This is Not Advice

In this episode, Roy talks with author Eric Ries: software engineer, accidental blogger, initially-reluctant public speaker, and author. His first book was The Lean Startup , which gave the startup world its vocabulary. And his newest is Incorruptible , about how to help companies stay true to what they originally set out to do. We learned that the writing comes last. Eric spent years trying out m...

In this episode, Roy talks with litigator Doha Mekki: history teacher, bioethicist, trial attorney, and Acting Assistant Attorney General. She has seen every corner of the law. And her testimony is that almost nothing about being a litigator looks the way you think. Exhibit A: the courtroom is the last resort, not the main event. The real work is years of investigation, millions of documents, hund...

Roy Bahat talks with Kelsey Shwetz, a painter, and a professor at Columbia and Pratt, about what it's actually like to be an artist. She traces her own path from Winnipeg to nearly becoming a psychologist, to the moment she decided to tell everyone she was a painter – and never looked back. Kelsey shares the parts most people don't see: how a painting actually starts, why she stages photo...

Roy Bahat talks with Dr. Graham Walker, an emergency physician at Kaiser San Francisco about what it's actually like to be a doctor. They cover the full arc: from deciding to go into medicine in the first place, to navigating the ER as a team sport, to the administrative grind nobody talks about. Graham gets real about whether medicine is still worth it, what makes a good patient, and how geog...

Roy Bahat talks with neuroscientist Bobby Kasthuri, a University of Chicago professor known for his work mapping the brain, about the real mechanics of a career in science. They cover the full arc: from deciding to become a scientist in the first place, to finding ideas worth pursuing, to navigating the tenure clock and beyond. Bobby gets candid about the money side (how scientists fund their rese...