In this episode of Angles with John Richmond, John sits down with Anthony Greco, Director of Exhibits at the Buffalo History Museum and host of the Buffalo History Museum podcast. Anthony has spent nearly 20 years going down rabbit holes in old newspapers, building exhibits, and telling the stories of a city that most of its own residents only think they know. From the chaos of mid-1800s Canalside to the assassination of a president, from the real story of the McKinley Curse to the first airplane factory in the United States sitting on Elmwood Avenue, Anthony is the kind of guide you didn’t know you needed.

The conversation covers the full sweep of Buffalo’s history: what the city was actually like at the height of its power as the 8th largest city in America, how Bethlehem Steel made and then hollowed out entire communities, why the city stagnated just long enough to preserve its architectural legacy instead of tearing it down, and what the Erie Canal story looks like when you include the indigenous people whose land it ran through. Anthony talks about how the museum approaches difficult history, why co-curation with community partners matters, and what it takes to put together an exhibit that costs $350 a square foot and tells a story that actually lands.

He also goes deep on the Buffalo History Museum podcast - started during Covid on a cheap Audio-Technica mic, now listened to in over 100 countries - covering everything from Houdini’s 13 visits to Buffalo to the unsolved 1903 murder of an envelope company owner whose wife and her lover drove into a quarry and died right when it happened. Plus Prohibition-era gangs, the Pan-American Exposition, Love Canal, the Goo Goo Dolls, and why the museum has mummies.

If you have ever driven past a building and wondered what happened there, or if you think you know Buffalo history but you’ve never heard of Glen Curtiss, Ned Christie, or the Christian Homestead Association map, this episode will change how you see your own city.

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In this special Mental Health Awareness Month episode of Angles with John Richmond, John sits down with two of Western New York’s most dedicated voices in mental health advocacy. Dan Lukasik is an attorney with over 35 years of experience, the founder of the website Lawyers with Depression, the creator of the Buffalo Depression Project, and a man who has lived openly with major depression for 25 years. Cheri Alvarez is the CEO of Compeer Buffalo, a mental health nonprofit that has been transforming lives in this community through the radical, simple act of human connection.

Dan shares his story with remarkable honesty: being diagnosed with major depression at 40 while managing partner of his own firm, losing his younger brother to bipolar disorder, and spending the last two and a half decades turning his own pain into a resource for others. He talks about depression in the legal profession, which affects lawyers at four times the rate of the general population, why so many lawyers never ask for help, and why his new Buffalo Depression Project website exists to make sure no one in this community has to figure out where to turn on their own.

Cheri walks through what Compeer Buffalo actually does - matching volunteers with individuals who are struggling for a one-to-one friendship, offering group activities and social events, and providing mental health first aid training to businesses and community members. She makes the case, powerfully, that friendship and human connection are not soft complements to clinical care. They are essential. They can prevent suicide. And they cost almost nothing to give.

The conversation also covers Dan’s documentary Travels with George, a film about his ten-year mentorship of a young man named George through Saint Luke’s Mission on Buffalo’s east side, and what it taught him about love, belief, and showing up even when it is hard. Whether you are struggling, know someone who is, or simply want to understand what Mental Health Awareness Month actually means in this community, this episode is for you.

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For episode 50 of Angles with John Richmond, the tables are turned. Producer Brett Tuttle steps out from behind the camera and into the host chair to interview the man who has been asking the questions all along. This is the episode John never fully planned for: a honest look at who he is, where he came from, what building Richmond Vona actually cost him, and what he has learned about himself along the way.

Brett pulls John through the origin story of Richmond Vona - the moment at a previous firm that cracked the door open, and how consuming entrepreneur biographies and the Founders podcast drives his curiosity even more. John talks about what it was like to self-fund a law firm through its first years, living in a constant state of fight or flight, watching the bank account drain while all the right markers were moving in the right direction, and why he never once thought about quitting even when he absolutely should have. He goes deep on hiring, on what it means to protect people and where that drive actually comes from, and why high standards are non-negotiable at a firm where the clients are never just case files.

