Today I'm announcing a new podcast called Gladness & Hunger: The vocational magic of stories and soft skills.
In addition to being a fiction author by night and weekend, by day I’m a professor who teaches students how to get jobs.
When I graduated from college myself, I had no idea how to build a career doing the thing I believed I was born to do, which was write. The truth is, I floundered through my twenties trying to figure things out. I went back to school in my thirties, and after God opened a perfect window of opportunity for me—more perfect than I even realized at the time—I now get to equip college students with what I did not have. The main course I’ve taught for the past nineteen years is Business Communication, which focuses on the positioning of oneself to be successful in the pursuit of vocational goals.
I share all of this to explain why Gladness & Hunger is a theme that calls to me. Frederick Buechner said that the key to a career satisfying to both your soul and your finances was to find “where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”
My own deep gladness is in sharing messages of hope and inspiration. This podcast is another branch of that offering. This first season holds eight episodes: this introductory podcast followed by seven conversations with people whose vocational stories speak to something in my own soul, and whose journeys I hope prove inspirational and educational to you, too. That is the premise of this podcast: to highlight stories of vocational journeys, to explore peoples’ “whys” and talk about a critical soft skill or two.
In this first episode, I talk about the power of a life plan, what posture can do for you, the job offer God brought Moses and how he was the most uniquely qualified candidate for the role. Lastly, we’ll explore a critical question God asks Moses in his job interview—a question we would all do well to ask ourselves: “What’s in your hand?”
Check it out here. Episode 1:2 will release two weeks from today…and so on…and so on.
On the writing front, I am currently working on a fourth novel and look forward to sharing more about that soon.
Until then…hope you enjoy Gladness & Hunger. Let me know what you think!
Leanne