This is Not Advice

How to be a Litigator, with Doha Mekki

In this episode, Roy talks with litigator Doha Mekki: history teacher, bioethicist, trial attorney, and Acting Assistant Attorney General. She has seen every corner of the law. And her testimony is that almost nothing about being a litigator looks the way you think. Exhibit A: the courtroom is the last resort, not the main event. The real work is years of investigation, millions of documents, hundreds of depositions, and memos that account for every single sentence with a hyperlinked source. Exhibit B: every trial is a morality play. Exhibit C: the most important thing a litigator does is listen. Let the witness go somewhere unexpected. Then follow. She'll also testify to the inner life of the job: the immigrant’s weight of an unstated pressure to succeed, the junk food of praise, why you have to build your own internal governor, and what it felt like when a company walked in with a binder full of documents proving she'd been right all along. This Is Not Advice is Roy Bahat's attempt to understand every aspect of a job directly from the people who do it. Roy is a startup investor focused on the future of work at Bloomberg Beta and an MBA professor. Chapters:  00:00:00 – Preview 00:09:21 – Becoming a lawyer in the first place 00:27:56 – Getting ideas (choosing what to work on) 00:55:48 – Making the work (the craft of litigation) 01:38:22 – Selling the work 02:04:16 – Progressing in your career 02:34:29 – Understanding and improving “The System” 03:03:11 – What should someone considering entering the occupation do? Follow Roy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roybahat/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/roybahat/] Follow Roy on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/roybahat.com [https://bsky.app/profile/roybahat.com] Subscribe to Roy’s newsletter: https://bit.ly/notanewsletter [https://bit.ly/notanewsletter] Read Roy’s blog: http://roybahat.com/ [http://roybahat.com/] Read our community-edited reference guide on how to work: https://www.thisisnotadvice.work/ [https://www.thisisnotadvice.work/] #thisisnotadvice

How to be an Artist, with Kelsey Shwetz

Roy Bahat talks with Kelsey Shwetz, a painter, and a professor at Columbia and Pratt, about what it's actually like to be an artist. She traces her own path from Winnipeg to nearly becoming a psychologist, to the moment she decided to tell everyone she was a painter – and never looked back. Kelsey shares the parts most people don't see: how a painting actually starts, why she stages photo shoots with glass fruit and Zelda-screen composites, and what it means when a painting is "misbehaving." She talks art vs. commerce, how gallery relationships really form, and why pricing by square inch is actually liberating. The conversation goes deep on the inner life too: impostor syndrome, the paralysis of making work that might be seen, and why talking to friends beats therapy. And they close on what AI might mean for fine art, drawing a historical lesson from French Impressionism. Chapters: 00:00:00 – Preview 00:03:20 – Becoming an artist in the first place 00:17:54 – Developing ideas 00:36:15 – Making the work 01:02:59 – Selling the work 01:17:21 – Communicating about yourself and the work 01:24:15 – Progressing in your career 01:43:14 – Understanding and improving "the system" 01:50:10 – What should someone considering entering the occupation do? Follow Roy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roybahat/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/roybahat/] Follow Roy on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/roybahat.com [https://bsky.app/profile/roybahat.com] Subscribe to Roy’s newsletter: https://bit.ly/notanewsletter [https://bit.ly/notanewsletter] Read Roy’s blog: http://roybahat.com/ [http://roybahat.com/] Read our community-edited reference guide on how to work: https://www.thisisnotadvice.work/ [https://www.thisisnotadvice.work/] #thisisnotadvice

How to be a Doctor, with Dr. Graham Walker

Roy Bahat talks with Dr. Graham Walker, an emergency physician at Kaiser San Francisco about what it's actually like to be a doctor. They cover the full arc: from deciding to go into medicine in the first place, to navigating the ER as a team sport, to the administrative grind nobody talks about. Graham gets real about whether medicine is still worth it, what makes a good patient, and how geography shapes the culture of care. They also get into medical research: who does it, who funds it, and why you don't need a PhD to publish research. Looking to the future, they dig into how AI might finally fix the way doctors and patients talk past each other. Chapters: 00:00:00 – Preview 00:06:46 – Training 00:38:35 – Clinical Work 02:34:12 – Research 02:43:42 – Administrative & Leadership 02:59:20 – Career Progression 03:56:16 – The System 04:04:43 – What Should You Do If You're Considering Medicine? Follow Roy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roybahat/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/roybahat/] Follow Roy on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/roybahat.com [https://bsky.app/profile/roybahat.com] Subscribe to Roy’s newsletter: https://bit.ly/notanewsletter [https://bit.ly/notanewsletter] Read Roy’s blog: http://roybahat.com/ [http://roybahat.com/] Read our community-edited reference guide on how to work: https://www.thisisnotadvice.work/ [https://www.thisisnotadvice.work/] #thisisnotadvice

How to be a Scientist, with Bobby Kasthuri

Roy Bahat talks with neuroscientist Bobby Kasthuri, a University of Chicago professor known for his work mapping the brain, about the real mechanics of a career in science. They cover the full arc: from deciding to become a scientist in the first place, to finding ideas worth pursuing, to navigating the tenure clock and beyond. Bobby gets candid about the money side (how scientists fund their research and what they actually get paid), the controversial role of self-promotion, and why so many published research papers turn out to be wrong. They also dig into the emotional reality of scientific life: the idealism, the disappointments, and what keeps you going. Plus, dinosaurs. Chapters: 00:00:00 – Preview 00:01:51 – Big Dino 00:05:41 – Introductions 00:12:29 – Choosing science as a vocation 00:24:13 – Idea 00:51:31 – Investigation 1:23:44 – Communication 1:36:09 – Career progression 2:05:29 – The scientific system 2:35:22 – Parting thoughts for new scientists 2:40:35 – Bobby’s students Follow Roy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/roybahat/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/roybahat/] Follow Roy on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/roybahat.com [https://bsky.app/profile/roybahat.com] Subscribe to Roy’s newsletter: https://bit.ly/notanewsletter [https://bit.ly/notanewsletter] Read Roy’s blog: http://roybahat.com/ [http://roybahat.com/] Read our community-edited reference guide on how to work: https://www.thisisnotadvice.work/ [https://www.thisisnotadvice.work/] #thisisnotadvice