their two sons, Connor (12) and Carter (9).

Episode 90: Frederick James Koch

Joining us from Australia is Frederick James ‘Jimmy’ Koch.  Jimmy and Paul were connected through John Watts who was the guest on Episode 50 of the podcast. Jimmy is a professional actor, musician and dancer.  Jimmy was born in Sydney, but currently lives in Melbourne.

Jimmy tells us about growing up in the “bush” of Australia. He recalls one particular encounter with a deadly brown snake during a game of hide and seek with his friends.  He talks about how he has traveled to some incredible places especially one amazing trip to Africa where he did a documentary on the Maasai people.

Jimmy also discusses how his love for the arts started at a young age and how he and his cousins would recreate Michael Jackson videos at family gatherings. He talked about his family including his dad who is a well known singer and how he inherited his stage presence from his dad.  Jimmy touches on his career, his journey as an artist and the difference between the arts.  He talks about his films and some pretty famous costars including his latest film Nightwalk with Mickey Rourke.  He ends by discussing the pandemic in Australia and his love for various types of martial arts.

Episode 89: Mila Liakhovitser

Mila Liakhovitser comes to the podcast by virtue of working together with Paul.  Mila was born and raised in New York City, and though she was born on Long Island and lived for a brief time in Queens, she is a Bronx girl through and through!  She is also a long suffering NY Jets fan.

From the beginning, Mila was recognized as very intelligent and gifted.  She attended math camps after school for most of her childhood and then went to a math and science high school.  She attended what she referred to as "nerd camps" and took her first SAT when she was 12.  She later had a super score of 2380 out of 2400 with an 800 on the math portion.  She got accepted to several great academic schools and all the hard work paid off when she decided to go to Duke University.  She told Paul about the culture shock and differences between NY City and Durham, NC. Mila double majored in Math and Philosophy with a minor in Economics.

Mila told Paul about the incredible relationship she had with her grandfather.  From her grandfather's birth in 1924 to her family's Jewish and Russian history, Mila discusses how she believes fate saved her grandfather from being killed by the Nazi's.  She discussed how he went in the Russian Air Force when he was 16 and came home at 21 and then became an engineer. She discusses the interesting decision that her grandparents had to make when they immigrated.  She finishes by talking about her Mom, all her mom’s accomplishments and the calming force her mom has been in her life.

Episode 88: Andrew Slater

Andrew Slater joins us for the podcast today.  Andrew is the Head Baseball Coach at The Collegiate School.  Paul and Andrew have known each other since they were both at St. Christopher’s though Paul is a few years older.  Andrew attended St. Christopher’s through 6th grade and then went to Collegiate where he graduated in 1996.

 

Andrew talks about getting a football scholarship to the University of Richmond where he also played baseball.  He tells us how his life changed when he suffered a back injury at the end of his freshman year.  He left UofR and headed to Auburn University where his brother Tom was a baseball coach.  Andrew played baseball for two years at Auburn and spent a third year there as a student assistant coach and he said this is when he really developed a passion for coaching.  He then went onto coach baseball at VMI and then Western Kentucky.  In 2008, Andrew and his wife Samantha decided it was time to move back to Virginia and that’s when he started at Collegiate.

 

Paul and Andrew also discussed how Andrew believes it is important that kids play multiple sports when they are growing up.  They discussed his baseball journey as a player and a coach and how Collegiate won a State Championship in 2016.  Andrew talked about his other duties at Collegiate (he’s busy,) his dad’s work ethic and 1 on 1 basketball games with his big brother.  Andrew finished by talking about Samantha and their three boys … Will (16), Jake (13) and Sam (11.)

Episode 87: Trip Chalkley

Trip Chalkley is the Commonwealth’s Attorney for Hanover County, Virginia.  Trip has known Paul since he was a kid through Paul’s dad Larry.  Both Larry and Trip went to the T.C. Williams School of Law at the University of Richmond and worked together in Hanover County.

Trip talks about growing up in Richmond, attending John Marshall High School and how he almost didn’t go back for his second year of law school. Trip talks about his father and how he and his sister learned later in life that he was a WW2 hero.  Paul, guest host Kevin Flippen and Trip discussed Trip’s 45 year law career as both a defense attorney and as a prosecutor and the difference between the two.

Trip also talked about some memorable cases, playing billiards, his favorite meal and his love of reading and golf. Trip finishes the podcast by talking about his family and his future as the Hanover Commonwealth’s Attorney.