← The New Yorker Radio Hour
The New Yorker Radio Hour
Episode 15: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Marc Maron, and the Broads of 'Broad City'
00:55:12
This week, stars of the stage, screen, and earbuds. Marc Maron tells Kelefa Sanneh why talking into a mic saved his life. The magazine’s TV critic, Emily Nussbaum, speaks with Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer about their raunchy and joyful TV comedy “Broad City.” And Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator and star of “Hamilton,” takes comfort in knowing that dirty politics are as old as America.
Loading summary
Transcript246 lines
- [00:04]
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Floor 38.
- [00:06]
Abby Jacobson
This is the New Yorker Radio Hour.
- [00:07]
Host/Producer
A co production of WNYC Studios and the New Yorker.
- [00:12]
Lin-Manuel Miranda
It's very exciting to be having a conversation with someone when they have that revelation.
- [00:16]
David Remnick
Right at first, he's really smart.
- [00:18]
Ilana Glazer
He's actually someone who's kind of savvy.
- [00:19]
Lin-Manuel Miranda
You know, every parent maybe looking at.
- [00:22]
David Remnick
This case, it could be an interesting process piece.
- [00:25]
Host/Producer
Okay.
- [00:30]
David Remnick
Welcome to the New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick. Without a doubt, one of the big sensations of 2015 was the musical Hamilton, which opened just about a year ago. I first heard about the show from my colleague Rebecca Mead a long time before that, who was writing a profile of its creator, Lin Manuel Miranda. You can sum up Hamilton by saying it's a hip hop musical based on the life of Alexander Hamilton in which all the founding fathers and mothers are played by actors of color.
- [01:00]
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Rapping.
- [01:01]
David Remnick
But that might sound gimmicky, and this show is anything but. It's got a real vision of America and it takes our history very seriously. It actually takes as its inspiration Ron Chernow's authoritative biography of Alexander Hamilton. Lin Manuel Mirando wrote the music, the lyrics, and the book, and he stars as Hamilton. He spoke with Rebecca Mead at the New Yorker Festival this fall. And what you'll hear right at the top is a video of the cast doing the big number. My shot.
- [01:32]
Interviewer/Producer
Here we go.
- [01:32]
Lin-Manuel Miranda
I'm past patiently waiting I'm passionately smashing every expectation Every action's an act of creation I'm laughing in the face of casualties and sorrow the first time I'm thinking past tomorrow and I am not.
- [01:44]
Host/Producer
Going away my shot. I am not throwing away my shot. You don't rise up.
- [01:55]
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Time to take a shot.
- [01:56]
Host/Producer
We go rise up Time to take a shot.
- [01:59]
Lin-Manuel Miranda
We go rise up, rise up Time to take a shot. Rise up, rise up Time to take a shot.
- [02:05]
Host/Producer
Rise up. It's time to take a shot. Rise up, take a shot. Time to take a shot.
- [02:13]
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Not throwing away my. Not throwing away my shot. Oh, that looks good.
- [02:22]
Interviewer/Producer
It looks. It looks really good on a big screen, doesn't it? So the first time I saw any performance of Hamilton was in a workshop production in the spring of last year.
- [02:37]
Lin-Manuel Miranda
That was a heavy. Heavy. Yeah. That was the first time we'd staged Act 1, the first time we tried the costumes.
- [02:43]
Interviewer/Producer
When did you first see it?
- [02:45]
Lin-Manuel Miranda
When did I first see the show?
- [02:46]
Interviewer/Producer
When did you first see the show?
- [02:48]
Lin-Manuel Miranda
I first saw the show with the public.
- [02:50]
Interviewer/Producer
So how was that? What did you see?
