Pouring pints for thirsty tourists, defusing situations with drunk patrons, and finding flow in the Friday night rush with Brian Wynne, a barman in Dublin. What caused one customer to throw a dog at Brian? And what is "craic"?

If you'd like to reach out to Brian, email Dan at [email protected]

IF YOU LIKE THIS EPISODE: Check out what it's like to be an ice cream truck driver, a stand-up comedian, or a London cabbie.

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Zapping parts of the brain to know where to cut, operating a mouth-controlled microscope that's worth more than a house, and carrying the weight of life-or-death decisions with Dr. Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa, a brain surgeon at the Mayo Clinic. How do you preserve a mathematician's expertise when removing tumors? And how did he go from picking tomatoes to performing brain surgery?

Dr. Q wrote about his remarkable journey to the operating room in the book, Becoming Dr. Q: My Journey from Migrant Farm Worker to Brain Surgeon.

He was also featured in the Netflix documentary series The Surgeon’s Cut.

IF YOU LIKE THIS EPISODE: Check out what it's like to be a hospice nurse, a nurse, a veterinarian.

WANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue.

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WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We’ll ask you to answer two questions:

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We can’t respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We’ll follow up if it's a good fit.

Commanding a floating city of 5,000 sailors, intercepting Houthi missiles in the Red Sea, and stripping rank from sailors who cross the line with Captain Chris "Chowdah" Hill, commanding officer of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower aircraft carrier. How do you stop a fighter jet in 2-seconds? And what are “midrats”?

WANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue.

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WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We’ll ask you to answer two questions:

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We can’t respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We’ll follow up if it's a good fit.

Singing cleanup songs, tiring out kids before naptime, and battling the "babysitter" stereotype with Brenda Hawkins, a daycare owner in Maryland. How has childcare changed over the years? And what is a "dope and drop"?

WANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue.

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WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We’ll ask you to answer two questions:

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We can’t respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We’ll follow up if it's a good fit.

Fine-tuning the perfect accent for a character, recording for hours in a sound-insulated booth, and tracking down obscure pronunciations with Sean Pratt, an audiobook narrator. What is "punch and roll"? And what kind of voice do you need to be a great narrator?

EXTRA
We spoke with Sean about his work narrating the David Foster Wallace literary behemoth Infinite Jest. That part of the interview didn’t fit into this episode, but you can listen to it here!

WANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue.

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WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We’ll ask you to answer two questions:

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We can’t respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We’ll follow up if it's a good fit.

We've got something a little different and special for you this week! The day this is dropping, January 21st, is the launch day for my new book, called RESET: How to Change What’s Not Working. We’re running an excerpt (a whole chapter!) from the audiobook on this podcast.

You can buy the full audiobook, hardcover, or Kindle version here!

We’ll be back next week with a new episode of the show, talking with a professional audiobook narrator!

WANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue.

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WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We’ll ask you to answer two questions:

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We can’t respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We’ll follow up if it's a good fit.

Cracking decades-old murder cases, delivering unthinkable news to victims' families, and tracking suspects across borders with John Lamberti, a homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. Why are cold cases harder to solve these days? And what's a "415"?

WANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue.

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WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We’ll ask you to answer two questions:

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We can’t respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We’ll follow up if it's a good fit.

Forecasting demand for 40,000 different products, arranging for model kits to traverse the globe from Chinese factories to mom-and-pop hobby shops, and enduring random customs inspections with Alan Bass, a hobby kit and toy distributor. Why can't shops place orders directly with factories and cut out distributors? And what is it like to discover your childhood toys were actually samples given out for market research purposes?

The hobby kit and toy distributor business he runs is Stevens International. You can find his family’s brick-and-mortar hobby shop, AAA Hobbies and Crafts, in Magnolia, NJ, and an online store at MegaHobby.com. 

WANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue.

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We can’t respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We’ll follow up if it's a good fit.

Hurtling down an ice track at nearly 100mph, perfecting the practice of visualization, and shaving off hundredths of a second with Kaillie Humphries, an Olympic bobsledder. What's the most feared track in the world? And how do athletes practice when there's no ice in the summer?

WANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue.

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WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We’ll ask you to answer two questions:

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We can’t respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We’ll follow up if it's a good fit.

Shearing Christmas trees into their classic shape, fighting back weeds and blackbirds, and planting 5,000 trees a year with Sheldon Corsi, a Christmas tree farmer near Cincinnati, Ohio. What does a tree baler sound like? And what makes Christmas tree farming distinctive within the world of agriculture?

WANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue.

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WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We’ll ask you to answer two questions:

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We can’t respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We’ll follow up if it's a good fit.