The Moth Radio Hour: Live from the United Palace

Podcast: The Moth
Host: C.J. Hunt
Date: September 16, 2025
Theme: When You’re Home
Location: United Palace Theater, Washington Heights, NYC
Featured Storytellers: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Quiara Alegría Hudes, Led Black

Overview

This live episode of The Moth Radio Hour, set in Washington Heights’ United Palace Theater, marks a celebratory return to in-person storytelling after the pandemic. The evening’s theme, “When You’re Home,” explores profound meanings of home—through memory, music, culture, love, and transformation. Hosted with humor and warmth by C.J. Hunt, the episode highlights three deeply personal stories by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Quiara Alegría Hudes, and Led Black, each reflecting on origins, losses, identity, and the journeys that shape a sense of belonging.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Introduction and Theme

[03:52 – 05:50]

• Host C.J. Hunt sets the tone, celebrating the return to live audiences and emphasizing The Moth’s mission—true stories, told live, no notes, “no net.”
• The introduction for each storyteller comes not through biography but by answering, “What are three things that make you feel at home?”

2. Story 1: Lin-Manuel Miranda – “The Truth Pops Out”

[05:50 – 18:05]

Main Points

• Life-Changing Encounter with “Rent”: At 17, Miranda’s girlfriend takes him to see the musical Rent, sparking a creative awakening.
• Theater Kids and Safe Spaces: He reflects on the unique camaraderie and safety found among high school theater kids.
• Epiphany Through Art: The song “La Vie Bohème” leads to a personal reckoning: “Mark hides in his work… from facing your failure, loneliness…”—a moment Miranda realizes applies to himself.
• First Musical and Personal Loss: He writes his first (admittedly bad) musical, “Nightmare in D Major,” unconsciously channeling grief from childhood—the loss of his best friend at age four appearing as a character.
• Creativity and Truth: Miranda links artistic truth-telling to catharsis, referencing a line he wrote for Hamilton: “I imagine death so much it feels more like a memory,” and sharing how the creative process draws up personal truths.
• On Grief and Writing: His capacity to write about parental grief in Hamilton comes from living with early loss.
• Witnessing and Creating: He cites Jonathan Larson’s work as inspiration for bearing witness and letting “the truth pop out.”

Notable Quotes

• “Sometimes the truth just pops out.” – Lin-Manuel Miranda [05:50]
• “You make fun of us, but we know something you don’t know… when we get to the auditorium, we are safe and we are making something bigger than all of us.” [06:35]
• “When Jonathan Larson’s Roger says that to Mark, it felt like he was talking to me.” [08:13]
• “I have been writing that song since I was four years old, because I have imagined how that felt since I was four years old.” [16:23]
• “You write and write until the truth pops out.” [17:05]

Memorable Moment

• Lin realizing a forgotten grief appears in his creative work, and sharing his mother’s reaction in the audience.
• The distinction between being a fan of musicals and realizing, “The truth can come out in a musical. You’re allowed to write musicals.” [09:45]

3. Story 2: Quiara Alegría Hudes – “Naming the Names”

[23:22 – 39:41]

Main Points

• Searching for “Good Notes”: Her first memory of music—trying to match Champion Jack Dupree’s blues piano as a child—becomes a metaphor for seeking belonging.
• Family, Faith, and Loss: Music’s power to soothe during difficult times—amid parental separation, frequent funerals, and the grounding rhythms of her mother’s lukumi faith.
• Cultural Clash at Yale: Hudes is the first in her family to go to college and is soon disillusioned—“music” in academia means only Western classical, erasing her cultural soundscape.
• Disenfranchisement in Academia: Her attempts to focus on Stevie Wonder or Selena are dismissed—Afro-Caribbean and West African music is relegated to “ethnomusicology,” marginalized and anonymous.
• Revival Through Jazz & Mentorship: An encounter with Wynton Marsalis and copying charts for Cassandra Wilson rekindle her passion and bring music back to her body—as does praise from Black jazz musicians (“That girl’s bad!”).
• Letting Go and Reimagining Dream: Failing to record her performance with Marsalis teaches her about ephemerality, leading her to move from music to storytelling—committing to “name our names,” combating the erasure of identity in archives and memory.
• Redefining Success: Broadway achievement is secondary to her true dream: “My dream was and still is to tell our stories, name our names, have them go on a library shelf that’s eye level… and I know really deep in my heart… is going to get wider and wider and wider and full of more names.”

