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Employee of the Month — Society & Culture
Employee of the Month

We spend most of our time working, so what does it take to (mainly) love what you do? How do even the most gifted, talented, intelligent, ambitious, disciplined, imaginative, inventive, and lucky people develop their point of view, find meaning, serve a greater good, deal with work place politics, rejection, finances, boredom, red tape, logistics, and creative roadblocks? What are the perks or enjoyable about forging your own path? Catie Lazarus and her guests delve into beauty, banality and absurdity of work, jobs, and labor.

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Copyright: © Catie Lazarus

Latest Episodes:

SARAH SILVERMAN on Bernie Sanders to Seinfeld's Kramer Feb 10, 2016

Show notes

Sarah Silverman is one of the funniest humans I know. Lauded, if not, encouraged by her dad to curse as a baby, Silverman honed her mischievous antics the minute she started speaking. She was born to two natural performers, although they lived in New Hampshire, a far shlep from Hollywood. Her dad ran a clothing store and did all of his own commercials in his thick Boston accent, while her mom, who was far more sophisticated in her diction, did the voice-overs for the local movie theater in New Hampshire and was actively involved in local theater. Perhaps it’s no surprise that their daughters would all cultivate their own points of view and trajectories. Sarah’s sister Susan became a respected rabbi and social activist, Laura is a well known actor and Jodyne writes. Sarah, who also writes, sings, and acts, started out in stand up when she was a teenager and never looked back.

Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to Employee of the Month and the rest of your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe directly from the Employee of the Month show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or visit slate.com/employeeplus to get access wherever you listen.

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Hear Amy Winehouse & Sharon Jones best kept secret is Guitarist Binky Jones.... Jan 27, 2016

Show notes

There are musicians who say they can play any genre, melody, tune, with or without reading sheet music, and then there are a handful of the real deal. Enter Binky Griptite, one of the most versatile, graceful, and finest guitarists out there. He can play it all. Funk and soul are the Brooklynite’s bread and butter. You don’t have to take it from me. Amy Winehouse and Sharon Jones knew how brilliant Binky is and seized on his talent. Griptite doesn’t care if most people don’t know who this sly, sexy, and deft player is supporting these iconic talents. Like most exceptional talents, Bikny lets his music speak for itself.

A musician’s musician, Griptite is best known for being both the lovable emcee and bold guitarist for the world’s most popular and critically acclaimed neo-soul bands today- Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings. Griptite has also played alongside everyone from Lee Fields to the late great Amy Winehouse.

Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to Employee of the Month and the rest of your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe directly from the Employee of the Month show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or visit slate.com/employeeplus to get access wherever you listen.

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LARRY KRAMER, AIDS activist and Tony winning playwright on sodomy, sex, climaxing, and activism Jan 27, 2016

Show notes

After writing dialogue for a teen comedy as a teletype operator at Columbia Pictures, Kramer, who was barely into his twenties, lapped up the chance to adapt D.H. Lawrence’s revered novel Women in Love. Leave it to Larry to not only score an Oscar nomination, but manage to get the first nude sex scene in theaters in England, a couple years after sodomy was even considered legal in the United Kingdom. You know that phrase "Full Frontal Nudity?" In our interview, you'll hear where it comes from. You also hear Larry chide me. “You missed the climax!” “It’s not the first time,” I lamented. He laughed. Kramer still hasn’t lost his wry wit, which may be his signature weapon in surviving, what he aptly also named, a modern day plague. We spoke about AIDs and his career on Employee of the Month’s live January 2016 taping at Joe’s Pub.

Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to Employee of the Month and the rest of your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe directly from the Employee of the Month show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or visit slate.com/employeeplus to get access wherever you listen.

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ADA CALHOUN is redefining journalism, one story at a time. Jan 19, 2016

Show notes

With a wry smile, shrewd reporting, and exquisite detail, Ada Calhoun distills America’s signature triumphs in music, theater, commerce, activism, politics, and its transgressions-- including drug abuse, prostitution and, yes, slavery, in her latest book St. Marks is Dead. She chronicles the history of three short blocks in New York from when the land was grassy and feral to now, where you can count the number of trees on two hands. It is still feral and Calhoun revels in the beauty and ugliness which emerges as a result. Her affection for St. Marks in the East Village is palpable, as it was the very block she grew up on, but it is her affecting prose which paints a gripping portrait. Even those who loathe New York or history books or are sick of hearing about how hip and edgy the punk era or sexual revolution won’t want to put down this book.

Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to Employee of the Month and the rest of your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe directly from the Employee of the Month show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or visit slate.com/employeeplus to get access wherever you listen.

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JASON BIGGS talks about Woody Allen, Eugene Levy & getting fired Jan 14, 2016

Show notes

Jason Biggs got his first headshot at age five. Twenty years later, he went onto became world famous for his role in the hilarious comedy American Pie. He went onto star on Broadway, get a recurring role in the hit dramedy Orange is the New Black, and currently co-hosts a radio show with his wife Jenny on Sirius XM.

