How to Be Anything is a documentary-style podcast that profiles people with unusual, surprising, and wildly specific jobs. From puppeteers to tower climbers to scientists who search for dark matter underground and in space, each episode explores how people end up in jobs no one tells you about in school—and what it’s like to build a life doing something most of us have never heard of.
This isn’t a self-help show or a career coaching podcast. How to Be Anything is for the job-curious, the creatively restless, and anyone who likes eavesdropping on someone else’s weird path through life. It brings a literary, documentary sensibility to work and identity.
The show is created and hosted by journalist Emily McCrary, and it blends deep curiosity and narrative storytelling to explore the stories that go beyond job titles.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
Laney spent two years cycling across New York City as a courier, delivering weed and gummies straight to people’s doors. Along the way, she met eccentric characters: a man with a hallway full of newspapers, a woman with a house full of disco balls, and a musician diagnosed with Parkinson's who used weed to play his instruments. The job was exhausting, risky, sometimes scary, but also filled with surprising moments of connection. In this bonus episode, Laney shares how cycling 13+ miles a day changed the way she saw the city, and herself.
We're a bootstrapped, indie podcast, so please text a friend and share your favorite episode. Every download helps. Don't forget to rate and review and tell us what you really think. Those go a long way too.
To learn more about the show and our guests, visit howtobeanything.com (https://www.howtobeanything.com/)
Find us on Instagram: instagram.com/howtobeanything (https://open.acast.com/%C2%A0https://www.instagram.com/howtobeanything/)
See pictures of our guests and get a behind-the-scenes look at the podcast on our Substack at howtobeanything.com.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
10 Sept 2025TRANSCRIPT
10. How Dogs to Find Cancer
On September 11, Dr. Cindy Otto cared for the search-and-rescue dogs working the pile at Ground Zero—an experience that changed the course of her career. Today, she leads the Penn Vet Working Dog Center, where dogs are trained to climb ladders, sniff out explosives, and even detect cancer in humans (and dogs!). In this episode, Dr. Otto shares how dogs learn to separate the “signal from the noise” in complex human blood samples and why their supernoses are helping scientists build new diagnostic tools. It’s a story about resilience, science, and the extraordinary bond between humans and dogs.
See pictures of our guests and get a behind-the-scenes look at the podcast on our Substack at howtobeanything.com.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
3 Sept 2025TRANSCRIPT
9. How to Be a Doctor in the Arctic Circle
What does it take to be the only doctor in a remote Arctic village, where polar bears roam and lab results arrive by plane—if the weather allows? In this episode, Dr. Jen Pond shares her journey from practicing medicine in a mud hut in India to working at the world’s highest ER at Everest Base Camp, and now serving an Inuit community in Nunavut. She reflects on the extremes of remote medicine, the lingering effects of colonialism on Indigenous health, and the mental strength required to practice in such environments. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to trade a suburban clinic for the edges of the world, this conversation will open your eyes.
See pictures of our guests and get a behind-the-scenes look at the podcast on our Substack at howtobeanything.com.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
27 Aug 2025
8. How to Be a Tower Climber
Tower climbers risk their lives to keep your phone signal working—and most people don’t even know the job exists. In this episode, climber Brendon King shares what it’s really like to scale a steel tower swaying like a spaghetti noodle, nap in a harness suspended 300 feet in the air, and discover cell antennas hiding in fake cactuses and church steeples. It’s dangerous, breathtaking work that powers nearly everything we do.
See pictures of our guests and get a behind-the-scenes look at the podcast on our Substack at howtobeanything.com.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
25 Aug 2025
Bonus: I Used to Be a Corporate Butler
When an aspiring journalist took a day job as a butler for Philadelphia’s ultra-rich, he found himself serving Michelin-star meals, running dry cleaning, and accidentally spiking the water with zucchini. In this bonus episode, Max Ufberg shares the strange, funny, and sometimes uncomfortable realities of working behind the scenes for the one percent. The experience gave him an education in class and work. Today, he’s a senior editor at Fast Company, but he still remembers what it felt like to answer the bell.
