I sat down with Charlie and Tara, the real-life fossil hunters behind Downstream Digs, to learn how a date idea turned into a full-blown obsession with digging up shark teeth in Florida's Peace River. We got into how they taught themselves the craft, what it actually takes to find a fossil versus just a cool rock, and yes — the gators.

Meet Charlie and Tara
Charlie and Tara run Downstream Digs, where they share their fossil hunting adventures on the Peace River in Florida. What started as a first date has become a genuine obsession — they've collected over 20,000 fossils, taught themselves to identify finds through community forums, and are now launching guided fossil hunting tours of their own.
Follow Downstream Digs: @downstream_digs

Resources mentioned:

• Downstream Digs Website
• The Fossil Forum
• r/fossilID (Reddit)

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I sat down with Matt, a respiratory therapist and Hyrox athlete, to finally understand what Hyrox actually is — eight brutal stations, a kilometer run between each, and a level of intensity that somehow attracts thousands of people (literally — tickets for one Chicago race sold out in 15 minutes). We got into training with no fancy equipment, competing as a dad, and his own podcast, What's the CO2.

Meet Matt
Matt is a respiratory therapist and self-described fitness addict who found Hyrox through the Instagram algorithm and got hooked after his first race in Chicago. He balances serious training with being a husband and dad — his son will even compete in the Hyrox Young Stars division this spring. Matt also hosts his own podcast, What's the CO2, where he has candid conversations with people across the healthcare world and beyond.
Follow his podcast: @whatstheco2 | What's the CO2: Listen Here!

I sat down with my friend Haleigh, a speech-language pathologist, to finally understand what her job actually is — and it's so much more than helping kids pronounce their Rs and Ss. We talked about everything from feeding therapy (yes, Cheerios and lollipops are actual tools of the trade) to the quiet, powerful "eureka moments" that make the hardest days worth it.

Meet Haleigh
Haleigh has worked in speech-language pathology since 2020, across both private practice and the school system. She's my highschool friend, and this episode is a bit personal for me too — as a former teacher, I worked alongside speech pathologists for years without ever really understanding what the job entailed. Turns out, it covers everything "from lungs up" — speech, language, feeding, cognition, and more, for patients from newborns to adults recovering from strokes.
Follow Haleigh: @hpudlo_

Resources mentioned:
Peechie Speechie
SLP Now
Speaking of Samantics

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I sat down with Joe from Fantasy Football Analyst to talk fantasy football — what it actually is, how PPR and standard scoring differ, and what separates a good draft from a great one. But the real story is how a high school hobby turned into a 130K-follower platform, complete with DMs from NFL players and a Zoom call with Tom Brady.

Meet Joe
Joe runs Fantasy Football Analyst, a fantasy football content platform he started almost by accident after his girlfriend convinced him to share his personal draft spreadsheet online. What began as rough graphics and a passion project has since grown into a trusted resource with 130K followers — all while staying a hobby alongside his full-time marketing career.
Follow Joe: @fantasy.football.analyst
Fantasy Football Analyst Website

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I sat down with Allison, an aquarist and content creator, to talk about the surprisingly complex world of building aquariums — from the nitrogen cycle every beginner needs to understand, to recreating real river and lake environments in a 10-gallon tank. We also got into the wild, unexpected side of fish content online, including her own run-in with rage bait and internet drama over... botanical tea bags.

Meet Allison
Allison runs Allison Aquascapes, where she builds natural, low-tech aquariums inspired by real ecosystems fish actually come from. What started as a way to cope after losing her cat turned into a full-blown hobby, then a growing Instagram and YouTube presence with a genuinely thoughtful, patient community behind it.
Follow Allison: @allisonaquascapes
Find her on YouTube

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I sat down with Holly, a doctoral candidate whose research blends her lifelong Muppet fandom with the study of play in organizational leadership. We got into her master's thesis, which found that Kermit the Frog — beloved, gentle Kermit — actually displayed some genuinely harmful leadership behaviors backstage. We also talked about what "play" really means for adults at work, why it's not the same as forced fun or icebreakers, and how Jim Henson became her gold-standard example of playful leadership done right.

Meet Holly

Holly is a doctoral candidate at Gonzaga University, where her dissertation explores how adults experience play in the workplace — with employees of the Muppet Studio as her upcoming research subjects. She's also a lifelong Muppet fan who makes her own Muppet-style puppets, and her earlier thesis, "It Felt Like Leadership," examined Kermit the Frog's leadership and communication style.

Follow Holly: @TheHollyJones

Resources mentioned:

Brian Jay Jones' Jim Henson biography

Muppet Wiki

The Jim Henson video collection at the University of Maryland

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I sat down with Ava, a real-life performer at Sight & Sound Theatres, to talk about what it's actually like performing full-time on a 300-foot stage — including the 462 performances, implementing Chekhov acting method in real time, and the fact that there are 6 sheep (and camels) hanging out backstage during a show set in Jericho.

Meet Ava
Ava performs at Sight & Sound and is also part of their program for college-age performers. She walked me through what daily life as a performer/conservatory student really looks like — from the physical demands of a massive stage production to the surprisingly normal experience of live animals backstage — and shared what it felt like when performing full-time actually became her reality.
Follow Ava: @avaj_pearcy

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I sat down with Aidan, a real-life Disney cast member who works on Smuggler's Run — and somehow ended up learning that operating the Millennium Falcon is basically like operating heavy machinery, that there's a mysterious thing called "the Batuuan Mile," and that Disney once got a little too immersive for its own good.

Meet Aidan
Aidan worked as a cast member at Disney, running Star Wars: Smuggler's Run — which meant going through actual character development training alongside the rest of the Star Wars cast members at Galaxy's Edge. He's also no stranger to podcasting, having hosted his own show before.

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I sat down with my brother Josiah, a real-life firefighter, to talk about everything I still don't understand about his job — from what he actually gets called out for (spoiler: it's mostly not fires) to what it's like living in the firehouse. He also made a genuinely convincing case for why you should not call 911 if a cat gets stuck in a tree.

Meet Josiah
Josiah is a firefighter — and my brother, which somehow hasn't stopped me from knowing almost nothing about his day-to-day job. We got into the best and worst parts of the work, the reality of firehouse living, ongoing training, and how the ranking system actually works.
Follow Josiah: @josiah.t1d

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I sat down with a real-life prosecutor to talk about jury selection — how you actually pick 12 strangers to decide someone's fate, what makes a juror a "no," and why gut instinct matters more than you'd think. We also ran through some myth-or-real courtroom drama questions, because apparently true crime documentaries have taught me almost nothing.

Meet Addison
Addison is a prosecutor who walked me through everything from voir dire to peremptory challenges — the vocabulary I've heard a hundred times on TV and never actually understood. Turns out only a small percentage of attorneys even practice criminal law, and jury pools start a lot bigger than you'd think before narrowing down to the final 12.
Follow Addison: @addisonfariss

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