Podcasts about then courtney

In episode 22 of season two, the ladies managed to pick an accidental theme again, this time it's true stories that inspired popular movies. Ashleigh tells us about the story of Aileen Wuornos, the real life story behind the movie “Monster”. Then Courtney tells us about the death of Azaria Chamberlain, the baby eaten by a dingo and inspiration for the movie “A Cry In The Dark”. Find research sources and more info, along with patreon exclusive content at SHEattleontap.com

In episode 20 of season two, both the ladies managed to pick the theme of disappearances without actually discussing it ahead of time. Ashleigh tells us about the story of Rebecca Coriam vanishing from the Disney cruise ship, the Disney Wonder. Then Courtney tells the very confusing story of Dennis Martin going missing from the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. Find research sources and more info, along with patreon exclusive content at SHEattleontap.com

In episode 18 of season two, Ashleigh is the one giving us nightmares with the story of the Korean serial killer, Lee Choon Jae. Then Courtney puts on her tinfoil hat again while discussing the rumored US Government alien testing facility known as Hangar 18. Find research sources and more info, along with patreon exclusive content at SHEattleontap.com

In episode 16 of season two, Ashleigh takes us all through the extra awful story of the Chessboard Killer, Alexander Pichushkin. Then Courtney makes it all weird by talking about the mysterious Gravity Hill in Prosser, WA. Find research sources and more info, along with patreon exclusive content at SHEattleontap.com

This episode was recorded in November 2020, and was intended to be pre-recorded for release in January 2021. Then we changed our minds, because we do that sometimes, and chose to make January our off month between seasons. In episode 15 of season two, Ashleigh talks about the mysterious, still unsolved lost colony of Roanoke. Then Courtney makes everyone cringe repeatedly while telling the story of Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau. Find research sources and more info, along with patreon exclusive content at SHEattleontap.com

In episode 14 of season two, Ashleigh tells the incredible survival story of Olive Oatman and her roller coaster of a life. Then Courtney pays homage to upcoming Cinco de Mayo with a mini history lesson about the Underground Railroad that headed south to Mexico. Find research sources and more info, along with patreon exclusive content at SHEattleontap.com

It's a gloomy time here in Chicago and that's partly because Kyra learned that Alex and Simon wrote a book. Kyra digests that news before digging into the loss of Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh. Then Courtney recaps this weeks happening in Bravo and really wants to understand what is going through Drew's head. She doesn't get any answers, but she does ask the question. Plus Kyra and Courtney go through Season 13 of RHONY's taglines!! They can't wait for this new season that they plan on watching live (more on that too). Finally, they go through Season 2 Episode 3 of RHONY and discuss Luann's etiquette lunch, the Hampton's Tea Party and of course Silex's spa day. Come along!  If you enjoy the podcast don't forget to rate, review and subscribe and feel free to follow along on social media as well!Insta: @morallycorruptpodTwitter: @corruptpodemail: morallycorruptpod@gmail.com

In episode 12 of season two, Ashleigh takes us through the horrific story of Rebecca Schaefer’s murder by her stalker, that ultimately influenced laws against stalking people. Then Courtney does sort of a part 2 on Ashleigh’s story from last week, as she describes the most brutal prison in Russia: The Black Dolphin Prison. Find research sources and more info, along with patreon exclusive content at SHEattleontap.com

In episode 10 of season two, Ashleigh enlightens us about the motley history of McNeil Island in Washington state. Then Courtney covers the cult called The Order of the Solar Temple. Find research sources and more info, along with patreon exclusive content at SHEattleontap.com

In episode 8 of season two, Ashleigh tells us the wild story of the murder of Frank Griga and Krisztina Furton by the Sun Gym Gang, sounding like the plot of a very bad 80’s movie. Then Courtney covers the hellacious kidnapping and incredible survival of Colleen Stan. Find research sources and more info, along with patreon exclusive content at SHEattleontap.com

In episode 6 of season two, Ashleigh tells us the story of Kitty Genovese’s murder and how it helped inspire the establishment of 911. Then Courtney goes over the tragic life of Death Row Granny, Velma Barfield. Find research sources and more info, along with patreon exclusive content at SHEattleontap.com

In episode 4 of season two, Ashleigh enlightens us all as to where the US got the idea for immunizations - he was a slave who was named Onesimus. Then Courtney tells us how John Coltrane became a saint in a church named for him. Find research sources and more info, along with patreon exclusive content at SHEattleontap.com

In episode 2 of season two, Ashleigh tells the infuriating story of Tiana Notice. Then Courtney talks about all the reasons why Josephine Baker was so very incredible. Find research sources and more info, along with patreon exclusive content at SHEattleontap.com

On this week's episode of Girls Night, Alexis is joined by Courtney Parchman aka @averagefashionblogger (https://www.instagram.com/averagefashionblogger/?hl=en) . Alexis starts off the episode interviewing Courtney about her recent Comedy Central video where she played The Bachelorette. Then Courtney had a bunch of questions for Alexis about being on the Bachelor, including how she ended up in that iconic costume. Alexis reveals a bunch of behind the scenes stories about her time on both shows, and talks about how she wasn't even going to audition at first. This episode was sponsored by: Curology (https://curology.com/free-trial/1i0n?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=paid_audio&utm_campaign=night&utm_creative=test_creative_v1&t=night) Music by Broke for Free (https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Broke_For_Free) . Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) .

