2023 Year In Review

00:04
Brent Hinson
Between the lines with Virtual Academy. We all have a story to tell. Hello and welcome inside another episode of between the Lines Virtual Academy, a podcast going beyond the badge to allow members of law enforcement, public safety, and first response a place to tell their stories and also talk about the cases that have impacted their lives. 

00:25
Brent Hinson
How you doing? I’m your co host, Brent Hinson. And that’s going to be a little bit different type of episode. It’s our Year in Review wrap up episode. It’s kind of one of those ways to put a bow on our podcasting year for 2023. And we did this last year. And I don’t know about the other guys, but these are the types of episodes that are always fun for me, because we get to allow you guys, the listeners, to have kind of an inside peek of how not. Only we put the podcast together. But then we also share which episodes affected us and the ones that really stood out to us the most. So before we get too far along, let me bring in the other two guys that keep this operation up and running each week. 

01:09
Brent Hinson
First off, he serves as our executive producer, editor, and, well, all other things behind the scenes. He has lots of activities going on. That is Mr. Aaron Bevel. How you doing, sir? 

01:21
Aaron Bevill
I was homeschooled, so I didn’t get to go to prom. So this is like my podcast, Prom. I get to show up and see the other pool and I’m not just sitting alone by myself in the dark corner. It’s nice. 

01:30
Brent Hinson
And you’re also an occasional guest. I failed to mention that. 

01:34
Aaron Bevill
Occasionally. 

01:34
Brent Hinson
Yeah. 

01:35
Aaron Bevill
If there’s a topic, which is not very often, but if there’s a topic I have some sort of knowledge about, then I’ll chime in a little bit. 

01:42
Brent Hinson
Yeah. And of course, the guy who is both the face and the voice of this year podcast, Mr. Michael Warren. It’s your first full year as host of this podcast, and I think you just keep getting better and better with the way that you help these guests roll their stories out, because you start at the beginning and then you say, tell me more, and then what happened? And I like the way you handle your storytelling method. 

02:08
Michael Warren
Even a blind squirrel finds a nut now and then, and you guys set it up on a t for me. So it’d be really embarrassing to strike it out because you set things up so well beforehand. But if I could real quick address Aaron’s prom, because the setup today is more like middle school dance for me. I’m sitting here with my group of friends and scared to talk to anybody. 

02:30
Aaron Bevill
So it’s awkward that I went with Prom and you went with school dance, so I was really aiming for the. 

02:38
Michael Warren
Awkward is a good word to describe us, isn’t it? Just saying it is what it is. 

02:43
Brent Hinson
I guess we’ve had our share of awkward moments on the podcast. I know last year I went through an episode where I lost the ability to have my microphone work. I think my favorite thing happened just a couple of weeks ago talking in an episode. We’re sitting here, we’re talking to Officer Hodgkins, and she’s an SRO. She’s in her squad car and we’re recording the episode. And then a student comes by, knocks on her window and wants to know if she’s going to be late for class. And she’s like, you wouldn’t be late for class if you went to Duncan. I think that was a lot of fun. 

03:18
Michael Warren
But she made it for the coffee, just not for class. And again, going back to our school days, just saying that’s one of those. 

03:24
Aaron Bevill
Times where as the editor, I was like, do I leave her busting this kid in the episode, or is that too far? Is that a privacy issue? Man, it was sure fun. I at least cut out that audio and sent it to Brent and Mike for us to giggle about. 

03:38
Michael Warren
And giggle we did. 

03:39
Brent Hinson
Yeah. 

03:40
Aaron Bevill
Yes. 

03:40
Brent Hinson
One of the first things we’d like to do is kind of go over what were the biggest episodes of the year and some statistical information, and I guess we can start there. And I don’t know if Spotify has what it says our top episodes are, but we’ve got listed out here our top ten episodes of the year based on our service provider, which is captivate. So I’m just curious what you guys think. As far as downloads go. The biggest downloaded show of 2023 is this is just this year from January 3 until November 29. 

04:19
Michael Warren
I’m going to go with Kyle vo winkle the Boston Marathon Bomber. 

04:23
Aaron Bevill
I would go with that. Or left of Greg episode, maybe. I don’t know. 

04:27
Michael Warren
I purposely didn’t say that because I didn’t want anybody to laugh at me. 

04:31
Aaron Bevill
The reason I thought it might be you is I thought you might have downloaded every week to sure. 

04:37
Michael Warren
If you see the accounts that started with Warren michael, that wasn’t me, I swear. 

04:41
Aaron Bevill
Yeah, that’s fine. All the Michigan downloads are not just Michael. 

04:46
Brent Hinson
It wasn’t either of those two. Left of Greg was in the top ten for sure. It was one that I really liked. I couldn’t believe it was number one. I’m glad it is, because the way he spoke in the episode, so well read, so well spoken. Chip Heath and the Outward Mindset episode 47, back on April 4, it was the biggest downloaded episode of the year for us. 

05:12
Michael Warren
Chip is a godfather when it comes to law enforcement training. So when you said it like that, I guess it really doesn’t surprise me. 

