Tom Petty’s “Full Moon Fever” and The Future of Work with Larry Port

Jared Correia (00:00:00):
Hello everybody. We’ve got to show the promises to be at least mildly interesting for your listening and watching enjoyment. I’m your host, Jared Grea. I’m the CEO of Red Cave Law Firm Consulting. For the monologue, we’re cracking open a brand new perfect album. Yes, that’s right. To add to our list in the interview, we’ve got Larry Port of Waste Spark after exiting Rocket Matter. Larry has a lot going on on the counter program. We brought back hard work trying to figure out whether jobs I describe are real or fake. Now let’s all go howl at the moon. That’s right everybody, we’ve got another perfect album to tee up for y’all, and for the first time I’ve invited a guest into the inner sanctum Larry Port. Welcome to the show. How are you? Hey, how are you doing? This is great. You’re going to be the first person ever to do three segments on the podcast.

Larry Port (00:01:06):
I’ve made it, I survived. I have a mug with perfect albums.

Jared Correia (00:01:11):
Those are all your perfect albums on a mug.

Larry Port (00:01:14):
Yeah, well, albums I like a lot. There’s some albums on here that maybe I have one or two songs that aren’t so awesome, but whatever

Jared Correia (00:01:21):
Can I give you, so usually when I start out these segments, I do a list of the albums I’ve chosen. It’s perfect album so far, not a complete list. Can I read those off and then you can tell me if you’ve got any surprises or disappointments or you’re like, that’s actually a terrible album. Okay, here we go. The who? Who’s next? 1971 Billy Joel Street, life Serenade, 1974. That’s interesting.

Larry Port (00:01:46):
You chose that one over the stranger that you chose. Yes. Okay. I

Jared Correia (00:01:51):
Was back, so I actually have two Billy Joel albums on the list. I got that one and I got an innocent man from 1983 chosen both over the stranger, but that was difficult. That was

Larry Port (00:02:01):
Hard. Alright, interesting.

Jared Correia (00:02:04):
Would the Stranger be your number one Billy Joel album?

Larry Port (00:02:07):
Listen, I think yes. I mean, maybe the last two songs aren’t the best or the Last Song isn’t the best, but the just strength of songwriting on that album. Oh my God. And then it themes from an Italian restaurant. It’s like he had so much inspiration that he wrote three songs and just made one song.

Jared Correia (00:02:28):
I always play scenes for me Italian restaurant in the car, and my kids were always like, how fucking long is this song? It’s like eight minutes. I’m like, just let it watch over you. That’s why I left it off though. I don’t like Everybody Has a Dream is a fucking terrible song.

Larry Port (00:02:43):
Should wash their mouth out with soap. If they’re saying, how fucking long is this album

Jared Correia (00:02:47):
Or song? Maybe I should, but I’m a bad parent. Okay,

Larry Port (00:02:51):
Good.

Jared Correia (00:02:52):
Gordon Lightfoot Sundown 1974. Okay. Paul Simon. I haven’t listened to that. Oh, you should listen to that. That’s a great album. I will. I’m a big Gordon Lightfoot guy. Paul Simon Graceland, 1986. Oh, of course. Yeah. That’s a great album. Sun Volt Odine 1993. Don’t know it, so you know Uncle Tupelo.

Larry Port (00:03:19):
I am starting to feel like an idiot. No, I don’t know that either. Is it a type of honey?

Jared Correia (00:03:26):
No. Country Rock banned from the mid nineties.

Larry Port (00:03:31):
Ooh. I would like

Jared Correia (00:03:31):
That. I would like that Uncle Tupelo Wilco and then Sunbelt all kind of emanating from the same group of people.

Larry Port (00:03:43):
Interesting. There was this band, obscure band from Pittsburgh that had an album that I loved. The band was called The Ra ups and the album was called Chance and it was just spectacular, but nobody knows it outside of people who grew up in Pennsylvania.

Jared Correia (00:03:56):
I’m going to listen to it now. Is it about Pennsylvania or is it just like a good album? It’s just a great album. Okay. This is great. I only got four more for you. Snoop Dogg Doggy style 1993. Okay. Cheryl Crow, the Globe Sessions. 1998.

Larry Port (00:04:18):
Wow.

Jared Correia (00:04:19):
Yeah. Coldplay Viva la Vita 2008.

Larry Port (00:04:23):
I have a different Coldplay album that I think is a perfect album. Oh, what is it? Well, I like X and Y. Oh really? XY is the one that has Is that speed of sound? Speed sound, yes. Fix You. That’s one of those a good albums that a lot of the songs that aren’t hits are just some of my favorite songs. Although Fix You is one of my favorite all time songs, but it’s a

Jared Correia (00:04:48):
Great song.

Larry Port (00:04:49):
Yeah, there’s a song on there called, I think it’s called The Message that I Love and S Swallowed by the Sea is a great song.

Jared Correia (00:04:56):
Oh yeah, that’s an amazing song. That is a really good album.

Larry Port (00:05:00):
Yes.

Jared Correia (00:05:00):
I think a lot of it is Vibes and Time of your Life type of stuff. I got married in 2007 and I just remember listening to Cole Play all the time after that. I don’t know what that says about me. Very cool. Last one, Taylor Swift folklore. Are you a swifty?

Larry Port (00:05:20):
No, but people that I know, including you that are big into music, I have this friend up in Massachusetts who is super into Almond Brothers and all that kind old seventies stuff and he’s major in Taylor Swift. Yeah, she’s really good.

Jared Correia (00:05:38):
My next perfect album though is Full Moon Fever by Tom Petty, which I believe is on your mug.

Larry Port (00:05:44):
Yes, it is on my mug. It is this one right here that looks like it’s the Jamaican flag or whatever.

Jared Correia (00:05:50):
Yeah, very colorful. Okay, so I’m going to give you first cuts here. Thoughts on the album. Okay.

Larry Port (00:05:56):
Well, I mean look, it’s like from Start to Finish, it’s a great album. It has amazing songwriting, it has amazing guitar playing. It’s got his wit and there’s a couple things about this album. So I love listening to Tom Petty. I am Not Mr. Know Everything about Tom Petty, but I do know that this album is the first album that he recorded Solo without the Heartbreakers.

Larry Port (00:06:28):
So

Larry Port (00:06:30):
However most of the Heartbreakers play on the album.

Jared Correia (00:06:33):
Yes. I mean it’s interesting. This was when his sound changed I feel like. So Jeff Lynn comes in and then you got the ELO

Larry Port (00:06:45):
Guy, right?

Jared Correia (00:06:46):
Yes. So I think this is an amazing run for Tom Petty. You got Traveling Wilburys volume one in 88, F Moon Fever in 89, traveling Wilburys volume three in 90 and then into the great wide open in 91 back with the Heartbreakers. That’s just crazy. Four years.

Larry Port (00:07:08):
Well, it’s like, and also his collaboration with Jeff Lynn. It’s almost like, I mean listen, I know it might be blasphemous to say Lenon and McCartney, but they had a magic. Their songs are so good, especially time period. Yeah. Also, I mean he plays a lot of 12 string guitar, which has that big rich acoustic sound that you hear on You’re so bad or feel a whole lot better. I didn’t even know that Feel a whole Lot Better was a cover one of the best covers of all time. I feel like I love that song.

(00:07:49):
It’s a great song. It is such a great, in fact, yeah, I would say arguably is better than the original, but maybe that’s because I was familiar with it before I heard the original and then I guess he was a huge Shannon fan and that’s why he says, me and Del were singing and running down a dream. I just thought it was his dipshit friend Dell. I’m like, who gives a fuck? Who cares who this guy is? I don’t care if you sing with Dell. Who was this asshole? Yeah, who’s this asshole Dell. And the one thing I will say is that as someone who grew up in the middle of Pennsylvania, which is so much less cool than California, I felt like all the references to California Roads and things like that and locations and free falling. I love the song, but it just kind of rubbed it in that I was not in a cool place

Jared Correia (00:08:44):
Fallen. I think this album came out when I was 11 or something like that, and I remember Free Falling. I was like, holy shit, California must be so amazing. I’m like, what am I doing on the east coast? It’s snowing right now.

