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Stories Across the Table

Stories Across the Table

Written by: Steve Ramona & Bridget Cook-Burch
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Stories Across the Table Podcast

Inspired Journeys. Honest Conversations. Lasting Impact.

Stories Across the Table is a podcast where meaningful conversations unfold—one story at a time. Each episode brings guests from diverse backgrounds “across the table” to share the moments that shaped them: the challenges they faced, the lessons they learned, and the purpose that continues to guide their journey.

These are not scripted interviews. They are real, heartfelt discussions about life, business, leadership, faith, service, and the human experience. From entrepreneurs and leaders to everyday people doing extraordinary things, each guest offers insight that inspires growth, reflection, and connection.

Whether the conversation sparks courage, clarity, or compassion, Stories Across the Table reminds us that when we slow down, listen deeply, and learn from one another, transformation begins.

Pull up a chair. The table is set.

© 2026 Stories Across the Table Relationships Social Sciences
Episodes
  • VINNEY TOLMAN: He died for 47 minutes. You won't believe who he met and what he saw.

    VINNEY TOLMAN: He died for 47 minutes. You won't believe who he met and what he saw.
    Oct 13 2026
    LINKS:WEBSITE LINK: https://livinggodslight.org/BOOK A SESSION https://livinggodslight.org/guidance/#sessionsPODCAST/ YOUTUBE LINK: https://www.youtube.com/@livinggodslightINSTAGRAM LINK: https://www.instagram.com/livinggodslight/FACEBOOK LINK: https://www.facebook.com/LivingGodsLightBOOK, THE LIGHT AFTER DEATH: https://thelightafterdeath.com/In this episode of Stories Across the Table, Bridget Cook-Burch and Steve Ramona welcome Vinney Tolman, spiritual guide, author, and a man who has spent the last twenty-three years doing something most of us will never have to do: explaining to the living what it felt like to be dead.In this episode of Stories Across the Table, Bridget Cook-Burch and Steve Ramona welcome Vinney Tolman, spiritual guide, author, and a man who has spent the last twenty-three years doing something most of us will never have to do: explaining to the living what it felt like to be dead.In 2003, Vinney was found unresponsive in a Dairy Queen bathroom. He was pronounced dead by three medics, placed in a body bag, and was on his way to the medical examiner's office when one member of the team broke protocol, opened the bag, and refused to stop until he got a heartbeat. Three days of induced coma followed, with less than five percent neurological activity, while his family faced decisions no family should have to make. And then, at 1:11 in the morning on January 21st, Vinney simply woke up, pulled out his sensors, wrapped himself in two hospital gowns, and tried to leave.What happened in those forty-seven minutes? In this episode, Vinney describes a guide named Drake, who walked him through ten principles before allowing him to travel further. He saw his life from both sides, every good thing and every bad thing, not as judgment but as accounting. He felt a love so complete and so unlike anything available on earth that he did not want to come back. Six months after he came back, he saw a face in a historical presentation in a small Wyoming town and recognized it immediately. Drake, it turned out, was his great-great-great-grandfather.Around the table, Bridget, Steve, and Vinney explore what authenticity actually costs us, why we trade our real selves for inauthentic security somewhere around the age of five, and what unconditional love looks like when it is not filtered through fear, performance, or the need to earn it. Vinney also leads the room through a quiet two-minute prayer that is one of the most unexpected and genuinely moving moments this podcast has ever produced.This episode is for anyone who has wondered what and who waits on the other side, anyone sitting with grief they cannot name, and anyone who simply needs a reminder that the love available to us is larger than anything this life has so far shown them.Pull up a chair. This is a story of a man who left and came back, a guide who turned out to be family, and the kind of love that does not have to be earned.BIO: Vincent (Vinney) Tolman was born in Arlington, Texas, and has since traveled around the world, living in both Cambodia and Thailand. He has worked as a home builder, computer technician, and producer for the television and film industry. He loves animals, meditating, and spending time in nature. His greatest priorities are his relationship to his Creator, his family, and the people he meets. He currently lives in Georgia with his wife, Andrea, and their two children.At the age of 25, Vinney was found dead in the bathroom of a small restaurant. He had been dead for over half an hour. When paramedics arrived, they put him in a body bag and took him away. A rookie paramedic had a feeling to risk his career, break all protocols, and try to resuscitate Vincent. Miraculously, he restarted Vinney's heart. However, Vinney was in a coma for three days and remembers what happened on the "other side" while he was dead. Vinney coaches individuals to find solutions to life problems, or when they are ready to grow and expand their life in powerful ways.YouTube: @StoriesAcrossTheTable https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHPeekMqKYjBAwO28gLSvRABridget’s Free Community - Inspired Writers Clubhouse for Writers and Authors: https://www.inspiredwritersclubhouse.comBridget’s Free Newsletter: https://www.yourinspiredstory.com/newsletter Steve’s Free Community: https://www.skool.com/steve-ramona-community-9836Steve’s Free Newsletter: https://doing-business-with-a-servants-heart.kit.com/steveramonaSteve’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steveramona/’Bridget’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mbridgetcookburch/ Steve’s X/Twitter: https://x.com/oppbrokerBridget’s X/Twitter: @inspiritwriter Steve’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bizopportunitynow/Bridget’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bridgetcookburch/ Substack: https://p...
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    38 mins
  • TJ SWEET: He Should Have Died. How to turn life's painful detours into pure strength!