05:19
Aaron Bevill
I really thought it was going to be episode 59, the VR episode that I was a guest on. I really thought I’d bring some listeners in, but that’s fine. Chip did a good job. I guess he’s pretty good. 

05:29
Brent Hinson
See that’s one that you said you haven’t listened to yet because you weren’t in on the recording? 

05:34
Aaron Bevill
No, I wasn’t in the recording. And you edited it, so I didn’t listen to our top episode of the year. That’s perfect. Yeah. 

05:41
Michael Warren
In our line of work, this will. 

05:42
Aaron Bevill
Call a clue who can you lose from the podcast? 

05:44
Brent Hinson
And it will continue fine. Some of the other I’ll just list out a couple of the other top downloads episodes of the year coming in at number two. Another great episode. Another really well spoken man. TBI Director David Roush. Episode 44. We were super blessed to get him on the podcast. Just an all around great guy to have. I mean, I like listening to him speak. He’s taught some courses for Virtual Academy and just a really smart guy. 

06:15
Michael Warren
Absolutely. 

06:16
Aaron Bevill
I think the one thing we can say that we’ve gotten out of this podcast, if nothing else, hopefully that we’ve been able to reach a lot of people. But if Brent or I ever get in any legal trouble, I feel like we have people we can call, get some legal advice. Nothing else. 

06:32
Michael Warren
You remember? What was it, the Jim Carrey movie when he was an attorney? 

06:36
Brent Hinson
Liar, liar. 

06:37
Michael Warren
He needs your legal advice. Stop breaking the law, asshole. 

06:44
Brent Hinson
Just one more. The top number three episode of the year is one that it was really tough to record. And I don’t know how he does this on a consistent basis, but I’m glad he does because he’s a wonderful person to be out there to raise awareness. And that is episode 43 with Max Schaachter for his son who passed away. The Parkland shooting came out on March 7. An incredible man. It was almost hard to make it through the episode without getting emotional because I don’t know if you know this, Michael Warren, but you and I were a little bit of criers. 

07:23
Michael Warren
I’ve heard that I have a list here of the most cried upon episodes, and that was right there with a couple other accurate tear count. 

07:33
Aaron Bevill
That’s what I want to know. 

07:35
Michael Warren
Listen, there is a camera and we are recording. 

07:38
Aaron Bevill
So just saying it’s a drinking game here. If one of them cries, well, thank. 

07:43
Michael Warren
Goodness it’s not that because. 

07:47
Aaron Bevill
It’S one of those episodes where I feel very honored and humbled that he would come on the episode and talk about that stuff, because that cannot be easy to relive over and over again. I know he believes that he’s doing good, so I know that’s why he does it. But my gosh, it has tobe just reliving your worst moment of your life over and over. 

08:07
Brent Hinson
You have to be so passionate to the cause to go on and relive an experience that was the worst day of your life. And for him to continue to do that, to raise awareness and try to get legislation passed, that guy is an. 

08:21
Michael Warren
Amazing man, and I couldn’t agree more. And I kind of lumped him in to the same category as Kim Schlau, who started off the know, telling the story of the loss of her two daughters and the fact that she goes out there and is telling that story over and over again to try and save the lives of the people of this profession. God bless them. Because I don’t know how those folks do it, because it tore me up just listening to them tell the story. I can’t imagine what it’s like to be on that side. 

08:53
Brent Hinson
And that was our first episode of 2023. That’s how we started off the year. And she’s so well composed. When she recounts that story, she gets emotional. But I think she’s such a great professional speaker because Erin and I actually got to see her speak at Aelita this year. She really just tells the story and wants to get the information out there so this doesn’t happen to somebody else’s family. 

09:17
Michael Warren
Even though the cause is good, you know, it still just has to tear at your gut every time that you wake up that morning and know that you’re going to be talking about the worst day of your life. 

09:28
Brent Hinson
Again, just a couple other stats on my side. I know Aaron has some before we get into some of our favorite episodes, cities that have downloaded the most episodes this year, surprisingly, Atlanta, Georgia is big on between the lines. 

09:40
Michael Warren
There we go. 

09:40
Brent Hinson
They’ve downloaded the most. Naperville, Illinois, up near Chicago. And then I’m assuming this is all Aaron’s family because Murfreesboro, Tennessee, came in at number three. 

09:51
Aaron Bevill
It’s cool to see all the crazy places that people download, like even other countries. I don’t know if you got other countries in there, but yeah, actually I do. 

09:59
Brent Hinson
The countries with the most downloads, we’ll just throw that in real quick. Obviously, the US, the most downloaded country, canada. 

10:06
Aaron Bevill
Well, let’s see if Mike can guess. Number three. What is the third most downloaded? 

10:11
Michael Warren
I’m going to go with Australia. 

10:13
Brent Hinson
I wish it’s in the top ten. 

10:16
Michael Warren
Wow. 

10:16
Brent Hinson
It’s actually number ten. So Australia is in there. 

10:20
Michael Warren
I’m going to go with India. 

