We were curious about a couple of things on the “Curiosity” show that Mike was in. We tried to sit him down and ask and although it looks like he was really just trying to get away from Meyer, he gave us some answers. Find out what he had to say about “Life On Mike.”
Curious about something else mikeroweRELATED? You’ve come to the right place. Mike suggests that you visit the Ask Mike Forum of the Water Cooler and ask him whatever question you have on your mind. He may be irregular (in the attendance sense of course) but Mike answers as many and as often as he can.
Click here to watch the latest video.
Is there something you’ve been DYING to ask Mike? A burning question you just can’t get off your mind? You won’t rest until you find out the answer??
OK, tell you what… Submit your question on the Ask Mike forum in the Water Cooler. No guarantees, no promises and there’s no way every single one can be answered (so don’t get all pouty on us if you don’t get your answer) but we’ll give it our best shot. Oh yeah, and since it’s taking too long (you wouldn’t believe how long the list is we got going), we’re doing some rapid fire, 3 minute video responses, along with special interviews which will go longer. Like a lot longer…
343 Comments
Mike’
I wanted to drop a line to tell you how much me and my family enjoy your show or should I say shows! Each week you come into our home and we feel like you are apart of the family! I’m a fireman and my father and I are in the construction business. I want you to know its awesome to see some spotlight being shed on the people who really are the backbone of his country! Thank you for the entertainment you bring us every week! We find ourselves watching many shows your never even seen In simply because we hear your narration! Each week we laugh and come together as a family to watch your show! Thanks for bringing real entertainment and true humor into our home each week.
Sincerely,
Joe Martin
Mike,
I want to make you aware of a great cause. I do feel that Farm Rescue (www.farmrescue.org) is a organization that fits right in with what you stand for. Farm Rescue uses donated farm equipment and volunteer labor to plant and harvest crops for farm families that have had either an illness or a injury. I have volunteered for Farm Rescue and feel that it is a great organization that helps a lot of folks in need. Feel free to check it out at http://farmrescue.org/
Thank you for all that you do.
Ted
mike you should come to my school and speak to my class at cape cod tech
Hi Mike! I’m writing because I’ve gone through the Discovery Channel but they didn’t respond. I’m in the Air Force currently stationed at *beep* base in the Asia region, and we’re holding our annual Maintenance Award show 3 March and this year our theme is “the dirty jobs of the *beep* unit”. I was wondering if I could get a 30 second video clip saying hello to us men and women currently serving overseas. We all love your show, and love that you have done military episodes in the past. I know it’s short notice, and I’m not really sure if this will get to you. But it’s worth a shot, plus me being a lowly staff sergeant, if were to work, I would make the Colonel very happy. Thanks for all you do! Hilary Waite
Hi Mike Rowe! I know this is going to sound really weird, but I’ve always wondered if we are related because we have the same last name!
Oh and one more thing, I see that you used to be in boy scouts, and you help support the boy scouts. My oldest daughter willow is in the girl scouts and I am her co-leader (Troop 2156) and the girl scouts are also celebrating their 100th aniversary too. I wish you could visit us here in charlotte nc. to help us celebrate our 100th year of scouting. thank you Heather Chenkus
I love watching all your shows even the ones when you narrate the show. Sorry can’t spell. But I just wanna say how truly it is to watch you. I have 3 daughters and actually my oldest willow who is 7, got me hooked on watching “Dirty Jobs”. She would watch them with her great grandfather every time she stayed down at her great-grandparents house. Now my 5 year old daughter Lilly and 3 year old daughter Luna call you “Mommies Boyfriend” every time they see you weather its dirty jobs the Ford commercials or a pic of you on my phone. You are a momma’s boy, every woman’s dream man. Hopefully you would read this. I know your VERY BUSY and mostly you wont read it. Thank you
Heather Chenkus
Charlotte, NC
Mike, do you know what a “Groover” is?
Dirtiest Job, EVER!
Ted from San Diego
Fascinating reading…sort of!
http://www.outsideonline.com/adventure-travel/north-america/united-states/arizona/grand-canyon/They-Call-Me-Groover-Boy.html?page=all
We love Mike and all his shows. I love the commercial about trade school. My son has always struggled in school until he started tech school and welding and now he is standing out from the crowd. He competed in two divisions and took first place in both and also first place overall in a local welding competition. He now goes to district in March. I think Mike filming one of these competitions for a commerical would be a great way to show that trades are not forgotten and may even encourage some to go into trades. My son would love meeting Mike and making someone take up welding.
