I’m a social work student wanting to learn more about the various roles and opportunities in the field. The professionals being interviewed are great but the constant stream of “ums”, “uhs”, and “likes” from the guy doing the interviews is very distracting and grating to hear. Honestly, it’s just about impossible to listen too. I’ve scrolled back to see years of this feedback. How has this not been addressed? With such a large organization surely there is a more professional person available to host.

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.

I wish episodes were more than an author appearing to promote their latest book. With the vast membership base that NASW must have, it would be much more interesting to hear from a variety of guests from different backgrounds and types of practice. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised when NASW is an organization that seems to focus more on selling its products than being of service to its members.

I really enjoy listening to this podcast. I absolutely loved your episode on South Asians, it was really nice seeing the life of someone in the US from a different perspective.

Overall I find the show helpful to keep me up-to-date and the topics are relevant to me. I just really wish the show host said fewer umms because it interferes with my listening experience.

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.

I do expect more from NASW. The topics and guests are super. The host/interviewer says um and like “like” too much. I sometimes cringe but still listen.

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.

This podcast is so powerful and so necessary in regards to the content it brings for people considering the social work profession or who are in the social work profession, but the production could be much better in order to maintain a stronger audience and listenership.

Hello everyone, I am a social worker at a K12 program here in Washington. I was introduced to this podcast from my instructor at Eastern Washington University. I am currently taking the Leadership course and I just listened in on the Negotiating Your Salary. Just an amazing listen. I wanted to subscribe to this to listen to more podcasts. Thank You, Chris (Change Agent)

Good content and good speakers but the host uses “um” a lot and I find that distracting and wonder if he’s unprepared in his remarks. Working on this will make it a much better podcast.

The content is great, but the host constantly saying “um” is incredibly distracting and hard to listen to.

The content on this is great but the sound quality is not so great. If the sound got better 5 stars for sure!

I agree with the other reviewers that the interviews are too robotic and the host also adds in so many “ums” and “likes” and it’s super distracting. Also the teletherapy episode was not edited properly. There was about 15-20 minutes of them doing prep work for the episodes. Oops!

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.

I’m generally interested in the topics that are discussed, however the format leaves much to be desired. Most episodes sound very scripted and robotic. A natural flow and conversational style would go a long way.

Greg and his highly knowledgeable guests are making sociology fun again! The wide variety of topics they cover and the easy to understand way in which they deliver them had me hooked from my very first listen. They’re also personable and funny, which let’s be honest; isn’t always the easiest to find in the Sociology world. Thanks for putting out such a great show Greg - keep up the great work!

Oh NASW how I wish I could support you. Sadly once again your navel-gazing is your downfall. Are you trying to educate fellow social workers, the public at large, gain members?? It’s unclear but what is clear is how dull these interviews are (well, ok, to be fair, the first five were snore-fests.) Do you not wonder why your membership is so low? NASW is so woefully out of touch, your conferences are outrageously expensive (and irrelevant) and it all appears to be due to the fact that you don’t really represent our profession very well. This podcast is a prime example of this issue. Why oh why would anyone join NASW? I am a member of three competing Sw professional organizations. C’mon NASW. With the prices you charge, you could have such dynamic leadership but instead you remain in the 20th century. What a pity.

I know you’re trying here, but I think you’re missing the mark. People listen to podcasts to learn something or for entertainment. It should be more like a radio program than an advertisement for the NASW. Try interviewing leaders in the field about their research, practice, their impression on current events, whatever. Have people talk about their experiences of marginalization from whatever group you’d like, what it’s like to be black/Hispanic/trans/gay/etc in certain parts of the country or world or whatever is interesting and educational. Have someone talk about the history of mental health or adoption or the prison system or literally any area of interest to social workers. If I want to learn about the annual conference or what programs are taking place during social work month I can find that information online, that’s not what a podcast should be for.