Back to Work

Latest Episodes:

Episode 93: 67 Points of Articulation Nov 13, 2012

Show notes

TOPIC: Florida, Education, and Peaking

This week, Dan and Merlin continue their purging personal odyssey through the state of Florida. Isolation, education, and a parting admonition not to throw your cap in the air.

Also, for the comic nerds, Merlin recommends checking out the exciting new stuff happening with "Marvel NOW!"

Links for this episode:

This week's Back to Work is sponsored by Shutterstock (use code "backtowork11" for 30% off), Hover (10% off for Back to Work listeners), and Smile's TextExpander.

Episode 92: The Florida Episode Nov 06, 2012

Show notes

TOPIC: Florida.

Hinted at since Episode 1—and repeatedly threatened nearly every week since—here, at last: The Florida Episode.

The heat, the driving, the isolation, the driving, the white driveways, the early-bird specials, the menacing parking-lot violence, the driving, the people, the stop lights, the gates, the urology clinics, the driving, the short pants, the driving, and much MUCH more.

In part one of what will surely be an epic, multi-episode arc, Dan and Merlin finally start coming to terms with their undistinguished youths in the Sunshine State.

Links for this episode:

Shutterstock (use code "dansentme10" for 30% off) and Ting ($50 off your first device for Back to Work listeners).

Episode 91: Compiling Stallman From Source Oct 30, 2012

Show notes

TOPIC: The tech you want, and the tech you can live with.

On our second Last Show Ever™, Merlin and Dan talk about parenting, Gatsby hats, note taking and sharing, the Techno-Organic virus, and more.

Links for this episode:

Sponsored by Squarespace and Hover. Use code "DANSENTME" for 10% off.

Episode 90: Quit!™ Oct 23, 2012

Show notes

TOPIC: Sleep and How to Get It

This week, Dan and Merlin talk about sleep—why we need it, why most of us don't get enough of it, and why we all strain to find a million excuses for perpetually walking around like a sad zombie.

Chock-a-block with painful personal anecdotes, horrible cautionary tales, and scary hand-waving about Recent Medical Science, your hosts make their best case for taking your own sleep more seriously. Now.

Also, loaded with tips on how to sleep better, with a heavy emphasis on a wonderful iOS app called, "Sleep Cycle."

Pretty good for our last episode. (Guys, we were kidding! KIDDING!)

Links for this episode:

This week's episode of Back to Work is kindly sponsored by Ting.

Episode 89: Burlap Sack Full of Oranges Oct 16, 2012

Show notes

TOPIC: Programming Your Kid's Danger Room.

This week, Dan and Merlin discuss the parenthood racket: the advice and expectations, the doubt and the fear, the assessment, the concentric circles, the snow cones.

Parenting means programming a Danger Room that teaches you and the kid to handle the hovering, the hitting, the losing, and the play structure.

Links for this episode:

This week's episode of Back to Work is kindly sponsored by Hover, Mutual Mobile, Shutterstock, and Squarespace.

Episode 88: So Many Reasons to Cry Oct 09, 2012

Show notes

TOPIC: Finding Grit.

This week, Dan and Merlin return to a popular topic from last week: grit.

Why is it we stick with some things but totally abandon so many others? Why'd Merlin give up on learning "Little Brown Jug" on the trombone, then double-down on nailing "Pinball Wizard" on guitar? How come Dan got so good at programming, but can't kick a damned football to save his life? Is there a framework for understanding why we remember hit points, don't travel, can't draw, and forget why every good boy deserves fudge?

Along the way, Merlin accidentally—grudgingly—reveals that he actually knows things about sportsball, Dan breaks down the exhilarating rewards of immediate feedback, and both hosts wonder how Mariano Rivera can keep his cool after giving up a two-run homer.

Also, there's a pseudo-interesting rathole on why Merlin may or may not start spending more time with App.net.

Links for this episode:

This week's episode of Back to Work is kindly sponsored by Smile Software, Shutterstock and Squarespace.

Episode 87: Nothing to Declare But My Coconuts Oct 02, 2012

Show notes

TOPIC: Grit, Confidence, and Intuition.

This week, Dan and Merlin begin a conversation on what researchers and educators are learning about why students of all ages do or don't succeed. Yes, it's about intelligence and other cognitive skills, but it's also about tenacity, courage, self-restraint, and resolve.

It's really about grit.

See our show notes for lots of links to the stuff that inspired our topic, but definitely tune in for Merlin's slight addendum to the formula: mixing in our growing confidence in our own intuition.

Links for this episode:

This week's episode of Back to Work is sponsored by Igloo Software. Check out our amazing B2W community site!

Episode 86: The Talmud of Claremont Sep 25, 2012

Show notes

TOPIC: Anxious about the Change

This week Merlin updates Dan about his schedule changes. They're going to come, but it's probably the anxiety, not the change, that is the problem. Take heart, it may be the change that you need.

While you're at it, take the opportunity to plan your buffers and ramp up times. Your schedule will work better, your vacation may be less stressful, your pie will stay alive.

Bonus: Dan and Merlin's comic book recommendations for new readers.

Links for this episode:

This week's episode of Back to Work is sponsored by Igloo Software, Shutterstock and Squarespace.

Episode 85: Schrödinger's Soap Holder Sep 18, 2012

Show notes

TOPIC: One Operational Paper Towel; One Safety Paper Towel.

This week, Dan and Merlin discuss how to use a public restroom.

There's some other stuff, too. But, yeah. Mostly Dan and Merlin discuss how to use a public restroom.

Links for this episode:

This week's episode of Back to Work is sponsored by Igloo Software and Shutterstock.

Episode 84: Every Genie is an Actuary Sep 11, 2012

Show notes

TOPIC: Superpowers, Madness, and the Pursuit of Interesting Problems

Dan and Merlin talk about the superpowers you have and can't control as well as the demons and drivers that our heroes have and can't control. How sometimes we find ourselves craving the screaming in someone else's head. Because, we surely do love and revere our Beautiful Losers and Genius Lunatics.

Entered into evidence: Hunter S. Thompson, The Incredible Hulk, Sylvia Plath, Brian Wilson, Nightcrawler, Van Gogh, Syd Barrett, Tom Waits, Robert Lowell, Howard Hughes, and Corporate Stooges (n.b.: Dan said that; not Merlin).

The upshot? Try not to get too obsessed with someone else's ether in the convertible or, for that matter, the cake in your own conference room.

Get excited about constantly releasing that "better version of yourself"—and make the world a happy beneficiary of your own particular madness.

Links for this episode:

This week's episode of Back to Work is sponsored by Smile Software, and Squarespace.

Smile's PDFpen is a powerful Mac PDF editor at an affordable price: add text, images, and signatures, make corrections, fill out forms, edit images, OCR scanned pages and more

Sign up for Squarespace today to get an extra 10% off any new account with the offer code "soold" (as in, "Merlin looks sooooooo old!"). Watch Merlin's new Squarespace 6 site get built in real time (including screencasts) at http://merlinm.com/s6.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected