Work Stew Podcast

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I typically feel a special affinity for people who can’t fully process the phrase “work-life balance”; it implies that “work” is somehow distinct from “life” in a way that’s never really made sense to me. We didn’t talk about this point specifically, but I think filmmaker M.O. would instinctively understand my point. For her, life and work are firmly intertwined: for example, she’s spent the last year going on 365 dates—and writing about it for publications like the LA Times. And before that, as a recent college grad trying to figure out her own career path, she made a short documentary film, Jobs for Rent, about three twenty-somethings trying to kickstart their working lives.

About M.O.: M.O.’s background is in journalism and documentary film. She has been published in the LA Times, LA Weekly, IDA’s Documentary Magazine, AOL’s Patch.com, Phoenix New Times, Studio Daily’s Film & Video Magazine, and The OC Metro. She served as the Managing Editor of the American Film Institute Film Festival’s The Daily News, interviewing such filmmakers as Darren Aronofsky, Emilio Estevez, David Lynch, and Zhang Yimou. She has written documentary film scripts for various clients, and her documentary producing work includes the feature Meet the Hitlers (2013), My Amityville Horror (2012), and Jobs for Rent (2010).

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Listen to the interview by clicking the arrow on the audio player below.

Given that some law students, struggling to find jobs after graduation, are now suing their alma maters, I was surprised to discover via Facebook that a high school classmate of mine had chosen to take the law school plunge—at age 40.

During the interview, I quickly learned that law for Laura McKenzie is not something she’s pursuing for her own financial security; rather, law for her is a decades-old calling tied inextricably to her faith. Hold the lawyer jokes. Check the cynicism. Even as a life-long skeptic, I found McKenzie’s utterly earnest desire to become a “practitioner of hope” extremely compelling.

About Laura McKenzie: Before embarking on law school, McKenzie earned a B.A. in Religion from Barnard College, an M.A. in Religion from the Trinity Episcopal School of Ministry, worked as a legal assistant, and spent more than ten years as a stay-at-home mom. She is now in her second year of studies at Belmont University College of Law in Nashville, Tennessee.

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Listen to the interview by clicking the arrow on the audio player below.

About a year ago, Mich Kemeter performed the feat captured in this photograph: he crossed a slackline suspended 3,000 feet above the Taft Point gully in Yosemite National Park—without a safety harness. And as remarkable as that seems, the fact is, he does this kind of thing a lot.

In this interview, I attempted to ask the obvious— why??? how???—and Kemeter graciously tried to answer. But my biggest take-away is this: there are so many different kinds of intelligence in this world. Kemeter performs these kinds of feats when, and only when, he knows he can do it. How exactly he acquired such extraordinary levels of mental and physical mastery is a mystery to me, but I came away from even our very short chat wholly convinced that there’s nothing reckless in what Kemeter does. He just knows what he’s doing in a way that most of us never will.

About Mich Kemeter: Austrian-born Michael “Mich” Kemeter is 24-years-old. He has a diploma in weapons engineering, and he was an internationally-ranked pistol shooter before turning his attentions to slacklining, BASE jumping, and climbing in 2007. In the space of five short years, he has achieved five world records.

Photo by Alexandre Buisse, used with permission from Mich Kemeter.

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Listen to the interview by clicking the arrow on the audio player below.

Elections that are free and fair don’t just happen by themselves. Across the country, legions of people across thousands of precincts are employed to set up and manage the voting process. In this interview, I caught up with two such people hours before the big day. First, I spoke with Richard Fann, who has served as an election judge for two decades; then I talked to Teresa Edwards, who is brand new to polling stations—both as a worker and a voter.

About Richard Fann: Richard Fann is a radio frequency engineer from Shiloh, Illinois. He served in the United States Air Force for four years before taking his engineering skills to the civilian world. Over the past 25 years, he has worked for a number of companies, including Motorola, St. Louis Electronics, and WPCS International. He is currently the President of Multibrand Engineering and Wireless. On every election day for the past twenty years, Fann has taken a vacation day from work to serve as an election judge.

About Teresa Edwards: Teresa Edwards is a recent high school graduate from Baltimore, Maryland. A few weeks ago, she returned to Baltimore after a year in Utah, and she is currently looking for a waitressing job. (Please tweet her if you know of one.) On November 6, 2012, Edwards will be working as an election judge for the first time; she will also be casting her very first ballot.

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Listen to the interview by clicking the arrow on the audio player below.

Some of you will remember my big get from January when Santa Claus, one of the world’s most famous seasonal workers, granted me an interview. This interview also focuses on seasonal work. Just in time for Halloween, Rhyne Armstrong reminisces about a gig he had writing scripts for haunted houses. 

About Rhyne Armstrong: Rhyne Armstrong has worked in the field of technical communications for over 16 years. He is currently the Director of Documentation at RouteMatch Software in Atlanta.

Armstrong hails from South Carolina and, on his blog, he describes himself as “really nobody special…just a guy with a wife, kids, mortgage, and too many pets.” But at a conference I attended recently, Armstrong wowed the crowd with a presentation that revealed not only a deep understanding of social media but also an impressive command of horror flicks. You had to be there, but trust me—when it comes to all things spooky, Armstrong knows his stuff.

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Listen to the interview by clicking the arrow on the audio player below.

