I often find this podcast very compelling, but I gotta say I'm starting to get perturbed by Gethard's tendency to try to fit everyone into a "aspirational artist who needs to get out of their stuffy day job" narrative. (Gethard, I know there's a good chance you'll read this, take this as the friendliest of constructive criticism -- I greatly admire what you do.)

The caller in this episode did not seem to me like she fits that mold as strongly as Gethard wants her to. Sure, she's done some storytelling and poetry open mics, and she likes arts and crafts, but not everyone who has an artistic bent wants to dedicate their life to solely pursuing their art. Vague as it was, it sounded to me like the "city job" was something that she really was excited about, and combined her interests in a meaningful way. I myself am of that "all for the art" mentality, but I know many people who are extremely passionate about and good at jobs that we "artists" would find boring and restrictive.

This doesn't bother me in the way it bother's Gethard's therapist, I don't really think that kind of advice is dangerous or anything. I don't think this girl is about to drop everything and try to make a living off emo zines. It bothers me in that I think we may be missing out on more interesting, nuanced stories. The "quit your day job" thing is clearly something Gethard is passionate about, but its very non-specific and general. Gethard can fill up a good chunk of the episode talking about it, and its usually the same spiel, but I would be interested and excited to see the kind of varied, specific, beautiful conversations that would emerge if that line of thought was taken off the table. Except when it truly is the thing the person wants to talk about, as in the first episode.