What People Do

Episode 12: Dr. Ryane Englar does ballroom dancing

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 posture, movement, speed and flow by staying close together.
“If I start to slip, my pro partner can turn me so it looks pretty to the audience, but we both know he’s doing it to get me back where I need to be,” Ryane says.
Her descriptions of interaction between professional dancers and amateurs, men and women, leading, following and back-leading is fascinating. The art feels very gendered, with men leading and women following, and that just seems like an element of the art as performed today. However, Ryane says same-sex couples are “starting to make an appearance” in competitions and are actually common with certain dances in Europe.
The best part is hearing how dance added some tools to Ryane’s toolkit in her personal and professional life and gave her something that wasn’t about her veterinary work, “more than a definition,” she says.
Find out how Ryane got started dancing as an adult (ballet as a child didn’t do it: “I thought forever I would never dance beautifully,” she says), how Lowell helped her learn how to fall, and how it brings confidence in life and in dancing.
As Ray Davies sings, “Come dancing … ”
(Image by Peter H from Pixabay)
 
WANT TO KNOW MORE?
> Ryane drops a lot of names of different dance styles, and she covers it a little bit from “the student perspective.” But if you want to dig in at wikidancesport.com: American rhythm, American smooth, International ballroom, International Latin.
> Arthur Murray Dance Centers are Ryane’s choice. Find one around you?
>

Episode 11: Portia is a high-performing, information-aholic worrier (aka a journalist)

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 critic’s skepticism. Portia gives that to team members, and she needs it from others. So, ultimately, part of the easing of anxiety comes from building in trust and collaboration with a team of people who’ve got your back.
Another big part of managing anxiety for Portia was discovering the power of the negative stories she would tell herself. Why think you’ve failed before you’ve found out?
“At the end, when it’s finished, and you’ve published something and moved on, and you don’t have feedback [yet],” Portia says, “why assume it’s broken or wrong when you could make a choice to say, ‘That was a success’?”
Find out how she manages giving and negative feedback, how she makes time to unwind, and what elementary-school kids called Portia (for only a bit).
(PHOTO CREDIT: Image by rawpixel.com)
 
WANT TO KNOW MORE?
> Do you struggle with anxiety? Take a quiz.
> Do you struggle with negative self-talk? Start tackling that.
> OOOooooh. That’s what a carboy is.
> Portia mentions leadership training. I got mine from Sunroad Coaching founder Marnette Falley in a previous life. So did Portia.

Episode 10: Mindy watches ‘Star Trek’ and you should too

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 more about “me” and less about “us,” losing some part of the original’s optimism and group solidarity. 
The other big theme that pops up for Mindy in the shows is what makes us human and what we owe to the artificial beings we create. She says such Star Trek characters as the android Data and the hologram “The Doctor” spark the same sense of empathy she feels for pets. She hates seeing them abused and mistreated in films and TV shows. 
“We brought the pet into our world, so anything that happens to them is our fault,” Mindy explains, and that’s “graduated” to thinking about other beings we might create in the future. It's the most philosophical and moral discussion we’ve gotten into on this podcast! 
P.S. Mindy finally caught a bit of those new “Star Trek” shows. She says she liked them more than she thought she would. 
P.P.S. I use one expletive. Don’t judge. 
(PHOTO CREDIT: "Star Trek Exhibit Mall of America" by Margalit Francus is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) 
 
WANT TO KNOW MORE? 
> Check out StarTrek.com. 
> Humanists cover a little of Gene Roddenberry’s thinking from the show here. (Here’s a more pessimistic view on Roddenberry spun out of a book review of a two-volume history of the show.) 
> Mindy gives an eloquent, heartbreaking description of a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode about a world that depends on the torment of a single being for its civilization’s success. Brendan was reminded of a dark tale of a place that relies on hurting a being for its own happiness. It’s “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” by Ursula K. LeGuin. Brendan said it was 30 years ago; it’s closer to 50 years ago, first published in 1973. 