    TJ SWEET: He Should Have Died. How to turn life's painful detours into pure strength!
    Sep 29 2026
    LINKS: Website: https://tjsweet.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetjsweet/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetjsweetLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thetjsweet/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thetjsweetTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thetjsweetPodcast: Living The Sweet Life with TJ SweetEmail: tj@tjsweet.comIn this episode of Stories Across the Table, Bridget Cook-Burch and Steve Ramona welcome TJ Uete, purpose coach, podcast host, and a man who has built his entire life around a single conviction: less fences, bigger tables.TJ did not arrive at this philosophy easily. It came through a cold February night in Columbia, Missouri, when he rear-ended a car without his seatbelt on, at forty-five miles an hour, and walked away from a wreck that by every account he should not have survived. The woman he hit thought she was looking at a ghost. His friend arrived at the scene, took one look at the car, and said four words that changed everything: God's not done with you yet.With warmth, clarity, and a generosity of spirit that fills every room he walks into, TJ shares what those moments taught him about gratitude, purpose, and what it actually means to show up for people. He also shares the story of the very first episode of his podcast, a conversation with a young man he had never met, who sent him a message the next day to say he had been thinking about ending his life the day they spoke, and that after their conversation he called his mother and told her everything. TJ did not know that when he hit record. God did.Around the table, Bridget, Steve, and TJ explore what it means to live your purpose rather than pursue it, why the things that feel like they should disqualify us are often the exact things that qualify us to serve, and three principles that TJ returns to every day: that nothing meant for him will pass him by, that he is being prepared for what has been prepared for him, and that amor fati, love of one's fate, means meeting everything that comes with the question of how it is shaping him rather than breaking him.This episode is for anyone still searching for their why, anyone who has written off their own story as too broken to be useful, and anyone who needs a reminder that showing up, present and unhurried, for just one person, can change the entire course of a life.Pull up a chair. This is a story of second chances, a $20 microphone, and a man who decided that the best thing he could do with the days he has left is make sure no one at his table feels invisible.BIO: TJ Sweet is a keynote speaker, author, podcast host, and executive coach who helps people reconnect with what matters most. After more than 20 years in healthcare leadership, TJ saw firsthand that people do not just need better strategies. They need to feel seen, valued, and connected to the purpose behind their work.Today, he helps leaders and high performers build stronger relationships, create cultures people want to be part of, and pursue success without losing themselves or the people they love along the way.TJ has impacted more than 10,000 leaders across 48 countries. He is the author of Practice Gratitude: Find Joy and Grateful Leadership, and the host of the Living The Sweet Life podcast, where he shares honest conversations and practical tools for living, leading, and showing up with greater intention.YouTube: @StoriesAcrossTheTable https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHPeekMqKYjBAwO28gLSvRABridget’s Free Community - Inspired Writers Clubhouse for Writers and Authors: https://www.inspiredwritersclubhouse.comBridget’s Free Newsletter: https://www.yourinspiredstory.com/newsletter Steve’s Free Community: https://www.skool.com/steve-ramona-community-9836Steve’s Free Newsletter: https://doing-business-with-a-servants-heart.kit.com/steveramonaSteve’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steveramona/’Bridget’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mbridgetcookburch/ Steve’s X/Twitter: https://x.com/oppbrokerBridget’s X/Twitter: @inspiritwriter Steve’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bizopportunitynow/Bridget’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bridgetcookburch/ Substack: https://p...
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    27 mins
  • REBECCA KASTL: "Live by the light." PTSD & Healing 100% of the mind & body

