Okay, okay, okay. Hello and welcome to This Week In My Headphones. I'm Kevin T. This is my first episode — first time I've ever recorded a podcast. So thank you for joining me. If you're listening to this for the first time, you are in for a treat.
So you're probably wondering: what the hell did I just stumble into? Fair question. Let me explain — because this is the only time I'm ever really going to explain it, and I want future listeners to be able to come back here and hear what my brain was thinking at the start.
Why This Podcast Exists
I've wanted to make a podcast for a long time. I had a lot of different ideas about what it would be, and I kept getting stuck trying to figure out what my podcast was supposed to be about.
“What's the perfect topic? Will anybody actually listen? What if it sucks? What if I put it out there and nobody cares?”
Sound familiar? That's the paralysis of the blank page. And the thing that finally broke me out of it was... another podcast. Ironically, one of the podcasts I listened to this week is the reason this podcast exists at all.
Here's the concept, and it's simple: I listen to a ridiculous number of podcasts every week — I'm a truck driver, it's what I do for a living, I basically live in my headphones. This isn't a podcast about rating or reviewing podcasts. It's about where those conversations take me: the ideas that stick, the things that make me laugh, the rabbit holes I fall into, and the unexpected connections between completely different shows.
The Podcast That Accidentally Started This Podcast
My Monday ritual is Bad Friends with Bobby Lee and Andrew Santino. Every Monday morning, start of the week, laughs with the boys. I've been listening since the pandemic. Nothing groundbreaking this week — just their usual hilariousness. But I mention it because it's sacred: Mondays start with Bobby and Santino.
Right after that, I put on Diary of a CEO. Steven Bartlett's guest was Seth Godin — billed as a “quitting expert.” Bestselling author, motivational speaker, the guy who writes about quitting to pursue meaningful work and breaking past the barriers you think are stopping you from getting to the next thing.
“The podcast that accidentally started this podcast was what I listened to immediately after Bad Friends.”
Godin's whole thing — knowing when to quit, when to move on, when the thing you're doing isn't the thing you should be doing — that's what finally got me off the fence. I'd been stuck trying to find the perfect podcast topic, and Godin basically said: stop waiting for perfect. Start the thing. Quit the hesitation.
So here we are. Episode one.
AI Enters My Headphones
AI was everywhere this week, as usual. The standout was Dr. Fei-Fei Li on the Huberman Lab podcast — she's often called the grandmother of modern AI, a pioneer who's been in the field since the beginning. They covered the history of AI, where it actually is now (capabilities and limitations), and where it might go: robotics, physical-world applications, human-centered AI.
The fear side: Will it take our jobs? Will nobody draw or paint anything anymore because AI can generate an image in seconds? Real anxieties, real people.
The build side: “Get out of the way of progress — we need data centers.” The infrastructure race is on, and it's creating its own weird economy.
What struck me is how old the AI conversation actually is. Dr. Li has been working on it for decades. The rest of us just showed up to the party.
Blue Collar Jobs: 7 Million Openings
Then came Mike Rowe. You know — Dirty Jobs, the guy who'd follow people into sewers and up bridges and do their jobs for a day. I clicked expecting fun Dirty Jobs stories. Instead I got two hours on culture, politics, AI, skilled trades, and labor shortages — and it was fascinating.
The number that stopped me cold: roughly 7 million blue-collar jobs sitting open — manufacturing, construction, electricians, plumbers, utilities, repair, skilled trades. And mysteriously, that number seems to match the number of unemployed people.
Rowe talked about visiting Ford and hearing they had something like 1,500 bays open they can't staff — jobs paying around $120,000 a year, no college degree required. Twelve hundred bays. Six figures. No degree. And they can't find people.
“We're still gonna need people — blue collar workers.”
The fear is AI replacing workers. The reality, at least right now: we can't even fill the jobs that exist, and the ones sitting open are the physical ones AI can't touch yet. There's a whole episode in this topic alone — maybe several.
Where This Goes
I have no idea exactly where this show is going.
“And that's kind of the point. I don't know where my headphones are going to take me next week either. But I'll find out.”
Thanks for joining me on episode one. Come back next week — who knows what we'll find in there.
Show notes
- The origin story: Kevin's first-ever podcast recording; years of “what's the perfect topic?” paralysis broken by Seth Godin on Diary of a CEO (“quitting expert” — on quitting to pursue meaningful work and breaking past perceived barriers)
- The concept: Not podcast reviews — it's where the conversations take him: ideas, laughs, rabbit holes, unexpected connections
- Monday ritual: Bad Friends with Bobby Lee & Andrew Santino — start of the week, every week, since the pandemic
- AI segment: Dr. Fei-Fei Li on the Huberman Lab podcast (the “grandmother of modern AI”) — history of AI, current capabilities/limitations, robotics and physical-world applications, human-centered AI; the twin anxieties (jobs, creativity) vs. the infrastructure build-out (“we need data centers”)
- Blue collar segment: Mike Rowe (Dirty Jobs) interview — ~7 million open blue-collar jobs mirroring unemployment numbers; Ford's ~1,500 unfilled bays at ~$120K/yr with no degree required; skilled trades, labor shortages, and why physical work is still AI-proof for now
- Closing: “I have no idea exactly where this show is going, and that's kind of the point”