Second Act Stories
157 episodes - English - Latest episode: 23 days ago - ★★★★★ - 71 ratingsWelcome to Second Act Stories, a podcast focused on life and career change. In each episode, we bring you the story of a courageous individual who has made a decisive career pivot and is pursuing a more rewarding life in a second act.
The stories are in their own words and the words of friends and family that helped them find a new path. Each episode examines the “before” and “after” phases of a life or career relaunch and offers lessons learned.
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Episodes
🚨SPECIAL ALERT🚨 Four Reasons To Vote For Second Act Stories in the Webby Awards
April 04, 2024 03:48 - 4 minutes - 3.92 MBSecond Act Stories has officially defied the odds. We've been nominated for a Webby Award! But our category is stacked with stiff competition: Michelle Obama, Sarah Silverman, TED Audio, Lemonada, and Slate. We need your vote! We can win this with your help. Here’s how you vote: Go to vote.webbyawards.com Click the search button on the right-hand side of the screen, under the start voting button Type in Second Act Stories Click on our category in the search results Click on ...
🚨SPECIAL ALERT🚨 IT’S ON, MICHELLE OBAMA! Four reasons to vote for Second Act Stories in the Webby Awards
April 04, 2024 03:48 - 4 minutes - 3.92 MBSecond Act Stories has officially defied the odds. We've been nominated for a Webby Award! But our category is stacked with stiff competition: Michelle Obama, Sarah Silverman, TED Audio, Lemonada, and Slate. We need your vote! We can win this with your help. Here’s how you vote: Go to vote.webbyawards.com Click the search button on the right-hand side of the screen, under the start voting button Type in Second Act Stories Click on our category in the search results Click on ...
A Stray Bullet Killed Her 8-Year-Old Son...In Grief, She Formed Strong Azz Mothers
March 31, 2024 13:43 - 19 minutes - 17.6 MBTiffani Evans' life changed completely on August 24, 2021. That's when her 8-year-old son PJ was killed in gang-related, gun violence in the Washington, DC region. Emerging from the dark days that followed his death, she helped form the "Strong Azz Mothers," a group of area women who lost children to gun violence. The organization focuses community attention on the problem but also serves as a strong support group. According to Evans, "It's a sorority that we never asked to be in. But ...
The Case of Rachel Humphrey: Trial Attorney Turned Women’s Leadership Champion
March 25, 2024 03:00 - 25 minutes - 23.8 MBRachel Humphrey was a trial attorney who was certain she would spend her entire career in front of judges and juries and eventually retire in a courtroom. After relocating from Virginia to Atlanta with her husband, she took a job at a firm where she represented clients in the hospitality industry, and that sparked a passion she didn’t know she had. The hospitality industry was interesting to her, and she thought that becoming involved with the associations that help the industry might be a g...
Retired Banker Helps Others Avoid "Retirement Shock"
March 02, 2024 21:39 - 21 minutes - 19.9 MBMike Drak worked as a banker in Toronto for his entire professional career. When he was laid off at the age of 59, he received a sizeable severance from his employer. Telling his spouse "Contessa, we hit the lottery," he was initially ecstatic to be retired. But he quickly faced "Retirement Shock," a term that he coined to describe how tremendously unhappy he was in the year that followed. He missed helping people and the structure/routine of working at the bank. And he felt a loss of pur...
Stuckey’s Gamble: Stephanie Stuckey Cashes in Her Future to Revive Her Family’s Iconic Roadside Brand
February 19, 2024 05:27 - 35 minutes - 32.5 MBStuckey’s is a legendary and iconic thread in the fabric of Americana. Founded in Eastman, Georgia in 1937 by WS “Sylvester” Stuckey, Sr., Stuckey’s grew into a roadside empire by the 1970s, with 368 stores in more than 30 states. Part of the charm that made Stuckey’s so iconic were its ubiquitous billboards, more than 4,000 of them, which were dotted along U.S. highways. Stuckey’s was an inextricable part of what became known as “The Great American Road Trip.” Fast forward to 2019, Stucke...