Larry Port (00:09:02):
I know. And there’s always, there’s so many songs about cities and streets in LA that when you finally get there you’re like, oh my gosh, there’s that. There’s that. But what’s interesting is this album has the song I Won’t Back Down, which is one of my all time favorite songs because I think a lot of us really identify with that spirit. I mean maybe he was inspired by I Will Survive by Gloria. I don’t know, maybe. But the sentiment is like, I mean, how can you not love that sentiment? I mean

(00:09:48):
It’s just like whenever you get knocked around just that power you feel when you get back up and you get out there is the best feeling. And so he is from Gainesville, Florida in my now adopted home state. And so when Gainesville is also the location of the University of Florida, so during University of Florida football games, they sing, I Won’t Back Down, that’s their song now. The same way they sing, hang on Sleepy at Ohio State or half the songs, half the stadiums in the nation are singing that killer song. What’s it called? That one killer song, everybody’s Bright Side Can, it’s

Jared Correia (00:10:30):
Like a anthem for

Larry Port (00:10:31):
Gen Z or something.

Jared Correia (00:10:32):
Yes. It’s just okay. It’s an okay song. I don’t want hate mail, but it’s all right.

Larry Port (00:10:41):
There’s a much better on that album. There’s a song called All the Things that I’ve Done.

Jared Correia (00:10:48):
Is that the Mr Brightside album?

Larry Port (00:10:50):
It’s called

Jared Correia (00:10:51):
Hot F or is that okay? Okay, yeah, yeah,

Larry Port (00:10:54):
I

Jared Correia (00:10:54):
Was going to say Sams Town, but that’s not right. Yeah, go ahead.

Larry Port (00:10:57):
Yeah, so all the things that I’ve done is this. In fact, it has the best all time bridge, which is I got sold, but I’m not a soldier, that part. So my kid, she showed me this meme of the best bridges of all time and it was like a picture of the Brooklyn Bridge, like the Veranos Bridge and it was like the bridge from that song. That’s great. I love that.

Jared Correia (00:11:26):
Alright, I get it. Have you ever heard the Johnny Cash cover of I Won’t Back down from the American recordings? No, that’s pretty good. And then I’ll have

Larry Port (00:11:35):
To listen to that.

Jared Correia (00:11:36):
Him and Petty do a duet on a song called a Running Kind.

Larry Port (00:11:40):
Oh, I had no idea that that was even a thing.

Jared Correia (00:11:43):
So

Larry Port (00:11:45):
That’s probably my favorite song from the album.

Jared Correia (00:11:47):
I won’t back down this. Really?

Larry Port (00:11:50):
Yeah. And when I was like, you’re So Bad is also a fun song to play on the guitar. It’s pretty easy. It’s a good one to strum and when you’re starting out to learn, I just feel like there’s so many catchy good songs on this album. It is kind of curious though, when we were talking about, I Won’t Back Down that, and I looked this up right before we got on here, but the last part of Free Fallen, which is the Trek immediately before says, I want a free fall out into nothing Going to leave this world for a while. So maybe there’s kind of different ideas going on this album. I think

Jared Correia (00:12:31):
So. Right. So Free Fallen is my favorite song on this album.

Larry Port (00:12:37):
Really? Okay.

Jared Correia (00:12:38):
I think it’s almost a perfect song. I just love that song and like you were saying, my kids even Free Fallen and I’m like, okay, this song’s got some juice. Let me ask you this though. You mentioned feel a whole lot better, the apartment songs also on this album, right? There’s a lot of good nons single tracks. Do you have a favorite among those is feel a whole lot better. Your favorite among the songs that Weren’t Released depending on You, is also a really good song, which was never released as a single.

Larry Port (00:13:18):
I think when this album came out, I was probably a little older than you. I was probably 14 or 15. And so Zombie Zoo is up there for me because it’s just such a goofy song.

Jared Correia (00:13:32):
It’s such a wax song and it’s like the last song on the album. It’s like where did this shit come from?

Larry Port (00:13:37):
Yeah,

Jared Correia (00:13:38):
Exactly. Roy Orbison singing back on that song for those interested in listening to the track. You’re kidding.

Larry Port (00:13:45):
Because this was back in the Traveling Wilbury kind of heyday

Jared Correia (00:13:49):
Stuff. The heyday of the Wilburys, which lasted three years. So we were talking about this before we got on to record today, but what’s really awesome about this album is it’s got a message in the middle of it for people who are listening on CDs. Do you want to talk about that a little bit as everyone who’s under 30 is like, what the

Larry Port (00:14:10):
Fuck are these guys talking about? Right. Okay. So it’s actually at the end of Running Down a Dream on the fifth track and it’s midway through the album and he says something like Attention CD listeners. This is the Now. Yes. And also there’s chickens in the background if I’m not mistaken.

Jared Correia (00:14:31):
Correct. Okay, well it’s actually Dell Shannon who you mentioned before. He’s making barnyard noises. That’s the guy who’s doing the sounds on this.

Larry Port (00:14:40):
Oh, he’s mimicking those noises? Yes. Yes. Okay, so they didn’t take Tom Petty out and record him with a bunch of chickens in the background. That’s how this happened. That’s Tell Shannon that’s that asshole you were talking about before. So it’s a legend making chicken noises. Yeah, so he says Attention CD listeners. This is the time where people listening to the album have to get up and turn it over or their tape and it’s just funny and witty and dry and droll the way he talks. And then it launches right into this beautiful 12 string strumming on feel a whole lot better. So good album. I

Jared Correia (00:15:23):
Feel like that’s my favorite. Yeah, I mean for me, the apartment song and feel a whole lot better are two undiscovered gems for a lot of people on this album. So if you’ve never listened to those songs before, do that right now. Alright. Did you also know that Petty wrote a demo track for this album called Indiana Girl, which later became Mary Jane’s Last Dance, which was released on the 1993 Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Greatest Hits albums, which is to my mind one of the best petty songs as well. How do you feel about that? Jeans last dance. I love that track. Tell me why you like that track. Everybody likes that track, but me, I kind of, I think it’s kind of a vibe. I like the guitar. It’s kind of dirty, a little salty. That’s what I like about it. It’s a little bit kind of grungy for Tom Petty is what I think. But you don’t like it. Interesting.

Larry Port (00:16:17):
I’m not crazy about it. I don’t get wowed about that song way a lot of people do. And it gets a lot of radio play. It does,

Jared Correia (00:16:27):
Yeah.

Larry Port (00:16:27):
Yes.

Jared Correia (00:16:28):
Now do you remember the video with Kim Bassinger?

Larry Port (00:16:31):
No. I have major gaps in my Wouldn’t that come out, did you say? 93? Okay, that would make sense because when I was in college, which was like nineties, that’s when Larry discovered mushrooms. Anyway, yes. And I was a film major at that time and

Jared Correia (00:16:55):
I didn’t know that.

Larry Port (00:16:56):
Yeah, my undergraduate, I studied radio, television film at Northwestern and then I studied abroad, so I got a second degree in Hispanic studies, so I double majored, but it just sounds like I studied 15 things. Yeah, I studied radio, tv, film and Hispanic studies at Northwestern. But yeah, I don’t know. I was one of these film school snobs who wouldn’t watch television, so they poison your mind.

Jared Correia (00:17:26):
Wait, this album had a ton of crazy, the Free Falling video. Do you remember that one? No, I haven’t seen Skateboarding Girl.

Larry Port (00:17:34):
I haven’t any of that shit.

Jared Correia (00:17:36):
Oh my God. All right, so check out the free falling video. Running Down A Dream video is animated. I won’t Back Down. Has a video with Ringo Starr and George Harrison in it. I mean, I wasn’t a film school snob, so I all these things, but

Larry Port (00:17:51):
You would think I videos are pretty cool. Would think they’d be like, because they do experiment in those kind of things, but I don’t know what happened. I used to watch MTV all the time

(00:18:01):
In the early eighties, and I don’t know if it was because once I saw the Thriller video and I was like eight years old, shit. Yeah, no, I was just so traumatized by the Thriller video. I saw it when I was eight years old. I remember my cousin and I were playing Legos and we’re like, we’re going to stay up and watch a thriller video. And he’s like, I don’t think it’s a good idea. And I’m like, I want to watch it. And then we watched it and we were just like, it’s terrible timing. Yeah. So that may have been it for me and MTVI can’t remember because after that I don’t really remember it.

