Dr. Peter Chin-Hong

Back in August, Skipper had a conversation with Jen Dary about her personal experiences and insights on leadership coaching, the importance of self-awareness and belief in one's abilities, Plucky's So Now You're a Manager (SNYaM), navigating the publishing industry, and prioritizing self-care in the coaching profession. Other topics include: Jen shares her experience as the oldest of three kids and how it influences her leadership style and ability to empathize with others (it might play it yours as well, dear listener) She highlights the importance of identifying a specific niche in coaching and how coaching is different from consulting Jen emphasizes the importance of setting a finite amount of time for coaching and encourages clients to come as long as they need and go when they're ready She primarily works with clients in technology, including engineers, designers, product managers, professors, academics, and doctors, with a majority of them being women Jen reflects on the importance of understanding one's purpose of work and encourages listeners to measure their current job against that purpose She talks more about So Now You're a Manager (SNYaM), a manager training program that she's developed at Plucky currently modeled after a part-time MBA plus, the importance of community and connection in learning, and the challenges of remote training Jen has observed a trend of people in the tech industry expressing a desire to retire earlier and wanting to "do their own thing" She talks about recently watching "The Andy Warhol Diaries," a six episode Netflix series, and having a greater understanding of the '70s and '80s Stay tuned until the end for an outtake around speaking French to a stranger on the train in front of her sons Special Guest: Jen Dary.

Karen's personal and professional journey exploring different forms of art, including classical music and site-specific contemporary performance art Empathy and storytelling in design, perspective taking, and understanding the difference between empathy and caring The struggle with showing empathy towards oneself and the importance of non-judgment The concept of being an "asshole" in social situations and intentional adjustment The unintended consequences of Karen's work on compassion and caring The virtue of patience and its role in creating oneness Practicing love and accepting all things without hierarchy or morality The idea of helpfulness versus rightness and an example of a deer The tagline for Others Unlimited and its focus on empathy, research, collaboration, and citizenship Exploring the relationship between mercy and justice The metaphor of polishing a rough gem and the importance of perspective-taking The importance of empathy, active listening, and being present Accepting others as they are and embracing the truth for personal growth The second season of FX's "The Bear" (https://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/the-bear) and the idea of watching television as a kind of babysitter A surprising answer from Karen to the question, "Imagine you unexpectedly had a day off, money was no object, you could bend the laws of space and time, what would you do?" Stay tuned for a bit of tape at the end where Karen and Skipper talk about one's "need to be right." Note from TED: Karen's talk linked below contains a discussion of suicidal ideation. If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts, please consult a mental health professional and/or support organization, as this talk is not a substitute for mental health advice. If you are struggling with self-destructive or suicidal thoughts, call or text 988 to connect with someone who can help. Special Guest: Karen Faith.

Zolt Levay is a photographer who has produced astronomical images from the Hubble Space Telescope and has spent a career describing the process of producing engaging color images from Hubble data. Now, he has his sights set on matters closer to home, working on more terrestial matters. During this conversation, Skipper and Zolt talk about how images are produced from the Hubble Space Telescope, the importance of being curious, how professional telescopes don't "see" in color, the size of 24 million soda straws, Ansel Adams, the notion of time travel, and his more recent hobby of astrophotography. Stay tuned until the end for a clip on how to pronounce Zolt's first and last name the Hungarian way. Special Guest: Zolt Levay.

The last time we talked with Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, it was Dec 2020. Now, it's May 2022 — 17 months later. A lot has changed and in some ways it feels like nothing has changed. This time around, we get into current details around coronavirus/COVID, what's happening now/the current state, and what the future looks like. We recorded this episode over two sessions and along the way we get into many topics, including the notion of reinfections (more and more common with Omicron), how the testing numbers may not reflect actual cases with more and more home testing (and some people not testing at all), how an at-home test is different than a PCR test, and the current slate of variants — BA.1, BA.2, BA2.12.1, BA.4, BA.5, XE, etc. We also touch on COVID therapies including Paxlovid, an oral antiviral treatment, and Evusheld, monoclonal antibodies. As well, we talked about some of what Dr. Chin-Hong is concerned about in the future — including avian flu and influenza along with the idea that diseases like valley fever (coccidioidomycosis) have been creeping up over the last few years because we as humans are settling into areas (more rural, for instance) that large groups of us haven't been before. And then, we end the show by talking about his work as a professor of medicine and educator at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) — what teaching medicine has looked like the last few years with students (and teachers) as little blobs on a screen. Stay tuned until the end of the episode for a longer bit about the flu that didn't really have a place anywhere else. Special Guest: Dr. Peter Chin-Hong.