Best of 2023 Audience Pick: Brian "Q" Quinn's Impractical Career Shift: Fireman to Funny Man
February 02, 2024 05:49 - 31 minutes - 319 MBSurprise, Second Act Stories fans! We have one more “Best of 2023” episode to share with you. It's the episode you picked as your favorite of the year: our interview with Brian “Q” Quinn, who's best known as one of the four stars of the smash hit TV show "Impractical Jokers." Currently in its 10th season on truTV, Q and lifelong friends Sal Vulcano and James “Murr” Murray (a fourth friend and member of the show, Joe Gatto, departed from the show last year) “compete to embarrass each other,...
Best of 2023: Sweeter Days Ahead: How Baking Transformed Janie Deegan's Life
January 21, 2024 18:56 - 20 minutes - 18.6 MBSecond Act Stories annual “Best of” episodes give us an opportunity to re-share remarkable stories, and welcome new listeners by giving them a good taste of what we do here: profile people who have made major life and career changes to pursue a more rewarding life in a second act career. We’re selecting two “Best of 2023” episodes to share with you. Andy Levine selected his favorite interview conducted by co-host Scott Merritt in the past year, and Scott is reciprocating this week. Scott's ...
Best of 2023: The Unlikely Launch of a 54-Year-Old, YouTube Star
January 14, 2024 21:04 - 34 minutes - 31.4 MBSecond Act Stories annual, “best of” episode gives us an opportunity to re-share a remarkable story, and welcome new listeners by giving them a good taste of what we do here: profile people who have made major life and career changes to pursue a more rewarding life in a second act career. We’re selecting two “Best of 2023” episodes to share with you. Andy Levine gets to select his favorite interview conducted by co-host Scott Merritt in the past year. And Scott gets to reciprocate next wee...
Act II: Dynamic CEO Pens New Role As Playwright
December 21, 2023 11:20 - 18 minutes - 16.9 MBDonald Loftus had a difficult upbringing in Cleveland, Ohio. His father left him and his two sisters at a young age. His mother worked at Sears and struggled to make ends meet. From grades 1-8, he was a C student. But in 9th grade, his world changed when a class trip brought him to New York City. His class saw four Broadway plays that weekend and it completely changed his life. He graduated from Cleveland State University with a degree in theatre and business. Following a first job at Th...
Empowering Moms: She Left Corporate Real Estate to Launch A Breast Pumping Startup
November 21, 2023 19:16 - 17 minutes - 15.8 MBPatrice Meagher had a lucrative career in real estate. For 15 years, she worked in New York City as an Executive Vice President at CBRE, one of the world's largest, corporate real estate firms. But like other working parents, she struggled with the challenge of balancing her work life and raising a family of four children. A specific pain point in her career -- returning to work after maternity leave and breast pumping milk for her new child. Like many new mothers, she was told to pump in ...
School's Out, Laughs Are In: Retired Teacher Patty Forehand Becomes a Standup Comic
October 30, 2023 00:03 - 26 minutes - 24.4 MBThe moment Patty Forehand opens her mouth, you know she’s from the deep south. And with that comes a certain set of preconceived notions. If she opens her mouth in front of a microphone on a comedy club stage, those notions are immediately blown away, and the results are hilarious. It’s funny once the F-bombs start flying and you realize she’s not the stereotypical, retirement-age, “proper southern lady” society expects when they see her, but it’s even funnier when you hear that her material...
Lawyer to Clown to Children’s Musician: Robert’s Unusual Journey
September 25, 2023 09:03 - 22 minutes - 21.1 MBRobert Markowitz was a criminal defense attorney in Palo Alto, California. But the work caused him a great deal of stress and he started developing all sorts of physical ailments. So he quit and headed to Mexico to escape the job he hated. When he finally returned to the United States, he was 37-years-old, broke and living with his mother back in his boyhood home in New York. Going through the help wanted section of The New York Times, he came across an advertisement for a company that wou...
On Patrol: Deputy Royce James Trades Financial Service for Public Service
September 08, 2023 04:29 - 37 minutes - 34.7 MBAfter growing up in what he describes as the ghettos of Daytona Beach, Royce James spent a decade working as a financial advisor, ultimately reaching the elite level of working with high-net-worth individuals. In spite of that success, he was frustrated by the fact that very few of his clients followed his advice. He knew it was time for a career change, but to what? And was he crazy to leave the security of a solid career for a huge unknown? One fateful day, looking down at the highway fr...
