What’s the most important job that you can think of? Thanks to my skills in the clairvoyant arts I know there’s a decent chance that a doctor is what just popped into your head. Did you know that there are almost 5 nurses per doctor at hospitals across America though? Behind every great doctor, there are about 5 great nurses doing their job to keep us healthy and alive. Like physicians, nurses have to choose what they want to specialize in and who they want to help. So as important as the job is, monotony can certainly start to creep in. That is, unless you choose the route of today’s guest and become a float nurse. Sefora has the opportunity to help anyone and everyone in the hospital, and has one of the most diverse jobs medicine has to offer.
Comic Book Creator (with Napoleon Doom)
Comic books have seen quite a change in perception in the past decade. Hollywood, and then everyone, took notice. Blockbuster films were made. Award winning shows were made. Comic cons got more and more popular. Cosplay became a word in the common vernacular, and suddenly, comics weren’t just for nerds anymore. Still, everything seems to center around the big names, the Platinum Hits. As you would imagine, like music, movies and other art forms, this is only a piece of the pie. Hardcore comic book fans get into the underground stuff. The independent and self produced stuff. Today, independent comic book creator Napoleon Doom comes on the show to tell us about the world of independent comics and the creative process.
Standardized Patient (with Errol McLendon)
Most things in life we don’t want standardized. Skin color, personal opinions, sexual preferences, our landscape and geography, variety is the spice of life. There are a few things though that definitely need to be standardized, and probably not many higher up on the list than what a physician is going to do when they give you a prostate exam or how they are going to act if you suddenly pass out while in the room with them. Physicians, like professional sports referees, are a great group of people to have standardized. We definitely don’t want one doctor seeing a foul, and another doctor saying to play on. It could quite literally be a matter of life and death. Today’s guest is a standardized patient. Standardized patients act out various scenarios with physicians and nurses in medical school to make sure they get it right when they’re out in the real world.
Clothing Brand Owner (with Jim Snediker)
Clothes, can’t live without em’. They keep us warm, hide our bodies from the unsuspecting public, and make our pets look really ridiculous. Since we all need to wear them, that means that lots of people need to make them too. What kind of an undertaking is that though? If you want to start a jewelry company you can buy some jewels and stick em’ in some precious metals, next step profit. If you want to start a clothing company you buy some cotton and…then…next step profit? Luckily we have Jim Snediker, Co-owner of Stock Manufacturing Co., to explain all them steps of starting a clothing company to us.
NASA Engineer (with Mike Cooney)
What did you want to be when you were a kid? I would be willing to stake my life on the fact that at least 90% of kids at some point in their childhood would all say the same thing, and it’s not Fire Truck Driver. I am of course referring to being an astronaut. Is there anything more great than space? Anything more captivating and awe inspiring? Today’s guest himself is an aspiring astronaut, but for now he has to settle with just being a particle physics trained electrical engineer with a PhD working on some of the most complex problems that mankind ever has at Langley Research Center for NASA. If Astronauts are going to get to space andsurvive there, they have to rely on a lot of smart people like Michael. Time to learn about the people that have helped inspired the imaginations of every child ever.
Assistive Technology Consultant (with Brian Friedlander)
Not everyone is created the same, and that is a great thing. We live in a world with boundless diversity that is truly beautiful. However, with some diversity there comes challenges. Those with special needs and disabilities can have a tough road in life as society often doesn’t cater to their needs. Luckily we have wonderful people, like today’s guest, that dedicate their lives to helping those who are created differently, but are absolutely equal to the rest of us.
Book Editor (with Wendy McClure)
Most of us like to think that we’re pretty self sufficient, but the reality is that we need a lot of help from people around us to enable our success. Support roles are invaluable at keeping the world spinning round and keeping quality products at our fingertips. Perhaps no one knows this more than a book editor. For one, they help writers sound good. They make sure there is balance and consistency throughout a novel, and give it an overall sense of polish it would not otherwise have. The more unknown side of book editing though is to read through countless potential books and decide which are going to make the cut, which are worth our time and money. Today’s guest tells us all about the rewards, challenges and pressures of deciding what we get to read, and how we get to read it.
