Check out the latest interview Mike’s done with Liz Wolgemuth of US News & World Report. The piece not only gives the typical history behind the show “Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe” but also highlights mikeroweWORKS.com and what we’re trying to accomplish here.
Mike Rowe: Why Dirty Jobs are Green
The Discovery Channel star explains the nitty-gritty of Dirty Jobs
By Liz Wolgemuth
Posted July 1, 2009 – U.S. News and World Report
“Mike Rowe’s moment of illumination was properly cringe-inducing for a man whose television show is called Dirty Jobs. The articulate and intrepid Discovery Channel star was in the middle of a lamb castration, weighing the widely used method of wrapping bands above the animal’s testicles to cut off circulation against the method he had just witnessed-with dismay-which involved teeth. However unorthodox, the latter approach was quick and seemed relatively painless for the lamb, while the former had left the lamb temporarily immobile. Stripped of his highbrow disapprobation, Rowe, naturally, had to put his own teeth to use. So much for making judgments.
Throughout the course of the show, Rowe, 47, has parachuted into incredibly dirty jobs, including coal miner, shrimper, and even skull cleaner, paying tribute to the value and integrity of manual laborers as he sloshes around in knee-high nastiness right beside them. U.S. News recently chatted with Rowe about dirty jobs and MikeRoweWorks.com, his website dedicated to promoting blue-collar work and drawing attention to impending worker shortages in the skilled trades. Excerpts:
What is the plan for MikeRoweWorks.com?
I always wanted there to be something like a MikeRoweWorks, some sort of initiative that could capture the larger themes that were always present on the show and put a point on them. … We’re just challenging the basic notion of what a good job is and what it means to be not just gainfully employed but engaged and balanced. There really are an amazing number of lessons that people wind up gravitating toward and talking about after they watch this show. And it always comes down to what do these people know that the rest of us don’t, and why are they having more fun than I am, you know, in my nice job with my nice surroundings and my nice paycheck? Why does the guy picking up roadkill seem like a more enjoyable sort to sit down and share a beer with?”
