Life Done Different

As I’m planning for this holiday season, I realized we’re living in incredible times. I can go online and order just about anything imaginable and have it delivered to my door in two days. It’s like magic. But I know that there a lot of wheels in motion behind the scenes that make the magic possible and this week, I got interested in 18 of them in particular.

When it comes to dream jobs, I’m pretty sure that I’m not alone in saying that I’d love to be Anthony Bourdain. Think about it. He travels the world, experiences cultures through food and shares it with us. What’s not to love?

Becoming a parent may be one of the largest decisions we can make in our lives. But how do you approach that decision if you know the child isn't going to be yours?

We're taking this week off from publishing a full episode in order to celebrate Thanksgiving. In the spirit of the holiday, I wanted to say that I'm incredibly thankful for all of you who are Life Done Different listeners. Sharing this podcast with you all is one of the biggest highlights of my year. 

From fancy tuxedos, to beautiful assistants, vanishing coins and teleporting cards - I’ve always been mesmerized by magic. But beyond the illusions, one of the things that I find most mysterious about the world of magic, is how polarized it seems.

The phone rings. You pick it up and on the other line you hear a voice that says: “We have your wife and child. You have 24 hours to get us 5 million dollars or else they die.” What do you do? I can’t imagine what getting a call like that would feel like, let alone what to do. But for Chris Voss (@VossNegotiation), this would have been just another day in the office.

Happy Halloween everyone! I thought we could start the show today in Planet Money style with two numbers, 4.4 and zero. I’ll give you a second to guess their significance. Alright, ready?  If you said that 4.4 is the average number of pounds that we Americans produce as waste on a daily basis, you’d be correct. Kinda scary isn’t it?  As for zero, that’s the average amount of waste that Kathryn Kellogg (@goingzerowaste) produces annually!

I hate it when I break things because I only have three options: 1) I can try to repair it myself, which isn’t really an option 2) I can pay for a professional to fix it, which usually costs more than the product itself or 3) I can ditch the old one and buy a new one. And this is the cycle that Peter Skinner is trying to fix.

It’s 1999. You decide you want to travel the world, but you’re from a small town, you don’t have a lot of connections and you don’t have a ton of cash. What do you do? This was the question that inspired Casey Fenton to create Couchsurfing.com.

Alright, for those of you who are sticking around, the topic today is porn. I’m guessing you’re familiar with it, but how familiar are you with what goes on behind the scenes and in the industry at large? I asked myself that question and realized, not that much. Today I got a chance to change that. I sat down with international porn star, Puma Swede (@PumaSwede), to change that and we had a no holds barred conversation about her career.

What if donating to charity meant that you could win the experience of your dreams; like flying around the world to party with your favorite band, a role in a blockbuster movie, or having lunch 1-on-1 with your idol? Would you be more inclined to give to a good cause and would charities raise more money?

5. Wyatt Jenkins - From Techno to Tech

4. Laura Dekker - Youngest Solo Circumnavigator Ever

There’s a rule in Las Vegas - the house always wins. It turns out that rule can be broken, and Blade shows us how. We talk about Blade's transition to becoming a professional gambler, the preparation that was required, including creating an alternate persona, and the capital necessary for the endeavor.

Jay Shafer (@fourlightshouse) is best known as the pioneer of the tiny house movement. He’s the author of the Small House Book and the founder of Four Lights Tiny House Company. His work has been featured on Oprah, The New York Times, The New Yorker and beyond.