Half Hour Intern (with Blake Fletcher)
Well, here we are. 100 episodes in. I debated for a long time on what topic to tackle for the 100th episode. Then I remembered, the most common question I get is why/how I started the show. So here it is. An interview with me as the subject, questions written in by listeners, hosted by my lovely wife, Asta. Thank you all for your support. It means everything to me.
Art Gallery Owner (with Ann Hazels)
Art is everywhere, and according to most definitions, can be pretty much anything. Yet somehow when art is put indoors, into a formal setting, it somehow can become pretty intimidating. Like somehow just putting it in a frame and on a wall makes us second guess if we really ‘get’ it, or if we’re even capable of getting it. Our overly self conscious hang-ups aside, today’s guest argues that we can all appreciate art. Ann Hazel’s is a wonderful, down to earth gallery owner that just wants you to have a great experience with art.
Parent Defense Attorney (with Diana Rugh Johnson)
The American justice system is quite a paradox. It’s a beacon of hope and justice for anyone accused of crime in America. On the other hand, it can be a big and complex world that swallows the accused up without much thought to reformation and rehabilitation. No one knows more about this dichotomy than defense attorneys, and perhaps no defense attorney knows this more than a parent defense attorney. Parent attorneys are charged with the difficult task of defending parents accused of abuse and neglect, and helping them get their children back. As you might imagine, many people find these parents to be indefensible, guilty before proven innocent. Today’s guest Diana explains why they do indeed deserve defense, and how the justice system is reforming to put families first.
Grief Counselor (with Pascale Vermont)
Most of us live in a world where we, above all other things, value happiness. Some people, like Buddhists, live in a world of non-attachment to good or bad. Today’s guest, Pascale Vermont, has devoted her life to the opposite of all of this, getting up close and personal with the whole range of human emotions that fuel grief. Sadness, anger, guilt, and anxiety are just some of the things that are a part of her daily life. She’ll tell us why grief doesn’t have to have be something we avoid, and how we can navigate its treacherous waters.
Children's Author (with Sarah Lynn Scheerger)
Fictional storytelling is such a gift. It allows our minds to run wild and transports us away to another world where absolutely anything could be possible. It also helps us digest complex topics in a more palatable and easy to comprehend way. Perhaps for this reason, while the number of adults that reads falls, the number of adults reading to their children, and children reading in general, holds steady. While we may feel too busy to read, we know how valuable it is for a small child to have a fun conduit to learn, grow, and explore. Today’s guest is mother, and a writer of children’s books and teen fiction. We’ll discuss why writing a children’s book isn’t as easy as it looks, and what writing with a teen voice is like.
Experiential Psychologist (with Michelle Wang)
I don’t know about you, but I sure am good at over-thinking things. I think it’s a trait that humans developed when we realized we were capable of abstract thought. We just started abstract thinking the hell out of everything! Then, as part of a solution to our over thinking and various other struggles, we came up with psychotherapy. Using the mind to help heal the mind, what a natural fit. Today’s guest is a psychotherapist, but believes in stepping outside of the usual psychology role, and incorporating your body and other experiences into the therapeutic sphere. I say anything that gets me thinking a bit less sounds good to me.
Flight Attendant (with Carin Ryan)
Oh sweet irony. Here I sit, on a plate, writing this sentence. I’m on my way to Japan for my honeymoon, and so far my flight attendants have been the most important part of my journey. They brought me these amazing rice cracker snacks that I wish every flight had, they gave me water to take my melatonin with, and they brought me coffee 4 hour later, seemingly just in time to bring me out of my melatonin induced coma. Yep, things are going pretty well for me up here thanks to my flight attendant crew. But is it as cool as them as it is for me? According to today’s guest, in fact, it is.