Thanks
What job did Mike do here in indiana??
I am an Educational therapist and heard mention of an episode on Dirty Jobs where Brain Gym or some form of brain building exercises were covered in the workplace. I would love to see this episode and to be able to have my students view it as well. Would you be able to give me the name of the episode?
Thanks for your help.
Hi Mike,
Really enjoyed hearing you speak this week in Boise. Caught you on TV and then again this morning. I and many of my fellow trades men see this problem so well from inside the fish bowl.In fact we have been saying for years who will do what we do when were to fricking old to do it any more. Well that day is rapidly approaching for me at 62. But the main thing I would like to express is this. Were are the mentors like your father/grandfather and mine today? Also most importantly were are the shop teachers like Arlo Felix who keep me in school and made it possible for me to graduate from high school. I would have rather had an eye pocked out then miss shop. Next to my dad it was Arlo Felix. It sickens me to think as a home builder and re-modeler of 40 + years all my knowledge will be lost. For the last 2 years I have been working part time as a maintenance man in a 22 theater complex. Fixing, repairing and replacing for 10.50 an hour. Wile the pay is the same I was making in 1972 I still love the work and I get free movies s for me and the wife. My wife Elaine and are not starving because we managed to set something aside. My point; how can our youth today be expected to live on $300-400 a week. In 1972 That was good pay. Wile it is novel of me to think how great it would be to pass some of what I know on to some young man or woman, why would they want to when the pay is at poverty level.
Kind regards,
Len Sodenkamp
Mike,
I’ve never seen you in a machine shop yet!!! Come on out to Northern Indiana and get dirty making seat tracks for buses. We are a growing machine shop that needs your help being a machinist!!!
Maybe Mike could comment why he is in support of those “dirty jobs”, but just not at a fair wage, since he is all over Cat’s web site. You know, the “take 50% of your wage or we’ll go somewhere else” guys. Just wondering.
I am so excited to hear a conversation beginning about trade skills (or a lack thereof) in our country. I am a high school Science teacher in California, and one of my biggest frustrations with our current education system is that we tell all of our students that they MUST go to college, or they will NEVER make a comfortable living wage. This is one of the biggest disservices we have perpetrated against our young people today, and I believe it is one of the causes of the rampant apathy in today’s youth.
I teach both college track and diploma track (non university-bound) students, so I interact with two very different levels of student. Those who are on the college track are generally well-motivated achievers. They make decent to good grades, and are lauded as the “leaders of tomorrow”. Yet year after year, I also watch a few of them, whose grades start slipping, quickly and quietly lose all motivation because they suddenly see no future for themselves. They become defeated, eventually stop trying all together, and matriculate into the diploma track of low-level “dummy” classes. They are told to find a job flipping burgers, and maybe one day they’ll make it to manager.
My frustration stems from this: most of these students have other non-academic talents that are neither fostered nor valued by our current education system, yet are highly valued in our society. I am fond of telling my students that, while the electrical engineer who created the wiring scheme for our classroom went to college for an advanced degree, the electrician who did the actual wiring did not. Instead, he probably went to a Junior College, then joined a Journeyman program and learned much of what he knows through hands-on application. Eddie, my mechanic, got his AA at a junior college, then went to BMW’s auto mechanic school. He owns and operates his own business in Orange County, and the local BMW, AUDI and VW dealers send him more business than he can handle.
Some districts or schools are still able to offer trade classes that teach applicable, real-world skills that give students a tangible vision for their future. Unfortunately, these programs are not highly valued, and are first on the chopping block when budgets are slashed. Furthermore, they tend to have these classes in schools in lower socioeconomic areas, where such skills offer many students a real chance to create a better life for themselves. By cutting such classes, we are robbing our less academically inclined (or as I like to call them, alternately talented) students of hope in their future.
For whatever reason, our society has deemed so-called “blue collar” jobs to be undesirable. I’m not sure when we forgot that our country was built, and continues to run, on the labor of blue collar workers who do all of the things necessary to keep our society functioning cleanly, safely, and smoothly. What made us start viewing blue collar work as “unworthy” work, our skilled laborers as “low class”?
