{"id":16998,"date":"2025-05-21T08:28:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T12:28:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/?p=16998"},"modified":"2025-05-19T15:19:44","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T19:19:44","slug":"from-the-onion-to-optimism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/2025\/05\/21\/from-the-onion-to-optimism\/","title":{"rendered":"From the\u00a0Onion\u00a0to Optimism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

He honed his comedy chops writing satire for the Onion<\/em>, then helped Stephen Colbert keep humor alive during COVID-19 \u2014 and won an Emmy and a Peabody in the process. Today Greg Reutershan \u201911 is using that same creativity to share lessons on life and business alongside inspirational speaker Simon Sinek. Meet Reutershan, the man redefining how we think about leadership, one podcast at a time.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Illustration by John Dykes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Prologue<\/strong>
Reutershan discovered his love for comedy his first year at Colgate when he joined the newly formed satirical publication, the Monthly Rag<\/em>. Later on, in his senior year, Reutershan met the CEO of the Onion<\/em>, Steve Hannah \u201970, during a campus visit. When Reutershan spotted an internship posting a few months after he graduated, Hannah\u2019s business card came in handy. \u201cI didn\u2019t realize comedy could be a career until I saw that job post, and I thought, \u2018I like making people laugh, I enjoyed doing that at school, and I want to see how the pros do it at the Onion<\/em>,\u2019\u201d Reutershan remembers. \u201cIt seemed too good of an opportunity not to take a nice big swing at, and [my career] all flowed from there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act I<\/strong>
After working as a writers\u2019 assistant at the Onion <\/em>for a year, Reutershan entered the NBCUniversal Page Program, where he worked in a variety of departments and positions. \u201cI had really enjoyed comedy, and NBC was the home to a lot of it, so it seemed like a good next step for me to figure out what it was that I wanted to do next.\u201d One of these experiences included working as a \u201ctalent escort\u201d for Saturday Night Live <\/em>where, among his other responsibilities, Reutershan was backstage for the show\u2019s dress rehearsals and live shows and worked the comedy institution\u2019s famous after-parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act II<\/strong>
For the next two years, Reutershan took on executive assistant positions at NBC and Broadway Video where he took a step back from comedy. He looks back on those roles as vital learning experiences: \u201cIt was not as glitzy or as glamorous, but those were important phases in my career.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act III<\/strong>
In search of his next opportunity, Reutershan arrived at a defining moment of his career when he joined The Late Show with Stephen Colbert<\/em>. Over six years, Reutershan worked his way up from an executive assistant position to working directly with Colbert. \u201cI would race home from high school to watch The Colbert Report<\/em>, so the chance to work with Stephen was what I had been building toward the whole time,\u201d Reutershan says. In 2020 the show won an Emmy and, in 2021, a Peabody for its remote coverage during the pandemic. Yet for Reutershan, the most meaningful recognition didn\u2019t come from the industry accolades but from the audience: \u201cPeople were really thankful for those late night shows and [that we were] able to keep that show on the air,\u201d Reutershan says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Act IV<\/strong>
In his current position, Reutershan has shifted gears, leaving behind his comedic roots for a new passion: business and leadership education. As head of content for Simon Sinek\u2019s The Optimism Company, Reutershan oversees Sinek\u2019s podcast, A Bit of Optimism<\/em>, along with a growing suite of projects focused on improving leadership practices and workplace cultures. Sinek is a leadership expert and author who works with a range of industries and governmental agencies. \u201c[My work] doesn\u2019t make people laugh most of the time, but it\u2019s very earnest and it\u2019s very needed,\u201d Reutershan says. \u201c[The work I do now] is about leadership and helping people trust each other.\u201d Last October, Reutershan reached another career milestone when he traveled to the White House to record a podcast between Sinek and then-President Joe Biden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout his career, Reutershan has maintained the mindset of a student, seeking mentorship in every one of his roles. Now as a team leader himself, he prioritizes treating those around him as equals from whom he can continue to learn. \u201cWe\u2019re just peers,\u201d Reutershan says. \u201cSometimes I have more experience and can teach you what I know and model the behavior that I wish people had modeled for me, but I ask for the advice of those below me because they\u2019re on the front lines and might know more than I do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Greg Reutershan \u201911 is using the same creativity he learned while working for the Onion and Stephen Colbert to share lessons on life. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1272,"featured_media":17262,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2],"tags":[354,276,652,553,1356,760,2771,430,282],"coauthors":[2633],"class_list":["post-16998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-alumni-spotlights","category-alumni-updates","tag-alumni","tag-business","tag-comedy","tag-covid-19","tag-internship","tag-leadership","tag-monthly-rag","tag-podcast","tag-television"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/palXSH-4qa","amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/05\/Spring-Issue-Illustration.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1272"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16998"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17267,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16998\/revisions\/17267"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16998"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=16998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}