Working

In this episode, Jordan gets deeper in the nitty gritty of baking with marijuana. He talks with Lauren Kaufman, who helps oversee the kitchen at Love’s Oven in Denver, about the nuances of working with weed and why requires so much more precision than normal baking. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Years ago, a terrible accident left Hope Frahm without taste buds. To cope, she began baking for friends, which led her to cooking school and jobs in top restaurant kitchens. Today, she’s the corporate executive chef for Love’s Oven in Denver, where she creates recipes for a popular line of marijuana infused edibles. In this week’s episode of Working, she talks with host Jordan Weissmann about how...

 Our series on workers in Colorado’s legal cannabis industry keeps on burning. This week, Jordan talks with Max Platt, a cannabis extraction technician at Denver’s Concentrated Love about the physically demanding art of making professional-grade hash for a living.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Technology continues to change the way we live and work. Which is why The Secret History of The Future—the new technology show from Slate and The Economists—is digging through the past to find lessons for our future. Subscribe to Secret History of the Future via Apple Podcasts , Overcast , Spotify , Stitcher , or  Google Play . Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week, Working with Weed goes to the top of the command chain at a dispensary. Jordan speaks with Alex Levine, owner and Co-CEO of a company called Green Dragon. Green Dragon is one of the largest recreational dispensary chains in Colorado with 12 locations statewide. They are definitely an example of what a weed company looks like in a fully legal system. Forget the image you have of stoners...

Can you imagine what it would be like to spend 10 hours a day sitting at a table, cutting the leaves off marijuana buds? Working ’s season on the legal cannabis industry continues with a job you’ve probably never thought about—weed trimmer. These folks are for pruning each bud to make it look nice, aka give it “jar appeal”. Most trimmers work in crews that hop from grower to grower which means, wh...

What’s it really like to grow and sell legal weed for a living? In the new season of Working, we’re finding out by visiting Colorado to talk with people employed in the state’s cannabis industry. On the first episode of the series, Jordan talks with Lazarus White, an assistant manager at Terrapin Cares Station in Boulder, about the day-to-day of running a dispensary. Turns out it’s a great job if...

This week on Working , Jordan sits down with Jake Dell who is the latest member of his family to take over New York’s famed Katz’s Deli. When you own a restaurant that has been beloved since 1888, your work is never done. Jake tells us about what goes into making sure their pastrami always tastes amazing, how the business has and hasn’t changed in 130 years ago and just how often people reenact th...

This week, Jordan talks with Victor J. Webster of Brooklyn’s East River Tattoo, who specializes in striking, large-scale pieces of body art inspired by Polynesian traditions. Victor discusses why working in black ink is trickier than you think, how tattoo machines actually work, his techniques for coaching clients through pain, and how he strives to draw inspiration from foreign cultures without s...

This week, Jordan talks with pro-wrestler Bull James, a longtime pro-wrestler and former WWE personality who now performs on the independent circuit while working as the head trainer at New York Wrestling connection. Bull (real name: James Smith) tells Jordan about his path into the ring, about the “punk rock” business of independent wrestling, how he orchestrates a match, and how he handles getti...

Chances are, you don’t know much about Jami Barretta’s job. But you really should.  Jami is a Child Life Specialist at the Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital at NYU Langone. Which means she is in charge of the education and emotional well being of patients whose ages range from toddlers to teenagers. She and her colleagues work with the young patients and their families to help them cope with the stre...

If you really love the music in a film from the last 25 years, there’s a good chance Randall Poster was responsible for that.  This week, Jordan speaks to the veteran music supervisor who has worked with Wes Anderson, Martin Scorsese, Richard Linklater, Harmony Korine and plenty of other directors you love. Randall tells about collaborating with some of the world’s best auteurs, hunting down obscu...

Today, we're coming to you with something special — the inaugural episode of Better Life Lab, the new podcast from Slate and New America. Better Life Lab looks at the challenges to work-life balance, and how we can change as a culture. Subscribe to Better Life Lab via: Apple Podcasts Overcast Spotify Stitcher Google Play Or wherever you get your shows.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for m...

