Working

This week Chet Gold tells Jordan about all the unexpected excitement of working security at a museum. Chet is not only a MoMA security supervisor but an artist in his own right. That’s why he’s treated his hours standing guard over some of the world’s most priceless art like a sort of residency. That is, when he’s not stopping people from destroying paintings with selfie sticks or spotting out potential vandals.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When you walk through an exhibition at MoMA, every step you take is part of deliberate design that takes you from piece to piece in just the right way. And it all starts with a dollhouse-like version the gallery and teeny tiny art replicas called “chips”. In this episode, Jordan talks to to Lana Hum (Director) and Mack Cole-Edelsack (Senior Design Manager) of MoMA’s Exhibition Design & Production Department. Lana and Mack talk about what it’s like to take the big ideas of curators and artists and turn them into reality. You can email us at working@slate.com.Podcast production by Jessamine Molli. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The next person taking us inside life at MoMA is Sarah Meister, a curator in the museum’s Department of Photography. Sarah’s work ranges from pitching exhibits, tracking down and acquiring pieces to writing those words on the wall that let you know what makes that work special.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this Thanksgiving bonus episode, Working takes a detour from MoMA to visit one of New York City’s biggest emergency food programs, Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen. Jordan talks to Michael Ottley, the Director of Operations of the program about tracking down Turkeys for Thanksgiving, feeding 1000 people a day, and how he had to convince Yelp to take down a rave review that was sending hordes of tourists to their kitchen for free meals.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the new season of Working, host Jordan Weissmann is going inside New York City’s storied Museum of Modern Art to meet the people who keep one of the world’s great artistic institutions running. Paul Galloway is MoMA’s collection specialist for the department of Design and Architecture. To explain what he does...well it takes about the length of this episode to do it justice. But think of him as the department’s central nervous system, the logistics guy who keeps working smoothly. Which means his duties range from researching Emoji, to sweet talking lawyers, to holding up the line at Ben and Jerry’s trying to pick out the perfect ice cream cone to store in the museum’s collection.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the final episode of Working With Weed, Jordan talks to Peter Marcus who is the communications director and head of political outreach for Terrapin Care Station in Boulder, CO. Like most positions in this newly legalized industry, lobbying for the interests of cannabis businesses means working without a roadmap. But for someone like Peter, that’s what makes things interesting. Whether he’s working to pass a unprecedented public cannabis consumption bill or unexpectedly explaining to a room full of anti-weed activists that no, everyone in the cannabis industry is not secretly in the mob, things are never run-of-the-mill for him. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As it turns out, doing business in an industry that only recently became (semi) legal involves a lot of red tape—and messing up even a small bit of paperwork can be a disaster that might get a marijuana dispensary shut down or fined. That’s why compliance specialists like Katelin Edwards, of Terrapin Care Station, are some of the most important workers in the world of cannabis, even if you don’t hear much about them. Jordan talks to Katelin about what the pressure of making sure the dispensary hews to every rule and regulation, as well as her less nerve wracking duties as community liaison, supporting local charities and showing that yes, even a “weed company” can be a positive influence on the community.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Marshall Custer wasn’t planning on going into the marijuana industry after he graduated law school. But as he tells host Jordan Weissmann this episode, it’s turned out to be a booming business. You just have to be a little careful about knowing exactly who your clients are.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Jordan goes back to Green Dragon in Denver to talk with Ryan Milligan, the company’s co-owner and head of cultivation. He quickly learns that the hardest part of farming marijuana definitely isn’t growing the plant.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week Jordan takes a detour from the cannabis industry to take a look at the science of it all.  Dr. Angela Bryan conducts research on marijuana at the University of Colorado Boulder. She studies marijuana’s connection to teen risk behavior, it's effects on cognition and even why it might make you hit the gym more often.  And while cannabis is legal in Colorado, there are still all kinds of restrictions that have meant Dr. Bryan and her team have had to get creative. Their biggest innovation? A mobile laboratory known as the Cannavan -- though if Dr. Bryan had her way, it totally would have been called the Magic Mystery Machine.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices