Creating safe outlets for coping with trauma| Guest: firefighter Chad Dillion
50% Facts with Silent Mike & Jim McD
Jim McDonald
4.9 • 2.1K Ratings
🗓️ 18 December 2025
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
You can find Chad and his new non-profit on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/ruted_above/
Chapters
00:00 Reconnecting and Reflecting on the Past
03:00 The Journey into Photography and Culture
05:53 Exploring Mental Health and Personal Growth
09:12 The Impact of Community and Expression
12:07 Building a Nonprofit: Rooted Above
15:05 The Art of Photography and Its Evolution
18:01 The Importance of Community and Connection
27:04 The Art of Photography and Personal Expression
29:16 Building Community Through Events and Nonprofits
32:06 The Search for Belonging in a Negative World
33:50 Mental Health and Identity in First Responders
37:41 The Impact of Technology on Human Connection
41:18 Tattoos: Personal Stories and Meanings
45:02 Manifesting Goals and Building Community
48:26 Music as Motivation and Personal Growth
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Check out our gym (Third Street Barbell) at ThirdStreetBarbell.com https://www.thirdstreetbarbell.com/!
Check out our podcast website: 50percentfacts.com https://www.50percentfacts.com/
50% Facts is a Spreaker Prime podcast on OCN – the Obscure Celebrity Network.
Hosted by Jim McDonald (@thejimmcd). https://www.instagram.com/thejimmcd/
Produced by Jim McDonald
Production assistance by Sebastian Brambila.
Theme by Aaron Moore.
Show art by Joseph Manzo (@jmanzo523)
Check out our gym (Third Street Barbell) at ThirdStreetBarbell.com https://www.thirdstreetbarbell.com/!
Check out our podcast website: 50percentfacts.com https://www.50percentfacts.com/
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/50-facts-with-silent-mike-jim-mcd--5538735/support.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | We're in. |
| 0:12.0 | Okay, welcome back. |
| 0:14.0 | I took a couple weeks off here for a variety of reasons. |
| 0:17.1 | But I'm back with Chad Dillon to talk about maybe some deeper topics than we sometimes |
| 0:25.0 | get into on the show. |
| 0:28.8 | Chad was telling me a couple weeks ago about a very cool-sounding nonprofit project that he's working on. |
| 0:40.7 | Yeah. |
| 0:41.5 | From his experience as a firefighter. |
| 0:46.1 | That's some of it, yes. |
| 0:47.0 | And life. |
| 0:47.6 | Uh-huh, and life. |
| 0:48.5 | Yeah. |
| 0:49.1 | Yeah. |
| 0:49.8 | So tell me all about it. |
| 0:52.9 | Yeah. |
| 0:53.1 | So it started with my best friend, Tim Brown. We're both from Modesto, California. I didn't know you were from Minnesota. Yeah, from Minnesota. Yeah, from Modesto. I grew up in like Manteca from Champ. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we grew up skateboarding. We met like maybe, we originally met in fourth grade. And then probably around like sixth grade, we started skateboarding. And that was our life for from sixth grade till beginning of high school, I would say. And there was four of us that specifically our friend Josh would skate to my house. And then Josh and I would skate to Tim's house and then all three of us would skate |
| 1:27.5 | to Mike's house and then we'd skate to school and we'd usually go skate like a parking lot |
| 1:31.7 | like at La Loma before school and then we would skate to school and then sometimes before Downey |
| 1:36.9 | but yeah that was that was how we all came together and Tim and I's relationship just kept |
| 1:42.4 | holding on throughout the years I'm still friends with Josh but I'm really close to Tim and I's relationship just kept holding on throughout the years. I'm still friends with Josh, but I'm really close to Tim. |
| 1:47.8 | And what happened was, is around, I think it was 2018, we went on our first Euro trip together. |
| 1:54.8 | And we weren't really into photography at the time, but we had our phones. |
... |
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