Your Episodes

Send us Fan Mail Same Brain, Different Mask Masking, Gender, and Misdiagnosis | Part 2 of 4 Some people with ADHD are easy to spot. Others become the dependable one, the organized dispatcher, the unshakable medic, the officer who never misses a detail, or the firefighter everyone counts on when the scene goes sideways. They may look like they have it completely together. What no one sees is the anxiety, perfectionism, rigid systems, last-minute adrenaline, overthinking, people-pleasing, and...

Send us Fan Mail Episode 164: When Everything’s on Fire and You Can’t Find Your Keys ADHD, Trauma, and First Responders | Part 1 of 4 You can handle chaos on scene but lose your keys at home. You can remember every detail of a traumatic call but forget the appointment you scheduled yesterday. Is it ADHD? Trauma? The effects of shift work and chronic stress? Or some messy combination of all three? Episode 164 begins our four-part ADHD in Public Safety series with recognition—not a diagnosis....

Send us Fan Mail There is an enormous amount of suffering between "I'm doing good" and "I don't want to be here anymore." As Suicide Prevention Month comes to a close, Cinnamon challenges the idea that suicide prevention begins only when someone becomes suicidal. What about the months, or years, before the crisis? What about the first responder who is still showing up, still handling calls, still cracking jokes, but has quietly stopped enjoying their own life? After saying goodbye to Ben, her...

Send us Fan Mail “You knew what you signed up for.” Maybe. But knowing what might happen is not the same as knowing what it will feel like when it does. In this episode, Cinnamon challenges one of the most dismissive phrases used toward first responders and explores the difference between understanding the risks of the job and being prepared for the emotional, relational, and psychological consequences that can follow. Drawing from conversations with past guests including John Mattingly, Giov...

Send us Fan Mail Season 4 begins with a return, a reset, and a different way of thinking about what it means to keep going. After a two-month hiatus, Cinnamon comes back to After the Tones Drop to talk about what actually happened when she finally stopped pushing quite so hard. What began as time away from weekly podcast production became an unexpected experiment in rest, grief, nervous-system recovery, connection, and learning how difficult it can be to truly disconnect when being prod...