Free Your Box
Podcast with Rich Baumert
Watch the Trailer
Episode One Premieres Monday, September 28
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Real Conversations
About What
Life
Sometimes Packs Away.

The Box
That Started
It All

Rich & Peg

Episode 1 · Airs September 28

One old wooden box. A faded Mets pennant. Five Shacks. And more than 50 years of stories. Before Rich Baumert could ask anyone else what was in their box, he had to open his own.

The wooden box followed him from childhood on Long Island through college and adulthood, until marriage and life sent it to the attic.

Inside: a faded Mets pennant from his first game with his dad in 1972 and decades of memories that eventually inspired five spaces called The Shack.

Peg joins to share her side of 32 years of Shacks, compromises and Christmas-decoration trips that became two-hour journeys down memory lane. Her advice? Embrace the Shack.

Rich & Peg on Free Your Box — The Box That Started It All
More Episodes

The
‘I Love Me’
Room

Sean McDonough on Free Your Box — The ‘I Love Me’ Room

Sean McDonough

Episode 2 · Airs October 13

An ‘I Love Me Room’ full of honors and one laminated baseball card that goes to every game. Sean McDonough has spent a lifetime calling some of the biggest moments in sports. High above Boston, his I Love Me Room holds awards, photographs and memories from an extraordinary career.

Its most important object is a CBS-era baseball card of his father, legendary Boston sportswriter and broadcaster Will McDonough. Sean carries it to every game and places it on the broadcast desk.

As Rich and Sean move through the room, from the Fenway Eight to Olympic hockey, the memorabilia keeps leading back to the people behind it. And no one looms larger than Will, whose standards still shape the way Sean approaches every broadcast. For Sean, the measure of a job well done remains simple: make Dad proud.

Living
Under an
Oppressive
Regime

Alex & Elise

Episode 3 · Airs October 27

A powder-room sports shrine, four concrete footings and a six-by-twelve shed standing between Alex and Shack One. Alex grew up going to Boston games with his dad and once waited on Boston Common for Bobby Orr to sign his miniature hockey stick. Eventually, apartments, cross-country moves and three kids stopped the collection from getting unpacked.

In San Francisco, his only territory was a powder-room sports shrine. Back in Weston, he plans to escape what he calls ‘the oppressive regime’ by converting the third garage bay.

First, the bikes, bouncy houses and Elise’s golf clubs need a new shed. The footings are poured. Nobody remembers approving them. Shack One may actually have a chance.

Alex & Elise on Free Your Box — Living Under an Oppressive Regime

Stuff With
No Home

Murph & Cristina on Free Your Box — Stuff With No Home

Murph & Cristina

Episode 4 · Airs November 10

A signed Bruins stick, Super Bowl souvenirs, a Masters chair, and an attic containing far more Padel shoes than anyone expected. Murph grew up in his dad’s sports world: Bruins and Celtics games, golf trips to Ireland, programs, ticket stubs and scorecards from rounds they played together. A sports-marketing career added the Masters, Super Bowls and Formula One.

None of it has a home. It sits above the garage beside coolers, trophies, old phones and emergency Padel shoes.

Cristina is a committed thrower-outer, but she wants the good stuff saved and the attic turned into a room. Their tour uncovers treasures, junk and one revelation: Murph is, in fact, his father.

Just
Joe Time

Joe & Melodia

Episode 5 · Airs November 24

Three daughters, one very loud poker night and a basement built for bourbon, ball games and finally hearing yourself think. Joe’s room began as a practical solution: move the noise downstairs. What emerged was a space with two Joey-and-Chandler chairs, a poker table, an old pharmaceutical refrigerator turned into a bar, and enough distance for everyone to recover.

After work and family time, Joe comes down to exercise, see old friends or simply switch off. Melodia helped choose the good chairs, then happily reclaimed the quiet upstairs. Part clubhouse, part sanctuary, the room gives Joe something every crowded family home needs: a little space to be himself.