I am immensely grateful to you and your crew for highlighting people who do an honest days work, and perform the integral jobs that often go unnoticed, or get taken for granted. I hope that your work will bring about a shift in our country’s consciousness towards recognizing the value and necessity of skilled labor. Only then will we stop taking steps to destroy the future of today’s youth, and instead invest in them and their individual talents. Only then will we invite them to be part of a prosperous future, not passive onlookers or victims of a history we don’t yet allow them to have a say in.
Yours, sincerely, in the good fight;
Michelle Zentgraf
Sent from Michelle on the go
Hey Mike!
I am a HUGE Fan of the show (as everyone I’m sure says) and I love the work you do and the work your crew does. If you need an extra hand as a PA or whatever it would be my dream to work for your show! I loved the BTS episode that just aired. I love watching and seeing BTS. I think its awesome to see what goes on to make up the show. If you want to see some of my work I can email it to you =0)
Good afternoon Mr. Rowe, I was wondering if you would do a show about starting a business from scratch. I would love to be apart of the process on putting Americans back to work and really create JOBS….The Choices in life are endless, make the right CHOICE. Choose “THe CHOICE”. Thank for your time.
Well, I’m sure glad you showcase the gross and grungy things people do for a living..I wouldn’t do it, but thanks anyway and thanks to them also. Lot of people wouldn’t do my job either. If you’re ever in Raleigh North Carolina..
Hi, Mike:
I love your work and I have a pretty big celebrity crush on you. That being said, my family has a farm in Dowagiac, Michigan. We grow grapes and soybeans and most of the grapes to go Welch’s. Harvest time usually has some juicy dirty jobs. Contact me if you’re interested in picking some snakes and bugs out of a harvester or just visiting the fruit belt of Michigan.
Hello, I love everything you do. Seeing is that you advertise for CAT you should visit our CAT dealership in Lantz Corners, PA. I’ll bet we could find you a dirty job there:)
Hi Mike! Do you have a medic that follows you around to the various job sites or any other medical personnel out there with you? Would you like one?!
MIKE ROWE!
My mom is obsessed with your show dirty jobs and just loves you in general!!
I was wondering if you ever do private appearances like birthdays? Her big 5-0 is this year and it would be REALLY great to get in contact with you about a possible appearance…
PLEASE email me!!!!
Mike, I have always been a fan of yours and today that fan enthusiasm increased 10 fold. My son, Matthew, recieved a letter from you congratulating him on his Eagle Scout award. I was so impressed with the fact that you took the time to actually complete the letter and not just send a form letter. I gotta tell you, it just really impressed me. I know you are a busy guy.. but to take the time to do this means the world to me and my son. I just wanted to say thank you so much– you have real integrity and it’s honorable. best of everything to you. Sincerely, Matt’s Mom
Mike, I think it would be great if you went to visit Turtleman from Call of the Wildman on Animal Planer for your show Dirty Jobs! Plaese respond!
Hi,
Mike we at Cape Cod Regional Technical High School have put together a video to ask if you would speak at the June 2012 graduation… Check it out on face book and also on this website….If you can’t make it a letter to be read would not be as great as your handsome face in person….but at least acknowledging the hard work they put into making this, and encouraging words to bring to light the need for technical jobs, and the unsung heros that work in their fields….I am a little long with the words, but it would be so awesome for our little town in Harwich Massachusets to have such a celebrity as your self to come to our school…Check it out…..
thanks for your consideration
a 1977 graduate of Blue Hills regional technical high school (graphic arts).
I work in the graphic arts department at Cape Cod Technical School
Oh how I wish I had a dirty job for you and the crew. When TAMU screwed up by deciding it wasn’t in their best interest to have the show here, I was crushed. My plans were to put you and the entire crew up in our bed & breakfast at no cost plus throw in spa services for all as well.
I haven’t given up hope that I can create some reason for you to come visit. What about chicken poop? Surely we can come up with a story that will entice the public.
in service,
the Nestkeeper
Mike! Just had to say, I love your work and sincerely wish our country was run by guys like you. Keep it up. If I ever run into you, I’ll buy you a pitcher!
