Shows
What People DoEpisode 93: Dr. Kyra Bobinet studies why brains make change difficultYou’ve experienced this before, right?
You know you’re supposed to do something. You’ve learned that a good habit is what you need or a bad habit needs to be changed. You know you should spend more time on this and less time on that. You know it’d be good for your emotional health, your body, or your soul.
But you don’t do it. There’s a gap.
Dr. Kyra Bobinet, MD-PhD, calls it the “Know-Do” gap.
It all stems from work she’s done for years studying, research...
2025-08-1247 min
What People DoEpisode 92: Walter Stewart co-owns a game shopNo, not game, like deer and pheasant, but game like … board games, tabletop games, card games, miniature games. Basically, all the games of the world that happen solo, in pairs, in groups, around tables, at home, at cafes (like the one next door to his shop), and out in parks and fields and anywhere else you can roll some dice or move some tokens or share and swap some cards. Everything but the video games. The video games you go somewhere else for.
Monopoly. Dungeons & Dragons. Apples to Apples. Cards Against Humanity. Vampire: The Masquerade. Warhammer 40K (th...
2025-06-2954 min
What People DoEpisode 91: Ken Fleisher made productivity tool Cherry TaskI am a big fan of thinking of productivity and task management, but I’ve been through dozens of them and I no longer think that any tool is going to magically spirit away whatever issues I have with self-motivation, focused productivity, or values-based action.
Buuut … I still like to toy with this stuff. Back in the day, David Allen’s book Getting Thing Done changed my life, and I still fall back on GTD’s principles every day. Because I like to experiment, I was willing to switch to Cherry Task from the GTD-based FacileThings in the past...
2025-05-141h 11
What People DoEpisode 90: Rabbi Simcha Raphael studies ideas on the Jewish afterlifeHe's a scholar. A therapist. And a rabbi. And all three of those disciplines have touched on his work deeply studying what Judaism has to say about the supernatural and especially the afterlife.
Rabbi Simcha Raphael takes me on a fascinating, personal, and well-researched dive into his decades' long work into a realm that doesn't get as much attention as it does in Christianity: what happens to us after we die.
If you think about God, life and death, and the lesser-known parts of our world, "the window, not a door" we can peek through...
2025-04-151h 03
What People DoEpisode 89: Rabbi Richard Agler writes books on tragedy and Jewish views on GodAfter interviewing Rabbi Rifat Sonsino about a co-edited book he worked on called A God We Can Believe In, the other co-editor reached out and said he had more to say on it. Given that I peppered Rabbi Sonsino mostly about other books he'd worked on that had been influential in my understanding how pluralistic and wide-ranging Jewish views on God were, I said absolutely sure of course yes to a new interview with Rabbi Richard Agler.
In this discussion, we use a little Jewish lingo (most of it explained), but overall, we're wrestling with a perennial...
2025-03-1844 min
What People DoEpisode 88: Dr. Samuel Brody wrote about religious ZionismIsrael and Zionism: Could I have picked a hotter topic? Well, cool your jets, man.
Sam Brody, PhD, an associate professor of religious studies at University of Kansas, is going to bring a nuanced view of Zionism, theology, politics, and the ever-in-the-news dilemma of the nation-state of Israel by exploring an early thinker on the topic who’s most famous these days in bookstores for his religious work alone: Martin Buber.
If there are terms you don’t get as you listen, stop and look them up. It’s not too deep. Then, bask in Brody’...
2025-02-1857 min
What People DoEpisode 87: Rabbi Rifat Sonsino writes about GodReligions emphasize, in different measure at different times and for different reasons, belief/theology and practice/ritual/tradition.
Judaism, in general, is a religion that focuses more on practice than belief. And it famously has multiple ways to remain “tied in” to the ethnoreligious tribe: To be Jewish is to do Jewish religion, to be Jewish is to be a part of the tribal nation of Israel (as differentiated from the secular state today), and to be Jewish is to be a part of the tribe of Jewish people. Religion. Nation. Tribe.
Traditionally, you are a Jew...
2025-01-2138 min
What People Do86: Ilana podcasts about activism for kidsI know Ilana from a teaching gig. Ilana's mom asked if I wanted to interview the budding podcaster. I said, of course, sure, absolutely.
You can find everything they're working on around the project of helping kids make a difference in causes they care about at the very well-named Kids4Justice.org. You can also get right to the podcast The Power Pod on Spotify. Episodes are VERY short with snappy music and great guests, and Ilana actually does work to edit a podcast, which I am too much of a sloth to do. They've interviewed musical...
2024-12-1722 min
What People Do85: Larry Stigsell wrote an inspirational bookHe's a dad. He's a granddad. He was a decades-long sporting goods salesman in his town. And he worries about the negativity in the world today and wanted to take a stab at sharing the philosophy that helps him.
That's Larry Stigsell and his new book, Looking Through Our Eyes of Curi Osity.
I knew Larry through his son; we used to work together in B2B publishing.
I think you get a feel for Larry's energy and goodwill, and the evergreen sensibility at the base of his advice to everybody, in the...
2024-12-0333 min
What People Do84: Richard Orodenker uses commonplace booksIt’s been a few weeks now that I’ve been keeping a commonplace book. A few hours after discovering the concept and chasing some internet rabbit holes, I found Richard Orodenker, a former Temple University faculty member, who uses a commonplace book, has studied historical examples of them, and used them as projects in some of “Intellectual Heritage” classes with college students.
I immediately contacted him and asked if he’d be interviewed on the books, their use, and his practice and study with him.
He agreed. And, thus, another episode of What People Do was bor...
2024-08-2756 min
What People DoBonus! KJ Davis helps creatives get startedKJ Davis is a self-described "working neurodivergent matriach, military vet spouse, small business owner, and descriptive fantasy sci-fi author." All the aspects were interesting to me (we didn't talk the "military vet spouse" part, sorry).
The idea of a small business that serves to help creatives take their burning passions to the people is a neat one. What if you're shy, nervous, inexperienced, afraid of failure, or have other social or psychological issues that make it hard to take those first steps in self-promotion to get your name out there?
That's what KJ does ...
2024-06-1841 min
What People DoBonus! Noah Gibbs helps organize a charity gaming conventionNoah Gibbs is a fellow tabletop gamer and Kansas City metro local. But he’s got even stronger feelings about the local gaming and convention community than me. He’s been working with a charity convention to raise funds for local causes for a few years. He still games regularly (I’ve lapsed). And, guess what, his connections at local gaming conventions led him to the Kansas City metro years ago. Folks he’d met at Kantcon helped get him established here. He met his wife. Now he’s a proud dad, too.
Find out more about Noah, his...
2024-06-1134 min
What People Do83: Georgios has published a book on Aristotle's CategoriesGeorgios is a philosophy student and one who brings others along with him. Now, when I say he’s a philosophy student, you think, ahh, he’s taking a class.
