Earlier this year, the COVID-19 pandemic came upon us — shutting down workplaces, schools, and, basically, our lives came to a standstill. And with it came lots of questioning facts, opinions, and authority in general. And so, we wanted to find out more about how other people had come into their beliefs and how they've become an expert in their specific worlds. Maybe it's something they do for work, maybe it's a hobby, maybe it's something in between. All of that to say, we're going to talk to 100 people — some are folks we already know, many of whom we haven't met yet — and have them explain how this works, this being something they know very well.

The first episode with Jake Kahana will launch on Dec 1, 2020.

p.s. You know that feeling, of being so excited that you can hardly wait for the first day of school and yet you're so nervous you're afraid you're going to throw up? That's how we feel right now.

Her background in journalism shapes how she approaches ethnographic observation, whether she's watching veterinarians work with anxious pets or understanding how credit union members navigate digital banking. Jen doesn't shy away from tough conversations about AI's role in research, the limitations of traditional UX methods, or the reality of today's competitive job market.

Currently at BECU, Jen navigates the unique challenge of conducting remote research for a Washington State credit union while being based in Texas herself, highlighting how smaller financial institutions operate differently from big banks with vendor constraints and community-focused approach.

• You can listen here or wherever you get your podcasts: https://www.howthisworks.show/035-jen-blatz
• Or watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/B-uMrQ4d4RQ

Key points:

• Ethnographic observation in unexpected places - Jen shares her early UX experience at VCA animal hospitals, including watching a dog undergo anesthesia for dental cleaning. This field work taught her the importance of understanding real working conditions rather than making assumptions about user needs.
• Financial institutions aren't all the same - Drawing from her experience across banks, credit unions, and FinTech companies, Jen explains how resource constraints and third-party vendor dependencies create unique challenges for smaller financial institutions compared to tech giants.
• The consultancy model reality - Working within Boeing Employees' Credit Union's distributed research team structure, Jen discusses the trade-offs between learning about different business aspects versus sustained project influence — and why this model might be more common than we think.
• AI as assistant, not replacement - From her experiments with ChatGPT and Adobe Firefly, Jen shares practical insights about using AI tools for desk research and image generation while emphasizing the critical need to double-check AI outputs for accuracy.
• Why personas miss the mark - Jen critiques traditional personas for focusing on irrelevant demographic information instead of actionable insights, introducing the Scenario Alignment Canvas (SAC) framework as a more effective alternative that focuses on specific scenarios, goals, and pain points.
• The changing UX job market - Predicting that design system roles may become obsolete as AI tools advance, Jen discusses the trend of UX researchers moving into product owner roles and shares honest advice about building real-world experience in a competitive market.
• Personal branding as differentiation - Currently exploring how to define and build personal brands, Jen emphasizes networking and practical experience over theoretical knowledge as keys to standing out in today's UX landscape.

Jen also touches on the challenges of remote research when you're not physically located where your users are, and how the pandemic shifted both researcher capabilities and user expectations around digital experiences.

The audio and video for this episode has been edited by Gideon Kroutil.

Special Guest: Jen Blatz.

Links:

• BlatzChatz on YouTube
• UX Research and Strategy group
• VCA Animal Hospitals
• Alan Cooper on personas — In this Medium article, Alan Cooper, whom most credit with inventing personas, recounts how he developed the concept starting in 1983 through real-world software design practice, culminating in the goal-directed persona methodology that became widely adopted after his 1998 book "The Inmates are Running the Asylum."
• Personas and Goal-Directed Design: An Interview with Kim Goodwin — In this interview from Center Centre, Kim Goodwin, director of design at Cooper, explains how personas evolved from Alan Cooper's intuitive design process into a research-based methodology that helps teams avoid elastic user problems and design based on actual user goals rather than assumptions.
• Joe Natoli on BlatzChatz
• Jobs-to-be-Done by Tony Ulwick — While Tony Ulwick formalized Jobs-to-be-Done methodology and Clayton Christensen popularized it, the concept builds on foundational thinking from Harvard's Theodore Levitt and has been further developed by practitioners like Jim Kalbach and others in the design community.
• SAC Framework – Scenario Alignment Canvas
• Indy Young's approach, a scenario-focused methodology
• Why you are asking the wrong customer interview questions, on jeans by Teresa Torres
• Michael Margolis from Google Ventures on Lenny's podcast
• The bullseye customer sprint from How This Works co
• Taproot Foundation
• Catch a Fire

Born in Malaysia to Chinese parents, Chui Chui moved to the UK over 20 years ago. Her unique background and global experience inform her approach to cultural strategy. Beginning with mechanical engineering and an unexpected transition through music technology to human-computer interaction, she eventually specialized in international research after conducting user interviews in Beijing for a hotel client.

Over time, her work evolved from pure user experience research to a more holistic approach that considers history, infrastructure, politics, and economic factors when helping businesses enter new markets.

• You can listen here or wherever you get your podcasts: https://www.howthisworks.show/034-dr-chui-chui-tan
• Or watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Q9mC2bykxuo

Key points from the conversation:

• Four-bucket methodology - Chui Chui shares her framework for organizing market knowledge into known facts, strong hypotheses, weak hypotheses, and unknowns when entering new markets. This approach helps align teams and identify critical knowledge gaps.
• Context-specific cultural adaptation - She explains how cultural manifestations differ depending on product context, using her contrasting work with Asana and Spotify in Japan to illustrate how the same users interact differently with different products based on cultural values.
• Cultural frameworks in practice - Chui Chui discusses the strengths and limitations of popular frameworks like Erin Meyer's "Culture Map" and Hofstede's cultural dimensions, emphasizing the importance of practical application over theoretical models.
• Future of AI in cultural strategy - Drawing from her experiments with ChatGPT, Baidu's Ernie, and Inception's Jais (Arabic) to analyze cultural insights, she predicts AI will complement but not replace human understanding of cultural nuances.
• Cross-cultural identity - Reflecting on her own bicultural experience, Chui Chui discusses how individuals navigate multiple cultural identities, noting she can "be more British in certain aspects of my life, and then when it comes to certain things, I'm quite Malaysian or quite Asian."
• Personal philosophy - "Care less about things that are not as important" – Chui Chui's evolving perspective on focusing energy on what truly matters, both personally and professionally.

Chui Chui also shares her fascination with understanding the origins of cultural differences, currently exploring this through reading "Sapiens" by Yuval Noah Harari among others.

You can find Chui Chui at:

• Website: beyo.global
• LinkedIn: Chui Chui Tan
• YouTube: @chuichuitan

The audio and video for this episode has been edited by Gideon Kroutil.

Special Guest: Dr. Chui Chui Tan.

Links:

• "Research for Global Growth: Strategies and Guidance for Cross-Cultural Insights" & "International User Research" by Chui Chui Tan
• Chui Chui Tan on Erin Meyer's 'Culture Map' and other culture frameworks
• The Culture Map by Erin Meyer
• Erin Meyer's tools, including the Country Mapping Tool
• Geert Hofstede's six (6) dimension model of national culture
• Trompenaars's model of national culture differences
• Chui Chui Tan on hospital waiting rooms and business strategy
• ChatGPT
• Baidu's Ernie
• Jais — Jais is an open-source large language model developed in the United Arab Emirates and launched in August 2023. It was trained on both English- and Arabic-language data. Jais is named after Jebel Jais, the highest mountain in the United Arab Emirates.
• Why Gemini, Google’s AI tool, was slammed for showing images of people of color
• DeepSeek
• Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
• Culinary Class Wars on Netflix
• Taiko drumming

His path included founding a successful clothing brand for the electronic music scene (complete with 163 street team members) before transitioning into corporate roles and eventually launching StealthX, a consultancy focused on customer strategy, product design, and software engineering.

• You can listen here or wherever you get your podcasts: https://www.howthisworks.show/033-drew-burdick
• Or watch on Youtube: https://youtu.be/mxyRWsKJEDg?si=5EmG0VKhiA99US5m

Key points from the conversation:

• What's next for customer experience: Drew emphasizes moving beyond "fast, easy, and cheap" to create memorable moments that build brand loyalty. He applies this philosophy both to client work and to StealthX itself, crafting thoughtful touchpoints throughout the client journey.
• The future of design teams: Drawing from his experience leading both large and small teams, Drew predicts a shift away from traditional large design organizations toward nimble, high-velocity small teams augmented by AI capabilities.
• Industry specialization: Drew advocates for designers to develop deep industry expertise rather than remaining discipline-generalists, suggesting that understanding specific sectors like manufacturing or insurance will become increasingly valuable.
• Community and connection: Despite the rise of remote work, Drew emphasizes the growing importance of local, in-person relationships and community building, particularly in regional tech hubs like Charlotte, North Carolina.
• AI Inflection Point: Drew likens the current state of AI to the "256MB era" of computing, predicting rapid acceleration in capabilities and encouraging designers to embrace these tools as augmentation rather than threat.
• Personal philosophy: "Do the next right thing" – tattooed on Drew's arm, this mantra emerged during COVID as a reminder to focus on immediate, actionable steps rather than getting overwhelmed by uncertainty.