Mike,
I could not agree with you more about the trades. I worked as a choker setter in the logging industry, raising sheep, and cleaning machinery in a frozen food plant to put myself through college. In my almost 30 years of teaching I have always taught that you need to make your opportunities. That means college might be for you and it might not be for you.
Every opportunity needs to be made for young people to choose and not have the choice made for them.
A friend of mine who was a college English professor chose to become a janitor. He was simply happier there. That was his choice. He had the tools to make a choice and not have the choice made for him.
I am 21 years old, my father, grandfather, and great grandfather were all members of UA local 136 , Evansville, Indiana plumbers and steamfitters union. I grew up wanting to follow in their footsteps. I went to a two year college for drafting and design knowing that understanding blueprints would help me as a pipefitter/welder. When I graduated my dad told me that the outlook on skilled labor was not very good, so I pursued a job using my degree as a design engineer. As you may know in Indiana we are fighting a right to work bill right now. The state government is at war with labor in my state. Being that 3 generations of my family, and my brother and I are still considering so possibly 4, have been union pipefitters we STRONGLY oppose this Bill as it would weaken if not destroy unions. It seems like our state wants to widen the gap between rich and poor and get people to work for slave wages. Since this Right to Work bill has come up Mike Rowe has been very popular among the construction workers that are protesting it. People want Mike Rowe for Governor of Indiana (please consider). But for now is there any way you can help us fight the right to work bill in Indiana. BLUE COLLAR WORKERS NEED YOUR HELP!
Mike, I watched your testimony on YouTube and support your efforts to publicize the skilled trades. Please make sure you include tradeswomen in your plea. I am a retired carpenter of 27 years and am very proud of the work I did as a female in the building trades. Not only am I proud of my skills, but also the ability to work in conditions similar to your “dirty jobs” and often with men who were not thrilled to have me on the job site. I kept my head down and did my work, lent help to those less skilled, volunteered with numerous organizations to advance my own skills, and retired with a great union pension and my health. Women are only about 2% of the construction workforce. These are great jobs with great wages and benefits. We would love to have your endorsement. Give us the opportunity; we’ll prove you right!
Where are all these skilled labor jobs you speak of? My husband is an electrician and been unemployed more often than not in his 31 year career. At the present time he is AGAIN employed in Alabama. So, please pass on any info about these open skilled labor jobs. Thanks Mike for all you are doing and trying to do!
I am the Training Director for an electrical college in Colorado, Independent Electrical Contrators Rocky Mountain (IECRM). We have a 4 year apprenticeship school with about 500 students and we are part of IEC National which has 67 chapters. We recently watched your video speaking to the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. We thought it was very pertinent to what is needed in our industry. We are producing a 3 minute promotional video and would love to have you do our voice over. I know you are very busy and thank you in advance for considering doing this for us. We would also love for you to consider speaking at our graduation May 19th. If this is possible please let us know what you charge for an appearance. What ever the outcome, thank you for speaking out for skilled trades, it is greatly needed in todays society.
Mike,
I really enjoy your show. after watching over the years, I apparently have been practicing for being your replacement as I have done a few of those jobs myself. I was curious about any plans on retiring and/or looking for a replacement. I would be greatly interested in being a consideration for that role.
Just a thought,
Hey there Mike. I am almost 20 years old and I have been told that I should be a lot older than I really am because of my past work experience. I have done land scaping, hard scaping, carpentry, re-modeling, a little bit of plumbing, I worked in a wood mill for a while, and I have done enough yard work to last any city person a lifetime. After watching your video about your grandfather that is circulating on youtube it really reminded me how much of an inspiration our fathers and grandfathers and so on and so forth are to me and other people. Without these people in our lives things would never get accomplished. I want to thank you sir for being the voice of past generations and the few who do anything manual today.
I am an adult with Asperger’s disorder. Traditional schools, “normal” careers and office jobs do not work for me. I was diagnosed at age 29 and there is nothing for me to help me reach my goal of supporting my family. I tried to get vocational help, but they were not equipted to help an adult with autism, they were quick to try and set me up with normal college and “traditional degree” but not a trade I could excel at.
I want to work, I want a trade I can master and do for the rest of my life. Since I was diagnosed as an adult I have fallen through the cracks.