10:22
Brent Hinson
Good guess. Actually not in the top ten at all, but really our friends in Germany. Really? Three. 

10:27
Michael Warren
Germany? 

10:28
Aaron Bevill
Yeah, Germany. 

10:30
Michael Warren
Interesting. 

10:30
Brent Hinson
So there you go. There’s a few stats on my side. 

10:33
Aaron Bevill
Really good hot chocolate in Germany. That’s all I got about Germany. I don’t know. I went there once as a kid and I was like, this is the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had. This is really why I don’t get invited on the show very often, but that’s fine. 

10:47
Michael Warren
They literally have a beer fest. 

10:49
Aaron Bevill
Yeah. And I’m like, check out this hot chocolate, bros. 

10:52
Michael Warren
This is the best hot chocolate I’ve. 

10:54
Aaron Bevill
Ever it was amazing. It was like drinking heaven. Anyways, moving on, a few stats on my side, because I’m the geeky kid. I like the nerdy stats. We produced 2.5 thousand minutes of content this year, which is kind of crazy. If you went and started in January, pressed Play, you would play for 41 hours. You would listen to Michael Warren talk about training for 41 hours. 

11:20
Brent Hinson
That’s a lot. And this is consistent. We put out an episode every Tuesday morning all year and never missed a Tuesday. We try to get that stuff out as soon as we can. And we appreciate all the folks that subscribe this year, picking up some new subscribers, especially across social media, all the interactions that we’ve had. So it takes a lot to put this thing out. And we’re a small staff, but we do it consistently. 

11:45
Aaron Bevill
For anybody who reached out on social media or liked something or said something kind about the show or the guests that were on the show, that is really what drives us to continue doing this. It’s been a huge pickup to just have somebody out there say, hey, this is a great episode, or wow, this guest is really great. That is always kind of the fuel that burns, keeps us going on this. Just a couple of big stats for us. We had 14% increase in followers across all services this year and even bigger, we had 61% increase in downloads over the year. So lots of growth on all platforms. 

12:22
Brent Hinson
Consistency. Yeah. 

12:23
Aaron Bevill
Apple podcast was our biggest at 64%. So a lot of you out there listening on Apple podcast, 10% on Spotify. We did see some big growth on Spotify and then 9% on the website. Just going to the website old school and pressing plays. 

12:37
Brent Hinson
What’s the thing that’s most surprising to you when we have a guest on that maybe hasn’t done a podcast before? 

12:45
Aaron Bevill
I think the thing that I’m always surprised by is we haven’t ever really had a guest melt down. And I remember the first time I did a podcast was with Brent. It’s terrifying the first time you press record and realize I have to keep talking. So we haven’t had anybody really melt down. Like, everybody’s been very competent and everybody’s been able to tell their know. I’m sure being in policing you’re used to recounting these sort of things, but in episodes like Kyle Volwinkle, I’m always shocked by the amount of detail. Every little bit. He can lay that timeline out for an hour and a half. In my head, I can see that playing like a movie because he’s so detailed. 

13:29
Brent Hinson
Yeah. Mike obviously, we’ve run into technical issues with equipment, but for the most part, we get those things worked out and we try to make people as comfortable. 

13:38
Michael Warren
As and, you know, I think the thing that kind of sticks out to me is, and I don’t mean this in a negative way, is the reluct of guests toot their own horn to talk about the good stuff they’ve done. I mean, in many cases, you almost have to drag it out of them because they’re so humble about what they’ve done, even though what they’ve done is incredibly good and brave and compassionate. I just enjoy people like that. 

14:03
Brent Hinson
Do you think it goes back to the fact that they join this profession, the law enforcement side at least, to serve, to give of themselves and toot their own horn or however you want to say it’s foreign to them because that’s not in their nature. 

14:18
Michael Warren
They’re living out the phrase, hey, I was just doing my job, even though in many cases it really wasn’t their job. No one signed on to get shot at to see the things that you did. It’s a part of the job. But you sign on to help people and you get these other things and they just do it so well. 

14:38
Aaron Bevill
Jamie Borden probably signed on to get shot at, but he was the only guy that I was like, he knew what he was getting into and he was like, bring it, let’s do this thing. 

14:47
Brent Hinson
That’s one of those episodes where I felt so honored that he would come on our podcast and recount stories that he’s never told to a mass audience before about his friendship with Neil Pert from Rush and some of the things that he did as far as on the musical side. So to have somebody do that, you just feel like, wow, we’re doing something special here. That people want to open up and. 

15:17
Michael Warren
Tell their stories but didn’t in that episode. And there were some others that I’ll talk about here, the stuff that they did that went beyond their responsibilities in law enforcement, getting equipment for the kid and that type thing. I go back to our guest from episode 48, Mandy Beesinger, and watching her throughout the year, the stuff that she’s done on behalf of Special Olympics. I mean, people who are investing in their community outside the job that no one hears about. 

