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The Chad & Cheese Podcast

The Chad & Cheese Podcast

Hosted by Evergreen Podcasts

Episodes

1620

Latest episode

Jun 2026

Language

EN-US

About the show

Everything people and workforce—recruiting, marketing, technology, talent management, and workforce economics—delivered with biting sarcasm and unapologetic snark. Industry misfits Chad Sowash and Joel Cheesman bring their no-holds-barred opinions to dissect news, trends, and the occasional dumpster fire. If you’re a hiring company, staffing firm, or vendor looking for insights (and a thick skin), these two won’t just tell you what’s happening—they’ll tell you why you’re probably doing it wrong. Buckle up, buttercup.

Listen to episodes

60 recent
June 16, 202639 min

Busting Drug Cartels and Climbing Corporate Ladders: DEA Vet Shares Journey

Get ready for an explosive episode of The Chad & Cheese Podcast as hosts Joel Cheesman and Chad Sowash welcome Jack McFarland, a 32-year DEA veteran and former Quantico instructor, to HR’s Most Dangerous Podcast. In this high-stakes interview, McFarland bridges the gap between federal law enforcement and corporate leadership, sharing gripping stories from his rise through the streets of Philadelphia during the crack epidemic to commanding major cartel investigations and leading elite teams in the Caribbean. He breaks down the elite psychology of hand-picking teams, the critical art of vetting human intelligence, and why managing special agents is exactly like coaching high school football. From his old-school 1987 application process to a wild, modern-day run in the casting semi-finals for reality TV's The Traitors, Jack blends sharp humor with serious operational wisdom. Plus, he pulls back the curtain on federal mandatory retirement at age 57, delivering a raw look at institutional ageism and why agencies are forced to rehire retirees to fix massive staffing shortages. Whether you are scaling a company, managing risk, or navigating corporate politics, this wide-ranging conversation delivers actionable leadership principles straight from the front lines. Chapters 00:00 - Introduction to Jack McFarland 02:59 - Jack's Journey to the DEA 05:54 - The Interview Process for Reality TV 08:59 - The Evolution of the DEA's Brand 11:49 - Managing Diverse Teams in Law Enforcement 19:39 - Career Progression and Leadership Roles 21:02 - Ageism and Mandatory Retirement in Law Enforcement 23:12 - Financial Motivations Behind Hiring Practices 24:31 - Rehired Annuitants: A New Approach to Staffing 26:46 - Transitioning to Civilian Life After Law Enforcement 29:32 - The Importance of Networking in Career Advancement 30:01 - Managing Human Intelligence and Informants 34:47 - Actionable Intelligence and Avoiding Bias in Law Enforcement

June 12, 202658 min

Indeed Goes For The Kill

The band is finally back together! This week on HR’s most dangerous podcast, Chad, Mo, and Lieven team up for a wild ride across dystopian corporate tracking, AI bias, and the shifting sands of global recruitment. If you thought the job market couldn’t get any weirder, you’re going to want to hear this. Here is a look at what the crew is tackling on this week's show: Indeed Goes In For The Kill: Indeed’s new "changing landscape" FAQ drops a massive hint about their latest agenda. Chad explains why the platform is trying to squeeze out recruitment agencies entirely. IBM Tells Boomers to Pack Their Bags: A juicy new lawsuit alleges that IBM used automated hiring tech to block older, laid-off workers from returning. ChatGPT’s "AI Job Slop": OpenAI launched conversational job searching partnered with Indeed, Upwork, and Appcast. Lieven tests it via VPN with hilarious, glitchy results , while Chad exposes how the platform is already infected with the exact same scam jobs and candidate-harvesting schemes plaguing Google. Meta's Dystopian Trap: Mark Zuckerberg wants you to think Meta is saving the world with a $115M workforce training academy. In reality, the team connects the dots. Plus: Stick around to hear about Mo's questionable obsession with a fictional hockey captain , Lieven's take on European pay transparency , and a binary dad joke. Are we descending into a corporate tech dystopia, or can we build guardrails before the robots completely take over?

June 11, 20266 min

Shredded: Meta, ZipRecruiter, Claude, Indeed, LinkedIn, Talent.com, & More

The Shred is a weekly roundup of what’s making headlines in the world of employment. The Shred is brought to you today by Jobcase.

June 9, 202638 min

Marriott Hiring: 2 Weeks to 3 Days

Chad and Joel, drag Meghan Rhatigan (VP of Talent Acquisition Experience at Marriott International) into the interrogation room to find out how a hospitality giant survives a global punch in the face. Marriott used to live in a pre-2020 la-la land where millions of candidates just fell into their laps organically. Then the pandemic hit, the world shut down, and Marriott was caught flat-footed trying to fill 200,000 global roles using the same old clunky tech and slow-as-molasses hiring managers. Enter Meghan and her organizational change management background to fix a "fat funnel" nightmare where the interview process alone took two agonizing weeks. The "Legal AI" Secret Sauce The ROI: The 5-Million Candidate Bench The Loyalty Program Hustle: Listen and enjoy!

