What People Do

Jeremy Black spoke to me Jan. 1, 2022, so he seems the perfect guest to share first in this new season.  He talks about one of the most emotionally fraught issues of human civilization, War and Violence(TM), with a historian's pragmatism and a respect for those affected by the war, especially the dead.  I start off on some rant here about war being "bad," and he adds nuance and refuses to be baite...

I found Jonathon Stalls on TikTok, where @pedestriandignity highlights the ugly, unpleasant and, worst of all, dangerous world of pedestrian travel in today's towns and cities. Sidewalks are overgrown, shoved next to roaring highways, or stop in the middle of nowhere for no reason. And that's just for those who can walk comfortably: What about the strollers? The wheelchairs? The walkers? Pedestria...

She saw her aunt doing it decades ago and got into it then. This spiritual movement of body and energy is less exercise (Tai Chi) and more moving chi. Do the movements standing. Or sitting. Or visualize them lying down. Rachel (who was my very first What People Do podcast guest ever) swears by Tai Chi Chih (tay chee chuh) and has found such joyous rewards through the movements that she's a certifi...

He studied and worked with Lama Surya Das for years. He's got a cool podcast, online courses , a published set of meditations and he's working on an app. This cat has some cool thoughts and a thoughtful and very ecumenical and open-minded approach to quieting the mind. P.S. The picture is my daughter from years ago from, and she learned a little meditation with a counselor in a group in elementary...

Educational games get a bad rap. If more of them were made by Adam Clare, maybe I'd like them more. Adam admits some of the things that make bad educational games bad, but then makes interesting distinctions between free play and designed games and delves into how education infuses his views on the environment and, yes, on COVID. I mean, can we escape it? We can't. You should play Dr. Trolley's Pr...

I noticed during then pandemic that one of the home owners whose property butts up against a trail at a nearby park started putting up flowers. And signs. And a bench. And nice messages for folks who were being emotionally beaten up by the pandemic. It started with being irritated with a bunch of overgrown poison ivy and a tendency to flood during rain. And it turned into something special. People...

It's been a long time, so we're gonna call this season two, yeah? We're back with a personally helpful conversation about writing: how she does it, how she did it, how she started, and, because I'm self-centered, what I can learn (and by extension, you can learn) from her about my own writing. Find out how the first hit of audience dopamine hit for Gabs with her first fan, what she does to make su...

My friend Ryan is a master of investigating technological problems as well as a beautiful, efficient, brilliant designer in physical media and in the digital world.  And he has hermit crabs . So, of course, I skipped right to that in my podcast with him here.  They live in his house. His 6-year-old (at the time) daughter wanted them and named them (but then, of course, Ryan winds up caring for the...

NOTE: Hey. I’ve been gone a while. I’ve got two podcast interviews lined up from before. Now they’re gonna come out. This one, now. Another one, soon. Then … I don’t have any more interviews lined up yet. I’m a firm believer that everyone has something important or fun or relatable to say about something. Who’s next? Also, there’s a grind as Bash’s phone call fell out, but I think the gist of it c...

Dr. Finch and I have sat a few times at veterinary conferences and mused over introversion, work and life stress, and mental health. She’s one of the world’s genuinely good people, so when she talked years ago to me about how she used coloring books in veterinary practice to decompress , I was intrigued.  Now, years later, she needed her friend and veterinary technician colleague, Allison Parker,...

“Just because we can do something to -- or for -- an animal,” asks Robin Downing, DVM, MS, DAAPM, DACVSMR, CVPP, CCRP, “does that mean we should?” A practicing veterinarian, teacher and business owner, Robin’s interest in pain, animals and caring for living things has translated in the past few years into study of how the field of human bioethics could shape, and be shaped by, the in-the-trenches...

Veterinarian Dr. Jules Benson does not compete crazily at cycling, but he loves all the other aspects of it: the choice of how and where to ride each day he goes out, the acquisition and enjoyment of a new bike with a new frame (hopefully lighter?), the touch of masochism that comes with pushing yourself hard physically.  He tells himself, like all the other less-than-perfect cyclists, that speed...

Gina Spadafori lives within what feels like spitting distance from California’s capitol city, Sacramento, but it’s also really rural right around here. It’s kind of the perfect spot for a politics-following writer and editor who decided to raise animals in her yard.  But this yearning for living close to animals and on a stretch of land didn’t come from her happily urban and suburban family.  “My...