Drew also predicts that within a year, solopreneurs will increasingly build and launch products independently using AI tools, potentially challenging traditional team structures in larger organizations. He encourages experimenting with these tools, seeing them as opportunities to augment human creativity rather than as threats.

• You can find Drew on social media as @drewhburdick and at drewburdick.com
• Learn more about StealthX at stealthx.co

Listen to the second part of our conversation over at Drew's podcast, "Building Great Experiences" —
• On Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/za/podcast/future-of-cx-beyond-product-into-ecosystems/id1776618976?i=1000686740180
• On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/329mlkTWefrP7nQr8KMRV5?si=doVa-TrxS52MyNIjGHDDCA
• Or watch it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/RShAkpaXRwU?si=KX9sgbXRQDABmL_Z

Special Guest: Drew Burdick.

Links:

• StealthX
• Product Camp - Charlotte
• Lenny & Friends Summit — A one-day summit on 24 Oct 2024 in San Francisco for senior product leaders hosted by Lenny Rachitsky
• "Product is dead" - Claire Vo, CPO of LaunchDarkly — Claire Vo, Chief Product Officer at LaunchDarkly and creator of ChatPRD, deliver a groundbreaking talk at the Lenny & Friends Summit on how AI is revolutionizing product management
• Andy Polaine on the How This Works show
• Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson, Kenneth Blanchard
• The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle
• The Culture Playbook by Daniel Coyle
• Building Great Experiences w/ Drew Burdick from StealthX

• You can listen here or wherever you get your podcasts: https://www.howthisworks.show/032-bumhan-yu
• Or on Youtube: https://youtu.be/O_qGqCS9i0A

During the show, we talk through a number of topics, including:

• German-speaking Bumhan comes from an academic family, with professor parents.
• Initially studying linguistics and psychology in academia, he left his psychology graduate program, worked various jobs including translation and military service in Korea, then discovered design (read: graphic design) through a trade school for executive assistants in Manhattan.
• His spatial-visual thinking style, using schematics and diagrams, led him to realize he could build a career making things. He views design as problem-solving beyond aesthetics, distinguishing between specialized "capital D" design and general "lowercase d" design.
• Bumhan's LinkedIn tagline "business of design, design of business" reflects his dual focus on design operations and organizational dynamics. At DoubleVerify, he maintains design systems, defines visual tokens, and collaborates closely with front-end engineers while focusing on systematic problem-solving approaches.
• He critiques design thinking's commodification while valuing its core principle of understanding problems before solutions, drawing inspiration from Bruce Lee's philosophy of adaptation and evolution.
• His coding skills enhance collaboration with engineers through better understanding of backend structures, while his linguistics and psychology background provides unique insights into human behavior and communication.
• Beyond design, Bumhan's also passionate about theoretical physics, particularly Carlo Rovelli's work.

Here's a photo of Bumhan's t-shirt from the episode:

Special Guest: Bumhan Yu.

Links:

• International Trauma Studies Program
• Eames design process diagram
• The Process of Design Squiggle by Damien Newman
• Audiobook for "The Order of Time" by Carlo Rovelli
• "How to Take Smart Notes" by Sönke Ahrens

• You can listen here or wherever you get your podcasts: https://www.howthisworks.show/031-aaron-young
• Or on Youtube: https://youtu.be/vNEZi_RaSN4

During the show, we talk through:

• The evolution of switch interviews, from Aaron's early discovery of the methodology (while observing Jobs to Be Done expert Bob Mesta) to his specialization in this approach after seeing its unique ability to reveal customer insights that traditional research misses
• Two case studies of "switches" — Aaron's personal journey moving from Washington D.C. to Atlanta, which unfolded over several years with multiple decision points, and a wedding dress business that used switch interviews to understand why brides choose at-home try-on experiences
• The critical difference between how companies typically view customer decisions (as single moments) versus the reality revealed through switch interviews: a complex journey involving factors like grievances with current solutions, attraction to new options, and the effort required to change
• Why traditional demographic-based personas often fall short, and how switch interviews help create more meaningful customer segments based on the progress people are trying to make in their lives
• The challenge of "hubris" in understanding customer behavior — how companies often think they know why customers make changes, but miss the crucial contextual details that switch interviews can uncover
• As businesses increasingly turn to technological solutions, Aaron expresses concern about over-reliance on AI for understanding customer behavior, noting that artificial intelligence might miss the nuanced contextual details that human-conducted switch interviews are uniquely positioned to capture
• His belief in the importance of verbs over nouns in career satisfaction

Stay tuned until the end where Skipper tells Aaron about Stephen Colbert's oatmeal rum-soaked bing cherry cookie recipe, which Colbert (yes, him) says is so irresistible you'd "step on a baby's finger for one."

Special Guest: Aaron Young.

Links:

• "Competing Against Luck" by Clayton M. Christensen
• "Demand-Side Sales 101" by Bob Moesta
• The Jobs-to-be-Done Mattress Interview
• The Mattress Interview – Q&A
• The "commuter" car JTBD interview on the Critical Path show, episode 146 — Bob Moesta talks with Horace Dediu in 2015 on the job to be done for a Porsche Cayman (from archive.org)
• "Deep Work" by Cal Newport
• Stephen Colbert's favorite cookie to make, an oatmeal rum-soaked bing cherry cookie

• You can listen here or wherever you get your podcasts: https://www.howthisworks.show/030-andy-polaine
• Or on Youtube: https://youtu.be/fdC1f-QcUMA

Some topics discussed:

• Andy’s career began in the early '90s as an interaction designer, before "UX" or "user experience" were common terms
• He studied film, video, and photography, transitioning into interactive media, which later led him to meeting Ben Reason at LiveWork and getting into service design
• Andy was global Group Design Director of Client Evolution at Fjord and co-leads a Master’s program in service design in Switzerland
• Fluent in German and having lived in Australia, Germany, and the U.K., Andy developed a deep appreciation for cross-cultural communication and how we use language
• Andy describes his transition from filmmaking to design, drawn by the way multimedia integrates sound, video, and interactive elements — modes of storytelling persists today
• Andy’s coaching focuses on supporting design leaders through a number of phases, including "design leadership dip," a period uncertainty common at mid- and advanced-career stages, which he helps leaders navigate
• Andy shares his personal experience with imposter syndrome/phenomenon, emphasizing that it can affect anyone, regardless of background
• Andy highlights the skill of “reading the room," focusing on empathy, active listening, and participant engagement
• He discusses the nuances of digital coaching, using techniques like teleprompters and collaboration tools for increased effectiveness in virtual communication
• Andy reflects on the future of design, noting that designers must focus on discernment and answering the question, So what?!
• He concludes by emphasizing relationships, empathy, and plans for a book on the inner journey of design leadership, including "design leadership dip"
• He talks about the "assembly line" approach to design, likens it to AI — where the subject matter is being treated as a mere tool for rapid prototyping rather than a process for addressing user needs, almost like the discipline is being treated like a GPT itself, which reduces designers to carry out prompts

Stay tuned until the end where we hear a behind the scenes (bts) snippet, a peek into our lives today, where we wait for Andy's wife to open/close some doors as she's seeing a patient at home while we're recording.

Special Guest: Andy Polaine.

Links:

• Ben Reason
• Julian Simpson on Powers of Ten
• MacroMind Director
• ZX Spectrum
• Fjord Fika (last updated in 2018)
• Carl Jung
• Impostor syndrome, also known as impostor phenomenon
• "The Impostor Phenomenon in High Achieving Women: Dynamics and Therapeutic Intervention" by Pauline R. Clance and Suzanne A. Imes — Published in 1978
• The Leadership Dip
• Andy's talking about the dip on his YouTube channel
• Elgato Prompter
• Daniel Stillman - Good Talk
• Malcolm Gladwell's What the Dog Saw
• Peter Merholz
• Dave Gray's "Gamestorming"
• Dave Gray's "Selling to the VP of No" — (Amazon affiliate link)
• You're Inching Me Out — From the first season of Esther Perel's How's Work? They were mates in university before co-founding a successful communications company. They still work together from different coasts, but they barely speak. One wants to move on; the other is grasping for his former friend. Neither can find the words to talk about it.
• Mitchell & Webb — Nazis sketch
• https://www.polaine.com/
• https://www.polaine.com/power-of-ten/
• https://www.polaine.com/coaching/
• https://www.youtube.com/@apolaine
• https://newsletter.polaine.com/

Keep listening until after the outro music for a bit of tape from our first attempt at recording (Internet connection problems) where Joanne talks about how being a singer and being a performer helps to understand the clients and job seekers she works with.

