January 2021: A different kind of year
Every January, I usually take the month off from the news, and from the Internet. I have usually spent my January time outside, or reading books printed on paper. This January, I haven't even begun to read any of my new books. It's a year unlike any other year,...
Finding work as a podcast talk show host
Am I a talk show host, an interviewer, a journalist? When you discover that you're really good at interviewing people, and you discover that you love doing it, it's normal to want to do more of it, especially paid work! The problem is, what do you call someone...
Promoting a podcast
Podcast promotion is HARD The question "how to promote a podcast" comes up ALL the time on Reddit, in FB groups, on Twitter, etc. Generally-speaking, podcasts are created by one person, and that person handles every facet of the show, from production to hosting...
Why you should hire a podcast host
Podcasting as a new profession I felt I needed to write this because there's not a lot of information out there on podcast hosting as a profession. A lot of podcasters just host their own show. That works sometimes. But, I sincerely believe that many podcasts fail...
Writing for fun
I was reading a post the other day written by a marketer who felt that marketing professionals with blogs that are rarely updated shouldn't be hired as marketers. Of course, he failed to differentiate between personal and business blogs, and he felt that if a marketer...
How to find your voice
If there's one thing that runs true through all of the interviews, and all of the conversations I've had with artists throughout the years, it's this: you're not gonna get anywhere by becoming a carbon copy of somebody else. You have to find that "thing" that makes...
Artists don’t stop.
They wait, or they repress. But once born an artist, you're always an artist. This is a personal story. Music has always been a trigger for me. "Trigger", these days, has a negative connotation. But, in my case, music has always triggered a deep desire to create....
Ten things I’ve learned from livestreaming
I'd been interested in livestreaming for a VERY long time. I was always scared of doing it though. What would I say? What would be a fun topic to explore? Who would listen? It wasn't until I became obsessed with the microscopic world that things made sense. This is...
Life during a pandemic: the value of time
Time is a notion that we still don’t quite understand. We can measure it, we can think about it, we can draw conclusions from our past and make predictions about the future. We can easily tell others how to best use their time; many make a living by doing this. We...
Life during a pandemic: a list of whimsy films
I'm a big film nut. I love movies. Especially during challenging times. And since we're all shut-in for the next little while, I thought I'd share a list of fun and whimsical films that you can watch from the comfort of your home. So, where can you stream these films?...
Life during a pandemic: why slowing down is good for everyone.
I have been mulling over what to write these past few days. I’ve been watching (and preparing for) the pandemic spread since I first learned about it in December. It’s been hard. Let me clarify, it’s not been hard living in isolation. It’s been hard watching people...
When to say goodbye to a pet
I grew up not really knowing what it's like to have anything other than a bird or a fish in the house. My parents, who both grew up on farms, didn't want us to have cats or dogs. I asked my mom once why she was never keen on it and she told me that losing them is just...
Salary negotiations 101
Here's a little primer on how to deal with salaries for professional jobs. I've written this with academics and private industry professionals in mind, but it can apply to almost everyone who is applying to jobs where the salary scales aren't published. I know you...
That mid-life question mark
The world isn't like it used to be. The prescribed 'get a job, get married, get a house, have kids, retire with a full pension' life that our parents had doesn't really exist anymore. Things have changed. I grew up with the mindset that if you changed jobs too often,...
Five things I learned in 2019
1) I changed my relationship with social media In January 2019, I took the entire month off from social media and doing so completely changed my relationship with it, and with the world. I reconnected with ‘real life’, I read a lot of books, I enjoyed in-person...
Why I talk to Uber drivers
I took an Uber to a local store today to buy myself a new microscope. An Eritrean man, we started talking about culture and immigration. "You speak Tigrinya, right?". A huge smile appeared on his face. "You know that?!", he said. Of course. I've known people from all...
Do things the wrong way
As I delve further into the microscopic world, I’m discovering some interesting parallels between playing with my microscope and playing with my camera. I’ve always been a photographer who wanted to know as little as possible about the technical side of things...
Become what interests you
I listen to a lot of comedy podcasts. More specifically, podcasts hosted by comedians. I don’t watch a lot of stand-up, and in a lot of cases, I’ve never watched their specials. But, I absolutely love their podcasts. Why? Because when comedians get...
How do scientists sleep?
I wasn’t tired last night, and with DST, we got an extra hour so I figured, what the heck, I’ll go back to my microscope. Big mistake. See, I found some old pond water at the bottom of a Gatorade bottle and figured I’d take a look at it. Lo and behold, there was...
On the over-complication of things
I’ve had quite the day. You know, the kind of day where you find yourself staring blankly at the person across from you with those "are you fucking kidding me?" eyes. Things were so ridiculous today, from dealing with university bureaucracy to dealing with overly...