utr-20150823-maclaughlin.mp3
If you’re like our host Callie Crossley, your early school years were marked by frequent classroom sing a longs of "If I Had a Hammer," Woody Guthrie’s ode to the working man-- man being the operative word, because even in 2015 there are few women making a living wielding a hammer. Cambridge resident Nina MacLaughlin seemed an unlikely candidate to become one of the few.
MacLaughlin, formerly of the Boston Phoenix, went from a career as a writer crafting sentences to a skilled laborer crafting steps and bookcases. She chronicles her journey in her new book, "Hammerhead: The Making of a Carpenter." She joins us to discuss her book, and her wild, wonderful career journey from journalist to craigstlist carpenter.