Trick or treat: cool jobs edition

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All month I’ve been talking about Halloween. And friends, the day is finally upon us. Hope you have your costumes ready. I will be dressing up as Jennifer Coolidge in White Lotus this weekend, with costume support from my aunt Amy. I have not decided whether or not to hand out candy because we are weirdly one of the only houses that is not a garage on our street.

I find the sounds of the city really do get spookier as the nights get longer. The wind howls. Chimes make less of a soft, shimmering sound and get into violent alarm territory. You might even hear coyotes howling at the moon.

So if you’re the main character in your own Halloween movie, close your eyes and listen to the soundtrack playing around you. If you listen closely enough, you might even hear the spirits lingering in our realm

“The energy of a newsroom. The pace of a trading floor.” That’s how Bloomberg’s website describes their work environment. If that sounds like fun to you, apply to be their new Canadian government reporter based out of Ottawa. 

Every year around tax time, I shake my fists at the sky and cry out,

“WHY DID I SPEND SO MUCH TIME LEARNING ABOUT PARABOLAS IN HIGH SCHOOL MATH AND NO TIME LEARNING HOW TO DO TAXES AS A FREELANCER?!”

While I would hope financial literacy education would have improved since then, I asked my cousin in Grade 12 and she said only people who take Economics learn those skills. Seems like there’s room for improvement.

In the meantime, CBC Digital is creating a new financial literacy resource for teens and they’re hiring FOUR full-time contract positions to produce it: a researcher/fact checkerproduction assistant, a digital social media producer, and a digital content creator/presenter. If you love TikTok and want to help bring our national broadcaster into the 2020s, apply by 11:59 p.m. on November 4! The contract goes until March 31, 2022 (the content creator and social media producer postings say 2023 but I think it’s a typo?)

CBC is hiring a permanent, full-time senior producer for World Report! Apply by EOD on November 4.

Parlez-vous français? I do not. CBC is hiring a full-time, permanent host for the French-language morning show, Le matin du Nord. The job is based out of Sudbury, and you have until 11:59 p.m. on November 17 to apply.

Hey West Coasters, Capital Daily is hiring a producer in Victoria, BC! Apply by November 5.

Blue Wire Pods is a sports-media brand and they’re hiring TWO freelancers for their show Spinsters: a narrative producer and a narrative reporter/researcher

We hinted at this last week, and the time is now: the CAJ is accepting applications for their next mentorship program. CAJ members have until 5 pm ET on November 12 to apply so get those applications in. There are THIRTY mentors this round!

To round out our Halloween-themed podcast recommendations, I’m going to step away from horror (which I am clearly too scared of to recommend well) and tell you about an incredible new podcast about death. 

Close to Death from Transmitter Pods and USG Audio profiles people who spend every day working with the dead and dying. In the second episode, Witch, comedian Jourdain Fisher talks to a witch named Lynn Swain about her work as a medium. If you’ve ever been curious about mediums, or skeptical, or a combination of curious and skeptical, Lynn is warm and very convincing. 

They say the veil between the earthly and spirit worlds thins around Halloween… So if you’re thinking about what might lay ahead on the other side, give this show a listen. This episode was also produced by my friend, Toronto-based producer Allie Graham! We love to see Canadians making a splash in American media.

Have you listened to Artists In Presidents: Transmissions to Power yet? The series features different artists addressing nations and people in positions of power. These weekly transmissions have been dropping every Friday since August 6, and will continue to drop until December 17. Shout out to sound wizards Ren Bangert, Katie Jensen, and Stefana Fratila for making something beautiful!

If pressing publish on your pod feels like screaming into the void, we’ve got your back—read up on four things podcasters should start doing to boost engagement over on our blog

We want to hear from you! What are you looking for in your podcast news? Let us know on TwitterInstagram, or by email at info@vocalfrystudios.com.

Thanks to Emily Latimer for editing this newsletter, and to Katie Jensen for designing it.

We’ll see you again on November 5. Until then, here’s an update from one of digital producer Emily's many cats, hanging out in the flowers. 

Yours in friends and fries,

Michal

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