"I Work With My Hands Everyday"...Ex-KPMG Consultant Finds Bliss Crafting Custom Furniture
August 18, 2023 16:53 - 21 minutes - 19.8 MBSergio Raynal was at the top of his game. With a staff of 25+, he was responsible for KPMG’s real estate and hospitality consulting for Pacific Asia and the West Coast of the United States. Woodworking was always a hobby and a way to relieve stress from his high-pressure job. But it became a “side hustle” and eventually a full-time pursuit following a falling out with the management team at KPMG. “The reward is the sense of accomplishment and creation. That's what I like about working wi...
'From the Vault' How Noa Shaw, an Overweight Drug Dealer, Became a SoulCycle Instructor
August 08, 2023 03:06 - 18 minutes - 33.2 MBWe hope you enjoy this ‘From the Vault’ episode, which reintroduces one of our favorite guests: Noa Shaw. Noa Shaw has led a hard life. Drugs and alcohol took hold of him at an early age. And he has struggled as both a drug addict and drug dealer for most of his adult life. But eight years ago his life took a turn for the better when he wandered into a SoulCycle studio that was just opening up in Los Angeles. SoulCycle is a fitness company that is the gold standard in cycling workouts. ...
'From the Vault' Cathy & the Crankshafts: Social Worker Learns To Fix Cars For Working Poor
July 25, 2023 03:33 - 24 minutes - 44.1 MBWe hope you enjoy this 'From the Vault' episode, which reintroduces one of our favorite early guests: Cathy Heying. While working as the Director of Social Justice at St. Stephen’s Church in Minneapolis, Cathy Heying observed a continuing problem among the working poor in the church’s neighborhood: A poor person’s car would break down and they would not have the money to repair it; Lacking dependable transportation, he/she would be unable to get to work and lose their job; Unable to p...
From GE Engineer to Bladesmith: Jonathan Bahlatzis' Epic Exit Strategy
July 10, 2023 16:02 - 23 minutes - 21.4 MBJonathan Bahlatzis spent 15 years in corporate America, 11 of which were spent working as an engineer for GE. He rose through the ranks and took on leadership roles that gave him all the trappings of success. But even with all that safety and security, he had a passion he needed to follow. In 2016 – in the midst of his GE career – Jonathan launched Kopis Designs, an artisan blade company where he designs and hand crafts beautiful knives and blades. Kopis’s tag line is “Form, fit, and func...
Alt Rock Icon Finds New Gig Teaching Music To Toddlers
June 17, 2023 11:03 - 17 minutes - 15.9 MBTracy Bonham built a reputation as a "badass rocker" with "Mother, Mother," a powerful anthem that made it to #1 on Billboard's "Alternative Rock" charts. The song and her "The Burdens of Being Upright" album were nominated for two Grammy awards and led to arena tours with Aerosmith and the Blue Man Group. But in March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down live music across the world, Tracy launched Melodeon in 2020. The new enterprise is aimed at teaching a younger audience she loving...
Sweeter Days Ahead: How Baking Transformed Janie Deegan's Life
June 05, 2023 01:11 - 19 minutes - 17.8 MBIn 2009, Janie Deegan returned home from college with a serious alcohol and drug problem. Eventually, she found herself homeless and living on the streets of New York City. Fast forward to today...she is the owner of "Janie's Life Changing Baked Goods," a thriving business with three, NYC bakeries and booming e-commerce division. At the center of her success is the "pie crust cookie" -- essentially a baby pie that comes in five, different flavors. Her company and her cookies have been feat...
Ed Calderon’s After Party: Empowering Others with Lessons from the Cartel Wars
May 23, 2023 23:23 - 33 minutes - 30.9 MBEd Calderon is surprised he didn’t die by the age of 30. That’s the fate that many Mexican law enforcement officers face. But Ed wasn’t just a cop; he worked for a special paramilitary police force that was created for the sole purpose of battling the drug cartels. Just being there meant he was being hunted by some of the most dangerous people in Mexico with no code of ethics. He learned to use a knife as a kid, and guns, well… everyone had guns in Mexico in spite of the laws. A series of ...
