Who wants a job that lets you travel, teach young people, understand your world better, and build a more sustainable workplace - while making enough money to own a home? Victoria Downey does all of these things and more as a geography professor at a community college.

Megan Voorhees is the kind of person who makes you feel like whoever you are in life, you can make your world better. When it comes to work, she believes that a career doesn’t have to be designed from the start - but it can always reflect your values. Megan leads with love but strategy is always on her mind, and in this interview she is exceedingly modest - so I do encourage you to check out her LinkedIn profile to learn more about the path she has taken to her current role.  

When I first learned that Eric was an accountant who works in hospitals I must admit I assumed his goal was to save hospitals money, sometimes at the expense of individual patients. Turns out that's not what he does at all.

“I tend to have a good attitude - I’m not going to do anything I don’t want to do, and that makes my jobs easier.” Terri Mattila’s got range. How many Biology PhDs do you know who also manage a coffee shop, care for other people’s pets, set up labs for college students, and genuinely enjoy each day? At 61 years old, Terri is a model of doing what you love and loving what you do - while refusing to get stuck in a bad situation.  

Caylin Crawford really cares about your safety. As an industrial hygienist at the University of Minnesota, she is here to keep folks safe from anything - nail salon fumes, sewer explosions, or homophobic colleagues are just some of the workplace hazards she protects us from. Why? Because to Caylin, safety at work is a human right.

Learn more about Caylin - and ask her questions about industrial hygiene - at  https://www.linkedin.com/in/caylincrawford/  .

Erica Ezold is the Executive Director of Quintessence Theatre. Erica and I went to high school together, and to college together, so I got to see first-hand how her passion for theater grew and transformed. You’ll hear how her passion still keeps her going as she makes it possible for artists to create great art. Erica goes deep into the relationship between work and mental health; I appreciate her willingness to talk about things that many people won’t approach, and I hope you do too.

Learn more about Quintessence Theatre or about Erica herself.

Aaron Silver is a freelance website developer, an artist, and a good friend. In this episode you'll learn about his path to becoming a developer, how he balances life and work, and his thoughts on artificial intelligence. To learn more about his work, check out his developer site at https://springthistle.com/ and his artist Instagram at @artistaviv .

Our guest today is Heather Worthington, whose job title is Principal and whose field is urban planning. Heather puts the fun in "Superfund site" - her excitement about things like transforming a heavily polluted ammunition plant into a gorgeous, healthy residential area, makes it really easy to understand why her work makes such a difference in the world. I appreciated Heather’s view that everyone has a role to play in this world, and if it takes a few twists and turns to find yours, that’s all just part of the fun.

PS

Stay tuned for visual examples of those maps Heather mentions... In the meantime, check out Urban3's website at https://www.urbanthree.com/about/ .

Today we get to hear from Dr. Adam Schwartz, who has been obsessed with making the world better for people since he was in middle school. Adam has studied and improved all sorts of experiences, from oil refineries to sleep in hotel rooms to device management software. Check out Adam's LinkedIn profile at https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamhschwartz/ .