Live Wire with Luke Burbank – April 3, 2026 Guests: Guy Branum, Julian Brave NoiseCat, Georgia Maq
Episode Overview
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 Best News We Heard All Week (04:35–11:01)
- Elena’s Good News: 867-5309, Now a Cancer Helpline
- Elena and Luke reminisce about the iconic 80s hit “867-5309” by Tommy Tutone, noting its infamous impact on those who actually had the number.
- A healthcare agency has repurposed the number for the Cancer Support Community and Gilda’s Club: “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.” (Elena Passarello, 06:34)
- Elena emphasizes how this transforms a cultural artifact into a lifeline for those affected by cancer.
- Memorable moment: “It's the opposite of what happened to that poor middle school in North Carolina.” (Elena, 07:03)
- Luke’s Good News: The Toad Patrol of Lancashire
- Luke shares the story of Claire Adamson in Dolphinholm, England, who started a local “toad patrol” to help frogs and toads safely cross roads during their spawning migration.
- What began with a small group is now a 50-person volunteer effort, saving hundreds of amphibians. “They estimate that they've saved already this year, 700 migrating toads...” (Luke Burbank, 08:58)
- Funny and heartfelt advice from Claire: Pick up the toad and move it “to the side of the road. That is the direction it was facing.” (Luke, 09:35)
- Luke relates: “I suffer from a self-diagnosed condition I call intrusive animal empathy.” (Luke, 10:21)
Interview: Julian Brave NoiseCat (12:26–27:27)
- Origins and Structure of “We Survived the Night”
- Julian begins by discussing the cover art, “Coyote Sees the World Clearly,” by Jeanne Quick-to-See Smith, and its mythic resonance: “The trickster coyote is sort of the third character...Coco the coyote is a huge part of this story.” (Luke, 13:59)
- The memoir weaves Julian’s personal history with Coyote trickster mythology, blending autobiography, journalism, and Indigenous oral tradition.
- “To learn them, I had to read them in like old PDFs of ethnographic texts...” (Julian, 15:11)
- “All of a sudden it hit me. I was like, oh my God, my father is the Trickster Coyote.” (Julian, 15:32)
- His Father’s Survival & Family Name
- Julian recounts his father’s survival as a baby found at an Indian residential school (St. Joseph’s Mission), the origin story of the “Noisecat” surname, and reclaiming their ancestral name. (18:25–20:13)
- “He was found minutes later in the trash incinerator at St. Joseph’s Mission…” (Julian, 18:28)
- Identity & Navigating Mixed Heritage
- On navigating between Native, Jewish, and Irish identities (20:13–21:57):
- “One of the interesting things about Jews and Salish people is that we both love smoked fish. We come by our gastrointestinal issues honestly.” (Julian, 20:41)
- Book is also a tribute to his mother keeping him connected to Indigenous roots.
- The Salish People: Geographic and Cultural Context
- “We’re an ethnolinguistic group in the Pacific Northwest…Salish speaking peoples all the way from Bella Coola, British Columbia, down to here in Portland, all the way across to Montana.” (Julian, 22:14)
- Powwow Dancing and Community
- Describes upbringing in Oakland, community powwows, and becoming a champion dancer:
- “A guy who was kind of like my second dad…Coco…taught me how to do the men’s traditional dance…” (Julian, 24:15)
- Radical Nonfiction, Family Reaction, and Storytelling
- Julian on blending honesty and hope in storytelling:
- “After reading We Survived the Night, my dad apologized to me for the very first time in his life for… the pain that he put me through.” (Julian, 25:49)
- “We can tell hard stories in a way that creates the possibility for reconciliation…” (Julian, 26:20)
Stand-up and Conversation: Guy Branum (29:02–45:03)
- Stand-Up Highlights
- Guy delivers candid and hilarious comedy about being a “bear” in gay culture, fatphobia on airplanes, pet ownership, and more.
- “I am a gay guy, but I am not one of the normal ones. I am what’s known as a bear.” (Guy, 29:02)
- Memorable quip about flying: “She would have had to sign her name in the Devil’s book…now this lady just had to go to a website.” (Guy, 30:36)
- “Your dog isn’t staring out the window because he’s stupid…he’s a housewife in 1963 with a journalism degree from Wellesley and two crying kids in the next room.” (Guy, 32:21)
- Interview with Luke Burbank
- Guy’s law school background and “villain” work at an insurance defense firm: “So I was essentially the bad people in Erin Brockovich.” (Guy, 33:58)
- His comic origins: “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...”
