Marc Wigder, JD MBA, joins Larry Port to discuss his evolution from a real estate attorney to a business owner and Boca Raton City Councilman. Marc explains how a legal background provides a foundation for understanding business mechanics, yet why he chose to return to school for an MBA to master finance and marketing. He details the day-to-day reality of city management, which involves complex tasks ranging from seawall reconstruction to railroad logistics. Listeners will learn about the "organic" nature of career pivots and discover high-demand, overlooked roles in the public sector, such as surveying and civil engineering.

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👤 Guest Bio

Marc Wigder, JD MBA, is a City Councilman for the City of Boca Raton and Chair of the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA). He is the founder of Greenhouse Property Company, which focuses on sustainable commercial real estate, and co-founder of GreenSmith Builders. Additionally, Marc serves as an Adjunct Professor of Business Law at Florida Atlantic University (FAU). He holds a JD from New York Law School and an MBA from the Yale School of Management.

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📌 What We Cover

1. Moving from a straight-line legal career to a series of pivots in business and government.
2. Comparing the checklist-based logic of law school with the creative and financial scope of an MBA.
3. How representing clients requires deep knowledge of their specific business operations, such as dental office construction.
4. The transition from managing private property to overseeing city-wide infrastructure and budgeting.
5. Using data-driven analysis and field research to address constituent issues like road safety and zoning.
6. Identifying critical labor shortages in technical fields like surveying and urban planning.
7. Applying a "total customer experience" philosophy to both business and public service interactions.

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🔗 Resources Mentioned

1. Yale School of Management
2. Florida Atlantic University (FAU)
3. Greenhouse Property Company
4. Ritz-Carlton
5. Jack Welch
6. Leon Cooperman
7. Bernie Marcus
8. Gumbo Limbo Nature Center
9. Loggerhead Marinelife Center
10. Tri-Rail

Ben Berkman joins the show to explain the actual work of a Data Scientist. He specifically works on identity graphs at The Trade Desk. Host Larry Port asks Ben to break down how online advertising auctions happen in a fraction of a second. Ben describes his daily routine, which involves about six hours of coding in Scala and two hours of meetings. He clarifies the distinction between data scientists who build models and the software engineers who build the infrastructure to support them.

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Ben also shares how his background in economics and liberal arts helps him ask better questions. He offers an honest look at work-life balance and how AI tools like Claude are changing the way he codes.

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Guest Bio

Ben Berkman is a Graphs and Identity Data Scientist at The Trade Desk. He specializes in building data structures for cross-device identity resolution. Before this role, he worked as a Cost Analyst and Data Scientist at Technomics, Inc., where he focused on defense acquisition data. He holds a Master's in Data Science from NYU and an undergraduate degree from Pennsylvania State University.

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What We Cover

1. How The Trade Desk facilitates real-time ad auctions for the open internet.
2. The specific breakdown of a data scientist's day: mostly solitary coding with some team collaboration.
3. Differences between data science (creative modeling) and software engineering (plumbing and infrastructure).
4. Why curiosity and communication skills from a liberal arts background are valuable in technical roles.
5. How AI tools are shifting coding workflows from manual typing to agentic oversight.
6. The personality types that thrive in data science: curious problem solvers who enjoy steady work.
7. Realities of work-life balance in a global company with teams in Singapore.

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Resources Mentioned

1. The Trade Desk
2. Scala (Programming Language)
3. Apache Spark
4. Andre Karpathy
5. Claude (Anthropic)
6. Spotify

Many people picture firefighters rushing into burning buildings every day. In reality, modern first responders in South Florida handle mostly medical calls and complex prevention work. Host Larry Port sits down with Marc Juliano, a veteran Firefighter/Paramedic and current Fire Safety Inspector with Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue.

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Marc breaks down the truth about the job: from the 24-hours-on, 48-hours-off schedule to the "second family" dynamic at the station. He explains why 88% of calls are medical, the operational toll of the opioid epidemic, and how fire codes prevent tragedies before they start. You will learn exactly how to enter this field, the specific schooling required, and why being late is the ultimate cardinal sin in this line of work.

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About Marc Juliano

Marc Juliano is a Firefighter/Paramedic and Fire Safety Inspector for Deerfield Beach Fire-Rescue, contracted through the Broward Sheriff’s Office (BSO). With over 20 years in the service, he spent 16 years "on the trucks" responding to emergency calls before moving into fire prevention and code compliance.

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What We Cover

1. The operational reality of the 24-hours-on, 48-hours-off shift schedule.
2. Why 88% of modern fire rescue calls medically related rather than structural fires?
3. The "Risk a lot to save a lot" philosophy regarding property versus life safety.
4. How a "Kelly Day" works and how firefighters stack vacation time for long breaks.
5. Transitioning from riding the trucks to the preventative side of Fire Safety Inspection.
6. The station dynamic: Grocery shopping, cooking, and training as a "second family."
7. Educational requirements: EMT school, Fire Academy, and Paramedic certification.
8. The impact of the opioid epidemic and Fentanyl on first responder resources.

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Resources Mentioned

1. NFPA (National Fire Protection Association)
2. Chicago Fire (TV Show)
3. Backdraft (Movie)