In episode 39, the FINAL episode of season 1 and the year 2020, Ashleigh takes us through the tale behind the Blood Countess of Hungary, Elizabeth Bathory. Then Courtney talks about the founding of Home, WA, a former anarchist community. As an added bonus, the ladies tell us about their confusing family trees and then go over the SHEattle on Tap drinking game rules. Find research sources and more info, along with patreon exclusive content at SHEattleontap.com

In episode 37 Ashleigh chronicles the still unsolved mystery of the Axeman of New Orleans. Then Courtney lightens things up with Operation Acoustic Kitty. Find research sources and more info, along with patreon exclusive content at SHEattleontap.com

In episode 35 Ashleigh makes those of us that eat pork question our life choices as she tells the story of Robert “Willy” Pickton, and the Piggy Palace Good Times Society. Then Courtney gives us a chuckle as she goes over the epic tale of the Cowboy Bob Bandit. Find research sources and more info, along with patreon exclusive content at SHEattleontap.com

Clear eyes, full hearts, #Patriots fans are ready to move forward with new understanding of what to expect for a New England rebuild headed into 2021, and who better to ease them into the future with a sweet song than 2x Super Bowl Champion and local ESPN analyst (legend) Rob Ninkovich. The legendary Pats linebacker recalls years of NFL injury (16:03) with the Saints, struggles he relates to current stars like Joe Burrow (20:20) and how he rose from the NFL cellar to Super Bowl Champion. How easy is it to make a name on an NFL roster during a NE practice tackle drill (32:30), is Belichick really that nice when you fail (34:15), #Patriots second line of defense (39:45), Chase Winovich having staying power? Lawrence Guy and the DL (42:02), Living and dying by the blitz (50:30), #Patriots need a makeover & Jimmy Garoppolo might be the right guy for right now (57:40), Patrick Mahomes vs. Tom Brady’s clutch gene (1:09:30), Stadium noise is damn lame (1:13:20), one thing NFL teams overlook is Special Teams (01:17:28), who’s the ONE team that’s gonna ruin someone’s playoff run? (1:21:10), Kliff Kingsbury has the Danny Amendola juice (01:30:29). THEN Courtney & Ninko move into a funny segment of 20 Random Questions..>> where all bets are off on responses: Ninko’s first car ever (01:37:01), cereal isn’t soup (01:43:34), Rob loves Nut Sauce (01:48:29), ointment is a weird word to say to strangers, and Karate Kid wins the 1990s, for Court and Rob (01:50:28).

In episode 34 Ashleigh unfolds what is known of the unsolved case of Cindy James. Then Courtney chronicles the Philadelphia Poison Ring. Find research sources and more info, along with patreon exclusive content at SHEattleontap.com

In episode 31 we try to help you stay distracted as we all await the Presidential election results. Ashleigh lays out the facts on how Jimmy Carter is a good dude, then takes us through the time he maybe saw a UFO...unless it was barium clouds. Then Courtney tells all her favorite ghost stories in the White House and Capitol Building. Don’t worry, of course, she talks of Lincoln Bedroom. Find research sources and more info at SHEattleontap.com

In episode 29 Ashleigh explains why you never want to fish a suitcase out of a river, and takes us through the disappearance of Julia Martha Thomas. Then Courtney reveals the tale of the London Beer Flood of 1814. Find research sources and more info at SHEattleontap.com

In episode 27 Ashleigh tells us about the devious life of Rasputin. Then Courtney continues the accidental theme of the show, and explains the long-running Love Family Cult. Find research sources and more info at SHEattleontap.com

Woohoo we made it to episode 25! To celebrate our 25th episode, we ran a contest for two listeners to be able to choose our story topics. This week, Ashleigh relays the harrowing survival story of Mary Vincent - the winning entry of Sydney Sumi. Then Courtney chronicles the folklore and facts behind the Jersey Devil - Daniel Moran’s winning entry. Find research sources and more info at SHEattleontap.com

In episode 23 Ashleigh gives us nightmares and at the very least gives us reason to carry a taser as she tells us about Jerry Brudos. Then Courtney explains why we now have the permitting requirements for new buildings after the Great Boston Molasses Flood. Find research sources and more info at SHEattleontap.com

Recorded during Covid-19 quarantine. In episode 21 Ashleigh talks us through the unsolved disappearance of the hopeful writer Dorothy Arnold. Then Courtney explains what it was like in Seattle as Prohibition was in effect (before most other states). Find research sources and more info at SHEattleontap.com

Recorded during Covid-19 quarantine. In episode 19 Ashleigh goes over the murder of Mia Zapata, lead singer of the Gits and how it forever changed the Seattle Grunge scene. Then Courtney explains just how resilient “the Hop King of the World”, Ezra Meeker’s (founder of Puyallup, WA) life was. Find research sources and more info at SHEattleontap.com

Join us this week while we talk about things society is normalizing that is not ok and should not be treated as normal. Jay starts with his fact about how pedophilia is being normalized and Courtney loses her shit. Then Courtney is a little extra ranty today and defends herself for asking so many questions. Someone may or may not have hold her she asks to many questions and it's annoying right before we recorded. Courtneys wtf news talks about about a study done at Oregon State University and California gatekeeping meals. We talk all about Cancel culture, the opinion police, and how we should cancel cancel culture. We talk ghosting and how it's just not a nice thing to do to someone, not spending time with people, and being on your phone 24/7. We touch on being a workaholic and how it's ok to not be ok. Courtney asks if people are allergic to the word sorry or why it seems to be so hard for people to apologize and Jay thinks it is because people have a hard time admitting they are wrong. We talk about not allowing people to think differently and how it is hurting the world around us. Then Courtney leaves us with some fun facts this week that she remembers from school. For more information and links to do with this weeks episode click here

Recorded during Covid-19 quarantine. In episode 17 Ashleigh takes us through the heartbreaking life of the “Confined woman of Poitiers” Blanche Monnier. Then Courtney flips the script and tells us about the resilient life of Princess Angeline Seattle. Find research sources and more info at SHEattleontap.com

Recorded during Covid-19 quarantine. In episode 15 Ashleigh recounts the uncomfortable and incredibly insane story of the Papin Sisters. Then Courtney tells how we all got the phrase “flying saucers” for those alien-looking things in the sky. Find research sources and more info at SHEattleontap.com

Recorded during Covid-19 quarantine. In episode 13 Ashleigh tells the story of Grady Franklin Styles Jr’s life as a circus performer and his murder. Then Courtney tells the horrendous story of Dr Linda Hazzard and Starvation Heights. Find research sources and more info at SHEattleontap.com

Recorded during Covid-19 quarantine. In episode 11 Ashleigh takes us through the harrowing story of three women kidnapped by Ariel Castro and how they got away. Then Courtney tells the confusing story of the still unsolved bombing of Pearl Kongsle. Find research sources and more info at SHEattleontap.com

Recorded during Covid-19 quarantine. In episode 8 Ashleigh tells us about George “Big Nose” Parrott and his highly inappropriate postmortem torture. Then Courtney tells us all about the women who first gave us ale and the history of it becoming what we know now as the beer industry. Find research sources and more info at SHEattleontap.com

We all wish we could tale a permanent vacation every once & a while. But, these stories may have us rethinking that notion. Join us this week while we continue to sample Bulldog Gin & discuss the nightmarish vacation stories of Mónica Beresford-Redman & Deorr Kunz Jr. Then Courtney is recounting her own experience at the Bell Witch Cave. Want to check our sources? Find them on our show notes page: https://www.ginandterrorpodcast.com/notes Give us a follow on our socials! Instagram: @ginandterrorpodcast Facebook: @ginandterrorpodcast Twitter: @ginandterrorpod E-Mail us your submissions for stories, keywords, & gin at submissions@ginandterrorpodcast.com

Recorded during Covid-19 quarantine. In episode 6 the ladies talk quarantine life and how they’re getting through. Ashleigh brings us through the horrible story of the Ant Hill Kids Cult. Then Courtney talks about the Barefoot Bandit. Find research sources and more info at SHEattleontap.com

(SPOILERS) I begin by talking about Ashley Spivey and I’s Sunday night IG live show & next week’s “unexpected” podcast, I give my thoughts on Peter’s 4 podcast appearances released on Tuesday and one answer I found really interesting (2:47), my EXCLUSIVE in regards to info on “Bachelorette” filming plans (9:34).  Then Courtney joins me to talk about her pregnancy, her engagement, Peter’s season, IG influencing, so many Bachelor Nation writing books like she did, how difficult that process was, and much, much more (24:18).  Music written by Jimmer Podrasky (B'Jingo Songs/Machia Music/Bug Music BMI) Ads: Magic Spoon – MagicSpoon.com/STEVE use the code STEVE for free shipping Music written by Jimmer Podrasky (B'Jingo Songs/Machia Music/Bug Music BMI)

We're tackling UNSOLVED MYSTERIES that we love to ponder over this week! (Not the show, but the concept.) Warm up with Sasha's tale of two escape rooms and a discussion of THE SNACKET which has once again returned to ruin our lives. Then Courtney dives deep to answer the question Who Put Bella in the Wych Elm? (Spoilers: It was spies. Or maybe witches. Or maybe other spies. OR OTHER SPIES.) And Sasha gives an overview of the Kecksburg UFO incident, the escape from Alcatraz, and the murder of Tupac Shakur.   Part two is coming next week with EVEN MORE unsolved mysteries, so if you have a fav for us to cover, hit us up!   -- WE HAVE A PATREON. Check it out here: https://www.patreon.com/SpoopHour Find us on Twitter/Instagram @spoophour and send your spooky stories to spoophour[at]gmail[dot]com.

It's Week 3 so you know what that means... the referees are ruining everyone's day (06:00) because we can't figure out what we want from them. Is this our own fault at this point? Then Courtney and Tanya break down the Jalen Ramsey trade request (12:28) and where he can actually make the biggest difference. Hint: it's not in the AFC (16:19) Then we hit on the big topic of the week -- IS ELI MANNING A HALL OF FAMER?! The answer may surprise you. (Finally, Tanya makes an example of a Twitter hater who is out of his league, and Courtney hits her with the AMEN. PS: We love you David Ortiz, patron saint of the Fox & Fallon podcast. Let's hope in October that "thaaaaaa Jankees lose!"

It's free agency szn and we're breaking down our top 10 favorite and most explosive transactions of the off-season so far. Then Courtney puts Tanya through a hilariously distressing game of sports "Would You Rather?" that posits some truly absurd scenarios. And finally, Courtney comes out... as a March Madness hater. And she's not ashamed. 