Joe & Melodia on Free Your Box — Just Joe Time

The
Shared
Wall

Ben & Maddie on Free Your Box — The Shared Wall

Ben & Maddie

Episode 6 · Airs December 8

A flood-proof box, a signed Celtics jacket and one shared basement wall with suspicious expansion potential. Ben grew up going to Celtics and Red Sox games with his dad. His parents saved trophies, clippings and souvenirs he was too young to appreciate. After a basement flood, he gathered them into one flood-proof box.

Now married to his middle-school sweetheart, Maddie, Ben has secured a shared basement wall for his sports history and her championship memories.

Inside: the football scrapbook Maddie made, a Jo Jo White-signed Celtics jacket, a first-game Red Sox souvenir and auction finds. A few make the wall; the rest return to the attic. The shed and golf simulator remain under discussion.

The TV
Never Left

Jason & Yessy on Free Your Box — The TV Never Left

Jason & Yessy

Episode 7 · Airs December 22

One giant television, decades of Pittsburgh sports treasures and a basement where a father and son are building the next collection. Jason’s collection started at Dan’s Card Shop, where one dollar bought a grab bag and every card felt like a win. More cards, Pirates memorabilia, jerseys and his grandfather’s golf clubs followed.

Then Jason brought a 60-inch television to Yessy’s place for a New Year’s Eve football party. Her TV disappeared. His never left. Neither did Jason.

Years later, their Pittsburgh basement holds his Dream Team jacket, signed baseballs and family history. Their son Luca now has a display of his own, complete with matching 2026 Pirates Opening Day balls. Apparently, the master plan worked.

It Started
with a Stick

Chris & Emily

Episode 8 · Airs January 5

Two corporate moves, one lost Nintendo and a Pittsburgh basement full of lacrosse sticks, family history and green chile. Chris played lacrosse in Colorado before the sport was common there. It took him to Bucknell; work, family and corporate moves took his belongings through Wisconsin and Pittsburgh.

The finished basement finally gave them a home. Emily’s Christmas gift, a Brine Superlight 2 like his first stick, sparked a wall tracing his path from childhood to college, with sticks he can still use with his daughter.

The room also holds Civil War artifacts from Grandpa Great, Muscle Men, a 30-year-old Colorado beer sign and a freezer of Hatch green chiles. Old selves, meet new traditions.

Chris & Emily on Free Your Box — It Started with a Stick

The Box Became
the Business

Frank & Megan

Episode 9 · Airs January 19

Pizza-shop money. Bike rides for money orders. Twelve Saturdays a year. And a childhood card habit that became a business. At ten, Frank spent pizza-shop money on sports cards, bicycling to buy money orders for early eBay purchases. The collection grew to include autographs, jerseys, and Penn State traditions shared with his dad.

After basement negotiations, Frank got theater seats, a projector and twelve Penn State Saturdays a year. Megan gave the room some class, and their boys grew up inside those traditions.

Then came Frank J’s Boxes, an online business that once maxed out the family credit card until Netflix stopped working. Today, Frank’s Card World is part shop, party destination and neighborhood playground. The box got a commercial lease.

Frank & Megan on Free Your Box — The Box Became the Business
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The Team
Behind Your Freedom

Rich & Dean

Behind every episode is a simple belief: everyone has a box. For decades, Rich Baumert has been helping people tell stories through film, photography, and conversation. Alongside producer Dean, Free Your Box was created to help people reconnect with the passions, memories, and experiences that shaped who they are—and inspire others to do the same.

Everyone has a story. Some begin with a baseball card collection. Others with a dream that never got finished. Or a room built just to feel like yourself again. Whatever’s inside your box, we’d love to hear it. Because the next story we tell could be yours.

Three ways to tell it: write it, upload a 2-minute clip, or tag us on Instagram #freeurbox

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The Story
of Your
Box