What People Do

I used to work at a magazine for video store owners. By the time I’d gotten there, it was a vanity publication for the gigantic red-headed stepchildren of Hollywood: home entertainment companies. You know, the big money and focus went into the movies heading to cinema, and direct-to-video/DVD/Blu-ray and the home release of those movies was … not as cool, not as big, etc. My interviewee, Mike Kell...

I stumbled onto James Gomes (pronounced "GOHMZ," not "GOH-mez") on Reddit.com, which I have since abandoned as a forum for anything other than dumb questions, confirmation bias and echo chambers. However, I found a few interesting people along the way, like James. We were both into old books, and I was surprised to hear he'd read and re-read a particular book, like, every year ... for many years....

One role-playing game changed the way I think, or confirmed the way I think—now I don’t know which.  It was Mage: The Ascension . The tabletop role-playing game had players take on the roles of modern mages. The difference was, in previous RPGs, mages are usually spell-casting wizards. In Mage, magic works by imposing will upon the world: A mage wants something to happen. They try to learn how to...

Pet owners complain about the rising cost of veterinary prices. What’s to blame? This is a special bonus episode of What People Do that I've produced as a part of sponsored content for Animal Health Digest, a premier content curation service collecting and commenting on actionable information for people working in animal health.   I talk with Dr. Jennifer Sperry about the rising cost of veterinary...

Hey, gang. I was getting out new episodes of What People Do every Tuesday for a few months. Then my backlog run out Aug. 1. Surprise! I'm back. Not to tell you the backlog is back and the schedule is back (I am scheduling interviews, and this will keep going), but to say I'm working on a new podcast, too. This short 7-ish-minutes-long solo ramble covers what this podcast is and continues to be, an...

The Greenies inventor is at it again … a new dental treat on the market.   This special podcast is a collaboration with Animal Health Digest, a premier content curation service collecting and commenting on actionable information for people working in animal health. I talk with Joe Roetheli, PhD , about something almost all dog owners buy: treats. Roetheli and his wife, Judy, were the masterminds b...

It started before college. But when he showed up and could organize his life and calendar the way he wanted, well, there was so much TV to watch. All the time. And Michael Strumsky hit college during not “destination television,” but during the era of DVDs and online show sharing. He could watch and re-watch shows all the time, at all hours, any time of day.  What did he do? What did he do?  He ea...

I read books all the time, but very, very rarely do I read a book more than once.  That was Leo Tolstoy’s Confession. I had seen references to the Russian great’s short work of religion, morality and personal experience.   Basically, Tolstoy hit middle age, wildly successful as an author with a happy family, and he wanted to die by suicide. For years, he struggled, and the short work is the story...

There are some dudes who play cricket in a big grassy field out here between a walking trail and some suburban homes. There’s a long stretch of concrete in this Kansas suburban field, and a port-a-potty nearby. Some Saturdays I would walk by and see these guys out there, but I felt weird about stopping and asking about their game of cricket.  So, I found Ganesh online. And he answered all my dumb...

Some content creators get so busy that they can't find time to plan, film, edit, post and promote their own stuff online. They turn to a growing international corps of creatives to do it.  This guy’s one. His favorite claim to fame right now? Editing a Minecraft video from Mr. Beast that now has 1.7 million views. Holy crap snacks.  Now, he might be off to his next greatest adventure, leaving rura...

In recent years, I have fallen back in love with New Age, space music , and the droning, atmospheric, accessible Neoclassical genre. Imagine music to TV shows, movies and moods that don’t exist … or only exist in the composers’ and performers’ own heads.  Works like Max Richter’s Sleep and Johann Johannson’s Virðulegu Forsetar have played and replayed in my head as I lie on my bed dozens of times...

I stumbled onto James Payne on Reddit.com, where he asked folks in my town if they’d go check on, and take measurements of, a big piece of public art he’d loaned to the city a few years ago.  I know that art! I’ve gotta talk to this guy!  And he agreed.  I got to ask Payne about his art sensibilities, how he got entranced by big sculptures, and the moment spirals grabbed his attention.  If all wen...

Pamela Topjian published a book last year about her experience escaping an abusive partner and figuring out how she’d wound up there in the first place: I Didn't Come This Far to Only Come THIS Far.  She was once trapped in a terrible marriage. Now, she lives a life she says she never expected to live. How did she get from there … to here?  She tells us.  You can, of course, run off and read Topji...

