As a kid, Jordan Call wasn’t measuring himself against classmates, he was aiming at history. At ten, he was composing. By fourteen, he was semi-horrified he wasn’t already Mozart.
He eventually pointed that restless ambition toward the law: University of Chicago Law School. Elite clerkships. Coveted roles in the conservative legal world. His worth now calculated in six-minute billing increments and punctuated by holiday-wrecking “Are you online?” emails. Are we having fun yet, friends?
Then he and his wife flipped the script. She leaned into her career. He became, in his words, “a statusless full-time dad of three.” Five years in, he’ll tell you it’s demanding, sometimes mind-numbing, but undeniably meaningful.
Jordan and I are walking parallel paths – both trading high-status law careers for a slower (and, somehow, more chaotic) life centered on family, spirituality, and the daily practice of not obsessing over our Substack follower counts. We get into all of it: law, parenthood, Mormonism, creativity, and even his one-time quest to make friends with local crows.
Bio: Jordan Call is a writer, musician, former lawyer, and current full-time parent of three based in Baltimore. He is shockingly fast at decoding "magic eye" images, and would likely hold the world record in that category, if such a thing existed.You can follow Jordan’s work over at The Fare Well Files at farewellfiles.substack.com
Three ideas I’m still thinking about from this episode:
How often the “pressure” we feel is self-created, and how freeing it can be to realize most people aren’t keeping score
Why the daily, unglamorous work of parenting can be a deeper form of legacy than our LinkedIn bio
The tension many of us feel between worldly status and spirituality
Timestamps
00:00 – Introduction & Jordan’s shift from law to full-time dad
02:11 – How Allison and Jordan first connected
03:38 – Growing up with an obsession for status and recognition
05:00 – Musical ambitions, Mozart comparisons, and “Jazz Boy” identity
07:12 – Balancing spiritual success with worldly ambition
09:36 – When music dreams cracked & lessons from failure
12:07 – Choosing English over music and pivoting to law
13:00 – Why business school didn’t happen and law school did
16:36 – Clerkships, the conservative legal network, and Amy Barrett
18:39 – Supreme Court litigation and hating law firm life
19:30 – Struggles with six-minute billing and process-driven work
21:14 – Anxiety, unpredictability, and misaligned measures of value
24:16 – The career exit made easier by a partner who loves her work
25:49 – Community and family reactions to being a stay-at-home dad
27:08 – Identity shifts and letting go of the lawyer label
29:39 – Lessons fatherhood taught about meaning and status
32:29 – Parenting’s clear impact vs. legal work’s abstract impact
35:13 – Putting values into action & the real sacrifice conversation
37:00 – Longest job ever and truly believing the “most important work” line
39:24 – Advice from older women and shifting priorities with age
41:33 – Why some people never hear “prioritize your family” advice
44:08 – Feminism, career, and a robust life beyond work
45:06 – More options, less stigma: rethinking gender roles at home
46:40 – The value in “unsexy” family contributions (and doing the dishes)
47:10 – Creativity and finding Substack
50:24 – ChatGPT, YouTube essays, and failed experiments
52:11 – Finally embracing Substack and why it works
53:55 – Writing without a niche and resisting reductionism
56:40 – Choosing joy over growth hacks in writing
58:23 – Crows, fleeting fascinations, and low-urgency goals
59:55 – How writing changed his life and outlook
1:02:26 – Advice for anyone afraid to step into their creative expression
1:06:17 – Closing thoughts