No.
Georgios has a job. He lives in the real world with us outside academia. But he carves out time to study Aristotle and other writers and thinkers for fun and wisdom in the time he isn’t working.
That’s so amazing, this is my second time interviewing him. My first one looked at Socrates, Aristotle and what to do with this life.
...
2024-04-0955 min
What People Do82: Elliot Kanshin Kallen plays the shakuhachiThis episode gets into every angle of a musical instrument you’ve, for sure, heard yet may not know what it’s called.
Elliot Kanshin Kallen touches on the history of this Japanese flute, the emotions you can conjure from it, how it compares to other breath instruments, and, best of all, plays some notes for us a few times to make a point. We even talk a little Zen Buddhism (because it ties into the history and use of the instrument).
The angle of the mouth ... how many holes and why ... its complicated popularity and di...
2024-03-121h 02
What People Do81: James Gomes re-reads the spiritual classic SiddharthaIt’s a new year, 2024, and that means James Gomes re-read Siddhartha by Herman Hesse for the umpteenth time. It’s a short book, it’s in the public domain, and Gomes says he gets something new out of it every time.
I know that happened for me. He set up an online book club, and I read along with him. I had read the book a few years ago, and based on my reading this time, I didn’t remember as much as I’d thought. I got new insights, but like most things in my brain, they...
2024-02-121h 08
What People Do80: Kevin works on protecting kids from active shootersI interviewed Kevin Jones about soft skills in security and law enforcement work for another podcast here. I enjoyed the conversation so much, and I was so intensely curious about his work in law enforcement, that I asked him to drop in for this podcast to talk about his career in law enforcement as well, near the end, about his transition to private security at a regional airport and now overseeing safety programs in a school district.
Everyone has an opinion about cops, but there aren’t many easy ways to try to get behind the curtain of...
2024-01-091h 19
What People Do79: M. D. Usher writes on ancient philosophy, animals and natureI met the Stoics a long time ago, as an adult, sitting in a field outside a local library and reading Epictetus’ Enchiridion (the Handbook). In fact, it was probably one of these copies.
Well, before Epictetus, there were the Cynics, and their philosophy was a little harder to follow. The famous Diogenes lived more like the animals than the Greeks around him, enjoying the sunshine, wearing whatever he could find, eating whatever he could find. A famous anecdote has him living in a large wine cask, and Alexander the Great asking him, with respect, what boon he...
2023-12-1247 min
What People Do78: Adam Toon philosophizes about the mindThere is a beautifully un-nail-down-able question-and-answer I have been rolling around, like a stone in a rock polisher, for many years now: What is consciousness?
It’s the big thing that seems to separate us from other animals: We are conscious or self-reflective or imaginative or reasoning in a way that other creatures, great and small, do not seem to be.
This quest, which has carried around in the world of neurologists, psychologists, philosophers, theologians, self-help gurus, physicists and more ...led me to Adam Toon, an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Exeter.
2023-11-1450 min
What People Do77: David Doherty teaches salesI enjoyed working for a few years with David Doherty with a multimedia publishing and events company in veterinary medicine.
My favorite part was, every couple months, I'd go break into his office, sit down and ask him about sales. I thought his philosophy was fascinating. I don't like sales, but if I had to think about sales, heart about sales, wrap my head around sales ... I enjoyed doing it with Doherty.
Today, Doherty is VP of Market Development with Coffman Group, a franchisee of the Sandler Training method. The Sandler book Doherty mentions is...
2023-10-0342 min
What People Do76: Mike Keller collects moviesI used to work at a magazine for video store owners. By the time I’d gotten there, it was a vanity publication for the gigantic red-headed stepchildren of Hollywood: home entertainment companies. You know, the big money and focus went into the movies heading to cinema, and direct-to-video/DVD/Blu-ray and the home release of those movies was … not as cool, not as big, etc.
My interviewee, Mike Keller, has been collecting videos, DVDs and Blu-rays for a long time now. We discuss the transition we’ve all lived through: It seemed like everyone was buying video...
2023-09-2650 min
What People Do75: James Gomes reads this one book again and againI stumbled onto James Gomes (pronounced "GOHMZ," not "GOH-mez") on Reddit.com, which I have since abandoned as a forum for anything other than dumb questions, confirmation bias and echo chambers.
However, I found a few interesting people along the way, like James. We were both into old books, and I was surprised to hear he'd read and re-read a particular book, like, every year ... for many years.
In this episode, we find out the particular pull of Herman Hesse's Siddhartha for James as well as how a non-reader became a regular and repeating reader...
2023-09-1945 min
What People Do74: Sam Chupp writes and creates role-playing gamesOne role-playing game changed the way I think, or confirmed the way I think—now I don’t know which.
It was Mage: The Ascension. The tabletop role-playing game had players take on the roles of modern mages. The difference was, in previous RPGs, mages are usually spell-casting wizards. In Mage, magic works by imposing will upon the world: A mage wants something to happen. They try to learn how to do things like that (use fire, use time, use space between things, use death), and then they try to force their will on the world. If they...
2023-09-121h 03
What People DoBONUS! Dr. Jennifer Sperry writes on the high costs of veterinary carePet owners complain about the rising cost of veterinary prices. What’s to blame?
This is a special bonus episode of What People Do that I've produced as a part of sponsored content for Animal Health Digest, a premier content curation service collecting and commenting on actionable information for people working in animal health.
I talk with Dr. Jennifer Sperry about the rising cost of veterinary care. Pet owners often say they’re shocked and unprepared for the bill when they visit their local veterinary hospital. How can they cope? And what should they know about...
2023-09-0615 min
What People Do73: Brendan is making a new podcastHey, gang.
I was getting out new episodes of What People Do every Tuesday for a few months. Then my backlog run out Aug. 1.
Surprise! I'm back. Not to tell you the backlog is back and the schedule is back (I am scheduling interviews, and this will keep going), but to say I'm working on a new podcast, too.
This short 7-ish-minutes-long solo ramble covers what this podcast is and continues to be, and how a new podcast is another way to approach conversations.
Watch out for the new one. Continue...
2023-08-2207 min
What People DoBONUS! Joe Roetheli, PhD, talks about a honeycombed dental treatThe Greenies inventor is at it again … a new dental treat on the market.
This special podcast is a collaboration with Animal Health Digest, a premier content curation service collecting and commenting on actionable information for people working in animal health.
I talk with Joe Roetheli, PhD, about something almost all dog owners buy: treats. Roetheli and his wife, Judy, were the masterminds behind the Greenies dental treat before selling it to a big dog in animal health, Mars, way back in 2006. Now, the serial entrepreneur has designed a new treat, also for dogs, and...
