Jobsolete

When we think of people carrying out death sentences today, we think of low-key affairs where the media is not invited. However, the Professional Public Executioner was a true showman when he carried out death sentences in front of thousands of people. But that’s not how he made most of his money. Helen and Matt explore the wild and complicated occupation of Executioner. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You might want to write this episode down. Helen and Matt look at one of the most important occupations in human history, the Scribe, and we only know about this job because they were so helpful as to write down what they did. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From the local small-town stage to New York’s Palace Theater, vaudeville was an essential part of every community. In this episode, Helen and Matt learn about the Vaudevillians, the ones who kept Americans entertained when there wasn’t much to do for fun.  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How do you smuggle alcohol into the country during Prohibition? Being well connected, great management skills, strong interpersonal relationships, and having a passion for the industry. While that sounds like a born Linkedin profile bio, Helen and Matt learn that being a Rum Runner was at times both thrilling and boring, yet almost always lucrative.  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

During the heyday of live jazz music, the charismatic and ambitious one who kept it all together was the Big Band Orchestra Leader. Helen and Matt explore how the occupation gave rise to the birth of the modern pop singer. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The rarest of all occupations on Jobsolete, only 24 men have ever gone to the Moon. All of them were from the United States. Helen and Matt learn about the legacy and impact of the Moon Astronaut. While we cherish the history of the Apollo program, the real excitement comes from the fact that this decade the occupation will return. That’s right, we’re going back to the moon for the first time in 50 years! Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Before computers, women helped Walt Disney bring his hand drawn animations to life as Animated Cel Inkers, a little known profession that would have a ripple effect over the style of animations for generations to come. Helen and Matt explore this underrated, innovative and inventive profession. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Some people used to believe that the surest way to get to heaven after you died was to have someone eat your sins. Ya know, so they were no longer on your soul? All you needed was some bread, some wine, and a Sin Eater. Helen and Matt talk about sins and the strange practice of sin eating. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Before the train and telegraph, for a short time in American history, if you wanted your mail to get across the entire country, you relied on men who travel 1900 miles on horseback at speeds so fast they might as well be competing in the Kentucky Derby. In this episode, Helen and Matt look at the critical role of the Pony Express riders . Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Season 2 of Jobsolete premieres November 11. Tune in to learn more about history's most fascinating jobs. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Railroad workers who laid the tracks that first crossed America were often called gandy dancers. Find out what it was like to work on the rails in those frontier days! Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Let's return to the Age of Sail with our guest K.C. Crowell, who tells us what it was like to be a sailor on a tall ship. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 1981, the world was introduced to Music Television, and the job of video jockey, or VJ, was born.In this second part of a two-episode special, our expert guests are Martha Quinn, original MTV VJ, and Bob Pittman, who led the team that created MTV. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 1981, the world was introduced to Music Television, and the job of video jockey, or VJ, was born.In this first part of a two-episode special, our expert guests are Martha Quinn, original MTV VJ, and Bob Pittman, who led the team that created MTV. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our own Amelia Palka helps sort Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Writer John Van Wyhe takes Helen and Matt around the world to catch a glimpse of the now obsolete Victorian Specimen collector, He also shares the story of his favorite collector of all, Ida Pfeiffer. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Eleanor Herman, author of The Royal Art of Poison, shares her tales of food tasters though history with Matt and Helen. She also dispels some myths about what was actually killing royalty if it wasn't poison. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Author Marc Hartzman tells Matt and Helen about the odd profession of Stone Eaters and they find out that there is another job hiding behind this one. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Professional Royal Mistress? Professional? Yup. Eleanor Herman, author of Sex With Kings, 500 Years of Adultery, Power, Rivalry, and Revenge, joins the show to help Matt and Helen shed a little light on this often overlooked and misunderstood profession. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kyota Ko, mastermind behind the website Metro Classic Japanese, Joins Helen and Matt to discuss the long and fascinating history behind Samurai. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sea shantys weren’t just a way to pass the time on a ship, they were integral to the running of it by keeping the men working like clockwork. TikTok TikTok. James Revell Carr joins brings Matt and Helen on this expedition into the harmonic world of Sea Shanty Singers. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Did you ever think the shape of your head has something to do with your personality? No? Good because it doesn’t, but Phrenologists thought exactly that. Author and historian Dr. John van Wyhe joins Matt and Helen to talk about this odd school of pseudoscience that was at the dawn of understanding the brain.  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Writer and professor Jennifer Tucker joins Helen and Matt to discuss Wax Workers, Wax sculptures have been around for centuries and before the printed image wax museums were very popular around the western world. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Often a film geek, many times a bored teen, video store clerks were the gatekeeper to your weekend movie binge. Helen and Matt are joined by Sandi Harding, the manager of the last Blockbuster video to chat about the early mom and pop video stores to the collapse of Blockbuster Video. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At the dawn of human flight you had one option... Balloons! Balloons were all the rage in 1700s France and Aeronauts were the daredevils / entertainers at the cutting edge of this new science that made the spectacle come alive! Matt and Helen discuss this magical time with professor and writer Jennifer Tucker. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Long before Amazon could bring you a case of Topo Chico, seltzer delivery people were doing just that. Once as common as a Prime truck, there are just a few left. Matt and Helen discuss the ups and downs of seltzer delivery with Alex Gomberg of Brooklyn Seltzer Boys and discover the joy of a NYC Egg Cream Soda. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Don't shoot the messenger! as Matt and Helen talk about Town Criers. David Mitchell brings his booming voice to the show to give Matt and Helen the scoop on what it takes to be a Town Crier. Matt and Helen are inspired to try it out for themselves. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Matt and Helen discuss a time when phones didn't have dials and making a call required talking to a switchboard operator. Sarah Autumn from the Connections Museum in Seattle helps them connect to this Jobsolete profession and they listen in to what it took to make a long distance phone call in the 1940s. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ever wonder what kind of job you would have if you were born in a different time?       Jobsolete is a new podcast that asks that very question every week. Helen Hong and Matt Beat take a spin through the workplaces of the past, looking at a different obsolete job in every episode. From the forgotten jobs of history to obscure occupations that still survive, you'll discover some of the most interesting and unusual ways that people have made a living. Go listen to Jobsolete, find out what it was like to be a switchboard operator, a town crier, a food taster, or an MTV VJ. Listen to Jobsolete to learn about History’ s Most Fascinating Jobs. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.