Recorded in their child's bedroom on a weekday, Laura and Skipper chat about his academic background in writing (English literature, playwriting) as well as his professional background as a product design director (think desktop and mobile apps among other mediums) and how that plays into storytelling, most recently resulting in the creation of How This Works, this podcast. They also talk about their life together — newsflash: they're married and living in the San Francisco Bay area, having moved from New York City a couple of years ago. Along the way, they get into some of the differences between life in SF and NYC. They also talk about their upcoming wedding anniversary after getting married next to Jane's Carousel in Brooklyn Bridge Park. Along with talk about his name change from Starr to Skipper (and not Optimus Prime) at the age of seven, they bring in a few questions posed from the listening audience including lessons learned from the first season of the show, calling people the name they want to be called, how crucial listening is in making a podcast, the ubiquity of imposter syndrome, using the five (5) whys to get to the root cause of a challenge as developed by Sakichi Toyoda at the Toyota Motor Corporation, team falling asleep during movies versus team staying awake during movies, and why Skipper color codes versus alphabetizing the books in his background — see photo below. View of the three shelves behind Skipper's standing desk Laura and Skipper also reference the following previous episodes, in order of being published, including: * Jack Kahana (https://www.howthisworks.show/001-jake-kahana), the first episode * Dr. Peter Chin-Hong (https://www.howthisworks.show/003-dr-peter-chin-hong), the third episode * Selena Rosanbalm (https://www.howthisworks.show/006-selena-rosanbalm), the sixth episode * Cassandra Carlopio (https://www.howthisworks.show/015-cassandra-carlopio), the 15th episode * Kat Hantas and Nicole Emanuel from 21Seeds (https://www.howthisworks.show/017-kat-hantas-nicole-emanuel), the 17th episode * Sally McRae (https://www.howthisworks.show/018-sally-mcrae), the 18th episode * Piper Payne (https://www.howthisworks.show/020-piper-payne), the 20th episode Stay tuned after the outro music for a bit of tape where Skipper pauses for a bit of background noise and how from where Laura's sitting, the microphone makes it looks like his nose is a black bit of foam. Special Guest: Skipper Chong Warson.

Tomorrow, we're recording the last episode of the first season where we turn the tables and Skipper's wife Laura asks him the questions. Go to Instagram @howthisworksshow (https://www.instagram.com/howthisworksshow/) to reply directly to the story or email us at howthisworksshow@gmail.com (mailto:howthisworksshow@gmail.com). Thanks so much!

Skipper talks to Sarah Sudhoff about how she works as an artist, her background as a photographer, arts administrator, and photo editor — and how all of that plays into her work today. Recorded late on a Sunday night, Skipper and Sarah talk about her identity as being half Cuban, how she got her first camera in the fifth grade, how being in a military family influenced her world and personality at a young age, being both the science nerd and the jock, and how she studied astronomy in college before she decided to pursue photography as her bachelor's degree — though she'd really like to work with NASA still. Following that, she worked for Citysearch before landing at Time magazine and received a M.F.A. in Photography from Parsons School of Design in New York. We get into how she wears many hats as an artist, how she multi-tasks as a single parent in her home life, how she collaborates in her work with others, and the necessary resilience of applying for as well as receiving/being rejected for exhibitions, grants, endowments, and fellowships. She and Skipper also talk about the notion of making daunting life decisions at 19 versus 29 or 39. We also talk about several of her works in particular: Point of Origin (https://www.sarahsudhoff.com/current-work), her most recent El Recuerdo (https://www.sarahsudhoff.com/el-recuerdo) project which started as a response to Deborah Brown’s paintings (http://nancylittlejohnfineart.com/exhibitions/deborah-brown/) but then evolved to be a tribute to her grandmother and Sarah's biracial heritage, The Reading Brain (https://www.sarahsudhoff.com/the-reading-brain), 60 Pounds of Pressure (https://www.sarahsudhoff.com/60poundsofpressure), Will You Hug me Forever (https://www.sarahsudhoff.com/will-you-hug-me-forever), and her upcoming work Labor Pains.

