"The College will always have that psychodramatic underpinning, that self-discovery and true knowledge of self, coupled with love,  the most powerful thing there is. You can be who you are and be powerful. You don't have to be anybody else. You are enough."

TLC alumni and Board member JR Clary talks openly with host Rafe Foreman about story and its importance. “A story must be told in a way that allows the listener to understand that from my own human experience I can connect to the story you are telling. It awakens within me feelings of, for example, betrayal, or hurt or pain or immense joy. And because your story is awakening that feeling within me, we are like two piano strings that once one has been struck, the other resonates."

JR has served on the Board of Directors for the Trial Lawyers College since 2010 and currently serves as the TLC Treasurer. 

"During my trip, I learned that in Latin American culture, hummingbirds symbolize strength, hope and migration. I knew that I wanted to use that symbol in my paintings when I got home." 

TLC Podcast host Rafe Foreman interviews Portland artist Janie Lowe on her travels along the US/Mexico border and the artwork that resulted from her journey. Explore paintings from Janie's Borderland Stories collection as you listen.

In May of 2019, Janie traveled from her home in Portland to get a first-hand view of the people and the environment along the border between Texas and Mexico. Her travels took her from Brownsville to El Paso, donating supplies and volunteering at respite centers, visiting with landowners, and seeking to understand and capture the struggle for survival along the Rio Grande river.

Janie discusses the efforts underway to construct a wall along the border and how the wall will impact residents, migrants, and the environment. "The closer we got to the wall, the more opposition there was to it. I didn't talk to one person on the border that thought it was a good idea to put the wall up and that it would do any good at all."

She shares how what she observed surprised her, saying, "I think that I expected to go down there and be heartbroken and see all this injustice, but you don't see people rushing over the river, you don't see this rush of people. You don't see the detention centers. What I did not expect was the hope that I saw and felt. That ordinary people step in and do what needs to be done for humanitarian purposes, just to help people out. People will step in and do things where the government has failed."

"I believe...we’re going to see an incredible explosion in everything that TLC is, everything that TLC stands for, and everything that TLC can be."

TLC Podcast host Rafe Foreman interviews TLC President John Sloan on the strength of the Trial Lawyers College. A TLC graduate and seasoned trial lawyer, John graduated from TLC in 1998 and joined the faculty in 2002. He was named to the Board of Directors in 2010 and has served as President since 2014.

In this interview, John shares his belief in psychodrama as the bedrock of the Trial Lawyers College, and as an essential tool in connecting with clients and jurors. "The surprising thing is that through the psychodramatic method, you're going to find something in common with everyone." John first discovered psychodrama at the Trial Lawyers College in 1998, more than 18 years into his practice. "I had had some success by then, but I realized at TLC that I really didn't know very much about what was available to me in the practice of law. I didn't understand the power that could be at my beck and call if I was willing to put in the work to...discover the story, discover the emotion of the story, to learn to love even the unlovable client."

John describes the challenges the Trial Lawyers College faces in planning seminars and colleges in the midst of a pandemic and discusses how the College might evolve in the future, from video conferencing to offering more advanced training at regional seminars. "We have an incredible staff committed to our method, who have worked their butts off for years in continuing our method, perfecting it, and figuring out better ways to teach it. The Trial Lawyers College is strong, is going to continue, and is going to be better."

TLC Podcast host Rafe Foreman interviews TLC graduate, trial lawyer, and focus group researcher Bruce Phillips on creative ways to continue to drive your cases and your practice forward during tough times.

In this wide-ranging interview, Bruce describes how he has come to see the importance of blending the personal with the professional, rather than trying to keep them separated, as a tool for bringing new insight and intuition to trying a case. An accomplished musician, Bruce describes how "TLC was where I quite denying that side of myself and tried to find a way to integrate it into my practice." Whether literally composing a piece for use in a video to be used in a case, or simply playing music as a way to relax his mind and look at the issues in a different way, Bruce says he has found that bringing more of himself into a case allows him to be more connected and creative.

In 2019, Bruce started exploring the idea of conducting online focus groups in addition to traditional face-to-face sessions. The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic made the move to online essential and helped to promote broader use and improvements to web meeting technology. "While we're all sitting at home during this period of isolation, who else is sitting at home? Jurors!" Bruce says, encouraging his fellow TLC alum to explore this new opportunity. "Many of the TLC techniques can still be used in the online videoconferencing setting."

Bruce encourages TLC graduates to get in touch with him if they are interested in exploring the idea of online focus groups further. "Call if you're running your own focus group or you just need some help getting started. Right now is a wonderful opportunity to be of service to one another. The universe will bring it back in due time."

"Many of us are loved all the time, by many people. But if we don't get it the way we want it, the exact way we want...we don't feel loved. There is a piece of us that tends to not acknowledge the love around us."