15:48
Brent Hinson
Yeah, I wanted to mention a couple of know we mentioned Kim Schlau and obviously her work with the Jessica and Kelly, Memorial Foundation. But know, we worked with Officer Rick Mitchell with the Guns and Hoses Foundation of North Texas. That hockey tournament that they had, we had him on early in the year. And the thing that we try to do is even if somebody comes on to promote something that’s not going to happen for a couple of months, we double back and say, hey, your events this weekend, we’re going to promote it on our social media pages for you. We’re not just going to have somebody on and forget them. So I think that’s one of the things I’m most proud of. 

16:26
Michael Warren
Yeah, we’re not out there just for the quick hit. We’re investing in these people so that they can invest in others. And I think they appreciate it, but I think they also get a little bit embarrassed about it because they’re not doing it for the recognition, although they sure deserve it. 

16:42
Brent Hinson
We’ve touched on a lot of topics this year. I want to mention just a couple and kind of get your thoughts on the ones that have been most you know, we talked about Paul and Mandy Bezinger, married couple. They’re both in law enforcement. That was a unique situation. One of the earlier ones from the year, dr. Stephanie Zoltowski, law enforcement and the special needs community. We talked about mental health and PTSD. PTSI a lot. Michael Mariota was on with us earlier. Michael Segrew also reached out. We had him. And then sex trafficking, human trafficking, how eye opening that episode was with Heidi Chance. Any of those stand out to you, or were there others that you found particularly eye opening? 

17:26
Michael Warren
I want to talk about Heidi’s episode for a second when she talked about the story of when they took the teenage girl back in front of her house and was talking about, hey, listen, if you try and leave, I’m going to start shooting your family. Can you imagine what it must have been like for the family members when they heard that story, to realize how physically close she was and not know it, still not know where she was? Man, that piece right there really hit me. 

17:53
Aaron Bevill
You didn’t list it there. But one of the ones that I found really interesting was the Michael Cantrell episode, the prison episode, just because some of the things he was talking about as being like his first year. I’m like, wow, my job is way easier than it was a day ago, because holy cow. 

18:11
Brent Hinson
I think the quote was, I walked in the cell and my boot had blood up to the very top of it after an inmate suicide. And I’m like, a little crazy to. 

18:21
Aaron Bevill
Hear and how calmly he was recounting some of these stories. I was just like, wow, I don’t know. I was made for that. I definitely was not made for that. 

18:30
Michael Warren
Yeah, one of the ones that stood out, too, was a recent one, Officer Hodgson, after she was shot, when she talked about how her daughter got on her phone and was looking at the Life 360 and she could see her mom’s phone because her mom kept her cell phone going across in the Life flight. How does a teenager put that into perspective? 

18:51
Brent Hinson
Yeah. And the fact that I even told her in that episode that she’s raising an incredible daughter because she sat down with her daughter and said, listen, if you don’t want me to go back to this profession, I’ll call it quits right now. It’s my dream job, but I’ll call it quits. But her daughter, they sat and they talked amongst themselves, and she said, no, this is what you love to do. You go do it. And she’s continuing on. And when we thank her for her service, she’s SRO. And down in Arkansas and just an incredible story we got to air during Thanksgiving week. 

19:21
Aaron Bevill
She’s busting those kids about Dunkin’Donuts, bless her. 

19:26
Brent Hinson
We also did some crossover with other podcasters, which is always a great way for us to grow our network. I wanted to mention just a couple. You mentioned Michael Cantrell. He’s the host of the Prison Officer podcast. Jerry Williams from the FBI retired Case File Review. She was in episode 64. Jerry had some great stories to tell, and she was so complimentary to us before, during, and after the fact. And to hear that from someone involved in the FBI, I always take that as a source of pride, especially a. 

20:02
Michael Warren
Fellow podcaster who just recently had her 300th episode. 

20:05
Brent Hinson
That’s right. 

20:07
Michael Warren
You start talking in terms of 300, how many minutes has she produced? 

20:11
Aaron Bevill
Yeah, and she does it all by herself. That is, her things start to finish. 

20:17
Michael Warren
There’s at least three of us and writes books. 

20:21
Brent Hinson
I was going to mention overachiever Catherine Boyle, who as part of Life Lessons with the lt’s Daughter podcast she’s been on. I was going to mention this in a moment, but we’ve had a couple of guests this year that made multiple appearances, and we’ll talk about that in just a second. But of course, we have to mention The Elephant in the Room, the other podcast that was on our podcast, the one that we surprised you with. We had episode 50 coming up, and Aaron and I were trying to come up with an idea of who we should have on the podcast. And you were a big proponent of the left of Greg podcast. And so Aaron said, why don’t you reach out to those guys and see if they’d be interested? And they were so incredibly nice. 

21:06
Brent Hinson
And I think we probably could have recorded a four hour episode because you guys really got in the weeds and just love talking shop. 

21:15
Michael Warren
We could have made a Bethel seminar out of that podcast if given the chance there. And it’s funny you should bring that one up because I was going through the list of things and talking about the ones that I enjoyed the most and that sat atop of the episodes until I realized that we did one with my mom and my daughter. So contractually obligated to move them to the top of the list, which I did. Not only were they gracious that day, but they continued to be friends of this podcast. 