Meet A "Salvage Angel"...Hair Stylist Cuts A New Path In Restoration
May 01, 2023 10:32 - 24 minutes - 22.1 MBAfter graduation from high school, Carolyn Curtin enrolled at the Wilfred Academy and received a degree in cosmetology. For years, she worked as a hairstylist. But her path changed in 2002 when she purchased a 100-year-old, Victorian house in Asbury Park, New Jersey and set about restoring it to it's original glory. The city was in the midst of a major revitalization and historic buildings were been "clear cut" to make way for progress. Carolyn saw both beauty and historical significance i...
Everything Rick Beato: The Unlikely Launch of a 54-Year-Old YouTube Star
April 16, 2023 19:29 - 33 minutes - 30.8 MBRick Beato is one of the most successful YouTube stars in the world. His channel, Everything Music, has 3.5 million subscribers and is approaching 600 million views. Among the different types of videos Rick posts are his Top 20 Countdowns, What Makes This Song Great?, and his Rants on all things music. Rick also has an incredible series of long-form, sit-down interviews with some of the most acclaimed music artists in the world, including Peter Frampton, Sting, Derek Trucks, Brian May, a...
Grateful Ted: A Second Act In Psychedelic Rock Poster Art
April 03, 2023 07:49 - 21 minutes - 20 MBTed Bahr's career in magazine publishing and trade show management spans 35+ years. He held senior management positions at publishing giants Ziff-Davis and Miller-Freeman before launching his own firm, BZ Media. When he sold BZ Media in 2017, he returned to an early passion: the collection of psychodelic, rock poster art. Ted launched the world's first art gallery to focus on this narrow niche of first-printing posters primarily from 1966-1970. Via the Bahr Gallery, Ted collects and sells ...
Brian “Q” Quinn’s Impractical Career Shift: Fireman to Funny Man
March 19, 2023 05:13 - 30 minutes - 27.9 MBBrian “Q” Quinn is one of the stars of the massive hit TV show, Impractical Jokers. Currently in its 10th season on truTV, Q and lifelong friends Sal Vulcano and James “Murr” Murray (a fourth friend and member of the show, Joe Gatto, departed from the show last year) “compete to embarrass each other,” with hilarious results. It’s wildly popular because it doesn’t force you to think, and it’s guaranteed to make you laugh. At the age of 36, Q was working as an FDNY fireman in Staten Island, ...
The Michael Strahan Interview: How an NFL Legend Became a Giant in Entertainment
March 04, 2023 06:43 - 39 minutes - 54.8 MBMichael Strahan is an NFL legend. He spent his entire 15-year Hall of Fame career as a defensive end for the New York Giants. A five-time All-Pro, Strahan appeared in seven Pro Bowls, he accumulated 141.5 career sacks, he held two NFL sack titles, and he was a key member of the NY Giants team that won Super Bowl XLII against the New England Patriots in 2008. Following his NFL retirement, Michael Strahan joined Fox NFL Sunday as an analyst. This first foray into the broadcast booth was the...
Leap of Faith: Greg & Pam Ayers Quit Their Jobs To Answer God's Call
February 20, 2023 22:50 - 21 minutes - 19.8 MBGreg and Pam Ayers were living the good life in Salt Lake City, Utah. They were living the American Dream...senior management positions with significant salaries, a nice home and two young children. But the loss of a close friend caused Greg to question his own life and ask “Am I really making a difference in the world?” And the couple decided it was time for a change. Both Greg and Pam quit their jobs, relocated to Tucson, Arizona and started a new organization called GAP Ministries. O...
How To ROAR Into Your Second Act: 21 Minutes with Michael Clinton
February 01, 2023 16:09 - 21 minutes - 19.5 MBMichael Clinton is a uniquely-talented individual. A former president and publishing director of Hearst Publications (which includes Cosmopolitan, Esquire, O The Oprah Magazine, Redbook and Woman's Day), Michael is also an accomplished photographer, marathon runner, philanthropist, author and private pilot. When he finally decided to step down from his publishing career, he was looking for advice on his next stage of life. "Everything I read was about winding down. And I wanted to just the...
