Episode 155: Firefighter

“It’s not all about the brave fireman striding through the smoke to throw the damsel in distress over his shoulder and stride off into the sunset. There are lots of skills that make a good firefighter.”

— Stephanie Looi

Image via stocksy

“I feel like everybody needs to have that moment in their life where something you did, not something your kid did, made you so proud it made your chest tight. And that’s that pride that comes from serving your community.”

— Kassie Stevens

Stephanie looi

Some of us have two jobs: one that pays us, one that sustains us in another way. In this episode we meet two women who volunteer as firefighters. Stephanie Looi and Kassie Stevens have faced challenges in their roles, but each feels lucky to be doing something so important for their communities.

Kassie stevens with stepson riley

Stephanie just went through Australia's devastating fire season and had to make decisions she never thought she would. Kassie faces incredulous reactions when she shows up to a call, and sometimes hostility as well. But they both say it's a privilege to serve - and to inspire other women.

This show is about being a firefighter, but it’s also about the satisfaction that comes from volunteering, and helping other people.

It’s thanks to Kassie’s fiancé Shaun Pryor that I found out about her work in the first place.

Shaun, Kassie, and Riley

You can also read a transcript of the show.

Episode 154: Straight Talk + Empathy: Women, Men, and Leadership in Crisis

“Some of the emerging women leaders are offering a new tone and some really inspiring leadership, and I think that’s just a wonderful thing to keep in mind as we all go to our voting booths in the next few years.”

— Avivah Wittenberg-Cox

Photo credit: Evgeni Tcherkasski

“If you look at Merkel’s style, it’s very tough, short, concise, fact-based communication, very different not just from Trump but Andrew Cuomo, who spends an hour a day talking to us about his mum and recipes for pasta.”

— Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic

avivah wittenberg-cox

You’ve probably seen some of the stories: women leaders around the world are “stepping up to show the world how to manage a messy patch for our human family.” I’m quoting one of this week’s guests, Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, from her Forbes piece on women leaders’ success during the pandemic. She and other writers on this topic make the same point: when you look at countries with the best coronavirus outcomes so far, they often have one thing in common - a woman at the top.

tomas chamorro-premuzic

In this week’s show I meet up - online, of course - with Avivah and another former guest, Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, author of Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders?

We discuss the leadership styles we’re seeing during this global crisis, why Andrew Cuomo can chat about recipes on TV where Jacinda Ardern probably couldn’t, and whether today’s successful female leaders will change anything for women in the future.

You can also read a transcript of the show.

Further reading: Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic’s piece, also in Forbes, on whether female leaders might be better at managing the pandemic.

I also reference this Washington Post article by Zoe Marks during the episode.

The Pandemic Has Revealed the Weakness of Strongmen by Helen Lewis in The Atlantic.