
This episode features comedian Guy Branum, writer and filmmaker Julian Brave NoiseCat, and music from singer-songwriter Georgia Maq.
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Luke Burbank
Hey there. Welcome to Livewire. I'm your host, Luke Burbank. All right, today on the show, comedian Guy Branham will join us for a little stand up comedy and a chat. Guy is a successful TV writer for the Mindy projects and Hacks on hbo. But that is not all he is. For one thing, he's also really good at Jeopardy. In fact, he's like one episodes of Celebrity Jeopardy. We're also going to talk to the writer and Oscar nominated filmmaker Julian Brave Noise Cat about his new book which weaves myth and history and his own past to create a portrait of contemporary indigenous life. Then we're going to wrap things up with some show stopping music from internationally acclaimed singer songwriter Georgia Mack. Okay, let me try this. A public radio variety show that gets started right after this. What is Livewire Radio? Take that, Guy Branham. Livewire coming your way right after this. Hey there Livewire listeners. Spring is in the air and so is Livewire's annual membership drive. Here is what we are trying to do. We have set a goal to get 50 new members to help keep Livewire fully charged all year long. We need our members to help us make this show. I can't overstate that. Members also receive exclusive discounts on live events. You get on air mentions and you get bonus content in our monthly newsletter. Here's how you can join Livewire. You head to livewireradio.org and become a member. We're trying to get 50 new members this spring and here's where the producers have written in Sing Please, Please, Please by Sabrina Carpenter with the words please, please, please become a member. I don't know if that was a good idea, but I just did it.
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Elena Passarello
from PRX, it's live fire. This week. Comedian and writer Guy Branham.
Guy Branum
Jeopardy Is old magic. Like jeopardy. Is from when you were 10 and you were like, those people are amazing. I can do that. And it's like, well, maybe you can do that.
Elena Passarello
With writer Julian Brave. Noisecat.
Julian Brave Noisecat
One of the interesting things about Jews and salish people is that we both love smoked fish. We come by our gastrointestinal issues honestly.
Luke Burbank
Nice. Nice.
Elena Passarello
And music from Georgia Mac and our fabulous house band. I'm your announcer, Elena Passarello. And now the host of Livewire, Luke Burbank.
Luke Burbank
All right, thank you.
Guy Branum
My goodness,
Luke Burbank
we have got a lot of show for you this week. It's going to be a good one, but of course, we got to kick things off the way we always do with a little segment we call the best news we heard all week. All right, here is how this works. The news is, generally speaking, not great. But with enough time and dedication and combing through the, I mean, the far back reaches of the news, there is good news out there, and we found some of it this week. We'd like to present it to you. Elena, what's the best news you heard all week?
Elena Passarello
Okay, my best news starts with a question. What is the most famous phone number in America? Gen X.
Luke Burbank
My people, we did not rehearse that.
Elena Passarello
For the record, my people, I just got goosebumps. Anybody know the name of the band? Tommy Twommy two Tone.
Julian Brave Noisecat
That's right.
Luke Burbank
Okay, I did not know that part.
Elena Passarello
So I think that song, Jenny 8675309, came out in the very early 80s and apparently it was a real menace for anyone in the country who had the phone number 8675309. Apparently there was a North Carolina Middle school that had to just, like, go dark because they were getting so many calls. Alabama, Ohio, lots of people. One person said, I'd like to choke that guy who wrote that song. That guy's name was Tommy Heath. He's the co writer of the song for his band, Tommy 2 Tone. He's still touring at 78.
Luke Burbank
Wow.
Elena Passarello
One of the reasons is because he's got loyal fans like y' all who love that song. And recently, a healthcare marketing agency got in touch with him, and they did so on behalf of a global nonprofit company called the Cancer Support Community, and also Gilda's Club. And so these are two nonprofits dealing with cancer research, Cancer Support, Gilda's Club, named after the great comedian, my favorite comedian of all time, Gilda radner. They purchased CSC, which is, I think, like 247 or something like 242-867-5309. And now when you call that number, anytime, day or night, you will be connected to trained professionals who can give you support as you go through your cancer journey. Isn't that amazing?
Luke Burbank
Yes.
Julian Brave Noisecat
It's just so cool.
Elena Passarello
It's the opposite of what happened to that poor middle school in North Carolina. From what I understand it. You know, when families and people are going through cancer journeys, they often need support at hours, you know, in which they're not in a doctor's office or they're not with their people. But it just seems like such a perfect use for this. Like, it's a 247 situation where you just might need to reach out and get some kind of information or care or emotional support or conversation. And Tommy Heath, who wrote it, said, you know, like, the reason that I'm touring at 78 is because of y'.
Georgia Mack (Musical Performance)
All.
Elena Passarello
And giving back to the community that supported me is the least I could do. So. So that's the best news I heard all week.
Luke Burbank
That's amazing.
Elena Passarello
Really, though. Really, though. The best news I heard all week is y' all knowing that just from one single question. Thank y' all very much.
Luke Burbank
I couldn't tell you one person's phone number who I've met in the last 15 years.
Elena Passarello
Yep. Yeah.
Luke Burbank
But I could tell you I don't know many of my siblings birthdays, but I know 867-5309 also, so it's very smart.
Elena Passarello
588-2-300, Empire.