Best of 2022: Jeff “Skunk” Baxter’s Coda: A Doobie Brother Focuses on Counter Terrorism
January 09, 2023 05:06 - 39 minutes - 36.4 MBAt the beginning of each year, we at Second Act Stories like to take a look back at the incredible interviews we shared and pick one episode that truly exemplifies the surprising, inspiring and eye-opening nature of a fascinating career change. This “Best of” show gives us an opportunity to re-share a remarkable story, and it welcomes new listeners by giving them a good taste of what we do here: profile people who have made major life and career changes to pursue a more rewarding life in a...
Elementary School Custodian Tylan Bailey Finds a Perfect Second Act as a Teacher
January 04, 2023 06:12 - 27 minutes - 24.9 MBTylan Bailey had a tough home life growing up. He had more than his fair share of adversity, which brought him to no fewer than 14 schools by the time he was ready to graduate from high school. In spite of such a profound lack of stability, Tylan created his own stable environment by focusing on his education. Tylan’s lifelong dream of becoming a teacher was sidetracked when he found himself in a predicament that prevented him from attending college, and instead found him applying for jobs...
Hats Off To Deborah: At 60, She Became A Milliner
December 08, 2022 06:39 - 22 minutes - 20.6 MBDeborah Kase Lillian always loved hats. She played dress up with her mother's and grandmother's hats as a child. And she always loved rummaging through thrift stores to find unique hats. But it was the combination of an earlier move to Paris and her 60th birthday that convinced her to go back to school to learn the amazing craft of hat making (or millinery) late in life. In 2020 in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, she launched her own hat-making company called "Harris Pat" (which comes...
Adam Carolla: The Carpenter Who Built a Legendary Comedy Career
November 16, 2022 05:41 - 44 minutes - 41.1 MBAdam Carolla is a bona fide comedy legend with a seemingly endless number of credits to his name. He co-hosted the “Loveline” radio show with Dr. Drew Pinsky; his own number-one morning radio show, which replaced The Howard Stern Show, was syndicated to a wide range of markets; he created and hosted “The Man Show” with Jimmy Kimmel; he’s written a number of books, two of which were New York Times Bestsellers; he’s become a prolific filmmaker, with comedies and documentaries to his credit; an...
Animal Rescue Is Dr. Peter Rork's Second Act
November 04, 2022 01:58 - 21 minutes - 20.1 MBDr. Peter Rork was a highly-successful, orthopedic surgeon in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. But at the age of 59, he unexpectedly lost his wife Meg and grief took hold of him. He quit his work. He stopped eating. And he and his dog Doyle retreated to a remote vacation home in Montana for three months. At the urging of a concerned friend, Peter refocused his life on animal rescue. He is the founder, president and chief pilot of "Dog Is My CoPilot," a not-for-profit group that transports animals fr...
Veda Semarne’s Leap from the Classroom to “The Office”
October 16, 2022 20:37 - 27 minutes - 25.1 MBVeda Semarne grew up loving everything about education. So much so that she earned a PhD in Art History from Yale University and entered the workforce as an academic, with every intention of finding a full-time, tenure-track position and living her life in and around higher education. But after spending a few years teaching classes at institutions such as Trinity College in Hartford and C.W. Post on Long Island, she made the unusual decision to leave academia to pursue something else. Figu...
After the White House: A Speechwriter Finds Joy Teaching
October 03, 2022 05:41 - 22 minutes - 20.4 MBCody Keenan started working in the White House at the age of 28 and rose up to the role of Chief Speechwriter for President Barack Obama. In terms of his chosen profession, he was at the top of the mountain at a very young age. But after eight years, the Obama Presidency ends. What does he do next? After the White House, Cody has accomplished a lot. He has collaborated with Barack Obama on his best-selling, presidential memoir, A Promised Land. He’s now completed his own book, Grace: Pre...
