Documentary filmmaker John Wilson is the writer, director, cameraman, producer, and narrator of the HBO docu-comedy series How To with John Wilson which just finished its third and final season last month. In his show, John showcases the everyday lives of fellow New Yorkers, managing to be both wildly absurd and achingly sweet in his portrayal of them , while also always treating them – and their obsessions – with dignity. In this episode, John gives Anna a peek inside how his brain works, and w...
Oct 11, 2023•Transcript available on Metacast Adonis Williams has been a mover in New York City for 20 years. He says he’s moved about 3,500 people, and with each move, he catches a glimpse of a life in transition. There are the happy moves: getting a bigger place, couples moving in together, kids going off to college. There are also the sad moves: divorce, breakups, eviction. Adonis says he talks with his customers about it all. “You become the bartender or the taxi driver that they need to vent to.” In this episode, Adonis explains why he...
Oct 04, 2023•Transcript available on Metacast Last week we heard one of Anna's most treasured episodes: her 2014 interview with actor Ellen Burstyn. Now, a brand new conversation. At 90, Ellen is busy with a new dog, sharing life with family and friends, and curating a book of her favorite poetry. “I hate to sound like I'm bragging,” she told Anna, “but I'm still working. I'm in good shape. I'm having a very good time.” You can listen to the original interview here ....
Sep 27, 2023•Transcript available on Metacast This week we’re sharing one of Anna’s favorite episodes. It’s from 2014, when actor Ellen Burstyn invited us into her New York apartment for a sprawling interview. She told Anna about getting on a Greyhound bus to Dallas at 18 with 50 cents in her pocket, and about surviving an illegal abortion. And she described adopting her son, leaving an abusive marriage, and starring as a newly single mom in Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore . The role was based in part on her own life, and it won her an Osca...
Sep 20, 2023•Transcript available on Metacast When Sarah Short was pregnant with her first child, her health insurance didn’t cover it. She was 19, and by the time she found that out, it was also too late to apply for Medicaid. Her hospital bill for her daughter’s birth was around $10,000 — a figure that felt insurmountable. At first, the envelopes were something she tried to ignore. “I just threw them away,” she told Anna. “And then they turned red. And they kept showing up.” Sarah was newly married at the time, and was afraid of how the r...
Sep 13, 2023•Transcript available on Metacast Lawrence Bartley is a journalist devoted to getting news stories about criminal justice inside prisons and jails, something he wished he had access to when he was incarcerated. “I could have used some of that language to move the court to get my sentence reduced. I could have just been abreast of what's going on in other prisons and jails.” Anna first interviewed Lawrence in 2014 when he was still in prison, and two more times after his release. Today, they talk about their years-long relationsh...
Sep 06, 2023•Transcript available on Metacast The New York Times journalist Ezra Klein thinks a lot about the impacts of policy and systems on our personal lives. On his podcast, The Ezra Klein Show , he recently mentioned how American society insufficiently supports families of young kids, and wondered why living in community is so hard, and the isolation that it can breed as a result. Ezra’s thinking about all of these issues in his own life as well: he’s married to fellow journalist Annie Lowrey , and they have two young kids. The family...
Aug 30, 2023•Transcript available on Metacast Beverly Glenn-Copeland was in his 20s when he left a classical singing career to create experimental music. And at the time, making that change didn’t feel scary. “I felt totally free,” he told Anna. “I wasn't afraid of it. It was just like, this is what it is. I'm free to explore this.” But it took decades for that gamble to pay off, and 2020 was supposed to be Glenn’s breakthrough year. At 76 years old, he was going to go on an international tour, and move into a new home with his wife, Elizab...
Aug 23, 2023•Transcript available on Metacast In 2016, a listener we’re calling James sent us a voice memo. He described himself as a recovering porn addict, and was struggling to stay away from it while his wife was away. So we wanted to know more about your relationships with porn, and over 100 of you shared how you first learned about it, your likes and dislikes, and why some of you stopped using it completely. Some of you are fairly open about how you use porn. Jennifer* likes to ask dates about their porn tastes. “You can have a better...
Aug 09, 2023•Transcript available on Metacast “I assumed we would have the most incredible celebration of our dreams,” a listener we’re calling Maya told Anna. Maya’s mother died in 2020 and unexpectedly left Maya $50,000 for a wedding celebration. It was a lot to think about a big party while also grieving a parent, and soon Maya learned that the money she thought would easily cover everything was coming up short. “I had no idea how much a wedding cost, and I was wrong. I was terribly wrong.” In this episode we asked listeners if they were...
Aug 02, 2023•Transcript available on Metacast This week we’re sharing an episode from This is Uncomfortable from Marketplace, a podcast about life and how money messes with it (you know that’s our bag) hosted by Reema Khrais. To give you a taste of the show, we’re playing an episode from their latest season, featuring Canadian comics artist Kate Beaton. When Kate graduated college, she had exactly one goal: get rid of her student debt as fast as possible. The goal took priority over everything else in her life, including the dream of trying...
Jul 19, 2023•Transcript available on Metacast 