In this episode AG is visited by fellow podcaster @QuadfatherMFT (Courtney Calkins) and they jump into a fun chat about the scary but all to real world of Black Mirror. Then Courtney gives AG the ultimate Geek Quiz that you can play along with at home! Find us on Twitter @s7evendaysageek @QuadfatherMFT Interested in supporting a geek? Check out our Patreon page www.patreon.com/monkeypoostudios

The moments we realized that workplace culture exists. Then Courtney takes part in a remote work roundtable with pals from fellow remote(ish) startups Trello and Zapier. One fun tip that emerged: Using your dog as a remote work accountability partner.    Courtney: Hi, I'm Courtney Seiter. Carolyn: I'm Carolyn Kopprasch. Courtney: And this is the Buffer CultureLab podcast. Carolyn: Where we’re slightly obsessed with creating happier, more human work. Courtney: And we're back. Welcome to episode two of Buffer CultureLab. In our first episode, we shared a little bit about why we're interested in creating this podcast, and now we're excited to start digging deeper. In each episode, we want to bring you two chapters, if you will. In the first, Carolyn and I will chat about an element of workplace culture, and in the second, I bring you interviews with folks who have unique cultures, and people who are innovating and creating in the realm of work culture. Today Carolyn and I talk about when it dawned on us that workplaces even have cultures of their own. Then I'll share a conversation I was lucky to have with folks from fellow tech startups, Trello and Zapier, about the triumphs and challenges of working remotely.   Courtney: I think it's interesting to talk about how people become aware that workplaces have a culture, and I'm curious to hear from you, Carolyn, when that realization happened for you?   Carolyn:I was very lucky to work for a company called Emma before I started at Buffer. Courtney: Shoutout to Emma. Fun people. Carolyn: Yeah, Emma is awesome. And I worked there for several years, and that was such a different vibe than my job before that. But that was the first time that I was sort of understood that-- I think that workplace culture has such an impact. Because previously I'd worked at an agency, and the people were lovely, and we'd try to do well by our clients and all normal business and human values upheld, but it was never really talked about, and it just wasn't all that explicit, and I didn't spend a lot of mental energy on it. And then I got to Emma. And [laughter] well first of all, when I applied at Emma, they had a question in the application that said, "If you were going to rip a phone book in half, what song would you like playing the background [laughter]?"   Courtney: What?   Carolyn: That's the point, I was like [chuckles], "This is a very unique place."   Courtney: What song did you say [laughter]?   Carolyn: “Who Let the Dogs Out” dance remix [laughter].   Courtney: Wait, I have a follow-up. Why [laughter]?   Carolyn: I don't know [laughter], but I've always had a special place in my heart for that song ever since-- because I'm like, "Oh, my three years at Emma", when I think about it. The history behind that is that there's a person who used to work at Emma who actually could rip the phone book in half - there was a trick to it. Anyway [chuckles].   Courtney: Wow. Carolyn: And you learn that when a whole company all brings in their phone books every year and piles them in front of this guy's desk, and the whole company rallies around and chants, and is so excited to watch somebody do this, that's a workplace culture.   Courtney: That absolutely is a very specific workplace culture.   Carolyn: Very specific [laughter]. So I think that job really taught me not only how important it is, but how different it is at different places.   Courtney: When your agency job felt like-- and you don't need to say anything bad about them, but I'm interested in what it's like to work for a company that  doesn't have any discernible culture, because I've had some experiences with that as well [chuckles].   Carolyn: I think I would probably be quoting a whole lot of startup people if I said, "If you think you don't have a culture, you do, you're just not being very intentional about it and it's probably not that great [laughter]."   Courtney: Most people, I feel like, and this is a vast generalization, the big part of the working world, people are generally like, "I'm going to do my job, I'm going to show up, I'm going to sit at my computer - whatever it is I do on the workplace floor - and then I'm going to go home. And home is where my real life is." And a lot of jobs I've had - I worked in the corporate world previously with publicly traded companies before I came to the startup world. And I've had the experience of being on a committee who was charged with putting on fun events so people would hang out. So we were sort of trying to create a culture where there really wasn't any interest in one. That's the moment I was like, "Oh, okay, workplace culture is a thing, and this place really doesn't quite have it, but would like it. And how do you create it when it doesn't really exist?" We never could figure out a solution to that problem [chuckles].   Carolyn: I think my response to that is that it's awesome to put energy into that, and to be saying, "We want to create events," and "We want people to hang out." I would say that's a really lofty view of how to change culture. And that is part of it, those parties and things like that. I think culture exists on a much more micro-level. The things people talk about at lunch, and if they eat lunch at their desk, and how people connect if it's saying, "How's your family?" Or, "I hate work [laughter]." Those little moments - that's workplace culture, I think. There's a book called The Decision Maker, that we have talked about a lot at Buffer, that I recommend. It's kind of a fable. It's a pretty easy read. The idea is they're like, "We're going to make workplace culture so we're going to install a pinball machine in the break room."   Carolyn: One of the executives ends up overhearing a conversation between two people, who are like, "Yeah, that doesn't..." It's kind of like putting lipstick on a pig a bit. What really matters to us is how we feel in our day to day jobs. Not how it feels when we're invited to spend a couple minutes a day in this fun thing. So kegs and pinball machines, and things like that I think is often used as evidence of culture, but this book is sort of suggesting that it really happens in how decisions are made, and how employees talk to each other, how teammates interact, and how one to ones are operated, and how team leads discuss things with teammates or with each other, or things like that. I think it's really awesome to focus on that, but I would say that's probably 5% of it.   Courtney: I love the phrase evidence of culture. Because when you're adding things on, like parties, pinball machines, like darts, or whatever it is. It probably came about from-- there probably were companies with great cultures where those things happened organically, like the phone book ripping [chuckles], you can't just install. It has to spring from an authentic place of people feeling comfortable with one another, people wanting to hang out, people feeling a genuine connection. Not that you have to hang out. I don't think a great workplace culture equals, "We're best friends. We want to hang out all the time." You can have a super great professional workplace culture and get the job done, and have a lot of stuff going on in your personal life, and that's fine too. I think somehow it's happened where we tend to equate games, beer at the office, as air-quotes "culture." It's like 5% of what culture really could be, maybe, if you really want to dig into it.   Carolyn: Yeah. And what was interesting for us at Buffer, was that we didn't have  the luxury of pointing at those things, or to say it another way, maybe a more cynical way, hiding behind those things, because we were distributed. We didn't have the pinball machines, and the beers, and the hanging out. We had to say, "What is our culture if we don't have those things?" So that's kind of where the shared values and the decisions about gifting Kindle books and a Kindle to everyone on the team.   