Weird Work

Who’s the psychological mastermind behind the restaurant menu boxes and columns? The one who’s taken the glory of Gutenburg and turned the typeface menu into a madcap marketing tool? Today's guest Michelle Benesch is the third-generation owner of Menu Men Inc. -- a menu design company that’s worked with every type of restaurant you can imagine over the last 53 years. Support the show by grabbing s...

Sunday, Sunday, SUNDAY! Time to fuel those carbureted dreams of crushing cars and breaking hearts because today we have Monster Jam's Entertainer of the Year, the driver for team Megalodon, Bernard Lyght. Bernard tells us how he became the man behind the machine. The cowboy to these mechanical stallions (and how you can too, honestly). And he answers the biggest question of all: How real are these...

You may know him as Thorsten A. Integrity. Around here, we know his true identity, Shayne Bushfield. And after leaving behind his secure life at Microsoft, Shayne pursued his passion to create one of the biggest invite-only trivia competitions -- Learned League. Learn what it takes to not only be a trivia master but the league's commissioner. And if you take a page out of Shayne's methodical appro...

If you own a castle on a secluded island, can you really expect to dress yourself? When you're cruising the Mediterranean on a super yacht, can you really be expected to make your own shrimp cocktails? The world needs butlers. Paul Huizinga lost his job in the financial collapse of 2008 . Left wondering what to do with his life in his mid-fifties, Paul decided to pursue his lifelong passion: becom...

Martha talks to animals. Martha Malone – pet psychic, pet communicator - surfs the astral plane to telepathically connect with animals living or deceased. She communicates between animal and human to help vocalize everything from behavior issues to closure after passing on. Martha talks about how she communicates with animals, animal spirit personalities, and what happens when you have two spirits...

Whether your kink is karma or carnage, there’s always something out there for you. And our guest sure found her sweet spot - financial domination. We're talking with the manipulatrix, the vocal priestess, the hypno crypto queen herself – Theodora. Theodora dabbles in “traditional” dominatrix work, but her clients – or, pay pigs as they’re affectionately known – are most interested in her controlli...

Lori Balton has been a location scout with over IMDB credits to her name. She’s scouted locations for every type of film.  From big budget action movies like Heat, Armageddon, The Dark Rises, and Godzilla: King of the Monsters to Nic Cage classics – Face Off and City of Angels. Not to mention, recent gold man award noms, like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, There Will be Blood, Top Gun Ma...

Brian Kelly has been known to the world as The Points Guy since launching his blog in 2011, but he started slinging credit card reward points long before then. And today, the man with 25 credit cards is the guru of all things travel. Brian talks about the credit card he can’t leave home without, dispels the worst myth about credit cards, and helps you find your way to first-class air travel in no...

Chi-Tien Lui is known the world over as one of the last people who can repair and preserve TV art. Because the video art by the likes of Andy Warhol and Nam June Paik were made with now antiquated televisions. Inevitably, those break. And finding the right replacement parts is almost as difficult as finding someone who knows how to actually fix these things. But the only other alternative is letti...

Summer camp usually brings to mind outdoor sports and campfire songs. But the idea of camp that so many people have come to know has evolved into something they might never have imagined. Alexander Rossi is the creator of YouTube STAR Camp, a summer program that helps kids learn the skills they need to become the next great YouTube stars. And while it might not sound like it at first, this camp ha...

Colleen Wilson was a top private mortgage banker in New York City. She was also the youngest. No small feat. But after rescuing a deaf pooch named Charlie, it completely changed the way she saw the banking industry. So she left it all behind. Not long after, Colleen founded Pets on Q, an animal influencer agency. She talks about what makes an animal a true influencer and what it’s really like to m...

Jane Teresa Anderson knows how to get inside someone’s head. And her work as a dream analyst has helped countless people better understand their waking lives. That way, the subconscious becomes reality. She even reaches into Sam’s psyche to break down a dream he’s long struggled to understand. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

David J. Peterson is a creator of languages -- otherwise known as a conlanger. And he’s behind some of the most iconic languages ever heard on television and films. Maybe his most well-known conlang is Dothraki and High Valyrian for a little show on HBO called Game of Thrones. David talks about what it takes to create a language, how he landed the coveted Game of Thrones conlang gig, and he spills...