Luke Burbank
We'd like to welcome new sponsor Empire Carpets, home of a cartoon guy who does the entire carpet in your house with one swipe. Love that guy. The best news that I heard this week Takes us over to England, to northwest England, to an area called Lancashire, and specifically a little town called Dolphinholm where a woman named Clare Adamson lives. And about three years ago, Claire was driving home, was a very rainy night, and she noticed that there had been a ton of frogs and toads that had been trying to get across this rainy roadway and had, let's just say, been unsuccessful. And as she said to the paper, I'm a massive lover of animals. I don't like to see anything getting squished on the roads. So she called up some of her friends and she said, we're starting something called toad patrol.
Elena Passarello
Toad patrol.
Luke Burbank
And. And only four of them said, okay, I'm gonna help you with tow patrol. It was not widely embraced early on. This was a few years ago. And what she and her four friends did is they went out and you know, like reflective stuff about sunset on rainy nights. And they would basically stand at their flashlights and make sure that toads and frogs were getting to the other side. They're trying to go to their spawning pools a lot. And. And so when it's rainy out, they tend to move across the roads. This year now she's got 50 people volunteering to do this. They think, they estimate that they've saved already this year, 700 migrating toads have been carefully helped across the road. This is some advice from Claire, which, I'm gonna be honest with you, it seems fairly intuitive on how to help get a, an amphibian across the road. If you spot a toad, you walk up to it, you check that there are no cars coming because you don't want to put yourself at risk. She said, you pick up the toad, you check what direction it was facing, and you move it to the side of the road. That is the direction it was facing.
Elena Passarello
Yeah, that's all it takes.
Luke Burbank
Can you imagine being a toad who was almost to your destination and Claire just sets you back by like three hours.
Elena Passarello
Yeah.
Guy Branum
Great.
Luke Burbank
I find this story sort of like so lovely because as you know, I suffer from a self diagnosed condition I call intrusive animal empathy. I think about animals a lot. And in fact, maybe four nights ago, you know, it was crazy rainy around here. I was driving home and I was driving on the kind of road back to my house and it was very wet and there was a frog in the middle of the road. And I stopped my car and I put my hazards on. I did not pick it up because I do think they're kind of gross. But I was just there with the hazards on, ready to beep at anybody who came the other direction until he got to the other side, which he did.
Elena Passarello
Did it take a while?
Luke Burbank
It took longer than I was expecting. I thought that that was insane behavior. But Claire is clearly much more insane than me when it comes to amphibious transportation across the roads. So the fact that Claire and her friends are over there in Lancashire getting the frogs and toads safely across the road, that is the best news that I heard all week, my friends. You're listening to the Livewire from prx. Our first guest is a writer, Oscar nominated filmmaker and champion powwow dancer. His work has appeared in a bunch of places including the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the New Yorker. His documentary film Sugarcane premiered at the Sundance Film Festival where it won the directing award in the US Documentary category. And he's got a book out. It's titled We Survived the Night, which weaves together an oral history with journalism and a deeply personal father and son story all into a searing portrait of indigenous survival, love, and resurgence. Please welcome Julian Brave, noisecat to Livewire. Julian, welcome to Livewire.
Julian Brave Noisecat
So good to be here.
Luke Burbank
Julian, if we could, let's start at the place that you're not supposed to start with a book, which is the
Julian Brave Noisecat
COVID The COVID artwork is actually a painting by Jean Quick to C. Smith, who is one of the most significant American painters of the last century. And I say that in part because she was one of the most significant artists to represent the figure who's on the COVID of the book, the Trickster Coyote. And that painting is actually a painting called Coyote Sees the World Clearly. And there's this kind of crazy story that I tell to open up my book, talks about how I got the permission to use that painting on the COVID of the book. And three weeks later, actually, Jeanne passed away. She died. And then fast forward to May of 2025. I found myself in New York City on the first Thursday of a month. And so I wandered down to the gallery district to catch a show. And as I was walking out of that show, I turned left and I looked to my left and what was on at the Garth Green Inn but a retrospective by none other than Jeanne Quick to see Smith. And so, of course, I walked in and I was greeted by not one, but two of her artworks representing the Trickster Coyote. So I went up to the guy who looked like he probably owned the place, and I told him, like, you know, this is who I am and this is how I'm related to Jeanne and her artwork. And he looked at me like I was absolutely bonkers. And then he said, that's crazy. Before Jean died, she used to joke that she was gonna visit me from the beyond.
Luke Burbank
Wow, you kind of alluded to it there. But I mean, the trickster coyote is sort of the third character, if I think maybe of you and your father and then also your sort of stepfather. Coco the coyote is a huge part of this story. And you sort of jump between styles of writing, between your story and the coyote's stories. Why did you choose that, that format?
