Story In A Bottle Podcast

The challenge of totally changing your career path after dedicating years to one industry is immense in and of itself. But to do it due to the emotional toll the first one took on you is at another level. Cheryl Wischhover started off her career as a pediatric oncology nurse for 15 years - seeing just how brutal the impact of cancer can be on a daily basis. Today, she is the Senior Beauty Reporter for the fashion and beauty online publication Racked. Cheryl always wanted to be a writer of some sort, but her family’s path turned her towards nursing. When she moved from Chicago to New York in the early 2000’s, she fell in love with fashion, blogging, and the rise of social media which quickly led her to a change that would reroute her entire life and finally let her live out her passions.

 

What You’ll Learn:

  • What is Racked and why is it different from writing for publications such as Glamour, Teen Vogue, and Elle (4:50)
  • The science behind writing about beauty and why Cheryl’s medical background has been a huge help to her (9:45)
  • How to be strong and follow your head and heart on what you really want to do in life (19:45)
  • Everything that prompted Cheryl to change her career and how she did it (31:00)
Direct download: SIAB_CWischhover_v3.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 9:45pm EDT

“Politics” should be John Knefel’s middle name. Growing up in a Iowa, a swing state, he understood the political world at a very young age, an that has stuck with him to today. At age 35, he has used his passion for politics as a throughline through the different careers he’s already had. Starting his career with stand-up comedy in New York right after college in the midwest, he parlayed that into his own podcast, Radio Dispatch, which lead him into the world of journalism,  freelancing for top publications like Rolling Stone and The Nation. With his newest venture, writing for Comedy Central's The President Show, he's finally been able to combine his two core passions: comedy and politics.

 

What You’ll Learn:

  • When writing for a political comedy show, how can you stick to satire rather than sticking to the daily news cycle (10:08)
  • Where is the line drawn for taking political comedy too far (17:25)
  • How to bring the trend of storytelling into comedy (47:00)
  • Why are people driven by their political beliefs (59:17)
  • How to make money as a freelance journalist in our day and age (1:13:48)
Direct download: SIAB_JKnefel_v3.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 12:05am EDT

Tennis has always been a passion for Caitlin Thompson, and now she is able to hone in on that passion with her own magazine, Racquet. From a young age, she knew being on the tennis court and telling stories were two things that just came natural to her. She continued those two natural feelings by playing tennis for the University of Missouri, which also happens to be one of the best journalism schools in the country. She went on to lead a very fulfilling life in journalism, writing for newspapers and magazines all over the world, and even though our world is shifting more to digital, nothing compares to the excitement and dedication to her own print magazine, and how she feels destiny has brought her two favorite worlds together into one.

 

What You’ll Learn:

  • Why Racquet is is so important for such a small community (5:10)
  • How money is valuable and media should not be free (28:54)
  • Why tennis has always been written on a spectrum of utility instead of about the people (30:37)
  • How Racquet is putting tennis players back into the cultural conversation (39:06)
Direct download: SIAB_CThompson_v3.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 10:57am EDT

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