2023-08-1516 min
What People Do72: Michael Strumsky conquered TV addictionIt started before college. But when he showed up and could organize his life and calendar the way he wanted, well, there was so much TV to watch. All the time. And Michael Strumsky hit college during not “destination television,” but during the era of DVDs and online show sharing. He could watch and re-watch shows all the time, at all hours, any time of day.
What did he do? What did he do?
He eased up. He got busy. Let’s see how it went …
Want more Michael? He interviews people more than intere...
2023-08-0134 min
What People Do71: David Patterson translated Leo Tolstoy’s ConfessionI read books all the time, but very, very rarely do I read a book more than once.
That was Leo Tolstoy’s Confession. I had seen references to the Russian great’s short work of religion, morality and personal experience.
Basically, Tolstoy hit middle age, wildly successful as an author with a happy family, and he wanted to die by suicide. For years, he struggled, and the short work is the story of his despair, his reasonable questioning, and the way out he found (it wasn’t suicide).
Today, David Patterson is a literat...
2023-07-251h 04
What People Do70: Ganesh loves cricket. Like, really loves it.There are some dudes who play cricket in a big grassy field out here between a walking trail and some suburban homes. There’s a long stretch of concrete in this Kansas suburban field, and a port-a-potty nearby. Some Saturdays I would walk by and see these guys out there, but I felt weird about stopping and asking about their game of cricket.
So, I found Ganesh online. And he answered all my dumb questions. And I think … I THINK … I understand the mechanics of the game and its appeal.
Among me asking questions over and over...
2023-07-181h 03
What People Do69: Who edits those internet videos? Nathan doesSome content creators get so busy that they can't find time to plan, film, edit, post and promote their own stuff online. They turn to a growing international corps of creatives to do it.
This guy’s one. His favorite claim to fame right now? Editing a Minecraft video from Mr. Beast that now has 1.7 million views. Holy crap snacks.
Now, he might be off to his next greatest adventure, leaving rural northwestern America for … urban Florida!
Find him at tssvideoediting.com.
Let’s dig into the calm but cool world of this vid...
2023-07-1215 min
What People Do68: New to Neoclassical music? Dive in with Hipster PugIn recent years, I have fallen back in love with New Age, space music, and the droning, atmospheric, accessible Neoclassical genre. Imagine music to TV shows, movies and moods that don’t exist … or only exist in the composers’ and performers’ own heads.
Works like Max Richter’s Sleep and Johann Johannson’s Virðulegu Forsetar have played and replayed in my head as I lie on my bed dozens of times now. Their droning but moving parts, atmospheric sound and noise, and accessible melody and harmony, slow and calming and transporting … I can’t get enough.
That’s why a...
2023-07-0540 min
What People Do67: Spiraling metal and wood: James Payne’s public sculpturesI stumbled onto James Payne on Reddit.com, where he asked folks in my town if they’d go check on, and take measurements of, a big piece of public art he’d loaned to the city a few years ago.
I know that art! I’ve gotta talk to this guy!
And he agreed.
I got to ask Payne about his art sensibilities, how he got entranced by big sculptures, and the moment spirals grabbed his attention.
If all went as planned, I went out at the end of May to spend a...
2023-06-2741 min
What People Do66: Escaping abuse and processing trauma: Pamela Topjian writes her personal storyPamela Topjian published a book last year about her experience escaping an abusive partner and figuring out how she’d wound up there in the first place: I Didn't Come This Far to Only Come THIS Far.
She was once trapped in a terrible marriage. Now, she lives a life she says she never expected to live. How did she get from there … to here?
She tells us.
You can, of course, run off and read Topjian’s book on Kindle. Or you can check out her evolving channel of thinking, hypnotherapy and meditatio...
2023-06-2035 min
What People Do65: One man’s military life: Anonymous talks about before and in the French militaryI can’t share his name, but he calls in from France. He wanted to join the military, and he’s serving a five-year stint. He’s gotten promotions, and after basic training, he got into exactly the unit he yearned for. He doesn’t regret his choice to join the military. He wanted a unique, powerful experience. He wanted to join that brotherhood of men and women that develops only when you’re pushed your limit, under fire, in danger, and exhausted. He found what he wanted.
He also found Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and he sought help...
2023-06-1346 min
What People DoBONUS! Gabi Dyck makes hand-made dice … and moreThe folks at the gaming convention Kantcon let me interview Gabi Dyck of Gamer Girl Jewelry recently to help me help them promote my favorite gaming convention in the country. (Full disclosure: It's them. They're my favorite. But I’ve only ever been to Kantcon over and over again for years, so I’m biased.)
You’d think with tabletop RPGs roughly 50 years old that hand-made dice would have totally been a thing by now. But Gabi Dyck, founder of Gamer Girl Jewelry, told me that hand-made dice are relatively new. Turns out, there’s a lot of equipm...
2023-06-1033 min
What People Do64: What do we do with this life? Georgios asks, with Socrates, Aristotle and me, but in a very roundabout wayUltimately, I think the fundamental question we tumble into, like rolling down a mountain of sharp, rocky points, bloodied and bruised at the bottom of the Mountain of Life time and time again, is, “What are we supposed to do with this life?” The philosophers phrase this question in many ways: What is good? What is God? What is truth? What is kindness? Why do we gather together? What are the best ways to gather together? Why do we rule and consent to be ruled, and what are the ways to do that?
On and on and on.
2023-06-061h 00
What People Do63: Josh has done psychedelic drugsJosh was an atheist.
But Josh’s mind was blown, in a good way, in experiences where he consumed psychedelic drugs.
Here, he talks about his pre-psychedelic world, his mind shift, how religions might be onto something, and the benefits and dangers of psychedelics in this one.
Let me be clear: In talking to Josh openly about his experiences, I am not recommending anyone follow his path. I’m not telling you it would be good for you, personally, to use particular drugs, or drugs at all. That’s a personal choice for grown a...
2023-05-3050 min
What People Do62: Beth Mayorga on fan fictionBeth Mayorga hosts her own podcast, The Fan Fic Maverick. What is “fan fic”? The definition is always being fought over in online forums, but Beth says it simply: You’re writing stories using someone else’s IP (intellectual property).
An early form of this in the 1960s that Beth and I mention are Star Trek stories written by fans shared way before the internet was big about Kirk and Spock’s evolving relationship outside the "approved" TV show—sometimes romantically. No, that doesn’t mean all fan fic is erotic fantasy. Any time a writer or a creator makes...
2023-05-2354 min
What People Do61: Noah Mussay talks about spina bifidaWhat is spina bifida? What is it like living with the ongoing of the birth defect as a creative twentysomething American?
Noah Mussay talks about childhood, school, work, life and sled hockey, and gives us a few pointers on the way he prefers strangers ask about his condition (hint: be curious, not entitled).