We're a bootstrapped, indie podcast, so please text a friend and share your favorite episode. Every download helps. Don't forget to rate and review and tell us what you really think. Those go a long way too.
To learn more about the show and our guests, visit howtobeanything.com (https://www.howtobeanything.com/)
Find us on Instagram: instagram.com/howtobeanything (https://open.acast.com/%C2%A0https://www.instagram.com/howtobeanything/)
See pictures of our guests and get a behind-the-scenes look at the podcast on our Substack at howtobeanything.com.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
20 Aug 2025
7. How to Be a Forensic Artist
In this episode of How to Be Anything, forensic artist Melissa Cooper takes us inside the delicate, high-stakes work of sketching criminals, missing persons, and the unidentified—sometimes from nothing more than a witness’s memory or a bare skull. She shares how she balances compassion with precision, guiding people through painful recollections to capture the face they’ll never forget. From age progressions to postmortem reconstructions, Melissa reveals the surprising mix of artistry, psychology, and science that powers her work. Plus, hear the story of a single sketch that helped catch a suspect within days.
We're a bootstrapped, indie podcast, so please text a friend and share your favorite episode. Every download helps. Don't forget to rate and review and tell us what you really think. Those go a long way too.
Find us on Substack: howtobeanything.com (https://www.howtobeanything.com/)
And on Instagram: instagram.com/howtobeanything/ (https://www.instagram.com/howtobeanything/)
See pictures of our guests and get a behind-the-scenes look at the podcast on our Substack at howtobeanything.com.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
18 Aug 2025
Bonus: "My Friend's a Rapper!" (HTBA Listeners Tell Their Stories)
To celebrate the launch of How to Be Anything, we threw a party, complete with cake, drinks, and a telephone where guests could call in their funniest, cringiest, and most unforgettable job stories. In this bonus episode, you'll hear everything from a woman trying to make a call on her shoe, being trapped in a junk truck with a SoundCloud rapper, to the world’s most committed Panera brownie fan. It’s hilarious, heartfelt, and a reminder that every job—no matter how ordinary—comes with a story worth telling.
See pictures of our guests and get a behind-the-scenes look at the podcast on our Substack at howtobeanything.com.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
13 Aug 2025
6. How to Search for Dark Matter Underground and in Space
Most of the universe is made of something we can’t see, detect, or even describe in much detail. In this episode, we go from the depths of a gold mine in South Dakota to the far reaches of space, where experiments are underway to catch a glimpse of the universe’s most elusive ingredient: dark matter. Along the way, astrophysicist Dan Hooper recalls the moment he stumbled across a strange anomaly in NASA data—one that might just be evidence of dark matter itself. It’s a journey to the cutting edge of physics, where the biggest mysteries may be hidden in plain sight.
To learn more about dark matter and the experiments searching for it, visit our Substack at https://howtobeanything.com
See pictures of our guests and get a behind-the-scenes look at the podcast on our Substack at howtobeanything.com.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
6 Aug 2025
5. How to Be a Foley Sound Artist
What does it take to make the sound of someone walking through a tunnel made of flesh or leaping into the mouth of a shark? For Dutch Foley artist Ronnie Van der Veer, it might involve wet chamois cloths, antique bullets, or a pool rigged to sound like a plane crash. In this episode of How to Be Anything, Ronnie pulls back the curtain on the invisible craft of making movies feel real, one squish, tap, and creak at a time.
See pictures of our guests and get a behind-the-scenes look at the podcast on our Substack at howtobeanything.com.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
30 Jul 2025
4. How to Be a Puppetry Artist
For puppetry artist Heidi Rugg, performing puppet shows isn’t just play: it’s storytelling, sculpture, design, voice acting, and engineering rolled into one. In this episode, Heidi shares how a leisurely walk sparked a 25-year career writing, building, performing, and traveling. We talk about the art and grit behind her work, what it means to be bad at something before you're good, and why puppets are more common (and more powerful) than you might think.