A few specific points from the episode:

• Joanne's work as a singer, including albums, performances, and cover songs
• Her musical style blends jazz and trip-hop, with inspiration from sci-fi and the Voyager probes
• Her indie band, Broanne, and their EP "We're Totally Blowing Up"
• Her view of the job of a recruiter: matching clients with candidates and guiding them through the hiring process
• Her journey started at a nanny agency in London, eventually leading her to start her own recruitment agency in New York City
• Initial struggles in starting her agency and stresses the importance of networking and building personal connections
• Meeting her business partner, Rebecca Levy, through a mutual connection — advice, "take the lunch"
• The need for taking breaks and disconnecting to recharge
• The 2008 financial crisis impacted her business but also led to new opportunities
• Tailoring resumes and portfolios to specific job opportunities
• A tip on standing out in the job market: be efficient and professional in communications
• Common fears like not being good enough and encourages leaning into those fears
• Strategies for overcoming anxiety: focus on service and giving to others
• Stresses authenticity and connecting with others in both personal and professional contexts
• The value of small moments of connection, which can lead to larger opportunities.
• The importance of connection and talking to people
• Recommendation for Tunde Oyeneyin's audiobook, "Speak" and the show "Alone" for its exploration of human connection and survival
• She plans to begin work on a cabaret show about an unnamed 80s/90s pop sensation, inspired by recently reading their biography

Special Guest: Joanne Weaver.

Links:

• Rebecca Levi
• Steve Jobs' commencement speech to Stanford’s 2005 graduating class — “Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backward ten years later,” Jobs said. “So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something-your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”
• Twisted Spritzer
• Ryan Adams - "Wonderwall" (Oasis cover)
• Simon Sinek on Design Matters in 2015 — With Debbie Millman
• "Speak" by Tunde Oyeneyin
• Tara Mohr's "Playing Big"
• Ted Lasso clip — When Rebecca "makes herself big" to build up courage
• Tony Robbins
• Alone (TV series)
• Voyager Golden Record
• Joanne Weaver Group
• Design:Unfiltered on LinkedIn
• Design:Unfiltered replays on YouTube
• Joanne Weaver's music on Spotify
• Twisted Spritzer
• Broanne

Listen above or wherever you get your podcasts: https://www.howthisworks.show/028-carl-cleanthes. You can also listen on Youtube: https://youtu.be/yn74GSse5f0.

Key details from the episode:

• Carl describes himself as a "lifelong, ADHD, extroverted, creative kind of like counter culture, delightful weirdo," heavily influenced by his father’s art
• Early entrepreneurial ventures included earning money through in-game economics in Everquest
• After struggling with depression and dissatisfaction in traditional employment, Carl quit his IT job in 2007 and started his agency by hiring art school students, expanding into animation, illustration, and graphic design
• He embraces an unconventional lifestyle, incorporating barefoot walks, toe shoes, upcycling, and growing his own food
• The pandemic significantly impacted his business, pushing him to explore NFTs as a new creative outlet and revenue stream
• Carl launched an NFT project using his late father’s artwork, which he sees as both a healing journey and a new business direction
• He continues to honor his father’s creative legacy through live streaming sessions where he creates new art incorporating his father’s work

Special Guest: Carl Cleanthes.

Links:

• Epic Made — Carl Cleanthes' creative studio
• Everquest — A MMORPG released in 1999 that immerses players in the fantasy world of Norrath, where they can create characters, complete quests, and engage with others in a shared, persistent online environment.
• Old Dominion University
• Epic Made's work includes Nickelodeon, SyFy, USA, network, TNT, and WWE
• Chris Metzen — An American game designer, writer, and voice actor, best known for his influential work at Blizzard where he played a key role in the development of Warcraft, StarCraft, and Diablo.
• NFTs — Non-fungible token
• Web3 — Web3 is a decentralized version of the internet that uses blockchain technology to give users control over their data, digital assets, and interactions, enabling peer-to-peer transactions and decentralized governance without relying on intermediaries.
• On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin — *On the Origin of Species* is Charles Darwin's seminal 1859 work that introduced the theory of natural selection, explaining how species evolve over time through the survival and reproduction of individuals best adapted to their environment. This groundbreaking book laid the foundation for modern evolutionary biology, challenging traditional views on the creation and diversity of life.
• About Time (2013) — A (romantic) comedy about a young man who discovers he can time travel, using his gift to improve his life, love, and relationships with Domhnall Gleeson, Rachel McAdams, Bill Nighy, Tom Hollander, and Margot Robbie among others
• Live Streaming Art 8 PM ET EVERY Wed — Carl's weekly live-stream art show
• Pixel Retentive podcast with Carl and Ross Ciuppa
• Colorful Carl — Colorful Carl, one of Carl's nicknames, is an artist, agency founder, and podcast host who combines his passions for digital art, animation, and storytelling.

• Jen shares her experience as the oldest of three kids and how it influences her leadership style and ability to empathize with others (it might play it yours as well, dear listener)
• She highlights the importance of identifying a specific niche in coaching and how coaching is different from consulting
• Jen emphasizes the importance of setting a finite amount of time for coaching and encourages clients to come as long as they need and go when they're ready
• She primarily works with clients in technology, including engineers, designers, product managers, professors, academics, and doctors, with a majority of them being women
• Jen reflects on the importance of understanding one's purpose of work and encourages listeners to measure their current job against that purpose
• She talks more about So Now You're a Manager (SNYaM), a manager training program that she's developed at Plucky currently modeled after a part-time MBA plus, the importance of community and connection in learning, and the challenges of remote training
• Jen has observed a trend of people in the tech industry expressing a desire to retire earlier and wanting to "do their own thing"
• She talks about recently watching "The Andy Warhol Diaries," a six episode Netflix series, and having a greater understanding of the '70s and '80s
• Stay tuned until the end for an outtake around speaking French to a stranger on the train in front of her sons

Special Guest: Jen Dary.

Links:

• Plucky
• Plucky's So Now You're a Manager
• The Andy Warhol Diaries — In 2022, a Netflix series (titled after Warhol's 1989 book) puts on center stage the life and emotions of the artist after he was shot in 1968. The six episodes utilize Resemble AI and original recordings as Warhol narrates his own diary entries, accompanied by a cast of characters, including his friend Pat Hackett.
• Plucky's Instagram
• Jen's Instagram
• Day Of Big Dreaming — Avail from today to end of January 2024, recommended
• SNYaM 2024 — There are currently two (2) virtual So Now You're A Manager cohorts planned in 2024, dates are TBA, interested folks should pre-register
• Plucky's podcast — This season, released earlier this year, featured eight (8) different mentors on a variety of topics, like negotiation, allyship, performance reviews, first impressions and more

Stay tuned for a bit of tape at the end where Karen and Skipper talk about one's "need to be right."

Note from TED: Karen's talk linked below contains a discussion of suicidal ideation. If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts, please consult a mental health professional and/or support organization, as this talk is not a substitute for mental health advice. If you are struggling with self-destructive or suicidal thoughts, call or text 988 to connect with someone who can help.

Special Guest: Karen Faith.

Links:

• Others Unlimited
• Karen's TEDx talk, "How to talk to the worst parts of yourself" around the subject of Unconditional Welcome
• Karen's recorded workshop session on Empathy for A**holes at CreativeMornings
• Design Matters with Debbie Millman: Alex Bogusky and John Bielenberg
• Karen talks to Joe Reichert on More Wiser about ethnography and everything else

During this conversation, Skipper and Zolt talk about how images are produced from the Hubble Space Telescope, the importance of being curious, how professional telescopes don't "see" in color, the size of 24 million soda straws, Ansel Adams, the notion of time travel, and his more recent hobby of astrophotography.

Stay tuned until the end for a clip on how to pronounce Zolt's first and last name the Hungarian way.

Special Guest: Zolt Levay.

Links:

• Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)
• The NASA Hubble Space Telescope
• RGB color model
• The Pillars of Creation
• Carina Nebula
• Ansel Adams
• Sky & Telescope - astrophotography tips
• CloudyNights.com
• Mauna Kea Observatories
• Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory
• Aurora at Yellowknife, Canada
• The NASA James Webb Space Telescope
• Zolt Levay's photography site
• Zolt Levay's 2015 TEDx talk

We recorded this episode over two sessions and along the way we get into many topics, including the notion of reinfections (more and more common with Omicron), how the testing numbers may not reflect actual cases with more and more home testing (and some people not testing at all), how an at-home test is different than a PCR test, and the current slate of variants — BA.1, BA.2, BA2.12.1, BA.4, BA.5, XE, etc. We also touch on COVID therapies including Paxlovid, an oral antiviral treatment, and Evusheld, monoclonal antibodies. As well, we talked about some of what Dr. Chin-Hong is concerned about in the future — including avian flu and influenza along with the idea that diseases like valley fever (coccidioidomycosis) have been creeping up over the last few years because we as humans are settling into areas (more rural, for instance) that large groups of us haven't been before. And then, we end the show by talking about his work as a professor of medicine and educator at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) — what teaching medicine has looked like the last few years with students (and teachers) as little blobs on a screen.

