In the September 2013 edition of Challenge magazine Mike talks about how he continues to get the message out about the skilled trades with his new initiative Profoundly Disconnected. Read the online edition – HERE
As some of you know, mikeroweWORKS was launched on Labor Day back in 2008. Every so often somebody asks me how that came to be, and whether or not Dirty Jobs with Mike Rowe had anything to do with it. Here’s my original reply to that question. A couple years ago I went to Congress, to see if anyone there was still up for an honest day’s work. Turns out, there is. Dave Moralez has worked in Congress his whole career, but holds no elected office. He’s a third-generation cattle rancher in Congress, Ariz., a tiny town in the Sonoran Read More
Mike talks about “flipping a negative image of skilled jobs” in the 2013 Fall issue of SkillsUSA Champions magazine. View the original article here.
TV’s Mike Rowe idolized his grandfather. There was one problem—he could never be like him. Or could he? By Mike Rowe, San Francisco, California Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d make a living hosting and narrating TV shows. My plan was to follow in the footsteps of my grandfather, a man who worked with his hands, not his voice. A man who avoided the spotlight. I grew up outside Baltimore, Maryland. We were just a few miles from the city, but it felt like a whole different world. Our family’s land bordered 60 acres of woods, so Read More
According to the latest Gallup Poll, less than 9% of Americans find me to be “Irritating.”
Scroll through the whole deal. It’s worth it.
I’m gratified that my lemur encounter has provided an unanticipated public service.
From: Mike Rowe Re: Your Headline, My Face. Hi Steve, Mike Rowe here, Dirty Jobs. Thanks to the necromancers over at Google, I’ve been alerted to your most recent Question of the Day: “Are Bad Jobs Good for the Economy and the People Who Work Them?” Immediately under your headline I noticed a photo of me, taken on the Mackinac Bridge while filming a segment on Dirty Jobs. Given the juxtaposition of my face with your headline, a reasonable person might conclude that a “Dirty Job” and “Bad Job” are one and the same. This sentiment is not only inconsistent Read More
Back in 2008, I got an invite to speak at something called EG, or “The Entertainment Gathering.” The Entertainment Gathering is a conference that evolved from TED, another well-known speaker series that I had never heard of. Against my natural instincts, I wound up attending EG, and spoke for exactly 20 minutes, as instructed. I had no recollection of what I actually said until several months later when people started asking me about “my relationship with sheep testicles.” That’s when I realized my comments at TED had been posted on the interweb. I have no complaint about being recorded, and Read More
Work smarter, not harder? Don’t tell Mike Rowe, who has met some of the hardest-working people in America. In fact, he argues that mantra is the opposite of the attitude we need to beat this lousy economy. Here is what Mike has to say about the advice he received from his high school guidance counselor Mr. Dunbar: “When I was 17 my high school guidance counselor tried to talk me into going on to earn a four-year degree. I had nothing against college, but the universities that Mr. Dunbar recommended were expensive, and I had no idea what I wanted to Read More
[Bob Reidel: “Mike – Saw you hangin with Bill Maher. I had no idea you were a liberal. Really blew me away. Love everything you do but now that I know who you really are, I won’t be tuning in to watch anything your involved with.”] Well, hi there, Bob. How’s it going? Since your comment is not the only one of its kind, I thought I’d take a moment to address it. Bill Maher is opinionated, polarizing and controversial. I get it. So is Bill O’Reilly, which is probably why I heard the same comments after I did his show. (“How Read More
“People love chopping wood. In this activity one immediately sees results.” —Albert Einstein When I was 14, I woke up one Saturday morning to see my father standing at the foot of my bed, sharpening a double-sided ax. “It’s time,” he said. “Let’s go.” My father has a tendency to start conversations in the middle. He’s also suspicious of anything too modern. Like nouns. “Time for what?” I said. Knowing the futility of the question before I even asked, I rolled out of bed, pulled on my jeans and work boots, and tried again. “Is it cold out?” “Invigorating,” he Read More
So I was in Springfield (Illinois) yesterday, and took a tour of a trade school called MTI. These guys have something like an 85% job placement rate for graduates, and I wanted to see what they were all about. I’m glad I did. Halfway through the tour, a group of guys approached me to say thanks. I didn’t know what they were talking about, but said “you’re welcome” anyway, because well … it’s polite. As it turns out, these guys all received scholarship funds from mrW. I had no idea. I knew MTI was on the list of schools whose Read More
Mike joined Nathan, Nat and Shaun to chat about the new series Dirty Jobs Down Under in Australia. After the guys got over how sexy his voice is, he went in to detail about the dirtiest job he’s ever done, and asked if he’s ever said “NO” to a dirty job. Listen to the interview HERE
So I’m hanging out on the discount rack of this trendy boutique in Sydney, chatting with the hosiery and feeling sorry for myself. Sure, I might look like fine silk, but really, I’m just another swatch of polyester, transformed by some anonymous Chinese worker into a medium-sized pair of novelty underpants, emblazoned with the Australian flag, and shipped off to a country where many still consider undergarments to be “optional.” Lucky me. I had started out in the front window nearly six months ago, covering up the imaginary genitals of a mannequin that looked like Ricky Martin. At $39.95, no Read More
