Josh and Darla ARE BACK! This video interview originally appeared in two parts on TheFabricator.com's blog and the YouTube page. However, we love this interview and thought our listeners might also enjoy it as a long-form podcast episode. We’ve been on hiatus from this personal podcast space for a while now, but we will continue to pop in every now and then with solid gold episodes like this one!

This interview features Anna Waldman-Brown, a PhD graduate in industrial policy and political economy from MIT. Anna discusses her research on emerging technologies, manufacturing systems, and inclusive job creation, particularly focusing on the adoption of welding robots in SMEs in the Midwest and Germany. This conversation explores the German vs. U.S. systems of welding education, the wage gap vs. skills gap debate, welder pay, automation and AI risk, why we frequently see factory robots up for resale around the U.S., whether or not human life is improving alongside technology improvements, ethical economics, manufacturing turnover comparisons, and so much more.

Anna’s work is COMPELLING and reveals a shared passion for the future American workforce. Anna recently accepted a position at the White House Office of Management and Budget in the Made in America office. This new office works to strengthen the use of federal procurement to support American manufacturing. 

We KNOW that you’ll enjoy this conversation as much as we did! Please also check it out with the video on TheFabricator.com (includes transcript) and give it a thumbs up on YouTube!

YouTube Part One
YouTube Part Two
OR
Part One with full transcript
Part Two with full transcript

https://www.thefabricator.com/author/josh-welton
https://www.thefabricator.com/author/darla-welton
BROWNDOGWELDING.COM

America used to love a good comeback story. However, in the age of social media we see people being destroyed over misunderstood incidents. Individuals are slaughtered for ignorant words spoken years ago, even if the person who spoke them expresses regret and has apologized. Do we still have the capacity to give others (and ourselves) the space to learn, heal, and grow from these failures? On this episode, Josh shares the story of how a lapse in judgement as an apprentice nearly cost him his future. Mistakes were made, but an apology and forgiveness granted him an opportunity for restoration and to find his way back up. We talk Johnny Cash, Charles Lindbergh, and Liam Neeson, too. 

Josh and Darla try a little experiment and discuss a topic that has become exceedingly important to them: how do humans coexist in a world with so many differences and polarizing ideas and opinions? The duo talks about the difference between them and how they manage to still love one another profoundly. Welding in space, prayer, aliens, and Jesus are up for discussion on this episode of Playing With Fire. Listen in. 

Josh and Darla talk Intellectual Property on episode 10 of Playing With Fire. If you capture and share a photo or create a unique post online, do you own the copyright? Or is it free game/public domain? Let's talk about the history of copy/paste heroes and theft, intellectual property, and this generations' thoughts on influencers and original content. It's story time. And real talk.  

Hosts Josh & Darla Welton sat down on New Year's Eve to share their Top Ten Moments from 2018! From Josh buying his Dodge Demon, to embarking on multiple road trips together, then Josh winning the 2018 AWS/WEMCO Award in Welding for media, leading important conversations about women in welding as well as the skilled workers wage gap, to launching the Still Building America initiative and this podcast together - it's been one heckuva year. Bring it on 2019! 

A lot of people talk about color in welds, but they don't always understand why the color does or does not matter. A rainbow of colors in the bead and heat-affected zone (HAZ) doesn’t automatically make it a good weld, and it can indicate a bad weld. It all depends on the material, the industry, and the application. On this episode of Playing With Fire, Josh talks about what it all means and makes it accessible for the novice and the pro. 

Josh is a fierce supporter of the shop floor worker and is becoming an increasingly important voice in leading the conversation on the perceived skills gap versus the actual wage gap. His recently published article in The WELDER Magazine (Future welders: Enter the trade with both eyes open) stirred up some hot conversation on social media. Josh takes to the mic to make sure that his message on welding wages is clear. 

Join Josh Welton, his wife Darla, his brother Jordan, and Jordan's fiancé, Jeremy, as they road trip to Plymouth, Massachusetts on Thanksgiving Day 2018. Creativity and inspiration are up for discussion. What inspires your creativity? How do you practice and hone your art? How do you get inspired? What moves you to create? How do you prepare to be creative? Are you afraid to share your art because you think others won't understand your point of view? Know that your unique perspective is needed in this world, especially when the rest of us get stuck or fall captive to our own ways and understanding. Share your art, keep it original, stay inspired and then make us tilt our heads to say, "Wow! I never thought of it that way before!"

Sound quality isn't amazing on this episode as we recorded on an iPhone and you can hear the road noise from the 2019 Jeep Trackhawk, but come along for the ride! (Oh, and there is a 2 second cameo from Josh's brother Travis. He belches. Thanks, Trav.)

Josh, and his wife Darla, share what their Still Building America Project is all about! Their passion for promoting the skilled trades is highlighted by life's highs and lows - from their ties to the blue collar world, travel stories, and how being victims of crime in Detroit fueled a fire for standing up against injustice in their community. The Still Building America project promotes awareness of the skilled trades as viable career options for our country’s next generation. Americans haven’t forgotten how to work with our hands, but our education system has struggled to properly present and foster a blue collar career as anything other than a Plan B, if at all. By paving a way for our youth to explore the blue collar world, getting tools into their hands, inspiring them to create, repair, and problem solve, and empowering them with fun educational opportunities beyond the traditional classroom experience, we are still building America.