    REBECCA KASTL: "Live by the light." PTSD & Healing 100% of the mind & body
    Sep 29 2026
    In this episode of Stories Across the Table, Bridget Cook-Burch and Steve Ramona welcome Rebecca Castle, sacred soul guide, spiritual mentor, and someone who knows from the inside out what it means to carry darkness for years before the light finally breaks through.At thirteen, Rebecca survived an assault that quietly reshaped her world from the inside. She looked fine on the outside, kept her grades up, went to therapy, and was eventually told she was healed. At twenty-three, she knew she was not. So she made a private commitment, the kind no one else saw but that changed everything, to heal all the way down, to feel her heart again, to move whatever was sitting on top of it.What followed was a two-year spiritually transformative experience, ignited by a simple journal entry addressed to God, that brought her into direct contact with what she can only describe as being fully known, fully held, and fully loved, down to the cellular level. She saw light. She encountered angels. She received a dream so vivid and so full of presence that she woke up the next morning knowing her life had turned a corner it would never turn back from.Around the table, Bridget, Steve, and Rebecca explore what it actually feels like to be dissociated from your own body after trauma, why the people who reached her were the ones willing to stay and witness her pain rather than fix it, and how the darkest experiences can carve out the largest capacity for light. They also talk about the work Rebecca does today, sitting with people in what she calls sacred soul sessions, helping them reconnect with their own light at the moments when they need it most.This episode is for anyone who has ever been told they were fine when they knew they were not, anyone who has felt too broken to be reached, and anyone quietly longing for a conversation that puts love back at the center of everything.Pull up a chair. This is a story of a thirteen-year-old who survived something she should never have had to survive, a twenty-three-year-old who decided to go all the way toward healing, and a woman who came out the other side able to see the light in everyone she meets.⏱️ Episode Timestamps & Key Highlights:00:00 – Welcome to Stories Across The Table with Steve Ramona & Bridget Cook-Burch00:33 – Gratitude of the Day: "The hardest battles often lead to the most beautiful victories"01:40 – Rebecca’s story: Surviving trauma at 13 and navigating silent PTSD03:00 – Moving beyond high-functioning survival to choosing total heart healing04:30 – The Dear God journal entry that ignited a 2-year Spiritually Transformative Experience (STE)06:40 – Understanding dissociation and what reconnecting to your body feels like07:45 – Experiencing divine love: Being fully known, held, and accepted09:30 – How to genuinely support loved ones walking through deep trauma and grief13:30 – STEs vs. Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) and navigating supernatural encounters15:00 – Sacred Soul Sessions: Helping others rediscover hope and choose life16:20 – The pendulum effect: Why profound darkness creates capacity for greater light19:00 – The unforgettable visitation dream: "Being alive is a gift" and stepping into purpose23:30 – Where Rebecca finds hope in the world today & closing reflections🔗 Connect with Our Guest:Website: rebeccakastl.comSocial Media: Connect with Rebecca across platforms @rebeccakastlYouTube: @StoriesAcrossTheTable https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHPeekMqKYjBAwO28gLSvRABridget’s Free Community - Inspired Writers Clubhouse for Writers and Authors: https://www.inspiredwritersclubhouse.comBridget’s Free Newsletter: https://www.yourinspiredstory.com/newsletter Steve’s Free Community: https://www.skool.com/steve-ramona-community-9836Steve’s Free Newsletter: https://doing-business-with-a-servants-heart.kit.com/steveramonaSteve’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steveramona/’Bridget’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mbridgetcookburch/ Steve’s X/Twitter: https://x.com/oppbrokerBridget’s X/Twitter: @inspiritwriter Steve’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bizopportunitynow/Bridget’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bridgetcookburch/ Substack: https://p...
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    26 mins
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