“I always loved comedy,” Tekurah says, since high school. Jake Johannsen was her first standup crush in the Bay Area.   “When somebody makes me laugh, I become attracted to them,” she says. She and her friends would crowd into a car on a day off school to stand around the studio for a drive-time radio show with lots of standup comedy guests. Funny, yes, but intoxicating and attention-holding in a...

Note: Our audio is clippy as all get-out. Don't hate us. Or, rather, hate me. Jahmal is getting better at this, and I brought his quality down. Take me. Take me as tribute. I cut so much good stuff outta here. I’m a damn shame. Y’know why? Because I did a podcast of someone else’s a couple week ago, and my audio was too loud, and I bet she went back in time to change the sound levels on this. That...

Dr. Ernie Ward is big on nutrition and exercise, but his love for surfing, paddle boarding and other sports in and around the ocean turns out to be bigger than that. He and his wife (his girlfriend at the time) bonded over a love of the ocean with SCUBA diving. And it’s his way of getting closer to nature.  “It's that connection with the energy … nature … this body that engulfs the entire planet,”...

It started with ideas. Dr. Melissa Detweiler, a small animal veterinarian in a Midwestern small town, had a lot of them, and writing blogs, commentary and opinion seemed like the route. But she didn't know, as a veterinarian, which audience to tackle first: pet owners or those "in the profession," vet med. "I wanted to say the things [in my blogs] to pet parents that maybe I held back from saying...

Veterinarian and veterinary faculty member Dr. Ryane Englar still considers herself a “baby dancer,” although her teacher and dance partner, Lowell, saw her potential and gently encouraged her over their years of practice to dive into competition with him. We start off the podcast with a fascinating consideration of how two dancers work together, one leading and one following, to maintain strict p...

Journalists want to help. Journalists want to get to the truth. Journalists don’t want to make mistakes. Mix in all three of those, and you’ve got a recipe for well-intentioned, purposeful perfectionism of a sort. “I don’t think you have to be a journalist because you’re a worrier,” Portia says, “but I think it’s a driver.” It’s the hunt for the second set of eyes on a piece, the second look, the...

Star Trek debuted on CBS in 1966, the brainchild of creator Gene Roddenberry. Mindy, though, caught it first in afternoon reruns after she’d get home from school. She thinks that original series is good, but she really thinks everyone should be a Star Trek: The Next Generation Trekkie.  “Roddenberry gave us hope for the future,” she says. The new direction in the latest two shows, she feels, is mo...

I could have called her a midwife, but isn’t the word midwifery (pronounced MID-wiff-ree) cool?  Midwives act as emotional support, an educational resource and healthcare advocates for pregnant women. Roughly 97% of Cheryl’s mothers want a home birth. And 85% of them will have a home birth, with 15% going to a hospital instead. This is a hands-on relationship, with long, regularly scheduled appoin...

I worked with Marnette, and I always liked the fact that her wardrobe in middle management and then upper management was cut from a different cloth than the standard executive. Layered, frilly, colorful tops under antique-looking jackets (“I put on a jacket, it’s just not a jacket anyone else wears,” she says). They top multilayered skirts, concealing just the tops of well-worn, well-loved cowboy...

Yeah, who’s the guy who cut off his guest at the start of the podcast recording? That would be me. His name is Peter, and he’s an environmental engineer for a steel company. He started as a mechanic out of high school, headed for physics in college to become a professor, but then found a love for geology and graduated with a degree in that. He does a lot of paperwork, but he also does a lot of sit...

Jennifer likes to draw dragons . Fantasy monsters and people, elves, things out of fantasy books. Animals. (Her sketch of Batgirl was my smartphone wallpaper for weeks.) "I get ideas in my head of something that would look cool of a scene or an animal, and I like sharing that idea," Jennifer says. Like many artists who don't do it for a living, she usually doesn't need to hit deadlines that aren't...

Note: There are a few four-letter words sprinkled throughout these 45 minutes. Instead of “feces,” we, umm, say, y’know. That S-word. Skip this podcast if that bothers you.  As we all sit through this COVID-19 crisis, packed under "stay at home” orders in most states, it’s a good time to remember, yes, the toilet paper you’re having trouble finding, but also that wonderful sewage system that keeps...