THE REAL GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH: 1001 INTERVIEWS AUTHOR SGT (RET.) BERT "MAVERICK" GONZALES METRO DADE POLICE

1001 Heroes, Legends, Histories & Mysteries Podcast

Jon Hagadorn

Society & Culture, History

4.4 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 9 November 2025

⏱️ 83 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

1001 FALL FAMILY HEROES SERIES

Sgt. Gonzalez spent 37 years as a policeman in Florida's busy Miami -Dade County saving lives, fighting crime, and trying to make the world a better place. He worte this incredible story of his service to let people know what police officers face everyday and his stories do exactly that..and more. ...NOW you get a chance to meet him.

Take a look into the real world of Police Officers from the view of a cop who lived those moments of terror, humor, and tragedy every day of his career.

This is not a murder mystery whodunit or a reality TV sensationalized version of police work. This is the nitty-gritty reality of life on the street where cops see things no one should ever see and those they serve to protect have no clue as to the nightmares that haunt these officers.

This is also the humorous and human side of being a cop. Those rare moments when an officer is thanked for his efforts or where things happen no genius of a comedic mind could ever imagine.

Sgt. (Ret.) Norberto "Bert" Gonzalez takes you into the circus tent of police work and shows you how the men and women of law enforcement do their job to the best of their abilities.

Bert shows you the human side of those behind the badge. The good, the bad, and the ugly. He pulls no punches but lays out the reality of life on the street.

Ride along for an unprecedented view under the circus tent. This IS the Real Greatest Show on Earth!

Transcript

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0:00.0	The Welcome back, everyone to 1001 heroes, legends, histories, and mysteries podcast.
0:37.3	This is your host, John Haggardorn.
0:39.3	We have a special guest with us today. His name is Sergeant Burke Gonzalez, middle name
0:44.8	Maverick, and he's called Maverick for a good reason. But he's authored a book called The Real
0:50.1	Greatest Show on Earth. He served as a police officer for Miami-Dade for decades,
0:56.0	did a lot of people a lot of good, and he's got a lot of stories to tell about it,
1:00.1	from which you can learn a lot. This book is a tremendous book. I have read it. It is a page
1:05.2	Turner all the way, and I highly recommend this for anybody in the family who appreciates
1:10.7	good cop history, and appreciates good cop history.
1:12.4	And this is great top history.
1:14.9	Sergeant Gonzalez, welcome to the show today.
1:17.3	Glad to have you.
1:18.1	And why did you choose the title, The Real Greatest Show on Earth?
1:22.3	Thank you for, first of all, thank you for having me.
1:24.5	I really appreciate it.
1:25.9	And I'm glad that you enjoyed the book. That was my intent to grab you and keep you and tell you about the truth of policing in America. The title, the real greatest show on earth. So during my career and let me say this up front, I am not unique to cops.
1:47.7	We're basically the same animal anywhere you find us.
1:52.3	And many of the same things happen to all of us.
1:56.3	So I have my unique stories that happened to me in that sense, but very many, many similar stories
2:04.1	happen to cops everywhere. So during my career, during my encounters with citizens, many of them
2:12.6	would say to me and others, you know, with everything you've seen and done, you should write a book.
2:17.0	And I got that a lot during my career. So then back in 2018, I decided, you know, with everything you've seen and done, you should write a book. And I got that
	...

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