The Best Stories Are Yours

The Best Stories Are Yours

by Richard Beaver

Careers Society & Culture

Season 1

The Only Escalator in Town: Growing Up in South Texas

Mike Robinson grew up in Kingsville, Texas—a small university town where the King Ranch owned the bank, the lumberyard and the only department store with an escalator. As a boy, Mike rode his bicycle for miles, helped publish a neighborhood newspaper on a mimeograph machine and built a miniature golf course using tuna cans for holes. By his teens, friends were driving at fourteen, the Beatles had arrived in South Texas, and Mike had become the drummer in a garage band despite never having played the drums. But growing up in the late 1960s also meant watching the Vietnam draft lottery determine the futures of young men around him. Mike remembers receiving his number, friends who faced very different outcomes, and parents who were prepared to send him to Canada rather than risk losing him to the war. After college, Mike went to work at a Levi Strauss factory manufacturing women’s clothing. Managing a cutting room taught him that the theories he had learned in school rarely survived contact with actual people—and that getting someone’s paycheck wrong could erase nearly everything else a manager did right. From house painting and homemade wind chimes in a red Datsun to factory floors and the beginning of a career at H-E-B, Mike shares a funny, thoughtful and occasionally sobering story about growing up, learning to think and discovering that the most valuable lessons rarely come from a textbook.

The Monster Slayer: Always Looking for the Next Challenge.

Joseph Garfield’s first employer fired him because he wouldn’t work Sundays. His next hired him after watching him help customers for free. From stocking produce at A&P during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics to selling computers at Sam’s Club, Joseph discovered early that he loved solving problems and helping people. After high school, he joined the Army, endured basic training as the six-foot-nine recruit everyone called “Lurch,” served a two-year church mission, and was called to active duty following 9/11. When Joseph returned home without a clear career path, he and his wife moved into his parents’ basement. One reluctant phone call led to an entry-level help-desk job—and the realization that he had finally found something he was built to do. Joseph shares how hard work, constant learning, and a willingness to begin again carried him from retail and military service into technology and consulting. Along the way, he developed a habit of mastering each new challenge, outgrowing the comfortable, and searching for the next big problem to solve. Joseph calls himself a monster slayer. If there isn’t a monster in front of him, he’ll go find one. And if he can’t find one, he just might create one.

Bayonets, Vacuum Cleaners and an Accidental Career in Data

Raj Roy’s working life began far from the typical teenage job. At eighteen, he was guiding tourists from Hong Kong into communist China—crossing guarded borders, learning whom to trust, and once finding himself handcuffed with two bayonets pointed at his chest. After his father’s death, Raj moved to Australia, briefly pursued a dream of playing professional cricket, and attempted to sell cars despite not knowing how to drive. His journey eventually brought him to Minnesota, where a door-to-door vacuum demonstration—and a wedding ring missing for two years—taught him never to judge people by appearances. From paper maps and green-screen computers to FoxPro, software testing and data governance, Raj shares how curiosity, pattern recognition and a willingness to begin again carried him across three continents and into a career he never planned. It’s a story about immigration, reinvention, unexpected opportunity—and discovering that sometimes the things that don’t work out are precisely what point us toward home. [As a side note, this was the first podcast I recored. In the beginning, you will hear me refer to the show by it's old name - Rich]

A Jersey Girl, a Casino, and Life Before Everything Went Digital

Denise Scruggs grew up between South Florida and South Jersey, packed her 1969 Camaro and headed north for college, then found herself building a career inside the spectacle of Atlantic City’s casino era. She shares stories of alternative music, unforgettable concerts, working as a graphic designer at the Trump Taj Mahal, creating an elaborate invitation for Donald Trump’s 50th birthday, and meeting everyone from casino high rollers to the stars of Star Trek. Along the way, Denise and Richard remember a world of rotary phones, printed catalogs, fax machines, Polaroids, and friendships that existed long before social media. It’s a funny, affectionate trip through the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s—and a reminder of how much the world changed while we were busy living in it.

I Knew Ken—but I Didn’t Know His Story

Ken Nguyen grew up watching his immigrant parents build a life in America through hard work, determination and a series of family-run grocery stores. His own path was just as unconventional. Ken began working at a young age, skipped the traditional school-college-career route and found his way into computers before most people understood how much they would change the world. I’ve known Ken for over seven years, but during this conversation I heard stories I’d never heard before—and learned more about him in thirty minutes than I had in all the years I’d known him. It’s a conversation about family, opportunity and the remarkable stories hiding inside people we think we already know.

Official Trailer: Everyone Has a Story

Everyone has a story worth hearing. Season 1 of The Best Stories Are Yours features eight conversations with people just like us—people who’ve lived full lives, taken a few unexpected turns, and collected some incredible stories along the way. These aren’t celebrities. They’re us. Listen to the trailer, then join us beginning September 3. You're sure to smile. You’ll probably laugh. And I think you’ll feel pretty damn good when it’s over.