Note: After the last question here, I asked Noah what he does for fun outside of work and his former sled hockey days. He said he’s reading Robert Jordan gigantic “Wheel of Time” series. He talked me into it, and I’ve got a...
2023-05-1634 min
What People Do60: Jeffery D. Long on Indian philosophyJeffery D. Long spoke to me last year about religious pacifism, especially in reference to the brand-new book he co-edited (and wrote chapters for), Nonviolence in the World’s Religions: A Concise Introduction (Routledge, 2022).
Now, the Carl W. Ziegler Professor of Religious Studies at Elizabethtown College talks to me about a book coming out this year: Discovering Indian Philosophy: An Introduction to Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist Thought (Bloomsbury, coming 2023). It’s a sneak peek! And I am incredibly interested in the topic. I have delved into Buddhism, which had its start in India way back when. And I’ve b...
2023-05-091h 02
What People Do59: Adam Gray teaches English in TaiwanThere is a joy that comes with interviewing someone about something you are deeply familiar with. You have lots of follow-up questions. You have lots of chances to push back. You know what to joke about to show inside knowledge and how to carry the interviewee deeper and deeper into the shared pool.
There is another joy that comes with interviewing someone about something you know nothing about. Well, OK, to be fair, Adam Gray and I both teach languages, and we both play video games (check out his podcast here).
But Taiwan? Nothing. I go...
2023-05-0259 min
What People Do58: John France illuminates the CrusadesI spoke to a veterinarian-and-amateur-historian recently, and he turned me onto the Crusades. I’ll admit, I hadn’t thought much about them beyond the basic line: zealous Christians from Europe led failed (and very bloody) military attempts to hold Jerusalem and other parts of Jesus' old stomping grounds. The leaders, I remembered, were surely motivated by greed and holy-war violence.
Not so fast, says professor emeritus John France. The truth of things is more nuanced and multifaceted, but, yes, still very violent and bloody. But this medieval historian argues compellingly that, well, we forget, as moderns, just...
2023-04-251h 01
What People Do57: Christine Horne studied COVID social normsThe very kind academic Monica Kirkpatrick Johnson answered questions about teenagers in society last year on this podcast. At the time, she told me she was a helping hand in research done right at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, say, March 2020.
The research had to do with social norms, Dr. Kirkpatrick Johnson told me, and her colleague—Washington State University sociology professor Dr. Christine Horne—could tell me more.
Well, she did.
Dr. Horne and I discuss sociology, American culture, a little about her biggest bit of research (bridewealth, paid from groom's family...
2023-04-1846 min
What People Do56: Jeremy Black writes about WWII mapsRetired historian Dr. Jeremy Black has now allowed me to interview him three times. THREE TIMES. He gets an award for entertaining my curiosity.
In each interview, he dances through a historian’s perspective and answers both detailed questions about fiddly bits of the world’s past as well as giving detailed and thoughtful big-picture answers about war, religion and life in general.
In this episode, Jeremy discusses A History of the Second World War in 100 Maps (2020, The University of Chicago Press). He kicks off by explaining some wanted the book to be yet another chronol...
2023-04-1127 min
What People Do55: Aaron Gruben on Christian veterinariansI regularly search on Amazon for “veterinary business” and “veterinary management” and “business” books. Sometimes to buy, but usually, at first, to find new guests for a veterinary podcast.
That’s how I stumbled into Aaron Gruben’s new book A Theology of Beasts: Christians and Veterinary Medicine. The book brought together two things that fascinate me: DVMs and divinity. I bought it. I read it. I liked it.
The first half of the book is Dr. Gruben’s deep dive into Christians he found in ancient and modern history who contributed to and focused on animal medicine...
2023-04-0438 min
What People Do54: Ray Sydner does hypnotherapyThere is the hypnosis done for entertainment—on the stage or in a room of conference-goers. Like, say, this. A hypnotist gathers a group, asks the members to relax, and watches them, with their eyes closed, to see if they’re receptive to the hypnosis. The hypnotist kicks out the ones who are “faking it” or aren’t relaxing. Then the others cluck like chickens or get hot or cold or act silly.
There is another hypnosis, built on the same principles, used as a therapy technique. Ray has used hypnotherapy to help people stop smoking, give up other ba...
2023-03-2845 min
What People Do53: Allan Horwitz studies sadness, depressionEverybody’s talking about mental health these days. That's, by and large, a good thing.
But did you ever wonder why the incidence of diagnosed depression has been skyrocketing even as we talk more openly about our mental and emotional issues? What's going on?
That’s what I talk to retired professor emeritus Dr. Allan Horwitz about. Dr. Horwitz has tilted at the DSM (The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) windmill with books like All We Have to Fear: Psychiatry’s Transformation of Normal Anxieties into Mental Disorders (2012) and The Loss of Sadness: How Psy...
2023-03-2140 min
What People Do52: Gene Maxwell chills out with his musicVeterinarian Dr. Gene Maxwell remembers someone coming up to him after a show in his town where he’d played some easy-going tunes on his guitar, influenced by folk, country, bluegrass, jazz, whatever. And she said his music was relaxing. He was elated inside. Because that’s what sitting and playing guitar does for him today: The tones of the guitar relax him like a feedback loop of calm.
He says everyone’s life at the veterinary hospital is better if he gets 20 minutes of guitar time in before showing up. And he’s never felt the pull to m...
2023-03-1436 min
What People Do51: Gregory McBrayer studies XenophonI mean, he doesn’t just study Xenophon. Dr. Gregory McBrayer teacher political philosophy and international relations as Director, Core Curriculum, and Assistant Professor of Political Science at Ashland University.
I’ve been on a kick lately reading excerpts from late-19th-early-20th century series. (Find my writing here.) And each time I wrap up a thinker, I thought, “Hey, wouldn’t it be neat if I talked to somebody who knows that thinker better to see if my impressions were right, what I missed, and what cool rabbit trails other people fall down when it comes to that t...
2023-03-0748 min
What People Do50: Greg Kindred does commercial photographyThis is my big Episode 50. That’s, like, a milestone, right? And it’s with a nice guy I know, so I like it even more.
I worked with Greg for years at a veterinary publishing and event company. Now, he’s working on revving up his business in commercial photography, which I think is interesting. What is commercial photography? In Greg's case, he specializes in tabletop product pics, headshots, and pet portraits. You know, not artsy-fartsy photographs (although he takes those, too, and they’re real purty), but work for businesses. The kind of shots that leave yo...
2023-02-2836 min
What People Do49: Nick Grabbe knows David Grayson’s secretI stumbled onto the writing of David Grayson as I reflected on my (sometimes) daily reading of The University Library. Grayson's way of seeing the good in people and letting curiosity turn his feelings of urban oppression into natural wonder were inspiring. Open, curious conversations with people are kind of what this podcast is about.
So, I went on the hunt for someone to talk to about the guy whose method of talking to people was so inspiring.