Episode 9: Cheryl does midwifery

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 appointments to check up with expectant mothers and their partners and listen to them and their concerns. It’s a close relationship, with many families coming back more than once for repeated home births. 
“We’re coming to your environment, and we’re helping you to have your baby your way,” Gates says. 
It’s a matter of preference. Other expectant mothers will only relax and feel safe in a bed at a top-notch hospital to give birth. Cheryl remembers, after a brain injury, how nice it was to get out of the hospital and into her own bed at home. She doesn’t dig hospitals. 
The clients she can’t, in good conscience, take on? Those who say “no matter what” they won’t go to the hospital for a birth. That’s a dangerous choice, she says, as the health of mother and child before, during or after birth may necessitate a move to the hospital. 
“You have to be willing to get help when you need it,” she says, “because that’s how it stays safe.” 
Learn about what life is like for a midwife and for expectant mothers who don’t want to give birth in a hospital, what racism looks like in the hospital room, and how one generation’s bad childbirth experiences can haunt the next. 
 (Photo courtesy Pixabay; no, that's not a Cheryl-midwifed baby)
 
WANT TO KNOW MORE? 
> Learn more about what midwives and nurse-midwives do as well as doulas. 
> It was only one incident in many years of midwife work, but Cheryl mentions years ago that one healthcare provider had a sign on the wall that said expectant mothers who had a doula or had taken a Bradley class were not accepted as patients. The American College of Nurse-Midwives and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (what Cheryl calls “ACOG” in the podcast) play nice together now. 
> Twilight sleep, knocking expectant mothers out during childbirth, many strapped to their beds, was totally a thing. Yuck. 
> Cheryl mentions the 2008 documentary The Business of Being Born (The Business of Birth Control is up next from the filmmakers.) You can stream it free right now. Here are a few reviews here, here and here. 

Episode 8: Marnette dresses as a hobby

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 boots. She talks about bloomers, and because I’m oblivious, I never thought about the fact that she wore bloomers (handmade, by the way), but now that I think about it, yeah, bloomers. Who wears bloomers? Marnette wears bloomers. And they’re fun.
“I dress for fun,” she says. “I think it’s entertaining. I shop for the things I like for sport.”
It started with Halloween, she tells us, as she realized in her 30s that dress-up was amazing and she picked similar costumes every year: “I basically want to dress like a princess-witch-gypsy every day of my life,” she says. Other people describe it as “boho chic.”
I could’ve asked Marnette for pictures of her favorite outfits, but, y’know what? Marnette dresses for herself. If you want to talk to her about this, you’ll just have to email her.
I’ve only scratched the surface. There are leadership and confidence thoughts here along with wisdom that comes with successful experimentation like this in life. Don’t miss Marnette’s centered approach to people’s judgment about style, how personal expression fits into the corporate world, and how it makes her more confident.
 
WANT TO KNOW MORE?
> Marnette says she has a hard-and-fast rule: She only wears what she loves. She was Marie Kendo before Marie Kendo was a thing. (Kendo’s rule 6 is “Ask yourself if it sparks joy.” If not, say, “thank you” for its service and get rid of it.) Wait, you already heard about Kendo and you’re sick of her? Now you’re a part of the wonderful cycle of 1) See a new thing, 2) Love a new thing, 3) Get tired of a new thing, 4) Hate the new thing? Read this and this and this and enjoy your irritation.
> Marnette loves Pinterest. and see if her style is your style.
> Where does she get her ideas and her clothes? She mentions Pinterest (see her boards), thredUP, thrift stores, boutique stories (a little price-y) and her own two hands (she makes her own bloomers).
> I ham-handedly describe one impression I have of Zen Buddhist poetry and practice. I don’t know enough about this. Who let me talk? Get a different view of Zen’s play with language. Taste some Zen Buddhist poetry. Shake things up with a Zen Buddhist koan, a seemingly nonsensical whack to the proverbial head to awaken you?
(IMAGE CREDIT: The Spanish Gypsy "Preciosa" by Bisson Freres)

Episode 7: Peter is an environmental manager

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 site visits and gets to get his hands dirty sometimes.
“I still enjoy getting outside, and I don’t know if I’d want to be cooped up inside all day,” Peter says about a potential life in academia.
Learn about steel recycling, electric arc furnaces vs. blast furnaces, and more. My favorite part? Peter fights back against my question about having an unsolvable problem. There really is no such thing, you’ll find out: Tackle it in baby steps until you get closer, he says.
 
