Remarkable! (A Podcast)

Every story has an arc: a beginning, a middle, and an end. Christine’s story has begun but I don’t know if it has reached “the middle” or not. What I do know is that her discovery of her professional passion at the age of ten is remarkable. How many of us know what our professional passion is at that age?But like a snowball rolling downhill, as she grew older, she added to her passions: art, math, along with an unwavering self confidence. She refused to be told, “You can’t do that because you are a girl.” No. She never believed that.Christine’s father was an entrepreneur and, as she describes it, “handy around the house. Dad was always building things.” Her parents supported her passion for architecture and her many interests. They traveled as a family and she saw the rich variety of architectural designs that can be found in different cities and countries. And as she commented to me, “Even at the age of twelve, my naive self was saying about homes and building we saw: “I could design something better than that!”She moved from the east coast to the west to attend USC and its School of Architecture. Even there, she remained focused on architecture to the point that she found the “celebrity culture of LA to be a huge distraction.”After graduating from USC, she returned to the east coast and an apartment in Manhattan she would share with her sister. Did she have a job lined up when she moved? “No. But I just knew that I would find something.”There it is again. That self-confidence. Like a rock.And she did. She was hired by one of the largest architecture firms in the US: Gensler.As she grew professionally, she also grew personally. She married. And together she and her husband decided to have a family.But how do you balance a professional life and a personal life with a partner and soon, children?"You and your partner must be prepared to compromise, to give and take, to share the burdens equally."And they have.Now living in northeast Ohio and having given birth to three children, Christine continues to live her passion for architecture as a sole practitioner and entrepreneur.Join me in my conversation with Christine, someone who has pursued their passion for nearly three decades while balancing a rich personal life with her professional life.Remarkable! (A Podcast) is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. You can find this show and many others at markgoode.substack.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit markgoode.substack.com

I first met Synthia in 2006. At that time, she was the girlfriend of my second oldest son Justin, and she had just finished her work as a flight attendant. Synthia was returning to work as a dental assistant.When we first met I was struck at how intense Synthia was. She was a very focused young lady and was working very hard to move forward in her career. It was also clear that she was very much in love with my son Justin. they would marry several years later.Twenty-five hundred years ago the Greek philosopher Hericlitus said that “ character is destiny.”  I think that is an excellent way to understand Synthia. Her character is shaping her destiny and that is no more true than when you look at her decision to become a school teacher.Remarkable! Stories & More . . . is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit markgoode.substack.com

When I invited Christine to have a conversation about sustainability, I thought the issue turned on climate change. I was wrong. It is about so much more than that.Christine is a residential architect based in Shaker Heights, OH. Architecture has been her passion since she was 10 years old (no, that’s not a typo) and as she says in our discussion,"Architecture is my profession, it’s my passion, it’s my entire career, it’s my first, middle, and last career. And sustainability is a huge part of that."When I asked Christine to explain sustainability, specifically as it relates to architecture, she referenced a book she read early in her career, a book first published in 2010 titled, “The Story of Stuff.” As she explained in our discussion, “the [amount of] resources that we are using on planet earth are not what the planet is regenerating every year. The earth is producing X every year . . . and yet we as humans are consuming a multiple factor of this every year. That is not sustainable. We cannot continue to do this.”So I asked her: how does this relate to residential architecture? Her response was both detailed and fascinating.Sustainable Residential ArchitectureChristine took me through the design, engineering, and construction process for a sustainable residence. She began with a discussion of site selection and then described those sustainable design distinctive you could see . . . materials, native plants, the positioning of the residence on the lot.Then she moved to a discussion of how a residence should be heated and cooled. Have you heard of passive designs? I hadn’t. How about strictly controlling not just air flow through the home but air flow into the home? Or the choice of appliances: Christine explained the environmental benefit of using electric appliances as opposed to those that use natural gas.Of course, at this point in the discussion, I thought, “Okay, she’s done. She’s explained the design, engineering, and construction process.” Again, I was mistaken.Christine pointed out that following the discipline of sustainability doesn’t stop here; in the case of home remodeling, one has to think about this:Can the appliances that we’re removing be repurposed and used by someone else? How do we keep these usable appliances from simply being thrown into a landfill?As she stated several times throughout our conversation, “we are stewards of this earth. It’s the only place we can live. We need to take care of it.” Indeed.Remarkable! Stories & More . . . is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Visit my site at markgoode.substack.com This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit markgoode.substack.com

This is Synthia, a married mother of three, who works part-time and who decided in her late 30s to return to get her undergraduate degree and become a public school teacher.But who does that?The NY Times ran a piece that highlighted the crisis of teachers quitting their jobs because they were pushed to their limits by children’s pandemic-related behavioral and emotional setbacks and staffing shortages that forced them to take on roles beyond their normal remit.In a paper published in November 2023 by the Annenburg Institute for School Reform at Brown University they wrote, and I quote:Perceptions of teacher prestige have fallen between 20 percent and 47 percent in the last decade to be at or near the lowest levels recorded over the last half century. Interest in the teaching profession among high school seniors and college freshman has fallen 50 percent since the 1990s and 38 percent since 2010, reaching the lowest level in the last 50 years. The number of new entrants into the profession has fallen by roughly one third over the last decade, and the proportion of college graduates that go into teaching is at a 50-year low. Teachers’ job satisfaction is also at the lowest level in five decades, with the percent of teachers who feel the stress of their job is worth it dropping from 81 percent to 42 percent in the last 15 years.And yet, Synthia, who graduates college next Spring, is heading for the classroom.With a full awareness of the challenges she’ll soon face, Synthia remains committed to entering the classroom (play third clip)Join me as I talk with Synthia about her remarkable journey to become a teacher in today’s challenging public school classroom This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit markgoode.substack.com