Serious social work, made usable.
The Social Work Podcast is an interview show about the ideas and decisions behind social work practice. Jonathan Singer speaks with guests about psychodynamic theory, research design, addiction recovery, crisis response, and career development.
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The Social Work Podcast is a professional education show centered on social work practice, theory, research, and career development. Jonathan Singer gives each episode a clear setup, then lets guests work through the practical consequences of their expertise. The result is less like a newsy interview show and more like a portable seminar for the field. Some episodes are immediately tactical. A career conversation with Jennifer Luna, Michelle Woods, and Cindy Snell covers resumes, interviews, salary research, benefits, negotiation, alumni networks, and the emotional surprise of actually receiving an offer. Other episodes are more theoretical. A conversation with Dr. Terry Northcutt uses psychodynamic theory as a way to understand human development, family differences, repeating relationship patterns, and the environments people need in order to grow. The show returns often to the question of evidence. Bruce Thyer appears in episodes on single-system design and experimental research, arguing for practical ways social workers can evaluate whether interventions help. These conversations make research feel connected to one client, one program, one dissertation, or one agency decision. The clinical range is broad. Episodes address self-psychology, adolescent addiction risk, recovery high schools, social work abroad, and suicide crisis response at the Golden Gate Bridge. The tone is earnest, conversational, and professionally curious. Singer often names his own uncertainty or earlier assumptions, then uses the interview to revise them in public. That gives the show a useful humility. It does not reduce social work to inspiration, and it does not treat theory as decoration. It keeps asking how ideas behave when they meet clients, schools, agencies, families, and job markets. The best fit is a listener who wants social work content with real educational density. It rewards patience. It also rewards people who like hearing careful practitioners think out loud.
Made for: For social workers, social work students, educators, clinicians, and researchers who want thoughtful professional education grounded in practice. It also suits listeners interested in therapy theory, evaluation, addiction recovery, and crisis response.
What sets it apart: The show connects academic social work concepts to concrete field decisions, from a job offer to a treatment plan to a research design. Jonathan Singer's framing makes dense material approachable without stripping out the professional complexity.
The Social Work Podcast provides audio programs on services provided by social workers, including direct practice, human behavior in the social environment, research, policy, field work, and social work education.
One client's progress becomes a research design, and your grant application can stay imaginary.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A grounded look at psychodynamic theory as a frame for development, environment, and recurring relationship patterns.
The Social Work Podcast treats psychodynamic theory less as a set of old labels than as a practical way to think about development. Jonathan Singer's conversation with Dr.
Bruce Thayer turns experimental design into a practical social work responsibility, not just an academic hurdle.
Bruce Thayer makes experimental research feel less like a gatekeeping exercise and more like a practical question for social work: are the services being offered actually helping people?
Particle accelerators, compost piles and Queen's guitarist, all explained.
Steven Novella and a rotating panel dissect weekly science news and debunk pseudoscience claims.
APA's Kim Mills interviews psychology researchers on tipping, crying, and extremism.
Jonathan Singer interviews Dr.
Jonathan Singer interviews Jennifer Luna, Michelle Woods, and Cindy Snell about finding, negotiating, and reshaping social work careers.
In episode 148 of The Social Work Podcast, Jonathan Singer interviews Dr.
Jonathan Singer interviews James Marley about integrating neurobiology into social work practice and education.
NASW CEO Dr.
Jonathan Singer interviews Bruce Thayer about how BSW and MSW practitioners can critically appraise randomized experiments without conducting them.
Jonathan Singer interviews Bruce Thyer of Florida State University about single-system design, a practical way for social workers to evaluate client outcomes using repeated measures and visual graphs.
Jonathan Singer interviews ChatGPT-4o about AI in child welfare, community organizing, Bronfenbrenner's model, and anti-racist practice.
Lisa Damour argues that talking about distress can become rumination, and recommends distraction, comfort, or perspective changes when conversation stops helping.
Lisa Damour distinguishes adolescent distress from mental illness, comparing ordinary emotional setbacks to a cold that a teenager recovers from.
Illinois passed Senate Bill 1632 in 2021, removing the ASWB exam requirement for basic LSW licensure while retaining the license.
Jonathan Singer rebroadcasts a 2010 interview about social workers moving to the UK, with a new update from a British recruiter.
An interview with Dr.
Interview with Lori Holleran Steiker about recovery high schools as an innovative approach to help adolescents with addiction stay sober during high school.
Social Work Podcast host Jonathan Singer interviews retired Highway Patrol officer Kevin Briggs about his experience preventing suicides on the Golden Gate Bridge.