Jared Correia (00:18:35):
I had a similar experience with the ET movie. One more question for you before we move into the next segment. The less that about that the better. Is this your number one album for Tom Petty? No, I wouldn’t say it’s my number one album. What’s number one for you? Do you have one? You could do Petty Petty and the Heartbreakers. You could do Traveling Wilbury.

Larry Port (00:19:00):
I mean

Jared Correia (00:19:01):
The only thing that comes close for me is Wildflowers,

Larry Port (00:19:04):
But go ahead. Oh, you’re talking about Tom Petty albums, not albums of all times. Oh yeah. For Petty, yes.

Jared Correia (00:19:12):
Best Petty album. Full Moon Fever for

Larry Port (00:19:15):
Me. Yes.

Jared Correia (00:19:16):
You brought it up. Do you have a number one album of all time of all the

Larry Port (00:19:20):
Albums? I mean, I just feel like it’s hard to pick one because usually, like you said, when you, I mean there’s excellent albums, but there’s also excellent albums that intersect with the time of your life. When I think of Siamese Dream by Smashing Pumpkins, I just remember that’s just such a coming of age time for me driving around with my friends in high school. When I think of, I don’t know, when I think of you two, the Joshua Tree, it reminds me of me and my wife when we were dating. When I think of Dark Side of the Moon, I’m sure like everybody else conjure certain memories. I thought we already covered the mushrooms. Yeah,

Jared Correia (00:20:11):
That’s a good list though. That’s a good three that you mentioned right there.

Larry Port (00:20:15):
And I got to be honest though, probably the album that I listened to the most is one that I don’t consider perfect, which is Abby Road. Oh, that’s interesting. Well, I think it’s just an unbelievably brilliant album, but it has Maxwell’s Silver Hammer, which is one of these Paul McCartney’s, he writes these songs sometimes these boom

Jared Correia (00:20:42):
British, everybody fucking

Larry Port (00:20:43):
Hates

Jared Correia (00:20:43):
Maxwell Silver Hammer like

Larry Port (00:20:45):
Everyone. Well, it’s like he’s one of the greatest songwriters of all time. But you have that one and you have the Christmas song that I can’t even be in a room when that song comes on.

Jared Correia (00:20:59):
Yeah,

Larry Port (00:21:00):
He’s got some bad ones.

Jared Correia (00:21:02):
So what do you like better? The back half of Abbey Road with the medley or the front half?

Larry Port (00:21:08):
Well, let’s say that I create a playlist on Spotify and I bring over all the tracks except for Maxwell Silver Hammer, then I mean, something is just such a gorgeous song. But then, I mean that may be one of my favorite songs of all time, but that sequence with Polythene Pam and mean, Mr. Mustard and she came in through the bathroom window is just such an awesome sequence. Yeah, I like how that’s

Jared Correia (00:21:44):
Highlighted album, how you make a playlist of Abbey Road where you just excise Maxwell Silver Hammer and you’re like, I think it’s, this is how it should have been. I wonder if somebody has that playlist Abey Road as it should have been. I’m going to throw that on for this episode.

Larry Port (00:22:01):
By

Jared Correia (00:22:01):
The way, do Abby Road, Larry’s

Larry Port (00:22:03):
Version? Larry’s version apparently also, he drove everybody nuts recording that song because he had them all do it like a gazillion times and it had to be a certain way. Is the, I’ve heard story I heard about Abby

Jared Correia (00:22:13):
Road. Yeah, you got to go to this hammer Knox just right. This was fun. I must confess, I have a full moon fever and the only cure is more Larry Port. So will you come back and do an interview? Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Let’s do it. Excellent. Alright, we’ll be back with Larry Port in a second. Well, I’ve effectively run out of things to say, which is awkward because this is a podcast. So I’m going to go out and finish shoveling snow, which seems like all I do these days, I’ll be back in about an hour. Be cool. I’ll be right back actually, while that sounds like it’s rather necessary, I guess it can wait. We’ll stay snowed in. Let’s bring in our new guest instead rubbing it in. I feel like we’ve got Larry Port sitting right in front of a palm tree. That’s fucked up. How you doing, Larry?

Larry Port (00:23:12):
I’m good, I’m good. I’m chilling. It’s like, what is it? I don’t know. I get stuck on my watch. What is it with modern technology? 68 degrees right now.

Jared Correia (00:23:19):
Oh my gosh. I’m so jealous. I can’t believe here. There’s people around

Larry Port (00:23:23):
Here walking around in puffer jackets though.

Jared Correia (00:23:27):
Well, that’s Florida

Larry Port (00:23:28):
For you, right? People walking around with scarves on their head.

Jared Correia (00:23:33):
Can I tell you, I was out shoveling the other day, two feet of snow shorts and a t-shirt, like a boss. That’s how we do it in New England.

Larry Port (00:23:41):
Well, you do work up a sweat and I mean, look, it was so cold that it’s like light snow, right? It wasn’t big, heavy snow.

Jared Correia (00:23:49):
It was fine. It wasn’t that bad

Larry Port (00:23:51):
At all. So you got nothing to bitch about.

Jared Correia (00:23:53):
Yeah. I’ll stop. Thanks for coming in. Yeah, so thank you for having me. People listening, if they know of you, which is certainly most of the world, they’re probably thinking Larry Poor the Rocket Matter guy, right? Not anymore.

Larry Port (00:24:13):
No longer. Not for a while now. Not. Not since like, geez, 2023, September last day of September. Can never remember if they have 30 or 31 days that month. But yeah, that was it. So from the

Jared Correia (00:24:28):
Uninitiated, you’ve sold Rocket Matter, you’re out, you’re enjoying your

Larry Port (00:24:34):
Life. I’m out. I’m out. I’m enjoying my life. I’m getting better at pickleball. I would say spending a lot of time volunteering. I’m starting a new endeavor, taking a lot of naps. That’s beautiful. It’s been quite delightful. Yes.

Jared Correia (00:24:52):
Yes. A little bit about, can we talk a little bit about the rocket matter thing before we get into that? I feel like you did the rock matter thing for a long time. You had a lot of success.

Larry Port (00:25:03):
Oh yeah. It was a long time.

Jared Correia (00:25:04):
With that, not easy to do, what is that process like from an emotional standpoint? I would imagine it’s hard to be like, here’s this thing I created and nurtured for years and now it’s yours. Please don’t fuck it up. What is that

Larry Port (00:25:22):
Like? To be honest, it was like I was so ready to move on and it had run for me, it was the adventure. I’m a creative person, and so for me, really kind of like rocket matter starting, it wasn’t so much almost about starting a business. I was so in love with building software at that time and had been so used to seeing crappy software. I mean, I worked for this place, ultimate Software and I’m sorry guys, but your software was so awful.

Jared Correia (00:25:56):
What you’re saying is it wasn’t the ultimate software, alright,

Larry Port (00:26:00):
Proceed. It wasn’t even the penultimate software or the anti penultimate software. It was just, it was so poorly designed, and I hope I don’t get in trouble for this, but it was just so that software and I’m like, all right, well, let me build something that’s perfect. And I had been doing stuff enough at that time that I’m like, let me try and build the perfect application, and I just didn’t know what to apply it to. And a lot of my attorney friends were complaining about their software. And then I looked around and I saw the user interfaces for Time Matters and PC Law, which are effective softwares, but they were Windows 95 based and they were really ugly and clunky and limiting. So I decided to build what I knew, which was web based software, and that’s kind of how it started. But once you build something and then you grow something at some point, once you get successful enough, which God bless, we were able to do, it’s about improving processes. And when you’re a creative and improving processes and following processes and refining ’em and sales and making sure you have the numbers, that’s no longer fun for a creative. So I was happy to just move on to the next chapter to be brutally honest.

Jared Correia (00:27:21):
So you’ve been working on different stuff.

Larry Port (00:27:25):
Yeah.

Jared Correia (00:27:25):
You mentioned napping. I noticed on LinkedIn the other day, you’re like, I need to create a napping app. How’s that going?

Larry Port (00:27:33):
That was supposed to be satire, and I think people thought I was serious. Everybody’s so earnest on LinkedIn that I think it needs more humor. So I’m like, okay, I’m really good at napping after corporate America. And it’s like anytime I think like, oh, does it make sense to jump back in there? I’m like, no, I don’t know that They’d be so cool with my napping question during the interview. So, hey, when is nap time? Exactly. It’s not every day, but okay, I will tell you one thing.

Jared Correia (00:28:05):
Can I tell you, I’m a terrible napper, so I’m interested to know, do you have a schedule? Does it just happen organically? What does napping look like?

Larry Port (00:28:16):
Napping for me occurs when there is this kind of gravitational pull towards the couch and I can’t resist it. And I wouldn’t nap. Actually when I was running rocket matter, it wasn’t like I fall asleep for two hours, but sometimes around three, I’d just be so tired. I would just like when you run the office, you get to have a nice big couch in your office. And so I would fall asleep in the office, but then after people would take pictures of me, I installed blinds on my office door so they could no longer do that.

Jared Correia (00:28:48):
Oh, I like this.

Larry Port (00:28:50):
And then when I first stopped working at Rocket Matter, it took me, I don’t know how long, three months, six months to regain my energy levels and my equilibrium. It was brutal. And so, I don’t know, it was such a wild ride for so long and such an adrenaline thing to be in charge of a business that when I first stopped, I thought I’d just roll right into my next endeavor. It just took forever for me to get my energy back up. And I was doing serious nap time, man, I tell you what, one hour naps one and a half hour naps. Not unheard of in those days. Now if I’m a little tired, maybe I’ll squeeze off a 20, 30 minute nap. But I force myself to do this. It’s just happens. In fact, I feel one coming on right now.

Jared Correia (00:29:38):
Great. Now that’s an advertisement for this show. If I’ve ever heard one, Larry’s literally going to take a nap in the middle of the podcast. I know. I’m very exciting. Alright, let me ask you one more nap based question if I may. How do you wake yourself up from a nap is an alarm. Do you naturally wake

Larry Port (00:29:58):
Up? Oh yeah.

Jared Correia (00:29:59):
Okay.

Larry Port (00:29:59):
Oh, you cannot leave yourself to your own devices. You’re unconscious. So you got to set a timer and the thing you’re

Jared Correia (00:30:07):
How like, oh fuck, it’s like 11:00 PM What happens

Larry Port (00:30:11):
Actually, now that we’re talking about this, I can’t believe how much I know about this, but you’re not supposed to really nap for more than 25 or 30 minutes, or you may screw up your circadian rhythm. So it’s like I try and set a timer for half an hour.

Jared Correia (00:30:27):
Okay. This is good to know. Yeah, one of

Larry Port (00:30:29):
These things I get there. Last night though, I had really disruptive dreams. I had this dream that I was doing a podcast with Danny DeVito. It is weird though. I am now, this is a comedown, but this is a comedown from Danny DeVito. Let’s be

Jared Correia (00:30:41):
Honest,

Larry Port (00:30:44):
Fucking Edwin. It was just such a crazy dream and I just was very disruptive sleep. So I’m surprised that when things like this happen, normally I’ll have to nap, but today I feel fine.

Jared Correia (00:30:57):
Alright, good. Okay, so in addition, around your naps, you’re also doing a lot of pro bono community work, and I think that’s awesome. So what have you been up to as far as that’s concerned?

Larry Port (00:31:09):
Well, let’s see. One thing is is that I’m a big fan of Big Brothers Big Sisters, and they have chapters all over the country. So the way it works is if you’re not familiar with it, they have big brothers who get paired with boys kids. I’m in a program called Schoolwork where I take, it’s like an hour, 45 minutes a month. And I work with a kid who’s not as lucky as my kids on what they’re going to do in college things. They learn about LinkedIn, they learn about interviewing, they learn about all these different things. Yeah, the main Big Brothers program is a bit more involved where you spend maybe three or four hours with your little, maybe once a month. And it’s a beautiful program. There seem to be more female volunteers than male volunteers, so they’re always looking for men to go and be mentors. And it’s always local. So I do mine with Palm Beach and Martin Counties is the chapter of Big Brothers Big Sister. So I’m a big fan of that one. That’s a great program. Have

Jared Correia (00:32:18):
You ever seen the movie

Larry Port (00:32:19):
Role Models? Oh, wait a second. I think I have. Who’s in that movie?

Jared Correia (00:32:26):
Paul Rudd,

Larry Port (00:32:26):
Sean Williams Sky. It’s basically

Jared Correia (00:32:29):
About Big Brothers Big Sisters. It’s fucking hilarious. You should watch it.

Larry Port (00:32:33):
Okay.

Jared Correia (00:32:33):
All right. I got to watch it. I’m going to send you the link after this. Alright, go ahead. I interrupted you. Great organization, by the way.

Larry Port (00:32:42):
No, that’s fine. So down here you think everything would be all jacked up? We live in Florida, but they do some things right. And the blood drives are really, really good. So they’re always driving this big red bus around. But I go to the office and I give blood. Now I give blood and I give platelets. So give a blood.

Jared Correia (00:33:05):
Do you have a rare blood type or are you just like, I donate blood. I like to,

Larry Port (00:33:10):
My blood is a positive, which I think is pretty common, but it’s like, I dunno. People keep needing blood for one reason or another, and it’s a good thing to do for me. It’s easy. It’s not for everybody. I drain a bag in like six minutes now. Oh my God.

Jared Correia (00:33:27):
It turns out that sounds fast.

Larry Port (00:33:29):
Oh, it’s like crazy. I’m like, don’t go away. Or the bag’s going to explode all over the floor and they give you free and stuff. This is one that they just gave me, but my doctor told me Amazing. I’m not supposed to give any more red blood until further notice because I’ve given so much that apparently I’m anemic. And then we also, we have have three rescue animals, so have two rescue dogs and a rescue cat that just kind of showed up at our house and I fed tuna fish and now,

Jared Correia (00:34:00):
Oh, that was your first mistake. She’s

Larry Port (00:34:01):
Our cat. Yeah, exactly. And the local shelter, you get to go and you can walk the dogs and it’s a needed thing. So I can’t say enough good things about, it’s really not that hard. Actually. I wasn’t able to do it when I was at Rocket Matter because I just felt like I was too busy. But in

Jared Correia (00:34:20):
Reality,

Larry Port (00:34:20):
Don’t the time. There’s always time.

Jared Correia (00:34:24):
Oh, so you think now if you went back to the corporate world, you’d be like, I could squeeze this in. I’m going to go donate my playlist and

Larry Port (00:34:32):
I’ll be back

Jared Correia (00:34:33):
After lunch.

Larry Port (00:34:35):
In fact, I think now that I’m thinking about for Big Brothers Big Sisters, I’ve been doing it long enough that that definitely did overlap with Rocket Matter and it was at night. Yeah, and give them blood’s kind of easy. But the animal walking thing, I don’t know that I’d be able to do that one because you, if you have your own animals and you go walk dogs, you’re supposed to shower and clean up before you go back in your house. You could be bringing diseases in and

Jared Correia (00:35:00):
Shit. Oh, sure, sure, sure.

Larry Port (00:35:02):
Yeah, that’s a little involved. What an interesting life you’re

Jared Correia (00:35:05):
Leading

Larry Port (00:35:06):
Right now though.

Jared Correia (00:35:08):
What a combination of activities.

Larry Port (00:35:11):
It is quite a combination of activities and let’s not forget pickleball and

Jared Correia (00:35:17):
All right, so how are you feeling about pickleball these days? Is your A game doing all right?

