How not to be 'that guy.' A conversation with the hosts of Too Beautiful to Live

On our fourth bonus episode of Battle Tactics for Your Sexist Workplace, we talk to Luke Burbank and Andrew Walsh, co-hosts of the podcast Too Beautiful to Live (TBTL).

You may notice that there's no audio here. That's because our bonus episodes are available to listeners who support BTSW and our home station, KUOW, with a one-time contribution of $20.

On this week's podcast, Burbank and Walsh talked about how their understanding of sexism and racism has evolved over the years.

They acknowledged that, as straight, cisgendered white men, they belong to a group that has dominated the cultural conversation. But as podcast and radio hosts, they get to interview people with a wide range of identities and experiences, and these guests continue to expand their understanding of the world.

Walsh and Burbank said that they check in with each other, too, about appropriate language and questions.

Talking to them, we realized how powerful it can be to have a workplace accountability buddy — someone to run ideas by, but also someone who will (kindly) call us out when necessary.

Since Walsh and Burbank speak in public for a living, there’s always a chance of slipping up or getting things wrong. But they both believe that making mistakes is an important part of the process.

Regret, said Burbank, helps to make us better.

“Ask yourself this — would you rather deal with someone who feels overly guilty about things that they’ve done, or who feels no guilt? Like the second person is a possible sociopath," Burbank said. "And of course there are recursive and intrusive thoughts around guilt that are not helpful to a person’s sense of well-being in the world. But if I learn from it, and I maybe do things a little bit better next time, then it was useful.”

Produced for the web by Christy Scheuer.