What Keeps Running When You're Not in the Room

Bob ran the invoices for twenty-two years. Then he retired on a Friday, and by Tuesday nobody could open the spreadsheet.This week it's a solo episode: three essays from the Radical Competency lane of my Substack, All the Fits That's News, read back to back for the first time. On their own they're about a small business I ran for fourteen years, a guy named Bob and my first newsroom job on the obituary desk in 1991. Together they turn out to be the same story, told three ways: the operating instructions we write without noticing, and what keeps running after we've stopped paying attention or left the building for good.In this episode:You Teach People How to Treat You. How four years of answering client texts at midnight taught me more about human behavior than any business degree, and why the fortune-cookie version of that phrase does real damage.Après Nous, le Déluge (aka The Bus Factor). Madame de Pompadour, knowledge hoarding and the difference between being valuable and being a countdown clock.Spell the Name Right. One sentence in a file on a green screen at the Tulsa World, passed reporter to reporter for more than thirty years. The best argument I've got for what work is actually for.Read the essays:You Teach People How to Treat YouAprès Nous, le DélugeSpell the Name RightSubscribe to All the Fits That's News, free or paid. Paid subscribers get the video version of this episode well before the audio drops, with the photographs, art and clips that go with each piece. The audio is just my voice. The video is the whole show.Missed the recent interviews? Catch Matty Dalrymple on helping indie authors own their readers, and Pulitzer Prize-nominated historian James M. Scott on Empire of Ashes:[link: Matty Dalrymple episode][link: James M. Scott episode]Everything, always, at mgopod.com.Mysterious Goings On is celebrating its 11th year of author interviews, craft talk, and the occasional trip somewhere you legally can't go. New episodes drop weekly — subscribe wherever you listen, and catch the video extras at ⁠All the Fits That's News.⁠CONNECT with ALEX:​⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠All the Fits That's News on Substack (Free or Paid)⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠​⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Alex's Author Website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Buy a Book!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Going to Killing City...Alex's True Crime Podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Book J. Alexander Greenwood for keynotes, panels, podcasts, and live conversations:⁠⁠⁠Speaking & Media FAQ⁠⁠⁠Mysterious Goings On Podcast episode was recorded and mixed at Green Shebeen Studios in Kansas City, Missouri. Copyright 2026 all rights reserved. No reproduction, excerpting, or other use without written permission.