WANT TO KNOW MORE?
> No, no, NO. An environmental manager (Wikipedia), not an environmentalist (Merriam-Webster.com).
> Curious about electric arc furnaces? Watch this video. (No, this isn’t Peter’s company, and no guarantee this is what this looks like in his facilities.)
> Peter used to work on Saturns. Remember those?

Episode 6: Jennifer draws

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 self-imposed and doesn't need to draw stuff she doesn't care about. Much of her art is for her, her own heart, her own interest and the interest of friends and supporters (like the folks at her workplace who were encouraging and kicked off her adult art kick). Before, when she drew as a kid, she says she "didn't have the support system. It was getting in my own head a lot. Being very negative toward my own stuff."
"Becoming more involved with the internet ... has helped that too," she says, "because I'll throw my art out into the world and people will ... click 'Like' on it. And it won't be a lot of people, but it'll be a few people, and I'll [say,] 'Oh, I don't know that person, and they liked my art, so I ... made a random stranger happy by posting this.' That brings me joy."
Jennifer discusses the power of pre-work before art projects (when she doesn't, sometimes she notices "this one thing is off, and I could have changed that, but in order to change it ... I have to start over"), what making art feels like and how coworkers' and friends' support brought her back to art as an adult.
Note: After about 39 minutes, this podcast peters out a bit into Jennifer and I bandying back and forth, as we search for stuff on the internet to recommend (all below in "Want to know more?") and I mangle the spelling of her online handle.
 
WANT TO KNOW MORE?
Find Jennifer on Instagram (drawntofury), Patreon (caeodos) and Twitter (caeodos1)
Want to try an art challenge or exercises? Especially 'cause most of us are stuck at home during the pandemic? Jennifer mentions ...
Intokber (art prompts and shared results)
The Etherington Brothers (unique art style and drawing ideas)
the Jake Parker weekly e-newsletter (with prompts and more)
The Sketchbook Project (with DIY sketchbooks and the chance to send them back to a library to be digitized and shared)
Sketchbook Revival (a free regular event with Karen Abend and others)
Toothless from the "How to Train a Dragon" movies based on a cat? Yeah. Want to see a Tortle? Yeah you do.
Curious about Dungeons & Dragons? It was the gateway drug (check out this flowchart at Wired) for so many middle-aged nerds today, and it maintains its strength as the dominant tabletop role-playing game in the market with its new owner Wizards of the Coast (which also owns the Magic: The Gathering card game, which I play online). Jennifer also mentions Critical Role, a very popular online show featuring voice actors playing tabletop D&D.

Episode 5: Kevin keeps sewage moving

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 your shelter nice and safe.  
As far as I’m concerned, keeping the system working is one of the most important jobs around. A quote attributed to Gandhi agrees: “Sanitation is more important than independence.” Armies can dig trenches for poop and move on. Thinly populated farms can use outhouses. But without a place for urine and feces to go, we can’t be packed like sardines into modern urban and suburban environments.  
Electro mechanic assistant Kevin works on sewer lift stations. He helps make sure they keep running. As you’ll learn in the podcast, most water and sewage moving around a city uses gravity as much as possible (most everything with liquid is pitched at very small angles to keep it moving, he says), but when stuff collects lower than where it needs to go, Kevin’s motors push it on through to its next destination. 
“It’s like a rollercoaster,” he says. “My sewer lift station is the thing that lifts you up to the top of the hill so you can ‘gravity’ back down to wherever you’re going.” 
Kevin also explains a bit how he got into this gig (no, he didn’t pick poop on purpose), what he wants you never to flush in the toilet, what smells the worst down there ("Poop’s not even close,” he says. “And it’s oily. It sticks.”) and what’s the creepiest living thing he’s seen running around. 
“This job is stable,” he says. “I don’t think anyone’s gonna’ stop pooping in the near future.” 
Warning, all the best stories are in the last 20 minutes or so. Don’t skip! 
Want to know more? 
The Environmental Protection Agency has an eight-pager on sewer lift stations. Nerd out. 
Early on, Kevin talks about folks who keep the pipes clean, using rodders and jetters (links go to Youtube videos about those devices, but not the exact devices Kevin’s colleagues use). 
In addition to Kevin’s No. 1 choice for stuff not to flush, don’t dump F.O.G. Here’s one utility’s FAQ.
Kevin schools me on motors and engines; he’s mostly right. Brush up on your terminology with a layperson-friendly explanation from MIT. 
Kiewit’s fleet of Caterpillar equipment is mentioned. Kiewit builds stuff. Like everything.
The insect Kevin says he hates the most is a house cricket. We don’t think that’s it. We think he means a big one of these.
Hyperion is big, and Kevin’s never been there. But this website story calls it the “Disneyland of Poop.” 
CAPTION: "Abercynon" by gwallter is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Episode 4: Zahara does TikToks