- [02:52]
Lin-Manuel Miranda
I burst into tears at the end of the opening number, there are things you can't possibly see from on stage. And I always preface my notes to the creative team. When we were working on the show, I said, these are notes from the lobster inside the boiling pot. I have no perspective at all. But what killed me was at the end of the opening number, Alexander Hamilton is the only one looking out and everyone else has their heads bowed in prayer. And it just killed me. It's one. It's telling you that they're all going to be narrating this story. They're going to be shifting their roles as storytellers over the course of the night and they know the ending and Hamilton doesn't know yet. So it's just moving on a very profound level. And then, you know, kept on crying from there.
- [03:44]
Interviewer/Producer
When you're in it, do you have moments that are particular high points for you in performance? Does it change? Is that. Do you always.
- [03:52]
Lin-Manuel Miranda
It changes, it changes every night. And now that we're settled into a long run, the audience is just as much a part of it for me. We have a front row of people who have won tickets for $10. So their energy is amazing. And I can see faces 14 rows back. So I keep track of what you're feeling. I keep track of the lady in the third row who's asleep but woke up in time for Dear Theodosia. And you know what? I'll take a sleeping audience member over a texting audience member any day of the week. I don't know your life. I've fallen asleep at great shows. This is the first time I sat down all day. But I'll keep track of her. I'll keep track of the two kids over here who are who I can tell got the cast album because they're starting to sing along and it's starting to be a part of the process. But I'm keeping tabs on all of it in terms of what's fun to perform. I was a very. My parents worked a lot. I was a very self entertained childhood. I think most artists grow up in a world of sort of benign neglect. You have to be left to your own devices enough to make up. And when we were rehearsing, Take a Break, which is a song in Act 2 where Eliza and Angelica are trying to get Alexander to go upstate and stay at the Schuyler mansion and take a break from all his political troubles. Tommy says to me in rehearsal, he said, I can just picture 7 year old friendless Lynn being like, sorry ladies, I can't make out with you. I work for the President and I gotta go have an affair with this hot lady over here. There's lots of moments like that where it's like I'm holding a sword and shooting and it's seven year old Lynn wish fulfillment on a very real scale. And then there's the parts where I just kind of get to glory in the performances of my teammates. I mean, my rap battles with David Diggs are the most fun I have on stage because they're written and I win them. But also he brings something new every time, even if it's physical or tiny or he makes a comment. If I make a comment on something and someone makes a reaction, the audience, he looks at them and kind of goes, oh, I saw that. I'm always on my toes. So the joy of these collaborators and this murderous row of actors keeps it fresh pretty much every night.
- [06:27]
Interviewer/Producer
One of the things that is so, so striking about the show is, of course, the way that you've cast. Almost all of the principals, save King George III are actors of color. And, you know, and it has this tremendous theatrical effect of saying, without explicitly saying, this story is ours too. When did you decide that that was something you were going to do? Was that a decision you made early on, before you'd even started casting in your head? Or was it something you just started casting, oh, there's Chris as this and David as this. And then you realized what you were doing.
- [07:04]
Lin-Manuel Miranda
I would love to tell you there was a bold political pronouncement. We're gonna change. There wasn't. Honestly. It has its roots in the fact that I did conceive of this as a concept album first. So even in my first read through of Ron's book, I was casting in terms of voices. I wasn't picturing the people on money when I was reading the book the first time through. Because reading it as Hamilton's story made me see it as a hip hop story. And so when I read the name Hercules Mull, I just thought, well, Busta Rhymes plays Hercules Mulligan, that's the best rapper name I ever heard. That isn't actually a rapper name. Hercules Mulligan. And you know, when I got to the part where the governor, the corrupt governor of New York is named George Clinton, and I thought, oh, there's gonna be a P Funk rap battle. And on the cast album it'll say, introducing George Clinton as himself. These were all bold, but these were all ideas in my head as I was reading the book for the first time. So it was never a question it was who were the best people to sing these songs, which are hip hop and R and B songs. And Chris Jackson was really George Washington since In the Heights. I don't know of an actor, maybe James Earl Jones, who has more moral authority on stage. That's just what he has. So, you know, it's this mix of actors we knew about writing to their strengths and then writing to these characters. And the fun of this is determining what do our founding fathers sound like and what do our founding mothers sound like in writing Angelica Schuyler, I decided she's actually the smartest character in the show. So she has the most complicated and intricate raps, but she also sings these arias because her brain just literally works faster than everybody else's. She meets Hamilton, who is this whirlwind and dynamo, and she reads him. She reads him. In a second she goes, I know what this guy's after. I can't give it to him. I love him. My sister can be with him. And just reads the whole thing and then slows down the action to explain her thought process to us. And when Renee Elise Goldsberry walked in the room, it was the first actress who. That's actually the speed at which she speaks. It was the first person where it wasn't. She didn't deliver the music like, look how hard I'm working. She delivered it as if this is just the speed at which I speak. And I trust you to catch up. And it's really thrilling to watch, as.
