Tom gets his hands dirty as he heads out to a local farm for harvest season, experiencing life on the farm and learning about the many challenges that family farmers in America face today.

Tom joins thousands of anglers from all over the country at the Brainerd Jaycee Ice Fishing Extravaganza to compete in the largest ice fishing competition in the world. 1st prize? A brand new pickup truck. How hard could it be? Tom is about to find out.

I’ve always wondered what my life would be like if I skipped college and went the trades route. So I called up a local plumber in Indiana and joined his crew for the day. From house calls to hands-on repairs, I got a real look at what the job is actually like — the pace, the pressure, the skills it takes, and the question everyone is asking right now: Is becoming a plumber worth it?

I accidentally got a job cleaning porta potties in Chicago… and it was way crazier than I expected. In this episode of Tom Across America, I joined a real sanitation crew for the day—riding routes, pumping out portable toilets, and hearing the wildest stories about what people leave behind inside them. Most people never see this side of America’s workforce. I lived it.