How to Be Anything – Details, episodes & analysis

How to Be Anything is a documentary-style podcast that profiles people with unusual, surprising, and wildly specific jobs. From puppeteers to tower climbers to scientists who search for dark matter underground and in space, each episode explores how people end up in jobs no one tells you about in school—and what it’s like to build a life doing something most of us have never heard of.

The show is created and hosted by journalist Emily McCrary, and it blends deep curiosity and narrative storytelling to explore the stories that go beyond job titles.

See pictures of our guests and get a behind-the-scenes look at the podcast on our Substack at howtobeanything.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Meet Brie Hayden, a former studio artist at Madame Tussauds who shampooed wax heads, inserted individual eyelashes, and turned a melted celebrity into a Halloween zombie. In this bonus episode, Brie shares surreal stories from her time inside the museum and explains how that experience launched her full-time career as a hyper-realist artist. It’s a behind-the-scenes look at one of the strangest (and coolest) jobs you never knew existed.

See pictures of our guests and get a behind-the-scenes look at the podcast on our Substack at howtobeanything.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Skye Smith has one of the rarest jobs in the world: they’re the lorekeeper for Dimension 20, a hit actual-play Dungeons & Dragons show on Dropout TV. In this episode, Skye explains what D&D is, how collaborative storytelling works, and what it’s like to keep track of every single character, snack, and magical tree across multiple seasons. We talk about improvisation, creativity under constraint, and how Skye’s love of story led them from working as a production assistant to building their dream job from scratch. If you’ve ever wondered how a sprawling fantasy epic gets made—or how a cockroach named Marty ends up in Madison Square Garden—this one’s for you.

See pictures of our guests and get a behind-the-scenes look at the podcast on our Substack at howtobeanything.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, we meet Paddy Fanning, one of the world’s top sheepdog trainers. Paddy travels the globe—Norway, South Africa, Canada, Spain, and beyond—training dogs and judging competitions, but his journey started with a cowboy job in Canada and a dusty copy of Think Harmony with Horses. He shares how Ray Hunt’s philosophy of working with animals shaped not only how he trains dogs, but how he rebuilt his life after giving up drinking. It’s a story about instinct, trust, and the partnership between man and dog.

See pictures of our guests and get a behind-the-scenes look at the podcast on our Substack at howtobeanything.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Erin Bishop was building a successful consulting business when a close friend was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She brought him into her home and cared for him as he died, and what she saw changed her life. In this episode, Erin explains what a death doula does and what a good death can look like. We also explore death cafes, legacy projects, and how death can shape the way we live.

See pictures of our guests and get a behind-the-scenes look at the podcast on our Substack at howtobeanything.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.