- [09:40]
Interviewer/Producer
I'm sure everybody here knows. Billboard magazine called it the best rap album of 2015. And I just. I'd just like to say thank you for proving that the best rap album of the year can. You can have a whole rap album and not have the word bitch in it. So thank you very much for that. You talked about having to cut a line here and there. You also had to cut entire bits in the process, and not just from the public to Broadway. But earlier on, was there anything that you just. You really hate that you had to cut and you just, oh, I don't.
- [10:23]
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Hate that I had to cut any of it, honestly, because, you know, it exists. It doesn't go. It's not like I hit empty trash on my computer and it's gone forever. It exists. There was a whole third rap battle about the issue of slavery that didn't make it into the final thing because it brought. Because frankly, none of them did anything about slavery. Even Hamilton, who was an abolitionist and got the importation of slaves banned in New York through the Manumission Society he didn't put above his financial plan. There was a moment where Quakers, two Quakers from Pennsylvania, introduced a House motion to ban importation of slaves. And it was on the House floor, actually. Joseph Ellis writes really eloquently about it in either Founding Brothers or one of his other books. And Madison let it be on the House for the day. And they talked about slavery for three days. And then he passed a motion because he was the majority, and he made shit happen. They called him the scalpel. He passed a law saying, we're not going to discuss this until 1808. So they literally kicked for future generations. They said, we don't know what to do and we're not going to solve it. But I wrote a rap battle about this as if it were happening in Washington's private quarters. And it's Jefferson saying, you know, the Constitution clearly states that the states have to wait until 1808 to debate on whether to ban the slave trade. And whether you like it or not, that is the compromise we made. Wait. And, you know, Hamilton's trying to jump in and they get into it, and he says, so. So let's say we cure prejudice. Like, do we send them back to Africa? Do we designate a state? Like, what's the solution? And then Hamilton throws Sally Hemings in his face. And then Madison was like, oh, are we talking about extramarital affairs? Do you want to have that conversation? And then Hamilton shuts up, and then Washington says, we're not going to say anything. And it was enormously cathartic to write it because this was something obviously you wrestle with when you write about these men who wrote great things and also had this other legacy lived within this system that was horrible and abusive, and it just brought the show to a screeching halt. It just, you know. And this is a show that really thrives on momentum because it sung through. So we're going to put that out. We're making another mixtape, and I'm going to put out the demo so that you can hear it. But it didn't work within the context of the show. So that one hurt because it was really cathartic to. Right. And, you know, people miss the Whiskey Rebellion. The Whiskey Rebellion existed at the Public within Washington's farewell song. And it's fun to see Washington go. Washington and Hamilton go from rebels to putting down a rebellion. And it was them going, you know, you are outgunned, outmanned, and Hamilton in the back going, pay your taxes. It was a nice little moment, but it ultimately sort of muddied up the really which is Washington stepping down after two terms and creating the precedent of a two term presidency. And we really wanted to focus on that.