Larry Port (00:35:22):
Yeah. I have this weird thing where I don’t really dial in until I’m down to Game Point. So I keep getting myself in these positions where I’m, you play to 11 and I keep getting myself. The other night I was down 10 to three, and that’s when I start paying attention. And then for some reason at that point I become unstoppable and that’s when I win. Did you play tennis if only, or you just like, I’m going to try to pickle ball play tennis? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.

Jared Correia (00:35:49):
That makes

Larry Port (00:35:49):
Sense. I played in high school and I used to play a lot of, actually it’s popular up in your neck of the woods, ultimate Frisbee. But I’m way too old for that now because this is too much running and jumping. It’s the Jumping’s not so hard. It’s the Landing. I

Jared Correia (00:36:04):
Feel like that’s an ACL L tear waiting to happen, which

Larry Port (00:36:08):
Sticking with ball. Oh, totally. Acl. And then what happens is, I know this one guy that was a little bit older than me that’s trying to keep up with everybody, and he tore his ACL, and then he got Sergio on his ACL, and then he rehabbed it and then he came back and he was playing pickleball with us again. Or not pickleball Ultimate with us again. And then he tore his ACL. And again, same one. So it’s at some point it’s like, yeah, it’s fun to throw a Frisbee and chase it down. You’re a retriever,

Jared Correia (00:36:35):
But after 40 it’s like, this is a bad idea. My wife plays in a softball tournament every year and it’s all moms, and I’m like, there’ll be at least three ambulances at this tournament, without a doubt every year. Oh, Jill got hit in the face with a softball. Oh, what a shocker. She’s 47 years old.

Larry Port (00:36:54):
Well, she’s still sliding when they slide, that’s when you That’s the problem. Yes. Oh yeah, that’s the problem. This is fucking nuts. Well, the thing about for me with Pickle is that the court is pretty small and I’m six foot

Jared Correia (00:37:09):
Three,

Larry Port (00:37:09):
So it takes me two steps to get anywhere.

Jared Correia (00:37:12):
Yeah, that sounds like a big

Larry Port (00:37:13):
Advantage. I don’t really have to move.

Jared Correia (00:37:15):
You’re crushing those elderly women, I’m sure. Okay. I want to ask you one more pickleball question and then we’ll get to other stuff,

Larry Port (00:37:22):
But

Jared Correia (00:37:22):
Are you out there destroying 73-year-old women? Are you thought you got me, Mildred? I was down ten three, but this is what I feel the most alive.

Larry Port (00:37:36):
It is true that pretty much anybody can play it. So you end up finding yourself playing people that are in their seventies. Yeah, that

Jared Correia (00:37:47):
Must be

Larry Port (00:37:47):
Crazy. It is crazy. And then it’s also just the nature of sports in general. It’s that when you’re chasing a ball or a Frisbee for that matter, there’s a level of, it’s like primal. You forget your environment. So I’ve had them lo me and I’ve jumped up and I’ve slammed it and I’ve hit them with the pickleball before. I mean, I don’t go, I don’t over head smash.

Jared Correia (00:38:16):
Yeah, this is kind of like now I want to start playing pickleball.

Larry Port (00:38:24):
Oh, it’s fun. Oh, I mean, you hit people with a pickleball, they hit you with a pickleball. It’s just part of it. I like it because social, like they’re right across the net you, so it’s a lot of fun. It’s very social. I mean, if you play with your friends, you just shit talk each other the whole time. It’s a lot of fun. Yeah,

Jared Correia (00:38:44):
That’s cool. Okay, so people are probably like, what the fuck is happening here? So let’s talk about Way Spark, which is your new project. This is like, yes. Would you say this is where you’re spending your most time now or

Larry Port (00:38:59):
No, but I would say I am working on it, as you can tell, I’m a very busy man.

Jared Correia (00:39:04):
You got a lot going on.

Larry Port (00:39:08):
You’re like, don’t bother me, bro. I’m donating platelets right now. Yeah, exactly. I’m watching 1917. So learning about history. Yeah, so way Spark, I’m really excited about, and this is kind of, and I don’t know if it’s probably because I have kids that are in college is where this first came from. I got a 19-year-old freshman and a 21-year-old junior, and I’m looking at the market, the labor market, and I’m thinking like, geez, I wonder how things are going to be going for them then. So I’ve been just consuming all this information. There’s been a lot of great reporting in the Wall Street Journal about what’s happening in the labor market, and there’s a lot of slowdown of hiring. I think that’s, you don’t have to be really glued to the Wall Street Journal to know that. So

Jared Correia (00:40:05):
Fucking shocking to me. The tariffs aren’t working, but let’s

Larry Port (00:40:09):
Go actually. Yeah, the tariffs, it’s really interesting. We could go in a different direction. I just read that book 1929, about the crash. I haven’t read that one, but the tariffs played a major role in that because they enacted those Smith Smooth Holly tariffs, the smooth

Jared Correia (00:40:29):
Thereafter tar fucked up everything,

Larry Port (00:40:31):
And it just really further put the squeeze on. But in any case, back to where we are right now, it’s not necessarily, there’s a lot of concern about AI taking a lot of jobs,

(00:40:45):
Especially among white collar work. But it’s really hard to see in the data if that’s truly what’s happening. Because one of the major things that’s happening is that especially for companies like Amazon and where you see all these massive layoffs and Microsoft, they kind of stuck their bench with talent because there were all these talent wars. So they just gobbled up as many engineers as they could find. And then, so in response to all this engineering, hiring a lot of computer science departments that universities grew and started churning out more and more software engineers so that you have the situation where they started shedding some of their talent. So a lot of the unemployment comes not just from automation, but also from getting rid of all these on their bench. That makes sense. And you have a lot of kids that got these computer science degrees, and I have one, and let me tell you, that is not easy to get.

(00:41:44):
That’s a lot of pain to get that degree. So to go out into the workforce and not have options must be devastating for these kids. So in any case, regardless of where you stand on AI and what the data tells you, I think it’s really not hard to read the tea leaves if you interact with these systems and see what it might do for law, what it might do for programming. And for a lot of the jobs that are white collar that are more routine and even in investment banking where they hire a lot of young kids and they’re tasked with putting materials together and putting spreadsheets and presentations and so on and so forth for deals, you can imagine how with what you’ve seen with AI that can be greatly automated. So there are pockets of the workforce that are going to be affected. And so what I’m looking to do is I’m looking to help people figure out what it is they want to do, but also weave that through a lot of the different trends that are happening right now. What jobs are going to be displaced with ai, the silver wave as they call it, with the aging demographic. And also there’s a tremendous lack of skilled labor in the workforce right now as anybody who’s tried to have the refrigerator fixed, knows.

Jared Correia (00:43:00):
Yes. I’ve never heard the term

Larry Port (00:43:01):
Silver wave

Jared Correia (00:43:02):
Before is that’s older people. Older people are retiring finally.

Larry Port (00:43:07):
Yeah. Well, there’s this

Jared Correia (00:43:09):
Getting the boomers out of the workforce,

Larry Port (00:43:11):
Getting the boomers off the planet. So shuffling off the mortal coil. Well, yeah, it it’s a very top heavy kind society where there’s a lot of older people. They’re also just living longer, right? Yes. So they’re going to be where somebody, they used to. Okay, I think the retirement age of 65 came from Otto Vaughn Bismarck. It’s old, and it’s because they died. You’d retire at 65 and you died. You’re not living that much longer in 1890. So now people are living into eighties, nineties or whatever. Unless I kill them on the pickleball court and I’m trying to do my part for the economy.

Jared Correia (00:44:00):
You’re doing omas work out there.

Larry Port (00:44:02):
Yeah, exactly. So that’s kind of the picture is that, so you have all these older people and who’s going to take care of ’em, and it creates a whole bunch of issues. And a lot of the people are retiring out of these kind of skilled labor jobs, and at the same time you’re seen as squeeze maybe with white collar. So there’s a lot of different trends. So I think that the trick is helping people identify what it is they want to do for a living, and that’s purposeful and meaningful for them. And then through the landscape that we have, and also some skills preparation too. People are getting back into the workforce. They might need to know a word, they might need to know Excel prompting, so on and so forth.

