Tales from the Shift

Chandler Wood spends his days cutting hair, but some of the hardest parts of the barber job have nothing to do with clippers. Regular clients talk. A lot. Divorce, death, sick kids, family problems, whatever is sitting on their mind. Chandler says the chair can become a short escape for men, and the barber ends up listening to things people may not tell many others. Tales from the Shift goes deepe...

Charles Dowding has worked as an organic market gardener since autumn 1982. He has written 16 books on the subject. He also runs a busy YouTube channel. The Royal Horticultural Society recently gave him its Elizabeth Medal. He grows with the no dig method. He leaves the soil alone and feeds the surface with compost. Tales from the Shift goes deeper than any other show on jobs. Not just what the wo...

Dan is a water well driller, and this is a deep dive into how that job actually works. He explains how crews drill through overburden and solid granite looking for water-bearing fractures. The machines can weigh around 80,000 pounds. A modern rig can cost well over $1 million. The driller still has to make decisions with incomplete information. Topics covered: bedrock well drilling; groundwater fr...

Brian Silva served as an Air Force Pararescueman (PJ aka Parajumper) from 2005 to 2018. Most people have never heard of the job. Everyone knows what a Navy SEAL is. Almost nobody knows that PJs exist, or that every single one of them is also a nationally registered paramedic trained to work combat trauma, mountain rescue, Arctic survival, and open-ocean recovery inside the same career. Tales from...

Scott Urbach returns to Tales from the Shift for his "overtime" episode, going deeper into daily life inside the CIA: protective details, cover stories, and classified phone calls most people will never make. Scott worked as an operations officer on the Director's Protective Staff, carrying a Rolodex with numbers for the National Security Agency and the White House Situation Room. He was waterboar...

Thomas Casey is a former Probation / Parole Officer in New Hampshire, a combined role most states split into two separate jobs. He supervised people out of state prison and people sentenced by the courts. Caseloads ran 100 to 200 people. This episode covers search authority, parole board mechanics, how officers decide when a violation becomes a prison return, and the moment a law change forced Tom...

Barry Black is affectionately known as the Forrest Gump of the FBI due to being at so many important events in US history. He spent 31 years as an FBI agent, was at the Waco incident with the Branch Davidian Cult, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Atlanta Olympics Bombing, and Ground Zero on 9/11. His career didn't just span history; it left marks on his body he still carries. Tales from the Shift go...

Andrew Lewin is a marine biologist, science communicator, and host of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast with more than two decades of field experience, including research vessel work in the Gulf of Mexico, Arctic expeditions, and conservation advocacy across the Pacific. In this overtime episode, he returns to go further into the parts of the job that rarely get discussed anywhere. Andrew discu...

Suellio Almeida is a professional race car driver and racing coach based in Dubai. Before he ever sat in a real car, he built his technical foundation entirely in simulation: Gran Turismo, Assetto Corsa, and iRacing. He has completed over 60 race weekends in real life. He has never crashed. This episode covers the full arc: how sim racing transfers to a real cockpit and where it falls short, what...

Dillon Jones has spent 12 years studying wildlife across Texas, Belize, and beyond. He's done midnight frog surveys in flooded rivers, pulled bot fly larvae from his own skin, and watched field work end relationships. As a private lands biologist at Goldberry Grove and founder of Learn Adventurously, his job is partly deep jungle fieldwork and partly the computer-heavy data work that surprises mos...

Mark Andrew spent his career as a firefighter and paramedic with the Dearborn Fire Department in Michigan, a suburban department that runs both fire trucks and ambulances out of the same stations. In this episode, the retired fire captain breaks down what the job actually looks like: why roughly three out of four calls are medical runs rather than fires, what a 24-hour shift really involves, and w...

James R. Fitzgerald is a criminal profiler and forensic linguist. He began as a police officer near Philadelphia, joined the FBI, worked major crimes in New York, and later entered the Behavioral Analysis Unit at Quantico. Fitzgerald explains what FBI criminal profilers actually do and why the television version is mostly wrong. Profilers do not usually kick down doors or solve cases in 42 minutes...

