On air · Episode 118 is out now

Every other Tuesday · Austin, Texas

Radio for people starting over. Every other Tuesday, one person who changed careers after thirty tells us what it actually took: the money, the doubt, the first bad day in the new job.

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01Now playing

The Accountant Who Builds Boats

Episode 118Oct 27, 202658 min

With Renata Ojeda, nineteen years a CPA in Corpus Christi, now building cypress skiffs in Rockport, Texas.

At 46, Renata sold her half of the practice and talked her way into a boat shop that had never taken an apprentice over 25. We get into the spreadsheet she kept on her own nerve, the first plank she ruined, and the $38,000 she budgeted for two years of learning against the $51,000 it actually took. She still does her own taxes. For fun.

Chapters

SB-¼ reel deckStudio B On the reelEp. 118 · The Accountant Who Builds Boats
Ep. 11800:00of 58:41

Demo player: the reels turn and the clock runs, but there’s no audio.

“I didn’t leave the day the numbers said go. I left the day I stopped needing them to.”

Renata Ojeda, at 31:12

02The dial

Every story has its own frequency.

Scroll to tune across the archive, or search for the job someone left behind.

Showing 13 of 118 episodes. The full archive lives in your podcast app.

  1. Ep. 118 · Oct 27, 2026

    The Accountant Who Builds Boats

    Renata Ojeda CPA, 19 years wooden-boat builder

    Leapt at46

    58 min

  2. Ep. 117 · Oct 13, 2026

    From Trading Floor to Bread Oven

    Dev Malhotra Bond trader bakery owner, Houston

    Leapt at39

    51 min

  3. Ep. 116 · Sep 29, 2026

    Night Shift, Then the Torch

    Dee Whitfield ICU nurse pipeline welder

    Leapt at44

    47 min

  4. Ep. 115 · Sep 15, 2026

    Sermons to Stand-Up

    Tom Kessler Methodist minister stand-up comic

    Leapt at51

    55 min

  5. Ep. 114 · Sep 1, 2026

    Code at Fifty-Two

    Lorraine Pike Mail carrier software engineer

    Leapt at52

    49 min

  6. Ep. 113 · Aug 18, 2026

    Teaching Kids, Then Trees

    Andre Batiste Fifth-grade teacher certified arborist

    Leapt at35

    41 min

  7. Ep. 112 · Aug 4, 2026

    The Lawyer Who Ran Off to the Circus

    Padma Rao Corporate lawyer aerial acrobat

    Leapt at33

    62 min

  8. Ep. 111 · Jul 21, 2026

    Roughneck to Labor and Delivery

    Carlos Medina Oilfield roughneck L&D nurse

    Leapt at31

    53 min

  9. Ep. 110 · Jul 7, 2026

    Pianos, After the Navy

    Walt Brody Navy chaplain piano restorer

    Leapt at67

    46 min

  10. Ep. 109 · Jun 23, 2026

    Software Sales to Tamales

    Yesenia Cruz Account executive tamale shop owner, San Antonio

    Leapt at37

    50 min

  11. Ep. 108 · Jun 9, 2026

    The Engineer Who Teaches Algebra

    Hank Oduya Petroleum engineer high-school math teacher

    Leapt at48

    44 min

  12. Ep. 107 · May 26, 2026

    Pixels to Midwifery

    Sofie Lundberg Brand designer nurse-midwife

    Leapt at36

    57 min

  13. Ep. 106 · May 12, 2026

    The Pharmacist Who Went to Big Bend

    Gene Takahashi Retail pharmacist park ranger

    Leapt at58

    48 min

03By the numbers

Nobody on this show started over at twenty-two.

41
41 is the average age our guests made the leap. The youngest was 27, a paralegal who became a line cook. The oldest was 67, a Navy chaplain who now restores pianos in Fredericksburg.
Median years spent “thinking about it” before the move
9.4
Took a pay cut in the first year
68%
Say they’d do it again, only sooner
4 in 5
Downloads since the first episode, April 2022
2.3M

04Your hosts

We took the long way too.

Lucia Ybarra

Host · asks about the money

Before12 years pricing pensions as an actuary in Dallas

Lucia priced other people’s retirements until she was 38, then spent a year volunteering two overnight hours a week at a community station in Austin. She still thinks in spreadsheets, which is why she’ll ask exactly how many months of savings it took.

First night on air: Sept 9, 2019, at 2 a.m., to an audience of eleven.

On air
Studio B is a 1958 radio repair shop on Austin’s East Side. The workbench is still there; it holds the coffee now.

Ben Atwater

Producer · runs the board

Before10 years as a high-school band director in Lubbock

Ben taught 140 teenagers a year to march in step, then taught himself to edit audio in a closet lined with moving blankets. He mixes every episode on a 1974 Tascam console and still counts guests in under his breath.

First edit: 41 hours of work for 38 minutes of tape.

05Pitch your story

Changed careers? Tell us how it really went.

We read every pitch out loud, both of us, on Thursday mornings. We book about one in forty, and we write back either way within three weeks.

  1. 01You’ve done the new work for at least two years, long enough for the shine to wear off.
  2. 02You’ll talk about money: what you earned before, what you earn now and what the switch cost.
  3. 03You’re not selling a course. We like you. We still can’t.

Story request card

Studio B · Austin, Tex. · No. 0119

06Listen on

Pick your input.

Same show everywhere. New episodes land at 5 a.m. Central every other Tuesday, in time for the drive you’re thinking about quitting.

Apple PodcastsRated 4.9 by 3,412 listeners SpotifyFollow for every other Tuesday OvercastChapters and show notes built in Pocket CastsPicks up where you paused YouTubeWatch Studio B on camera RSS feedPaste it into any app

07The Slow Build Letter

The numbers we don’t say on air.

One email every other Tuesday with the new episode, the guest’s real figures (salary before, salary after, months of savings spent) and one job listing for someone ready to start over. 18,400 readers. No courses, no hustle.