Jared Correia (00:44:44):
I mean, that’s a lot of stuff. So it sounds like you’re having a lot of good conversations now, our kid kids coming to you and they’re like, Hey, I’m identifying all these issues. Are they aware of all this stuff happening? Or is it more education based for you to be like, Hey, here are some trends you should be aware of. Here are jobs that may be going away, here are jobs that may be coming up. Is that what the conversations look like?

Larry Port (00:45:07):
Yeah, they are more anxious because what they’re seeing from their perspective is that just it’s very difficult to get a job. Now, I thought, I dunno about you, but I thought it was tough to get a job in the nineties when I first started out. It seemed like hard to start your career then I think now.

Jared Correia (00:45:25):
I would agree.

Larry Port (00:45:27):
Yeah. It’s a little trickier for people, especially the data is showing that there’s just not a lot of hiring going on, especially at this bottom rung of the market. So usually what the conversation is is they’re studying this because they’re not sure they know what they want to do and then they’re concerned about not getting a job. They’re very concerned about internships. Kids in college are freaked out about internships.

Jared Correia (00:45:57):
I want an internship and I can’t get one kind of thing.

Larry Port (00:46:00):
Yes, exactly. Because they’re not looking for, my internships when I was in college is I worked for WQED and I lived in some sort of slum in Pittsburgh and I was basically for nothing. I think just helping them work on documentaries and when I would say helping them work on documentaries. I mean transcribing hours and hours of video, which obviously is a automateable now

(00:46:28):
Doing research for stuff. But these kids are like, they want to be in cities and they know that they’re not going to be able to get a job really unless they do have an internship. So there’s a lot of pressure on them. The internship searches start early. It’s just more of the same bullshit for this generation. This generation I feel so bad for getting into college is just everything for them. Even playing team sports and qualifying for a travel team is like, they got to tryout for this, then they got to apply to colleges and because there’s this whole, we could go on and on, but the

Jared Correia (00:47:09):
College acceptance thing is, you nuts. I’m brought this up.

(00:47:12):
I feel like the younger generations, what is it? Gen Z and Gen Alpha, they get a lot of shit. But I mean, look at the stuff that people have gone through. We’re post nine 11 pandemic politics is fucked. The economy’s in the shitter. I have a lot of sympathy for people trying to get into the job market for the first time. Plus everything’s like everybody’s got a smartphone or a tablet shoved in their face. I feel like if I grew up in this environment, I’d be almost an entirely different person and I wouldn’t necessarily be fitted for a traditional job. So I think there’s a lot of skills acquisition that people have missed, especially around the pandemic, both personal and professional development.

Larry Port (00:47:56):
Oh, I think you’re a hundred percent correct. Well, first of all, it’ll be interesting to look back on all the different cohorts that went through what happened to people who were 12 when the pandemic started, what happened to the 13 year olds, because it affects them all differently at these different developmental stages. But for certain, you’re right.

Jared Correia (00:48:15):
My daughter learned to read not in school at home really because it was a virtual learning period, which I just think is crazy. All that stuff is just wild. You’re right. I don’t think we’ve seen the full effects of any of that.

Larry Port (00:48:28):
And also, you’re also a literate person. You’re a lawyer and your wife. I’m sure not everybody’s like this, right? So what does it do to language skills and so on and so forth. My wife helps kids brainstorm and put together their college essays for applications, and she says that with every passing year, the writing skills get worse and worse. No one reaches anymore, which is unfortunate

(00:48:59):
To say the least. Well, they’re reading a lot of books about Hot Guys on Dragons is what seems to be popular these days. Somebody who’ve seen my got to read this book. Yes. What was it? First Wing or something. Somebody’s like, you have got to read this book. It’s so awesome. And it was a woman who told me this book. So I’m reading this book and it’s like he was so hot on his dragon and his muscles were rippling and he’s a bad boy. And I’m like, what the hell is this shit? I’m not surviving this book.

Jared Correia (00:49:33):
I was reading old school novels when I was a kid, and I don’t think people do that anymore. I think you’re right, but I’m glad you’re out there helping people. This is a good thing.

Larry Port (00:49:47):
Yeah, I think so. I think also you see this starting to happen with these trials are coming up with meta and some of the social media companies. There’s a big class action lawsuit. You see Australia prohibiting it for people that are under 16. So you have this thing where this entire generation was experimented upon. Then you have the pandemic, and then you have this crazy thing with college where it’s gotten so hard to get into college where getting into, we toured Northwestern, which is where my wife and I went with our kid. It is so hard to get into Northwestern that when we were there, it just did not look like a fun place. It looked like everybody, you’d go to the cafeteria, nobody’s talking. They’re all working. There weren’t people that looked like us. Everybody just seemed really, really beyond even academic. It didn’t seem like a place where our kids wanted to go. And the social element I think is pretty big. And then, so the people that were applying to these Ivy League schools and the Northwesterns and Dukes, they’re now applying to the state schools and everything keeps getting

Jared Correia (00:50:57):
Pushed down and down. So you think there’s a little bit of a trickle down effect here.

Larry Port (00:51:02):
And some of that’s because of some of the schools did away with testing, like mandatory testing requirements. So everybody could apply. And you combine that with something called the Common App, which allows people to apply to all these schools at once. So you had an explosion of things and of applications, and then acceptance rates would go down. And when you’re applying to school and the acceptance rate is low, then you have to apply to more schools. So it’s just this snowball effect where people just are applying to 20 schools each. So now they’re trying to go out into the workforce and everything in their life has been a struggle. So it’s just harder and harder and harder. And now they feel like the rug’s being pulled out from underneath them with ai.

Jared Correia (00:51:48):
Yeah. Okay. So what’s the solution? No, I’m just kidding if I said to you, okay, what are the main things that have to happen to change this or to improve it for these younger generations? God, I sound so fucking old. What would you say to that?

Larry Port (00:52:10):
Well, I think it all boils down to interpersonal communication and relationships. I think unfortunately, this world that we’re in is favoring the people that are more social, the people that can build relationships and talk to other people. And I think that is a major skill that people need to develop. There’s obviously, there’s table stakes. They got to know how to prompt, they got to know how to use the tools that are at their disposal these days, but they’re not going to get behind these applicant tracking systems that employers use unless they really start building relationships with people and find arounds to these systems. So the other thing is that I do think that people need to be a bit more, so let’s say that you want to be an entrepreneur. I didn’t know that I necessarily wanted to be an entrepreneur. I just knew that I liked software and I wanted to build something. And maybe in the back of my mind, because it was the American dream, you saw a lot of software people doing well back then. Now it’s like, I’m not sure I’d be so inspired by our current slate of software leaders. It seems to,

Jared Correia (00:53:36):
Yeah.

Larry Port (00:53:38):
Yeah. They’re a little gross. So they’re not that inspirational.

Jared Correia (00:53:41):
Inspirational. Turns out they’re all fascists whoopee

Larry Port (00:53:50):
Right now. They’re all coming out against the Minnesota Ice Enforcement, but they waited until about a thousand people came first. They’re like, all right, is it safe? I think it’s bad too. Oh my God.

Jared Correia (00:54:01):
Yeah. And then you see everybody’s being super generic about what they’re saying. Good Lord. Everybody’s so afraid.

Larry Port (00:54:08):
I believe in God and country.

Jared Correia (00:54:10):
Yeah, exactly. I support the rule of law. Well, why do you feel like you need to come out now and say that? Come on now. Yeah, it would not be super inspiring. I can’t imagine there’s a lot of kids out there being like, I’d love to be just like Jeff Bezos outside of the money part of it.

Larry Port (00:54:33):
Yeah. I want to stru around, look at two people at once. So in any case, what I would say is that the skilled trades are interesting because there’s not enough people in them. And if you really want to do well for yourself, you’re basically, I think the statistic that, I interviewed somebody that worked with them, and she said that 38% of people that go into skilled trades start their own business. And about 8% of people that go into white collar work start their own business. So if you have it in your mind that you want to be an entrepreneur, then you might want to take a look at going into other things. Then what I find interesting, first of all, I’m a big believer in a liberal arts and college education. So I think it’s important for its own sake. It’s a shame that it’s so expensive, but a lot of people go, and after they graduate college, they might say, you know what? Let me go to culinary school or let me do, there’s a couple examples of things that seem like it’s acceptable for people to go and do after they graduate college, but very few people are going into a skilled trade after they go into college. And I don’t know why that stigma exists, but it’s a shame that it does. And it would be nice if it could change, because we need these people. And so are you thinking

Jared Correia (00:55:57):
Cottage industry shit is coming back? Do you think people are going to be designing their own shoes or suits of armor or some crazy stuff like that?