Stay tuned until the end of the episode for a longer bit about the flu that didn't really have a place anywhere else.

Special Guest: Dr. Peter Chin-Hong.

Links:

• SF Chronicle: How California’s COVID numbers compare to the last time its mask mandate was lifted
• PBS News Hour: Dr. Fauci on why the U.S. is ‘out of the pandemic phase’ — Originally posted Apr 26, 2022
• 13 things to know about Paxlovid, the latest COVID-19 pill
• The Guardian: Why are there so many new Omicron subvariants, like BA.4 and BA.5? Is the virus mutating faster?
• The Commonwealth Fund: Impact of U.S. COVID-19 Vaccination Efforts: An Update on Averted Deaths, Hospitalizations, and Health Care Costs Through March 2022
• Evusheld Antibody Treatment for COVID-19
• 1918-1920 flu epidemic
• Faculty Interview: Peter Chin-Hong, MD
• Peter Chin-Hong Explores Identity and History in 2021 Last Lecture

They also talk about their life together — newsflash: they're married and living in the San Francisco Bay area, having moved from New York City a couple of years ago. Along the way, they get into some of the differences between life in SF and NYC. They also talk about their upcoming wedding anniversary after getting married next to Jane's Carousel in Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Along with talk about his name change from Starr to Skipper (and not Optimus Prime) at the age of seven, they bring in a few questions posed from the listening audience including lessons learned from the first season of the show, calling people the name they want to be called, how crucial listening is in making a podcast, the ubiquity of imposter syndrome, using the five (5) whys to get to the root cause of a challenge as developed by Sakichi Toyoda at the Toyota Motor Corporation, team falling asleep during movies versus team staying awake during movies, and why Skipper color codes versus alphabetizing the books in his background — see photo below.

View of the three shelves behind Skipper's standing desk

Laura and Skipper also reference the following previous episodes, in order of being published, including:

• Jack Kahana, the first episode
• Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, the third episode
• Selena Rosanbalm, the sixth episode
• Cassandra Carlopio, the 15th episode
• Kat Hantas and Nicole Emanuel from 21Seeds, the 17th episode
• Sally McRae, the 18th episode
• Piper Payne, the 20th episode

Stay tuned after the outro music for a bit of tape where Skipper pauses for a bit of background noise and how from where Laura's sitting, the microphone makes it looks like his nose is a black bit of foam.

Special Guest: Skipper Chong Warson.

Links:

• American Museum of Natural History in New York City
• How to move across the country with design thinking, pt. 1 of 2
• How to move across the country with design thinking, pt. 2 of 2
• Making "Black Sabbath" and "Paranoid"
• Design Voices from Fjord
• ‎Fjord Fika on Apple podcasts
• Imposter syndrome
• Starbar
• "Outliers: The Story of Success" by Malcolm Gladwell
• Jane's Carousel
• 1922 Ohio carousel in Brooklyn besieged by Sandy
• Determine The Root Cause: 5 Whys
• Why do many mistakenly think human blood is sometimes blue?
• SNL season 46 finale cold open - What I Remember About this Year
• ‎John Wick (2014)
• ‎The Matrix (1999)
• Keanu Reeves
• The Mosquito Coast on Apple TV+
• ‎The Mosquito Coast (1986)
• The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux
• ‎The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
• ‎Wireframe with Adobe’s Khoi Vinh
• Invisibilia from NPR
• 99% Invisible
• Adrianne Lenker (from Big Thief)
• Prince
• Japanese Breakfast
• Billie Eilish
• BTS
• BTS performs 'Fix You' (Coldplay cover) from MTV Unplugged
• BLACKPINK
• Custom lathe cut vinyl records from Vinylus
• "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves" by Karen Russell
• Intro and outro song: "Zombie Nation" by Jose Travieso

Thanks so much!

Recorded late on a Sunday night, Skipper and Sarah talk about her identity as being half Cuban, how she got her first camera in the fifth grade, how being in a military family influenced her world and personality at a young age, being both the science nerd and the jock, and how she studied astronomy in college before she decided to pursue photography as her bachelor's degree — though she'd really like to work with NASA still. Following that, she worked for Citysearch before landing at Time magazine and received a M.F.A. in Photography from Parsons School of Design in New York.

We get into how she wears many hats as an artist, how she multi-tasks as a single parent in her home life, how she collaborates in her work with others, and the necessary resilience of applying for as well as receiving/being rejected for exhibitions, grants, endowments, and fellowships. She and Skipper also talk about the notion of making daunting life decisions at 19 versus 29 or 39. We also talk about several of her works in particular: Point of Origin, her most recent El Recuerdo project which started as a response to Deborah Brown’s paintings but then evolved to be a tribute to her grandmother and Sarah's biracial heritage, The Reading Brain, 60 Pounds of Pressure, Will You Hug me Forever, and her upcoming work Labor Pains.

Video from El Recuerdo: Rope by Sarah Sudhoff

Video from El Recuerdo: Water by Sarah Sudhoff

Sarah says that she's finally feeling worthy to apply for a Guggenheim and MoMA this year — to which we say, Break a leg!

When pressed, she talks about how art is hard and her advice for her two children if they wanted to go into some kind of artistic profession.

Stay tuned for a bit after the outro music where after Skipper rambles on for a bit and Sarah asks simply, What's the question?

Special Guest: Sarah Sudhoff.

Links:

• WAVES
• Erika Blumenfeld
• Rick Williams
• The Daily Texan
• Rick Stengel
• Parsons
• Sorority Rush
• Annie Leibovitz
• James Nachtwey
• Andrew Hetherington
• Point of Origin
• Dr. James "Red" Duke
• Deborah Brown: Nomad Exquisite
• El Recuerdo
• El Recuerdo: Rope
• Will You Hug Me Forever
• 60 Pounds of Pressure
• The Reading Brain
• Nancy Littlejohn Fine Art
• John Simon Guggenheim Foundation - How to Apply
• "Contract with the Skin: Masochism, Performance Art, and the 1970s" by Kathy O'Dell
• Audiobook of "Becoming Supernatural" by Dr Joe Dispenza
• Audiobook of "Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself" by Dr Joe Dispenza
• Sarah Sudhoff
• Intro and outro song: "Zombie Nation" by Jose Travieso

Currently based in Nashville, Tennessee, Piper starts off the episode with her professional introduction and then tells us "who she actually" is, including her being originally a Midwesterner, having three dogs, being an Aries, and her love of cheeseburgers.

We talk about how if she wasn't a mastering engineer, she might be in some form of construction or maybe a carpenter. We get into how she's a drummer, starting when she was a "shrimpy kid", her technical music studies at the University of Michigan and then her graduate work in Norway, and working under Bob Katz and Michael Romanowski. Then, Piper dives into how she calibrates her mastering console with sine tones and noise, how music is mastered from a high level, her growing up on young country, her love of top 40 pop music, how vinyl records are made (think waffles), how musicians get paid (in the past and more recently), and the potential of non-fungible tokens to help artists get paid for their work as well as keep better track and make decisions about their efforts to tour, promote, and construct release plans.

We also talk about some of the assumptions that people have about being a mastering engineer, how it's not alchemy.

Below is a snapshot of the record shelves Piper mentions on the show as something she built recently that she's proud of:

Stay tuned after the outro music to hear Skipper work out the right way to introduce Piper as an audio mastering engineer or a mastering engineer.

Special Guest: Piper Payne.

