It's brutal out here (in the job market)
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hello, everyone. I'm Kimberly Adams. Welcome back to Make Me Smart, where none of us is as smart as all of us. And today, I'm super excited because we're checking in on our friends over at This Is Uncomfortable. The amazing Rima Kreis and her team have been working on reimagining the show, and they have new episodes out starting today, available wherever you get your podcast. So we wanted to bring Rima back on the show to tell us all about it. Rima, welcome back. Thanks so much for having me. So excited to be here. So now everybody knows what you've been working on since you've been away. Congrats on the relaunch. Thank you. Tell us a bit about the new version of This is Uncomfortable, what you're hoping to do with the new format.
Yeah. So as some of your listeners might know, I've been hosting This is Uncomfortable now for about six years or so. And so I was in my late 20s when I first pitched it. I wanted to figure out why my relationship with money felt so fraught. I wanted to hear more people talk openly about money and how it impacts our relationships and our choices. And so for a long time, the show was seasonal, mostly long-form narrative storytelling, and we did that for about 10 seasons. But the moment we're in now feels a lot different than it did back then. And so with this relaunch, we are going weekly, which is very exciting. But more importantly, we're changing the format so we can be more responsive to the headlines and conversations happening in our culture.
So it's going to be a lot more conversational, more in the moment. We'll still have... Thank you so much for having me. And, you know, the goal really is for the show to feel like an ongoing conversation, a place where people can talk about money and process what is happening all around us in real time and hopefully feel a little less alone navigating all of it. So it's very exciting.
Yeah. So many of these issues we have with money feel like it's your problem, but it's often things that everybody's going through. I want to get to some little snippets of what you've been working on. You've got two new episodes out today. One is about job hunting.
What is This Is Uncomfortable's new format and why did it relaunch weekly?
And you and I have talked on the show about how rough the job market has been lately, especially what's like A quarter of people out of work right now, I think, are long-term unemployed, have been out of work for six months or longer. What did you hear from folks about this as you were reporting?
Yeah, I mean, like you said, it's brutal out there. We're seeing in the headlines how employment growth has slowed significantly. And then people, you know, they're feeling that. They told me that it feels like you're sending your resume into a void. Or maybe you are reaching that third or fourth round only to get ghosted. And so as the months go by, so many people, they're draining their savings. They're barely getting by. I could really hear this shared feeling of dejection. And I think we have a clip that we can play.
Hi, my name is Aitsa. I have been quite frustrated for almost six months now that I have been actively looking and haven't had any luck. Hi, my name is Caleb Traxler. Overall, I think I applied to 350 to 400 jobs in the past month and have received nothing. My student loan grace period is going to end in about six months. Hi, I'm Adriel. January 3rd was when I got let go, 2025 and 2021. Financially, it's been ridiculous. Emotionally, it feels like the end, like I've reached my limit. Hi, I'm Amy. I'm highly confident and driven, but in this job market, even the most self-assured person is going to wonder what they're doing wrong. So to my fellow job seekers out there, keep going. We'll get there.
And I'm sure you've even heard people in your own life talking about just how rough it is right now. Like I can think of a couple of people I've talked to recently who have been searching for months now. And they're like folks who are qualified, you know?
Yeah, I know people who've been out of work for years at this point trying and who have kind of given up. So I'm really looking forward to hearing what your takeaways from that are.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:07–2:30
2
What is This Is Uncomfortable's new format and why did it relaunch weekly?
2:30–6:42
3
How does the relaunch aim to make conversations about money more timely and relatable?
6:42–9:24
4
What stories and themes does the show plan to cover in its new conversational style?
9:24–12:36
5
How bad is the current job market and what did job seekers describe while reporting?
12:36–18:07