And I found Nick Grabbe (grab-AY). Nick worked for decades as a journalist in Amherst, Massachusetts. Born in...
2023-02-2153 min
What People Do48: Noah Aronson makes musical momentsI met Noah when he came to a big synagogue in the Kansas City Metro and spent a weekend with us there. I was teaching kids songs every Sunday, so he trooped around with me and my brilliant guitar-playing assistant and interacted with every age group with us during the day. He says in this podcast that he loves getting down with the kids on the ground and interacting with them in the moment, and that is exactly what I remember most about his presence: He was right there with you.
I still play a few of h...
2023-02-141h 04
What People DoEpisode 47: Jeremy Black on Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie, and moreRecently retired history professor Jeremy Black was very gracious in allowing me to interview a while back about something I was curious about: war. Black has written many, many books, and a darn big pile of them specifically about military conflicts. His historic perspective—looking at how many common narratives about why wars start and how they’re won are often wrong—was amazingly refreshing, but … we’re not here to talk war.
We’re here to talk morality. Religion. And detective fiction.
Black has just published two new books on Sherlock Holmes (The Game Is Afoot: The...
2023-01-2435 min
What People DoEpisode 46: Deana Weibel, PhD, studies space and religionTwo things everywhere around us: Religion. Space.
But most people don’t bring them together.
Scientists unhappy with religion shake their head at our species’ small-minded tribal violence that bubbles up in religious conflict or old-fashioned “sky daddy” thinking. Religionists unhappy with science shake their head at scientism’s obsessive materialism and lack of answers and responses to our very human needs to understand, to be comforted, to be awed.
Now that the two strawmen/women are out of the way, most of us can acknowledge religion doesn’t end at the atmosphere, and space is...
2023-01-101h 03
What People DoEpisode 45: Georgios on the novel-like stories of ThucydidesLast month, we heard from academic Joel Schlosser on Herodotus, inspired by my own blog on some excerpts.
Now, a nice Redditor, Georgios from Greece who's read all of Thucydides agreed to discuss the ancient historian with me. We wander close to Thucydides and far afield, but most of all his enthusiasm, enjoyment and sense of humor about the principal characters and events from these old battles and political intrigues made our chat sparkle.
Interested in slowly reading ancient works with Georgios? Check out his Aristotle Study Group here.
2022-12-131h 10
What People DoEpisode 44: Joel Schlosser on how Herodotus can help us today (and other lessons from the ancient Greek historian)I have started reading a new set of old excerpted classics, this one gathering writers’ bits and baubles into generally geographic volumes: Greece, Rome, the British Isles, etc. I also write about them. (I write about another set here.)
The first selection in the first volume comes from the ancient Greek historian Herodotus. (You can read my thoughts here.)
Much sharper than my own thoughts, however, are the thoughts of political theorist and Bryn Mawr professor Joel Schlosser, writer of Herodotus in the Anthropocene (The University of Chicago Press, 2020). Schlosser explores exactly what I felt rea...
2022-11-171h 00
What People DoEpisode 43: Kit Smith is an early childhood educatorKit Smith is one of the most confident, stable and exuberant kindergarten teachers I've had the pleasure to work with. (We cross paths in a local synagogue's Sunday School).
She's now eyeing a well-deserved retirement from decades of educational work at a private school and her regular Sunday School gig with me.
I absolutely needed to talk to her about how she became a teacher, what teaching means to her, what her teaching philosophy is, what is most exhilarating about working with small children, and what has been the toughest part (hint: not the kids).
2022-08-3044 min
What People DoEpisode 42: Tracy Sheffield will be on the TV show ‘Walker’She’s an awesome veterinary practice manager and management consultant in her day job, but Tracy Sheffield moonlights doing local theater and getting called in for small parts that are just perfect for a horse-smart extra.
Find out about her latest gig in an upcoming episode of Walker (find out where to watch it here), how she got started, years ago, watching Animal House get made at her mom’s workplace, and, last but not least, how she helps race horses who can’t race anymore (more about the Roses to Ribbons Old Fashioned Horse Fair).
Photo...
2022-08-171h 01
What People DoEpisode 41: Heike Langdon is on her way to a Master of Science in Urban StudiesUniversity of Omaha at Omaha’s Heike Langdon explains what goes into an Urban Studies concentration, what she likes best about nonprofit work, and why she was attracted to a field that touches on serious societal problems today and historically.
She’s focused, especially, on redlining in a few large American cities as her degree’s final project. What’s red-lining? Glad you asked. And she’s studying this while she’s working at this cool place on campus that brings together multiple nonprofits under one roof.
Let’s get learning …
2022-08-0337 min
What People DoEpisode 40: Louis Breinin builds robots (with kids)Louis teaches “Industrial Tech” at North Kansas City High School. That’s exciting enough. But one of his classes—and a ton of his extracurricular student assistance—is building robots with kids there.
The team competes under the international umbrella of the FIRST Robotics Competition.
Louis switched from his engineering degree to a new world of teaching skills like that to kids.
Here’s Louis’ adventure in teaching and how his kids’ robots are the same, and different, from those cool BattleBots on TV …
2022-07-1958 min
What People DoEpisode 39: Dan Plazak studies mining fraud"If you believe that, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.” Maybe that line wouldn’t work on you, but what about somebody who says they’ve found gold, uranium, oil somewhere in them thar hills?
Retired geologist Dan Plazak (pronounced “PLAZ-ick,” not “PLAY-zack” as I figured) wrote a book on it: A Hole in the Ground With a Liar at the Top: Fraud and Deceit in the Golden Age of American Mining, an easy-to-pick up collection of swindle stories published in 2006 by University of Utah Press.
I talk to him about his childhood intere...
2022-07-0555 min
What People DoEpisode 38: Hilal Dogan starts teaching yogaI’ve known Hilal Dogan for years now. She first came onto my radar when I worked for a veterinary publishing and CE conference company, and she was rocking The Veterinary Confessionals Project. She was a veterinarian by this time, although she put the project together during her time in veterinary school (hear more).
But that’s not my favorite thing about Hilal. My favorite thing about Hilal is she is a driven, goal-oriented free spirit. She is a paradox, and I love it.
Her latest goal, just achieved? Yoga teacher certification at this Denver studio...
2022-06-211h 02
What People DoEpisode 37: John Krygier collects classic reprintsIf you’ve been to a used bookstore, a thrift store or a house with many, many books, you absolutely positively have seen one: a reprint of another book collected in a series to make great work more accessible to average reader of modest means—and squeeze out the last dollar from books that otherwise would drop out of print.
I stumbled onto John Krygier’s online collection of such books as I work my way through the University Library and went hunting for others reading, collecting or studying works of great literature meant for the common woman a...
