Weld Wednesday with AWS | National Welding Month Special

April 8, 2026·1 hr 6 min·6 clips

A pipeline welder, an underwater diving instructor, and a drift race car builder reveal how welding opened three wildly different career doors.

April is the hook. Jason Becker opens the Weld Wednesdays with AWS special by tracing National Welding Month back to its 1996 start and the American Welding Society push behind it. Celebrating Welding Since 1996 gives him a clean way to shout out tradespeople, educators, inspectors, engineers, and leaders without losing the shop feel. Three guests are teased, but the excerpt gets sharper once the talk leaves the celebration and gets into underwater welding. The first lesson sounds almost wrong: welders are taught not to mix electricity and water, then underwater welding asks them to work inside that exact problem. Visibility is rough down there. Instead of watching a clean puddle, the welder reads bubbles, contact, angle, speed, and whatever the rod is telling their hand. The basics still echo stick welding up top, but the helmet, switch, waxed rod end, and underwater contact change the whole read. Feel becomes the gauge. The guest keeps circling back to trusting the electrode, because once the arc starts, bubbles can swallow the normal visual cues. The gloves add another twist. Welding gloves under rubber gloves help insulate against the water, but they also steal dexterity right when touch matters most. Jason then asks where these welders actually work. The close turns back toward recruitment, with Becker pointing listeners to schools, people in the industry, AWS education, certifications, scholarships, and memberships. It is celebratory, but the best part is practical: underwater welding can push a welder to stop chasing the perfect view and trust the feel of the work.

As heard by us

A focused episode that makes the welding shortage feel practical, urgent, and worth attention.

Weld Wednesdays with AWS treats National Welding Month as more than a commemorative nod. The episode makes a straightforward case for the trade, linking welding to infrastructure, manufacturing, and the need for more skilled workers.

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See how National Welding Month turns into a practical case for the trade.

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