Julian Brave Noisecat
So to write we survived the night. I did a really sexy thing for at the time, a 28 year old bachelor who'd been living on the east coast for the last decade of his life. And that was I decided to move back in with my dad, a man who had left when I was about six, seven. We had a complicated history. I'm a child of two worlds. You know, my name might be Julian Brave Nozcat, and I look the way I look, but my mom's actually an Irish Jewish New Yorker. But so to write this book, which I knew would have a lot to do with my ancestry, with my relationship to my dad, with sorting out those things, I decided to move back in with him. And my dad is a visual artist. So while I would be sort of hunched over my laptop with terrible posture trying to figure out how to write a book, my dad would be out in the garage, which doubled as his carving studio. Like leaned over a log, jamming out to zeppelin, taking rips from the bong. You know, I had this notion that I was going to ornament the text with stories about the trickster coyote, who was the trickster ancestor of my people, who was sent to the earth by the creator to set things in order, but who was a trickster. And so, you know, while he did some good, he was often up to no good. And this began as a very small idea. And I actually had not really heard any of these stories told in my life ever before. We don't really tell these stories anymore. So to learn them, I had to read them in like old PDFs of ethnographic texts that I was finding on like Google Scholar and JSTOR and stuff, you know, learning about my Indian ancestry through the Internet. And, you know, I was reading in the PDF that the trickster coyote was this creator, destroyer, deadbeat dad, survivor. And then I was looking out at the garage carving studio at my father. And then I was looking back at the PDF and back out at the carving studio and back at the PDF and all of a Sudden it hit me. I was like, oh, my God, my father is the trickster Coyote. And that Ed. Yeah. And that insight fundamentally transformed the book I was writing and made me ask a question that I'd never seen asked of narrative nonfiction before, which is, what would it be to take these stories, which my own ancestors always considered to be nonfiction, seriously as nonfiction?
Luke Burbank
Yeah. We're talking to Julian Brave Noisecat about his new book, We Survived the Night. You're listening to Livewire from prx. We're at the Reaser in Beaverton, Oregon this week. We gotta take a quick break, but much more with Julian in just a moment. Stay with us. This is Livewire.
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Luke Burbank
Welcome back to Livewire from prx. I'm Luke Burbank here with Elena Passarello. We're at the Reserve center for the Arts in Beaverton. This week, we're talking to Julian Brave Noisecat about his book, We Survived the Night. This book is a bunch of things, but at its core, it's really the story of you and your dad, Ed Archie Noisecat. He grew up on the. Is it Canem Lake? Canem Canum Lake Indian Reserve. And the fact that he even lived, like, was able to live there was an absolute miracle. Can you kind of talk about his early life and how that place shaped him?
Julian Brave Noisecat
Yeah. So my father was born on August 16, 1959 in the evening and found minutes later in the trash incinerator at St. Joseph's Mission, which is the Indian residential school that my family was sent to to unlearn our Indian ways, essentially, which was the policy in Canada, as it was here in the United States, by the night watchman who described my father's cries for life as sounding like the noise of a cat in the local Williams Lake Tribune newspaper. Which is kind of crazy because, I mean, you know, my last name is Noise Cat, and it actually only became Noise Cat because the missionaries wrote it down wrong. So it's actually properly pronounced, I guess noiskit would be the way that the ancestral name Was said. So when they colonized us and baptized us, when we get married, they'd give us Christian names, Catholic names. And so ways back, my family got the name Archie, which not a native name. And so basically, when my dad got married to my mom, my father decided that he was going to reclaim his ancestral name, Nuiskit. But at that point in time, it had already kind of transformed into noise cat. Not knowing that there was this whole story about his survival that we only learned because I set out to tell the story of his cries for life sounding like the noise of the cat. So in there, there's something about, you know, Indian names and the meaning of that name finding itself in the story of his survival.
Luke Burbank
I was wondering what it was like for you to go between sort of white spaces and native spaces. I know that a lot of people, because your mom is white, as you mentioned, your dad is a native. A lot of folks that are in that situation have. They're often trying to figure out what their identity is and where they fit in and don't fit in. It sounds like your mom was very committed to maintaining the native connection in your life. What was it like for you to go in between those worlds, though?
Julian Brave Noisecat
You know, some people sometimes ask me, like, about my connection to my Irish ancestry or my Judaism, about my mother. You know, one of the interesting things about Jews and Salish people is that we both love smoked fish. We come by our gastrointestinal issues honestly.
Luke Burbank
Nice, nice.
Julian Brave Noisecat
You know, sometimes people ask me, like, well, how Jewish are you? Well, like the night after we survived the night came out, I was up late arguing with my buddy David about, like, left wing politics. So I'm like, about like that Jewish. And then the next, you know, the next day I went up to Zabar's to get, like, you know, locks with locks, bagel with shmear. And then, you know, people don't usually see me as Irish, but actually, three out of eight of my great grandparents were Irish Catholics. And, you know, here I am doing an Irish thing, you know, like writing. And I learned to write in part because my mother encouraged me to write. And my mother also, you know, did a lot to keep me connected to my indigenous family and ancestry. In a lot of ways, the book is also about her and the decisions that she made to keep me connected, but also about some of the kind of crazy decisions she made about people who she was romantically involved with, such as my father.
Luke Burbank
I grew up in the northwest and heard about the Salish people and the Salish sea, but I don't know if I have, until I was reading this book, a conception of actually the geographic scope of the Salish people. Can you describe for folks that wouldn't know where this actually occurs and who these folks were and are?
Julian Brave Noisecat
Yeah. So the Salish peoples are. We're like a large set of languages. We're an ethnolinguistic group. I guess you could describe us as in the Pacific Northwest. According to archaeologists and linguists and sort of our own oral histories, our people probably originated around the lower Fraser river region near what is now present day Vancouver, and spread out from there. There are Salish speaking peoples all the way from Bella Coola, British Columbia, historically down all the way to here in the Portland, all the way across to Montana. And there are many different branches and families within our language, which tells linguists and archaeologists that we've been here for a really long time. And there are also a lot of interesting sounds in our languages. The language that itself transforms as you speak it. Which is interesting because a lot of our stories are about transformers. Like the trickster Coyote himself is a shapeshifter. And also the study of our languages actually helped develop a lot of concepts in linguistics. So basically, the way that they are able now to study how languages change over time and diverge was premised on the study of the Salish languages.