2022-06-071h 08
What People DoEpisode 36: Hannah Emery was a bookstore managerWhen I spoke to her, Hannah was a manager at The Dusty Bookshelf in Manhattan, Kan., home of Kansas State University. Her location—there’s another in Lawrence, home to University of Kansas—sells new books, used books, gifts and other sundries and, yes, coffee. Hannah liked the coffee side of things so much, the hustle and bustle, helping folks fast and efficiently, that she was about to run off on a new adventure to manage a coffee shop in downtown Chicago. That’s a big leap for a young lady who grew up a “townie” in the college town, loves...
2022-05-2446 min
What People DoEpisode 35: Jeffery D. Long on Hinduism, religious nonviolenceJainism, birthed out of the rich religions of India, asks practitioners to be as careful as they can in not hurting a single thing. They step carefully on the ground and wear masks to avoid inhaling and accidentally killing the little things we thoughtlessly murder. Now, that, but writ large: Gandhi, and the nonviolent movement that sought Indian independence from British rule.
Well, we don’t talk about any of that, because as a fellow religious convert, I much more wanted to discuss Jeffery D. Long’s switch from small-town Missouri Catholicism to Hinduism over the decades. It tu...
2022-05-101h 06
What People DoEpisode 34: Portia Stewart is a creativity consultantOh, that means she does art projects at the local museum? No. Right, well, that means she helps creatives unstick when they’re working on their novels, like, say, Julie Cameron? Well, a little closer. No, Portia (at Mind Full Creatives) is really on the path of helping anyone with unleashing their creativity, but especially those who want to unleash creativity and actually get something done, whether that's a “solo-preneur” or a group of corporate bigwigs or multiple internal teams clashing right now over dreaming into the future and trying to find out what sticks.
I used to work...
2022-04-261h 03
What People DoEpisode 33: Tania Rodriguez, Leah Ferguson study how to improve learning in older adultsHow do you keep learning when you get old? Keep learning when you get old. It’s not a riddle, say Tania Rodriguez and Leah Ferguson (with the red streaks on the left, if you see the thumbnail) working at the Calla Lab at UC Riverside with their inspiring leader, Rachel Wu, PhD. (Stay to the end to hear how awesome Wu is.)
Rodriguez is a first-year PhD student in the psychology program studying low-income minority older adults helping them to increase cognitive function and stave off cognitive decline in their later years. Ideally, she’d like her r...
2022-03-291h 06
What People DoEpisode 32: Kelly Main actsKelly and I used to work together, and she was always very high-energy, a big laugher, a loud, ringing and positive voice. She was in sales, so none of that should surprise. But what I found out later, after I’d worked with her for a while, was she was an actress. Maybe on temporary, busy-life hiatus, but she’d had a whole ‘nother life before this one in the arts, in New York acting school, in New York performing and tryouts. Years before.
And she was back at it, trying out for a local this, working with a...
2022-03-1554 min
What People DoEpisode 31: Carol Branson makes whimsy-ponderable art"Whimsy ponderable”: how Carol Branson’s friend described her art. I’d call it child-like, folk-art-flavored found art. You can see the fun, but it makes you think, too. Her online gallery starts with old guitars and goes from there. My daughter is particularly partial, in a major way, to the skateboard art. There’s wood, metal, paint and lighting elements: found objects transformed into feelings and color.
Carol shares how she started in art, how theater and art played roles in comforting and guiding her as she was outed as a gay woman before high school, and how wor...
2022-03-0158 min
What People DoEpisode 30: Monica Kirkpatrick Johnson studies adolescenceI throw inflammatory questions and opinions about teenagers at Washington State University sociology professor Monica Kirkpatrick Johnson, and she handles them with aplomb.
Teenagers have a rough time, and different teenagers have different rough times depending on who they are, where they live, what their parents are like, and how much money they've got. Most interesting, and sounding right, Monica discusses the "package" we're born with: Our rough or easy teenage transition as a life stage usually has to do with more than one factor ... here and abroad.
Let's talk adolescents ...
Want to...
2022-02-151h 06
What People DoEpisode 29: Jeremy Black studies war (and talks academia)Jeremy Black spoke to me Jan. 1, 2022, so he seems the perfect guest to share first in this new season.
He talks about one of the most emotionally fraught issues of human civilization, War and Violence(TM), with a historian's pragmatism and a respect for those affected by the war, especially the dead.
I start off on some rant here about war being "bad," and he adds nuance and refuses to be baited into black-and-white thinking. One of his most recent books, A Short History of War (2021, Yale University Press), succinctly presents a complicated view of wa...
2022-02-011h 03What People DoEpisode 28: Jonathon Stalls draws on paper, draws in energy on walks, and is drawing people out of their cars, trucks and box homes to check out the outside worldI found Jonathon Stalls on TikTok, where @pedestriandignity highlights the ugly, unpleasant and, worst of all, dangerous world of pedestrian travel in today's towns and cities. Sidewalks are overgrown, shoved next to roaring highways, or stop in the middle of nowhere for no reason. And that's just for those who can walk comfortably: What about the strollers? The wheelchairs? The walkers?
Pedestrians don't have enough dignity. The commercial and residential world around us ignores them.
This episode should move you. Are you moved? Then get moving! Get out of your metal car box and flee y...
2021-10-2756 minWhat People DoEpisode 27: Rachel Rilinger teaches Tai Chi ChihShe saw her aunt doing it decades ago and got into it then. This spiritual movement of body and energy is less exercise (Tai Chi) and more moving chi. Do the movements standing. Or sitting. Or visualize them lying down.
Rachel (who was my very first What People Do podcast guest ever) swears by Tai Chi Chih (tay chee chuh) and has found such joyous rewards through the movements that she's a certified teacher.
Dive in with us ... and check out the originator, the man it came to, Justin Stone doing a movement here.
2021-10-1356 minWhat People DoEpisode 26: Ronn Pawo McLane teaches meditationHe studied and worked with Lama Surya Das for years. He's got a cool podcast, online courses, a published set of meditations and he's working on an app. This cat has some cool thoughts and a thoughtful and very ecumenical and open-minded approach to quieting the mind.
P.S. The picture is my daughter from years ago from, and she learned a little meditation with a counselor in a group in elementary school. But she doesn't do it now. I don't think. She should start again. I mean, she just started middle school in person. She's gonna...
2021-08-2452 minWhat People DoEpisode 25: Adam Clare makes games and teaches game designEducational games get a bad rap. If more of them were made by Adam Clare, maybe I'd like them more. Adam admits some of the things that make bad educational games bad, but then makes interesting distinctions between free play and designed games and delves into how education infuses his views on the environment and, yes, on COVID. I mean, can we escape it? We can't.
You should play Dr. Trolley's Problem, if you're curious. While rudimentary in its graphics, wave after wave of consideration, reconsideration and repositioning of the classic philosophical problem makes it a good...
