Send us Fan Mail In this Season 3 wrap-up episode of After the Tones Drop, Cinnamon steps away from guest interviews and clinical deep dives for a different kind of conversation: a check-in, a pause, and a summer sign-off. After a full season of powerful conversations, travel, trainings, conferences, client work, and writing, Cinnamon is taking a summer sabbatical from the podcast. This break is not because something terrible happened. Cinnamon talks honestly about burno...
Jun 3
30 min
Send us Fan Mail In this solo episode of After the Tones Drop, Cinnamon takes a detour through Sons of Anarchy, Better Call Saul, childhood bullying, and first responder trauma to explain something that finally gave language to one of her own reactions: justice sensitivity. Justice sensitivity is not about being dramatic, difficult, or unable to “let things go.” It is the way some nervous systems react intensely to unfairness, betrayal, hypocrisy, selective accountability, and abuse of power....
May 27
27 min
Send us Fan Mail In Episode 158 of After the Tones Drop, Cinnamon sits down with Katherine Boyle, founder of Beyond the Uniform with The LT’s Daughter, for a conversation about first responder families, law enforcement kids, parenting, values, and what it means to be present at home while serving in a demanding career. Katherine grew up as the daughter of a Philadelphia police lieutenant, and unlike many stories we hear in the first responder world, her childhood was protected, grounded, and ...
May 20
1 hr 11 min
Send us Fan Mail In this episode of After the Tones Drop, Cinnamon sits down with Ron Clark of Protecting the Guardian for a conversation that feels like a history lesson, a warning, and a call to action all at once. Ron has spent decades in and around law enforcement, nursing, peer support, employee assistance, suicide prevention, and first responder wellness. He has seen the evolution of this work from the days when officers were expected to experience trauma, say nothing, and go right back...
May 13
1 hr 28 min
Send us Fan Mail Retired Las Vegas Police Captain Josh Bitsko spent 24 years in law enforcement and was one of the responding officers who breached the suspected shooter’s door during the 2017 Mandalay Bay mass shooting. In this episode of After the Tones Drop, Josh sits down with Cinnamon to talk about what happens when a critical incident does not end when the scene is cleared. Josh shares what it was like to respond to one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history, the emotional fall...
May 6
1 hr 6 min
Send us Fan Mail In this solocast, Cinnamon responds to a listener who asked a question a lot of people are quietly carrying: if I’m doing all the right things, why did depression come back? Cinnamon takes that question seriously and goes straight at the lie sitting underneath so many depressive episodes: that if depression returns, it must mean you failed. She breaks down why depression is often cyclical, biological, and deeply convincing without actually telling the truth. She also talks ab...
Apr 29
18 min
Send us Fan Mail What do you do when resentment makes perfect sense, but it is also slowly poisoning your life? In this episode, I sit down with Rick Cheatham for a raw conversation about forgiveness, bitterness, grief, and what it takes to heal when life has taken a blowtorch to everything you thought you knew. Rick shares how loss, trauma, addiction, and anger shaped his story, and why he eventually realized that holding onto resentment was costing him more than the original wound. This is ...
Apr 22
30 min
Send us Fan Mail What if the worst day of your life became the thing that clarified your purpose? In this episode of After the Tones Drop, Cinnamon sits down with Michael Chase for a conversation about trauma, service, and the kind of perspective that only comes from living through the unthinkable. Michael shares how surviving the Boston Marathon bombing changed the course of his life, deepened his understanding of what it means to protect others, and ultimately shaped his mission as a school...
Apr 15
1 hr 15 min
Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I sit down with retired law enforcement officer and Protecting The Guardian founder Mark DiBona for a conversation about what really pushes first responders to the edge. We talk about accumulated trauma, bullying, alcohol, isolation, and the dangerous myth that suicide is always about one bad call. Mark shares his story with the kind of honesty that makes you stop and listen. Not because it’s polished, but because it’s real. This episode is about survival, sp...
Apr 8
1 hr 19 min
Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I sit down with Dena Ali for a conversation that goes way beyond “one bad call.” We talk about firefighter suicide, peer support, belonging, bullying, leadership, and the culture inside first responder organizations that either helps people heal or quietly pushes them further into shame and isolation. Dena shares how her own difficult season led her into this work, why peer support became such a critical part of the solution, and why she now believes the real...
Apr 1
1 hr 10 min
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