Luke Burbank
We're talking to Julian Brave Noisecat here on Livewire. His book is We Survived the Night. You were a champion powwow dancer. And this book really kind of delves into that world and all of the artistry and athleticism that goes on with that. What was it about that. That sort of lifestyle, I guess, that appealed to you. Cause it really was a significant portion of your life right in your teens and early twenties.
Julian Brave Noisecat
I've always liked fry bread.
Luke Burbank
It's the only way you get your hands on some.
Julian Brave Noisecat
No. You know, I grew up in Oakland, California, and every Thursday night there was powwow drum and dance practice at the Intertribal Friendship House, which is the third oldest urban Indian community center in the country. Was founded in the 50s. And, you know, it was a big part of our community that we would all gather around the all nations singers and practice the American Indian Movement song. And also, you know, learn how to dance. And after a number of years when I was a little kid, you know, watching everybody else dance. Cause I was too scared to get out there. I mean, you know, it's like a scary thing to do when you're a little kid. I decided that I was gonna get out there and do it. And I was encouraged to do so by, among other people, a figure who's fairly important in the book. A guy who was kind of like my second dad after my first one, you know, trickstered out. Yeah. And his name was Coco. And he taught me how to do the men's traditional dance, which is usually considered kind of like the oldest of the powwow dance styles. Cause it's based on dances of the hunt and the war. So you got a picture, like, little chubby cheeked Salish kid in East Oakland, but, you know, like tracking like an elk on, like, cracked vinyl tiles. Like, that's kind of what it was to be a native in the late 90s, early 2000s, in Oakland, California.
Luke Burbank
One of the things about this book that really struck me was how unsparingly honest it is about your life, about. About your father's life and about elements of your mom's life. I'm just wondering what was their reaction.
Julian Brave Noisecat
You know, it's a really scary thing to write nonfiction and also to make a documentary. I feel like I've flown close to the sun with so much intense personal history of my own, of my family's, and somehow I have managed not to get burned so far by it. You know, my dad, my mom, my family has all been incredibly supportive of the work that I've done. After reading We Survived the Night, my dad apologized to me for the very first time in his life for, you know, the pain that he put me through. He said, I finally understand it a bit. That was after he lost the first copy of the book that I gave him. And, you know, my mom, my mom has been a really. Has been also incredibly supportive. You know, she's still my first reader, she's my first editor. So she had to process all that while also, like, reading as I was figuring it out. And I think that she has bought into the idea that I think is maybe a kind of crazy idea that a lot of nonfiction writers share in, which is like, that we can tell hard stories in a way that creates the possibility for reconciliation, which, you know, maybe current events in the broader world are suggesting that that is not possible. But I think as nonfiction writers in particular, but hopefully as people who value complicated, hard, contradictory stories about the real truth that's out there in the world, not some black and white thing that we consume through our phones, is actually something that we can grapple with and reconcile and figure out a way to move forward through these messy things.
Luke Burbank
It is a phenomenal book. It's. We survive the Night. It's by Julian Brave Noisecat. Julian, thanks for coming on Livewire.
Julian Brave Noisecat
Cooks Jam. Thank you.
Luke Burbank
That was Julian Brave Noisecat recorded live at the Patricia Research center for the Arts in Beaverton, Oregon. His incredible book, We Survived the Night, is out and available right now. Hey, special thanks this episode to Doug Johansen of Portland, Oregon, and Carol Ford of St. Helens, Oregon, which I can almost see from this room that I'm recording this in right now. Carol and Doug are part of the Livewire member community and they are generously supporting us with a donation each month. And we are incredibly grateful for that support because it's how we are able to keep Livewire going. I cannot overstate that. So Doug and Carol, thank you very much for supporting Livewire. You're tuned to Livewire from prx. Many people may know our next guest as the self described staff homosexual from Chelsea lately. Others may be as no more Mr. Nice gay from his time on Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell. Then there are those who just know him as the brilliant comedy writer for Mel Brooks, History of the World Part 2 and the Mindy Project and the show Hacks. We just know him as our pal, Guy Branham, who stopped by the Patricia Reeser center for the Arts in Beaverton, Oregon to delight us.
