Am I the guest? Is Oppie the guest? Is Pi the guest? Are all of us simultaneously both the guest and the host? These questions may never be answered, but in this episode I chat with Pi Ai about Christopher Nolan's 2023 summer blockbuster film, Oppenheimer. In case you are unaware, Oppenheimer is a film about the scientist who lead the team that dev…

Despite long breaks and periods of doubt and despair, I finally made it to episode 50. This is a weird one. The guest, or guests are two different AI bots. The first is one I’ve named Max, and the second is the chat bot provided by Bing. We talk about a few articles about satisfaction in workplace, and I receive some decent feedback from a computer…

Episode 49 of Feel Free to Deviate features musician and educator Eric Miller. Eric and I were in a band together when we were in high school and were later roommates during my early years in Boston. Since then, Eric has been a serially self-employed music creator, educator, and proprietor of Miller Music in Farmington, CT. He is a pillar of the co…

Episode 0048 of Feel Free to Deviate features nobody… It’s a quick explanation of why Jim has recently strayed from the release schedule, and an outline of what you might expect in the future. Topics include: Excuses are like… Dead grass is not awesome Job search An awkward job interview Bathroom renovations So much more! - really, not much more. A…

Episode 47 of Feel Free to Deviate features singing, songwriting, guitar playing creative person, Tom Sturm. Our paths originally crossed in the late 90s when he moved into a house with a bunch of my friends. He’s a musician, but as many parents of musicians have noted over the years, making money as a musician can be… challenging. Because of that,…

Episode 46 of Feel Free to Deviate features architectural power couple Valentina Fantini and Giulio Margheri. Both of them work for notable Dutch architecture firms and have their own career trajectories. They share their experiences of how they ended up working for their current firms, and how their relationship evolved with their careers over the…

Episode 45 of Feel Free to Deviate features Evonne Wetzner, Senior Global Marketing Communications Strategist at Oracle, the gigantic software company. Sounds kinda nerdy, but she’s worked in a variety of industries, and she even founded one of the greatest video stores of all time: The Video Underground! This episode is brimming with pivots and re…

The guest on episode 44 is Joost van der Spek. Joost is a storyteller who mostly writes “stories that translate factual knowledge into an experience that museum visitors will remember.” Basically, he writes the scripts and stories that accompany those elaborate exhibitions you see in museums, and sometimes other places. We talk about how he approac…

Episode 43 of Feel Free to Deviate features Eric Mead. He’s qualified to do many things, but he is currently teaching young people the ins and outs of rigging for 3d animation. As cool as that is, it’s not the only reason I asked him to be on the show. Eric is the pivot master. Whether learning a new language or piloting helicopters, he ONLY does t…

The guest on episode 42 of Feel Free to Deviate is Rachel Carey. She’s an artist. I’ll let her fill you in on what that means, but it’s fairly important to note that she has a “regular” job doing financial stuff, because the bills aren’t going to pay themselves. It’s a fun and lively episode, and it is my observation that her combined experiences h…

Episode 41 of Feel Free to Deviate is the follow up, or sequel to episode 40, which was a re-visitation of a month long blog I wrote during the final 26 days of my twenties, back in 2005. That’s why it’s called 26 Days. Clever, right? If you haven’t listened to episode 40 yet, you should do that first. If you don’t, this episode won’t make much sen…

Today is my birthday, and I recently rediscovered a blog I wrote in December 2005 about the last days of my 20s. Episode 40 of Feel Free to Deviate is a recitation of that snippet of my life. It’s a fun (for me, at least…) look into the mindset of myself at 30. I think I’ll follow up with thoughts and feelings about this at a later date. I guess I’…

High school begins at 12 years old in the Netherlands, and the first year is what they call a bridge year. My daughter and her classmates are in the midst of choosing which high school they will attend next year. She and her classmates are rushing off to different schools for open days, information evenings, and trial classes hoping to figure out w…

The guest on episode 0038 of Feel Free to Deviate is techno artist/producer/musician/and DJ extraordinaire, Joris Voorn. He made a name for himself in the early 2000s, and he’s been going strong since. His job and lifestyle have always been interesting to me, partially because I once harbored a desire to be an indie-rockstar. Of course, I didn’t ha…

The Guest on episode 37 of Feel Free to Deviate is Holly Adams. She’s a performer, voice actor, educator, and several adjacent things. She’s even a clown, but she doesn’t clown around. She is completely embedded and focused on being a legit working actor, and she’s been doing that for her entire adult life. It’s remarkable, and she’ll tell you all …

***Apologies - If you were among the first downloaders you will notice a technical problem around 25 minutes in. I have fixed it. Please download the file again. You're gonna love it. The guest on episode 36 of Feel Free to Deviate is photographer, educator, and photography book author Sarah Malakoff. She is a professor at University of Massachuset…

Episode 35 of Feel Free to Deviate is an outtake episode that has almost nothing to do with careers. Is that weird? Now that I’m writing this, I think it is. Anyway, first up is an extension of episode 34, featuring Justin Baum. We talked a bit about music and bikes and audio equipment. After the Justin segment is a clip from my conversation with e…