I have a distinct weakness for workplace dramas of practically any quality, and the really good ones—Mad Men, Dexter, Homeland—have the power to consume me completely until every available episode has been exhausted. I come away from these sorts of shows feeling not only like I’ve had a glimpse into their worlds, but also that I have somehow received actual job training.

Recently I decided that if I’m going to be held in such ridiculous thrall by these fictional workplaces, the least I could do is fact check them from time to time. Down the line, I may chat with a real-life Don Draper and a (hopefully non-homicidal) blood spatter expert. But first I was thrilled to reconnect earlier today with ex-spy Lindsay Moran, who gave me her take on Homeland.

About Lindsay Moran: Lindsay Moran served as a CIA case officer from 1998 to 2003. In 2005, she published a memoir about her CIA experience called  Blowing My Cover, My Life As A Spy.

During her tenure with the CIA, Moran was deployed to the Republic of Macedonia, where her primary job was to identify, vet, and recruit foreigners willing to sell information related to the Serbian genocide in Kosovo.

Before joining the CIA, Moran graduated from Harvard, won a Fulbright scholarship, and worked as a teacher in Bulgaria.

Her freelance writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, and many other publications (including Work Stew). The photo to the right is of Moran in disguise (yes—really!), during the summer of 2000.

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Listen to the interview by clicking the arrow on the audio player below.

This interview is intended primarily for listeners of the Manic Mommies podcast. Recently, an episode of that podcast “disappeared.” (This could happen to anyone. There are a lot of buttons to push.) Anyway, one of the conversational gems lost to the ether was a work-related chat with social worker Kristin Beckstrom Radcliffe. Kristin’s career path sounded interesting, so—with a nod from Manic Mommies co-host Kristin Brandt—I recorded a brand new interview with Beckstrom Radcliffe.

Production note: for some reason, this new recording also has a few sound glitches. (Working theory: Kristin Beckstrom Radcliffe is actually a mermaid and at least part of her voice has been captured by an evil sea witch. Again, just a theory—and thanks in advance for using your imagination when the occasional word gets swallowed.)    

About Kristin Beckstrom Radcliffe: Kristin Beckstrom Radcliffe is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, currently in private practice. Her wide-ranging career started out in Child Protection Services. She has also worked with delinquents, provided support to military families, and held school-based counseling positions. Kristin is the wife of a retired military officer and a mother of two, which may or may not explain why her bio photo includes several reptiles.

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Listen to the interview by clicking the arrow on the audio player below.

The online magazine Slate produces a lot of excellent podcasts; the ones I listen to religiously are the Political Gabfest, the Cultural Gabfest, and the Double X Gabfest. And as I listen, I almost always have the same thought: how wonderful it must be to have your life’s work—your actual job—involve freewheeling discussions about the key political and cultural topics of the day.

Talking to Slate’s editor David Plotz gave me the chance to ask: is this just an outsider’s naive view—or is the job exactly as awesome as it sounds? The interview also inspired a new Work Stew essay: “Skeptics and the Jobs that Love Them.”

About David Plotz: David Plotz joined Slate when it launched in 1996. Before becoming editor, he served in a variety of other roles including feature writer, political columnist, and media columnist. Prior to Slate, Plotz was an editor and writer for the Washington City Paper. He has also freelanced for many publications and is the author of two books: The Genius Factory: The Curious History of the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank and Good Book: The Bizarre, Hilarious, Disturbing, Marvelous, and Inspiring Things I Learned When I Read Every Single Word of the Bible.

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Listen to the interview by clicking the arrow on the audio player below.

Work-wise, it’s easy to get in a rut, to think that you can’t do anything other than what you’ve done in the past. But of course people reinvent themselves all the time—sometimes by choice, often out of necessity. One of Work Stew’s goals is to capture these stories of reinvention, and I particularly like Tammy Dunakin’s: for about 20 years, Dunakin worked in the fast-paced, high-stress realm of emergency medicine. Today, she wrangles goats for a living, and it’s every bit as peaceful and pastoral as it sounds—except of course when it isn’t.

About Tammy Dunakin: A former paramedic, Tammy Dunakin is the founder and owner of Rent-a-Ruminant, a Seattle area business that provides eco-friendly vegetation management services. In other words: goats. In addition to managing her own large herd, Dunakin helps newbies to get started via Rent-a-Ruminant’s Affiliate Program.

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Listen to the interview by clicking the arrow on the audio player below.

Work Stew’s essays and interviews have covered a lot of ground, but with a handful of exceptions, most of the site’s contributors are people whose work involves a lot of sitting down. This week, I felt it was time to talk with someone who is almost entirely desk-free. Cirque du Soleil artist Jonathan Morin not only moves for a living; he invents completely new ways to do so.

About Jonathan Morin: Montreal native Jonathan Morin trained and competed as a world-class gymnast before taking his talents to Cirque du Soleil, where he first performed as an aerial artist in Quidam. Since 2005, he has focused exclusively on an apparatus he developed called the “Crossed Wheel.” As the founder of 2-zen-O, Morin has invested years exploring and refining the apparatus, and in 2011 he again joined forces with Cirque du Soleil—this time, as a main acrobatic character performing with the Crossed Wheel in the production of Dralion.

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