Guy Branum
I am a gay guy, but I am not one of the normal ones. I am what's known as a bear. And what that means is that I am bigger than most gay guys, I am hairier than most gay guys, and I enjoy mauling hikers in national parks. And I love picnic baskets. The scariest thing about being a very fat person is when you have to fly on a plane, because some people are very upset when they have to sit next to a fat person on a plane. Like, not so long ago, I was on a flight and a woman sat down next to me and she refused to make eye contact with me. But she called over the stewardess and she said that she refused to put on her seatbelt because she needed to be moved to another seat so she wouldn't have to be next to me. Our arms were kind of touching. And here's the thing. You're being transported across a continent. There might be some inconveniences involved. You might have to take your shoes off at security. You might have to touch a fat person's upper arm. You know, I want you to think about what that person, I mean, she's crossing a. People used to die of dysentery on the Oregon Trail to go half that distance. She is Being magically transported in the course of two romantic comedies. I want you to think about what that woman would have had to do to take that same flight 500 years ago. She would have had to sign her name in the Devil's book. She would have had to locate an unbaptized baby, render down its fat, and rub it all over her naked flesh so that she could frolic with her sister wives of Satan in the moonlight. This lady just had to go have a credit card and go to a website. Now, that joke never does as well as I want it to because I hear my audiences are not as familiar with Wiccan flying spells as I would have liked. I was in Portland. I had my hopes. It's too late. But before I go, anyone in the audience have pets? Who here posts photos of their pets on Instagram? You people need to calm down. I am so tired of people posting photos of their stupid apartment dog on Instagram and expecting me to care. It's your dog. It's your deal. Don't involve me in that process. And people treat me like I'm a cruel and unloving person because they don't care about their stupid apartment dog. Here's the thing. I love animals. I grew up on a farm. I love animals. Real animals with genitals and a job. Oh, but Guy. But Guy, we had to have him fixed. If we don't have him fixed, he'll just hump the ottoman all around the apartment. Just hump the ottoman all around the apartment? Yeah. If someone trapped you in a 20 foot by 20 foot room for the rest of your life with no members of your own species and no opposable thumbs, you might develop some interesting masturbatory habits. Oh, he's so stupid. Your dog is so stupid. He just stares out the window all day long. He's so stupid. Your dog isn't stupid. Your dog is very good at something. I don't know what it is. Maybe it is herding sheep. Maybe it is keeping a Chinese empress's feet warm. Maybe it is finding dead birds and bringing dead birds back to you. But. But your dog has a skill. You won't let him do it. You take him to the park two times a week for 20 minutes. You act like you're doing him a favor. Your dog isn't staring out the window because he's stupid. Your dog is staring out the window because he's a housewife in 1963 with a journalism degree from Wellesley and two crying kids in the next room. Your dog isn't staring out the window because he's stupid. Your dog is staring out the window because he's wondering where it all went wrong. Thank you very much. I'm Guy Branum.
Luke Burbank
Guy Branum, right here on Livewire. Guy, thank you so much for coming out to Beaverton for this.
Guy Branum
Thank you for having me. Luke, I'm sorry that I called it Portland and not Beaverton. I should have been more specific about it
Luke Burbank
before. I was surprised. I didn't know this about you. But before you got into comedy, you were an attorney, actually. What kind of law did you practice, and did you like it?
Guy Branum
Okay, so I went to law school, and I only briefly worked as an attorney, and my only job was for an insurance defense firm. So I was essentially the bad people in Erin Brockovich. Not the ones that you see, but the ones behind them who are trying to keep people who have been the victims of a toxic tort from receiving money for their very real health problems. And I just had binders across from me with various kinds of cancer. And I was like, I need to not do this.
Luke Burbank
Really? Were you already interested in comedy at that point? In writing? What were you? What was your creative life like?
Guy Branum
Yeah, I was an undergrad at Berkeley, and my last year at Berkeley, I was friends with the guy who had run the campus paper, and he was just like, you should write a humor column for the paper. And I did, and I really enjoyed that. And I did a little bit of standup, and then I went to law school and did nothing fun for three years and was like, I'm miserable. And then I came out of the closet because I thought that that would help. It did not. I mean, in a larger sense, yes, But I was just sort of like, ah, what do I want to do with my life? And I was trying to just point myself back at the last thing I remembered that was good or fun. And that was stand up.
Luke Burbank
That column that you were writing at Cal Berkeley, did if Wikipedia is to be believed at some point, involve the Secret Service showing up at your apartment?
Guy Branum
Yes. I said a mean thing about Chelsea Clinton.
Luke Burbank
What?
Guy Branum
And it got. I said, chelsea Clinton represents the Stanford ethos of establishment worship which must be subverted and destroyed. And that was quoted by the Associated Press as, Chelsea Clinton must be destroyed. And so the Secret Service came to my house and searched it. And to this day, I'm not allowed around anyone with Secret Service protection. Like, the Kelly Clarkson show last year was like, we're doing a game with Michelle Obama. Come host it. And I was like, sure. And Then the Secret Service was like, no. Whoa.
Luke Burbank
You're on the no Fly List?
Guy Branum
Yes, I am on the no Fly List. I can't hang around with any of our living presidents.
Luke Burbank
Wait, so even though obviously they were misconstruing the nature of what you wrote, there's no yes. Is there no more due process in America?
Guy Branum
There is no more due process in America. I think we've learned that.
Julian Brave Noisecat
Yeah.
Guy Branum
We have a Supreme Court who essentially has just said no. He's in charge for the last couple of years.
Luke Burbank
Yeah. Yeah. You and Elena share something in common, which is you have both been on Jeopardy.
Guy Branum
We have.
Luke Burbank
Which I'm endlessly impressed by. I once went and watched it being filmed. I wasn't on it, but just the watching of it. I was breaking out in hives. It seems so hard to do that in real time.
Guy Branum
As I understand it, we both came in a brave second. Right?
Elena Passarello
Oh, first place losers.
Guy Branum
Yes.
Julian Brave Noisecat
Yay.
Elena Passarello
What was your final Jeopardy.
