What It's Like To Be...
Dan Heath
Curious what it would be like to walk in someone else’s (work) shoes? Join New York Times bestselling author Dan Heath as he explores the world of work, one profession at a time, and interviews people who love what they do. What does a couples therapist think when a friend asks for relationship advice? What happens if a welder fails to wear safety glasses? What can get a stadium beer vendor fired? If you’ve ever met someone whose work you were curious about, and you had 100 nosy questions but were too polite to ask ... well, this is the show for you.
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Top 10 What It's Like To Be... Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best What It's Like To Be... episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to What It's Like To Be... for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite What It's Like To Be... episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
A Professional Santa Claus
What It's Like To Be...
12/20/23 • 30 min
Refurbishing old sleighs, reviewing advance dossiers on kids, and going to “Santa School" with Larry Jefferson, a professional Santa Claus based in Dallas. How does he handle situations when kids ask for something Santa could never grant? And what would a kid have to do to get coal?
Music credit:
"Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
NEW BOOK ALERT!
You may be aware that I’ve written or co-written five business books, including The Power of Moments and Made to Stick. I’ve got a sixth book out now called RESET: How to Change What’s Not Working. It’s a book intended to help you and your team get unstuck, to overcome the gravity of the way things have always worked. Learn more about the book and order it here. You can also listen to it on Audible and at Apple Books.
Got a comment or suggestion for us? You can reach us via email at [email protected]
Want to be on the show? Leave a message on our voice mailbox at (919) 213-0456. We’ll ask you to answer two questions:
- What do people think your job is like and what is it actually like?
- What’s a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean?
1 Listener
A Stadium Beer Vendor
What It's Like To Be...
10/15/23 • 27 min
Meeting Muhammad Ali, handling fans who are alcoholics, pouring with no foam, and dreaming about one last game with Howard Hart, who spent three decades as a stadium beer vendor.
If you want to see Howard in action, The Washington Post put together a great video feature on him in 2014.
NEW BOOK ALERT!
You may be aware that I’ve written or co-written five business books, including The Power of Moments and Made to Stick. I’ve got a sixth book out now called RESET: How to Change What’s Not Working. It’s a book intended to help you and your team get unstuck, to overcome the gravity of the way things have always worked. Learn more about the book and order it here. You can also listen to it on Audible and at Apple Books.
Got a comment or suggestion for us? You can reach us via email at [email protected]
Want to be on the show? Leave a message on our voice mailbox at (919) 213-0456. We’ll ask you to answer two questions:
- What do people think your job is like and what is it actually like?
- What’s a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean?
A Mystery Novelist
What It's Like To Be...
11/28/23 • 30 min
Scouting body disposal sites, investigating obscure poisons, and computing royalty payments with Donna Andrews, the mystery novelist behind the Meg Langslow series. How do you make a living as a mystery novelist? And could Tylenol be a murder weapon?
Know someone who is a great storyteller that we should talk to about their job? Email us at [email protected]
NEW BOOK ALERT!
You may be aware that I’ve written or co-written five business books, including The Power of Moments and Made to Stick. I’ve got a sixth book out now called RESET: How to Change What’s Not Working. It’s a book intended to help you and your team get unstuck, to overcome the gravity of the way things have always worked. Learn more about the book and order it here. You can also listen to it on Audible and at Apple Books.
Got a comment or suggestion for us? You can reach us via email at [email protected]
Want to be on the show? Leave a message on our voice mailbox at (919) 213-0456. We’ll ask you to answer two questions:
- What do people think your job is like and what is it actually like?
- What’s a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean?
A Dog Trainer
What It's Like To Be...
05/07/24 • 30 min
Reading canine body language, boarding dogs to teach them manners, and training the dogs' owners with Keely Korbel, a dog trainer. Is it a good idea to clone your dog? And what is a "marker word"?
NEW BOOK ALERT!
You may be aware that I’ve written or co-written five business books, including The Power of Moments and Made to Stick. I’ve got a sixth book out now called RESET: How to Change What’s Not Working. It’s a book intended to help you and your team get unstuck, to overcome the gravity of the way things have always worked. Learn more about the book and order it here. You can also listen to it on Audible and at Apple Books.
Got a comment or suggestion for us? You can reach us via email at [email protected]
Want to be on the show? Leave a message on our voice mailbox at (919) 213-0456. We’ll ask you to answer two questions:
- What do people think your job is like and what is it actually like?
- What’s a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean?
A Christmas Tree Farmer
What It's Like To Be...
12/03/24 • 31 min
Shearing Christmas trees into their classic shape, fighting back weeds and blackbirds, and planting 5,000 trees a year with Sheldon Corsi, a Christmas tree farmer near Cincinnati, Ohio. What does a tree baler sound like? And what makes Christmas tree farming distinctive within the world of agriculture?
NEW BOOK ALERT!
You may be aware that I’ve written or co-written five business books, including The Power of Moments and Made to Stick. I’ve got a sixth book out now called RESET: How to Change What’s Not Working. It’s a book intended to help you and your team get unstuck, to overcome the gravity of the way things have always worked. Learn more about the book and order it here. You can also listen to it on Audible and at Apple Books.
Got a comment or suggestion for us? You can reach us via email at [email protected]
Want to be on the show? Leave a message on our voice mailbox at (919) 213-0456. We’ll ask you to answer two questions:
- What do people think your job is like and what is it actually like?
- What’s a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean?
A Toy Distributor
What It's Like To Be...
12/31/24 • 30 min
Forecasting demand for 40,000 different products, arranging for model kits to traverse the globe from Chinese factories to mom-and-pop hobby shops, and enduring random customs inspections with Alan Bass, a hobby kit and toy distributor. Why can't shops place orders directly with factories and cut out distributors? And what is it like to discover your childhood toys were actually samples given out for market research purposes?
