Culture is a difficult thing to define. It’s an even more difficult thing to influence and legislate. What makes one culture thrive and another flounder? What makes one artistic and another scientific? In the workplace, what do we even really mean when we say workplace culture? And once we get that defined, how do we try to influence that? Does hiring pretty much take care of everything, or does it go much further than that? Thankfully I don’t have to answer any of these questions. Today’s guest, Tom Freeman, is the Culture Manger for the wonderful meditation app company, Headspace. He’ll tell us about everything being a culture manager entails, and how he strives to keep a great culture through rapid growth.
Australian Special Forces (with Tim Thomas)
Each of us has something to give this world, and we often plan how we are going to do this. Ironically, while we try to follow this plan we often find that there is another, completely different plan waiting for us to set it in motion. Oftentimes, this alternate path that finds us is a far truer calling than the one that we set out on. If we allow ourselves to change course and give this new plan some momentum, it often unfolds in ways we never could have conceived or anticipated. We grow, we learn, we develop. Only inflexibility, stagnation, and fear of growth can prevent this cycle. This may sound like an easy choice to make, but fear and inflexibility are very real forces. Both of these forces are deeply rooted to our ego, and therefore carry far more weight than they should. As today’s guest, Australian Special Forces Vet Tim Thomas, speaks to during the interview, it is only when he made the decision to “take the ego out” that his true path opened up before him. From that moment Tim’s life in the Special Forces got better, the lives of Tim’s fellow troops got better, and they even became better soldiers for it. Tim maintained this approach after leaving the Special Forces and now lives a life of servanthood developing a safe space for veterans to heal and feel normal again.
Corporate Lawyer (with Eric Hobbs)
Luckily, for the majority of us, there are very few jobs that carry with it an assumption of who you are. Values, ethics, personality type, all there wrapped up neatly with your job title. Can you imagine if every time you mentioned what you did for a living people made an immediate judgement about you? Not too fun. Today’s guest, Eric Hobbs, carries around one such title with him. Eric is a lawyer, and he is well aware of the snap judgements people like us make about “people like him”. In Eric’s email to me detailing what he does for a living he even went so far as to say “Wait! Wait! Hear me out; yes, lawyers kind of suck (I’ll be the first to admit that), but I’m not one of those sucky lawyers”. First of all, that is really funny and shows what an honest and humorous perspective Eric has. Second, what is this non-sucky type of lawyer that Eric is referring to? Why a corporate lawyer that is, working for a company that makes outdoor recreation equipment, a huge passion of Eric’s. He’ll tell us all about what it is like to work in an industry that is related to your hobby, and what sorts of crazy things people try to sue his company for.
Independent Bra Designer (with Elyse Kaye)
I know I know. I’ve started several of these out by saying something like “fill-in-the-blank, isn’t it great” or “fill-in-the-blank, is there anything more loved”. But please, bare with with me one more time. Today, finally, we have an episode dedicated to the topic of boobs. If there is anything more loved than boobs…I’m not too sure what it is. Women love em’, men love em’, babies LOVE em’. They’re a real catch all. A great reminder to not see ourselves as so separate and divided all the time, and that at the end of the day we really are all one. One great big boob-loving family. In the interview I speak with Elyse Kaye who developed a sports bra specifically for the underserved and growing demographic of well-endowed women.
Insomniac / Sleep with Me Host (with Drew Ackerman)
Sleep is a such an incredibly important part of life. We all know that. Strangely, it may also be the most universally taken for granted part of life that we all share. When we are sleeping good and able to fall asleep easily we hardly give sleep a second thought. It’s just…something you do. When we can’t sleep, our bed can become a source of anxiety, our mind a prison, and our life a nightmare. It’s the number one foundational cornerstone to both physical and mental health. Today’s guest, Drew Ackerman, is very familiar with the pains of not being able to fall asleep. He has struggled with insomnia since childhood. Four years ago he decided to do something radical, and incredibly interesting, to help people like himself. He created a podcast where he tells bedtime stories for people struggling to fall asleep. Not too exciting, sometimes downright boring, the exact type of thing you would naturally fall asleep to. Drew’s podcast has since exploded and he helps hundreds of thousands of people fall asleep every month.
Group Fitness Instructor (with Mauro Wilder)
Most people in the world don’t get enough exercise. It’s just…so…hard. It’s like work. And we already have to work for a living. Who wants even more work to do when we get done with work? Many of us that do exercise tolerate it for the benefits, and we manage to maintain discipline long enough to get us to the gym or out the door for a run. Others constantly look for more ways to spice up exercise to make it more than tolerable, more than just work. Something, dare I say, closer to fun. Today’s guest is a group fitness instructor and his whole goal is to help you have a good time while achieving your fitness goals.