Courtney:  That’s the best perk. Carolyn: Yeah, I know. It's the best perk ever. And we kind of said, We don't really have that sort of in-office fun workplace type idea or opportunity. So what does it look like if a bunch of people are still going to have conversations and get to know each other, and talk and connect, and talk about work, and talk about personal lives, both to each other and to their families and to their friends? How do we provide an environment where people feel like they want to talk about things that are exciting to them, or helping them improve or be their best selves, without sort of forcing it? Without saying, "Every Friday we get together, and we talk about what we're doing to..." It's this funny line of like leading a horse to water, like, "Here's books and here's a Jawbone, and here's all sorts of other things to try and create an environment where you feel supported, and you feel like you can be your whole self, and you feel like you can pursue your dreams, and talk about things that you're excited about.” You want to be uplifting but without having this hammer about it.   Courtney:  Yeah. You have to trust people to create that. It's like throwing a party, you can't have people get together and say, "Okay, talk about this." Carolyn: Totally, and just like the party example, it all comes down to who's there.  So if you have people in the environment, in the office or in the party or wherever it is, who are happy to be there and excited about what direction the company is going, and genuinely caring about each other, then it's a lot easier to create a great culture [chuckles]. It's kind of like cheating to start at the hiring level.    Courtney: Yeah, the best way to create culture is to hire amazing people [laughter]. Just do that and you'll be fine. Carolyn: There's this quote - I think it's Jim Rome, but I could be wrong, that says that he saw a sign that said, "We don't train our employees to be really nice people. We just hire nice people [laughter]." And he loves that, he's like, "That's so clever. That's such a smart hack." [music]   Courtney: We talk about remote work a lot at Buffer, and it seems like any company that makes this way of work an option has a lot to say about it. Recently I got to be part of a great remote work roundtable hosted by Lauren Moon, who is a Content Marketing Manager at the productivity app Trello. She asked me and Alison Groves of the tool Zapier a lot of awesome questions. Have a listen. [music]    Lauren: So I really wanted to just kind of do a round table. I have some questions to ask you guys, just kind of really kind of a casual conversation about some of your reflections on remote work and how we got here. And what maybe you wish could be different, or things like that. Pain points, too. So let's start with a quick intro. What do you do at your company? How long have you been there?    Courtney:  I am Courtney, I work at Buffer, working on the marketing side and people side. I'm a hybrid right now doing half brand marketing - like, our culture, our values, why we do what we do, the transparency side - and half inclusivity and diversity efforts. So helping us grow in a deliberate way. I have been there for two years and it was my very first remote work jobs, so I got a crash course really quickly.   Alison:  My name is Alison, and I work for a company called Zapier, and we do automation, business automation, not necessarily home automation, but anything you can think of in anything that you need to automate worlds would help you take care of that. I'm also a hybrid like Courtney, I'm both on the Platform and the Marketing Team helping us bring new apps and partners to the Zapier platform. So they come to us most of the time to put their app in our ecosystems, and I work with the Platform Team to help organize that, and then on the marketing side, we make sure that every app gets a brand new introduction into the Zapier community. So we're bringing a new app to Zapier, as of now, every single day. So it's all happening [chuckles]. Lauren: Right. And how long have you been there? Alison: Two years. Lauren: What was the transition like when you guys went full remote? Alison: When I started doing it, it was very hard for me, and I know Courtney and I kind of went through these struggles together where for the first couple months it was-- I don't know anything to do, but to work, because there's so much to do, and I'm really excited, and I want to be doing this, and there's no clear separation between what I'm doing during the day and what I'm doing at night. So I think-- Courtney, I think you and I probably spend a lot of evenings together in those early days to kind break ourselves away from trying to find that work-life balance for sure.   Courtney:  One of the things that was really helpful to me was to have a designated stop point in the day, and someone or something, who could hold me accountable to that, whether it's like my dog knows we take walks at 6:00 PM, or someone is expecting me to come over to make dinner, just something beyond myself, because I myself could not stop myself from working at certain points. Buffer especially, because we're an international team, everyone's coming on at all hours of the day. When you're signing off some people in other parts of the world are just signing on and you're like, "Oh, I want to talk to this person," or like, "We could do this together," and there's an impulse to just stay on your computer forever and ever. So I really discovered early on that I needed very strong incentives and reasons to not be on a computer and that was really helpful. Lauren: I like the idea that your dog is like, "Okay. What are we doing here [chuckles]?" Courtney: He’s a great accountability partner. Lauren: Yeah. It could be your dog. I think that's adorable. Are you still all in? Can you ever imagine going back to an office? Courtney: I can't at this point. It took me a long time to get it, because I come from a very butts-in-the-seats type of environment. I had never had that kind of  freedom to live this way, and I saw all my teammates traveling, going these exotic places and working. And I will admit, I had a slight perception, I was like, "They're probably not working as hard as I am." When I'm my desk like typing, typing, typing. And then when I started traveling I was like, "Oh, it forces you to condense your day in such like a laser focus way."  I honestly think I get more done when I'm on the move, because it makes me prioritize my day so tightly that I can't spend an hour just browsing Twitter which -- it happens [chuckles]. I've got to get this done. There's no other alternative. It was a huge,  humbling learning for me that you can so much more done and I definitely should not have judged people who travel as less hard workers, that's not true at all.    Alison: I think Courtney nailed it. When I'm at home, and I know even when we're at home together, if she and I are working it's just together. It's just, you're at home, you are still getting work done but there is no real end point. I know for a fact that, Courtney, that you and I have sat there until 7:00 o'clock at night, not even realizing together what we're doing. And then we're like "Oh, we're hungry, we should do something about that". Whereas when you're on the road, and you're on the move, you have to be very, very, very deliberate about your time, and what you're doing, and I know that I get-- this is probably sad to admit, I get way more done in a shorter time when I travel. Lauren: What do you guys think about the idea of you have this desk that maybe you don't even go to really if you're not working at your house? It's a mind association thing. You go to this desk, that means you're working. Or whatever. Or maybe you're couch sitters, I don't know. Alison:  I work everywhere in my house, except for my bed, that's the one place I don't take my work. Lauren: Good idea. Alison: When I was younger, I fell into that terrible trap of never getting out of bed, and always having my laptop with me. Now and part of that was demand of the job, like it was kind of a 24/7 job, but at the same time it was a terrible, terrible habit. I have a standing desk in my office, but sometimes I find that a little distracting, because I have a big monitor I find myself-- my brain can go really quickly to everything that's on it. So a lot of times if I need to write, I will actually just take my laptop over to the couch or somewhere else where I have a tiny screen, and I can only focus on what I'm writing. So everyone's going to have a different answer to that question. But I personally have never been one who was like, "Oh well, you know I have to have my designated work space, and my designated living space." But I do understand why people do that. Courtney:  I would like to be a person who does that, but right now I lack discipline terribly in that. I work from everywhere, including beds - a lot. I don't know, I don't even want to say it's not good, because for me it kind of actually works okay. But I do understand why you would want to create a place. Otherwise your whole house becomes slightly associated with work, and you have work feelings all over it, which is not always a good emotion to be having all over your house [laughter]. Alison: Work feelings [chuckles]. Lauren: Work feelings. You're like, "I can't go in that corner, it just reeks of work feelings.”   [music]   Lauren: I want to transition a little bit into the company dynamics behind a remote culture. Ours is different because it's only half remote, so there is this sense that there is a home base. What I want to hear is the entirely remote aspect of it. How does that affect you personally? How do you think it affects company culture? How do you guys get to know each other? Those kind of questions.   Alison: At Zapier we do physical onboarding. Any new employee-- and I think this might be impossible for Buffer, one because the people-- the sort of oldest employees are still pretty transient, I think they travel a lot. Whereas our three co-founders are in the Valley, and they're kind of homebodies, and like just stay put. So anytime someone new comes on they actually go out there for a week, and some of us will join them. I usually go every couple of months, and just hang out with new people, and then kind of spend the week just learning the ropes whatever that might be. So for developers it will be getting their production environment set up, for support people it's just throwing them into the fire, and trying to support 600 different apps, and then getting all that sort of stuff set up. And then for us on the marketing side we might spend a couple of days brainstorming, or just having good conversations face-to-face with the person.    Alison: So that on-boarding process for us, I think still works really well. I don't know if how you know when we're growing exponentially if we're going to be able to pull that off still. But I do really like that. I think it's really, really helpful, and it also allows you to get to know a couple of your teammates, like, right off the bat. So that's really good. And I'll let Courtney talk about retreats, because we kind of do the same thing, but for us it's sort of those two chunks. Like one, when you first start, you have your on-boarding time, and then that other part is you might go back out there to San Jose for someone else's onboarding. So we do sort of have those smaller experiences. And then we just like Buffer do, do two retreats a year. All face-- so, everyone together.   Courtney: For Buffer, this is a big one. So early on, our founders basically got kicked out of Silicon Valley, because they are Austrian and British, and didn't have the right visas. So that's how Buffer sort of became remote at first, because they [chuckles] were in the wrong place, so had to go somewhere. Lauren: Wow. Courtney: And so as a result they really started to enjoy this travel experience, and what they gained from going other places, and it became ingrained in Buffer's culture very early, before there even was a product almost. This was a cool way to be able to live and work. Then, as we grew-- and I mean as we grew first 5, 10, 15 people, a decision had to be made around, "Do we want this to be how it works for Buffer?" We felt pretty strongly (and this is way before me, so when I say, "We," I don't mean me personally - I mean people who came earlier) that it needed to be one or the other. We didn't want, for our personal reasons, to split the difference, and have an office with some people in it and some people floating around remotely. We really wanted there to be one solution and there's no preference either way, whichever one we chose. Courtney: So they ending up going with the remote idea, and I think it's had a huge impact in shaping our culture. Almost everything we do has to be slightly different, slightly skewed, because we're not in the same place in the world. Like how we deal with time zones. We do a lot of asynchronous work, like if you're working with someone in Cape Town, South Africa, I've got maybe a one hour or two hour overlap with my teammates there. So we can meet during that time, otherwise we're going to need to work on a Paper doc where I can add stuff, and then he can wake up and add his stuff. And work can sort of be happening all of the time that way.   Courtney: The way we communicate with one another on a day-to-day basis has changed a lot because of that. It's so hard to transmit emotion when you don't see someone physically face to face. So we try and overcome that with GIFs and emojis, basically [chuckles].  Because our hub is Slack, it's our water cooler, it's our office, it's like everything for us. So we have to take advantage of that, and create those moments to have fun, and be yourself, and bring some of who you are - your humor, your personality - into how we communicate and what we do. Because otherwise we would never know one another beyond a surface level until we went on retreat, and we do that twice a year. So you could go every six months with these people being just random faces in a box to you, unless you really take that extra effort to get to know them.   Lauren: It's interesting to hear what you guys do, and kind of compare it to what we do. We were a totally HQ company, and then someone who's originally from Hawaii wanted to go remote. He sort of  started the whole thing.   From there it just became a compelling recruiting tool to be able to attract anyone from anywhere, as opposed to just in New York. We're half remote.   My team especially is half remote, my Marketing Team. So my manager is remote. But he person I work closest to, Brian, I sit right next to, so obviously I'm closer to Brian.   Lauren:  But for us we have found-- and there was a lot of pain points in the beginning in terms of communication because we were all just figuring it out. My manager was the first remote manager. It was interesting what you said, Courtney, about face-to-face, because we realized that when there were pain points or we weren't communicating very well a lot of it had to do with trying to convey this on Slack or trying to figure it out on Slack, and eventually we learn to immediately default to a video, and that assuaged a lot of the weirdness. How often do you guys default to face-to-face conversations through video chat? And how does that help or not help? Courtney:  I would say I have three to four video chats a day, everyday. If it's a meeting or something that if there are big decisions to be made, really almost any decisions to be made, we tend to default to video, and that's how we do our one-on-ones, our coaching. It's a huge part of our day, and I don't know that it would work without it. Lauren: Right. Alison: I'm kind of opposite. I would go many, many days without having a video chat, and I think that's because we're still as small as we are, and everyone still has really sort of independent, yet super defined, spaces that they operate in. So when I do a chat, it's because we're either having our weekly marketing meeting, our weekly platform meeting. I do a one-on-one every week with Danny, who's our Marketing Team Lead, and he brings all the information together and disseminates it back out to everyone else. But other than that I think, again-- and it might be just the nature of what I do. Like, what I do is so singular and so me, and doesn't really involve anyone else, that I don't need to do that.   