Note: I happened to record this podcast as the world's coronavirus pandemic started to kick into gear. I'm now back home under the similar "shelter in place" order (or some version of it) that you are. This one seemed usefully short and easy for my first week under quarantine. Stay safe. :)
Zahara just turned 11, and this podcast is short. She's not necessarily used to answering detailed questions, hearing herself blather on (like me) and she had no preparation. She did a great job.
Zahara says folks use TikTok for dances, for art, for anything short and visual. I got onto TikTok a few months after it started, got bored with it and came back to it to keep up the young un's. It is hellishly addictive, providing just enough amusement to keep you swiping up and down. Some creators are phenomenally talented at whatever craft they're showcasing, but I agree with a creator's video I saw a while ago: TikTok is designed to give mediocre people the chance to do fairly mediocre things and maybe blow up virally from it. ("They're dances that people make up to songs, and then other people do them," she says.) In other words, amazing dancers doing dances are viral ... but so are any good-looking for high-energy Tomasina, Dick or Harriet.
There are also sad videos, where a TikTok user makes one to sing about or dance about or talk about, "like, when your dog has to go to the hospital," she says.
Zahara's account is private, only for friends, per her father. :)
Want to know more?
TikTok is this. Tik-Tok is this. There's a big difference. Tik-Tok's dancing skills are way under par for the preteen girls on TikTok.
TikTok has a darker side, so watch over those kids, gang.

Episode 3: Joshua Fultz is a deacon

I am a convert to Judaism, and Joshua is a convert to the Catholic Church. And he has always been one of the most fun people to talk about religion with, which led me to understand that us weird converts have something about us and our journeys that crosses spiritual paths. There is something about being a person who chose a faith that is always a little different than someone born into one. (If you hear us thumping the table a lot, forgive us: We're excited converts.)
Joshua exemplifies the intensity of the convert, having traveled from dissatisfaction with religion in his teenage years to marrying his awesome wife, and the both of them growing into a life of service and learning in their new church.
Today, he's a permanent deacon for the Roman Catholic Church, a level of lay leadership and service to the Church. Joshua explains what drew him to the diaconate and what it's like doing the work. (He had to go through the stages of Instituted Lector and Instituted Acolyte, FYI, which were set up with Vatican II back in the 1970s.)
The process is a lengthy curriculum of study, service and spiritual growth over five years. And anywhere along the way, the people watching your development in the program can tell you, y'know, this isn't for you.
"It's the Church, your wife and yourself making the decision, is this calling really there?" Joshua says.
And Joshua was never totally sure; he says he understood deeply his own flaws, and he always wondered whether he belonged in this service: "I know all my own sins and my past, and I'm going, 'I'm not the pious guy who should be a deacon.' But ... God doesn't use pious guys all the time. Sometimes he goes out and finds the guys with that past, and you can talk to those people living in those circumstances ... and explain to them the faith."
He also shares a very personal tale of dreams that guided him toward God and through life as well.
Joshua's spiritual and religious journey is a fascinating one, and you'll learn some awesome stuff about what's happening during that Catholic service.
Want to know more?
The Archdiocese of Newawk (New Jersey) has a bit more about the history of the position (it's new ... and old!) in the Roman Catholic Church.
Here's one diocese's deacon formation application 22-pager.
Joshua mentions the four pillars of deacon formation. Bam!
Want to get a little more feel for the reverence, ritual and tradition Joshua likes as a self-described "traddy" (more Latin, older hymns)? Check out this interview with a fellow traditionalist Catholic (Joshua didn't suggest this, so this may or may not represent Joshua's feelings)
Yup. Bible stories on felt board is definitely a thing.
Want a feel for what's on that altar with Joshua and the priests? Check this sample out.