Nonprofit Influencer Manager (with Bri McKoy)
If I had a dollar for every time I wished I had a dollar, I’d be the Bill Gates of dollars. Is money really where it’s at though? John Lennon and The Beatles sure didn’t think so. Mark Zuckerberg recently decided to begin the process of giving 99% of his Facebook shares toward learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities. That is A LOT of dollars! It seems for many people that make it to the top financially there’s still a longing to do more, to give back. One of the best ways to give back is to find a great non-profit that you believe in, and support it. Today’s guest, Bri McKoy, just so happens to work for a great non-profit that you can believe in. She’ll tell us all about it, and the way her incredibly unique job helps support its goal.
Sports Photographer (with Andrew Weber)
Sports. Love em! Next to politics, there’s noting quite like sports for bringing people together and simultaneously tearing people apart. Sports allow us all a bit of escapism and show us the best physical feats that our species is capable of. It also lets us feel like were part of a team, part of something bigger than ourselves. You would think it is due to these reasons that professional sports have absolutely exploded in the past 30 years, but you would think wrong. The real reason for sports current dominance is people like today’s guest, Andrew Weber, who give us instant access to the biggest and best moments…only moments after they happen in real life. For what good is being a sports fan if you don’t get to see the action? Welcome to the world of sports photography.
Urban Planner (with Lior Steinberg)
City life, it’s a wonderful thing. So much to do, so much to see, great transit to get you there. OR it can be the worst thing. A never-ending congestion of cars and people, a cacophony of man made noise, and the smell…that terrible terrible smell. Unlike what we may think, a lot of this is not left up to the eye of the beholder, or what day you decide to visit. Rather, it’s almost completely up to people like today’s guest. Lior is an urban planner for one of the most forward thinking, awesome, bicycle and pedestrian friendly cities in the whole world. He explains just how important urban planning is for making city (and suburb) life livable, wonderful, or downright terrible.
Patreon Bonus Episode One (with HHI Sound Guy, Frank Leon)
Ladies and gentleman, gather round and I shall tell you a story. Just over one year ago I embarked on the adventure of creating the Half Hour Intern podcast. An adventure that, very fortunately for me, I did not have to embark on alone. For the world is dark and full of terrors, including lackluster intro music, noisy air conditioning units, stuttering, and ear splitting pops and sibilance. With me I had my good friend, sound engineer, and free manual labor specialist, Frank Leon. With Frank by my side we would go on to make a good show with 1000's of fans. Today Frank tells his story of what the journey has been like for him, and just how the heck he tames the crazy audio I send him.
Foreign Aid Advisor (with Sean Mulkerne)
If you’re reading this right now, statistically speaking, there’s a very good chance that you’re in the top 1% of earners on Earth. I know you may be thinking “it sure doesn’t feel like I’m in the top 1%”, but I can assure you your situation is quite different than the other 99%. If we spent some time in their shoes, we would undoubtedly want to support the other 99% of world occupants in some way. Well, good news! If you’re reading this right now there is also a very good chance that your government is giving millions (or billions) of dollars per year to help people in developing countries. And if you’re a tax paying citizen that means that you ARE helping the other 99% of world inhabitants right now. Some of the money you’re paying goes towards people like today’s guest, a foreign aid advisor. If you’ve ever wondered about the current state of foreign aid, and whether or not it’s working, this should be an interesting listen.
Forensic Pathologist (with Dr. Pilou Thirakul)
If all goes according to plan I should live to be about 180 years old, in peak health, and then one day die of cardiac arrest while reading a book by myself on my front porch. But just as life is crazy and throws unexpected things your way, death can do the same. I may walk out side right now and get attacked by a swarm of bees ala My Girl. For all of the not so straightforward and ideal deaths out there, today’s guest comes to the rescue. Dr. Thirakul is a forensic pathologist and it’s her job to find out how people died.
Landscape Design (with Linda Kelso)
Flora, how we love thee. Think of how boring our surroundings would be without the vibrant colors of flowers, the varied shapes of bushes, and the sheer majesty of trees. We’re so lucky to have nature around us all the time. Many of us even have yards right outside out house that we can go and enjoy any time we want. Nature is wild though, and sometimes that means having a crazy, unmanageable yard that doesn’t inspire very much love. It can be hard to tame nature into something both usable and beautiful. Luckily for us there are people like Linda that specialize in making this dichotomy come together.
