Author: Shelley McIntyre

Episode 44 cover art for Burn the Map podcast. A woodcut-style illustration of a checklist with empty unchecked boxes and lines suggesting unwritten items, split diagonally against a terracotta background. Text reads: Episode 44: Why You're Not Doing the Thing.

44: Why You’re Not Doing the Thing

Recently, I told my husband that I’d been inconsistent in taking a daily supplement that my doctor recommended. Ah, he said, you must not want

Episode 43 cover art for Burn the Map podcast. A woodcut-style bird's-eye illustration of a winding, non-linear path through an open landscape with scrubby vegetation, split diagonally against a terracotta background. Text reads: Episode 43: Did You Do Enough?

43: Did You Do Enough?

Between layoffs and early retirement programs, a lot of people in midlife are now on the other side of a long corporate career. They might

Episode 42 cover art for Burn the Map podcast. A woodcut-style close-up of a woman's face with an expression of mild, confident disdain — the look of someone with high standards. Split diagonally against a terracotta background. Text reads: Episode 42: The Snob's Advantage.

42: The Snob’s Advantage

I love it when my friends are snobby about things they are good at. One friend goes on at length about nail polish quality, another

Episode 41 cover art for Burn the Map podcast. A woodcut-style illustration of a single figure seated alone at a desk in an empty office, facing a large window, surrounded by vacant workstations. Split diagonally against a terracotta background. Text reads: Episode 41: The Wrong Kind of Safe.

41: The Wrong Kind of Safe

In the US, we have something called the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, or WARN. It requires employers with over a hundred full-time employees

Episode 40 cover art for Burn the Map podcast. A woodcut-style illustration of a backstage rehearsal space — a stepladder, folding chairs, a stage curtain pulled back, and scattered notebooks and coffee cups on the floor — split diagonally against a terracotta background. Text reads: Episode 40: Start, Then Keep Starting.

40: Start, Then Keep Starting

All of the corporate world’s a stage. You learn how to arrange your face for group viewing, you create slides to impress and persuade, and

Black and white linocut-style image of two hands — one open and offering, one hovering in hesitation. Overlayed with the title Flattery Softens the Will.

39: Flattery Softens the Will

When people are burned out, ready to leave a job and possibly the entire corporate world forever, some start a phase called “career review.” While