The hobby kit and toy distributor business he runs is Stevens International. You can find his family’s brick-and-mortar hobby shop, AAA Hobbies and Crafts, in Magnolia, NJ, and an online store at MegaHobby.com.
NEW BOOK ALERT!
You may be aware that I’ve written or co-written five business books, including The Power of Moments and Made to Stick. I’ve got a sixth book out now called RESET: How to Change What’s Not Working. It’s a book intended to help you and your team get unstuck, to overcome the gravity of the way things have always worked. Learn more about the book and order it here. You can also listen to it on Audible and at Apple Books.
Got a comment or suggestion for us? You can reach us via email at [email protected]
Want to be on the show? Leave a message on our voice mailbox at (919) 213-0456. We’ll ask you to answer two questions:
- What do people think your job is like and what is it actually like?
- What’s a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean?
A Forensic Accountant
What It's Like To Be...
11/14/23 • 29 min
Catching embezzling CFOs, sniffing out a corrupt private school headmaster, and sifting through fake invoices with Chris Ekimoff, a forensic accountant. What are his go-to moves to detect fraud? And who is the most famous forensic accountant (besides Ben Affleck)?
NEW BOOK ALERT!
You may be aware that I’ve written or co-written five business books, including The Power of Moments and Made to Stick. I’ve got a sixth book out now called RESET: How to Change What’s Not Working. It’s a book intended to help you and your team get unstuck, to overcome the gravity of the way things have always worked. Learn more about the book and order it here. You can also listen to it on Audible and at Apple Books.
Got a comment or suggestion for us? You can reach us via email at [email protected]
Want to be on the show? Leave a message on our voice mailbox at (919) 213-0456. We’ll ask you to answer two questions:
- What do people think your job is like and what is it actually like?
- What’s a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean?
A TV Meteorologist
What It's Like To Be...
10/31/23 • 30 min
Tracking a 2.5-mile-wide tornado, fretting over forecasts, and waking up at 2:30am with Lacey Swope, a TV meteorologist for News 9 in Oklahoma City. How does she deal with fans and stalkers? And what is the “deformation zone”?
You can see Lacey's daily forecasts on the News 9 website. She's also on Instagram.
Got thoughts on the show? Reach out to [email protected]
NEW BOOK ALERT!
You may be aware that I’ve written or co-written five business books, including The Power of Moments and Made to Stick. I’ve got a sixth book out now called RESET: How to Change What’s Not Working. It’s a book intended to help you and your team get unstuck, to overcome the gravity of the way things have always worked. Learn more about the book and order it here. You can also listen to it on Audible and at Apple Books.
Got a comment or suggestion for us? You can reach us via email at [email protected]
Want to be on the show? Leave a message on our voice mailbox at (919) 213-0456. We’ll ask you to answer two questions:
- What do people think your job is like and what is it actually like?
- What’s a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean?
Coming Soon: What It's Like To Be...
What It's Like To Be...
09/18/23 • 1 min
Curious what it would be like to walk in someone else’s (work) shoes? Join New York Times bestselling author Dan Heath as he explores the world of work, one profession at a time, and interviews people who love what they do. What does a couples therapist think when a friend asks for relationship advice? What happens if a welder fails to wear safety glasses? What can get a stadium beer vendor fired? If you’ve ever met someone whose work you were curious about, and you had 100 nosy questions but were too polite to ask ... well, this is the show for you.
NEW BOOK ALERT!
You may be aware that I’ve written or co-written five business books, including The Power of Moments and Made to Stick. I’ve got a sixth book out now called RESET: How to Change What’s Not Working. It’s a book intended to help you and your team get unstuck, to overcome the gravity of the way things have always worked. Learn more about the book and order it here. You can also listen to it on Audible and at Apple Books.
Got a comment or suggestion for us? You can reach us via email at [email protected]
Want to be on the show? Leave a message on our voice mailbox at (919) 213-0456. We’ll ask you to answer two questions:
- What do people think your job is like and what is it actually like?
- What’s a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean?
A Couples Therapist
What It's Like To Be...
10/15/23 • 28 min
Mystery dates, adult playrooms, habit stacking, and the misuse of “narcissism” with Laura Heck, a virtual couples therapist. Laura is also a co-host of the podcast Marriage Therapy Radio.
Want to share your thoughts on the show? Email [email protected]
NEW BOOK ALERT!
You may be aware that I’ve written or co-written five business books, including The Power of Moments and Made to Stick. I’ve got a sixth book out now called RESET: How to Change What’s Not Working. It’s a book intended to help you and your team get unstuck, to overcome the gravity of the way things have always worked. Learn more about the book and order it here. You can also listen to it on Audible and at Apple Books.
Got a comment or suggestion for us? You can reach us via email at [email protected]
Want to be on the show? Leave a message on our voice mailbox at (919) 213-0456. We’ll ask you to answer two questions:
- What do people think your job is like and what is it actually like?
- What’s a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean?
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FAQ
How many episodes does What It's Like To Be... have?
What It's Like To Be... currently has 47 episodes available.
What topics does What It's Like To Be... cover?
The podcast is about Society & Culture, Curiosity, Human Interest, Storytelling, Podcasts, Jobs and Careers.
What is the most popular episode on What It's Like To Be...?
The episode title 'A Professional Santa Claus' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on What It's Like To Be...?
The average episode length on What It's Like To Be... is 30 minutes.
How often are episodes of What It's Like To Be... released?
Episodes of What It's Like To Be... are typically released every 14 days.
When was the first episode of What It's Like To Be...?
The first episode of What It's Like To Be... was released on Sep 18, 2023.
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