Influencer Marketing (with Kristy Sammis)
We humans are a fickle breed. There’s part of us that loves to be told what to do, what to wear, and what to spend our money on. Yet there seems to be an even bigger part of us that hates all of those things. I think a big part of it is that while we’re being told what to do, we don’t want it to seem like we’re being told what to do. What a predicament we’ve put the world of marketing in. Tell us what we should like, but don’t tell us directly lest we feel like we’re being given some corporate line. Enter the world of influencer marketing. No more direct company messaging, no more fickle consumers.
Middle School Music Teacher (with Tim Cassell)
Music is the freakin’ best. They say that you can’t stay upset or depressed if you put a smile on your face. I say you can’t stay upset or depressed if you just put on some music. Music is like a shot of pure serotonin that bypasses your brain and hits your right in the soul. In order to have this wonderful drug we have to have people that make music, and in order to have that we need to have those that teach and inspire. Today’s guest is a Jr. High school band director that inspires kids to connect with music and create it for themselves.
Pastor (with David Massey)
Atheism and agnosticism may have growing numbers in the Western world, but they still pale in comparison to that of Christians. As a self described, ‘I don’t know what I believe in’, it’s hard for me to understand how anyone has 100% faith in anything. Be it Christianity, atheism, the current model of space and time, I don’t really know if we have any of it right…or wrong…or whatever. I mean, I’m only human. Today’s guest is also only human, but he does have 100% faith that we’ve been shown the way to faith, spirituality, and eternal life through Jesus Christ. David is a super awesome, super kind pastor that sat down with me for over two hours to discuss our differing belief (or disbelief) systems. This is part one where we also discuss just what the heck a pastor does all day.
Ayurvedic Practitioner (with Jackie Christensen)
Is technology always a good thing? I don’t just mean electronic gadgetry; I mean any form of scientific advancement. This past century has been such an interesting one where we’ve come SO far with science and medicine, only to realize that moving forward is not always progress. We can grow more crops than ever thanks to pesticides and genetically modified seeds, only to realize that our food doesn’t carry the same nutritional value, and our fruits and vegetables don’t look and taste the same as they once did. We can double the size of our pigs so that we can have bacon on just about everything, but the super-sized pigs are so fragile that they can’t even go outdoors or they’ll die from disease or infection. We have a plethora of antibiotics to kill off pathogens, and we now have a growing list of antibiotic resistant bacteria. Perhaps it is due to this that more than ever people are skeptical of the ‘better by science’ approach and are trying old school methods for health and well being. One of the more popular and interesting approaches is Ayurveda. The ancient Indian science/study/philosophy of health and well being is REALLY old school, but as you’ll hear, many of it’s ideas and principles seem to be popping up all over lately.
Creative Marketing Prodigy (with Brent Underwood)
The world sure has become a fast moving place. Everything is ever-changing, and trying to gain a handle on it all feels more and more impossible. Just when I start to feel like I really understand a current technology or app, another ‘must have’ is just around the corner or already taking its place. There are some amazing people though, that seem to thrive in this setting. Those special few that stake their claim in a field and proclaim that they will be at the forefront, they will be the ones seeing and making change. They do not get left behind as they do not wait for any playbook, and boldly venture out into unknown frontier to swiftly meet whatever success or failure lies ahead. Today’s guest is one of these people in the field of marketing, and his company’s ideas will expand and/or blow your mind.
Documentary Film Maker (with Jeremy Newberger)
Documentary film is a truly amazing form of art and storytelling, and thanks to the rise in popularity of streaming services like Netflix, we seem to be living in the golden age of the documentary. From gripping crime stories, to heart-opening human connections, to downright eye-opening, world-view-changing film, documentaries don’t just entertain, they educate. And as Sea World can tell you post Blackfish, that education has a lot of power. So what is it like to wield that sort of power? What is it like to have your audience demand that you both entertain them, and give them some food for thought?