The How This Works show – Details, episodes & analysis

On How This Works, we will talk to people about some topic that they know incredibly well. Earlier this year, the COVID-19 pandemic came upon us — shutting down workplaces, schools, and, basically, our lives came to a standstill. And with it came lots of questioning facts, opinions, and authority in general. And so, we wanted to find out more about how other people had come into their beliefs and how they've become an expert in their specific worlds. Maybe it's something they do for work, maybe it's a hobby, maybe it's something in between. All of that to say, we're going to talk to 100 people — some are folks we already know, many of whom we haven't met yet — and have them explain how this works, this being something they know very well. The first episode with Jake Kahana will launch on Dec 1, 2020. p.s. You know that feeling, of being so excited that you can hardly wait for the first day of school and yet you're so nervous you're afraid you're going to throw up? That's how we feel right now.

In this episode, Andy Polaine, Dr. Polaine to some, talks about his career journey, starting with his background in film and interactive media, his transition into service design, and his current focus as a design leadership coach. Andy discusses his coaching approach, which is rooted in his experience as a designer, facilitator, and teacher. He also talks about some of what he's hearing from design leaders right now, emphasizing the importance of reading the room, even in a digital context, and how his work addresses common challenges faced by design leaders, such as imposter syndrome and the "leadership dip" — a period of uncertainty and self-doubt that can arise when transitioning into a leadership role. The interview also touches on the evolving role of design leadership in organizations and how designers can more effectively communicate the value of their work to stakeholders. Some topics discussed: * Andy’s career began in the early '90s as an interaction designer, before "UX" or "user experience" were common terms * He studied film, video, and photography, transitioning into interactive media, which later led him to meeting Ben Reason at LiveWork and getting into service design * Andy was global Group Design Director of Client Evolution at Fjord and co-leads a Master’s program in service design in Switzerland * Fluent in German and having lived in Australia, Germany, and the U.K., Andy developed a deep appreciation for cross-cultural communication and how we use language * Andy describes his transition from filmmaking to design, drawn by the way multimedia integrates sound, video, and interactive elements — modes of storytelling persists today * Andy’s coaching focuses on supporting design leaders through a number of phases, including "design leadership dip," a period uncertainty common at mid- and advanced-career stages, which he helps leaders navigate * Andy shares his personal experience with imposter syndrome/phenomenon, emphasizing that it can affect anyone, regardless of background * Andy highlights the skill of “reading the room," focusing on empathy, active listening, and participant engagement * He discusses the nuances of digital coaching, using techniques like teleprompters and collaboration tools for increased effectiveness in virtual communication * Andy reflects on the future of design, noting that designers must focus on discernment and answering the question, So what?! * He concludes by emphasizing relationships, empathy, and plans for a book on the inner journey of design leadership, including "design leadership dip" * He talks about the "assembly line" approach to design, likens it to AI — where the subject matter is being treated as a mere tool for rapid prototyping rather than a process for addressing user needs, almost like the discipline is being treated like a GPT itself, which reduces designers to carry out prompts Stay tuned until the end where we hear a behind the scenes (bts) snippet, a peek into our lives today, where we wait for Andy's wife to open/close some doors as she's seeing a patient at home while we're recording. Special Guest: Andy Polaine.

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.