21:45
Brent Hinson
Exactly. 

21:46
Michael Warren
Again, people who are investing back in the just I can’t emphasize that enough. 

21:52
Brent Hinson
Greg Williams and Brian Marin are the two hosts of that podcast. And those guys, like you said, continually on social media. They’re always liking posts, sharing things, commenting, very supportive of our podcast, and we thank them for that. I want to double back something you said you did have your mother and your daughter on an episode this year. It was talking about balancing work life and home life. How weird was that for you. I don’t know if we really talked about it too much. And they were sitting in the room with you while you recorded it. So was it weird beforehand or after we finished recording you’re? Like, I felt uncomfortable. 

22:33
Michael Warren
They both were nervous coming on. It’s no big deal. It’s just a conversation. And they were nervous how they did. But I think one of the things not just that episode, but all the episodes, Brent, you do such a good job of setting things up at the beginning and putting people at ease so that it can be a conversation. It just makes it so much easier on me and on our guests, and you just seem to come through it naturally. And because of that, I think it just makes it better for everybody. Hopefully, it makes it better for our listeners. 

23:08
Brent Hinson
The best compliment I think we can get is when we finish recording and we hit stop, someone will say, that was a lot easier than I thought it was going to be. I thought this wasn’t hard at all. This was great because we want to take away all the fear and just make it us in a room, virtually, of course, just talking. I mean, that’s what we want to. 

23:30
Michael Warren
Mean, because one of my fears is I don’t want to come off sounding stupid. And we had Ross Swope on a guy who has done some amazing things during his career and post his career, and having a conversation with somebody like that is intimidating. But in that case, the guest put me at ease, really, another guy that has just been incredibly gracious before, during and post the episode, literally a giant in the law enforcement field. But it was a conversation. That’s all I can say. I thought it was a great conversation, but it was so much fun. 

24:06
Brent Hinson
We had some returning guests on the podcast this year. I mentioned earlier catherine Boyle. She was first on with her dad, Michael Boyle, in episode 63, and she came back in episode 78. Mike Rogers, as we refer to as our drone guy, he was a couple of times. He was actually on last year in episode 14 and then just recently in episode 81. Our good friend of the podcast, Joe Willis, he was in episode nine, but then we asked him to come back for our July 4 episode, which he was very honored to do, and that was episode 60. And we joke with Joe that he shares the same name as the goalkeeper for the Nashville Soccer Club, right? Yes. 

24:49
Aaron Bevill
Every time they’re playing, I always message you guys and Joe’s in Net tonight, joe Wilson is going to do it tonight. He didn’t get us to the playoffs, unfortunately. So, Joe, you got to fix that for you can come back on the show, but we’ll take what you can get. 

25:01
Brent Hinson
But one guy that came back and told a story and it was very timely that I was so thankful to have him back was Kyle Vo Winkle, because last year in 2022, he was a part of a two partepisode about the Midland City bunker hostage cris. That was episodes 20 and 21. And Aaron did a fantastic job of putting those episodes together, editing wise. And Kyle said, hey, I want to come back on and talk about the Boston Marathon bombing, because I was negotiator in that. I worked as a part of that. And there was a Netflix series out around the same time and he wasn’t mentioned in that Netflix series. So we got to hear his perspective. And I thought that was really interesting. 

25:45
Brent Hinson
And again, humbled the word that someone as high up as Kyle came back and told his story to us. 

25:52
Michael Warren
I was fortunate in July to be able to co teach a class with Kyle here in Michigan. The way he was with us on the podcast is the way he was in the classroom and he came over for dinner. Just an incredibly gracious and humble guy that has done stuff that I can’t even fathom. 

26:14
Brent Hinson
I just want to mention before we get into some of our favorite episodes of the year, just some of the guests on that we’ve had that have published books and mentioned their books, a NARC’s Tale. Keith Groundshall, who was just on recently about his years working undercover, he told an incredible story in his episode, FBI Myths and Misconceptions, of course. Jerry Williams, she has a number of fiction and non fiction books. David Schilling has the Jail Intelligence manual. And this is all about corrections in prisons. And this is something that didn’t get a chance to mention yet. But my mother in law worked for the sheriff’s department here in Omayan County, and my wife was going through her house the other day and found this book of symbols that you’re supposed to look for in the jail. 

27:03
Brent Hinson
And it was exactly the stuff that Dave was talking about in his episode. I’ve gotten a binder here and I just like, thumbed through it. It’s amazing, all the stuff like the gang signs and all the different things to look for. So that was a really eye opening episode too. 

27:16
Michael Warren
That one right there. I struggle with the English alphabet and the fact that the corrections folks have to learn more. They are obviously much more advanced than I am because I struggle with the English language. 

