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Shush-Free Zone - Where librarians get loud!

Dawn Brushammar
Knowledge Management
Librarianship
Librarians
Bord Bia
Thirdway Think
Graphic Medicine
Leadership
Careers
Coaching
Tacit Knowledge Exchange
Hoboken Public Library
Dallas, United States
Artificial Intelligence
Dublin
Session Lab
Lego Serious Play
Ontology Pipeline
Generative AI
Comics
Semantic Systems

The Shush-Free Zone, hosted by KM consultant and librarian Dawn Brushammar, explores the creative and unconventional careers of librarians who are redefining the profession. From tech to startups to schools to corporate boardrooms, tune in to hear their stories and get inspired.

PublishesMonthlyEpisodes14Foundeda year ago
Number of ListenersCategories
CareersBusiness

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Latest Episodes

Season 1 of The Shush-Free Zone is officially wrapped and in this special bonus episode, host Dawn Brushammar looks back at the conversations, career journeys, and unexpected paths that shaped the first season.

When Dawn started the podcast, the goa... more

In this episode of Shush-Free Zone, host Dawn Brushammar sits down with Marydee Ojala, Editor-in-Chief of KMWorld magazine, writer, researcher, speaker, and longtime observer of the information and knowledge management profession.

Marydee shares her... more

In this episode of the Shush-Free Zone, host Dawn Brushammar sits down with Nicole Buckenwolf, Senior Staff Ontologist at Spotify, to unpack the invisible knowledge systems shaping how millions of people discover music and audiobooks every day.

Nico... more

In this episode of Shush Free Zone, host Dawn Brushammar sits down with Heather Johnson - a public health professional working at the intersection of evidence synthesis, health communication, and implementation science.

Heather’s career is a powerfu... more

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Recent Guests

Nicole Buckenwolf
Senior staff ontologist at Spotify
Spotify
Episode: Episode 11: Nicole Buckenwolf - From Rare Books to Ontologies: A Librarian Inside Spotify
Heather Johnson
Public health program leader focusing on colorectal cancer screening
Public health programs; Aydel Health (side business)
Episode: Episode 10: Heather Johnson - Information to Impact: Saving Lives in Public Health
Angela Pashia
Leadership and career development coach, former academic librarian
Lead With Curiosity, International Coaching Federation
Episode: Episode 9: Angela Pashia - Empowering Library Leaders Through Coaching and Curiosity
Matthew Noe
Lead collection and knowledge management librarian at Harvard Medical School's Countway Library of Medicine; graphics medicine advocate and instructor
Harvard Medical School, Countway Library of Medicine
Episode: Episode 8: Matthew Noe - Comics, Patients, and the Power of Storytelling: The Fascinating World of Graphic Medicine
Jessica Talisman
Founder of Ontology Pipeline; consultant in semantic systems
Ontology Pipeline / Contextually
Episode: Episode 7: Jessica Talisman - From Card Catalogs to Ontologies: Building Knowledge Systems for Humans and AI
MJ D'Elia
Founder of Thirdway Think; learning design and facilitation expert
Thirdway Think
Episode: Episode 6: MJ D'Elia - From Academic Libraries to Creative Facilitation
Clare Bilobrk
Librarian with 25+ years in school, public, and legal libraries; content strategy, legal tech, and remote knowledge work
Independent consultant/writer/embed in Lucidea via Bailey Solutions acquisition
Episode: Episode 5: Clare Bilobrk - From Law Libraries to Remote Adventures in Research, Writing and Knowledge
Mairead McKeown
Head of Knowledge and Critical Capability at Bord Bia
Bord Bia
Episode: Episode 4: Mairead McKeown - From Librarianship to Knowledge Leadership in the Age of AI
Laura Pike Seeley
Knowledge Management and Digital Workplace Strategist; Global Knowledge Services at HKS, Inc.
HKS, Inc.
Episode: Episode 3: Laura Pike Seeley - Blending History, Design and the Digital Workplace

Host

Dawn Brushammar
Host of Shush-Free Zone, librarian and KM consultant with a focus on evolving librarians in tech, startups, and corporate settings.

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Apple Podcasts
#185
Ireland/Business/Careers

Talking Points

Recent interactions between the hosts and their guests.

Episode 2: Jennie Pu - Public Library Director and Freedom to Read Advocate
Q: What's exciting for you right now and what are you looking forward to in the near future with Hoboken Public Library?
We're starting the second phase of restoration, focusing on the entrance and mezzanine, and continuing to raise awareness for libraries as essential civic institutions amid a challenging political environment; I'm also expanding advocacy work through national task forces and Hill meetings.
Episode 2: Jennie Pu - Public Library Director and Freedom to Read Advocate
Q: What's your earliest memory of a library or reading?
My earliest memory is visiting a public library in Connecticut, where a librarian helped me discover Laura Ingalls Wilder and the Little House series, sparking a lifelong love of reading and the realization that libraries are welcoming gateways to learning.
Episode 2: Jennie Pu - Public Library Director and Freedom to Read Advocate
Q: Would you like to give our listeners a quick recap of your career path so far? Including how the heck you ended up in the library science space.
I've had a winding path across public, museum, and school libraries, with a focus on leveraging strengths—programs and community outreach—over traditional cataloging, and I eventually gravitated toward intellectual freedom and community advocacy in public libraries.
Episode 11: Nicole Buckenwolf - From Rare Books to Ontologies: A Librarian Inside Spotify
Q: How do you explain ontology to someone outside the field?
I describe it as building and applying categories and relationships that help organize types of content for specific uses, like how audiobooks have a defined category structure that can be visualized on the platform, even though music taxonomy operates differently.
Episode 11: Nicole Buckenwolf - From Rare Books to Ontologies: A Librarian Inside Spotify
Q: What does your day-to-day work look like at Spotify?
I split my time between research and writing, evangelizing our knowledge work, building models, and doing data analysis; I also serve as a central resource to help teams organize information and implement taxonomy and ontology concepts.

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Frequently Asked Questions About Shush-Free Zone

What is Shush-Free Zone about and what kind of topics does it cover?

This show spotlights librarians who have broken the stereotype of quiet stacks and sharpened their impact across tech, startups, education, and corporate settings. Episodes feature KM leaders, information designers, and library advocates who build scalable knowledge systems, advocate for intellectual freedom, and translate complex content into actionable insights. Across conversations, listeners hear practical perspectives on taxonomy, knowledge graphs, AI literacy, leadership development, and the evolving role of librarians in data-driven organizations. A notable signal is the consistent focus on translating traditional library skills—curation, findability, and audience-focused communication—into modern, enterprise-scale impact, with episo... more

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Shush-Free Zone launched a year ago and published 14 episodes to date. You can find more information about this podcast including rankings, audience demographics and engagement in our podcast database.

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What guests have appeared on Shush-Free Zone?

Recent guests on Shush-Free Zone include:

1. Nicole Buckenwolf
2. Heather Johnson
3. Angela Pashia
4. Matthew Noe
5. Jessica Talisman
6. MJ D'Elia
7. Clare Bilobrk
8. Mairead McKeown

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