I can’t share his name, but he calls in from France. He wanted to join the military, and he’s serving a five-year stint. He’s gotten promotions, and after basic training, he got into exactly the unit he yearned for. He doesn’t regret his choice to join the military. He wanted a unique, powerful experience. He wanted to join that brotherhood of men and women that develops only when you’re pushed yo...

The folks at the gaming convention Kantcon let me interview Gabi Dyck of Gamer Girl Jewelry recently to help me help them promote my favorite gaming convention in the country. (Full disclosure: It's them. They're my favorite. But I’ve only ever been to Kantcon over and over again for years, so I’m biased.)  You’d think with tabletop RPGs roughly 50 years old that hand-made dice would have totally...

Ultimately, I think the fundamental question we tumble into, like rolling down a mountain of sharp, rocky points, bloodied and bruised at the bottom of the Mountain of Life time and time again, is, “What are we supposed to do with this life?” The philosophers phrase this question in many ways: What is good? What is God? What is truth? What is kindness? Why do we gather together? What are the best...

Josh was an atheist. But Josh’s mind was blown, in a good way, in experiences where he consumed psychedelic drugs. Here, he talks about his pre-psychedelic world, his mind shift, how religions might be onto something, and the benefits and dangers of psychedelics in this one.  Let me be clear: In talking to Josh openly about his experiences, I am not recommending anyone follow his path. I’m not tel...

Beth Mayorga hosts her own podcast, The Fan Fic Maverick . What is “fan fic”? The definition is always being fought over in online forums, but Beth says it simply: You’re writing stories using someone else’s IP (intellectual property).  An early form of this in the 1960s that Beth and I mention are Star Trek stories written by fans shared way before the internet was big about Kirk and Spock’s evol...

What is spina bifida ? What is it like living with the ongoing of the birth defect as a creative twentysomething American? Noah Mussay talks about childhood, school, work, life and sled hockey , and gives us a few pointers on the way he prefers strangers ask about his condition (hint: be curious, not entitled).  Note: After the last question here, I asked Noah what he does for fun outside of work...

Jeffery D. Long spoke to me last year about religious pacifism, especially in reference to the brand-new book he co-edited (and wrote chapters for), Nonviolence in the World’s Religions: A Concise Introduction  (Routledge, 2022).   Now, the Carl W. Ziegler Professor of Religious Studies at Elizabethtown College talks to me about a book coming out this year: Discovering Indian Philosophy: An Introd...

There is a joy that comes with interviewing someone about something you are deeply familiar with. You have lots of follow-up questions. You have lots of chances to push back. You know what to joke about to show inside knowledge and how to carry the interviewee deeper and deeper into the shared pool.  There is another joy that comes with interviewing someone about something you know nothing about....

I spoke to a veterinarian-and-amateur-historian recently, and he turned me onto the Crusades. I’ll admit, I hadn’t thought much about them beyond the basic line: zealous Christians from Europe led failed (and very bloody) military attempts to hold Jerusalem and other parts of Jesus' old stomping grounds. The leaders, I remembered, were surely motivated by greed and holy-war violence.  Not so fast,...

The very kind academic Monica Kirkpatrick Johnson answered questions about teenagers in society last year on this podcast. At the time, she told me she was a helping hand in research done right at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, say, March 2020.   The research had to do with social norms, Dr. Kirkpatrick Johnson told me, and her colleague—Washington State University sociology professor Dr. Ch...

Retired historian Dr. Jeremy Black has now allowed me to interview him three times. THREE TIMES. He gets an award for entertaining my curiosity.   In each interview, he dances through a historian’s perspective and answers both detailed questions about fiddly bits of the world’s past as well as giving detailed and thoughtful big-picture answers about war, religion and life in general.  In this epis...

I regularly search on Amazon for “veterinary business” and “veterinary management” and “business” books. Sometimes to buy, but usually, at first, to find new guests for a veterinary podcast .   That’s how I stumbled into Aaron Gruben ’s new book A Theology of Beasts: Christians and Veterinary Medicine . The book brought together two things that fascinate me: DVMs and divinity. I bought it. I read...