PODCAST · business
Canned
by Pam Mandel
What happened when you got fired? Pam Mandel wants to know. Tagged as explicit for swearing, expect lots of eff bombs. A collaboration with producer Amy Guth.
Episodes
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S2 Interlude: Some Bullshit in the News 2
Pam and Amy talk about -- you guessed it -- some CANNED adjacent bullshit in the news. Meta used AI to tag workers who took leave to be laid off, lawsuit claims (The Guardian) LinkedIn, a mass grave of ghost jobs, is now becoming a dating app (SF Gate) Nearly 200 Economists and Tech Leaders Warn…
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S2 E23: Marketing and Buying Assistant
Jacki learns the ways of the pirahna. Jacki's walkoff track is Gang of Four, Damaged Goods. Find more of her work here.
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S2 E22: School District Data Analyst
Dave has some thoughts on being downstream from DOGE. "It's not a ripple, it's a tidal wave."
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S2 Interlude: Some Bullshit in the News
Pam and Amy talk about, well, some bullshit in the news. How to think about AI before it's too late Nvidia's Jensen Huang says CEOs who blame AI for layoffs are giving a 'lazy' excuse Microsoft AI chief gives it 18 months—for all white-collar work to be automated by AI The book I mention is Fluke...
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S2 E21: Fin-Tech Marketing Guy
Mike got canned three times in succession. "It gets harder and harder as you get older. I don't think I'll ever be completely over it."
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S2 E20: Equity and Inclusion Specialist
Rachel fails at allyship and owns it. She takes the fall but notices that other folks whiffed it too... with no consequences. Yeah, it does get awkward.
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S2 E20: Nonprofit Brand Storyteller
Leigh totally reads the room and it was ... not a good read.
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S2 E19: VP of Audience Growth
Annemarie logs out.
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S2 E18: Creative at Large
Pam (not your host, a totally different Pam) got fired a bunch of times before figuring out she was on the wrong path.
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S2 E17: Chief Marketing Officer
Someone had to take the fall, and that someone was Anu.
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S2 Interlude: AI WTF with Anil Dash
"If you have a platform that is for a purpose, it's very easy to keep it on topic and solve problems for that purpose. And that's true whether it's an LLM, that it true whether it's a social network ... when technology is meant to serve a purpose for a community, it often does an incredibly good...
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Mark Your Calendars for a Canned In Person Appearance
Hey folks! I'm on a panel at this event on March 19th, 2026 at Obec Brewing in Ballard. Please come say hi.
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S2 E16: Assistant Editor
Dee burns herself down to keep her role and was rewarded by the expectation that she'd keep burning herself down. Thanks to Todd Manley at Earsight Studios for his help with this episode.
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S2 Interlude: Gen X WTF Coaching Session
Shelley McIntyre helps us grapple with reinventing ourselves after we get canned. How do we redefine the experience of getting fired and what to we do next? Find more about Shelley at Burn the Map.
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S2 E15: Head of Marketing
Corey discovers the math just isn't mathing.
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2025 In the Can
Producer Amy and Host Pam review the absolute sh!tshow that work and the job market has been in 2025. Eff bombs a-plenty, heads up, it's who we are.
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S1 E14: Writer
Lianna learns a lot of valuable lessons from her first "big girl" job (her words, not mine) including how you shouldn't do all the work at once. Pace yourselves, kids, there's little benefit in finishing early.
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S2 E13: Health Care Communications Specialist
It seemed like a great opportunity and Kevin believed in the cause, but "smellgate" made things awkward. Like, really awkward. Here are the reasons you might be eligible for unemployment if you quit a job in Washington, where I live, the rules may be different in your location.
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S2 E12: Senior Longform Video Editor
"Layoffs are unfortunately a time where unions really show why they're important." Zach posts about Workers Comp to Instagram, follow him to find out about their next event. Ian -- Zach's co-creator for Workers Comp -- tells his story in E11, here.
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S2 E11: Project Manager
"The media landscape is changing." Yeah, Ian already knows that.
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S2 E10: The Dreaded PIP
Janice Brathwaite -- the president and founder of Workplace Transformations -- talks about her work with corporate culture. She's got a few things to say about the dreaded Performance Improvement Plan (PIP), how it's being misused, and what you should do if you're faced with one. TLDL (too long,...
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S2 E9: Regional Training Manager
Years later, Chuck still asks himself why he was so loyal to his job.
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S2 E8: The Jobs Report(s)
Pam and Amy discuss the jobs report(s), how much AI is fucking things up for us, a listener's struggle to find work, and the curse of pumpkin spice season. Articles referenced: AI is quietly reshaping the way we talk The job market is hell Employers added nearly a million fewer jobs Episodes...
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S2 E7: Medical and Science Reporter
"We knew bad things were going to happen in Philadelphia." She saw it coming, but it was still a blow when Dawn lost her dream job.
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S2 E6: Senior DEI Communications Consultant
Michael went in with a "healthy dose of skepticism" under the Biden adminstration though he believed the work was valuable. Then came the November election and DOGE.
