The Middle

As the U.S. pauses to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday, we're bringing you an encore of our episode with executive recruiter Steve Lavner. Since his original episode aired, Verizon and Amazon announced massive layoffs, the September jobs report was published, the unemployment rate ticked up to its highest in four years, and more. Steve's insights are more relevant than ever. After more t...

Rick Morales spent nearly a decade helping build Apple Music Radio from the ground up, producing shows with global icons like Bad Bunny and Travis Scott. In 2023 he noticed something unsettling: the artificial intelligence (AI) programs framed as “tools” weren’t just making him better. They were completely learning his job. When the layoff hit a year later, he faced a cascade of personal losses, l...

When Kevin Rice sold the company he built in a garage, it should have been the moment he’d been working toward his whole life. But instead of fulfillment, he felt… nothing. In this episode, Kevin opens up about what it’s really like to reach the top while your personal life quietly falls apart, and what it was like navigating divorce, single parenthood, and slowly realizing that “robot mode” succe...

In September 2010, Dr. William T. Lewis, Sr. stepped into what he believed was his dream role: vice president for Diversity and Inclusion at Virginia Tech. But what began as the pinnacle of his career quickly unraveled into a four-year storm of politics, pain, and ultimately, being fired. The harder part? That moment wasn’t the end of his story but the beginning of a years-long battle with rejecti...

In July 2025, David Nebinski embarked on an experiment: call one new person every day for a month. No scripts, no agenda, no calendar invite. Just pick up the phone, call a number, and see what happened. What happened next planted the seed for his own next chapter. In this episode, David unpacks the discomfort, confusion, excitement, and embarrassment of being in his middle, and talks candidly abo...

After more than 20 years in executive recruiting, Steve Lavner has seen it all, and he’s pulling back the curtain on what really happens in the hiring world. In this candid conversation, Steve shares the unspoken truths of recruiting at the highest levels, the politics behind hiring decisions, and how the job market has shifted beneath our feet. He talks why “career progression” is an illusion, wh...

At just 17 years old, Fabi Preslar left home with no money, no car, and no safety net. That leap of survival set the stage for a career and a life that grew and changed as much as she did. In this episode, Fabi opens up about the challenges she’s faced over the last several decades, from losing her home and the family business as a teenager, to being pushed out of her first business, to facing a c...

Candice Van Dertholen didn’t set out to be an energy healer, but her own battles with mental health and a chance encounter at a yoga studio led her to the work she now calls life changing. In this episode, Candice shares how energy healing can help break the cycles that keep us stuck, especially in the middle of a life transition, and how to recognize the signs that you are – or aren’t – on the ri...

When J T. Ramsay was laid off after nearly 20 years in comms and marketing, he thought his network and experience would carry him through. Instead, he found himself burnt out, chasing “bad fits,” and questioning the very idea of personal branding. In this conversation, J T. unpacks what it means to be stuck in a middle: between jobs, between meaning and visibility, and inside industries desperate...

After over 25 years in corporate America, including two executive positions at Lockheed Martin and UnitedHealthcare, Jenn Whitlow faced a decision: take one more corporate job or blow up her career and see what happened. She chose the latter, and two months later, bought an inn sight unseen in rural Maine. In this episode, Jenn talks about what it was like being in the room when critical company d...

Tahseen Taj spent years trying to break into Salesforce, so when she was offered a manager role in 2019, she planned on being there for decades. Instead, an international move and a change in life plans forced her to leave after only six short years and embark on a path she never expected: founding her own marketing company. Tahseen shares how she worked through the emotions that came with the cha...

After 16 years at the company she loved, Courtney Cecil Anderson found herself laid off and sitting in her pantry, crying on the phone with HR. That moment became the turning point that reshaped her career, her priorities, and her definitionof success. In this episode, Courtney opens up about the invisible toll of burnout, how she found her true calling, and the steps she took to realign her work...

From teaching chemistry and mathematics in rural Iran to engineering chips at Intel, the last decade of Dr. Ehsan Fereyduni’s life has been full of dramatic change. After an unexpected layoff in July 2025, he shares what it was like to suddenly lose his job, the sleepless nights that followed, and the surprising second chance that came his way. Along the way, Ehsan walks through the daily habits a...

After more than seven months of looking, Craig Whitaker still doesn’t have a job. It’s not for lack of trying; he’s submitted over 150 applications. In this brutally honest conversation, Craig shares how being unemployed has impacted his mental health (“I wonder, ‘Did I run over a bus full of nuns in a previous life?’”), what he’s learned, and how competing in triathlons has been easier than findi...

What happens when everything falls apart in just a few months - your marriage, your job, your sense of self - and you’re left sitting in a turbocharged Audi thinking, “At least I can sleep on my leather seats”? In this deeply honest conversation, author, podcaster, blogger, and storyteller Eric Payne shares what it means to rebuild when life gut-punches you from every direction. From navigating di...

Three layoffs in five years. Wade Lee has rebuilt his career time and again, and in this conversation gives a behind-the-scenes look at the tech sales industry, the strategies he's using to find his next role, and how he handles comparing his progress to others. Wade Lee is an account executive and business development professional. He helps companies understand and implement artificial intell...

What happens when you land your dream job, only to realize it’s not enough? In this candid conversation, communications leader Gab Ferree shares what it felt like to be handpicked for a high-profile, executive role while silently navigating burnout and the fear of not being “ready enough.” Still in the middle of her career whiplash, Gab opens up about ambition, identity, and why success doesn’t al...

Welcome to The Middle, a podcast about people in the thick of job loss, layoffs, new ventures, career pivots, and life transitions. These aren't the polished LinkedIn posts. Just real people with real stories.