NASW Social Work Talks

I love the podcast and listen regularly. However, I was recently bothered to hear the proven etymological myth for the term “handicap” reported as fact in the “When a Therapist’s Diagnosis is Not a Secret” episode. I’m all for using kinder and gentler terminology and language; however, presenting false information to bolster our arguments (even unintentionally) can undermine our credibility and the work we do in our communities. Obviously, this was a small blip on an otherwise excellent episode, but it stuck with me as something that people who oppose the work we do could point to dismiss our efforts.

I just finished listening to Ep. 115. The information shared was fantastic and is definitely missing in my formal education. I am very appreciative of the guest speaker’s transparency and willingness to share her personal and professional experiences. However, the interviewers use of filler words was quite distracting. In one question, he said “um” every two words. I can understand he may have been nervous or maybe did not have a lot of time with the questions. Otherwise, he asked great questions. Valued the content overall.

Normally I am not one to leave a review, however after listening to the episode on self-care and avoiding burnout I felt compelled to do so. Although the particular episode I listened to was taped back in 2018, I believe the topic holds true and is relevant to todays world. Since as the episode clearly details there is this heightened societal pressure that is often projected through social media that individuals must be actively productive and perfect within their lives. However, often this pressure leads individuals to place a greater emphasis on overworking and their overall performance. Ultimately, this results in individuals disengaging form the valuable connections and their treasured activities within their lives. However as the episode highlights, individuals can break this toxic cycle and regain a sense of connectivity and calmness in their lives, through allowing themselves the permission to take a step away from their work or obligations in order to engage in activities that bring them joy such as going on a walk, reading a chapter of a book they been wanting to read for some time, and/or spending some time with their friends and family. As I can personally speak for myself that I have definitely felt burn out in my life especially so during the pandemic as I was juggling my schooling and work from home. However, through experiencing burn out first hand and learning further about the topic, I began to prioritize the act of self-care within my daily routine through making it a ritual of mine to go on a daily walk with my dog for at least 15 minutes each day, which has really allowed me to step away from my computer screen and take some to enjoy the nature around me and find more stillness in my life. Overall, I thought the episode did an effective job of defining what burn out is, detailing the signs someone may be dealing with burn out, and also how individuals can prioritize self-care within their daily schedules. However, I would have loved to hear further about the guests professional journey and any obstacles they may have faced along the way, since I felt the episode quickly jumped to the questions and did not offer an opportunity for the listener to connect with the guest. Moreover, in the future the podcast can consider adding an ice breaker before stepping into the content of the episode or even a question of the day in order so that it feels more relatable for the listener and more like a conversation between two people.

This podcast was from the NASW and it was about immagration. I liked the introduction because they made it very clear on what their goal of the podcast is. Their content was very clear and they described why the zero immagration policy is wrong. I enjoyed how they did their delivery. They did this by having a discussion and telling their own thoughts and how they view it as a social worker. Technical production is very well done in this, they are into music that was calming and their voices were loud and clear. It was a very easy podcast to listen to.

Unfortunately, the very poor, hollow, heavy treble and changing volume or recording levels really detract from this otherwise important podcast. Things as simple as filtering out ambient noises and/or coaching hosts and guests to avoid distracting noises such as the clicking of a pen or crackling of paper, are neglected and make the episodes difficult or impossible to listen to. The lack of professionalism in terms of audio craft is a pity given the valuable content that will be missed as a result

I really want to like this podcast, but the recordings are awful and sound like people are speaking through a speakerphone from a distance. The hosts use distracting linguistic fillers that I also cannot move past, such as “um, yeah, like”. The podcast is attempting to give voice to important social work and social workers. If those complaints were addressed I’d continue to listen.