Stories From the Road: First Responder Stories
Camaraderie. Courage. Commitment. Join host and former firefighter/paramedic Phil Klein as he delves into the heroic and heartbreaking stories told directly by the men and women who work the front lines every day. Whether you’re a first responder or simply interested in the lives of first responders, Stories From the Road presents a captivating, weekly perspective into the unique world of public service as only those who have experienced it can share.
Episodes
65 episodes
Former Deputy Bridget - "Harassment"
“I never reported the things that were happening to me. I wanted so bad for people to respect me as a deputy sheriff, as an operator, as a narcotics investigator, and I realized that it was just not gonna happen.” – Former Deputy Bridg...
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Season 6
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Episode 10
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29:53
PFC Murph - "Leaving the Job Behind"
“I made the conscious decision that I wanted to put my family first, and that is – it’s so important in our profession that you do that, because you need to give your best at home and, you know, do your best to leave work at work, because y...
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Season 6
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Episode 9
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27:03
Coordinator Mindy - "The Derecho"
“And the instant thought I had was, ‘I hope we don’t have catastrophic injuries. I hope we don’t have any deaths, because we are now on an island. The people to the west of us are being hit by this, people to the east of us are gonna be hit...
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Season 6
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Episode 8
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28:40
CO Wayne - "Career Ending"
“It was a hard pill to swallow. And […] it was one of these deals that if you was gonna retire, you know, you got that retirement date, you go have your little retirement party and everybody pats you on the back. You get that proverbial gol...
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Season 6
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Episode 7
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21:31
Captain Kara - "Fire and Life Safety"
“I don’t care how long anybody has been doing this – when you hear that, it just creates something in you that is almost a feral response. You know, I don’t think that it’s something that you can even control – even if you are the most calm...
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Season 6
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Episode 6
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38:31
Paramedic Josh - "Eleven Patients and No Help"
“You know we asked – I asked – ‘Hey, if you can send anybody from that other service we can get some mutual aid, and then if you can clear anybody out [of] the hospital, we have multiple children kind of on the ground ejected from a vehicle...
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Season 6
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Episode 5
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28:49
Firefighter Wendi - "Representation"
"In 2023, less than five percent of career firefighters are female. Despite all the efforts that we put in to make the fire service more diverse, we’re still at that. That’s only a one percent increase in the last 10 years. That’s not very ...
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Season 6
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Episode 4
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26:51
Dr. Campsey - "Recovery"
“So, I never complain about anything anymore. I’m not sure I was really much of a complainer to begin with, but I don’t complain at all. I’m willing to roll with the punches with change. I am trying to create. I don’t feel like I’m the most...
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Season 6
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Episode 3
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26:32
Sgt. Jason - "Reunification"
“So, upon my arrival on that day, I stopped in the middle of a five-lane road and said, ‘This looks like a good place to be. I’m gonna stay here.’ I walked in to find uniforms, matching of mine, looking for command to say, ‘This is what we ...
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Season 6
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Episode 2
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35:00
Cop Shrink Deana - "Boundaries"
“. . .but it was the moment that I recognized I am not taking care of myself. I’m not taking care of my daughter. [...] I’m serving the population I wanna serve, but I’m doing it in a way that’s hurting me and hurting my relationships.”
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Season 6
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Episode 1
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30:43
Detective Vic - "Chaos Continued"
“They hit him with that Narcan, Mr. Blount jumped up like, it was like a Halloween thing. The guy jumped up on the %*^# gurney and is throwing — he’s in withdraw — and he’s throwing up against the side of the wall like a fire hose.&nb...
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Season 5
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Episode 10
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37:14
Officer Jay - "A Claymore Mine, a Herd of Goats, and a Fire"
"Like with first responders: 'Oh, what was the craziest call you've been on?' Like we don't wanna talk about that. We want to tell the fun stories. We want to tell, ‘Oh, this one day this happened, and it was funny!' Where I think a lot of ...
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Season 5
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Episode 9
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25:21
Chief Linda - "Mayday"
“This is all right at the beginning of fire season, and my symptoms really escalated from that point on. I started being paranoid, a startle response, it was crazy. I thought I was going crazy.” - Chief LindaThe mid...
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Season 5
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Episode 8
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39:01
Ret. Sgt. Michael - "Relentless Courage"
“Seconds later, a male subject partially came out at the top of the stairwell. He was sweating profusely; his eyes were wide open with this glazed look literally staring straight through us. And at this point we’re yelling, ‘Show us y...
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Season 5
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Episode 7
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32:50
Paramedic Kevin - "At the Bottom of the Bottle"
“For a while there, that was my crutch. I just, I kept going back to the bar and I was reliving that call — at night, during the day – just trying to figure out what happened. What could I have done? What should we have done? Could we ...
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Season 5
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Episode 6
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25:44
Detective Vic - "Car Thieves and Chaos"
“While I’m sitting in this Dodge Caravan, a four-seven precinct van drives by and they give me – we call it the hairy eyebrow – like they give you a dirty look and I’m like %@#*! If they run the plate on this car and it comes back sto...
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Season 5
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Episode 5
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32:03
Flight Nurse Katie - “I Worked Hard for This”
“I look at the EMT, and I’m trying to stay as calm as possible, because panic is probably the most contagious thing out there – I will argue that panic is the most contagious thing out there [...]. And I just look at him and say, ‘Hey, as s...
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Season 5
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Episode 4
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28:00
Paramedic Nick - "Since I Walked Away"
“I remember shutting my locker door and then my intuition, my gut instinct, was that was the last time I was going to shut my locker, and I had this like really uneasy feeling of, ‘Ooh, that was really weird. Why did I think that?’ Because ...
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Season 5
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Episode 3
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27:20
Paramedic Alexis - "Flowers"
“We meet so many people in a single shift and, after a while, it does accumulate, but we may be the only first responders someone sees, let alone the last person they see or the last voice they hear on this earth.” - Paramedic Alexis <...
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Season 5
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Episode 2
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19:52
Chief Scott - "Three Weeks, Three New Babies"
“It was a really unique situation because this girl was actually carrying – as a surrogate – the baby for her sister who couldn’t have children, so this was like a super important pregnancy. It had to succeed.” - Chie...
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Season 5
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Episode 1
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26:58
Chief David - "Years of Trauma"
“You’re supposed to be the person that shows up and makes things better, and it’s pretty hard to make things better if you’re struggling yourself.” – Chief DavidFirst responders’ coping mechanisms are often instituted over years...
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Season 4
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Episode 10
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33:05
Officer Jay - "Healing"
“It was a couple years at this point, where it’s really affecting me. I was in denial about PTSD, and I was like oh well, I was a marine, I was in combat in Afghanistan. Alright, this is basically, you know, combat in New Jersey.” ...
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Season 4
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Episode 9
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28:54
Firefighter Paul - "100 Year Flood"
“We had to climb over – there was all kinds of debris – we had to climb over what I thought was a desk, and then we came across that, it may have been a pallet full of building materials somewhere along the lines, and when a Coke machine we...
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Season 4
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Episode 8
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22:58
Ret. FF/EMT Keith - "Purpose"
“And it feels good because when I left the job, I really kinda lost my identity for a while, and I felt like I wasn’t able to help people. And lately, especially, I’ve sort of gotten some of that back, where I’m giving back to the com...
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Season 4
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Episode 7
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27:20
Chief Scott - "The Iron Worker"
“I told her it wasn’t me, you know, it was me with a team, and that’s what always happens. And I think people need to realize that it’s not always about the guy or the girl [...] who may be at the head performing the intubation, or giving t...
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Season 4
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Episode 6
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28:33