Text a Message to the Show Today we're talking to Jim Bontrager. Jim is a police chaplain in Elkhart, Indiana, but he is also the president of the International Conference of Police Chaplains. I got closer to attending the annual training seminar of the ICPC, I thought I'd ask the guy in charge if he had anything he wanted to share. And boy did he! Like a lot of chaplains, JIm is passionate about the well-being of cops and he jumped at the chance to talk about how a police officer finds his or h...
Jun 30, 2025•35 min
Text a Message to the Show In this episode we're listening to a portion of a podcast episode where podcaster and police officer Chad Campese interviewed Jared Altic. This part of Chad's episode focuses on the stress that first responders endure and how a chaplain's understanding of philosophy, psychology, and theology contributes to officer wellness. Music is by Wes Hutchinson Hey Chaplain podcast Bonus Episode 43 Tags : Chaplaincy, Design, God, Meaning, Philosophy, Police, Psychology, Purpose, ...
Jun 23, 2025•49 min
Text a Message to the Show In Kansas City, Kansas we had 4 officers murdered in three separate events in the span of just two years. Two from the police department and two from the Wyandotte County Sheriffs Office. Captain Stephen Smith, a returning guest and friend of the show, had a connection to all four and was on scene when the two deputies were killed. We're going to hear him recount that day and then we'll hear from Steve's adult daughter, Taylor Hubbard, to get her perspective on what a ...
Jun 16, 2025•43 min
Text a Message to the Show Today we are returning to our conversation about self-doubt and imposter syndrome with Tim Eggebraaten. In this part of the conversation we're moving into areas of leadership and encouragement. Tim was a police chief in Minnesota and we'll discuss how NOT to reprimand an officer and what role awards and award ceremonies play in how an officer may feel about him or herself. Resources : Tim's previous episodes include Episodes 053, 077, 077.5, and Bonus Ep 33. Tim's webs...
Jun 09, 2025•28 min
Text a Message to the Show One of the most commented on and most frequently requested guests we've ever had on Hey Chaplain is Tim Eggebraaten. In fact whenever someone says, "I really liked the one guy but I can't remember his name," my first guess Tim Eggebraaten and I'm almost always right. This actually happened again just the other day. I love Tim's particular brand of introspection looking back at his time as a police officer in Minnesota and today I brought him in to talk about self-doubt...
Jun 02, 2025•22 min
Text a Message to the Show START HERE: Welcome to the fifth year of Hey Chaplain, the police wellness podcast. Music is by Chris Haugen Hey Chaplain Episode 000.5 Support the show Thanks for Listening! And, as always, pray for peace in our city. Subscribe/Follow here : Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hey-chaplain/id1570155168 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2CGK9A3BmbFEUEnx3fYZOY Email us at: heychaplain44@gmail.com You can help keep the show ad-free by buying me a v...
Jun 02, 2025•7 min
Text a Message to the Show This episode marks our fourth anniversary and I wanted to go back and do follow ups and business checks, checking in on some of our past guests to get updates. In this episode we get an update from Vinnie Montez, Compassion Alliance, recently retired detective Stuart Littlefield and previously unaired excerpts from recent guests Kelly Enos and Joe Smarro. Links and resources : Vinnie Montez - Ep 092: https://vinniemontez.com John Little, Compassion Alliance - Ep 078: h...
May 26, 2025•37 min
Text a Message to the Show Today's guest is chaplain Mark Femmel. Mark is a friend of mine who is a chaplain in St Louis, Missouri. I brought Mark on today because he's a kindred spirit and I know he has a lot of great experience to share. Today we're talking about chaplaincy generally and how it's the same and different between St Louis and Kansas City. We're also talking about the trauma police endure when confronted with innocent victims like children and animals. Music is by Chris Haugen and...
May 19, 2025•42 min
Text a Message to the Show This is both our annual salute to mothers in the law enforcement family and also another episode on the Concerns of Police Survivors (COPS). Cheryl Railsback is the surviving mother of Deputy Shane Detwiler, EOW July 13, 2009. Her story of loss, grief, and her path back to helping others is a story you need to hear. Concerns of Police Survivors website: https://www.concernsofpolicesurvivors.org Music is by the Westerlies Hey Chaplain Podcast Bonus Episode 41 Tags : Con...
May 12, 2025•36 min
Text a Message to the Show Today's episode should probably have a sensitive content warning but it would take me too long to list all the ways our guest might upset you… and frankly the reason I brought this guy on the show was to hit every sensitive topic he could and then drop a truth bomb on us… so… our guest today is Joe Smarro. You might recognize him from the award winning HBO documentary Ernie & Joe: Crisis Cops . This documentary and Joe's work at the San Antonio Police Department ha...