Luke Burbank
About?
Guy Branum
Oh, my final Jeopardy. Was about Nobel Prizes, and I did get it right. So the thing is, I ended up. I, Elena, am now in the new era when they bring back first losers for second chances. And so the one thing I am able to say with pride is I managed to get all four of the final jeopardies that I came up against.
Georgia Mack (Musical Performance)
Whoa.
Luke Burbank
So you've actually done Jeopardy. Four times?
Guy Branum
Yes. So the thing is, I have been on television a fair amount. I have been on live television a fair amount. And I am a person who is no longer scared of live television. And I went to Jeopardy. And I assumed that some of my comfort being on television would allow me to have more clarity. And the answer is no, because Jeopardy. Is old magic. Like, Jeopardy. Is from when you were 10, and you were like, those people are amazing. I can do that. And it's like, well, maybe you can do that.
Luke Burbank
What were your anecdotes?
Guy Branum
Oh, my anecdotes were about how when I was in kindergarten, my middle name is Michael, and I had been called Mikey my entire life. And then I showed up to kindergarten, and there were five Michaels because it was the height of Gen X, and my teacher was like, well, we can't call you Mikey as well, so we're going to call you Guy. And I was like, first of all, that's not a name. Second of all, it's certainly not mine. So it was that. And then my other anecdote was the fact that a show that I am on after I was put in the Jeopardy. Contestant pool, the show where I am a recurring character was going to do a plotline at Jeopardy. And I had to be there. And I was like, is this going to ruin my eligibility? Because I am like, you know, violating the game show rules by being around them. So Ken is somebody I knew from, like, college Quiz bowl and stuff like that.
Luke Burbank
Ken Jennings.
Guy Branum
Ken Jennings. And so when the cast of Platonic showed up to the set, Ken came over to greet me and I yelled, I'm in the contestant pool. No fraternization. And ran away. And he was understanding.
Luke Burbank
You have launched this incredible project on Instagram. It's a series that's called Things Only the Old Gays Remember. Do you feel the young gays are unaware of some important history? Who are you educating with this?
Guy Branum
Yeah, I mean, it's. It's primarily just to open up the window of, you know, like, people have different windows of knowledge. People have different things that they understand. You know, if you were born in 1975, you were exposed to a number of bulimia TV movies that children born in 2006 don't know about. They don't remember Calista. They don't remember Meredith Baxter Burney. And it all came from. There's a very funny comic named Tory Piskin who helps me with my videos. And we were doing, like, man on the street stuff in West Hollywood. And I was stopping her to tell her an important piece of gay cultural information every five minutes. And she is not a younger gay person, but she was like, you have to do a thing that's called Only the Old Gays remember. And then so many people, after I did a couple of them, my friend Ray in Toronto was just like, I was just trying to explain to a bunch of younger gay people who Angillian is. I know.
Luke Burbank
Can you enlighten these folks? You describe her as the better Kim Cattrall.
Guy Branum
Yes. Which is maybe unfair to Kim Cattrall. Kim Cattrall is amazing on her own terms. Just understanding that before Kim Cattrall, we had this amazing platinum blonde shag out there who could sing and deliver jokes and was amazing. And people need to understand her journey and her arc because these are important treasures of queer culture that could be lost.
Luke Burbank
What about the greatest drag performance of all time featuring Tandy Andrews? Can you describe this a bit?
Guy Branum
Okay, so this is not something I knew about. It's been really wonderful. If any of you guys have things that you want the old gay to remember. Middle aged. Okay. The middle aged gay.
Luke Burbank
Remember Guy Branham on Instagram?
Guy Branum
Yes. Please message me. But there was a guy. I don't know who was just like, hey, you need to know about this drag performance. And it was in the mid-90s, and Thandi Andrews was a trans woman who was HIV positive and had AIDS and was trying to win all of the national drag pageants in the same year. But. But one of them didn't allow you to compete in another when you had already won one, and so they disqualified her, and she did the Greatest Love of All. And when in the song it says, no matter what they take from me, they can't take away my dignity. She had her national crown on, and she unpinned it and threw it to the side. And it was just this magnificent moment of ownership and artistry in the face of her own mortality. And it really encapsulates the magnificence of what drag can be.
Luke Burbank
It was so incredibly affecting, that moment of taking the crown off. I watched it. It's in your video, too. You get to see an example of what you're talking about.
Guy Branum
But it was really cool. The guy who had recommended it, he said that the YouTube video of Tandy had gotten 10,000 new views since that video came out. And, you know, our history isn't official or respectable. That's part of what's great about it. But it is something that needs to be communicated, because when you're queer, you don't have queer parents. You don't have people there who are there to acculturate you. And over the last couple of years, intergenerational contact between queer people has been politicized and stigmatized in a way that makes people uncomfortable to have these conversations. And also, Gen Z just loves staying at home. But, like, they're conversations that you need to have in the back of a gay bar with an older gentleman or lady or. Or somewhere in between who is a couple of drinks in.
Luke Burbank
Yeah. Can you talk about the fact that, in your opinion, cigarettes used to be cell phones?
Guy Branum
Oh, I mean, this is one of the videos I did for Only the Old Gays. Remember, we were just shooting a bunch of them, and then the woman who lived next door to the girl who was shooting it was outside smoking a cigarette. And I was just nostalgic for, like, my first days in gay bars, where when you wanted to look cool and not be talking to anyone, you just smoked a cigarette in the middle of the bar in Minneapolis. And now you have to look at your cell phone.