Links:

• Amplitude
• Frequency balance or equalization
• Stereo imaging or stereophonic sound
• "If you're into vinyl, there might be tough times ahead" from Global News
• "How a fire in the Inland Empire could spell doom for the worldwide vinyl LP boom" from The Los Angeles Times
• "'This Is Disastrous': How the Vinyl Industry Is Responding to the Apollo Masters Fire" from Rolling Stone
• "Out Of The Apollo Masters Fire Emerges The Vinyl Record Manufacturers Association Of North America" from Forbes
• "Respect" as written by Otis Redding, performed and made infamous by Aretha Franklin on her double vinyl album, "Aretha"
• Beyoncé’s "Lemonade" Vinyl Mispressed With Songs by Canadian Punk Band Zex
• "Inside the Dirty Business of Hit Songwriting" from Variety
• Apple Music tells artists it now pays double than Spotify per stream
• "What is an NFT, and How Could it Help the Music Industry? A Guide" from Mixmag
• "So You Want to Mint an NFT: A Guide for Artists & Music Execs" from Billboard
• Zoe Keating on "What Should I do about YouTube?"
• Zoë Keating's bio
• Infrasonic Sound
• Chef, Restaurateur Sean Brock at Husk
• Intro and outro song: "Zombie Nation" by Jose Travieso

This week, Skipper chats with Kait Scalisi, a certified sex educator who founded Passion by Kait. They engage in a wide-ranging conversation that explores so many areas — including shame, communication, and how pleasure is really powerful as a healing force.

And there's so much under the surface as well, like how some people carry their disabilities in plain sight, the concept of accessible design, how she started doing this work, how with sex there's no such thing as "normal", a lightweight formula around how to talk about sex with your partner, her delight in the concept of verbal consent is showing up in romance novels, consent culture and the underlying sentiment to act first, apologize later, #notallmen, Resmaa Menakem on the notion of somatic abolitionism, and assumptions that Kait has had to work against as a sex educator.

Stay tuned after the outro music for a pause for sirens in Kait's New York City sound background, an ever present aural reminder of the big city. Skipper misses it.

Special Guest: Kait Scalisi.

Links:

• How to start a conversation about sex
• How to have successful conversations about sex/fix failed ones
• Holistic sex education
• Nervous system support
• "Would I Lie to the Duke" by Eva Leigh — The romance novel that Kait mentions with a subby (read: submissive) duke
• "My Grandmother's Hands" by Resmaa Menakem
• Andy Polaine on imposter syndrome
• Stop telling women they have imposter syndrome
• Caveday
• Episode with Jake Kahana from Caveday
• Intro and outro song: "Zombie Nation" by Jose Travieso

Based in Bend, Oregon, Sally starts off by talking about how she often gets mistaken for a bodybuilder, a cross fitter, and even a cage fighter. She also gets into many more details of her life, including growing up in a family of seven, playing soccer and starting to run because "she knew she had the speed" and then as a way to stay in shape and cross-train, running her first marathon, discovering ultrarunning, running Western States 100 in 2014 (as captured in the short film "Western Time" — linked below), the importance of crew in ultrarunning, and what she thinks is at the heart of the sentiment, "I'm not a runner, or I wasn't made for running, or running is stupid".

We also talk about some of the assumptions that people have about being a pro runner, the power of the community around running and ultrarunning, how running long distances with people can get past the polite and light social conversations, dispelling the common thinking that Skipper's name came from Gilligan's Island, why running is painful, needing to take care of yourself first and foremost, how on a 100 mile race that you will stir up something deep, and how some of the events locally and in the world might mirror some darker moments in our lives.

Stay tuned after the outro music to hear Sally's joy about relocating to the mountains with her family.

Special Guest: Sally McRae.

Links:

• Western States 100-mile endurance run
• "Western Time" — In 2014, Sally McRae ran the Western States 100 — the world’s oldest 100 mile race — for the very first time. This short film by Billy Yang documents her story.
• "The Run-Walk-Run Method" by Jeff Galloway
• Justice & Mercy International — JMI is a faith-based, non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that exists to make justice personal for the poor, the orphaned and the forgotten of the world.
• Intro and outro song: "Zombie Nation" by Jose Travieso

They talk about what they did before starting the company — film work and corporate finance, respectively — when Kat's doctor instructed her to stop drinking fermented spirits like wine, beer, and sake to drink distilled spirits like blanco tequila instead.

And after eight years of infusing tequila in her kitchen, Kat enlisted her sister Nicole and their friend, Sarika Singh, to start 21Seeds — the name comes from two friends + one girlfriend with things that are all-natural, that grow from a seed — with a distillery in the town of Tequila in Jalisco, Mexico run and staffed by women whose hours coincide with school schedules, so the moms don’t have to pay for childcare. The sisters talk about the three tiers set up by the tied-house rule, why they didn't name the company Casamigas (a play on Casamigos), chill filtration (and how it removes aldehydes), keeping the heart but leaving out the head and tail when distilling alcohol, how you can go blind from moonshine (depending on the how and who's making it), and the differences between flavored and infused liquor.

This is an especially fun episode as both sisters keep it light while the conversation moves easily. Nicole and Kat debate which Constitutional amendment made alcohol illegal and which one repealed Prohibition, the dangers of home infusing tequila in a Brita, and how Oprah Winfrey — as a tequila fan and someone who infuses tequila herself — paid the product a high compliment in assuming it was freshly infused.

Stay tuned after the outro music to hear Skipper trip all over over the pronunciation of Kat's last name. So you all know, Hantas is pronounced like Pocahontas or haunting.

Special Guest: Kat Hantas and Nicole Emanuel.

Links:

• 21Seeds
• Tequila, Jalisco
• 21Seeds makes the OList, June 2020
• The history of prohibition in the United States
• Bridgerton
• Second Life podcast
• How I Built This
• Shark Tank
• #girlscalltheshots
• Find 21Seeds
• Intro and outro song: "Zombie Nation" by Jose Travieso

We talk about so many things, including her work sitting at the intersection of how language works — or what Laura refers to as the math of language — cognitive processing and language, and social filters; how non-native languages to young kids can feel like a superpower, how some people listen like others wait for the right moment to jump into a double dutch jump rope session, bosses versus leaders, manipulation versus influence, myth-busting one of the most misquoted statistic in communications research, how we all have a prismatic voice, and how authenticity is absolutely essential in how we use our voice.

Stay tuned after the outro music for a quick levels check, a peek behind the scenes.

Special Guest: Laura Sicola.

Links:

• "Speaking to Influence" by Laura Sicola
• Virtual Influence course
• Albert Mehrabian
• "Psycho-Cybernetics" by Maxwell Maltz
• Vocal Impact Productions
• Intro and outro song: "Zombie Nation" by Jose Travieso

We also talk about how she loves the mountains and beach equally, her newfound love of kite boarding, about the role of the nervous system and sleep, about how there's very little communication "between the field of sleep medicine and the field of psychology and the field of meditation", in the role that meditation can play in helping people sleep at night, traffic in Los Angeles, the notion of using virtual reality to help with sleep issues, and how gifting someone with sleep issues "Why We Sleep" by Matthew Walker may not be the right kind of present.

Stay tuned after the outro music to hear Skipper stumble through the pronunciation of Cassandra's name, something that he does with every guest on the show.

Special Guest: Cassandra Carlopio.

Links:

• Surfer Today answers the question, What is kiteboarding?
• "Why We Sleep" by Matthew Walker
• How many thoughts do we have per minute?
• The Breathe Institute
• "Atomic Habits" by James Clear
• James Clear breaks down how to make small habits, using meditation as an example
• Intro and outro song: "Zombie Nation" by Jose Travieso

We also talk about the difference between design being focused on sustainability and regeneration, how important context is to solving design problems, about the importance of a designer living with or inside their work, the fact that people move 11.7 times in their life (as written in his book "The Resilient Farm and Homestead"), and how Ben's able to grow rice on terraced flats in the Northwestern U.S.

We chat about the wood stove that provides heat for Ben and his family versus a thermostat-driven heat system or even a voice user interface like Alexa and how manual a process it is.

Stay tuned after the outro music for a clip and flubbed first take of the show's intro.

This episode was edited and mastered by Troy Lococo.

Special Guest: Ben Falk.

Links:

• Todd Ecological - Dr. John Todd from University of Vermont
• Whole Systems Design
• An example of a client's passive house project — From Whole System Designs site: We've master-planned the Landau's site for the past two years and consulted on this passive house project, advising on ways for the home to not only be a mechanically high-performance shell but a functional house integrated within a permaculture working landscape. This includes root cellar design and other house-interior microclimate considerations for drying the harvest, keeping it cool, and for extended season use via a greenhouse addition on the main passive house which we have designed. We've also planted a small orchard for the Landaus in this developing post-peak oil homestead including peach, pear, apple, plum, cherry, hazelnut, walnuts, oaks, edible hickory, and other species including many berries.
• Bill Mollison
• David Holmgren
• Rock formations in Yosemite Valley, including El Capitan
• "The Resilient Farm and Homestead" by Ben Falk
• Wendell Berry
• Robin Wall Kimmerer
• Whole Systems Design YouTube channel
• Ben Falk's TEDx talk on homestead resiliency and food systems regeneration
• Intro and outro song: "Zombie Nation" by Jose Travieso

We start out by talking about being a bit nervous about being on a podcast as a guest and a podcast as a host, external and internal roles, the difference between honesty and authenticity, and how different people get their energy in different ways (she gets hers with alone time while her husband gets it from being around people).