May 05, 2025•46 min
Text a Message to the Show It's mailbag time! Use the link above to leave a comment or a question and we might use it on a future show! Music is by LesFM Hey Chaplain Update Episode 2Q 2025 Tags : Mailbag, Chaplaincy, COVID, Debriefs, Fire, Internal Affairs, Isolation, Police, Relationships, Suicide, Update, Wellness, Kansas City Support the show Thanks for Listening! And, as always, pray for peace in our city. Subscribe/Follow here : Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hey-cha...
Apr 28, 2025•23 min
Text a Message to the Show Today our guest is Kelly Enos and he's here to talk about making a successful career change from law enforcement to teaching criminal justice and police science at the college or university. Kelly made that very career change unexpectedly less than ten years into his career but he found success in academics as his second chapter and he wants to share with you how to make that change. I don't know if teaching in the local community college is in your future, but I do ho...
Apr 21, 2025•33 min
Text a Message to the Show This is the second part of our story of Detective Dana Gouge , who handcuffed the BTK serial killer, Dennis Rader . If you haven't heard part one which told the story of a narcissistic serial killer who couldn't stop talking… then what are you doing?! Go back and listen to Ep 110 right now! We left off with Detective Gouge putting the handcuffs on Dennis Rader before the task force took him to be interviewed. Dana is going to tell us a bit about those interviews but wh...
Apr 14, 2025•31 min
Text a Message to the Show Today is a crime history episode on the BTK serial killer, Dennis Rader . Rader is known to have committed at least ten murders between 1974 and 1991, communicating with the media about his crimes but not getting caught. He called himself BTK, for "bind, torture, kill," and had disappeared for 13 years when suddenly he began communicating with the media and the police again. This is the story of how he got caught. My guest today is Dana Gouge , who was a homicide detec...
Apr 07, 2025•37 min
Text a Message to the Show Today we are talking about the hotline for police officers called COPLINE. COPLINE provides 24/7 confidential services to active and retired law enforcement officers and their loved ones. Today's guest is Carmine Czapla, who is a veteran and a retired cop, and is one of the active listeners on the other end of that life-saving phone call. In this episode Carmine, who goes by the nickname Chops, talks about the calls he receives and the why serving in this way is so imp...
Mar 31, 2025•32 min
Text a Message to the Show This is your Quick Guide to Bagpipe Tunes. I'm anticipating that there will be two distinct camps among my listeners, those who love bagpipes and those who don't yet. But please give this a chance. First, this is fairly short, and there's not a single tune here that lasts more than 2 minutes. Second, I really do understand. I'm not naturally drawn to this music, I had to be invested in it first, through my chaplaincy work with the police department and through my minis...
Mar 24, 2025•20 min
Text a Message to the Show Today we have a returning guest, Jim HIggins. Jim plays the bagpipes and teaches police officers and firefighters to play the bagpipes for our ceremonies and parades. Jim often plays with them and is obviously an accomplished musician and expert in all things bagpipes related. I was pleased to get Jim to come in and talk to me about the bagpipes, the tunes that they play, and the police ceremonies, parades, and funerals that he participates in. Resources : Jim's previo...
Mar 17, 2025•41 min
Text a Message to the Show On Today's episode we are continuing our conversation with retired DEA agent Todd Hixson. If you haven't listened to part one, episode 107, then stop this episode and go listen to that right now! Today Todd is going to talk about his career and some of his travels, or at least the parts he's allowed to talk about. But just like in part 1 where we talked about going Fed, this week he's going to also talk to us about retiring from a a federal agent job. Music is by LesFM...
Mar 10, 2025•30 min
Text a Message to the Show On Today's episode we're talking to retired DEA agent Todd Hixson. Todd has a tremendous wealth of experience as a DEA agent and we're definitely going to hear some of those stories, working both domestically and on foreign assignment. But I'm going to split this interview into two parts that are both really compelling. First, we have the pros and cons of going Fed and how Todd navigated the DEA both for himself and his family. On the next episode we'll have the other ...
Mar 03, 2025•27 min
Text a Message to the Show Today we have part two of our conversation with a medically retired police officer from the United Kingdom, Ken Anderson. After a brief recap of the life-saving encounter he had on an edge of cliff in the moment before he would take his own life, we'll rejoin the conversation with Ken and talk about the aftermath and his new mission to de-stygmatize the conversation about mental health. This episode contains discussion of depression that leads to a suicide attempt. Lis...