27:29
Brent Hinson
Just a couple more unjustifiable means. The inside story of how the CIA, Pentagon and US government conspired torture Mark Fallon. That was a big episode to have him on. Alsocompelling force leadership. How leaders can use their influence to effectively lead people with purpose and passion. Chief John Robinson, it’s great to have him on. He was a super big supporter of the podcast. And of course, we’ve mentioned Chip Hughes and the Arbinger Institute. The outward mindset. So we try to. Mention those books and all the ones that we’ve mentioned, you can find them in the episode page on our website at between the Linesofvirtualacademy.com for our listeners. 

28:08
Michael Warren
Real quick. Listen, with Christmas just having occurred and maybe you got some gift cards and you’re looking for something to buy, I highly encourage you won’t go wrong going to the episode notes and buying any of those books or if you’re so inclined, to all of those books. 

28:24
Aaron Bevill
I genuinely thought you were going to say, give us gift cards, buy us things. I did not think you were going. 

28:30
Michael Warren
In the direction, you know what I would be remiss left of Greg brian Mayer and Greg Williams, they released a textbook on the human behavior pattern recognition and analysis. And folks, I bought it. It truly is a master’s level book on human behavior. I’ve gone through and I’ve reread the first four chapters. I don’t want to move on until I have a solid grasp on those. 

28:56
Brent Hinson
I do want to mention before we get into our top episodes of the year, the episode that had a surprising amount of downloads that I did not expect to see coming, and that was episode 73, Yoga Rescue with Vance Rowe. I thought people would see an episode about yoga and they’d say, not for me. But we started to see the downloads come in that day and it really blew me away at how popular that episode was. 

29:24
Michael Warren
I like to think it’s because people, when they saw the title, they thought that they would get to see you and I wearing yoga pants. And they may have been disappointed that it didn’t happen, but no, Vance, the work that he’s doing again, giving back this change, helping others so that they don’t have bad experiences, I think is just so humble and serving. 

29:47
Brent Hinson
I do want to mention Aaron and I will sit for sometimes hours on end trying to come up with the perfect title for the episode or writing up the episode description. Sometimes I think we overthink it, but we want to have something out there that’s attractive to people when they go to download these episodes and we hope we’re doing a good job. 

30:08
Michael Warren
Attractive episodes. Hence the reason why there weren’t pictures of you and I wearing yoga pants. 

30:12
Aaron Bevill
I think on that episode I wanted to go with tactical yoga and got shot down. 

30:16
Brent Hinson
I do want to mention just quickly that Aaron has taken on an increased responsibility with the podcast. And how is that for you? Because I know you had a certain role and then you’ve taken on doing some more scheduling and booking of guests and that’s kind of a little bit out of your comfort zone, but you’ve really managed to keep this thing going and being the driving force behind it. 

30:40
Aaron Bevill
I’m Mike’s secretary. That’s really what oh, my goodness. That’s what it feels like, glorified secretary. 

30:47
Michael Warren
If that doesn’t show how low budget we are. I don’t know why. 

30:52
Aaron Bevill
I tell you, the thing that I learned really quickly and had a lot of respect for you now, Brent, is when you were doing this, I didn’t realize we’re having to work with so many different time zones because we’re in the central time zone. Mike is in Eastern time zone. A lot of times a guest will be in Pacific or Mountain or somewhere else trying to get times all correct. And look, I may have messed one or two up, but for the most part, these end up being correct. It’s hard. 

31:21
Brent Hinson
I got a text from Aaron one time that said we’re going to be recording at 10:00 A.m. Tomorrow. And then like 20 minutes later, it’s like, oops, I got the time zone wrong. That’s 08:00 in the morning. 

31:31
Aaron Bevill
I actually did that today with a gentleman on the phone. I was like, all right, that’s one piece. No, that’s ten. So I had to pull it out. So, you know what you learn on the job here. I am the best we can afford, and that’s what we got with but if nothing else, we’ve constantly said on this podcast that you have to keep learning, you have to keep expanding. So this is definitely the challenge that was laid before me. I’m an engineer, so I like being in the background. I like editing and producing and making things good. So having to interact with human beings sometimes a little rough. 

32:02
Brent Hinson
Little rough, yeah. All right, well, you can mention as many as you want, but I’ve got top three of my favorite episodes of the year, but I’ll start with whoever wants to go first of what your favorite episodes of the year are. Mike, Aaron, whoever wants to go first. 

32:20
Michael Warren
Go ahead, Aaron. 

32:21
Aaron Bevill
I think the big ones. It was really fun. Episode 50. Getting that and trying to keep that from Mike and his reaction when we told him was really fun. I think we did it during a video chat on a meeting and he was just like, cool. And I knew down underneath his desk he was freaking out, so that was really fun. And to see you interact with them the first time was like me getting to meet D Ray Vaughn or something, like kind of it was fun. You guys immediately just became like nerd friends and that was fun to see. 

32:51
Brent Hinson
As just it’s like stepbrothers did we just become best friends? 

32:55
Aaron Bevill
Just immediately making jokes about the army and you guys all needed to be friends anyway, so I’m glad we could make that happen. 

33:02
Michael Warren
I appreciate that. 

