Go Help Yourself: A Comedy Self-Help Podcast to Make Life Suck Less · Misty Stinnett & Lisa Linke

Welcome to Pawnee: Stories of Friendship, Waffles, and Parks and Recreation with special guest Jim O'Heir

·1 hr 22 min·5 clips

Jim thought his book auction had failed, then learned every publisher had bid.

Go Help Yourself opens with a familiar introduction and then gives the floor to Jim O'Heir. Lisa Linke greets him with clear delight. The conversation centers on his career path, but it never stays stuck in a tidy origin story. It moves from the first moment of being recognized into the longer chain of choices that brought him there. The episode spends time on the early turns that did not feel dramatic at the time. Jim talks about accounting, then leaving regular college for Midwest Broadcast School, where he earned a certificate and a demo reel instead of a conventional degree. He and Lisa trace the thread through his first real brushes with performance, including watching school and stage performances and realizing he wanted that life for himself. That feeling becomes a steady theme: not a lightning-bolt calling, but repeated moments of envy, curiosity, and gradual movement. Lisa pushes on the idea that self-help advice often imagines one clean leap toward your passion. Jim’s story answers with something messier and more believable. He did not just decide to become an actor and land there. He took adjacent jobs, learned as he went, and kept noticing the next small opening. The episode treats those steps as meaningful rather than second-rate. The conversation also leans into his comedy history. They talk about Second City, about being pointed toward it by a listener recommendation, and about the sketch work that eventually fed later opportunities, including White Noise and Stumpy's Gang. Lisa keeps looking for the connective tissue between one stage of life and the next. Jim’s answers give the episode a grounded, lived-in feel. There is also plenty of warmth in the guest presence itself. Jim is easy to talk to and quick to laugh. Lisa stays engaged and curious, steering the exchange toward the human details instead of just the résumé line items. The conversation lands on a guest who clearly understands the value of a sideways route. The emotional center comes from the way the episode handles recognition, ambition, and patience. They revisit what it means to want a stage, and how envy can point toward purpose without guaranteeing success. That gives the chat a quiet charge beneath the jokes. It is about work, but also about wanting a life that feels more alive than the one in front of you. Lisa keeps returning to the idea that these choices looked safe at the time. That framing matters. It keeps the story from becoming a myth of instant conviction. Instead, the episode honors people who keep moving even when they are not yet sure where the movement is headed. The pacing stays brisk and conversational. Jokes sit beside real questions. A memory can turn into a practical lesson. The episode never sands off that friction. By the end, the tone settles into something affectionate and grateful. The hosts thank Jim, he thanks them back, and the show closes with its signature sense that life is abundant. It is a friendly, reflective listen with enough specificity to feel earned. The key takeaway is that big careers often grow out of small, adjacent choices made before certainty arrives.

As heard by us

A warm, funny conversation about the sideways path from accounting and sketch work to recognition and the jobs people finally know you for.

Jim O'Heir's visit comes across as a thoughtful, funny conversation about how a career can wind through accounting, broadcast school, sketch groups, and the move to Los Angeles before recognition shows up.

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Why you'd press play

You want a candid career-path story that moves from accounting and broadcast school into sketch comedy and Los Angeles.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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