Episode 486

with Rachel Bloom, Natalie Diaz, and Kevin Morby

Host Luke Burbank and announcer Elena Passarello discuss unresolved (minor) childhood grievances; Emmy Award-winning entertainer Rachel Bloom (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) makes the case against inside jokes in her new collection of essays I Want to Be Where the Normal People Are; Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natalie Diaz explores the connection between poetry and basketball; and singer-songwriter Kevin Morby performs "Campfire" from his latest album Sundowner.

Rachel Bloom
Actress/ TV Writer

Rachel Bloom is best known as the co-creator and star of the CW musical dramedy Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. For her performance as Rebecca Bunch, Rachel won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a TV Series – Musical or Comedy, Critics’ Choice Award for Best Actress in a TV Comedy, and TCA Award for Individual Achievement in Comedy. She has performed sold-out shows based on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and starred in her own solo tour, What Am I Going to Do With My Life Now? She wrote a book, I Want to Be Where the Normal People Are, a collection of personal essays about mental health, middle school theater ambitions, and how to make amusement parks smarter. She currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband, daughter, and dog daughter. Website • Instagram

Natalie Diaz
Poet

Natalie Diaz was born and raised in the Fort Mojave Indian Village in Needles, California, on the banks of the Colorado River. She is Mojave and an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Tribe. Her first poetry collection, When My Brother Was an Aztec, was published by Copper Canyon Press in 2012 and received an American Book Award. She is a 2018 MacArthur Foundation Fellow, a Lannan Literary Fellow, and a Native Arts Council Foundation Artist Fellow. She was awarded a Bread Loaf Fellowship, the Holmes National Poetry Prize, a Hodder Fellowship, and a PEN/Civitella Ranieri Foundation Residency. Her most recent work, Postcolonial Love Poem was awarded the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. Diaz is the Maxine and Jonathan Marshall Chair in Modern and Contemporary Poetry at Arizona State University. Website • Twitter

Kevin Morby
Singer/ Songwriter

Kevin Morby is a musician and singer-songwriter based in Kansas City, Kansas. Morby has released six solo studio albums: Harlem River, Still Life, Singing Saw, City Music, Oh My God, and Sundowner. Blending folk with elements of indie and rock, Morby has developed a sound that is both classic and entirely his own. His sharp ear and deft hand for language shine through in his newest album, Sundowner, a meditation on Morby’s deep Midwest roots. In 2021 he released A Night At The Little Los Angeles, a companion album of home demos made on 4-track tapes. Morby also kicked off a tour in 2021 with fellow singer/songwriter Hamilton Leithauser. Listen • Website