Day With M Night Shyamalan Inspires A Second Act In Filmmaking
September 08, 2022 11:17 - 23 minutes - 21.3 MBMelissa Davey was a senior, corporate executive turning 65 and facing a key decision point in her work life -- Do I stay or do I go? At the same time, an odd series of events resulted in her winning a charity auction to spend a day on a movie set with director M Night Shyamalan. Shadowing Mr. Shyamalan for a day put her on the path to becoming a filmmaker. She completing her first feature film in 2018. Beyond 60 is a documentary that profiles nine, vibrant women and their "after 60" accom...
The Wolf of Late Night: Paul Mecurio’s Journey from Wall Street to Comedy
August 09, 2022 05:17 - 37 minutes - 34.2 MBPaul Mecurio has achieved a level of success in comedy that budding comics only dream of. He’s a writer on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert; he was a founding writer on The Daily Show, for which he won Emmy and Peabody Awards; he hosted a one-man Off-Broadway show called “Permission to Speak with Paul Mecurio”; he’s hosted shows on Comedy Central and HBO; he had his own comedy special; and he’s a regular opinion contributor on “CBS Sunday Morning.” But all this success came at an incredi...
Recipe for Success: A Red Truck, Amazing Pies & Barack Obama
July 22, 2022 10:27 - 23 minutes - 21.3 MBBrian Noyes was an art director for 30+ years with top publications like The Washington Post, Smithsonian, Architecture and House & Garden. He loved his work. But he also loved baking. And he regularly took week-long courses at schools like the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY and L’Academie de Cuisine in Gaithersburg, MD. After the September 11th attack, he decided to buy a weekend house in rural Virginia -- an escape from his design work in Washington, DC. As a hobby, he st...
Jeff “Skunk” Baxter’s Coda: A Doobie Brother Focuses on Counter Terrorism
July 01, 2022 01:18 - 38 minutes - 35.1 MBJeff “Skunk” Baxter is a rock and roll legend. He was the founding lead guitarist in Steely Dan, and he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Doobie Brothers. As a hired gun, he’s played with a who’s who of music royalty, including Linda Ronstadt, Donna Summer, Elton John, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Dolly Parton, Carly Simon… the list goes on and on. From the time he was a child, the mechanically inclined Baxter loved taking things apart to see how they worked...
Ready For A Career Transition? 26 Minutes With Coach John Tarnoff
June 12, 2022 09:37 - 26 minutes - 24.3 MBJohn Tarnoff is a non-traditional, career transition coach. A veteran of Hollywood, John was fired 7 times over the course of his lengthy career in entertainment. At age 50, he decided to go back to school and earned a master's degree in spiritual psychology. Pivoting to a focus on people and career counseling, he eventually wrote "Boomer Reinvention: How To Create Your Dream Career Over 50." He is frequently interviewed by top tier media (CBS This Morning, Forbes, CNBC, Market Watch and N...
A Second Act Creates the World’s Best Chocolate Chip Cookie
June 01, 2022 22:20 - 24 minutes - 22.7 MBSteve Lewis is objectively one of the most creative people on the planet. So much so that pure creativity is what motivates him; money just isn’t part of the equation. That doesn’t mean he isn’t successful. He is. Very. But his success is a byproduct of executing his incredible creative vision. Steve originally wanted to be a professional musician – a goal he achieved by the age of 14 – but a botched hand surgery set him down a different path. After college, he followed his passion for...
Goodbye Hedge Fund...Hello Sourdough Bread
May 13, 2022 18:21 - 20 minutes - 18.4 MBAdam Simon was a partner in Echo Street Capital Management, a successful hedge fund in New York City. While he enjoyed the challenge of the work and it's financial rewards, the demanding 80+ hour per week schedule was wreaking havoc on his personal life. So in 2017,he quit and focused his attention on reconnecting with his family. As the Covid-19 crisis began, Adam, his wife and their two children headed to a safer location in the suburbs. "We were going a bit stir crazy" and they opted to...
Heavy Metal Lawyer: Black Sabbath Bassist Dave “The Beast” Spitz, Esq.
