00:00You got a couple million good jobs that don't require a four-year degree, that employers are
00:04struggling to fill, the jobs are essential, but for whatever reason, they're not lauded,
00:09they're not celebrated, and most of them are out of sight and out of mind. The premise for
00:14my foundation rhymed with the show I was working on, Dirty Jobs, pretty well. So it gave me a
00:19reason to both promote the show and talk about something that was creeping into the headlines.
00:24Mostly it happened because in the recession in 2009, the only thing people talked about were the
00:30number of people who weren't working. But when you have a couple million open jobs during a period
00:36of high unemployment, it kind of forces you to think about the possibility of another narrative
00:41in the country. I believe the skills gap is real. I think it's wide and getting wider, and I think
00:47it's a result of a lot of different things, including the removal of shop class from high
00:52school and a lot of misperceptions and myths and stigmas and stereotypes that have always bedeviled
00:58the trades.