The conversation covers the podcast itself: why John refused to make a legal show, what Angles has taught him about authenticity and curiosity, and which guests genuinely surprised him. He also talks about what being a goalie forged in him that still shows up every day in how he runs the firm, and why he believes leaders are made, not born. Then Brett asks the questions John has been sitting with privately: what fatherhood has changed, who he has not yet thanked enough, and what he would say to the version of himself who almost quit law school.

Fifty episodes in, this is the one where you finally get to know John Richmond.

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In this episode of Angles with John Richmond, John sits down with Charlie Specht, one of Buffalo’s most recognized investigative journalists. Over a 15-year career at the Buffalo News, Channel 7, and Channel 2, Charlie built a reputation for breaking stories that matter: police corruption, government misconduct, and one of the most significant local scandals in decades - the Diocese of Buffalo sex abuse cover-up. He recently made the leap to go independent, launching his own Substack and writing a book about his experience reporting on the diocese, and what it cost him personally.

Charlie walks John through how investigative journalism actually works: how tips come in, how sources are vetted and protected, what it takes to spend a month on a story before a single word goes on air, and why the business model collapse in media is leaving communities more vulnerable to corruption than most people realize. He talks candidly about the ethical line between being tough and being fair, why attacking the messenger has become a standard defense tactic for people in power, and what it really means to report against your own assumptions.

The conversation goes deep on the Diocese of Buffalo story - the bishop’s administrative assistant who became a key source, the stalker who sent Charlie’s family into hiding under FBI protection, and how a story about institutional cover-up quietly dismantled his own Catholic faith from the inside. He also opens up about what he is doing next: teaching journalism at Saint Bonaventure, finishing his book, building a Substack audience, and making the case that local accountability journalism is worth paying for.

Whether you love investigative journalism or you’ve ever wondered what actually goes into breaking a story that changes things, this is a conversation you will not want to miss.

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In this episode of Angles with John Richmond, John sits down with Dawne Hoeg, founder and executive director of Stitch Buffalo, a nonprofit on Buffalo’s West Side that brings together refugee women through the craft of textiles. What started 12 years ago as a grassroots community workshop in a borrowed basement has grown into a full organization with a team, a board, a new facility, three distinct revenue streams, and a model that has made Stitch Buffalo what Dawne calls a pillar of this city. She is also, as she mentions in the conversation, a three-time cancer survivor, and that experience is woven into everything that drives her.

Dawne walks John through her origin story: a family of women who sewed for practical reasons, a childhood defined by hard work and showing up, a meandering path through packaging design, pattern drafting, a master’s degree in textile education, and teaching at the Waldorf school and Buffalo State College before she noticed something that no one else was doing anything about. The refugee women she kept seeing on her commute to Buffalo State - dressed in traditional clothing, carrying textile traditions from Afghanistan, Myanmar, Bhutan, the Congo, South America, and Ukraine - had no connection to the academic institution down the street and no place to bring those skills together. So she built one.

The conversation covers how Stitch Buffalo actually works: the consignment model that puts money directly into the hands of the women, the Second Stitch resale arm that turned a flood of donated materials into a revenue stream, the community classes that are open to everyone, and the five-year arrangement with Rich Products that gave the organization its foundation. Dawne also talks candidly about leadership, delegation, decision fatigue, the current political climate and what it means for the women she works with, and the very difficult work of succession planning when you have built something from nothing and it is your life’s work.

This is a powerful, human episode. By the end of it, you will understand exactly why Stitch Buffalo matters and how you can be a part of it.

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In this episode of Angles with John Richmond, John sits down with Lexi Varecka, founder of Flex Yoga, a Buffalo-area yoga and wellness studio with locations in Clarence and Orchard Park. Lexi’s story starts in Washington, D.C., where a yoga teacher training she signed up for just to deepen her own practice turned into the seed of something much bigger. She took that passion to the West Coast, spent years teaching and absorbing everything she could about the wellness and event culture out there, and then made a deliberate decision to bring something new back to the community she grew up in.

