The “Side Hustle”: A Chat with Katie Lara, Children's Privacy Advocate and Blogger Extraordinaire

On this episode, I interview Katie Lara, travel and beauty writer and senior attorney at the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (CARU), a part of the Better Business Bureau.

As part of her day job, Katie helps to provide valuable guidance to companies by, for instance, keeping marketing newbies from committing grievous errors...like locking children in a freezer (“so not ok!”), and testing out mobile app games (sounds like something I’d like to try!). And then there’s Katie’s ever-evolving “side hustle,” which started with her first blog, Smarty Panties (now katielara.com). While continuing her blog, Katie also got into the freelance game: writing for Fodor’s, the Huffington Post, and Forbes Travel (among others)—all while working full-time.

Katie and I chat about the interrelatedness of advertising and privacy, as well as the challenge to remaining authentic and relevant in today’s world of Instagram influencers. And, as always, we have a few good “bar” stories—Katie tells how a lost ID almost resulted in her having to take the bar again (oh, horrors!) to convincing law firm partners to dance on stage at a dueling piano bar.

Finally, Katie has advice which applies equally to being a lawyer and a writer: be consistent, be professional, and don’t be afraid to network—especially when it involves free booze!

If you’d like to peruse (or better yet, subscribe to) Katie’s blog, check out katielara.com, or if you want to read her pieces published elsewhere on the web, you can find them here, at katielara.com/press/. And for those interested specifically in travel writing, Katie references Travel Massive as a useful networking site (travelmassive.com).

The music featured on this week's episode is “Entering the Bar Theme Music,” composed by Sam Carden for Entering the Bar®.

Death Metal and Dr. Seuss: A Discussion with Jason Wool, Privacy and Cybersecurity Expert

I had the great pleasure of speaking with Jason Wool, an erudite and witty cybersecurity and privacy lawyer at ZwillGen, a boutique Internet and technology law firm. In this episode, we talk about Jason’s 2018 article on cryptographic hashing, what the heck that is, and how it relates to data breach notification laws. We also chat about his propensity for Disney songs and death metal, and the twist of fate that took Jason from his role in reviewing rate regulation as a “NERC-FERC lawyer” (oh-so-Seussian!) to a cybersecurity and privacy advisor.

And, as always, what we talk about when we talk about lawyers: Jason and I chat about his favorite bar in Adams Morgan, DC (sadly, now closed) and his propensity for putting Steely Dan on the jukebox....

You can find Jason’s article, “Does the Cryptographic Hashing of Passwords Qualify for Statutory Breach Notification Safe Harbor?” published by the Journal of Cyber Law and Warfare, here, and his bio and additional (32 or so!) publications here, and here. (Although he does claim to sing a cappella, I can’t guarantee you can find a recording of him anywhere!)

To read up on some of the other sources Jason references as reading material, you can read up on Steven Levy’s history of cryptography, here, and the article by his friend Andy Greenberg, about scary jeep hacking, here.

The sound featured on this week's episode is courtesy of Freesound.org: “Death Grind,” via a CC0 1.0 license.  

Hair Science and Hot Doctors: A Conversation with L’Oreal Counsel Andra Dallas, Claims Substantiation, Research & Innovation

Andra is not only a bi-lingual lawyer, but a marathon runner, painter, and fellow podcast enthusiast! In this episode, we chat about everything from her early involvement in privacy law [@13:40] and the considerations of consumer claims testing (read: she gets to hang out in the lab!) [@3:50; 12:30], to a wild post-bar story [@25] and why taking some time off before law school is not a bad idea….. [@23]. You can find more about Andra, her great hair, and her background as a former New York Law adjunct professor and Better Business Bureau attorney here and here. 

And, not to be missed: Andra gives some timeless advice to law students—and, really, all students [@9:50; 30]. (Note to self: guess I should stop perfuming my resume when applying for a job!)

The music featured on this week's episode is courtesy of the Free Music Archive: Swimming (Swimming) by Ryan Andersen, via a CC BY-NC 4.0 license.