Notable Quotes

• “I was chasing the good notes.” – Kiara Alegria Hudes [23:22]
• “I realized that the word ‘music’ actually had a different definition at Yale than it had in my life previous. It meant Western classical without having to say so.” [27:57]
• “There was no dancing…there’s definitely no ass slapping happening in the seminar rooms at Yale.” [29:26]
• “I had always thought the erasure of names was something in the past…but it was present tense.” [30:54]
• “I felt the universe just pushing my shoulder blade a little bit. I didn’t know why. It had something to do with ephemerality and how nothing lasts forever.” [36:45]
• “My dream was and still is to tell our stories, name our names, have them go on a library shelf that’s eye level and that’s wider than 48 inches...” [39:17]

Memorable Moment

• The mix of humor and gravity as Hudes describes trying—and failing—to record her jazz session with Marsalis, accepting loss and finding larger meaning.

4. Story 3: Led Black – “A Dominican Boy Becomes a New Man”

[44:23 – 55:37]

Main Points

• Discovery of “Otherness”: Raised in Washington Heights, Black first grasps social class differences attending Bronx Science.
• Love and Community: Recounts his courtship of Eileen, fellow “Dominican York,” illustrating uptown’s neighborhoods and their cultural boundaries.
• Masculinity and Tradition: Growing up, Dominican men are pampered, but domestic labor falls on women. Black expects the same, but Eileen, “the 2.0 version of the Dominican woman,” will not allow it. Equality becomes a necessity.
• Confronting Crisis: Eileen is diagnosed with aggressive breast cancer. Black channels his fear and helplessness into chores; the illusion of control is shattered by vulnerability.
• Grace Through Music: At his lowest—Eileen’s health critical—music triggers catharsis and a sense of grace (“Queen Majesty” by Heavy D).
• Transformation and Empowerment: Black’s experience propels both spouses into service: Eileen supports other women through cancer, Black founds the Uptown Collective, turning personal and neighborhood stories into strength.
• A New Model: He sheds old definitions of masculinity, embracing partnership and community. Celebrates Eileen’s recovery, their anniversary, and the values learned from struggle.

Notable Quotes

• “I didn’t know I was poor until my freshman year at Bronx Science.” – Led Black [44:23]
• “I wanted that carefree Dominican man life… having the women of the household waiting on me hand and foot… Eileen was having none of it.” [46:56]
• “As bad and as brutal as cancer was, it propelled the both of us to a life of service to a community we love and cherish so much.” [54:19]
• “This Dominican boy is now the 2.0 version of the Dominican man. Remember folks, after the plague came the renaissance. Spread love is the Uptown way.” [55:28]

Memorable Moment

• The painful and comedic honesty of his toddler’s reaction to Eileen’s hair loss: “Mom, you look like a monster.” The family laughs, then cries together. [49:56]
• Black’s emotional release listening to “Queen Majesty,” in tears, feeling grace and community. [52:30]

Notable Quotes (by timestamp & speaker)

• Lin-Manuel Miranda, 05:50: “Sometimes the truth just pops out.”
• C.J. Hunt, 03:52: “All of these stories are told, no notes, no net. What I love about the craft is it’s just a storyteller, their own courage and you and your waiting ears and excited eyes.”
• Kiara Alegría Hudes, 23:22: “As early back as I can remember, I was chasing the good notes… as I did that for half an hour, the weight of the world outside disappeared.”
• Kiara Alegría Hudes, 30:54: “I had always thought the erasure of names was something in the past… but it was present tense. And my heart sank seeing those unnamed tapes.”
• Led Black, 44:23: “I didn’t know I was poor until my freshman year at Bronx Science.”
• Led Black, 55:28: “This Dominican boy is now the 2.0 version of the Dominican man. Remember folks, after the plague came the renaissance. Spread love is the Uptown way.”

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [03:52] Host Introduction & Theme
• [05:50] Lin-Manuel Miranda: Story Begins
• [18:05] Jay Allison: Lin-Manuel Miranda’s outro and bio
• [23:22] Quiara Alegría Hudes: Story Begins
• [39:41] C.J. Hunt & transition to next storyteller
• [44:23] Led Black: Story Begins
• [55:37] End of Last Story; Reflection and closing

Tone & Style

The tone throughout is warm, candid, and at times both humorous and vulnerable. Each speaker embodies the Moth tradition: baring truths on stage, confronting pain, joy, and the intangible contours of “home.”

Summary

This episode, brimming with pathos, laughter, and local pride, explores how the concept of “home” is created and redefined—through creative expression (Miranda), through naming and representation (Hudes), and through resilience in family and partnership (Black). The storytellers’ words resonate far beyond Washington Heights, inviting listeners to reflect on where and how they, too, are truly home.