Adam Horwitz has spent decades in movies as a professional stunt performer, stunt actor, and stunt double. He has doubled for Andy Garcia, Jermaine Clement, and worked across a career most viewers never get to see up close. This episode gets into what the job actually costs, from broken trust on set to AI threats, unsafe productions, no screen credit, and the strange reality of doing life-risking...

Lesley Holloway bought back the small-town diner that raised her, turning it into a second job that swallows her weekends and any illusion that love alone could save it. What she did not expect was how invisible the work really is: fixing toilets, absorbing strangers' fury, and carrying a duty to a town. Tales from the Shift goes deeper than any other show on jobs, not just what the work looks lik...

Kari Ickes has been a licensed funeral director and embalmer for 24 years. In this job, she carries other people's grief so they don't have to, embalms the people she loves, and has learned to turn off emotions in ways that don't turn back on. She explains what this career really does to a person, and why she wouldn't choose anything else. Tales from the Shift goes deeper than any other show on jo...

Steve Barnes explains the real job behind water utility work, from meter reading and shutoffs to smart meters, customer confrontations, water waste, and the hidden career paths inside municipal water systems. This career looks simple from the outside, but the job carries strange access, real risk, and a front-row seat to how people react when water stops flowing. Like all TFTS episodes, you get th...

Heather Ferris is back for her "overtime" episode after 25 years as a Las Vegas casino dealer, and this time the guardrails are off. She reveals what the eye in the sky really catches, how dealers actually get cheated, and what the job left behind. Tales from the Shift goes deeper than any other show on jobs. Not just what the work looks like, but what it actually does to the person doing it. The...

Jody Maberry spent eight years as a park ranger across Washington State—and the job was nothing like most people imagine. From a drowning victim on day one to dangerous wildlife encounters and parks overrun by tourists, Jody reveals what this career actually costs and what it permanently gives back. The unfiltered truth behind the flat hat. Like all TFTS episodes, you get the unfiltered reality of...

Mike Morgan shares the brutal reality of his career as a police officer in Atlanta and Long Island. He details the trauma of the job and his transformative path toward healing through unconventional therapy. Like all TFTS episodes, you get the unfiltered reality of how this job works that you won't find in any instruction manual. Mike Morgan's Book Resilient Warrior: https://amzn.to/3OUYiCE Mike's...

Sharon Kent spent 38 years as a Critical Care Nurse caring for the sickest patients in the hospital. In this episode, Sharon explains what this ICU job is really like, from life-and-death decisions to difficult patients, hospital politics, and the emotional burden of a career spent around death. Like all TFTS episodes, you get the unfiltered reality of how this job works and how it affects people...

Retired DEA Special Agent Brian Townsend returns to reveal to us what a career chasing fentanyl and cartel money actually costs. He walks through an undercover rave investigation, a case (loosely) tied to the actors from The Wire, and the grim math behind America's overdose numbers. It's a job built on reading people, judgment calls, and knowing when the paperwork matters more than the arrest. Tal...

Curt Tueffert reveals the real life of a Professional Salesman. His job is less about slick closing and more about curiosity, relationships, and solving customer problems. Like all TFTS episodes, you get the unfiltered reality of how this job works and how it affects people, that you won't find in any instruction manual. "Go for No" Book: https://amzn.to/3Prcsf9 Curt's Connect Deck: https://myconn...

Congressman Barry Loudermilk describes the reality of the job of an elected official at both the state and national levels. This job involves setting public policy and representing the interests of the people while navigating the complexities of a career in the House of Representatives. The interview also goes into real world suggestions for people thinking of becoming a candidate at any level. Li...

This is the reality of being a Corrections Officer. Prison guard is an older term, but we're using it in the title as many people do not know that. Tom Casey spent his career on the locked side of the door. A Marine Corps veteran, he spent eight years as a corrections officer in the New Hampshire state prison system starting in the early 1990s, five of them in the maximum security unit. Later, at...

Paramedic Alex Bednar shares his career journey from ground ambulance to helicopter transport, revealing the intense training and split-second decisions that define emergency medical services. He discusses the emotional weight of the job and the incredible camaraderie that comes with saving lives. Like all TFTS episodes, you get the unfiltered reality of how this job works that you won't find in a...