What does it mean to be an archaeologist in one of the world’s biggest cities? In this episode, Jordan talks to Alyssa Loorya, an archaeologist whose job it is to find out exactly what’s buried under New York City.  Along with her Brooklyn-based firm, Chrysalis Archaeology, Alyssa uncovers all kinds of amazing cultural resources as a consultant on construction sites in the city’s many historic dis...

This week, Jordan takes a trip to the New York office of Sotheby’s, the world’s oldest and largest international auction house, to interview Helena Newman.  Helena is the Chairman of Sotheby’s Europe and Co-head of Impressionist & Modern Art Worldwide and also happens to be the auctioneer who recently sold the firm’s most expensive painting to date: a 1917 Modigliani that went for $157.2 milli...

Working is back with a new season and a new host, Slate’s economics correspondent Jordan Weissmann. In his first episode, Jordan talks to Christopher Nicolson, head winemaker at Red Hook Winery , a unique operation in the heart of Brooklyn that produces wine from grapes grown across New York State. As the man who oversees all the winery’s production, Christopher is in charge of making and bottling...

On the final episode of Working Classics, Jacob Brogan talks to New York drag queen, and now Rupaul's Drag Race contestant, Miz Cracker about how she conceives of her shows and outfits, the significance of makeup, drag lore, the place of drag and RuPaul's Drag Race in gay culture, and battling robot Hitler. In Slate Plus, Miz Cracker discusses her favorite songs to lip-sync to.  Check out Miz Crac...

In Working Classics, Jacob Brogan revisits some of his favorite episodes from his time hosting the show. In this episode, Jacob sits down with Tom King, the current writer of Batman to discuss his process, how he came to the industry, the mythology of the character, and more. In Slate Plus, Slate staffers ask their burning Batman questions.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more informat...

For this episode, we visited Slows Bar B-Q to talk with its chef, Mike Metevia. Prior to coming to Slows a decade ago, Metevia had worked in other sectors of the restaurant industry and with other cuisines, but he’d always been a barbecue guy in his private life. “I just like starting fires,” he tells us. Then in a Slate Plus extra, Metevia offers some tips on how to barbecue better at home. If yo...

Leigh Clayton takes care of the health of 1,500 animals in Baltimore's National Aquarium. She explains how you can tell when a fish is sick, and everything that goes into keeping them healthy. She also tells us about how the National Aquarium connects to and educates about local species, and shares some tips for home aquarium care. In a Slate Plus Extra, she talks about caring for Jacob Brogan's f...

Nithya Nathan-Pineau is Program Director of CAIR Coalition's Detained Children's Program. She spoke with Jacob Brogan about helping children understand their legal situation, and her work helping making arguments that kids facing deportation deserve asylum under American law. In a Slate Plus Extra, Nathan-Pineau discusses her program's relationship with the Office of Refugee Resettlement, and how...

In this classic episode of Working, Jacob Brogan talks to Diane Horvath-Cosper, an abortion provider, about her job and the future of abortion post-Trump.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In Working: Classics, we're revisiting some of our favorite episodes from past arcs of the show. There's no workplace that looms larger in Washington, D.C. than the White House. Hundreds of employees work within its walls, but most of us don't know much about what really goes on there. We're talking to Fiona Reeves, the Director of Presidential Correspondence. Every day Reeves and her staff sort t...

Chantal Tseng has been working as a bartender for 16 years, and has been designing her own cocktails for almost as long. She now operates out of the Reading Room at Petworth Citizen, a small, book-lined bar within a larger Washington, D.C. restaurant. Each week, she develops a new menu of drinks inspired by her recent reading, building experiences around the work of authors such as Graham Greene,...

On the final episode of our season about Working Animals, Jacob Brogan sits down with Shauna Alexander to talk about Skywalker, the show jumping horse. They discuss the lives of sporting horses generally, how these animals train for their jobs, the diversity of equestrian sport and much more.  This is Jacob Brogan's last episode as the host of Working. We'll have a month of Jacob's favorite shows...