Luke Burbank
I mean, I think there's a lot of data that the cell phones are not good for us. Maybe not in the same way physically, but Certainly, like, mentally and spiritually, cell phones are awesome.
Guy Branum
I think that they are great and they allow us to stay in contact with other people and information is magical. But I also think, like, right now, you can go on your phone and check a piece of information. Elena and I have trained ourselves to be repositories of information so we can buzz in and answer questions. The thing is, because you did college
Luke Burbank
bowl and everything, this has been a lifestyle for you.
Guy Branum
And it's like, well, why do you need to memorize who all of the best supporting actress nominees of all time are? You could just look at it on your phone. But the thing is, is that on your phone you only find what you look for. And there's something so beautiful about the way that you used to find things that you weren't looking for. Ladies and gentlemen, I once, while just scrolling through an M encyclopedia, came upon an entry for a state that did not exist. And I was like, what's going on? Is this fan fiction? And the answer was, yes, it was Manitoba. And it opened me up to an entirely different world.
Luke Burbank
Well, for me, I think the main thing that maybe the younger generations have lost with the phones and all the information we have, at least something that was big for me was the only reason that we went anywhere when I was in high school was on the off chance that the person we had a crush on would be at the thing we were going to. And now you can just know if they're going to be at that thing or not very easily.
Guy Branum
Can I respond to that with a semi salty story?
Luke Burbank
Absolutely.
Guy Branum
Okay. Once I was at breakfast Republic in West Hollywood and the host was kind of hot and he told me his first name and I put it into Instagram and then the fourth entry down was him. And then from there I found his only fans. And that's something that was not possible in 1987.
Luke Burbank
Yeah. I have to say, like, you're so funny, but you're also so smart that, like, legitimately. This series on Instagram, I've been watching it and I've been learning so much. So I wanna recommend to everybody, check out Guy Branum's series, Only the Old Gays Remember.
Guy Branum
Thank you.
Luke Burbank
Go to school, people. Learn. Educate yourselves.
Guy Branum
It's fun school. It's fun school where I curse and I say things that I shouldn't and you might get mad at me. I said some questionable things about Madonna and then all of the gay guys with cheek implants came after me.
Luke Burbank
Yeah, Guy Branham, everyone here on Livewire, That was Guy Branum. Recorded live at the Patricia Research center for the Arts in Beaverton, Oregon. Make sure to check out Guy's Instagram page. Things only the old gays remember. It's really a treasure trove of a fun and fascinating culture. We've got to take a quick break here on Livewire, but stick around. Now, I know I always say that, but I actually mean it this time because coming up on the other side of the break, we've got a song from the singer songwriter Georgia Mack that is gonna give you goosebumps or stop you in your tracks or maybe make you pull over your car, which is just the safest option. And maybe you should do that just as a precaution right now and then join us here in a moment when we come back with more Livewire. Hey there, Livewire listeners, it's Luke letting you know that we will be back at the El Alberta Rose Theater in Portland, Oregon on April 9th with New York Times bestseller and all around legend Cheryl Strayed. Plus the creators of Ear Hustle, the podcast that was created and produced in prison, amazingly. Plus comedy from Kyle Kanane and music from Patterson Hood of the Drive By Truckers. Get your tickets@livewireradio.org, we'll see you April 9th. Welcome back to Livewire. I'm Luke Burbank. Okay, before we get to this week's musical performance from Georgia Mack, a little preview of what we are doing on the show next week. We're gonna talk to the author and Pulitzer Prize finalist Karen Russell about her latest novel, it's the Antidote. It's sort of Grapes of Wrath meets the wizard of Oz meets Hoosiers. It also features a talking cat. Then we're gonna get some standup comedy from Sam Miller. Sam is a really interesting guy. I started following him on TikTok and he is very upfront about the times that he has been to jail, which is like several times in his life, and what he learned from that. The guy is really one of a kind. Can't wait for you to hear him. Then we're going to have a musical performance from Austin based singer songwriter David Ramirez. He's got this soulful kind of gut wrenching vocal style that is really something else. It's intense but in a really good way. So make sure you tune in for next week's episode of Livewire in the meantime, okay? We have made you wait long enough for this. Our musical guest this week served as the trailblazing frontwoman of the Australian punk trio camp hope for eight years, earning international acclaim before their 2023 farewell show at the Sydney Opera House. Now, these days she's based in Los Angeles and she's a solo artist. She's continuing to write music that really lays bare her vulnerabilities and her heartbreaks in some really relatable ways. Her latest release, God's Favorite, marks a shift towards soulful Americana ballad, and they're really incredible. Take a listen to Georgia Mack, who recorded this live at the Alberta Rose Theater right here in Portland, Oregon.
Georgia Mack (Musical Performance)
Hello.
Luke Burbank
Hello.
Guy Branum
Hi.
Luke Burbank
So, Georgia, you're in Los Angeles these days.
Georgia Mack (Interview)
Yes, I've been here for three years.
Luke Burbank
How's it treating you so far?
Georgia Mack (Interview)
I really miss free healthcare, but it rocks here. It's so much fun. Everyone's really kind and it's a really strange place to be. As someone from the bottom of the earth, this place, it's pretty cool.
