What It’s Like to Be…a Funeral Director
Guiding grieving families through arrangement meetings, orchestrating meaningful memorial services within days, and preparing bodies for viewing with Heather Hill, a funeral director in North Carolina.
Dan Heath
Dan Heath is the New York Times bestselling coauthor/author of six books, including Made to Stick, Switch, and The Power of Moments. His most recent book is Reset: How to Change What’s Not Working. He also hosts the award-winning podcast What It’s Like to Be…, which explores what it’s like to walk in the shoes of people from different professions (a mystery novelist, a cattle rancher, a forensic accountant, and more).
What It’s Like to Be…an Aerospace Engineer
Landing the Perseverance rover on Mars, working in clean rooms to minimize the microbial bug count, and slogging through hundreds of engineering trade-offs with Swati Mohan, an aerospace engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
What It’s Like to Be…a Diplomat
Defusing a crisis after an ambassador hinted at a preemptive strike on Russia, delivering demarches in multiple languages, and surviving the frantic evacuation of the Kabul embassy with John Johnson, a retired diplomat who spent more than twenty years in the US Foreign Service.
What It’s Like to Be…a Lineman
Wiring a neighborhood back to life after a tornado, coveting the work of helicopter linemen in Faraday suits, and surviving the collapse of a rotten utility pole with Elden Rivas, a journeyman lineman in Houston, Texas.
What It’s Like to Be…a Health Inspector
Suspending the licenses of unsafe restaurant operators, hunting down the origins of foodborne illness outbreaks, and eliciting truthful answers from anxious managers with Justin Dwyer, a health inspector in Peoria, Illinois.
What It’s Like to Be…a London Divorce Lawyer
Negotiating cases in which neither spouse wants custody of the cat, setting clients’ expectations about what’s legally possible (versus what feels “right”), and finding hope in people’s ability to bounce back from dark times with Lucy Stewart-Gould, a divorce lawyer in London.
What It’s Like to Be…a Baker
Tinkering with the recipe for gingerbread cake until it’s right, adjusting to the variability of local grains, and cherishing the quiet mornings when the sun fills the bakery windows with Sophie Williams, a baker in Bellingham, Washington.
What It’s Like to Be…a Marine Corps JAG
Judging the permissibility of real-time battle decisions, advising commanders how to handle soldier misconduct, and assessing “hostile acts” and “hostile intent” with Lieutenant Colonel Susan Upward, a Marine Corps JAG.
What It’s Like to Be…a Dog Groomer
Sculpting mullets on Havanese, enduring countless bites, and surviving level-five furnadoes with Aaron Williams, a dog groomer in Alabama. Why is the grooming table his most powerful psychological tool? And which part of the grooming process is most dreaded by dogs?
What It’s Like to Be…an Elementary School Teacher
Weaving songs and dances into classroom lessons, having difficult conversations with parents, and navigating the second-day meltdowns of kindergarten students with Yaronda Kilgo, an elementary school teacher.