Video from El Recuerdo: Rope by Sarah Sudhoff

Video from El Recuerdo: Water by Sarah Sudhoff

Sarah says that she's finally feeling worthy to apply for a Guggenheim and MoMA this year — to which we say, Break a leg! When pressed, she talks about how art is hard and her advice for her two children if they wanted to go into some kind of artistic profession. Stay tuned for a bit after the outro music where after Skipper rambles on for a bit and Sarah asks simply, What's the question? Special Guest: Sarah Sudhoff.

This week, Skipper chats with Piper Payne, an audio mastering engineer. Currently based in Nashville, Tennessee, Piper starts off the episode with her professional introduction and then tells us "who she actually" is, including her being originally a Midwesterner, having three dogs, being an Aries, and her love of cheeseburgers. We talk about how if she wasn't a mastering engineer, she might be in some form of construction or maybe a carpenter. We get into how she's a drummer, starting when she was a "shrimpy kid", her technical music studies at the University of Michigan and then her graduate work in Norway, and working under Bob Katz and Michael Romanowski. Then, Piper dives into how she calibrates her mastering console with sine tones and noise, how music is mastered from a high level, her growing up on young country, her love of top 40 pop music, how vinyl records are made (think waffles), how musicians get paid (in the past and more recently), and the potential of non-fungible tokens to help artists get paid for their work as well as keep better track and make decisions about their efforts to tour, promote, and construct release plans. We also talk about some of the assumptions that people have about being a mastering engineer, how it's not alchemy. Below is a snapshot of the record shelves Piper mentions on the show as something she built recently that she's proud of: Stay tuned after the outro music to hear Skipper work out the right way to introduce Piper as an audio mastering engineer or a mastering engineer. Special Guest: Piper Payne.

This episode of How This Works addresses adult subject matters and contains adult language. This week, Skipper chats with Kait Scalisi, a certified sex educator who founded Passion by Kait. They engage in a wide-ranging conversation that explores so many areas — including shame, communication, and how pleasure is really powerful as a healing force. And there's so much under the surface as well, like how some people carry their disabilities in plain sight, the concept of accessible design, how she started doing this work, how with sex there's no such thing as "normal", a lightweight formula around how to talk about sex with your partner, her delight in the concept of verbal consent is showing up in romance novels, consent culture and the underlying sentiment to act first, apologize later, #notallmen, Resmaa Menakem on the notion of somatic abolitionism, and assumptions that Kait has had to work against as a sex educator. Stay tuned after the outro music for a pause for sirens in Kait's New York City sound background, an ever present aural reminder of the big city. Skipper misses it. Special Guest: Kait Scalisi.

This week, Skipper chats with Sally McRae, a pro runner for Nike and NordicTrack among others. Based in Bend, Oregon, Sally starts off by talking about how she often gets mistaken for a bodybuilder, a cross fitter, and even a cage fighter. She also gets into many more details of her life, including growing up in a family of seven, playing soccer and starting to run because "she knew she had the speed" and then as a way to stay in shape and cross-train, running her first marathon, discovering ultrarunning, running Western States 100 in 2014 (as captured in the short film "Western Time" — linked below), the importance of crew in ultrarunning, and what she thinks is at the heart of the sentiment, "I'm not a runner, or I wasn't made for running, or running is stupid". We also talk about some of the assumptions that people have about being a pro runner, the power of the community around running and ultrarunning, how running long distances with people can get past the polite and light social conversations, dispelling the common thinking that Skipper's name came from Gilligan's Island, why running is painful, needing to take care of yourself first and foremost, how on a 100 mile race that you will stir up something deep, and how some of the events locally and in the world might mirror some darker moments in our lives. Stay tuned after the outro music to hear Sally's joy about relocating to the mountains with her family. Special Guest: Sally McRae.