Ma'ayan Plaut is the podcast librarian at RadioPublic. But she’s not like the typical master of the Dewey Decimal System you know from your local public library. And she just so happens to be the only podcast librarian on the planet. In her three years at the company, Ma’ayan’s role has evolved from recommending individual podcasts to solving the larger discoverability issues with podcasting. Host...

Ricochet is a champion surf dog, who’s ridden giants with the likes of Rob Machado, and starred in films like Superpower Dogs. But it’s her surf and therapy work that makes this pooch a real surf legend. Judy Fridono, Ricochet’s owner and certified dog trainer, tells Sam how this surf-ice dog helps those with PTSD and those on the Autism spectrum. Sign up for Giftogram with the code: weirdworkAddi...

Brendan Paul grew up as a young punk living in LA. But after one fateful haircut and a handful of paying impersonation gigs around town, he found himself ditching the Sunset Strip for the Vegas Strip. Today, Brendan is Sin City’s premier Elvis impersonator and wedding official at Graceland Wedding Chapel. Sign up for Giftogram with the code: weirdwork--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/...

Anthony Falco is the reigning pizza czar of New York. And he’s taken his expertise around the world to help others realize their own dreams of opening up a pizza shop. We crawl the streets of New York in search of the best pizza and find out why pizza is so internationally beloved. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/weird-work/messageSupport this podcast: https://anchor.fm/weird-work/s...

Weird Work returns on July 31 with all new episodes every Wednesday. See you soon, you beautiful unicorn star children. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You’ve been listening all season long to how people turned their passions into professions. And want to make the jump, too. But what if you don’t know what your passion is? How do you pursue your dream if you don’t know what your dream is? Well, there’s a ramen shop in Boston called Yume Wo Katare, and it’s got just the bowl for you. We talk with owner Tsuyoshi Nishioka about the concept behind hi...

Mark Morales has probably worked on all of your favorite comic book characters. But the job of comic book inker is not only one of the most ambiguous in the industry, it’s an increasingly rare position. Mark takes Sam through the comic book production process, and explains how even outside the traditional 9 to 5, the almighty deadline still wields its own kind of superpower. Hosted on Acast. See a...

Tommy Honton has a familiar story. Aspiring screenwriter who sets out to make it big in Hollywood. But eight years later, he found himself disillusioned and unhappy with his job. Rather than let the fear of complacency settle in, Tommy pursued another form of storytelling. This week, Sam talks with Tommy about designing immersive and experiential spaces like The Museum of Selfies and an unconventi...

Melissa Arleth always loved rats. But she was also fond of her feline pets, too. So she took them both onstage with her and created Cirque Du Sewer, the world’s only cat and rat circus. Sam talks with this acrobat about working with acro-rats… and one confused cat. And he finds out that nature’s mortal enemies can not only get along, but put on a damn good show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/priv...

You can spot Ashly Covington out in public or on the subway pretty easily. She’s the one wearing long black gloves, a sunproof hoodie, and playing an invisible horn. Such is the life of a professional hand model. In today’s episode, Sam and Ashly talk about the dedication it takes to cut it as a hand model, how Ashly broke into the business, and why the industry term for hand model work is perhaps...

You’re stranded on a desert island. What do you do? If you’re Timm Woods, you find the nearest rock and start carving away at your latest Dungeons & Dragons campaign. Timm is a dungeon master, the game wizard who meticulously crafts each game. He tells Sam how he turned his lifelong passion into a profession, and why he still can’t accurately describe the game to his own parents. Hosted on Aca...

Nina Keneally is the founder of NeedaMomNYC, where for $40 an hour she’ll give you the full mom experience. Nina offers sage advice, helps you battle your landlord over security deposits, and weighs-in on big life decisions. But how do other moms feel when a stranger gives their child advice? Sam calls his own mom to get a second opinion. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information...