Designing runways for hot air and heavy planes, inspecting pavement cracks with measuring wheels, and protecting vicious little owls from construction crews with Eileen Vélez-Vega, a civil aviation engineer in Puerto Rico. What does the color of runway lights reveal to a pilot? And what's a "spall"?

WANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue.

GOT A COMMENT OR SUGGESTION? Email us at [email protected]

FOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: Email us at [email protected]

WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We’ll ask you to answer two questions:

1. What’s a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean?

2. What’s a specific story you tell your friends that happened on the job? It could be funny, sad, anxiety-making, pride-inducing or otherwise.

We can’t respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We’ll follow up if it's a good fit.

Sequencing departures like a moving puzzle, scrambling when a jet takes off without clearance, and catching what radar misses with a glance out the window with Michael Rejent, an air traffic controller. What does "tally ho" mean to a pilot? What phrase makes every controller in the cab look up?

WANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue.

GOT A COMMENT OR SUGGESTION? Email us at [email protected]

FOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: Email us at [email protected]

WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We’ll ask you to answer two questions:

1. What’s a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean?

2. What’s a specific story you tell your friends that happened on the job? It could be funny, sad, anxiety-making, pride-inducing or otherwise.

We can’t respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We’ll follow up if it's a good fit.

Hugging a mother through an anxiety attack, bidding for the best routes, and absorbing strangers' confessions at 35,000 feet with Linda Beall, a flight attendant. What does it mean when the cabin bells ring three or four times? And what makes a trip a “dog”?

WANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue.

GOT A COMMENT OR SUGGESTION? Email us at [email protected]

FOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: Email us at [email protected]

WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We’ll ask you to answer two questions:

1. What’s a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean?

2. What’s a specific story you tell your friends that happened on the job? It could be funny, sad, anxiety-making, pride-inducing or otherwise.

We can’t respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We’ll follow up if it's a good fit.

Shooting cat-three landings in the fog, using the “voice of God” on unruly passengers, and declaring Mayday after an engine fire with Paul Drusch, a commercial airline pilot. Why does the pilot’s paycheck start with the parking brake? And what does “sterile cockpit” mean? (Spoiler: it doesn’t mean “clean.”)

WANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue.

GOT A COMMENT OR SUGGESTION? Email us at [email protected]

FOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: Email us at [email protected]

WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We’ll ask you to answer two questions:

1. What’s a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean?

2. What’s a specific story you tell your friends that happened on the job? It could be funny, sad, anxiety-making, pride-inducing or otherwise.

We can’t respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We’ll follow up if it's a good fit.

Athletes get all the glory, but there are countless people around them making the games happen - from referees making judgments, to vendors in the stands hawking snacks and beer. In this episode from The StoryCorps Podcast, drawn from our archive of the largest single collection of human voices ever recorded, you’ll hear from the people on the sidelines.

WANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue.

GOT A COMMENT OR SUGGESTION? Email us at [email protected]

FOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: Email us at [email protected]

WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We’ll ask you to answer two questions:

1. What’s a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean?

2. What’s a specific story you tell your friends that happened on the job? It could be funny, sad, anxiety-making, pride-inducing or otherwise.

We can’t respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We’ll follow up if it's a good fit.

Untangling who gets to speak for a dying patient, weighing a treatment's benefits against its burdens, and searching for clarity in the grayest corners of healthcare with Esther Berkowitz, a clinical ethicist. What is the "dignity of risk"? And how do you know which "version" of a person to trust?

WANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue.

GOT A COMMENT OR SUGGESTION? Email us at [email protected]

FOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: Email us at [email protected]

WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We’ll ask you to answer two questions:

1. What’s a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean?

2. What’s a specific story you tell your friends that happened on the job? It could be funny, sad, anxiety-making, pride-inducing or otherwise.

We can’t respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We’ll follow up if it's a good fit.

Grinding through 16-hour shifts, standing behind inmates (never in front), and trying to stay human in an inhuman environment with Bill Farrell, a correctional officer in Massachusetts. What happens when an officer gets "frozen"? And why does the sound of scuffling sneakers stop him in his tracks?

LINKS & REFERENCES

• Bill was the co-creator of a short documentary about the physical and mental toll of being a correctional officer. It's called "Behind The Wall".

WANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue.

GOT A COMMENT OR SUGGESTION? Email us at [email protected]

FOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: Email us at [email protected]

WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We’ll ask you to answer two questions:

1. What’s a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean?

2. What’s a specific story you tell your friends that happened on the job? It could be funny, sad, anxiety-making, pride-inducing or otherwise.

We can’t respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We’ll follow up if it's a good fit.

Harvesting five million bushels of wheat and corn from Texas to Montana, outrunning hailstorms that decimate a year's income in 20 minutes, and running a multimillion-dollar convoy of equipment down the highway with Josh Beckley, a third-generation custom harvester from Kansas. Why do farmers outsource the harvesting of their own crops? And what happens when you drive a combine into a ditch?

WANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue.

GOT A COMMENT OR SUGGESTION? Email us at [email protected]

FOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: Email us at [email protected]

WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We’ll ask you to answer two questions:

1. What’s a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean?

2. What’s a specific story you tell your friends that happened on the job? It could be funny, sad, anxiety-making, pride-inducing or otherwise.

We can’t respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We’ll follow up if it's a good fit.

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. What's different about doing makeup on a dead person? And what is it like to field a death call?

LINKS & REFERENCES

• Heather writes about her work on her website.
• She's a funeral director at Renaissance Funeral Home in Raleigh, North Carolina.
• "The Future is Female" - American Funeral Director on the surge of women graduating from mortuary school 

WANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue.

GOT A COMMENT OR SUGGESTION? Email us at [email protected]

FOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: Email us at [email protected]

WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We’ll ask you to answer two questions:

1. What’s a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean?

2. What’s a specific story you tell your friends that happened on the job? It could be funny, sad, anxiety-making, pride-inducing or otherwise.

We can’t respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We’ll follow up if it's a good fit.

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 are the "seven minutes of terror"? And is there evidence of past life on Mars?

LINKS & REFERENCES:

• Watch Swati voice the landing of Perseverance in 2021.
• Swati's official NASA bio
• More about the Perseverance rover

Swati Mohan spoke with us in a personal capacity. The views expressed in this episode are her own and do not represent the views of NASA, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, or any other organization.

WANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue.

GOT A COMMENT OR SUGGESTION? Email us at [email protected]

FOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: Email us at [email protected]

WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We’ll ask you to answer two questions:

1. What’s a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean?

2. What’s a specific story you tell your friends that happened on the job? It could be funny, sad, anxiety-making, pride-inducing or otherwise.

We can’t respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We’ll follow up if it's a good fit.

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. Do diplomats still send "cables" in the 21st century? And what does "not/not" mean?

WANT MORE EPISODE SUGGESTIONS? Grab our What It's Like To Be... "starter pack". It's a curated Spotify playlist with some essential episodes from our back catalogue.

GOT A COMMENT OR SUGGESTION? Email us at [email protected]

FOR SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES: Email us at [email protected]

WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW? Leave us a voicemail at (919) 213-0456. We’ll ask you to answer two questions:

1. What’s a word or phrase that only someone from your profession would be likely to know and what does it mean?

2. What’s a specific story you tell your friends that happened on the job? It could be funny, sad, anxiety-making, pride-inducing or otherwise.

We can’t respond to every message, but we do listen to all of them! We’ll follow up if it's a good fit.