Float Nurse (with Sefora Fox)
What’s the most important job that you can think of? Thanks to my skills in the clairvoyant arts I know there’s a decent chance that a doctor is what just popped into your head. Did you know that there are almost 5 nurses per doctor at hospitals across America though? Behind every great doctor, there are about 5 great nurses doing their job to keep us healthy and alive. Like physicians, nurses have to choose what they want to specialize in and who they want to help. So as important as the job is, monotony can certainly start to creep in. That is, unless you choose the route of today’s guest and become a float nurse. Sefora has the opportunity to help anyone and everyone in the hospital, and has one of the most diverse jobs medicine has to offer.
Turtle Biologist (with Doug Rice)
Michelangelo. Leonardo. Raphael. Donatello. What do these names have in common? They’re the four most famous turtles of all time. There’s a lot more to being a turtle than being a famous never-aging-teenager ninja though. Most turtles prefer a more simple life. Some turtles like to swim in the sea. Some turtles are really small and like to live in bogs, like little turtle gnomes. Today’s guest will help us learn about the wonderful and diverse turtle landscape, and also give us a peek at what the life of a field biologist is like.
Comic Book Creator (with Napoleon Doom)
Comic books have seen quite a change in perception in the past decade. Hollywood, and then everyone, took notice. Blockbuster films were made. Award winning shows were made. Comic cons got more and more popular. Cosplay became a word in the common vernacular, and suddenly, comics weren’t just for nerds anymore. Still, everything seems to center around the big names, the Platinum Hits. As you would imagine, like music, movies and other art forms, this is only a piece of the pie. Hardcore comic book fans get into the underground stuff. The independent and self produced stuff. Today, independent comic book creator Napoleon Doom comes on the show to tell us about the world of independent comics and the creative process.
Satirical Internet Personality (with Andrew Briedis)
The internet is a pretty crazy place. You can buy anything from shamwow towels to assault weapons, watch anything from adorable cat videos to genre defying porn (these account for 97% of the internet’s overall use), and have video conversations with people across the globe. One of the less touted feats of the internet is that it allows us to be anyone we want to be. Today’s guest was one of the first people to really tap into this concept and use it on social media. Andrew created a parody twitter account called Annoying Actor Friend that assumed the role of, well, your annoying actor friend. It completely stuck a nerve with the Broadway community and suddenly Andrew became the Bruce Wayne to his Twitter account’s Batman.
Standardized Patient (with Errol McLendon)
Most things in life we don’t want standardized. Skin color, personal opinions, sexual preferences, our landscape and geography, variety is the spice of life. There are a few things though that definitely need to be standardized, and probably not many higher up on the list than what a physician is going to do when they give you a prostate exam or how they are going to act if you suddenly pass out while in the room with them. Physicians, like professional sports referees, are a great group of people to have standardized. We definitely don’t want one doctor seeing a foul, and another doctor saying to play on. It could quite literally be a matter of life and death. Today’s guest is a standardized patient. Standardized patients act out various scenarios with physicians and nurses in medical school to make sure they get it right when they’re out in the real world.
Clothing Brand Owner (with Jim Snediker)
Clothes, can’t live without em’. They keep us warm, hide our bodies from the unsuspecting public, and make our pets look really ridiculous. Since we all need to wear them, that means that lots of people need to make them too. What kind of an undertaking is that though? If you want to start a jewelry company you can buy some jewels and stick em’ in some precious metals, next step profit. If you want to start a clothing company you buy some cotton and…then…next step profit? Luckily we have Jim Snediker, Co-owner of Stock Manufacturing Co., to explain all them steps of starting a clothing company to us.
NASA Engineer (with Mike Cooney)
What did you want to be when you were a kid? I would be willing to stake my life on the fact that at least 90% of kids at some point in their childhood would all say the same thing, and it’s not Fire Truck Driver. I am of course referring to being an astronaut. Is there anything more great than space? Anything more captivating and awe inspiring? Today’s guest himself is an aspiring astronaut, but for now he has to settle with just being a particle physics trained electrical engineer with a PhD working on some of the most complex problems that mankind ever has at Langley Research Center for NASA. If Astronauts are going to get to space andsurvive there, they have to rely on a lot of smart people like Michael. Time to learn about the people that have helped inspired the imaginations of every child ever.