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Dream Job with Marc Istook

Dream Job with Marc Istook

By: Marc Istook
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No matter what your dream job may be, hopefully you'll find something to enjoy on each episode of the Dream Job Podcast. Host Marc Istook shares conversations with a diverse group of guests who are living their dreams in their careers, their work and their daily lives. Hear what motivates them, how they've accomplished their goals, what challenges they've faced and what they've learned chasing their dream jobs.Marc Istook Art Social Sciences
Episodes
  • Dan Dawer | PhD Candidate, Education Policy

    Dan Dawer | PhD Candidate, Education Policy
    Jun 18 2026

    The Quiet Dismantling of Texas Public Schools, with Dan Dawer

    Texas has taken over more school districts than any other state in the country, and a majority of those takeovers have happened in the last ten years under Governor Greg Abbott and Education Commissioner Mike Morath. The official story is accountability. The real story, according to this week's guest, is the construction of an entirely new model for public education in Texas, one designed to be cheaper, more regimented, and built on a workforce of uncertified, inexperienced teachers reading from scripted curriculum.

    Marc sits down with Dan Dawer, a former classroom teacher of 11 years and a PhD candidate at the University of Texas at Austin, whose dissertation research has put him on the ground inside the Houston ISD takeover for nearly four years. Dan has interviewed close to 140 stakeholders across the district and has emerged with one of the most comprehensive views of what state takeovers actually do to communities, students, and teachers.

    This conversation covers:

    . Why the research overwhelmingly shows takeovers do not improve student outcomes, and which communities they disproportionately target . The shift from "conservative" takeovers (designed to restore districts) to "activist" takeovers (designed to rebuild them into something new) . How Houston's reported test score improvements may be driven by changes to the pool of test takers, not actual learning gains (including a 24% drop in 8th grade Algebra 1 enrollment and a 15% drop in Biology end-of-course test takers) . The financial throughline connecting property tax elimination, the absence of a state income tax, and the budget pressure to make public education cheaper . Why a Pennsylvania billionaire would care about Texas school board elections . The reality of the voucher program: most applicants were already enrolled in private school, and tuition routinely exceeds the $10,000 award . The teacher pipeline crisis (45% of Houston ISD's teaching workforce now has between 0 and 3 years of experience, and a majority of new hires statewide are uncertified) . The AI-in-the-classroom question, and why Dan worries about cognitive offloading and the erosion of professional teaching knowledge . An honest assessment of Mike Morath's ten years as Education Commissioner . Why the A-F school rating system is more variable than parents realize, and what families should actually be looking at . The toll road analogy that explains vouchers better than any political talking point

    If you care about public education, your property taxes, your kids' classrooms, or the long-term direction of this state, this is the conversation. Dan brings the data. We dig into what it actually means.

    Recommended reading from this episode: Takeover: Race, Education, and Democracy in America by Domingo Morel.


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    1 hr and 3 mins
  • Sara Hirsh Bordo | Author & Filmmaker

    Sara Hirsh Bordo | Author & Filmmaker
    May 28 2026
    Award-winning filmmaker, activist, and founder of Women Rising, Sara Hirsh Bordo joins the Dream Job Podcast to discuss her debut book Autoimmunity and the Good Girls — a groundbreaking exploration of how women raised to self-silence and caretake are disproportionately likely to develop autoimmune disease, and how reclaiming your own voice may be the most powerful medicine of all. EPISODE NOTES Sara Hirsh Bordo has spent her career building stages for other people's stories — directing award-winning documentaries, founding the women's empowerment production company Women Rising, and being named an Architect of Change by Maria Shriver. But while she was busy lifting up everyone else, her own body was sending a message she couldn't ignore. In this conversation, Marc and Sara — friends since their days as undergrads at TCU — go deep on her debut book, Autoimmunity and the Good Girls: How Permission to Put Ourselves First Has the Power to Keep Us Well, published by HarperOne/HarperCollins. Topics covered in this episode: How Sara's career journey — from Estée Lauder and MGM Studios to Paramount Pictures to documentary filmmaker — was always driven by curiosity and storytellingWhat it means to be a "good girl," and why that conditioning starts in girlhoodThe connection between the caretaker archetype, birth order, and autoimmune diseaseHow Sara funded the first quantitative research study at the intersection of female empowerment and autoimmunity — and what the data revealedWhy 80% of autoimmune disease patients are women, and why so many go undiagnosed or unheardThe role of self-suppression in chronic illness — and the science behind itSara's personal health journey: Hashimoto's, cancer, tumors — and full remissionHow faith intersects with the struggle for self-sovereigntyThe butterfly as a symbol for transformation — and why the journey to flight matters more than the flight itselfWhat Sara hopes the book ultimately does for the women who read it Timestamps: 00:02:28 — Sara on what she actually does for a living00:05:33 — The hero's journey vs. the heroine's journey00:10:12 — On catalysts: cozy ones and crushing ones00:15:47 — The lightbulb moment that led to the book00:16:19 — What autoimmune disease actually is, explained plainly00:19:18 — How Sara funded the first research study on this topic00:22:24 — Beyond birth order: the caretaker archetype00:27:43 — Sara's full list of diagnoses — and how they all went into remission00:29:57 — Why women silence themselves in the doctor's office00:32:01 — The whisper, the tap, the shove00:33:32 — Why the word "feminist" doesn't appear in the book00:39:30 — The battered butterfly in a German museum00:44:58 — What Sara hopes the book's legacy will be About Sara Hirsh Bordo: Sara is a 20-time award-winning filmmaker and Founder/CEO of Women Rising. Her documentary debut, A Brave Heart: The Lizzie Velasquez Story, won the Audience Award at SXSW and qualified for the Academy Award. She has directed campaigns for Toyota and ESPN, consulted on the Wonder Woman franchise for Warner Bros., and produced the first TEDxAustinWomen — the most-viewed TEDxWomen event in the world that year. A percentage of her author proceeds are being donated to the Society for Women's Health Research. Autoimmunity and the Good Girls is available wherever books are sold, including Amazon, and the audiobook — read by Sara herself — is available on Audible. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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    48 mins
  • Chris McKenna | CEO, Protect Young Eyes

    Chris McKenna | CEO, Protect Young Eyes
    May 26 2026

    What happens when we hand seventh graders "a hundred million people and a hundred million choices"?

    Chris McKenna spent 12 years in business risk consulting at Ernst & Young before a call to youth ministry put him face-to-face with the rise of the smartphone in kids' lives. What he saw there led him to launch Protect Young Eyes, now one of the most respected voices in the fight for online child safety.

    In this conversation, Chris and I get into why he thinks "parental controls" is a destructive phrase, how to talk to other parents about screens without sounding judgmental (hint: think peanut allergy), what the recent Meta and social media court wins really mean, why the Australia law is being framed exactly the way Big Tech wants it framed, and what it'll take for screen-time legislation to have its seatbelt-law moment.

    Chris's new book, Five Habits of the Tech-Ready Family: Raising Wise Kids in a Wild Digital World, comes out June 16 and is available for pre-order now.


    Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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    57 mins
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