Well, here we are, my friends, at the beginning of another new year with perhaps the most earnest title you're going to hear all year.

Here on the way I heard it.

This episode is called Where There's a Pulse, There's a Purpose.

I thought it was a decent quote.

I thought it was a great quote.

This is so great, in fact, that I totally missed it when it occurred.

I could see that when I glanced over and saw you just staring intently at nothing in particular

in the near distance. That wasn't entirely true, but yeah, but close enough. My guest is Darnell Epps. I don't know

how interesting or eclectic your resume is, but I doubt it's as interesting or as eclectic as this guy's.

He came across my transom because he launched something called Thurgood Industries, which is a career building and a networking

platform that's focused on skilled workers and creating a more persuasive case for the opportunities

that exist in the trades today. If that sounds like MicroWorks, to you, well, imagine being me

in reading that. Yeah. And then add to it the fact that he went to Yale

law school. Yeah. And Lincoln Tech at the same time. Yeah. So that's never happened before.

My guest today has graduated from the most prestigious law school in the Ivy League. Arguably.

And a trade school that many of you have probably heard of. Consequently, from the most prestigious law school in the Ivy League. Arguably.

And a trade school that many of you have probably heard of.

Consequently, he's taken his large brain and he's applied it toward closing the skills gap.

And so I wanted to learn a little bit more about Thurgood Industries, which is why I invited him here and which is why he flew across the country to chat with us.

I wasn't really up to speed with the 17 and a half years he spent prior to his admittance to Cornell,

which then led to Yale, which he spent at, I believe it was five corners, maximum security penitentiary.

And before that, Rikers for a period.

...