Larry Port (00:56:06):
No. Well, geez, maybe that actually a suit of, if somebody wouldn’t, you buy a

Jared Correia (00:56:12):
Company,

Larry Port (00:56:13):
I would totally buy one and we could go when we could we to both

Jared Correia (00:56:16):
Of us,

Larry Port (00:56:16):
Please. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. No, I think there’s not enough people in the HVAC industry. There’s not enough welders, there’s not enough pipe fitters, there’s not enough. I mean, imagine the insatiable appetite that these data centers have for people in those fields out of control. And these jobs are starting at, they’re starting some of ’em like Merchant Marines and pilots. These are like six figure jobs starting. Well, to your point,

Jared Correia (00:56:49):
If there’s a need for HVAC and you learn how to do hvac, then you have the opportunity to start your own HVAC company, and now you’re an entrepreneur

Larry Port (00:56:58):
And where you live, especially out in Lennox, Massachusetts in that area, nobody had air conditioning because everybody’s like, oh, we don’t need air conditioning up here. Guess what? Now you do. So there’s all sorts of people in northern states that are coming online that, and you just can’t find

Jared Correia (00:57:15):
People, sailor people to just fucking roasting out there in Lennox. He’s like, somebody turn up the air conditioning, please.

Larry Port (00:57:23):
Exactly. It takes him longer to tune his guitars because they’re all warped. So,

Jared Correia (00:57:28):
All right. I got one more question for you. Sure. Can you talk a little bit about your podcast? Because in association with the Waste Park thing, you’ve got a podcast called Dream Job Cafe, which I feel like, wasn’t that the name of a Flock of Seagulls album back in 1982? You’re kidding. Was it? No, no, no, no, no. I’m not sure. That’s what it sounds like to me. Dream Job Cafe sounds like something directly out of the eighties, couldn’t you see, Marty, you Fly walking into Dream Job Cafe and back to Future One.

Larry Port (00:58:02):
Are you sure you’re not thinking of Spano Ballet?

Jared Correia (00:58:06):
Oh, maybe I am. Yes, true.

Larry Port (00:58:09):
They have an awesome song.

Jared Correia (00:58:10):
True. Right? That’s their song,

Larry Port (00:58:12):
I promise you. Isn’t that them?

Jared Correia (00:58:16):
Yes. I think you’re right. Back

Larry Port (00:58:19):
To the podcast. So it’s not about that. It’s not album. It’s not about album eighties rock album. Sadly. No, it should be. Is it too late to change all the episodes? So yeah, the idea here is, and by the way, a lot of this comes out with my own personal struggles trying to find work. When I came out of school, I thought I wanted to be, I was like, okay, I know I’m creative and I know I’m technical. I’ll go into the film business, which is a really stupid way to do things, because what you really should do is what I’m developing towards and I’m working towards is does it pass the family dinner test? Does the job that I want to go into allow me to, on a scale of one to 10, am I going to be able to do family dinners? Take it a step further? Am I going to be able to coach a little league team that’s more involvement? You know what I mean? So am I going to be able to take my kids on a trip to Disney World? Some sort of way to, can I interject slightly?

Jared Correia (00:59:18):
When you’re talking to people as a consultant, are they thinking that far ahead at this point? Like younger people without families,

Larry Port (00:59:26):
Okay. No, they’re thinking, I’m good at math, so maybe I should be an accountant, is what they’re thinking.

Larry Port (00:59:32):
Okay.

Larry Port (00:59:32):
But what I’m trying to do is say, okay, you’re good at math, but how do you want your life to be? Right? So how do you want to live your life? And by the way, I work with a lot of young people, but I have a feeling that there’s going to be a lot of mid-career shifters coming up for, and there might even be like, yeah, there might even be, since people are living so long, we may need that demographic to return to the workforce. So

Jared Correia (00:59:59):
On the podcast, you’re not necessarily talking to job seekers, you’re talking to people who have done it and trying to inspire the people you talk with.

Larry Port (01:00:08):
Yes. Mostly like four out of five episodes are directly with people. I just interviewed somebody who’s like a major consultant at Deloitte. What’s it like to be a consultant? What division are you in? How do you think about that? Who would be a good consultant? Who should absolutely not be a consultant? And what’s really interesting is that almost every single person I talk to says that the people that do well are people that handle volatility and ambiguity well, which is fascinating. Now those are, I believe, two of the letters from vuca, like volatile, uncertain something, and then ambiguous. Right?

(01:00:51):
And I don’t think they’re doing that on purpose. I think they’re just saying that because that’s what is required right now. They need people who are able to think on their feet and be adaptable to given search situations. And everybody across the board is saying that because just you don’t what the future is going to hold. But no, it is like I’ve interviewed a bunch of financial people, they’re like, listen, if you’re like a raving gambling lunatic, it’s probably not the right career. And also if you’re afraid to take risks, it’s probably not the right career. So they give really good advice about who should and who’s not going into the

Larry Port (01:01:23):
Career.

Larry Port (01:01:24):
They talk about, well, I ask them, I’m like, all right, how often are you able to have dinner with your family? Do you have to move around a lot? Are you constantly traveling? So really trying to paint a picture of not just like, oh, my skills equal this career, but my skills plus my life desires equal this career. I cool. When I was a young adult, one of the things I was doing in addition to film is I got to work for a newspaper doing photojournalism, and I realized that because I always wanted a family, I realized that when I was at the peak of my career, they’d be sending me to Gaza and I’m like, yeah, that’s not the kind of shit I want to be doing. I want to be home. I want to have my own books and my little library, and I want to have my kids and my cat, my dog. I don’t want to be running all over the planet. Look

Jared Correia (01:02:12):
At that. It turned out just that way. Weekly episodes of Dream Job Cafe

Larry Port (01:02:19):
Episodes, and I’ve also, I do interview people that know that I go up until like, alright, let’s get you skilled up and let’s get you figuring out what you want to do. What I don’t do is let’s get your resume polished. Let’s get your LinkedIn profile, let’s do interviews. So one out of every five episodes or so, I talk to people that are in that realm and do that kind of consulting too.

Jared Correia (01:02:42):
Okay. Oh, that’s awesome. Okay.

Larry Port (01:02:45):
Yeah, exactly.

Jared Correia (01:02:45):
This all rounds up to the question of what do I want out of my life? And you know what I would want out of my life to do another segment with you.

Larry Port (01:02:54):
Come back. I will. So come back.

Jared Correia (01:02:57):
We’ll be back in a second. All right everybody, welcome back. Yes. We’ve returned to the counter program. It’s a podcast within a podcast. This is a conversational space where we can address usually unrelated topics that I want to explore at a greater depth with my guests. Expect no rhyme and very little reason. Larry, this is perfectly suited to your new endeavor. Oh, good. I’m bringing back one of our popular segments called Hard Work In it. I will tell you about jobs and jobs descriptions, but not all of them are real. Can you identify the fake jobs?

Larry Port (01:03:40):
Okay, let’s do it. Are you ready? It

Jared Correia (01:03:41):
Okay? Yes.

Larry Port (01:03:42):
Let’s do it.