- [13:45]
Interviewer/Producer
I know when you were rehearsing, I was watching you and Chris rehearsing that scene of Washington's farewell address. When you break into the words of Washington and I remember you saying, God, I just feel really patriotic after reading this. I mean, has working on this show made you feel differently about America? Made you feel differently connected to your country? Yes, my country too, by the way.
- [14:09]
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Yes.
- [14:10]
Interviewer/Producer
I'm an immigrant. We get job.
- [14:12]
Lin-Manuel Miranda
The job. Yeah, you do. Applause for Ryder. Rebecca Mead. Isn't it nice? Isn't it so much better than sitting alone? What good is sitting alone in your room? Yes. Honestly, I think the secret sauce in the sweet is my enthusiasm. In learning all of this, for the first time I knew the basic facts, but I did not know about the inner lives of these characters. I did not know about their home lives. I had to learn all that stuff to write it. And the fact that you could take the rap battles of our show, put them in the mouths of different talking heads and put them on MSNBC tomorrow and they would be just as relevant gives me hope. It's heartening to me to know that this was never a perfect union. It's always been striving for a more perfect union. And the beefs between Hamilton and Jefferson are the beefs we're always going to have. We're always going to push for too much government power and then we're going to push back against it. We're always going to go too far in helping another country and then we're going to go, oh, we got to take care of what's going on at home. Those are the rap battles that we have in our show. How much do we get involved in the affairs of other states? How much does our government power does our government have over our lives and how much are they allowed to tax us and how much are they not? We're always going to be fighting about these things. That gives me comfort. It doesn't. And frankly, the fact because people say this is the wor go on tv, they get ratings by telling you how apocalyptic the situation is. Yeah. Jefferson called John Adams a hermaphrodite in the election of 1800. John Adams countered by saying Jefferson died. You should vote for me. Counting on word traveling slow because it's 1800, Jefferson died. You should vote for me. By the time Jefferson makes sure that everyone knows he's alive, it'll be too late and they'll have voted for me. That's dirty politics. So don't tell me that it's worse than it's ever been because it was always better.
- [16:28]
Interviewer/Producer
But here we are in another election cycle and the show is relevant on an entirely other level. And even from the public to the. To Broadway, there's a little change here or there that amplifies that the message about immigration. And that's now the point where Hamilton's foes tell him to go on back home to where he came from.
- [16:49]
Host/Producer
Right.
- [16:51]
Interviewer/Producer
What do you think about this rhetoric that's going on about immigration in this current.
- [16:57]
Lin-Manuel Miranda
It's so old. It's so old. This isn't new. The one thing that writing the show has given me is real perspective. Pat Buchanan was singing this song in 1996. He did. The Mexicans Are Coming to Kill Us all, that famous chorus. It is an old song and we've heard it. And there's always going to be a politician there to grab that fervor, whether it's when it's felt in public sentiment and run with it and make a stab at it. That's about all I can say about it. It's a part of our politics just like anything else is.
- [17:32]
Interviewer/Producer
Well, that's, I'm afraid, all we have time for. But thank you, Lin Manuel Miranda, and.
- [17:39]
Host/Producer
Thank you, everybody for being here. Thank you.
- [17:46]
David Remnick
Lin Manuel Miranda, the creator and star of Hamilton, talking with the New Yorker's Rebecca Mead at the New Yorker Festival. Today we're hearing three of the highlights from that festival, including Marc Maron and the comedy team that created one of the funniest and raunchiest comedies on television.
- [18:02]
Ilana Glazer
We're just two gals cleaning in our underwear for an hour.
- [18:07]
Abby Jacobson
What gals? We us gals. I'm not doing that, dude.
- [18:11]
Interviewer/Producer
What?
- [18:12]
David Remnick
Why are you shushing Elana Glaser and Abby Jacobson of Broad City. This is the New Yorker Radio Hour. Stick around. Welcome back to the New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick.