Like many actors, Biggs did theater and, yes, got fired off his first sitcom, only he was still in middle school. The sitcom Drexel's Class was cancelled after one season, so, as Biggs says, he, "Didn't feel alone." He then had a stint on the soap opera As The World Turns. His character was written off the show, which is par for the course in Hollywood, but rejection is even more excruciating when you're just a teenager. Luckily, Biggs received an Emmy nod for his role, which is as sweet as revenge gets in the entertainment world.

We spoke about his early career, sharing a room with his mom, stage moms, and his affection for Eugene Levy, who Biggs refers to as a "second dad."

Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to Employee of the Month and the rest of your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe directly from the Employee of the Month show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or visit slate.com/employeeplus to get access wherever you listen.

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MoMA's Senior Design & Architecture Curator talks guns, rejection, punk rock, sexism, and smoking Jan 06, 2016

Show notes

It shouldn’t be entirely surprising that Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator at MoMA for Architecture and Design, was into punk rock in her twenties. She says the scene wasn’t hard core in Italy. She dipped her toes, without becoming subsumed by the genre, which is in part, what she does daily, as she travels the world over to assess the multiple ways, designers, architects, inventors, technologists, entrepreneurs, and multi-disciplinary hyphenates are impacting culture.

We spoke about the creativity required in her job. A curator must deftly serve as a bridge between those who fund resources and the artists themselves. Am I allowed to call designers artists, when so many strive to create commercial enterprises? In our interview, which was recorded live at Joe’s Pub, we touch on how Antonelli decides which products MOMA highlights and why.

You’ll learn in our interview how much her integrity, unique artistic sensibility, whimsy, discipline, and experience matter.

Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to Employee of the Month and the rest of your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe directly from the Employee of the Month show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or visit slate.com/employeeplus to get access wherever you listen.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

BOBBY CANNAVALE discusses flow, Al Pacino, and sings Neil Diamond live Dec 30, 2015

Show notes

After completing shooting his first starring role for HBO’s upcoming 10-episode series VINYL, BOBBY CANNAVALE sat down with Catie Lazarus at a live taping of Employee of the Month at Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater. We spoke about the “ease” one feels when doing what your meant to do, whether it’s social work, which is what his mom does, or acting, which Bobby says, “Is all he ever wanted to do.” He says his son Jake has inherited Bobby’s “ease” and we spoke about their acting together in NURSE JACKIE.

Bobby describes theater, film, television, as “make believe,” and is often puzzled when people confuse actors with their characters. In our interview, you’ll hear how his sense of humor is palpable. He’s certainly done his share of lighter fare, like Annie, Antman, Will & Grace, and Sex-and-the-City. But he’s is so good at slipping into gritty, knotty roles that its easy to see why audiences assume Bobby possesses the depth of his more volatile, barbed characters.

Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to Employee of the Month and the rest of your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe directly from the Employee of the Month show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or visit slate.com/employeeplus to get access wherever you listen.

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Meditation Teacher Tara Brach talks about how to be mindfully angry and more. Dec 23, 2015

Show notes

As 2015 draws to a close, as soon as I started to feel stressed about getting the right gifts, never mind affording them, hoping to see friends and family, dealing with fraught relationships, and my unmet hopes and dreams. To accept what is and the messiness of life, I found solace in listening to meditation teacher Tara Brach's podcast, often on the subway.

Luckily, I got to speak to the person who had offered me the space to sit with all of the above and more. I met with Tara Brach at the Unitarian Church in Bethesda, Maryland, where she gives weekly dharma talks. We spoke about how to be mindfully angry; the dilemma of compartmentalizing and success; cultural differences in how we give; and how she navigates trauma and pain, both her own and others. It's a great listen for anyone interested in what it is like to care for an about others, as a living.

Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to Employee of the Month and the rest of your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe directly from the Employee of the Month show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or visit slate.com/employeeplus to get access wherever you listen.

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Billy Crudup address controversy over film Spotlight in The Boston Globe Dec 14, 2015

Show notes

Tony Award winning actor Billy Crudup spoke to Catie Lazarus about portraying a polarizing character, lawyer Eric MacLeish in the phenomenal film Spotlight, which chronicles The Boston Globe's Spotlight Investigative Team as they reveal the Catholic Church's systemic cover up of sexual abuse. Eric MacLeish is alive and does not like how he is depicted, although he supports the film.

Eric MacLeish's real life saga, which The Boston Globe is also chronicling, could be its own Lifetime Movie. Crudup spoke about the larger mission of the film, which is, by all accounts, accurate and honest, and his own goal as an actor. Alongside Crudup, Spotlight stars Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, Brian d’Arcy James and Stanley Tucci as it depicts how the Boston Globe earned a duly deserved Pulitzer Prize for its investigation and, more importantly, revealed a city wide crisis of abuse, which the Catholic Church covered up for decades.

Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to Employee of the Month and the rest of your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe directly from the Employee of the Month show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or visit slate.com/employeeplus to get access wherever you listen.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

DAVID CROSS on Tats, Hitler, Heroine, and the late Beastie Boy's Adam Yauch Dec 05, 2015

Show notes

DAVID CROSS on Tats, Hitler, Heroine, and the late Beastie Boy's Adam Yauch.

Join Slate Plus to unlock full, ad-free access to Employee of the Month and the rest of your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe directly from the Employee of the Month show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Or visit slate.com/employeeplus to get access wherever you listen.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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