2021-08-1656 minWhat People DoEpisode 24: Mike built a nice garden ... for everybodyI noticed during then pandemic that one of the home owners whose property butts up against a trail at a nearby park started putting up flowers. And signs. And a bench. And nice messages for folks who were being emotionally beaten up by the pandemic.
It started with being irritated with a bunch of overgrown poison ivy and a tendency to flood during rain. And it turned into something special. People sent him letters. Park walkers talked to him on days when he was out working on it. Somebody painted his garden, and that hangs in his...
2021-07-2151 minWhat People DoEpisode 23: Gabrielle Roman writesIt's been a long time, so we're gonna call this season two, yeah?
We're back with a personally helpful conversation about writing: how she does it, how she did it, how she started, and, because I'm self-centered, what I can learn (and by extension, you can learn) from her about my own writing.
Find out how the first hit of audience dopamine hit for Gabs with her first fan, what she does to make sure she keeps writing in her busy life, and why she thinks anyone who wants to write should just write and...
2021-07-0758 min
What People DoEpisode 22: Ryan Kramer has hermit crabsMy friend Ryan is a master of investigating technological problems as well as a beautiful, efficient, brilliant designer in physical media and in the digital world.
And he has hermit crabs. So, of course, I skipped right to that in my podcast with him here.
They live in his house. His 6-year-old (at the time) daughter wanted them and named them (but then, of course, Ryan winds up caring for them, reluctant-sitcom-dad-style).
“A larger pet was never going to get through the parental authorities,” Ryan says of his daughter’s winning pitch for the crust...
2021-01-0532 minWhat People DoEpisode 21: Bash Halow writes playsNOTE: Hey. I’ve been gone a while. I’ve got two podcast interviews lined up from before. Now they’re gonna come out. This one, now. Another one, soon. Then … I don’t have any more interviews lined up yet. I’m a firm believer that everyone has something important or fun or relatable to say about something. Who’s next? Also, there’s a grind as Bash’s phone call fell out, but I think the gist of it carries through.
“The only thing I know … is how to fail at writing plays,” jokes (not jokes) Bash Halow off the...
2020-10-2839 min
What People DoEpisode 20: Dr. Shawn Finch chills out with coloring booksDr. Finch and I have sat a few times at veterinary conferences and mused over introversion, work and life stress, and mental health. She’s one of the world’s genuinely good people, so when she talked years ago to me about how she used coloring books in veterinary practice to decompress, I was intrigued.
Now, years later, she needed her friend and veterinary technician colleague, Allison Parker, to talk her back into daily coloring again.
With the pandemic, “life has gotten more stressful for everybody,” Finch says.
She loses herself in the coloring, t...
2020-09-3029 minWhat People DoEpisode 19: Dr. Robin Downing studies (and teaches) clinical bioethics“Just because we can do something to -- or for -- an animal,” asks Robin Downing, DVM, MS, DAAPM, DACVSMR, CVPP, CCRP, “does that mean we should?”
A practicing veterinarian, teacher and business owner, Robin’s interest in pain, animals and caring for living things has translated in the past few years into study of how the field of human bioethics could shape, and be shaped by, the in-the-trenches concerns and situations that practicing veterinarians face every day. She’s now pursuing a PhD in the subject.
Robin has started translating human clinical bioethics’ four principles – r...
2020-09-0953 minWhat People DoEpisode 18: Dr. Jules Benson is an enthusiastic cyclistVeterinarian Dr. Jules Benson does not compete crazily at cycling, but he loves all the other aspects of it: the choice of how and where to ride each day he goes out, the acquisition and enjoyment of a new bike with a new frame (hopefully lighter?), the touch of masochism that comes with pushing yourself hard physically.
He tells himself, like all the other less-than-perfect cyclists, that speed doesn’t matter, but, y’know, it always does. Because isn't that some of the fun of bicycles, whether you’re cruising down a road to the beach, hoofing it to w...
2020-08-2756 minWhat People DoEpisode 17: Gina Spadafori is a micro-rancherGina Spadafori lives within what feels like spitting distance from California’s capitol city, Sacramento, but it’s also really rural right around here. It’s kind of the perfect spot for a politics-following writer and editor who decided to raise animals in her yard.
But this yearning for living close to animals and on a stretch of land didn’t come from her happily urban and suburban family.
“My maternal grandmother used to tell me, the best day of her life after World War II was when they were able to get anything they wanted at th...
2020-08-1842 minWhat People DoEpisode 16: Tekurah McCullough goes to comedy shows“I always loved comedy,” Tekurah says, since high school. Jake Johannsen was her first standup crush in the Bay Area.
“When somebody makes me laugh, I become attracted to them,” she says. She and her friends would crowd into a car on a day off school to stand around the studio for a drive-time radio show with lots of standup comedy guests. Funny, yes, but intoxicating and attention-holding in a way that comedy albums and TV appearances and sitcoms don’t quite compare: “Live comedy is my thing,” she says. “As an introvert, I save up all my energy, go to...
2020-07-161h 13
What People DoEpisode 15: Jahmal runs role-playing games for moneyNote: Our audio is clippy as all get-out. Don't hate us. Or, rather, hate me. Jahmal is getting better at this, and I brought his quality down. Take me. Take me as tribute. I cut so much good stuff outta here. I’m a damn shame. Y’know why? Because I did a podcast of someone else’s a couple week ago, and my audio was too loud, and I bet she went back in time to change the sound levels on this. That’s definitely more likely than I just didn’t pay any attention when I recorded it.
2020-07-0735 min
What People DoEpisode 14: Dr. Ernie Ward does paddle boardingDr. Ernie Ward is big on nutrition and exercise, but his love for surfing, paddle boarding and other sports in and around the ocean turns out to be bigger than that. He and his wife (his girlfriend at the time) bonded over a love of the ocean with SCUBA diving. And it’s his way of getting closer to nature.
“It's that connection with the energy … nature … this body that engulfs the entire planet,” Ernie says of the ocean. It’s a personal challenge, with risks, and a chance to interact with a water world full of fish, sharks...
2020-06-2251 min
What People DoEpisode 13: Dr. Melissa Detweiler does podcastsIt started with ideas. Dr. Melissa Detweiler, a small animal veterinarian in a Midwestern small town, had a lot of them, and writing blogs, commentary and opinion seemed like the route. But she didn't know, as a veterinarian, which audience to tackle first: pet owners or those "in the profession," vet med.
"I wanted to say the things [in my blogs] to pet parents that maybe I held back from saying in the exam room," she says. Then she started writing pieces for veterinary magazines to her peers.
Her podcasting took a similar route, with...
2020-06-1553 min
What People DoEpisode 12: Dr. Ryane Englar does ballroom dancingVeterinarian and veterinary faculty member Dr. Ryane Englar still considers herself a “baby dancer,” although her teacher and dance partner, Lowell, saw her potential and gently encouraged her over their years of practice to dive into competition with him.
We start off the podcast with a fascinating consideration of how two dancers work together, one leading and one following, to maintain strict posture, movement, speed and flow by staying close together.
“If I start to slip, my pro partner can turn me so it looks pretty to the audience, but we both know he’s doing it...
2020-06-0552 min
What People DoEpisode 11: Portia is a high-performing, information-aholic worrier (aka a journalist)Journalists want to help. Journalists want to get to the truth. Journalists don’t want to make mistakes. Mix in all three of those, and you’ve got a recipe for well-intentioned, purposeful perfectionism of a sort.
“I don’t think you have to be a journalist because you’re a worrier,” Portia says, “but I think it’s a driver.”
It’s the hunt for the second set of eyes on a piece, the second look, the critic’s skepticism. Portia gives that to team members, and she needs it from others. So, ultimately, part of the easing of...
2020-05-2241 min
What People DoEpisode 10: Mindy watches ‘Star Trek’ and you should tooStar Trek debuted on CBS in 1966, the brainchild of creator Gene Roddenberry. Mindy, though, caught it first in afternoon reruns after she’d get home from school. She thinks that original series is good, but she really thinks everyone should be a Star Trek: The Next Generation Trekkie.
“Roddenberry gave us hope for the future,” she says. The new direction in the latest two shows, she feels, is more about “me” and less about “us,” losing some part of the original’s optimism and group solidarity.
The other big theme that pops up for Mindy in the shows is wh...
2020-05-1652 min
What People DoEpisode 9: Cheryl does midwiferyI could have called her a midwife, but isn’t the word midwifery (pronounced MID-wiff-ree) cool?
Midwives act as emotional support, an educational resource and healthcare advocates for pregnant women. Roughly 97% of Cheryl’s mothers want a home birth. And 85% of them will have a home birth, with 15% going to a hospital instead. This is a hands-on relationship, with long, regularly scheduled appointments to check up with expectant mothers and their partners and listen to them and their concerns. It’s a close relationship, with many families coming back more than once for repeated home births.
“We’re...
2020-05-0743 min
What People DoEpisode 8: Marnette dresses as a hobbyI worked with Marnette, and I always liked the fact that her wardrobe in middle management and then upper management was cut from a different cloth than the standard executive. Layered, frilly, colorful tops under antique-looking jackets (“I put on a jacket, it’s just not a jacket anyone else wears,” she says). They top multilayered skirts, concealing just the tops of well-worn, well-loved cowboy boots. She talks about bloomers, and because I’m oblivious, I never thought about the fact that she wore bloomers (handmade, by the way), but now that I think about it, yeah, bloomers. Who wears bl...
2020-04-3035 min
What People DoEpisode 7: Peter is an environmental managerYeah, who’s the guy who cut off his guest at the start of the podcast recording? That would be me. His name is Peter, and he’s an environmental engineer for a steel company.
He started as a mechanic out of high school, headed for physics in college to become a professor, but then found a love for geology and graduated with a degree in that.
He does a lot of paperwork, but he also does a lot of site visits and gets to get his hands dirty sometimes.
“I still enjoy gettin...
2020-04-2038 minWhat People DoEpisode 6: Jennifer drawsJennifer likes to draw dragons. Fantasy monsters and people, elves, things out of fantasy books. Animals. (Her sketch of Batgirl was my smartphone wallpaper for weeks.)
"I get ideas in my head of something that would look cool of a scene or an animal, and I like sharing that idea," Jennifer says.
Like many artists who don't do it for a living, she usually doesn't need to hit deadlines that aren't self-imposed and doesn't need to draw stuff she doesn't care about. Much of her art is for her, her own heart, her own interest...
2020-04-0946 min
What People DoEpisode 5: Kevin keeps sewage movingNote: There are a few four-letter words sprinkled throughout these 45 minutes. Instead of “feces,” we, umm, say, y’know. That S-word. Skip this podcast if that bothers you.
As we all sit through this COVID-19 crisis, packed under "stay at home” orders in most states, it’s a good time to remember, yes, the toilet paper you’re having trouble finding, but also that wonderful sewage system that keeps your shelter nice and safe.
As far as I’m concerned, keeping the system working is one of the most important jobs around. A quote attributed to Gandhi agrees...
2020-04-0345 min
What People DoEpisode 4: Zahara does TikToksNote: I happened to record this podcast as the world's coronavirus pandemic started to kick into gear. I'm now back home under the similar "shelter in place" order (or some version of it) that you are. This one seemed usefully short and easy for my first week under quarantine. Stay safe. :)
Zahara just turned 11, and this podcast is short. She's not necessarily used to answering detailed questions, hearing herself blather on (like me) and she had no preparation. She did a great job.
Zahara says folks use TikTok for dances, for art, for anything short...
2020-03-2603 minWhat People DoEpisode 3: Joshua Fultz is a deaconI am a convert to Judaism, and Joshua is a convert to the Catholic Church. And he has always been one of the most fun people to talk about religion with, which led me to understand that us weird converts have something about us and our journeys that crosses spiritual paths. There is something about being a person who chose a faith that is always a little different than someone born into one. (If you hear us thumping the table a lot, forgive us: We're excited converts.)
Joshua exemplifies the intensity of the convert, having traveled from...
2020-03-2058 minWhat People DoEpisode 2: Theresa Entriken on birdingI worked with Theresa Entriken, DVM, for many years at a company that offered magazines, websites, podcasts, educational products and national conferences to veterinarians and their team members. But I wanted to come at this veterinarian from a tangent: birdwatching.
While an avid hiker, Theresa says she glommed onto the hobby from her husband (also a veterinarian).
“Hiking, I do like to do for exercise, you cover a lot of ground,” she says. “When I hike with my husband, it’s a lot slower, because you tend to stop and look at things you see flutteri...
2020-03-1029 minWhat People DoEpisode 1: Rachel Rilinger does music therapyFor my debut episode, I introduce to you both good and bad. Let’s start with the bad. I ask board-certified music therapist Rachel Rilinger questions from a distant location, which is really right across the table from her, but apparently I, as a grown adult, can’t manage my settings on my microphone. But you didn’t want to hear from me. The good part of this episode is all the great stuff from Rachel!
We kick things off with Rachel by talking about certification for music therapy. Don’t stop here. Keep going. She respects the educa...
2020-03-0548 minWhat People DoEpisode prequel: Brendan Howard tries to make podcastsI had an amazing interview with Jahmal Brown, somebody who gets people and games and nerd culture and is an all-around exciting person to bounce ideas off of. I even got to meet his awesome dog. And my own user error scuttled it all. So. Yeah. His website is madjayzero.com. Check it out.
2020-02-1205 min