We reach into many topics during this show, including how Kacie's mom was and is a role model for her, being a mother herself, how while she felt like she theoretically had it all she felt miserable (probably as a result of late-onset postpartum depression), the double standard of calling a woman bossy versus praising a man for the same behavior, good coffee in contrast to easy coffee, the importance of the mug, the power of curiosity, and, in her words, where part of the narrative of being a woman is "if you don't dislike yourself a little bit, then you're not humble."

There's a ton of books that we talk about — non-fiction and fiction. You can find those in the show notes. We also talk about a mutual friend Jen Dary and her So Now You're a Manager program from Plucky.

Stay tuned after the outro music to hear Kacie wonder, Who am I?

This episode was edited and mastered by Troy Lococo.

Special Guest: Kacie Lett Gordon.

Links:

• Fuck It All
• WTF is FIA, an episode of Fuck It All
• "Dare to Lead" by Brené Brown
• "Everything Is Figureoutable" by Marie Forleo
• "Lean in" by Sheryl Sandberg
• "What Do People Do All Day?" by Richard Scarry
• "NurtureShock" by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman
• List of values from Brené Brown's "Dare to Lead"
• Values exercise from Brené Brown's "Dare to Lead"
• A "good" Asian woman with Juinn Tan.
• "The Crown" on Netflix
• "Company of One" by Paul Jarvis
• "The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck" by Mark Manson
• Oprah recites Dr. Maya Angelou's poem "Phenomenal Woman"
• "How to Think Like a Monk" by Jay Shetty
• "Group" by Christie Tate
• "The Leavers" by Lisa Ko
• "Pachinko" by Min Jin Lee
• "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng
• Kacie Lett Gordon
• Intro and outro song: "Zombie Nation" by Jose Travieso

We start in Chris' childhood where he describes sneaking into his parents' room to watch Hitchcock's "Psycho" around the age of five, making short films in high school with his friends including a zombie sequel to "Xanadu" (which became a cult college favorite), feeling underwater after "Another Day in Paradise", leaving Los Angeles (and writing) before beginning to approach his work "like a job", "Disturbia" as a mix of Hitchcock's "Rear Window" and a John Hughes movie, "Happy Death Day" and "Happy Death Day 2U" as mash-ups of "Groundhog Day" with horror tropes, writing his most recent movie "Freaky" with Michael Kennedy, working on the adaptation of "My Best Friend's Exorcism" by Grady Hendrix, and signing up to help reboot the "Paranormal Activity" franchise.

But it's not just movies — though there are a ton of movies that we talk about — it's also about how all horror films aren't all about slash, blood, and gore. Chris talked about one of his aims to use the "genre as a Trojan horse" and how he's going to "smuggle much weightier themes inside of a movie that just looks cute and fun and scary", citing "Get Out". We also get into how 'best of' lists or a list of favorites can be problematic, how there are so many films to choose from. Chris also talks about how he discovered his authentic voice, not taking criticism personally, and focusing on being a better listener which has improved his life as a husband, a father, and made him infinitely happier with his solo and collaborative work.

Stay tuned after the outro music to hear Skipper say, "I see" — which kicks off Siri and reaks some frustration. This is a good reminder that voice user interfaces (voice UI) are always listening. And we're talking about you — Siri, Alexa, Cortana, etc.

This episode was edited and mastered by Troy Lococo.

Special Guest: Chris Landon.

Links:

• The Science Behind How We Taste
• Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" (1960) — With Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh.
• "I Spit on Your Grave" (1978)
• "Halloween" (1978) — Directed by John Carpenter. Fifteen years after murdering his sister on Halloween night 1963, Michael Myers escapes from a mental hospital and returns to the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois to kill again.
• "The Exorcist" (1973) — Directed by William Friedkin and produced and written for the screen by William Peter Blatty, based on the 1971 novel of the same name by Blatty. With Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, Lee J. Cobb, Kitty Winn, Jack MacGowran, Jason Miller and Linda Blair. When a 12-year-old girl is possessed by a mysterious entity, her mother seeks the help of two priests to save her.
• "The Shining" (1980) — The movie follows a writer (Jack Nicholson) and his family who agree to watch over a hotel while it is closed for the winter.
• "Xanadu" (1980) — With Olivia Newton-John, Gene Kelly, Michael Beck, James Sloyan. A struggling artist living in Los Angeles meets a girl who may hold the key to his happiness and converts a dilapidated auditorium into a lavish rollerskating club.
• Cary Woods — A film producer best known for producing worldwide blockbusters such as "Scream" and "Godzilla", the beloved independent films "Kids", "Cop Land", and "Gummo", and modern classics like "Rudy" and "Swingers".
• Larry Clark — An American film director, photographer, writer and film producer who is best known for his film "Kids" (1995) and his photography book "Tulsa" (1971). His work focuses primarily on youth who casually engage in illegal drug use, underage sex, and violence, and who are part of a specific subculture, such as surfing, punk rock, or skateboarding.
• Current and online version of L.A. 411
• "Another Day in Paradise" (1998) — With James Woods, Melanie Griffith, Vincent Kartheiser, Natasha Gregson Wagner. In the hope of a big score, two junkie couples team up to commit various drug robberies which go disastrously wrong leading to dissent, violence and murder.
• MTV's "Making the Video"
• "Disturbia" (2007) — Directed by D. J. Caruso, written by Chris Landon and Carl Ellsworth. With Shia LaBeouf, David Morse, Sarah Roemer, Carrie-Anne Moss. A teen living under house arrest becomes convinced his neighbor is a serial killer.
• "Rear Window" (1954) — Directed by Hitchcock. A wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbors from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.
• John Hughes — A writer, producer, and sometimes director known for "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" (1987), "The Breakfast Club" (1985), "Sixteen Candles" (1984), "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" (1986), "Pretty in Pink" (1986), and "Weird Science" (1985) among other films.
• "Freaky" (2020) — Directed by Chris Landon, written by Michael Kennedy and Chris Landon. With Vince Vaughn, Kathryn Newton, Celeste O'Connor. A mystical, ancient dagger causes a notorious serial killer to magically switch bodies with a 17-year-old girl.
• "Happy Death Day" (2017) — Directed by Chris Landon. With Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard, Ruby Modine, Charles Aitken. Caught in a bizarre and terrifying time warp, college student Tree finds herself repeatedly reliving the day of her murder, ultimately realizing that she must identify the killer and the reason for her death before her chances of survival run out.
• "Happy Death Day 2U" (2019) — Directed by Chris Landon. With Jessica Rothe, Israel Broussard, Phil Vu. College student Tree Gelbman wakes up in horror to learn that she’s stuck in a parallel universe. Her boyfriend Carter is now with someone else, and her friends and fellow students seem to be completely different versions of themselves. When Tree discovers that Carter’s roommate has been altering time, she finds herself once again the target of a masked killer. When the psychopath starts to go after her inner circle, Tree soon realizes that she must die over and over again to save everyone.
• "Groundhog Day" (1993) — Directed by Harold Ramis. With Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, Chris Elliott. A narcissistic T.V. weatherman, along with his attractive-but-distant producer and mawkish cameraman, is sent to report on Groundhog Day in the small town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, where he finds himself repeating the same day over and over.
• "The Thing" (1982) — Directed by John Carpenter. With Kurt Russell, Wilford Brimley, Keith David. In remote Antarctica, a chain of events is set off when a group of American research scientists are disturbed at their base camp by a helicopter shooting at a sled dog.
• "Rosemary’s Baby" (1968) — Directed by Roman Polanski. With Mia Farrow, John Cassavetes, Ruth Gordon, Sidney Blackmer. A young couple moves into an infamous New York apartment building to start a family. Things become frightening as Rosemary begins to suspect her unborn baby isn’t safe around their strange neighbors.
• "Terms of Endearment" (1983) — Directed by James L. Brooks. With Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger, Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito. Aurora, a finicky woman, is in search of true love while her daughter faces marital issues. Together, they help each other deal with problems and find reasons to live a joyful life.
• "Game of Thrones" (HBO series)
• "Mother's Day" (1980) — Directed by Charles Kaufman.
• "Don’t Go in the Woods" (1981) — Directed by James Bryan.
• "Theatre of Blood" (1973) — Directed by Douglas Hickox. One of Vincent Price's first films.
• "Madman" or "Madman Mars" (1981) — Directed by Joe Giannone.
• "Get Out" (2017) — Directed by Jordan Peele. With Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Bradley Whitford, Catherine Keener. Chris and his girlfriend Rose go upstate to visit her parents for the weekend. At first, Chris reads the family’s overly accommodating behavior as nervous attempts to deal with their daughter’s interracial relationship, but as the weekend progresses, a series of increasingly disturbing discoveries lead him to a truth that he never could have imagined.
• Watch Freaky on iTunes
• "My Best Friend's Exorcism" by Grady Hendrix
• "Stand by Me" (1986) — Directed by Rob Reiner. With Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman. It's the summer of 1959 in Castlerock, Maine and four 12 year-old boys - Gordie, Chris, Teddy and Vern - are fast friends. After learning of the general location of the body of a local boy who has been missing for several days, they set off into woods to see it.
• "Paranormal Activity" Getting Reboot From Will Eubank, Christopher Landon
• Intro and outro song: "Zombie Nation" by Jose Travieso

Starting with being born in Roswell, New Mexico, living in Turkey, and then settling in California, their conversation gets into how sustainable design (the idea of using less) really needs to shift to the idea of regenerative design (works more like nature or generates energy), passive solar, how today's lumber is different than old-growth lumber, Formosan termites, building with cold form steel or light gauge steel, Filippo Brunelleschi, Albrecht Dürer, the Acjachemen in Orange County, and the history of the Banning Ranch site.