Alison: But I think that's pretty common across Zapier. We're still at that point where everyone has really, really defined roles, and even the-- as the teams grow they're still really independent. It will be interesting to see if that changes the more we grow, and the more our roles start to overlap each other, or we get more-- not necessarily more help, but like when we get more hands in like what that will mean, as far as communication goes.    Lauren: We also have these Friday afternoon, like we all drink beer together on the video chat. Which ends up being-- like you'd think it would be like weird but it's actually like a pretty compelling time. Like sometimes it goes on for hours, like hours and hour, which is hilarious. Courtney: I love that. That's so adorable. Lauren: Yeah, it's called beer bash, or remote beer bash. Courtney: We've been thinking about doing something like that. One of the hardest things for me about being remote is when you really like your teammates, and you want to hang out with them, and you want to go to happy hour, but they live somewhere totally across the world.    Lauren: Right. That is like one of the hardest things for me. Especially because I do have all these-- we do hang out all the time the HQ people and we're like "Man, wouldn't it be so cool if like she was here? Or like.." Whoever, like, "Oh, Ryan would love this show, but he lives in LA".  It just feels like I have all these-- I feel like I have all these friends all over the place now, which is whacked, because I'm like do I even really know them? The funniest-- I don't know if you guys have ever experienced this, but like, there are people who are like really outgoing and all over Slack, and like in every channel, and like funny and hilarious and you feel like you really like know them. You know? And you're like, "They're great. This is awesome." And then they come to HQ, and they're like super shy. And they're in person [chuckles] and you got to like, "Ooh." I'm like, "Talk to me, we talk all the time." And they're super shy and you're like, "Is this like internet, what is this? What is happening here?" Courtney: That's so fascinating. Courtney: We've had the opposite happen a lot, where we can't really tell like, "Oh maybe they're shy?" Or like, "Maybe they're very professional?" And then  at our retreat they're like the karaoke superstar. And you're like, "I had no idea!" Lauren: That's great. But there is a lot to know about people. And the other thing is with the remote thing, because I'm in HQ, I see everybody when they on-board - they are here for the first week - but if I don't work on your team-- like for example, I would never work with a QA tester. There is absolutely no reason that I ever need to interface with a QA tester. So if they're remote and I never have to work with them, I really don't know them at all, and if I was remote too, I would have never even met them, and I would've never even worked with them. So I think about those things a lot. I think about remote people who don't know each other and I'm like, "You might like each other." Or like, "It's crazy that they don't even know each other," and those are the things that-- I worry about that or [laughter]-- I don't know.    Lauren: As teams grow, what can you really do about that? You can't be friends with everybody anyway. Even if we were all in the same building. I just am always wondering how do you supplant that funny little conversation that you had with that random person in the bathroom by the sink, or that silly little interaction when that person spilled all the pencils everywhere. How do you get that? I know you said, Courtney, that you guys have a lot of personal Slack channels. You have family channels and pets channels. That's something that we do too. All those cat people know everybody else's cats names and stuff like that. Alison: All the cat people [laughter]. Courtney: Yes. You’ve got to know the cats’ names. Lauren: Those are not my people. I'm in the dog room, but anyway [laughter]. Courtney: One thing that we found, and this is brand new. In Hawaii we were like, "Let's figure out Snapchat." So we did. We came back and we created a thread in our internal Facebook group where we're like, "Let's all follow each other on Snapchat." And it's turned out to be the most interesting way to see inside someone's life, because the stuff you share on Snapchat is your randomest, everyday, what's going on, like, "I'm walking to work, I'm eating a muffin," whatever is happening. Now I know people's pets, I people's kids, I know what filters they like. It's been a level of getting to know people that we just discovered.   Lauren: That's a great one. Alison: That might be the only legitimate use of Snapchat. Courtney: Right? It's perfect for remote teams. Lauren: That's a great one. Also, I'm always like, I'm too old for Snapchat. Courtney: That's what I thought, too. I'm very old. Alison: One thing that we did that's a lot of fun, everyone you know, you have that one little thing you know about them that's not necessarily mean, but it's that one little thing that you poke at. So one of our co-founders, Mike - he's our product guy - he loves Bud Light. He loves it. He unabashedly loves it [laughter]. That's what everyone knows about Mike and we all pick on Mike because of that. Everyone in Slack has their own little custom emoji that our developers will make. So Mike has his own little Bud Light can, mine is me riding a Segway.   Courtney:  You're riding a Segway? That's your thing? Alison: No, Zapier has a Segway. It was a gift from someone. And so whenever you go out to HQ you ride the Segway, it's almost like an initiation because they're really hard to ride. Someone took a picture of me riding the Segway and someone else, who wasn't there, loved it and turned into a Slack emoji. You find those fun little things that you-- little quirks in people, and that really comes out in Slack, for sure. And then that carries over, that carries over in real life too.   Alison: But it's getting more and more difficult, I think, the bigger we are. For us in Florida, I felt, and I think this is just a part of who I am, I felt a pretty tough-- a rough burden to make sure that everyone was hanging out, and was together, and I just think you pass a certain point. I'm sure, Courtney can speak to this too that's just not feasible, and you just really kind of have to let people and groups, say larger than 25, just kind of find their own thing and migrate around, and I think people are pretty good about doing that.  There's a giant board game contingency at Zapier and that's something   that like all the more introverted people like to do. I'm not a huge fan of it all, so I always abstain. So I think there is always ways for people to figure that out, and just you have to work a little bit harder at it when you are remote. Lauren:  Do you feel like you've made real friends? I feel like I have made real friends, but HQ and remote, more so HQ obviously because I see them more, but definitely remote also. I feel like I have made friends that are not just coworkers, but actual friends. Do you guys feel like you have that?   Alison:  Yeah. In fact, I just traveled a couple of months ago to Barcelona to spend a week with one of my teammates there. Lauren:  Amazing. Alison: And she's lovely. I love her to bits. I think that-- and I imagine Courtney and I have probably had this conversation personally before, but the older you get, you realize that you have to work harder for things that mean something. If something does mean something it's worth that work. And so I feel the same way with having being on a remote team. It's like when you find those people that personally even outside of work that you really like, and that you want to spend time with, who cares where they are or what the circumstances are? If it's worth having you just work hard and you do it. And so I think that that really kind of manifests itself in this world, because we all work harder to be there for each other, and to kind of grow, not only professionally, but personally as well. [music]   Courtney:  We'd love to hear how this podcast felt to you. If you've got questions, thoughts, feedback, we're definitely new at this. We're excited to learn. So  please be in touch with us. You can reach us on Twitter at@buffer and you can email us at hello@buffer.com. We're excited to hear from you. [music]  