TLC Podcast host Rafe Foreman interviews TLC psychodramatist Don Clarkson. Don Clarkson is a professor, psychodramatist and philosopher who has been with the Trial Lawyers College from its very creation. In this episode, Don talks about depression, his life and his hopes as he shares intimate solutions that may just be the answer you seek. He shares his perspective on how a crisis like COVID-19 can be an opportunity for self-reflection. "I think pain is our greatest teacher. I think it is the growth producer in our life," Don says.

Give a listen, you will not be disappointed.

"Medical school taught me how to diagnose symptoms and how to give the drug to treat... There is no money in chronic disease resolution; there is money in chronic disease management."

The TLC Podcast branches out this month as host Rafe Foreman interviews Texas physician, Dr. Ben Edwards, on the crossroads between medicine and the law.

Dr. Edwards made the shift to integrative medicine after building a successful practice in conventional medicine. He works with his patients to drill down to the root cause of their symptoms, considering the patient's unique needs and incorporating what he calls the "Four Pillars of Health" - nutrition, hydration, movement, and peace - to make lasting change.

In this wide-ranging interview, Dr. Edwards shares his observations about the US healthcare system, describing it as having the worst outcomes of any first-world nation, despite the highest spending on healthcare. He calls for a shift in the medical education system toward a more integrated, holistic model over the current pharmaceutical model.

The interview takes a deep dive into the development and administering of vaccines and discusses how injuries related to vaccinations were taken outside the court system, indemnifying vaccine developers and limiting compensation.

TLC Podcast host Rafe Foreman interviews trial lawyer and TLC graduate and faculty member Terry Lenamon on trying death penalty cases armed with methods learned and practiced at the Trial Lawyers College.

Terry is a trial lawyer practicing in Miami-Dade County, Florida, where he has built a reputation as one of Florida’s most respected criminal defense lawyers handling capital death penalty cases. He has handled in excess of 85 first degree murder cases. His experience has brought him national recognition as a go-to commentator on death penalty issues.

In this episode, Terry talks with Rafe about how discovering the story plays an expanded role in a death penalty defense, expanding beyond the story of the offense to consider the story of the defendant's life and circumstances leading up to the offense.

TLC Podcast host Rafe Foreman interviews trial lawyer and TLC graduate Benjamin Cloward (TLC Sept 2013) on how the methods taught in TLC courses translate to actual use in a trial.

Ben is a partner in the Richard Harris Law Firm in Las Vegas, Nevada. In 2017, Ben was recognized as the Nevada Justice Association’s Trial Lawyer of the Year, the youngest to receive the award. He was also named to the National Trial Lawyers list of “Top 40 Under 40,” reserved for the best young trial attorneys in the country.

Over the past several years, Ben has obtained verdicts in excess of $10 million on several cases; successes he attributes in large part to the methods learned at the Trial Lawyers College. As a follow-on to one of those cases, Ben successfully lobbied the Nevada legislature for passage of AB234 “Harvey’s Law,” requiring paratransit bus drivers to be trained in first aid. Harvey’s Law was inspired by Ben’s work with the Chernikoff family, whose mentally disabled son, Harvey, choked to death while riding a paratransit bus.

Most recently, Ben obtained a stunning verdict of $38.5 million in a wrongful death suit. Ben called on his TLC training and the support of the TLC tribe in preparing his case. “There’s not another community, ListServ, organization, or school of thought like TLC,” Ben said. “You have individuals who come from all walks of life, from all across the country, who come together with the common bond of wanting to be a warrior for their client…to be a voice for the voiceless.”

Ben loves people and loves to fight for those who can’t fight for themselves. When he’s not in the courtroom, he likes to be outdoors, hunting, fishing or long-range target shooting. Ben is a devoted husband, father and Boston Red Sox fan.

TLC Podcast host Rafe Foreman interviews Valeri Malone on how she has incorporated the methods learned at the Trial Lawyers College into her practice. 

Valeri is an associate at Loncar Associates in Lubbock, Texas, where she specializes in personal injury and accident cases. She brings two decades of experience to her clients and to the Loncar team. Her reputation as a hard-working, successful trial lawyer has earned her the respect of her peers and the trust of her clients.

Valeri received her bachelor’s degree from Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, and her juris doctorate from Texas Tech University School of Law. While in law school, Mrs. Malone was a member of the prestigious John Marshall National Moot Court Team and a National Semi-Finalist. She was selected for early admission to Texas Tech School of Law’s advocacy program, the Board of Barristers, in which she ranked first in her class. She was also the Chair of Appellate Advocacy for the Board of Barristers.

Valeri was named as a Texas Super Lawyer, Rising Star in 2007, in 2008, and in 2009 by Thomson Reuters.

Maren Chaloupka is a criminal defense and civil plaintiff’s trial lawyer. She has a diverse practice, and she especially enjoys working on civil rights cases, including wrongful conviction cases and cases involving medical and mental health care in jails and prisons.  She lives in the small town of Scottsbluff, Nebraska, and serves clients wherever her work takes her. Maren is leading the Cross-Examination Constellation Regional Seminar at the Captain Cook Hotel in Anchorage, March 27-29, 2020. You can register your seat on the TLC Website at www.triallawyerscollege.org/register-for-a-course/