Here are two examples from Carl's work — the top one's a concept from Banning Ranch and the bottom one's the Waterwise Community Center in Montclair, California.

Stay tuned after the outro to hear Carl talk more about Chinese landscape painting.

This episode was edited and mastered by Troy Lococo.

Special Guest: Carl Welty.

Links:

• How an Alien Autopsy Hoax Captured the World's Imagination for a Decade
• Ken Haggard
• Zero Net Energy
• Formosan subterranean termite
• Filippo Brunelleschi
• Albrecht Dürer
• Man Drawing a Lute (The Draughtsman of the Lute) from Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
• Banning Ranch - About Us
• January 4-5, 2017 Oral Argument Cases in Banning Ranch case
• Acjachemen or Juaneño
• Waterwise Community Center
• Machines as the Measure of Men: Science, Technology, and Ideologies of Western Dominance to Collections by Michael Adas
• The Measure of Reality: Quantification in Western Europe, 1250-1600 by Alfred W. Crosby
• Carl Welty Architects
• Intro and outro song: "Zombie Nation" by Jose Travieso

We start with his origins crowning in a cab in Mumbai, India, the ease in which his right shoulder dislocates after a show once upon a time with his hardcore band Lovers and Killers, the joy of Royal Farm (RoFo) fried chicken, and the brilliance of a 'hot now' Krispy Kreme donut. Skipper and Thejus also get into his two books, Brushfire and The Flywheel and The Lever where they get into some of the foundational details, including Henry Ford's creation of the 40 hour workweek, the Stanford prison experiment done by Dr. Philip Zimbardo, Stanley Milgram's experiments on obedience to authority figures, the notion of 'it's always the system', the Ben Franklin effect, Thejus' experience creating an instructional system out of open source technologies, Donella Meadows' essay on leverage points, and Gamergate. See if you can pick out the Seth Godin namedrop.

Interesting note about Thejus' previous band — Lovers and Killers, then Caestles, and now Queen Wolf as well as a second band called Infinite Pizza. While he formally left that band about five years ago, they're still making music and he helps with production and occasionally contributes. Here's an audio family tree/playlist:

• "An Hour Left of Forever" from Lovers & Killers' 2006 album Tropic of Cancer (YouTube or Spotify)
• "William Blake" from Caestles' 2010 album A Treatise of Human Combustion (YouTube or Spotify)
• Infinite Pizza at the Windup Space in Baltimore on July 13, 2014 (YouTube)

Queen Wolf and Infinite Pizza are both on Bandcamp, if you want to indulge deeper.

After the outro music, you can hear Skipper spring on Thejus a request to read the opening bit from "Brushfire".

This episode was edited and mastered by Troy Lococo.

Special Guest: Thejus Chakravarthy.

Links:

• Ford factory workers get 40-hour week on May 1, 1926
• Books by Sir Terry Pratchett
• Royal Farms best fried chicken
• Sugata Mitra's TED talk on how kids can teach themselves
• Thejus' book "Brushfire"
• The official Stanford Prison Experiment website
• Milgram experiment
• Hot Signage Now: Krispy Kreme in Times Square
• The Benjamin Franklin Effect
• Leverage Points: Places to Intervene in a System by Donella Meadows
• Seth Godin's TED talk about the subject of his book, "Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us"
• Seth Godin's book, Tribes
• Thejus' book "The Flywheel and The Lever"
• Tim Ferriss
• What Is Gamergate, and Why? An Explainer for Non-Geeks
• Thejus' work site, hircinous.com
• Intro and outro song: "Zombie Nation" by Jose Travieso

Along the way, we get into so many topics — how Nova only snaps with his thumb and little/pinky finger (on both hands), how he comes from a family of artists and creators, getting inspiration from nature and his sisters (versus media and friends), how he's missing Brooklyn after his family temporarily relocated up-state, Soul (the Pixar movie), how he started working in digital media on his dad's computer, what remote school looks and feels like in one of the top fine arts schools in NYC, making a portfolio to apply to colleges, the impact of social media — even Instagram — on him, his exit from social media (mostly), his experience as a trans male, binge watching all 15 seasons of Criminal Minds, and his love of My Brother, My Brother and Me, a podcast by the McElroy Brothers.

Here are three views of the work pinned to the wall above Nova's desk, something he mentions during the show:

Nova cites a statistic around how one out of every 200 people identify as trasngender. But upon digging into the actual article from the American Journal of Public Health, it turns out that they discovered in 2016 that the ratio was 390/100,000. And as a fraction, that works out to 0.0039. 1/200 is 0.005, fairly close. The article also posits that the fraction of the transgender population is going to rise as more people come out and transgender identities are normalized.

Throughout the episode, we hear Nova's life as one full of interuptions and household goingson, including the family pets. Stay tuned for one of those bits after the outro music.

This episode was edited and mastered by Troy Lococo.

Special Guest: Nova Stanley.

Links:

• Pixar's Soul
• The Art of Soul from Pixar
• Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• Rhode Island School of Design (RISD)
• Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA)
• School of Visual Arts (SVA)
• Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD)
• Non-binary gender
• Trans man
• Cisgender or cisnormativity
• Trans Key Stats from Stonewall.org.uk
• At least 350 transgender people killed globally in 2020
• Transgender Population Size in the United States
• Criminal Minds
• The McElroy podcast family
• The Magnus Archives
• Orla Gartland
• dodie
• instagram.com/noviart
• stinkoboy.tumblr.com
• noviarts.tumblr.com
• Intro and outro song: "Zombie Nation" by Jose Travieso

The conversation hits so many points, starting with her frustration with baths, how the notion of logistics eventually fed into the concept of getting things done, how hustling and freelancing built her discipline, using your own motivations and demotiavtions as an aligning principle, how getting things done for other people is different than when you're working for yourself, thinking about the Eisenhower Matrix graph with its four quadrants of high/low impact and high/low effort to prioritize your work, what happens when you never do a thing you're supposed to (read: like Skipper's example of not being very good at flossing at night), to-do lists as part of the process of reflecting back on how something went, and how she thinks of her own to-do lists as little diaries.

Towards the end of the episode, Skipper mentions a card-based productivity system of which he couldn't recall the name. It's called Analog.

After the outro music, you can hear Stephanie talk about her friend of 14 years already wanting to listen to this episode. 😃🎉

This episode was edited and mastered by Troy Lococo.

Special Guest: Stephanie Krivitzky.

Links:

• Misen cookware
• Eisenhower graph of impact/effort
• The Myth Of Multitasking
• Cave Day
• Monday
• Bullet Journal
• Analog
• Obligatory puppy picture
• Stephanie Krivitzky
• Intro and outro song: "Zombie Nation" by Jose Travieso

The topics range from talking about thrill seeking in motorcycle riding/bungee jumping, homemade Eggo waffles cooling on chopsticks, falling into and grinding through the ever challenging work of making and serving some of the most highly regarded food in the world while racing the clock and the swirling kitchen chaos, the requisite patience to not rush food, the secret to great paella, the importance of downtime in working as a chef, and the brain drain in running restuarants that's happening during COVID-19.

One thing that we learned is that restaurants are the number one employer in Calif. And working backwards from the idea that the golden state has 1/8 of the United States population and by some estimates the various 2020 shutdown orders will end up closing 50% of restaurants that aren't backed by chains or corporations, that's a huge impact of which we weren't aware.

While recording, Skipper mistakingly attributes Malcolm Gladwell's 10,000 hours of work equals mastery theory to "Blink" instead of "Outliers". (He corrected it with Nicolai offline as soon as he was able.)

Stay tuned after the outro music for a bit of tape where Nicolai first mentions working on the line for the first time in six years.