- Hilarious story of writing a newspaper column that led to the Secret Service searching his house due to a misreported joke about Chelsea Clinton (36:05).
- Jeopardy anecdotes:
- “I have managed to get all four of the Final Jeopardys that I came up against.” (Guy, 36:59)
- “Jeopardy is old magic...from when you were ten and you were like, those people are amazing. I can do that. And it’s like, well, maybe you can do that.” (Guy, 37:18)
- Old Gays Remember: Pop Culture and Queer Oral History
- Guy discusses his viral Instagram project “Things Only the Old Gays Remember.”
- “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.” (Guy, 38:51)
- On drag history: “...at the end of ‘The Greatest Love of All,’ she unpinned her crown and threw it aside. It was just this magnificent moment of ownership and artistry in the face of her own mortality.” (Guy, 40:10)
- On the loss of queer intergenerational storytelling and the rise of digital culture: “Our history isn’t official or respectable…but it is something that needs to be communicated, because when you’re queer, you don’t have queer parents to acculturate you.” (Guy, 41:18)
- “Cell phones are the new cigarettes” for bar culture (Guy, 42:13)
- Profound reflection: “On your phone you only find what you look for. And there’s something so beautiful about the way you used to find things you weren’t looking for.” (Guy, 43:09)
- Candid modern dating: “I found his OnlyFans. That was not possible in 1987.” (Guy, 44:09)
- On his Instagram: “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 the gay guys with cheek implants came after me.” (Guy, 44:53)
Musical Performance: Georgia Maq (48:11–53:56)
Interview with Luke Burbank
- Georgia reflects on moving from Australia to Los Angeles:
- “I really miss free healthcare, but it rocks here…As someone from the bottom of the earth, this place, it’s pretty cool.” (Georgia, 48:20)
- Her path through nursing school and balancing two callings: “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.” (Georgia, 49:04)
Performance: “Tropical Lush Ice” (49:26–53:52)
- Georgia introduces her Americana-inspired track, explaining it’s about “being a girl in LA, and no longer smoking cigarettes, doing something way worse.” (Georgia, 49:26)
- Lyrics emphasize themes of transformation, cultural displacement, and self-discovery.
- Emotional performance, audience visibly moved.
Notable Quotes
- “Your dog isn’t staring out the window because he’s stupid…your dog is wondering where it all went wrong.”
— Guy Branum, Stand-up (32:21) - “Our history isn’t official or respectable…but it is something that needs to be communicated, because when you’re queer, you don’t have queer parents to acculturate you.”
— Guy Branum, Interview (41:18) - “To learn [Coyote stories], I had to read them in like old PDFs of ethnographic texts that I was finding on like Google Scholar and JSTOR...And all of a sudden it hit me. I was like, oh my God, my father is the trickster Coyote.”
— Julian Brave NoiseCat, Interview (15:11–15:32) - “We can tell hard stories in a way that creates the possibility for reconciliation.”
— Julian Brave NoiseCat, Interview (26:20) - “I really miss free healthcare, but it rocks here…it's a lifelong burden, I guess, that I love so much.”
— Georgia Maq, Interview (48:20, 49:04)
Timestamps and Key Segments
- 04:35 – The Best News We Heard All Week: The 867-5309 Cancer Helpline
- 08:06 – The Lancashire Toad Patrol
- 12:26 – Julian Brave NoiseCat Interview: Coyote, Family, and Memoir Craft
- 20:13 – Mixed Identity, Family, and Indigenous Roots
- 22:14 – The Salish People: History and Culture
- 24:00 – Powwow Dance & Community
- 25:39 – Honesty in Nonfiction and Family Response
- 29:02 – Guy Branum Standup: Gay Bear Life and Airplane Anecdotes
- 33:58 – Switching from Law to Comedy; The Secret Service Incident
- 36:59 – Jeopardy Stories and the "First Loser"
- 38:45 – "Things Only the Old Gays Remember": Preserving Queer History
- 41:18 – The Importance of Intergenerational Storytelling
- 43:09 – Serendipity vs. Search in Culture and Tech
- 48:11 – Georgia Maq Interview & Musical Performance
- 49:26 – “Tropical Lush Ice” Live on Stage
Tone & Style
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.
Conclusion
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.