It's our sesquicentennial! As Ben and Courtney commemorate 150 episodes (well, actually this is our 181st, but you know we're not much for counting correctly), they first take you on a trip to the south of France, where NCR's France correspondant Carole Bouchard wraps up the Monte Carlo Masters, where Nadal won on clay and it was somehow a surprise. Then, after a detour through Fed Cup, we pivot to the south of the United States, and soak in the sounds of the Volvo Car Open in Charleston, one of our favorite stops on tour with some of our favorite people. You'll hear from four of them: volunteer extraordinaire Lynn Coursey ("She's here!"), Diane Elayne Dees and Daniel Ward of Women Who Serve, and tournament manager Eleanor Adams. Then Courtney and Ben meditate (or something) on their relative experiences with the sports worlds of Portland and Philadelphia.  Ben also announces the upcoming NCRvision Song Contest which will be brought to your in just a few weeks, so be sure to tweet or email us your submissions!  As always, thanks for liking us on Facebook, following us on Twitter, and subscribing/reviewing on iTunes or whatever your podcasting app/platform of choice may be.

Who is Joe Peacock? In 2012 he enraged millions of Geek when he tried to call out the exploitation that is happening now that Geek is Chic. His Article on CNN's Geekout has become the 2nd more viewed written word pieces behind the Death of Bin Laden. GHR talks to Joe about his Art of Akira project and his passion to promote Science, Mathematics, the Arts, Animators and Animation. Then Courtney takes him to task to finding out what was really behind the now infamous article, and he wants for the Geek future. The interview is insightful, passionate and goes to the root of what it means to be geek(for both genders). I think you be surprised at what you find out when you listen. Link to download