Sports. Love em! Next to politics, there’s noting quite like sports for bringing people together and simultaneously tearing people apart. Sports allow us all a bit of escapism and show us the best physical feats that our species is capable of. It also lets us feel like were part of a team, part of something bigger than ourselves. You would think it is due to these reasons that professional sports have absolutely exploded in the past 30 years, but you would think wrong. The real reason for sports current dominance is people like today’s guest, Andrew Weber, who give us instant access to the biggest and best moments…only moments after they happen in real life. For what good is being a sports fan if you don’t get to see the action? Welcome to the world of sports photography.
Urban Planner (with Lior Steinberg)
City life, it’s a wonderful thing. So much to do, so much to see, great transit to get you there. OR it can be the worst thing. A never-ending congestion of cars and people, a cacophony of man made noise, and the smell…that terrible terrible smell. Unlike what we may think, a lot of this is not left up to the eye of the beholder, or what day you decide to visit. Rather, it’s almost completely up to people like today’s guest. Lior is an urban planner for one of the most forward thinking, awesome, bicycle and pedestrian friendly cities in the whole world. He explains just how important urban planning is for making city (and suburb) life livable, wonderful, or downright terrible.
Patreon Bonus Episode One (with HHI Sound Guy, Frank Leon)
Ladies and gentleman, gather round and I shall tell you a story. Just over one year ago I embarked on the adventure of creating the Half Hour Intern podcast. An adventure that, very fortunately for me, I did not have to embark on alone. For the world is dark and full of terrors, including lackluster intro music, noisy air conditioning units, stuttering, and ear splitting pops and sibilance. With me I had my good friend, sound engineer, and free manual labor specialist, Frank Leon. With Frank by my side we would go on to make a good show with 1000's of fans. Today Frank tells his story of what the journey has been like for him, and just how the heck he tames the crazy audio I send him.
Foreign Aid Advisor (with Sean Mulkerne)
If you’re reading this right now, statistically speaking, there’s a very good chance that you’re in the top 1% of earners on Earth. I know you may be thinking “it sure doesn’t feel like I’m in the top 1%”, but I can assure you your situation is quite different than the other 99%. If we spent some time in their shoes, we would undoubtedly want to support the other 99% of world occupants in some way. Well, good news! If you’re reading this right now there is also a very good chance that your government is giving millions (or billions) of dollars per year to help people in developing countries. And if you’re a tax paying citizen that means that you ARE helping the other 99% of world inhabitants right now. Some of the money you’re paying goes towards people like today’s guest, a foreign aid advisor. If you’ve ever wondered about the current state of foreign aid, and whether or not it’s working, this should be an interesting listen.
Forensic Pathologist (with Dr. Pilou Thirakul)
If all goes according to plan I should live to be about 180 years old, in peak health, and then one day die of cardiac arrest while reading a book by myself on my front porch. But just as life is crazy and throws unexpected things your way, death can do the same. I may walk out side right now and get attacked by a swarm of bees ala My Girl. For all of the not so straightforward and ideal deaths out there, today’s guest comes to the rescue. Dr. Thirakul is a forensic pathologist and it’s her job to find out how people died.
Landscape Design (with Linda Kelso)
Flora, how we love thee. Think of how boring our surroundings would be without the vibrant colors of flowers, the varied shapes of bushes, and the sheer majesty of trees. We’re so lucky to have nature around us all the time. Many of us even have yards right outside out house that we can go and enjoy any time we want. Nature is wild though, and sometimes that means having a crazy, unmanageable yard that doesn’t inspire very much love. It can be hard to tame nature into something both usable and beautiful. Luckily for us there are people like Linda that specialize in making this dichotomy come together.
Float Nurse (with Sefora Fox)
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.
Turtle Biologist (with Doug Rice)
Michelangelo. Leonardo. Raphael. Donatello. What do these names have in common? They’re the four most famous turtles of all time. There’s a lot more to being a turtle than being a famous never-aging-teenager ninja though. Most turtles prefer a more simple life. Some turtles like to swim in the sea. Some turtles are really small and like to live in bogs, like little turtle gnomes. Today’s guest will help us learn about the wonderful and diverse turtle landscape, and also give us a peek at what the life of a field biologist is like.
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.
Satirical Internet Personality (with Andrew Briedis)
The internet is a pretty crazy place. You can buy anything from shamwow towels to assault weapons, watch anything from adorable cat videos to genre defying porn (these account for 97% of the internet’s overall use), and have video conversations with people across the globe. One of the less touted feats of the internet is that it allows us to be anyone we want to be. Today’s guest was one of the first people to really tap into this concept and use it on social media. Andrew created a parody twitter account called Annoying Actor Friend that assumed the role of, well, your annoying actor friend. It completely stuck a nerve with the Broadway community and suddenly Andrew became the Bruce Wayne to his Twitter account’s Batman.
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.
Internet / Cable Technician (with Frank Bartlett)
There are some technologies that are indispensible once discovered. Like a combination of a weed and a redwood, these technologies grow their roots so fast and so deep, that in just a short time removing them would undo the entire foundation of civilization. For me the big three would be farming, electricity, and the Internet. One allowed civilizations to exist, one allowed them to thrive, and the last allowed the whole world to connect into one big civilization…and perhaps more importantly it allowed you to read this sentence and listen to this podcast. Time to figure out what allows us to have the internet and enjoy life as we know it today.
Experimental Test Pilot (with Shawn Disarufino)
There’s so much that goes on behinds the scenes in the world. So many people that make it so we can just live our day to day lives without much interruption. One such major role is that of product tester. Nothing makes it into our world without somebody messing around with it out first. Did you put some oatmeal in the microwave this morning? Best believe that microwave was tested…and probably the oatmeal too. Some product testers take on much more bold jobs than oatmeal, and today’s guest is one of them. Shawn is an experimental test pilot. Planes and helicopters need testing just like anything else, and Shawn is the man to do it.
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.
National Park Employee (with Ben Johnson)
Medicolegal Death Investigator (with Dannine Lorenzo)
Two words. Murder. Mystery. Who doesn’t love a good one? We have a seemingly endless number of television shows based on them, some really popular movies, and an entire genre of books dedicated to finding out whodunnit and how. AND one of the bestselling boardgames of all time. AND the most popular podcast of all time that helped put podcasting on the map. Basically, we all collectively love to try and solve the case. The thing is, there are real people out there who actually have to help solve those cases for a living. Today’s guest is one of them.
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.