June 5, 202657 min

Google & OpenAI's Job Slop

It is officially Joel-Free June, which means Joel is off on an extended European holiday while Chad holds down the fort with two brilliant industry heavyweights: Emi Beredugo and JT O'Donnell. From boardroom coups and high-stakes acquisitions to massive corporate grifts, the trio dives deep into a chaotic week of HR technology news. Stepstone's Plot Twist JobGet Snaps Up Ripple Match The Job.com Meltdown The Point Solution Funeral Billionaires, Layoffs, & Job Slop AI Lost in Translation Listener Shoutout: A massive shoutout to TA champion Terry Dewey for slashing their organization's Indeed spend over the past 12 months by putting our podcast strategies to work! Keep the cash, Terry, but feel free to ship that bottle of whiskey to the studio anyway. Don't miss Chad and Emi live at Recfest UK on July 2nd at Knebworth Park! Emi is taking over the Innovate Stage as MC, while Chad and a freshly returned Joel will be bringing the noise to the Disrupt Stage. Get your incredibly soft The Chad & Cheese t-shirts, free beer, and free whiskey by heading over to chadandcheese.com/free.

June 4, 20265 min

Shredded: JobGet, RippleMatch, BOLD, Joblist, ZipRecruiter, Factorial, Stepstone Group, & More

The Shred is a weekly roundup of what’s making headlines in the world of employment. The Shred is brought to you today by Jobcase.

June 2, 202630 min

7-Eleven: 24-7 AI Hiring

HR’s Most Dangerous Podcast Just Dropped a Big Gulp of Truth. 🥤 Think automated hiring is just a cold, heartless robot out to steal your corporate badge? Think again. Chad and Cheese sit down with Rachel Allen, Senior Director of TA at 7-Eleven. She manages over 110,000 hires a year and automated 95% of their store recruitment. The result? They slashed time-to-hire from 10+ days to under three (and sometimes three hours, because speed kills). Meet "Rita": The AI assistant so good, store managers literally asked to meet her in person. (Awkward...) "Help is Coming": How to drop a massive tech overhaul on your staff without causing a mutiny. The Marketing Hijack: How the TA team hitched a ride on product shipments to score free recruitment marketing. Accidental Quality: How solving for pure speed accidentally fixed their crap candidate quality and retention problems. "Where we mess up sometimes is we lead with the technology—the shiny new thing—versus what are we solving for?" — Rachel Allen, 7-Eleven Whether you’re drowning in high-volume resumes or sweating bullets that a chatbot is coming for your sourcing desk, Rachel drops a masterclass on putting humans where they actually matter.

May 29, 202658 min

Stepstone's Automation Bias Machine

Grab your pastel shorts and a cold drink because Chad is broadcasting live from Portugal, celebrating his birthday alongside a local bar owner while Joel prepares for a milestone anniversary trip to Italy.  In this high-energy, unfiltered episode of The Chad & Cheese Podcast, the boys take a sledgehammer to the current AI hype cycle, contrasting Workday’s massive earnings and $500 million agentic AI run rate against the harsh reality of Microsoft and Uber scaling back their tech due to exploding compute costs. From Stepstone’s new EU compliance push to Indeed’s automated features, Chad drops a massive hot take on how over-engineered recruiting tools create dangerous compliance risks and automation bias. They tie up the loose ends of the global economy by breaking down everything from the historic Indy 500 finish and a comedic eulogy for Schlitz beer, to the Pope's latest tech warnings and the EU's pivot to renewable energy as a national security weapon. It is the perfect, loose, and brutally honest mix of global geopolitics, HR tech consolidation, and birthday banter that you absolutely cannot miss. Chapters 00:00 - Introduction and Personal Milestones 02:08 - Joel and Chad's Birthdays and Anniversaries 04:27 - Industry Conference Insights: Old Dogs vs. Disruptors 08:34 - Shoutouts and Personal Highlights 11:28 - Indy 500 Race Highlights and Experience 16:28 - Workday's Earnings and AI Investment 20:04 - AI Market Race: Google, OpenAI, and Industry Disruption 23:06 - Historical Perspective: Netscape and Microsoft's Browser War 27:39 - Top Tall's Acquisition Strategy and Market Position 30:02 - EU and US AI Regulations and Industry Impact 40:05 - AI's Cost Challenges and Economic Realities 44:23 - Public Perception and Future of AI 47:50 - Global Energy Transition and Geopolitical Implications 54:38 - US Dollar, Oil, and Global Power Dynamics 55:23 - Humorous Close and Birthday Wishes

May 28, 20265 min

Shredded: Workday, LinkedIn, RemotePass, Randstad, Toptal, Adeva, Poppulo, & More

The Shred is a weekly roundup of what’s making headlines in the world of employment. The Shred is brought to you today by Jobcase.

May 27, 202623 min

Our AI Answered 1.8m Questions w/ Patti Tabris

Joel and Chad catch up with Patti Tabris, Senior Director of Talent Acquisition at ResultsCX, to discuss the massive impact of AI on global, high-volume hiring. The Highlights: The Power of "Olivia": The AI assistant that answered 1.8 million questions and scheduled over 100,000 interviews in just 12 months. From Friction to Flow: Patti boosted assessment completion rates from 30% to 90%. Chat-First Applications: An impressive 80% conversion rate! The Funding Hack: A how-to on funding new tech. More Than a Bot: Beyond hiring, the team is now implementing AI for onboarding to handle first-day FAQs and pre-boarding care. "Recruiting is all about getting to meet as many people to see if they're qualified... if we can implement AI to do the administrative work, recruiters can spend more time with candidates." — Patti Tabris

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