33:03
Aaron Bevill
Incredibly supportive, I have to say. Having Kyle Volwinkle come back to us and ask us if he can tell that story, it was an amazing story. It’s definitely one of my favorite. It was episode 53 and 54, and for me as an editor, getting to put that together and put a little extra stuff into it, that’s always a really creative fun. So I enjoyed the VR episode that we did with Stuart Roadheaver just because it was something out of our wheelhouse, it was something out of our lane, but it is something that is coming in the future. And I think that any of those episodes like we just did with Mike Rogers as drones, as a first responder, that and VR are both things that I’m very interested in. 

33:44
Aaron Bevill
So when we get to do those geeky episodes, it’s a good time for me so I can weigh in a little bit. I think my favorite episode was surprisingly, was 74 with Jamie Borden. Just hearing him as a musician, hearing him talk about somebody that he respected as much as Neil Pirked, hopefully we’re saying that, right? Jamie hearing him talk about that as becoming a good friend of somebody and how he doesn’t just throw that out there, how we kind of had to pull it out of him, how telling those old stories that he thought everybody had forgotten, that was just really neat episode to see. And then also, he’s just a solid dude, man. He is just a down to earth dude that is going to tell you the way it is. 

34:27
Brent Hinson
I think that’s purpose is to show that law enforcement, cops, police, however you want to say, they’re people, they’re trying to show the human side. That’s the purpose. And I think that’s a perfect example. Mike, what you got? 

34:39
Michael Warren
I will say that I’m not going to choose a specific episode on this topic, but I really enjoyed the correction stuff we did this year. 

34:46
Aaron Bevill
Yeah. 

34:47
Michael Warren
Because it really opened a new door, in this case a cell door into a world that I knew nothing about. Learning about that. It was just fascinating to me, and I hope that we get more of that because I think there’s still a lot we don’t know. Again, favorite episode, my mom and my daughter, Sarah and Mara. Okay, throw it out there. But I did enjoy that because it was enjoyable watching my mom when she talked about my grandpa and then seeing my daughter recognize things, you know what I mean? So I really enjoyed that left of Greg. Enough said. I’ve got the bumper sticker, if that tells anybody anything, how much I enjoyed the thing there. And I will echo what Aaron said. Kyle Vowwinkle, just an incredibly given guy that did amazing things. 

35:37
Michael Warren
I struggle not to call him again and say, hey, Kyle, we’d love to have you back, but Kyle, we’d love to have you back. 

35:42
Aaron Bevill
Just there’s any other crazy scenario that you walked yourself through? Come on, we’d love to hear about it. Because every time I think I’ve accomplished something, I think about Kyle Volinkle and I think, well, I got a bit to go, a little bit to go. 

35:58
Brent Hinson
I’ve got my top three and then I’ve got an honorable mention. Two of them are non lawenforcement and that know, Kim Schlau’s story just touched you on just an incredible level. And then, of course, Max Schachter and his story. Again, as parents, as a parent myself, it was really hard to listen to that. But we applaud their efforts to raise awareness. Chip Hugh as his story and the way that he told it. I made my wife listen to it. I said, listen to Chip. Chip’sgot some great advice and another guy, another episode that I told her to listen to because these episodes are for law enforcement, but you get a lot out of it even if you’re not in law enforcement. And that is Chief Richard Jessup. That man spoke the gospel in episode 58. 

36:45
Brent Hinson
I enjoyed the heck out of that guy, and I hope we can have him back sometime. 

36:49
Michael Warren
I love Chief. 

36:49
Brent Hinson
So as we come up on 2024, we have really delved into a lot of topics this year. Where do we want to go for the upcoming year? What are the types of things that you want to what types of guests do you want to get on? What should we be talking about? 

37:05
Michael Warren
I wish we’d get more from the fireside. There’s so much that goes on behind the scenes with those folks. I don’t know why you’ve jokingly called. 

37:16
Brent Hinson
Them hose jockeys so much. 

37:17
Michael Warren
That hose jockeys second responders. Listen, it’s all in good fun. Take our pillows to work. The truth of the matter is it’s a public safety team. And so along that same theme, I would love to get more from our dispatch centers. The first 1st responders. I think that right there so that we can see the entire picture. It really does illuminate it for us. 

37:42
Brent Hinson
Aaron, anything that we haven’t really delved into yet that you’re kind of looking forward to? I mean, you’re the guy that’s booking the guest, so I guess you have a say in this. 

37:51
Aaron Bevill
Yeah, I think there’s some interesting stories coming up just from some people that we have in the hopper that we’re talking to. Still love the story based episodes. That’s what made me want to do this podcast in the beginning. Really think that there are so many people and we’ve maybe talked about Kyle, but there are so many people that have these amazing stories that never get heard by the general public and who never really realize what goes into this profession. And it’s so crazy to hear them sit down and talk about it like it’s just another day. And you’re like, this is way more than I could have ever dealt with. And to them, it’s just a Monday. And I think that’s fascinating. 

38:29
Aaron Bevill
I think that’s what I wanted to come out of this podcast was to people to hear that and then to realize, I think we’ve talked about quite a bit how much baggage goes along with that lifestyle. I don’t think the general public realizes that how much it takes to do something like this and how much it’s going to affect you and your family for the rest of your life. 