See pictures of our guests and get a behind-the-scenes look at the podcast on our Substack at howtobeanything.com.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
25 Jul 2025
Bonus: I Used to Be an Artist at Madame Tussauds
Meet Brie Hayden, a former studio artist at Madame Tussauds who shampooed wax heads, inserted individual eyelashes, and turned a melted celebrity into a Halloween zombie. In this bonus episode, Brie shares surreal stories from her time inside the museum and explains how that experience launched her full-time career as a hyper-realist artist. It’s a behind-the-scenes look at one of the strangest (and coolest) jobs you never knew existed.
See pictures of our guests and get a behind-the-scenes look at the podcast on our Substack at howtobeanything.com.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
23 Jul 2025
3. How to Be a Dungeons & Dragons Lorekeeper
Skye Smith has one of the rarest jobs in the world: they’re the lorekeeper for Dimension 20, a hit actual-play Dungeons & Dragons show on Dropout TV. In this episode, Skye explains what D&D is, how collaborative storytelling works, and what it’s like to keep track of every single character, snack, and magical tree across multiple seasons. We talk about improvisation, creativity under constraint, and how Skye’s love of story led them from working as a production assistant to building their dream job from scratch. If you’ve ever wondered how a sprawling fantasy epic gets made—or how a cockroach named Marty ends up in Madison Square Garden—this one’s for you.
See pictures of our guests and get a behind-the-scenes look at the podcast on our Substack at howtobeanything.com.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
23 Jul 2025
2. How to Be a Sheepdog Trainer
In this episode, we meet Paddy Fanning, one of the world’s top sheepdog trainers. Paddy travels the globe—Norway, South Africa, Canada, Spain, and beyond—training dogs and judging competitions, but his journey started with a cowboy job in Canada and a dusty copy of Think Harmony with Horses. He shares how Ray Hunt’s philosophy of working with animals shaped not only how he trains dogs, but how he rebuilt his life after giving up drinking. It’s a story about instinct, trust, and the partnership between man and dog.
See pictures of our guests and get a behind-the-scenes look at the podcast on our Substack at howtobeanything.com.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
23 Jul 2025
1. How to Be a Death Doula
Erin Bishop was building a successful consulting business when a close friend was diagnosed with terminal cancer. She brought him into her home and cared for him as he died, and what she saw changed her life. In this episode, Erin explains what a death doula does and what a good death can look like. We also explore death cafes, legacy projects, and how death can shape the way we live.
See pictures of our guests and get a behind-the-scenes look at the podcast on our Substack at howtobeanything.com.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
9 Jul 2025
Coming Soon: How to Be Anything
How to Be Anything is a documentary-style podcast that profiles people with unusual, surprising, and wildly specific jobs. From puppeteers to tower climbers to scientists who search for dark matter underground and in space, each episode explores how people end up in jobs no one tells you about in school—and what it’s like to build a life doing something most of us have never heard of.
The show is created and hosted by journalist Emily McCrary, and it blends deep curiosity and narrative storytelling to explore the stories that go beyond job titles.
See pictures of our guests and get a behind-the-scenes look at the podcast on our Substack at howtobeanything.com.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy (https://acast.com/privacy) for more information.
Inside a recent episode
Bonus: I Used to Be A Weed Courier
Published 24 Sept 2025 · Transcript excerpt
[…] Yeah. Good for you, though. And they were, for the most part, incredibly humble and nice people. But there was another man who lived upper east side, and I always thought he should meet the disco ball woman. But he had so many cellos and stand-up bass instruments in his apartment. And he had a bit of a shake and much older as well, probably like 70s, 80s. And he said he smoked weed to help with his Parkinson's so he could play instruments. And I was like, that's really incredible. There's people using this as medicine. I kind of like felt, you know, but I actually saw it in real time and was like, this should definitely be legal. […]
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