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S2 E5: Tech Career Coach
What's a career coach do? How does one help you? When do you need a career coach? What should you say about that time you got fired? And hey, what's the worst that can happen? Dr. Kyle Elliott patiently fields questions about what a career coach does -- and he gives good advice for navigating the...
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S2 E4: Sports Anchor
Anne was a pioneer for women in the field. "It was a constant battle being accepted." Learn more about Anne on her website. Want a CANNED sticker? We're running a pledge drive. Venmo anything over two dollars (US listeners) or five dollars (non-US listeners), send your mailing address, and you'll...
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S2 E3: Director of Product Management
Christian's job was literally to make federal government processes more effective or, you know, efficient. Then DOGE came along. Learn more about 18F and the work they did here.
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S2 E2: Senior Systems Engineer
Christine was not shy about telling off The Man for making tech support worse. The database mentioned? theceodatabase.com. Our heroine has been hit with several cease and desist notices, so by the time this goes live, it may or may not be online. We'll take that as her doing the right thing.
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S2 E1: Season Two Opener
Amy and Pam ask the important questions like... How do you fuck up being a mermaid?
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S1 E33: Copywriter
Pam gets the axe from her copywriting job, says eff that noise, and... starts a podcast? What? Featuring CANNED's behind the scene enabler and producer, Amy Guth as this week's guest host.
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S1 E32: Regional Banker
Amber wasn't even on company time. She was literally off the clock. And she got the axe anyway. Also, hey, here's that Antiwork Reddit Sub we mention at the intro. Fun fact, my former project manager is the one who turned me on to Antiwork. I miss him every day, working with him was great. When...
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S1 E31: Design Manager
Dylan is going to make it through this year if it kills him.
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Interlude 6: Union Official
Jez Stewart from Prospect (a union that represents 157,000 workers in the UK) takes us through what a union does and why we want to be part of one.
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Interlude 5: HR WTF
Rebecca Weaver, founder and CEO of HRuprise, talks us through the structural pitfalls of HR, why it's broken, and we can do to protect ourselves.
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E30: Content Director/Associate Sales and Marketing Director
Delia was fired twice in one year, and that sucked ... a lot. Also, we have the chance to learn what's different about getting canned here in these United States vs. north of the border in Canada.
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Interlude 4: Financial Planner
Your paycheck has dematerialized, what the hell are you supposed to do now? Meet Anita Gray, a financial planner and owner at Promenade Wealth, who helps us understand how to prepare for getting canned and what to do with our money if -- when -- we get the axe. A quick disclaimer (and we do this…
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S1 E29: Art Director
Settle in, friends, for Ben's wild tale of bad behavior, mistaken identity, and things literally falling apart. Producer Amy and I were both so confounded by this story that there's a bonus segment where the two of us settle in for some serious WTF time.
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S1 E28: Tourism Communications Manager
Leif inadvertently schedules the meeting in which he gets fired. Find Leif's books on his website.
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S1 E27: Trainee Story Wrangler
Mike is very much not himself in the interivew. It ends... like you'd expect. Badly. Mike has a newsletter called Everything is Amazing. He's kinda internet famous for it.
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S1 E26 Video Producer
Quincy learns the hard way that you should download your contacts and your work on the regular. You might lose access to that stuff and then what?
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S1 E25: Pizza Delivery Guy
Beware the bungee-in boss. And dry the trays, you punk-ass kid.
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S1 E24: Director of Economic Development
Do not ask Jamie to tell you about a time. Don't do it.
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S1 E23: Editor in Chief: Cooking App
Matt ignores the signs at his own peril.
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S1 E22 Editor, Writer, and Author of Sad Sacked
When Liz's husband got canned, she worried about how they'd manage. Badly, it turns out, because she got canned too.
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S1 E21: Company Founder
It's weird to be shown the door of the company you founded, but that's what happened to Rand.
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Interlude 3: Uncanned!
"It takes me on a little journey, every single episode. There's very philosophical moments, there's heartwarming, there's "holy shit, that was some fucked up shit that happened, and there's always something that makes me laugh out loud." Pam and Amy (the superstar producer behind CANNED) talk…
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S1 E20: Adjunct Math Professor
Abbas goes all in and files a FOIA request to find out why he wasn't give classes for the subsequent term and ends up going through the looking glass. Apparently it started with... a parking ticket? What?
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S1 E19: Director of Content Marketing
Donna says she'll be haunted for the rest of her days about why she got fired. We hope that's not true, but we get, given that she was, by all accounts, a hero at her job.
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S1 E18: Waitress
Carol says maybe you shouldn't take a swing at your boss, even if you think they really deserve it. Also! Some bonus information about working with a career coach.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Canned have?
Canned currently has 69 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Canned about?
What happened when you got fired? Pam Mandel wants to know. Tagged as explicit for swearing, expect lots of eff bombs. A collaboration with producer Amy Guth.
How often does Canned release new episodes?
Canned has 69 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Canned?
You can listen to Canned on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Canned?
Canned is created and hosted by Pam Mandel.
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