Luke Burbank
I was reading some of your bio and were you in nursing school or about to enter nursing school when Camp Cope really took off?
Georgia Mack (Interview)
I just finished nursing school and then I played in Camp Cope for like five years and the pandemic happened and then I became a nurse and worked all through the pandemic.
Luke Burbank
So you went through all of that and became basically a nurse, got all that training, but then still decided you weren't done with your sort of musical journey?
Georgia Mack (Interview)
Yeah, I don't think I'll ever be done with music. It's like a just a lifelong burden, I guess, that I love so much.
Luke Burbank
Well, what song are we gonna hear?
Georgia Mack (Interview)
Okay, this song, we put it out a few years ago, but then recently, like, put out the full band version, as in, like last week.
Georgia Mack (Musical Performance)
And
Georgia Mack (Interview)
this is my maybe, like third time, like, playing it on the banjo, but it's called Tropical Lush Ice. And it's just. It's just about being a girl, being a girl in la, I guess, and no longer smoking cigarettes, doing something way worse.
Luke Burbank
Okay, well, this is Georgia Mack here on Livewire.
Georgia Mack (Musical Performance)
I was a tower Three cars on the phone Got good at getting going she was an angel angel out before the dawn Only song about in songs she honking on her face in and out Cafe bloat in my face Give me a try if I'm gonna die I'm gonna going to do it in style. That's Tropical Lus for you, baby. Can you ever really be alive in California? Can you ever really be alive in California? For now. I left my body running down that
Julian Brave Noisecat
street
Georgia Mack (Musical Performance)
I'm a lightning on my feet Know everybody don't want to know me I'm so normal and complete who me? I've been having dreams Taking out my teeth Mama can't fix me I'm breathing fire I'm gonna tell I gonna do it instead that's tropical lush I swore you baby can you ever really be alive in California? Can you ever really be alive, California oh, Can you ever really feel alive? Can he ever really be alive? I don't know about these side can he ever really be alive in California? Don't think I've ever really been alive in California.
Georgia Mack (Interview)
Thank you so much.
Luke Burbank
That's Georgia Mack here on Livewire with Daniel Fox.
Georgia Mack (Musical Performance)
Thank you.
Luke Burbank
That was Georgia Mack recorded live at the Alberta Rose Theater in Portland, Oregon. Her EP God's Favorite is available now. Well, that is gonna do it for this week's episode of Livewire. Boy, that flew by. A huge thanks to our guests, Guy Branham, Julian, Brave, NoiseCat and Georgia Mack.
Elena Passarello
Laura Hadden is our executive producer, Heather D. Michel is our executive director, and Melanie Savchenko is our producer and editor. Evan Hoffer is our technical director. Trey Hester is our assistant editor. Valentine Keck is our operations manager, and Ashley park is our marketing manager.
Luke Burbank
Our house sound is by D. Neil Blake and Aaron Tomaszco. And our house band is Ethan Fox, Tucker, Ben Grace, Jacob Miller, Alex Radakovich and A. Walker Spring, who also composes our music. This show was mixed by Eben Hoffer and Trey Hester.
Elena Passarello
Additional funding provided by the Oregon Arts Commission, a state agency funded by the state of Oregon and the National Endowment for the Arts. Livewire was created by Robin Tenenbaum and Kate Sokoloff.
Luke Burbank
This week we'd like to thank members Doug Johansen of Portland, Oregon, and Carol Ford of St. Helens, Oregon. For more information about our show or how you can listen to our podcast, head ON over to livewireradio.org I'm Luke Burbank. For my pal Elena Passarello and the whole Livewire team, thank you for listening and we'll see you next week. Hey, if you appreciate the work that Livewire is doing to amplify riveting and unexpected voices to a national audience, and I gotta tell you, it's a big audience these days, please, please, please consider offering some monthly support by becoming a member of our league of Extraordinary Listeners. Here's how it works. Membership starts at just five bucks a month, and there are great perks at every level, including a special shout out on the broadcast. Impress your friends by being shouted out on Livewire. It means the world to us and really does make it possible for us to do the show. So please, if you. If you can help, support us by visiting livewireradio. Org memberships.
Elena Passarello
From prx.
Live Wire with Luke Burbank – April 3, 2026 Guests: Guy Branum, Julian Brave NoiseCat, Georgia Maq
This episode of Live Wire, hosted by Luke Burbank and announced by Elena Passarello, brings late-night radio variety energy with a compelling lineup. It features an insightful interview with Indigenous writer and filmmaker Julian Brave NoiseCat about his new memoir, sharp comedy and cultural commentary from Gay icon and TV writer Guy Branum, and an intimate musical performance from Australian singer-songwriter Georgia Maq. The show, recorded before a live audience in Oregon, effortlessly blends humor, vulnerability, and probing conversations about identity, history, and creativity.
The episode is fun, sharp, and thoughtful, balancing comedy with deep discussions about cultural and family heritage, artistic journeys, and the importance of storytelling across generations. The conversation flows naturally, filled with banter, candid reflections, and smart wit, exemplified by both host and guests.
This episode showcases the signature blend that Live Wire is known for: artful conversations, wry and sharply observed comedy, and moving, honest music and storytelling. It’s an episode that will leave you laughing, reflecting, and perhaps even reaching for the phone to call a stranger in need—or help a toad across the road.