38:50
Brent Hinson
I didn’t know what choir practice was until we started doing this podcast that was new to justI knew that. 

38:56
Aaron Bevill
Term from working with police. It’s fun. There’s, like, all the lingo, and half the time I’m like, Mike, what does that mean? 

39:05
Brent Hinson
But it’s like Jamie Borden said in his and one of the things I want to talk about more is police and community relations. And I said something to him like, is that the exception or is the rule in regards to him helping some kids? And he’s like, you know what? That happens more than gets reported on. And so that’s the kind of stuff that I want us to continue to highlight, is the law enforcement first response and community relations. That’s and sometimes we hear the bad stuff, but we don’t hear the good stuff, because the good stuff isn’t attractive to listen to. I guess we want to hear the dirt instead, but we want to hear those good stories of how people are changing lives in their communities. 

39:47
Michael Warren
And it doesn’t have to be a press release moment. Jamie, he talked about carrying around a case of water in the trunk of his car for the homeless folks because he wanted to make sure that they were getting something good to drink, those little things like that. To me and you, somebody brought us a bottle of water. I’m good. But to others, it makes a big difference. And that’s exactly what I’m looking for from our people out there. 

40:13
Brent Hinson
Well, I get to say it this time as we’re wrapping up here. 

40:16
Michael Warren
There you go. 

40:17
Brent Hinson
On this episode, I want to thank Mike for leading the conversation. You do a fantastic job, and not only that, but you’re on the road a majority of the time of the year, and we schedule these when you’re at home. And so when you’re tired coming off the road, here you are setting up a microphone, recording a podcast. So we thank you for that because you’ve really done a fantastic job leading us through this year. 

40:41
Michael Warren
I want to thank you guys for making it so easy. Brent, you do put me at ease. Aaron, thank you for your vision. In fact, I had written down here, has this turned into what you thought it would know when you were thinking about this thing? Is it meeting your expectations? 

40:56
Aaron Bevill
It is. And the thing that I’ve loved this year and I hope continues, and I’m saying this not as the person who books people for the show, but people are starting to reach out to us, and that’s been a huge win for me. That’s what I hoped. I hope that this could inspire people enough to want to tell their version of the story, that they would actually reach out to us and weren’t having to go out and find guests every week. That’s starting to happen. We’re starting to see the fruits of that labor. So I’m very excited about that. Like I said, if people that comment on these episodes, that means so much to us, I cannot stress enough how excited we are and we share it with each other. Like, little dorks we’re like, Dude, look up. 

41:35
Aaron Bevill
They said this, they said this, and so that. And then also people enjoying the swag, the merchandise that we’re sending them. I appreciate that. It’s the smallest thing we could give somebody to give us the time to tell these stories. It’s so great. 

41:48
Brent Hinson
Just a quick caveat there. If you’re a previous guest and you haven’t received swag, we’re working on that. We’re only working. Yeah, we’ve got a little gift basket that we sent out. And then what’s really cool is when our guests will tweet out a picture or send something on Facebook showing their gift basket and how cool it is to have that. 

42:05
Michael Warren
And Brent, you were talking about being on the road. One of the things that’s really been fun this year is going to the different conferences and then running into previous guests. It’s such a joy meeting these friends in person somewhere else outside the context. It really has been a highlight of the year for me. 

42:22
Aaron Bevill
It’s been nice having, like, we’ve built this little network of friends through between the Lines, and so as we see things either on social media or see them at different venues, it’s like a little between the Lines family, and that’s really cool. I’m glad that were able to foster and build that. 

42:38
Brent Hinson
One final thing that I learned this year, and it came early. Tony Taylor informed us that there are drive through funeral homes. I was unaware of that at the time. I mean, we found that out as officially. 

42:49
Aaron Bevill
Once he goes, I applaud their efforts. 

42:52
Michael Warren
One of the best stories of the year. Now Radio, we’re all set. 

43:01
Brent Hinson
We’ve touched on a lot of the episodes that we recorded this year and published. If we didn’t mention your episode, it didn’t mean we didn’t enjoy it. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover in a short amount of time. We appreciate every single guest that comes on and everyone that downloads an episode or leaves a comment. We thank you. Thank you to Dr. Nasar for allowing us the platform to put this podcast out, because I think we are building a relationship with the law enforcement community and beyond. I think we’re doing a good thing here, and we want to continue to do that. We’ve mentioned a ton of episodes in this particular year end. Wrap up if you want to go back and revisit some of those. If maybe we’ve piqued your interest. We’ve got them all available. They’re on our website. 

43:43
Brent Hinson
Between the lines with virtualacademy.com. You can also find them across all podcasting platforms. And like Aaron mentioned, reach out to us. If you’ve got a story you want to share, we’ve got a place there on our website that you can contact us. And again, you’ll find us on social media. You can reach out through Instagram, Facebook, however you want to do it. And we’ll do our best to get you scheduled so you can tell your story. Don’t.