Jared Correia (01:03:44):
Job number one, chronological architect. These are design experts who create historically accurate time bubbles for wealthy clients using sensory manipulation to stimulate living in any error. So we have chronological architects. Is that a real job? No. Oh, all right. It’s not a real job. That was very confident. How did you know that so quickly? That’s

Larry Port (01:04:18):
Ridiculous. Have

Jared Correia (01:04:20):
You ever

Larry Port (01:04:21):
Seen Black Mirror? There are companies actually, because when I was trying to figure out what business to start, I was looking at this thing. There’s this category called age tech. This is when I was still entertaining the idea of being in the software business. And there’s an accelerator that the A RP has, and one of the companies helps people do these nostalgia tours. So you can, they hook ’em up with it sounds really cool, virtual reality glasses, and then you can take them on Google Maps to the street that they were on and stuff. So there’s, I feel like people would love an

Jared Correia (01:04:57):
There. I feel like this is going to be something that happens though. I don’t know. I don’t want to buy software for it necessarily, but would it be cool to walk down the street I lived on in 1991? I think that’d be awesome.

Larry Port (01:05:14):
That would be cool. Yeah, that would be cool. Well, it’s like Walt Disney basically built a glorified version of his hometown so he could walk down the street and stuff. But go ahead. Go ahead. What’s the next career?

Jared Correia (01:05:29):
Okay. Quantum Janitor is the next career. Let describe it to you.

Larry Port (01:05:36):
Maintenance

Jared Correia (01:05:37):
Worker who utilizes subatomic vacuums to clear reality debris and probability ghosts from laboratory particle accelerators after high energy collisions. Is there someone out there who is a quantum janitor cleaning up reality debris in science experiments? Yes or no?

Larry Port (01:06:00):
This is an easy one. This is, yes, because my cousin does this.

Jared Correia (01:06:04):
Alright, tell me about it. No, I

Larry Port (01:06:06):
Don’t know. No, it’s fake. It sounds. It is fake. Yeah. It seems like they invest a lot of money in the Hadron Collider and that shit. Somebody’s probably got to clean it up, right?

Jared Correia (01:06:16):
Yeah. I think maybe it’s a little oversold with reality debris. I think we’re talking about adventures end game kind of shit there. Oh, gotcha. I’m sure there’s someone who cleans up, but I don’t think they’re cleaning up profitability.

Larry Port (01:06:31):
Those several legs, like twitching and stuff,

Jared Correia (01:06:34):
Right? Yeah. Ted didn’t make it back from his journey to the past, but his leg did. All right, here’s the next one. Dog food taster. It’s right up your alley with the animal stuff. Quality control experts who sample various pet food formulations to evaluate flavor textures and nutritional consistency before market releases. Are there people out there who are dog food tasters?

Larry Port (01:07:02):
Yeah, I would say

Jared Correia (01:07:02):
So. Definitely. Okay. Alright. Can I share with you, I was watching, my daughter and I were watching YouTube last night and they had this dog food out where it’s like prepackaged dog food and little chunks of chicken and vegetables and I was like, I would totally eat that. I would take a dog food pouch and eat that as my meal. Am I alone? Have you ever thought that? Because she was like, you’re a lunatic.

Larry Port (01:07:31):
Well, it always like, okay, so if you pay very close attention, we bought some of this for a while and it has cranberries in it, little chunks of carrots,

Jared Correia (01:07:41):
It looks great,

Larry Port (01:07:41):
And chunks of chicken. Yeah, it’s pretty much all it is. But then it’s like, okay, but if you buy it, it’s just like when you’re a kid and they show you the sandwich on TV and then you go get it and it looks like a piece of shit. It’s the

Larry Port (01:07:55):
Same.

Larry Port (01:07:56):
Yeah. Yeah. So it’s like the correct. They get the food and it doesn’t look like they’re always saying that the dog’s coat will be so much better, but if you feed your dog like science diet or whatever, the coat’s not getting much shinier.

Jared Correia (01:08:11):
I think that’s, so maybe if they

Larry Port (01:08:14):
Get one of those dogs that’s on the A-S-P-C-A commercials that are starving and shivering in the middle of Siberia and they feed it farmer’s dog. Yeah, the coat will look nicer.

Jared Correia (01:08:22):
I might try this and then see if I go to a family reunion and my mom’s like, wow, your coat is really shiny, or your hair’s looking really good. How about you put it at a casserole dish for Thanksgiving? Alright, I’m going to do that. Is dog food bitches? Okay, next job is resurrection. Resurrection is a professional body snatcher who illegally dug up fresh corpses from graveyards to sell to medical schools for anatomical dissection. Was a resurrection a real job back in the day?

Larry Port (01:09:02):
Corpse? Well, I know that people did this and in fact, if you watch the movie Gangs of New York, they depict this,

Jared Correia (01:09:08):
Correct? Yes.

Larry Port (01:09:10):
But yes,

Jared Correia (01:09:10):
You are correct.

Larry Port (01:09:11):
And if you read Mary Roach’s book Stiff, she talks a lot about this. You’re doing well by the way. I realize. I didn’t realize it had a

Jared Correia (01:09:18):
Title Resurrection. Yeah. Crazy. Right? All right. Alright, got two more for you. The next one is Vibe adjuster. Vibe adjuster consultants who use specialized incense specific light frequencies and hidden sub-base frequencies to subconsciously manipulate the mood of luxury hotel elevators. Are there vibe adjusters coordinating your elevator experience at luxury hotels? You look skeptical. I

Larry Port (01:09:53):
Don’t think

Jared Correia (01:09:54):
So.

Larry Port (01:09:56):
I mean, if they are, then they’re ripping people off. Okay.

Jared Correia (01:09:58):
Correct. Alright, you’re four or five. This is one of the better performances I’ve ever seen. Okay, last one. Pur Finder. This job is called Pur Finder. Victorian Error Workers who roam the streets to collect dog feces, which was then sold to tanneries to be used as a purifying agent for softening leather were their pur finders in the Victorian era whose sole job was to collect dog shit.

Larry Port (01:10:32):
Okay. On the one hand that totally tracks with the shit that you would imagine from the Victorian era, and Tanneries in general is being the stinkiest most disgusting places walking by Jack the Ripper with your bag for your dog share. Yeah. That could be how it went down. Exactly. Yeah. In the chimney sweeps, they’re not covered in, they’re covered in dog feces. Right. So I would think, but at the same time, you don’t hear about them. It’s not like they’re common in Dickens or anything like that. They didn’t talk about Tiny Tim being a pur finder. They didn’t talk about that. So I would say no, it’s not a real job. It was

Jared Correia (01:11:15):
Actually, you’re kidding me. A real job. Yes. It’s a horrible job. Well, if there’s one like silver lining to the Pur Finder job, the most valuable shit was the old white dog feces a little less messy. They didn’t want the fresh stuff. So that is a real job. Well done, sir. This is how I know you are a legit career coach, host of the Dream Job Cafe four of six in the counter program. Well played.

Larry Port (01:11:47):
All right. Well, it sounds like if maybe if the philosophy degree did not land you a job, there’s always a future in pure findings.

Jared Correia (01:11:57):
Wait, you’re going to start recommending this to people. It’s going to be great.

Larry Port (01:12:00):
Yeah.

Jared Correia (01:12:02):
Well, based on

Larry Port (01:12:02):
This assessment,

Jared Correia (01:12:03):
I have some good news and some

Larry Port (01:12:04):
Bad news.

Jared Correia (01:12:08):
Thank you for coming on. It’s always a good time. We’ll talk again soon.

Larry Port (01:12:11):
Absolutely. Yes. Thank you for having me. My pleasure.

Jared Correia (01:12:14):
Thanks for our guest, Larry Port. He’s the first guest ever to join us for all three segments of the show, and he’s also the chief coach at Way Spark a lot of stamina with this guy. To learn more about Larry and Westpark, visit waste spark.co. That’s W-A-Y-S-P-A-R-K cospar.co. Check out now because I’ll always be a nineties kid who wore out into the great wide open on cd and his true passion is burning CDs for anyone who would listen. I’m now just doing the modern version of that, which is creating Spotify playlists for every podcast episode that I record where the songs are tangentially related to an episode topic. For this week’s playlist, I’m diving back into the Tom Petty catalog. I made a Tom Petty playlist before, but this is TP 2.0 and it’s sponsored by Publix Grocery Stores. No, it’s not. Maybe we’ll get to Winn Dixie one day. Start small. Maybe Market Basket. Join us next time when I’ll do a back flip, I suppose.