- [18:34]
Emily Nussbaum
I am extremely excited to introduce you to our guests here, Abby Jacobson and Alana Glaser, the two fabulous jewesses who created Broad City on Comedy Central. I have to say, as a television critic, I watch a lot of web series and most of them are not good at all. But this was an extremely unusual example. It was smart from the beginning.
- [19:03]
David Remnick
That's television critic Emily Nussbaum, and she's a fan of Broad City. Abby Jacobson and Alana Glaser, two struggling improv comedians, created Broad City as a web series, and now it's going into its third season on TV with supposedly Hillary Clinton as a guest star. Jacobson and Glaser play characters much like themselves named Abby and Alana. And they're. They're kind of a latter day Laverne and Shirley. They've got lousy jobs, they screw around, they get stoned all the time, and they love one another more than any of the various men that come through their lives. It's a brazen but above all, joyful take on being young and heedless.
- [19:42]
Emily Nussbaum
So without further ado. 4 and 3 and 2 and 1. Abby and Alana.
- [19:47]
Abby Jacobson
We are so excited to be here. I didn't know you were doing that whole thing.
- [19:54]
Ilana Glazer
I know. That was lovely. Thank you so much.
- [19:57]
Emily Nussbaum
I want to start with a little rudimentary backstory just about the show. I know you guys are from Philadelphia and Long Island. You came to New York, you met at ucb. Why did you decide to make a break and make a web series? And at that point, did you have any kind of master plan for what you were doing in your head, or were you winging it?
- [20:15]
Ilana Glazer
I think in the beginning, for the first season of the web series, I don't think we had a bigger picture. It was just about. We were still in that mode of being so in love with finding your voice.
- [20:27]
Emily Nussbaum
Like, did you have a general concept of who the characters were? I mean, the characters are named Abby and Alana. So there's.
- [20:32]
Ilana Glazer
Yeah, yeah, I mean, it's us, but it's like, we didn't, like, see these, like, polls that we have now. It wasn't. It was more fluid. We were just. We were really just finding it.
- [20:41]
Emily Nussbaum
You know, you're obviously. You've been working with Amy Poehler, and she helped you bring the show in. And I read that she said that your job was to be the policeman of your brand. And obviously that's good advice. I was actually wondering what's the worst advice that you had on the show as you were trying to bring it in so fx.
- [20:58]
Abby Jacobson
I'm so happy things turned out the way they were when they were giving us notes, they were great notes, but they ended up passing because they felt that the show was too girly. So even, like, the pass. Why they passed was terrible advice, but also great advice because I think the show. I hope that we don't ever go away from female topics. And that was almost like, no, I think you're wrong.
- [21:24]
Emily Nussbaum
Did they specifically say that? Did they say it's too girly? For our brand.
- [21:28]
Abby Jacobson
Or someone said that.
- [21:31]
Ilana Glazer
Or like, that point was conveyed, I guess.
- [21:33]
Abby Jacobson
Yeah, that was conveyed to us as, like, kind of why it didn't fit. And you know what? I'm like, great, that's fine. It's okay for a network to skew mail.
- [21:43]
Emily Nussbaum
So I want to ask about the origins of some of the stuff on the show, just as though we're on a DVD commentary track. Just because I'm curious about the background.
- [21:50]
Abby Jacobson
Love it.
- [21:51]
Emily Nussbaum
Deals, deals, deals. I know was based on a job that you guys had.
- [21:54]
Ilana Glazer
Yeah, Our last job before selling the script.
- [21:58]
Host/Producer
Underwater massage. Yes.
- [22:00]
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Yes.
- [22:01]
Host/Producer
That sounds intense. Great job.
- [22:02]
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Killing it. Who's got more deals?
- [22:05]
Host/Producer
Who else has a deal for me? Oh, Nicole, what's your deal?
- [22:08]
Abby Jacobson
I'm kind of obsessed with these DIY vajazzling seminars, and I feel like they'd.
- [22:12]
Ilana Glazer
Be a really great fit for.
- [22:13]
Lin-Manuel Miranda
For us.
- [22:14]
Host/Producer
That is what I'm talking about. Do you guys smell that? Come on, sniff the air. Oh, what's that odor? I think it's the scent of a deal. Who's got more deals for me? Ooh, in the back. Alana dope sweatshirt, what is your deal?
- [22:26]
Ilana Glazer
I've been kind of obsessed with getting paid, and I was wondering if that's happening today so we could all be paid.
- [22:33]
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Checks unfortunately delayed till Friday.
- [22:37]
Kelefah Sanneh
Bummer.
- [22:38]
Host/Producer
FML, right? Speaking of, FML went on a third date. That girl from match.com to keep you guys updated. Third time went for the kiss. Third time rejected, but I'll try it. I'll get it.
- [22:50]
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Let's get back to our desks.
- [22:52]
Host/Producer
Deals don't make themselves.
- [22:55]
Ilana Glazer
So Lucia Agnello, who's a writer and our main director on the show, wrote the copy for Deals Steals Deals, basically. Also known as Lifebooker. And she got a.
- [23:06]
Abby Jacobson
It's a big New York company, Huge name, Lovely.
- [23:11]
Ilana Glazer
And they were great. We worked there and worked on the web series simultaneously.
- [23:18]
Emily Nussbaum
Have you gotten response from them to the portrayal on the show?
- [23:21]
Abby Jacobson
I bet they love it.
- [23:22]
Ilana Glazer
I saw Dana in the street, one of the founders, and she was like, it's hysterical. It's so funny.
- [23:28]
Abby Jacobson
There's a web episode called Work, and that is, like, where we sat. We sat next to each other doing sales. Alana called salons and, like, waxing places in la, and I called New York, and then we would like Gchat and be writing Broad City.
- [23:47]
Ilana Glazer
And, like, we were so lucky that the young people who were running the company were proud of us having a passion. So they were really understanding.
- [23:59]
Abby Jacobson
It was crazy. So we did this Little Festival at 92 y Tribeco, where we showed a couple web episodes. And I don't know why they put our picture in the New York Times and we freaked the out. They were so supportive. There was only, like, 10 people working when we worked there. And we came in and we had both and bought the paper.
- [24:20]
Emily Nussbaum
That's so great.
- [24:21]
Ilana Glazer
So it was.
- [24:24]
Host/Producer
Have you seen it?
- [24:25]
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Have you seen it?
- [24:26]
Ilana Glazer
Have you seen it? It's like, stop. No sales today.
- [24:29]
Host/Producer
No deals.
- [24:30]
Interviewer/Producer
We're in the paper.
- [24:34]
Host/Producer
Oh, man.
- [24:35]
Interviewer/Producer
Oh, God.
- [24:36]
Ilana Glazer
But they were like, this is so cool. They were so.
- [24:38]
Abby Jacobson
They were really supportive.
- [24:40]
Emily Nussbaum
Have your conceptions of Abby and Alana changed over the course of the show?
- [24:44]
Ilana Glazer
I feel like we more consciously separate from our characters. We think of them as a past version of ourselves. But it's bizarre, the awareness.
- [24:54]
Emily Nussbaum
Because I was asking sort of how they had changed over the course. Course of the show. But part of what you're talking about is that you've become different than they.
- [25:00]
Ilana Glazer
Are because they are us. I mean, it's like. So it's, like, futile to try to distinguish it, but.
- [25:07]
Emily Nussbaum
Well, how do you differ from.
- [25:08]
Ilana Glazer
It's kind of.
- [25:09]
Abby Jacobson
Me at 22. I feel like even though I'm. Even though it's. She's 26, and I'm 27 now. I'm 31.
- [25:23]
Host/Producer
But.