Today's episode features a conversation with two sisters — Kat Hantas and Nicole Emanuel — about 21Seeds, their company that makes all-natural, infused tequila. They talk about what they did before starting the company — film work and corporate finance, respectively — when Kat's doctor instructed her to stop drinking fermented spirits like wine, beer, and sake to drink distilled spirits like blanco tequila instead. And after eight years of infusing tequila in her kitchen, Kat enlisted her sister Nicole and their friend, Sarika Singh, to start 21Seeds — the name comes from two friends + one girlfriend with things that are all-natural, that grow from a seed — with a distillery in the town of Tequila in Jalisco, Mexico run and staffed by women whose hours coincide with school schedules, so the moms don’t have to pay for childcare. The sisters talk about the three tiers set up by the tied-house rule, why they didn't name the company Casamigas (a play on Casamigos), chill filtration (and how it removes aldehydes), keeping the heart but leaving out the head and tail when distilling alcohol, how you can go blind from moonshine (depending on the how and who's making it), and the differences between flavored and infused liquor. This is an especially fun episode as both sisters keep it light while the conversation moves easily. Nicole and Kat debate which Constitutional amendment made alcohol illegal and which one repealed Prohibition, the dangers of home infusing tequila in a Brita, and how Oprah Winfrey — as a tequila fan and someone who infuses tequila herself — paid the product a high compliment in assuming it was freshly infused. Stay tuned after the outro music to hear Skipper trip all over over the pronunciation of Kat's last name. So you all know, Hantas is pronounced like Pocahontas or haunting. Special Guest: Kat Hantas and Nicole Emanuel.

This week, Skipper chats with Laura Sicola, a leadership communication and influence expert, speaker, author of "Speaking to Influence: Mastering Your Leadership Voice" (bookshop link (https://bookshop.org/a/9976/9781948787307)), a coach, and host of the podcast, "Speaking to Influence: Communication Secrets of the C-Suite" (https://speakingtoinfluence.com/podcast/). But this conversation isn't just for managers or people in the C-suite, it's for anyone who wants to hear yes a bit more in their lives. As Laura says, this subject matter is every bit as "relevant with your coworkers, boss, employee, colleague, client, vendor, or otherwise, as it is with people in your personal life. And it is — whether it's with your spouse, significant other, your children, your neighbors, your friends, and co parishioners at church, temple, mosque, wherever you go, or religious house". We talk about so many things, including her work sitting at the intersection of how language works — or what Laura refers to as the math of language — cognitive processing and language, and social filters; how non-native languages to young kids can feel like a superpower, how some people listen like others wait for the right moment to jump into a double dutch jump rope session, bosses versus leaders, manipulation versus influence, myth-busting one of the most misquoted statistic in communications research, how we all have a prismatic voice, and how authenticity is absolutely essential in how we use our voice. Stay tuned after the outro music for a quick levels check, a peek behind the scenes. Special Guest: Laura Sicola.

Today's episode features time with Cassandra Carlopio, a meditation/sleep consultant currently collaborating with The Breathe Institute and trained as a clinical psychologist on the Gold Coast of Australia. We talk about the importance of sleep, address some of the falacies associated with meditation, and she graciously leads us through a short guided meditation. We also talk about how she loves the mountains and beach equally, her newfound love of kite boarding, about the role of the nervous system and sleep, about how there's very little communication "between the field of sleep medicine and the field of psychology and the field of meditation", in the role that meditation can play in helping people sleep at night, traffic in Los Angeles, the notion of using virtual reality to help with sleep issues, and how gifting someone with sleep issues "Why We Sleep" by Matthew Walker may not be the right kind of present. Stay tuned after the outro music to hear Skipper stumble through the pronunciation of Cassandra's name, something that he does with every guest on the show. Special Guest: Cassandra Carlopio.

Ben Falk chats with Skipper on this episode of How This Works from his farm/home/homstead in Vermont about permaculture and sustainability. We start with Ben in utero at the base of El Capitan in California, visiting national parks with his family (instead of going to Disneyland), rock climbing, and then doing backcountry trips which formed his foundational relationship with his work now. We also talk about the difference between design being focused on sustainability and regeneration, how important context is to solving design problems, about the importance of a designer living with or inside their work, the fact that people move 11.7 times in their life (as written in his book "The Resilient Farm and Homestead"), and how Ben's able to grow rice on terraced flats in the Northwestern U.S. We chat about the wood stove that provides heat for Ben and his family versus a thermostat-driven heat system or even a voice user interface like Alexa and how manual a process it is. Stay tuned after the outro music for a clip and flubbed first take of the show's intro. This episode was edited and mastered by Troy Lococo. Special Guest: Ben Falk.