Feb 24, 2025•25 min
Text a Message to the Show Today we're talking to a medically retired police officer from the United Kingdom named Ken Anderson. Ken was a patrol officer, an instructor, and also a firearms officer in Leeds, England. But an accident on the job set him down a path that would eventually lead to him standing on a sea cliff, ready to end his life by throwing himself over the edge. In part one, we're going to get to know Ken, talk about his career, the accident, and the attempt to take his life. In p...
Feb 17, 2025•34 min
Text a Message to the Show It's mailbag time! Use the link above to leave a comment or a question and we might use it on a future show! Music is by PineApple Music Hey Chaplain Update Episode 1Q 2025 Tags : Chaplaincy, Bible College, Chaplains, Clinical Pastoral Education, CPE, Education, Law Enforcement, Mail, Preparation, Seminary, Theology, Training, Kansas City, Kansas Support the show Thanks for Listening! And, as always, pray for peace in our city. Subscribe/Follow here : Apple Podcasts: h...
Feb 10, 2025•20 min
Text a Message to the Show Today we're talking to Anthony Baumgart; he's a former local and state level narcotics agent who worked in California. Tony had almost 30 years in law enforcement, but when it came for his last day at work, he experienced a failure in leadership that sometimes happens in law enforcement. You risk your life and give decades of hard work, only to be shown the door… almost like they're glad to be rid of you. Today we talk about working at a state agency that's being close...
Feb 03, 2025•33 min
Text a Message to the Show Today we're talking again to Deborah Green; she was a California dispatcher for almost 30 years and in Part 1 of this interview she told about how she dispatched her deputies to a middle of the night call at a marijuana grow in the forests of California where they were ambushed by drug cartel gunmen. Make sure you go listen to Part 1 to hear how it all went down. In this second part of the interview we will look at the aftermath of the shooting and what the fallout was...
Jan 27, 2025•28 min
Text a Message to the Show Today we're talking to Deborah Green; she was a California dispatcher for almost 30 years and has a compelling story to tell. She dispatched her deputies to a middle of the night call at a marijuana grow in the forests of California where they were ambushed by drug cartel gunmen. The story itself is remarkable but I wanted you to hear this one because it's told from the point of view of the dispatcher. In part two of the interview we will look at the aftermath of the s...
Jan 20, 2025•29 min
Text a Message to the Show On this special Bonus Episode we are revisiting the interviews I did last fall with three sergeants from the department that I serve. They collectively have 70 years of combined service and every time I asked another question, they just kept dropping more wisdom that I knew you'd want to hear. The officers interviewed are Master Sgt Angie Joyce, Senior Sgt Paul Simonich, and Senior Sgt Kyle Hickerson. Part 1 of this interview was Bonus Episode 38 in November 2024. Musi...
Jan 13, 2025•23 min
Text a Message to the Show On today's episode we are talking to an Army doctor, Colonel Skip Mondragon. The good doctor is a championship wrestler, a combat veteran, a medical doctor, and also a man who has battled depression. It has become the Colonel's mission to help tough guys ask for help, something that he struggled with first hand and so he knows what he's talking about. We are going to talk about depression, Adverse Childhood Experiences, running a hospital in a combat zone, and what a y...
Jan 06, 2025•29 min
Text a Message to the Show A special guest host interviews Chaplain Altic to recap the year! Police Major Joe Grasela joins Jared to give us a recap of their favorite moments from the 2024 Hey Chaplain episodes. Listen in to find out what were the most noteworthy episodes of the year; also included are the top 10 listener countries and cities. And don't miss a sneak peek of what topics and interviews will be coming down the pike in 2025 and beyond! Episodes directly referenced in the show : Paul...
Dec 30, 2024•40 min
Text a Message to the Show This is just a quick Christmas update to read a few reviews of the show, encourage you to write your own, and share a quick Christmas greeting. Guest host Kaleb Sackett joins Chaplain Altic again to help us out and this time Kaleb is sharing a greeting he wrote. Music is by Kevin MacLeod Hey Chaplain Update Q4 2024 Tags : Christmas, Chaplaincy, Family, Goodness, Parenting, Patrol, Podcasting, Police, Prayer, Ratings, Support, Virtue, Writing, Kansas City, Kansas Suppor...
Dec 23, 2024•17 min
Text a Message to the Show Today we're talking about technology! Drones, Artificial Intelligence, Body Worn Cameras and more are proliferating through police departments at a rapid rate and I find the whole topic just fascinating. So our guest for this episode is Captain Richard Breshears who is the captain over the technology unit in a police department here in the Kansas City metro area. We get to hear from him what cool things technology is doing in law enforcement and where it may go in the ...
Dec 16, 2024•27 min