The guest on episode 34 of Feel Free to Deviate is Justin Baum. He is the VP of Product at a software company called LeaseUp. He’s also a designer and a user experience guru. He probably won’t like that I called him a guru, but that’s too bad… He’s a very knowledgeable guy who digs deep into the philosophy surrounding the tech industry. I have alwa…

Normally I say that Feel Free to Deviate is the podcast about people, their careers, and their relationships with success, but Episode 33 of Feel Free to Deviate is a sort of rambling and lightly focused discussion of a film that many people consider inspirational for career, success, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness… In this episode I speak…

Episode 32 of Feel Free to Deviate features musician and sonic consultant Adam Brilla. Adam and his wife Jennifer run a company called Stompbox Sonic. What’s a sonic consultant? You should listen and find out. Spoiler alert: It’s super cool. He also works in the IT department of a Boston area college, and has had a string of jobby jobs along the wa…

Episode 31 of Feel Free to Deviate features Viva Butler. Viva is a teacher who spent many of her formative years traveling and working in cooperatives and food service, including an indie chocolate company!!! Now she’s a teacher who lives at and maintains a retreat in the Berkshires with her partner and a tiny activist who happens to be her daughte…

Episode 30 of Feel Free to Deviate features academic librarian and comics artist Dawn Wing. She’s moved around and changed careers a few times, and recently self-published two comics about Chinese-American women under the banner of her publishing company WaterPigPress.com. She does a wonderful job of balancing her job and her artistic practice. Top…

Episode 29 of Feel Free to Deviate features Chris Nelson. When he was a child he decided that he wanted to be a toy or game designer, and he proceeded to do everything he could to make that happen. Shortly after graduating from MassArt he mostly achieved his goal by landing a job working for a company that is synonymous with board games, and now he…

Episode 28 of Feel Free to Deviate features Janelle Stone. Janelle is and Associate in Training at Orton-Gillingham Academy. As their website says, “The Orton-Gillingham Approach is a direct, explicit, multisensory, structured, sequential, diagnostic, and prescriptive way to teach literacy when reading, writing, and spelling does not come easily to…

This is a very special episode of Feel Free to Deviate. Ed Mubarek from episode 5 is back to talk about the cumulative effect of little things becoming big problems and getting ghosted by potential collaborators. We also talk about the state of the podcast, the state of the Jim, and the state of my psyche on the eve of potential employment. You can…

Episode 26 of Feel Free to Deviate features Shayne Flaherty. He is currently the CTO for an IT management company called IndyConn, but to say he’s an IT guy would be selling him short. He’s been a professor, an arborist, and he has a few degrees. The important thing isn’t really what he does, but how he got to where he is, and how he acquired all o…

Episode 25 of Feel Free to Deviate features Arne Reimer. He’s a photographer and music lover who teaches and makes books. Currently he’s working as a researcher for an Austrian publisher. He’s managed to make a living by merging his love of music and photography his entire adult life, and I think that’s quite an accomplishment. It takes a lot of pe…

Episode 24 of Feel Free to Deviate features Solar Business Development Manager, Andrew Whitehead. He sells solar panels, but he got there by way of an arts education and a stint in the New York real estate market of the mid to late aughts. Listen to him verbally paint a detailed picture of how his career evolved, in an artful combination of deliber…

Episode 23 of Feel Free to Deviate features Christina Willis. I met her when she was a physics major at Wellesley College. Now she is a laser scientist who works for a quantum computing company who is not afraid to learn new skills for big career pivots and intense hobbies. Check out Christina’s book, Sustainable Networking For Scientists and Engin…

This is my favorite kind of episode... The guest on episode 22 of Feel Free to Deviate is an old friend named Todd Hennig. We were in a band together when we were in high school, and since then Todd has gone on to play with many bands like Great Collapse, Nations Afire, Death By Stereo, and Heckle, and he’s toured all over the place. He’s even gott…

Episode 21 of Feel Free to Deviate features award winning high school English teacher Michael Switek. Michael is beloved by his students, and valued by his peers, some of whom were former students. How cool is that? The kids love him, and he loves his work. We talk about job satisfaction and school life during covid and take a peek behind the high …

Episode 20 of Feel Free to Deviate features Gretchen Licata. Gretchen is the facilities director of the Pioneer Valley Regional School District in western Massachusetts. She’ll tell you exactly what that entails, but I will tell you that it’s a big job with lots of responsibilities, and she is an unsung hero, working behind the scenes to make sure …

Episode 19 of Feel Free to Deviate Features Thomas Margolf. Some know him as chip music artist firestARTer, or as Frau Holle, but now he is mostly know as the owner and proprietor of XOR Electronics and maker of NerdSeq. What is that, you ask? As the XOR website says, it “is a tracker based cv and trigger sequencer module (32HP) for Eurorack system…