The trade I want has no scholorships, no grants, nothing to help us afford the schooling.
Since the trade is not a traditional school, vocational dollars are not available to help us.
We live less than paycheck to paycheck. We budget, we do not have the normal luxuries ( cable, internet, newer cars, home phone.)
How can a person like me find the monitary help to take on a trade when the grant, scholarship, vocational funds do not exist? The trade I want is looked down upon as a frivolous outdated trade, but it is needed.
I am not alone in my situation…
My question is,
If Mike Rowe was in my situation, what would he do? What can I do? What should I do?
Please help us,
Thank you so much,
KLS
Just goes to show what hard work can accomplish. I’ve become a fan…Best wishes!! Oh yea,Please HIRE ME?
See ya on the tube:
Fred
I would love to see Mike as a host on Saturday Night Live….can u just imagine the skits!!! LOL.. hope ur agent gets u on that show!
Mike,
First of all love your show, my son and I watch every chance we get. Second, if you want to see a trade school in action you should consider a visit to Alfred State College in upstate New York. Look, I know your busy and probably have a million different places to go but our students are really doing some great things! Please take a minute to check out our website and the Facebook pages linked to it http://www.alfredstate.edu. I guess I should tell you a little about me as well, I am an Assistant Professor with the building trades department. I have about twenty college freshmen enrolled in the Heavy Equipment Operations course that I teach. The most exciting thing is that we will be expanding this fall! The moral of the story is this, if you want to see a two year school teaching everything from welding, machine tool, building construction, automotive, truck and diesel tech, to electricians and culinary ( and a few I probably missed) we are your one stop shop…
Thanks for your time!
Mark Payne
Would you consider cleaning dog’s anal glands as a “dirty job?”
Mike, so instead of talking to Congress about skilled labor why don’t we teach them?? I saw your speech in front of Congress and it was very true and something I have said for years. I have been a carpenter for 28 years and I seem to always get that question from friends or home owners- “how did you do that”. I would say “I don’t know ,just something that I always knew how to do”. I took for granted my talent and skill and never realized until I became much older that people would rather pay you to do the work instead of learn how. What if we showed them how? Is there possibility of a show out there that shows the viewer how to use a skill- set a toilet, fix a disposal, hang crown moulding, build a basic cabinet, patch a hole in the wall, change a light fixture. It’s been an idea of mine for awhile because I keep hearing that same question today, “how did you do that” and to me it’s always been simple but for some not so much. Anyway I’m a big fan, and appreciate what you do for all of us!
Dear Mike
First of all, we love ya! We live in Alabama and see your commercials to get people back into trade jobs and that many tradesmen are of retirement age. A couple of years ago we decided to leave the big city (Houston) and move to a “gentler” place. My husband is has been a Master Plumber for over 15 years. He’s drug-free, smoke-free, has high standards and ethics and can quote the code book as well as any southern preacher can quote the Bible. We owned our own new construction plumbing company and did well, till the economy fell. Then he managed another plumbing company and was able to show a profit even in these hard economic times. So why is he having trouble finding a job in Alabama? He’s not near retirement age, he’s an active 40-something. We never dreamed he’d have this much trouble finding a decent paying job, without having to start his own company. Ever thought of doing a show in which you help tradesmen find jobs that are suitable for their level of expertise?
I don’t know where to begin. I am an Economics teacher at a very good school in Greenville, SC. I was on a rant today in class and in the lunchroom. I came home and found Mike’s testimony linked to a Facebook update. I have said, nearly word for word, what Mike is saying. I’m begging my students to consider trade jobs. I would like to do any and everything I can to spread this message. I would also love to speak with anyone willing to listen to this message. I capture audiences and feel very passionately about this subject. Please feel free to have anyone contact me.
Hi there-
I am inviting Mike to visit me at my place of employment in scenic Helena, MT. I work for the City of Helena at the Wastewater Treatment Plant…..and it’s dirty!
We would be thrilled to have Mike be our guest at the Wastewater Plant, and I know that the amount of “dirt” or “poop” in this facility would not leave you disappointed!
Please consider our invitation and RSVP soon. The poop is waiting for Mike.
Sincerely,
Jamie Bright
Wastewater Treatment Plant Operator
Helena, MT