May 05, 2022 19:35 - 40 minutes - 37.5 MBReferring to someone as a rock star usually means they’re excellent at what they do. Dave “The Beast” Spitz is a rock star lawyer in south Florida. Sure, he’s a really good lawyer, but he’s also an actual rock star. Prior to going to law school in 1996, Dave played bass for the legendary band that invented heavy metal: Black Sabbath. His journey through the music industry also included playing with other well-known bands including Great White, Impellitteri, White Lion and Americade. He eve...
Life After The NFL: Arrelious Benn's Java Journey
April 18, 2022 01:18 - 12 minutes - 11.1 MBArrelious Benn was a star football player at Dunbar Senior High School (Washington, DC) and the University of Illinois. He entered the NFL draft after his junior year in college and was selected by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. His NFL career with Tampa Bay, the Philadelphia Eagles and the Jacksonville Jaguars spanned seven years, twice the league average. But it is also included two ACL tears, a fractured lumbar and a shattered collarbone. After his final season with the Jaguars, he and his f...
Why Leah Gorham Scrubbed Out of Nursing to Drive a Truck
April 04, 2022 12:33 - 20 minutes - 19 MBLeah Gorham spent 16 years working as a nurse, helping patients while she also helped an industry known for a shortage of talent. Even as the COVID-19 pandemic surfaced and spread, causing workloads and stress levels to skyrocket for first responders, Leah took it in stride. Although healthcare workers were widely recognized for being profoundly affected by the pandemic, it wasn’t until she was attacked by a patient in what she calls the worst assault of her career (sadly, this is an ongoi...
Dumping Oil & Gas Careers To Make A Better Dumpling
March 21, 2022 14:33 - 19 minutes - 17.9 MBChih Lin and Mike Dorsey were trained as engineers and worked in the oil & gas industry in Houston, Texas. But both were miserable at work and decided they needed to make a change. They launched a company called “Dumpling Dudez” and turned their attention to teaching small groups of people the art of dumpling-making. They started in April, 2019 and had a successful launch. And when Covid-19 shut down their in-person classes, they switched to virtual classes and selling the world's first "r...
Actress Turned CEO: Anna Vocino’s Path to Eat Happy
March 06, 2022 23:25 - 21 minutes - 20 MBAnna Vocino has an impressive IMDb resume dotted with comedic acting roles, sketch comedy appearances on shows including the Lance Krall Show and Jimmy Kimmel Live, and professional narration work for a number of TV series and documentaries. She has risen to the top of the voiceover industry, lending her vocal skills to an endless array of video games and TV commercials, and she’s even the female voice of the NBC television network. In the midst of a career in entertainment, Anna was diagn...
An Unlikely Mayor: A Retired Lawyer Enters Public Service
February 17, 2022 15:45 - 17 minutes - 15.6 MBJosh Cohn worked as top, derivatives lawyer for a series of well-respected, law firms. He commuted by train to New York City everyday from the affluent suburb of Rye, NY. But at the age of 66, he was increasingly bored with the work and planned to retire from the legal field. He came home one night, cracked open a beer and ended up watching a city council meeting on a local, cable-access channel. That's when he became aware of a plan to put up mini-cell phone towers throughout the city inc...
Tech Entrepreneur Brews a Plan to Reform Street Gangs
February 07, 2022 03:12 - 23 minutes - 21.9 MBGeorge Taylor built a career as a serial tech entrepreneur, launching, growing and exiting from nine different companies. Five years ago, after settling in Wilmington, North Carolina, George was working at his latest tech startup, when a nearby gang-related drive-by shooting shook him to his core. George was "pissed off" that such violence existed in this idyllic seaside town and he vowed to do something to help. After meeting with the region’s top gang leaders to understand the issues tha...
Presto Chango: An Industrial Salesman’s Magical Transition
January 24, 2022 11:56 - 16 minutes - 14.9 MBDavid Bowers worked as a salesman for the Columbia Rubber Company for 39 years. He spent his professional life selling conveyer belt hoses to quarries and heavy machinery operations. But since the age of ten, he always had a fascination with the world of magic. For a 50th birthday celebration, his wife Judy hired a professional magician. And at the end of his performance, he pulled David aside and said: "I hear you're interested in magic. How would you like me to become your mentor?" And t...