The RMFJ Podcast

The RMFJ Podcast is Rick Jones’s long-form interview show, shaped by sports-radio instincts and a wide personal network. It sounds local in the best sense. Guests are introduced through real connections, old schools, shared cities, past jobs, and the kind of half-joking admiration that makes people relax before the serious stuff arrives. Recent conversations include Dr Kristin Barnes on naval aviation, medicine, and psychedelics; Hilary Bacher-Johnson on State Department work and shifting policy priorities; Jeff Aaron on Northwest sportscasting; KC Boutiette on Olympic speed skating; Frank Buono on film work; Captain Mike Swanigan on Alaska Airlines and leadership; Greg Sennett on football and business; and Captain Larry "Fudge" Packer on Blue Angels flying. The show can sit with technical detail. It can also wander. That looseness gives the interviews their character, because a question about a career often turns into a story about tools, mentors, uniforms, aircraft, politics, old grudges, coffee mugs, or where somebody happened to be living at the time. Rick Jones is usually less interested in packaging a guest than in getting them to describe the work from the inside. The pace is measured. The language is direct. Serious subjects are allowed to stay serious, but the room rarely stays stiff for long. Sports are everywhere, especially football and Northwest radio, yet they function more as common ground than as a strict format. Aviation is just as central, from naval call signs to airline careers to the mystique of demonstration teams. Public service comes up through military paths, foreign policy work, and the small human decisions around big institutions. The show’s strength is not polish. It is access to people who have actually done things, and enough conversational patience to let them explain how those things felt in real time. That makes it useful for listeners who prefer stories with edges, jobs with jargon, and interviews that do not rush toward a lesson.