What do machine guns, a cross-country bike trip, train hopping hobos, and a civil war have in common?

My Uncle Chris.

My Uncle Chris was a real character, a garbage truck driver from South Carolina who is now buried in Panama City alongside the founding families of Panama.

The Uncle Chris podcast is a wide-ranging collection of stories that intertwine as I share the tall tales and hard truths that have helped me understand how we see ourselves and our lives as we're going through them and how others might see us after we're gone.

Crazy stories about family.

He's got a pistol to my dad's head.

I'm like, oh my God, what is going on?

I'm seeing machine guns everywhere, all kinds of stuff.

Stories about adventure.

I hitchhiked across the northwest up into Saskatchewan once,

and then hopped the trains open I'd get somewhere.

And they made us read Huck Finn in school.

Running away from home and going out to experience the world,

like, it's in there, man.

First-hand accounts from actual war zones.

And then all of a sudden, you just hear the pings of bullets hitting the armor vehicle and bouncing off.

Do you hear the gunshots or just the pings?

I just heard the pings.

And, of course, stories about my uncle Chris.

What was interesting about dear little Christopher is he had a heart of gold, but because

he was trying to be macho and be a man, that was something he threw to the side.

Under all that bluster, it was a kind, gentle soul, but life had taught him to be tough and

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