Episode 171: Unconventional

“I’m willing to fail in what I do, and that feels like success to me...that’s part of why I feel successful.”

— Erica Heilman

Erica Heilman in a barn with Vermont dairy farmer Doug Lillie

Erica Heilman is the host of the podcast Rumblestrip. The Atlantic recently named her series ‘Our Show’ the best podcast of 2020. But before she was a brilliant podcaster, Erica was a lot of other things. She was a seller of muffins, she was a theater performer, she milked cows, she worked on a TV news show, then in documentaries, then for a healthcare website…and that’s not all.

It took Erica a while to get where she wanted to be. And she’ll be the first to admit she had no idea where that was.

She is not the only person who’s struggled to work out, what am I meant to be doing? What am I good at? How best do I use the skills I actually have? Some of us take longer to get there. We wish it were different, but it’s not. This is a show about the messiness of the unconventional career path.

You can also read a transcript of the show.

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Further listening: If you haven’t listened to Erica’s show before, here’s a link to the page for her latest interview with Leland, part of which I played in the podcast. From that page you can link to all past interviews with Leland going back to when he was 10.

Her series ‘Our Show’ is truly fantastic. Start with episode one.

I also loved this episode, Joslyn House, from last year about a bunch of older Vermonters living together in a house. Maybe that sounds boring. It isn’t - it’s revelatory.

I did an interview with Erica earlier this year about being an independent podcaster, the origins of podcasting, and how much podcasting has changed since we both started. You can find parts one and two of that interview on my personal website.

Episode 170: Emergency: Women in Medicine during Covid

“It is extraordinary to think that you can take an entire workforce of humans and traumatize them internally and externally for an entire year...and then expect them to just be fine. That’s just not reasonable. ”

— Dr. Dara Kass

Dara Kass had always known emergency medicine was for her. She loved the excitement of the ER, the fact that she always had too much to do. It was only when she had a baby that she realized the emergency room, like so many other workplaces, wasn’t going to fit in with her - she was expected to fit in with it. She set out to change that for her and everyone else.

But when Covid-19 hit New York last spring, Dara was presented with challenges she could never have imagined - catching the virus herself, protecting her family, working through a relentless pandemic, and the loss of a colleague to suicide.

Dara kass next to the mask tree in her family living room

She still wants to bring gender equity to emergency medicine. But she says workers’ mental health has to take priority now and as we emerge from this pandemic.

Dara also addresses the difference between vaccine hesitancy and being an ‘anti-vaxxer,’ and unpicks the vaccine conspiracy theory aimed squarely at young women.

You can also read a transcript of the show.

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Further reading: FemInEM is the organization Dara co-founded that advocates for women in emergency medicine.

Dr. Lorna Breen took her own life in April 2020. This is the foundation her family started to bring attention to the problem of healthcare worker burnout. They’ve also introduced a bill that, if passed, will fund initiatives to help prevent suicide and burnout among medical professionals.

Episode 169: Controlling the Controllable

“It made me cross because I thought, you know we’ve only ourselves to blame here if we choose to use this time [in lockdown] to faff around on Facebook when our male colleagues are on LinkedIn.”

— Lisa Unwin

Lisa Unwin

2021, a year so many of us have been hoping will turn a global page for the better, has got off to a rocky start.

There is so much we can’t control at the moment, so in this show we’re going to concentrate on what we can do - that is, take the reins of our own careers, albeit from behind our computers. My guest is Lisa Unwin, co-founder of London-based Reignite Academy and author of She’s Back. I wanted to talk to Lisa because she’s now optimistic about the future, when a few months ago she felt quite differently.

Among other things we discuss the underrated business phone call, how men and women have used social media differently during lockdown (which may be hurting women’s careers), and what happens when women don’t charge for their work.

You can also read a transcript of the show.

via Sherri Fisher of Learn and Flourish

Further reading: Lisa is quite prolific on LinkedIn. Here’s her article on how women can do ‘the next lockdown’ differently.

It’s not the 30 minutes I spend with you, it’s the 30 years I spent before that also by Lisa Unwin.

