{"podcast":{"title":"Is This Working?!","slug":"is-this-working-7581836","podcast_index_feed_id":7581836,"rss_url":"https://rss2.flightcast.com/wbxvf8vgyotuwkiuw1711u1r.xml","website_url":null,"image_url":"https://files.flightcast.com/workspaces/tv31t1erpjv2lb9jp39i59ra/01KCWAXQJ3EJEHSVQ63PH27KW8/final_square_cover__1_.jpg","author":"Connor Diemand-Yauman","episode_count":19,"summary":"What if the most interesting thing about work isn’t what we do—but what it does to us? Is This Working?! dives into meaningful work and the messy humans who do it. As AI reshapes industries and upends old definitions of success, social entrepreneur and Stanford GSB lecturer Connor Diemand-Yauman talks with extraordinary people about both sides of the story: the outer work (what they built, how they pivoted, the tactics that actually worked) and the inner work(the therapy, the doubt, the failure) it took to get there. Because when the world is changing this fast, maybe these stories are the only way to know if any of this is actually working.","last_synced_at":"2026-09-24T12:18:39.044702+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/is-this-working-7581836"},"episode":{"title":"The Slowest Career Change In History | Magician David Gerard","slug":"the-slowest-career-change-in-history-magician-david-gerard","published_at":"2026-04-08T13:01:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/is-this-working-7581836/the-slowest-career-change-in-history-magician-david-gerard","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/is-this-working-7581836","url":"https://episode.flightcast.com/01KNMNZ2DPD3QWRT3ZVDBBCDS6.mp3","audio_url":"https://episode.flightcast.com/01KNMNZ2DPD3QWRT3ZVDBBCDS6.mp3","summary":"Is there a version of you that feels unattainable? For David Gerard, it was becoming a full-time magician. So he did it slowly. Twelve years slowly. VP at Sequoia-backed startups during the day, performing shows at night, catching 3 AM flights from Kansas back to his job. The double life was the bridge. He built the thing he actually wanted one night at a time while keeping the safe life going, until the gap closed enough to jump. And the magic wasn't the only thing he was keeping hidden. David buried his mental health struggles for decades. When he finally started talking about it, he did the same thing. Told one therapist. Then 20 people. Then 50. Then 100. He calls it \"opening the aperture of fear slowly.\" It became his approach for everything. Not one dramatic leap. Just a longer, quieter path toward his authentic self. Now, he’s directed the #1 rated show in Las Vegas, has consulted for America's Got Talent for four seasons, performs 100+ nights a year for companies like Google, coaches executives on presence, and runs men's groups. He talks about switching from “gasoline” to “solar” as a fuel source, choosing 1,000 real relationships over hundreds of thousands of followers, and why the secrets you keep are the ones that cost you the most. He also reads Connor's mind at the end. Just stay for that part. Chapters 00:00:00 Intro — Magic as armor, authenticity as freedom 00:01:26 From external validation to internal fuel 00:04:00 The 12-year runway — Marketing by day, magic by night 00:06:34 Breaking the container — The Dunkin' moment 00:07:43 Creating awe for a living — The magician's mindset 00:08:52 Relationships over reach — Building a career without fame 00:10:13 Fear as a compass — Micro-dosing on authenticity 00:12:56 Magic became armor — Pennsylvania in the e…","meta_description":"Is there a version of you that feels unattainable? For David Gerard, it was becoming a full-time magician. So he did it slowly. Twelve years slowly. VP at…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":4036,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/is-this-working-7581836/episodes/the-slowest-career-change-in-history-magician-david-gerard/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/is-this-working-7581836/the-slowest-career-change-in-history-magician-david-gerard.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}