This episode was edited and mastered by Troy Lococo.

Special Guest: Nicolai Lipscomb.

Links:

• Adrenaline
• Eggo waffles
• Barbara Lynch
• No 9 Park
• B&G Oysters
• Butcher Shop
• Malcolm Gladwell's "Outliers"
• Anne Sophie Pic
• Elena Arzak
• Juan Mari Arzak
• Joan Roca
• El Celler de Can Roca
• 2018 San Pelligrino list with Arzak and El Celler de Can Roca
• Fundacion Alicia
• Ferran Adria
• Pere Castells
• Restaurant Industry at a glance in California
• Ferdinand's Paella
• Mustard Seed Hospitality
• Nicolai Lipscomb on LinkedIn
• Nicolai on Instagram
• Intro and outro song: "Zombie Nation" by Jose Travieso

The conversation has a wide swing, starting with her love of yacht rock (think Michael McDonald or Hall & Oates or the Doobie Bros), her fear of things underwater, her early thrill with performing "I Just Can't Wait to Be King" from The Lion King, the number system for calling the chords of the songs to everyone on-stage, how some musicians are still producing new cassette tapes, how being an independent musician is more work than it may seem (because not everyone's Bono), Black Sabbath's debut album done in one take (allegedly), how the name Rosie and the Ramblers came about, and how the cover art for Selena Rosanbalm started with a piece of photo equipment.

Stay tuned after the outro music for a piece of tape where Skipper asks if Selena and the members of her backing band wear masks when performing.

This episode was edited and mastered by Troy Lococo.

Special Guest: Selena Rosanbalm.

Links:

• What is Yacht Rock?
• Bobby Caldwell
• Submechanophobia
• The Lion King - "I Just Can't Wait To Be King"
• Oklahoma City's City Walk Closed in 2014
• Nashville Number System
• Rosie and the Ramblers on Bandcamp
• Selena
• Fyre Festival: Inside the world's biggest festival flop
• Daniel Cavazos
• Foo Fighters' "Everlong"
• Foo Fighters' "Monkey Wrench"
• According to Black Sabbath's guitarist and founder member Tony Iommi, the group's debut album was recorded in a single day on 16 October 1969
• Selena Rosanbalm
• Selena Rosanbalm on Bandcamp
• Intro and outro song: "Zombie Nation" by Jose Travieso

As a marketing veteran, Brad breaks down the world of cannabis in this conversation with Skipper. There are stops along the way to talk about Shakespeare, punk rock, William Randolph Hurst, how the illegality of marijuana affects the prison/jail system in this country, the history of reefer madness, how President-elect Biden and speaker Pelosi are closer in age to the assasination of Lincoln than to the present day, H.R.3884 - MORE Act, and the tobacco industry among other subjects.

Learn about happens to the human body when you smoke, eat, drink, or otherwise consume cannabis and CBD products. Also, what you should look out for when you're looking for quality CBD products. Brad also talks about his recent work with Tha Hood Squad, a nonprofit street organization, black and brown led, working to fight against overpolicing, racial profiling, and living with gentrification in east Palo Alto (northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California) — which is right across the street from a significantly more afluent part of town.

This episode contains some explicit language and adult subject matter. Stay tuned after the outro music to hear Skipper lay out with some expletives about one of the goals of How This Works, "F-word it, own the thing that you know!"

This episode was edited and mastered by Troy Lococo.

Special Guest: Brad Bogus.

Links:

• Remembering Longtime Theatre Director Sidney Berger
• Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare
• On "The Winter's Tale"
• "Titus" (1999) with Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Lange, and Osheen Jones among others
• Julie Taymor, from Wikipedia
• Julie Taymor's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (2014)
• "Reefer Madness" by Eric Schlosser
• H.R.3884 - MORE Act of 2020
• The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018
• What are Terpenes?
• Decarboxylating Cannabis: Turning THCA into THC
• Cannabigerol (CBG)
• Tha Hood Squad
• Tha Hood Squad on Instagram
• Intro and outro song: "Zombie Nation" by Jose Travieso

Our show starts with a flub but we quickly recover. We talk about what it means when a designer uses off-the-shelf templates for their resume. Jackie's advice? Designers, design your resume. Also, send the right cover letter.

Stay tuned after the outro music for a triumphant moment where technology didn't win. Which means we won. And that's always a good day. 😂

Special Guest: Jackie Velasquez-Ross.

Links:

• InVision
• Goodby Silverstein
• 20 Years of ‘Got Milk?’
• Level Studios
• Facebook is merging Messenger with Instagram's direct messages - Mashable
• Closed Mouths Don't Get Fed
• The future of work: By 2025, 36 million Americans will be remote workers
• Jackie on LinkedIn
• Jackie on S01E01 of Outsights-In by KPN Technium
• Intro and outro song: "Zombie Nation" by Jose Travieso

But we didn't just talk about the biology or healthcare. We also talked about how Peter — or as his students call him, PCH, which are his initials as well as California's famous Pacific Coast Highway — got interested in medicine while he was growing up in Trinidad and Tobago. We also talked about racism is a public health concern and how Twitter provided not only community for him this year but also a way to learn from others in the larger medical community.

Stay tuned until the end of the episode for a funny bit waxing about technology problems while recording.

Special Guest: Dr. Peter Chin-Hong.

Links:

• Wikipedia entry on Trinidad and Tobago
• A collection of the latest on Coronavirus (COVID-19) news from Google
• COVID-19 vaccine distribution at UCSF
• Coronavirus vaccine tracker
• FDA approves Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine for distribution
• Moderna COVID-19 vaccine awaits FDA approval. What is known about the drugmaker?
• Helen Chu from University of Washington
• The U.S. Covid death toll tops 300,000 as vaccine distribution begins
• Grocery shopping tips in COVID-19 from Dr. Jeffrey VanWingen — revised March 31, 2020
• COVID-19 deaths surpass 9/11 deaths in single day
• Intro and outro song: "Zombie Nation" by Jose Travieso

One thing we talked about during this episode is how much the arts bring into the U.S. economy every year — on average, $877B is added to the economy, it employs 5.1M people, and is 4.5% of the GDP.

Stay tuned until the end of the episode for a funny bit of tape about the "Scottish play".

Special Guest: Amy Kim Waschke.

Links:

• Robyn Hunt
• The Suzuki Method for acting
• The Vampire Cowboys, a theatre company in New York, New York
• Robert Ross Parker
• "Vietgone" by Qui Nguyen — an NPR story from 2016 when Nguyen's play ran at Manhattan Theater Club
• "Poor Yella Rednecks" by Qui Nguyen — a story from the LA Times when Nguyen's play ran at South Coast Rep
• Mary Zimmerman's "The White Snake"
• Oregon Shakespeare Festival
• OSF support of the Almeda fire rebuilding effort
• From Artnet 2018, an article about the number of dollars and jobs in the arts
• Ira Glass' secret of success in creative work — from Maria Popova's Brain Pickings in 2014 — "Nobody tells people who are beginners — and I really wish somebody had told this to me — is that all of us who do creative work … we get into it because we have good taste. But it’s like there’s a gap, that for the first couple years that you’re making stuff, what you’re making isn’t so good, OK? It’s not that great. It’s really not that great. It’s trying to be good, it has ambition to be good, but it’s not quite that good. But your taste — the thing that got you into the game — your taste is still killer, and your taste is good enough that you can tell that what you’re making is kind of a disappointment to you..."
• Amy Kim Waschke's website
• Intro and outro song: "Zombie Nation" by Jose Travieso

Like so many of us working from home these days, you'll hear Jake's daughter waking up just after the introduction questions before we get into main discussion about focused work and distraction. We also talk about the 2017 University of Chicago study where they look at the effect of brain drain with smartphones — even when your phone is upside down on a table, even on airplane mode — and how it challenges our cognitive abilities. Did you know that Microsoft did a parallel study that showed that the average focus time in the office is 40 seconds?

Stay tuned after the outro music for a funny bit of tape asking about the background noise and a strangled pause from Skipper.

Special Guest: Jake Kahana.

Links:

• Parkinson's Law
• Paul Jarvis
• Seth Godin
• Derek Sivers
• Tristan Harris
• Tina Roth Eisenberg
• Jocelyn K. Glei
• Fast Company article on Caveday
• Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's TED talk on Flow
• 2017 University of Chicago study on smart phones — Even having your phone on your desk–even if it’s upside down even if it’s airplane mode– temporarily reduces your cognitive abilities. In other words, it makes you dumber.
• Microsoft study on focus time for work — 40 seconds!
• Caveday on monotasking
• Linda Stone on continuous partial attention
• Jake Kahana
• Intro and outro song: "Zombie Nation" by Jose Travieso