Per Lisa’s comment in the show, many women do hate networking -or at least the term ‘networking’. The Hell of Networking tackled this topic in 2014.

When Women Work For Free was also released that year.

Episode 168: Home Alone

“The general discourse around it is let’s all band together and support the mothers and fathers in this trying time. And not once has it been mentioned, let’s band together and support the people who are enduring this by themselves.”

— Susie

Photo by simonapilolla/iStock / Getty Images

“So much of what I’ve been reading about how to adjust in the pandemic is how to keep up social relationships. And that’s unquestionably important. But I think it’s also important to talk about the value of solitude.”

— Joan DelFattore

“It forces you to some personal growth whether you like it or not. When it’s not about survival you get to know yourself in a different way.”

— Magali Rozenfeld

Joan DelFattore

Being single is a lifestyle choice for some women and an unwelcome reality for others. In this episode we meet three women, each with different perspectives on living and working alone, especially during a pandemic.

Retired professor Joan DelFattore has been happily single for decades. Susie, a consultant, is mourning the lack of a husband and children. Her isolation during Covid just makes everything feel worse - particularly when HR seems fixated on families. And psychotherapist Magali Rozenfeld says being by yourself can provide unexpected opportunities for growth.

You can also read a transcript of the show.

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Further reading: This is the best piece on loneliness I’ve ever read, by Financial Times writer Claire Bushey.

Here’s Joan’s Washington Post piece, Singles Say They’re Better Prepared to Self-Quarantine, But Many Fear Getting Short-Changed in Medical Treatment.

Episode 167: Power and Body Language (re-release)

“You take a normal body and you make it even more compact and that’s a sign of “femininity”, and it’s also a sign of low power.”

— Prof. Marianne LaFrance

Photo: Stocksy

“Quite often I get pulled in for a kiss...I think some men find it awkward to shake a woman’s hand because they think a handshake is something you do with men, and kisses are something you do with women.”

— Elaine Moore

In this episode we re-visit the topic of body language in the workplace. We look at hunching, spread legs, eye contact, and kissing - all in a business setting.

I speak to Yale psychology professor Marianne LaFrance about how men and women play up their power, or lack of it, through non-verbal communication. And Financial Times journalist Elaine Moore talks about how she deals with unwanted male kisses at business meetings.

This show originally aired six years ago. I suspect a lot hasn’t changed, but some things have. After all, we’ve had both the #MeToo movement and a global pandemic. So much of our non-verbal communication today is being observed through a screen. I’d like to re-visit some of these themes again in 2021.

You can also read a transcript of the show.

Further reading: If you haven't seen it, here's Amy Cuddy's famous 2012 TED talk on body language shaping who you are.

Here's Elaine Moore's FT piece, A plea to high finance: Can we give kisses a miss?

Marianne LaFrance is the author of Why Smile - The Science Behind Facial Expressions.

And here’s the blog post I wrote about Marianne’s work on smiling, and how that intersects with power.

Episode 166: How to Work Better from Home - a conversation with Laura Vanderkam

“It was hard to figure out how, psychologically, do you feel productive for the day when you haven’t gone anywhere? How do you know the day is over? ”

— Laura Vanderkam

Photo by doble-d/iStock / Getty Images

Working from home is the new normal for a lot of us. But that doesn't mean we like it. Or that we're good at it.

Laura Vanderkam in her home office

In this episode I sit down with Laura Vanderkam, author of I Know How She Does It, What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast, and, most recently, The New Corner Office: How the Most Successful People Work from Home.

Working from your house or apartment has taken on new meaning - and stress - in the pandemic. But Laura says there are ways to gain focus, force yourself to stop at the end of the day, and make the rhythm of the whole thing work for you.

Working from home won't go away when the pandemic does, but doing it well is a skill that most of us need a little help mastering.

You can also read a transcript of the show.

And check out the new podcast series Work It, created by two women who beat out hundreds of entries to win a podcast competition!

Further reading: Here’s a blog post of Laura’s that outlines her suggested ‘split the week’ schedule, which two partners with kids could share.