Lexi breaks down what makes Flex different: beat-based sculpt, hot power fusion, and a community-first approach that goes well beyond the hour on the mat. She talks about the summer solstice event that drew nearly 80 people just three months after opening, the puppy yoga partnership that brought over 100 people together outdoors, and why she built Flex Friday into the studio’s DNA from day one. The conversation goes deep on what it actually takes to run a yoga studio: the certifications, the hiring auditions, the infrared heat panels, the chaos of a 30-minute class changeover, and the hard-won lesson that delegation is not optional if you want to survive.

John and Lexi also cover the entrepreneurial arc of year one: opening in March, adding a second location within twelve months, winning the Clarence Chamber of Commerce Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year award, and still figuring out how to find an off switch. She talks honestly about the work-life balance that a business built around wellness demands, what keeps her motivated when the days get hard, and why she believes the Buffalo community is hungry for exactly what she is building.

Whether you have never set foot on a yoga mat or you’ve been practicing for years, this episode will change how you think about what a fitness studio can be for a community.

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In this episode of Angles with John Richmond, John sits down with Del Reid, the man widely credited as the godfather of Bills Mafia. What started as a late-night tweet from a pizza pickup in Tonawanda in April 2011 has grown into one of the most recognized and beloved fan communities in all of professional sports. Del is as humble as they come, quick to spread the credit and even quicker to remind anyone listening that Bills Mafia was never about him. It belongs to every Bills fan who ever showed up.

Del walks John through the full origin story: how a Stevie Johnson dropped pass, an Adam Schefter retweet, and a hashtag born as a joke accidentally launched a movement. He talks about what it actually felt like to be thrust into a leadership role he never asked for, and how some of the Bills fans initially resisted the name. Along the way, he breaks down what makes Buffalo fans different from every other fan base in the country, and why that chip on the shoulder is generational, not circumstantial.

The conversation also goes deep on 26 Shirts, the company Del built around the idea that a passionate fan base can be a renewable source of good in the community. Over more than a decade, 26 Shirts has raised well over two million dollars for families across Western New York and beyond, one limited-edition design at a time. Del shares how a father’s DM about his daughter’s eye cancer sparked the whole idea, what it felt like to go all-in at 39 after getting laid off from Roswell Park, and how the business has evolved from biweekly drops to a vault of hundreds of designs available year-round.

Whether you’ve been Bills Mafia since the Super Bowl runs or you just found out what a table jump is, this episode is a master class in what it looks like when passion, community, and purpose all collide in the same city.

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In this episode of Angles with John Richmond, John sits down with Aaron Mentkowski, chief meteorologist at WKBW Channel 7 in Buffalo. A Lockport native who has spent 26 years forecasting for Western New York, Aaron is one of the most recognizable and trusted faces in local media, and one of the few Certified Broadcast Meteorologists in the country. What started with watching cars disappear in the Blizzard of ’77 became a lifelong passion and a career built on precision, authenticity, and showing up every single day.

Aaron pulls back the curtain on what it actually takes to do his job, from waking up before 3 a.m. to rebuilding every graphic from scratch between live shots, to navigating the social media age where every missed forecast becomes a comment section. He breaks down how lake effect snow works, what it was like living at the station during the 2022 blizzard, and why Buffalo is one of the most challenging and rewarding places in the country to be a meteorologist.

John and Aaron also get into the side of Aaron most viewers never see: a two-time Ironman, first-degree black belt in Kempo karate, Guinness World Record holder from the 11 Day Power Play, and a dad who coaches his kids and lives by the philosophy that you can do hard things. They talk discipline, mentorship, the shift from "I have to" to "I get to," and why every day still feels like a tryout.

Whether you’re a Buffalo weather obsessive, someone who respects what it takes to perform live under pressure every morning, or just looking for a great story about grit and passion, this episode delivers.

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