Episode 18 of Feel Free to Deviate features Dr. Kei Otsuki. We met when I first moved to the Netherlands, and we were students in the same Dutch class. Her title is Associate Professor in International Development Studies at Utrecht University, but she tells me that she views her role as bringing awareness and trying to find a bridge for communicat…

Episode 17 of Feel Free to Deviate features x-ray technologist Jason Kelley. He lives in Portland, Oregon and happens to be an old friend of mine. I think this episode is a fine example of a searcher finding what he was looking for. Jason worked with food, movies, music, and arts during his illustrious career, and he grew a lot along the way. Most …

Episode 16 of Feel Free to Deviate features Scott Patrick Wiener, but I usually call him Scott or Ween. He works for an organization called YouthBuild that focuses on teaching young people construction skills and facilitates the building of houses in their neighborhoods. It’s pretty cool. Like many of the other guests on Feel Free to Deviate, Scott…

Episode 15 of Feel Free to Deviate features Anna Wronsky. She is the Dean of Teaching and Learning at a school in Istanbul, but she’s also been an art teacher and a costume designer for the opera. I met her when she was a student at the University of Massachusetts, and even as an undergraduate she had a confidence about her work that I am still ama…

Episode 14 of Feel Free to Deviate features Judith Black, but I call her Judy because I know her. Judy was the photography professor at Wellesley College for 25 years, including the 7 years that I worked there. She’s a great photographer whose work centers around home and family life, and since Corona she’s released two books, Pleasant Street and m…

Episode 13 of Feel Free to Deviate features Giuliana Funkhouser. Giuliana is a trans-disciplinary artist who “combines digital code and synthesized audio with field recordings to produce story-driven installations.” I met her long ago when I first started working at Wellesley College in 2001. She was one of the students who worked for me, but since…

Episode 12 of Feel Free to Deviate features Ben Licata. He’s an old friend who currently makes his living as a tattoo artist. We talk about how his illustrious career began in the tobacco fields of Hadley Massachusetts, and how he’s always found ways to grow and learn whether working in a sweltering plastic bag factory or making instructional video…

The guest on episode 11 of Feel Free to Deviate is Melissa Woods. She runs Trued Apparel, which is a sustainably sourced fashion company that caters to goths. Well, not exclusively goths, but to anyone who likes to wear comfortable women’s clothing that is predominantly available in black. Melissa was a student at Wellesley College when I worked th…

Esme Valk is the guest on this landmark tenth episode of Feel Free to Deviate. She is a Pikler Pedagog. You probably have no idea what that is, so I’ll give a brief introduction, and Esme will clarify many of the finer points. Pikler Pedagogy is a child rearing philosophy developed by Dr. Emmi Pikler. The people who disseminate Pikler’s ideas are k…

You know how sometimes you hang out with someone who is super nice and positive, but you feel like they are trying to convince themselves that they are nice and positive? Well, that’s not her. She is a genuinely light, happy, and curious person, and a joy to be around. Episode 9 of Feel Free to Deviate features Naomi de Kuiper. She owns and runs a …

This episode features Jonas Wulff: Doctor of Computer Vision! He’s a super genius who wants to make computers see. I suppose that either sounds awesome or terrifying, but seeing as you are probably listening to this podcast on a tiny supercomputer with at least one giant electronic eye, you should probably check your paranoia at the door… I invited…

Episode 7 of Feel Free to Deviate is a conversation with Robin Chase. She was a teacher for 20 years, some of which she was miserable due to a less than favorable work environment. After some soul searching and encouragement from her support network, she pivoted and became a food photographer. Sometimes I forget to ask the key question, “What is yo…

This episode features Tomasz Kaye. He makes anti-political propaganda films. You may be thinking, “What the hell does that mean, and how the hell does one get a job doing that?” Well, that’s why I asked him to be a guest. We don’t get too deep into the content of his work, so I recommend checking that out on your own. It may not be your cup of tea,…

Episode 5 features Ed Mubarek, who is an old friend of mine. We’ve know each other since high school, we’ve lived with each other, played in bands together, and stuff like that. He’s a super smart guy, is very well read, and he is a great musician. Although we didn’t really talk about it, I believe he has a degree in journalism and is trained as a …

Episode 4 of Feel Free to Deviate features David Teng Olsen! Dave is an old friend, and he talks about how he found his way to being an artist and a professor despite never thinking of becoming a teacher and being certain that he didn’t want to make art. I asked him to send me some Dave related links, but he went on vacation and sent nothing. If yo…

This episode features Bjorn van Spengen. Bjorn was one of the founders of Fotomat, which is the company I used work for. He left the company around the same time as me, pivoted, and started working for a bigger company called Metrological in a management position. Bjorn is a good guy who does good work, and he makes it all look so easy, even though…

This episode is a conversation with Rebecca Simons, whom I used to work with at Fotomat. I asked her to be on the show because she is adept at finding ways to get paid while working on things that she loves to do. It’s a remarkable skill, and I was hoping that she would tell me how she does it. I think she actually revealed the secret, and it’s rat…