How To Survive Getting Fired

How To! with Mike Pesca

Peach Fish Projects

Education, How To

4.3 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 21 October 2025

⏱️ 40 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If you recently lost your job—or think you might lose it soon—Laura Brown and Kristina O'Neill are here to help! On this episode of How To!, Carvell Wallace talks to the authors of All the Cool Girls Get Fired about what to do when you get the ax—and how to turn termination into a real opportunity.

If you liked this conversation, check out the Slate podcast Death, Sex & Money's recent episode on "Why Job Hunting Feels So Grim Lately, Especially for Gen Z."

Looking for a different kind of career advice? Send us a note at howto@slate.com or leave us a voicemail at 646-495-4001 and we might have you on the show. Subscribe for free on Apple, Spotify or wherever you listen.

The show is produced by Rosemary Belson and Sophie Summergrad. Our technical director is Merritt Jacob and our supervising producer is Joel Meyer.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi everyone, I'm Susie Weiss, and I've noticed there's just simply not enough podcasts in the world. So I'm launching my own. Let's go. Let's go, baby. Second Thought is a weekly show about pop culture. The stuff everyone's been binging, arguing about, obsessing over. Here's the thing about heated rivalry. I mean, even the most devoted swifties, I think we can agree, not our best work. We'll be hosting thoughtful conversations with culture's most important figures. Talk about genius.
0:22.6	Talk about generational talent.
0:23.7	Coming to headphones near you on can agree not our best work. We'll be hosting thoughtful conversations with culture's most important
0:21.1	figures. Talk about genius. Talk about generational talent. Coming to headphones near you on April 17th,
0:25.9	with a first guest you won't want to miss. Available wherever you get your podcasts. Obviously,
0:30.6	this episode is about getting fired about the kind of existential fear that people have when they
0:34.8	lose their jobs. But I want to hear first about your personal experiences getting fired.
0:39.0	Well, we like to go chronologically because Laura was the real trailblazer here.
0:43.5	Yeah, not to brag, but I was fired first.
0:50.3	Welcome to how to. I'm Carve-Wallis. You know, getting fired sucks, and it's probably happened to the best of us at some time or another, because if you are in the working adult world long enough, there will inevitably come a time when your boss calls you in for a meeting and you show up to find that you're being ambushed by an HR rep and some paperwork for you to sign.
1:11.9	And this happens for all kinds of reasons, fired for cause, fired for poor job performance,
1:17.2	let go because funding ran out, the company has been bought, the industry is pivoted.
1:22.3	No matter the reason, the feelings we have as we receive the devastating news are almost
1:27.4	always the same.
1:29.3	Shock, an out-of-body experience, panic, maybe some bargaining, worry about the financial future,
1:36.3	anger, and of course, fear.
1:39.3	Lots and lots of fear about what we're going to do next.
1:43.3	What does this mean about us and our careers?
1:46.0	How will we survive?
1:48.0	And this experience, already common, is becoming even more so.
1:53.0	Even by the most optimistic projections, people losing their jobs in mass is not a trend that's going to go away anytime soon. So what do you do? How do you
2:03.7	recover? And how cool would it be if in a moment like that you could get advice from two
	...

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