- [25:24]
Abby Jacobson
Yeah, but I like being in my 30s. It actually helps me feel, like, different from the character. But, yeah, it's a constant thing of trying to figure out, oh, well, who was I and who am I now? And how would that character make a decision in that situation versus how I would. I think we are much. The characters are much wilder than we are.
- [25:55]
Emily Nussbaum
Are the characters going to grow up over the course of the show, or do the characters stay static for you because they're different models of comedy?
- [26:01]
Abby Jacobson
I think this season was the hardest for us to write because it does.
- [26:04]
Ilana Glazer
It changes because we had to make that decision and we decided to. For them to, like, slowly grow slowly, but.
- [26:13]
Emily Nussbaum
So I want to go to another clip. Dentist clip.
- [26:17]
Ilana Glazer
You were doing an awesome job already. You just keep clutching Bingo Bronson now. Mommy Lonnie got you me, Mommy Lonnie. And that's it. Whole thing's gonna be painless. You're not gonna know. You're gonna be out, out, out. You just chill. So riddle me this. Look, Doc, Mayonnaise Clinic claims that facial paralysis can be a thing. What? Care to comment?
- [26:35]
Host/Producer
Release my head, woman. I got this. Abby's gonna be fine. Look at these black blue hands. If I mess up this white Girl's teeth. The black dentistry game is over forever. I'm gonna get these teeth for my people. Wow.
- [26:51]
Abby Jacobson
I don't do anything for my people.
- [26:55]
Host/Producer
Count backwards.
- [26:56]
Ilana Glazer
4:00Am 2 and 1.
- [27:01]
Host/Producer
Bye, Abby.
- [27:02]
Ilana Glazer
I'll see you when you wake up. And if you don't wake up, I'll still see you.
- [27:06]
Host/Producer
Cause I'm gonna be killed myself and meet you in heaven or whatever.
- [27:14]
Emily Nussbaum
Sometimes I just feel like running the whole episode. I wanted to ask you about race and the show because there's a big ongoing debate in the comedy world about race and about appropriation and all these kinds of things. And your show's very diverse. Your characters are into hip hop. There's been things like a spike Liamage. And I wonder whether you talk about.
- [27:31]
Abby Jacobson
This as a. I don't think we were talking at all about, like, cultural appropriation at all or race.
- [27:37]
Ilana Glazer
I mean, it was. No, it was like, who's our favorite director?
- [27:41]
Abby Jacobson
Yeah. And we're, like, literally making. Yeah.
- [27:45]
Emily Nussbaum
Have you gotten criticism for that?
- [27:48]
Ilana Glazer
Not for the Spike Lee thing, but I feel like. I feel like we've, like, read here and there about, you know, these, like, white girls and their. Their language and Alana's language, and, you know, it's like, a bummer. But it's also like, yeah, cultural appropriation is a bummer.
- [28:09]
Host/Producer
So.
- [28:10]
Abby Jacobson
But I think it's also. You asked if the characters.
- [28:13]
Ilana Glazer
Right, if the characters. Like, what are we gonna, like, say, like, no, it's cool. It's. Honestly, it's not cool. You know, so it's like, it's okay to point it out and for it not to be cool in the show.
- [28:24]
Abby Jacobson
And something we talk about all the time is, like, these. It is also something like, well, they are different from us, and we are. They're not perfect, and they make mistakes. And I think that is part of Alana's growth and sort of the growth of the show, where it is like, well, who do I want to be doing those things? I at least want to make sure I'm aware, like, speaking as a character, like, oh, they're growing in. Not just in jobs, in actual, like, emotional beliefs and things.
- [28:56]
Ilana Glazer
And the more the show has developed and the more distinct we become from the characters, I guess, the more they were writing them as a tool.
- [29:07]
Emily Nussbaum
One of the things I find so great about the show, it has this completely joyful filthiness and this embrace of sexual adventure as freeing and silly thing. And I wonder if you talk a little bit about, like, the sexual philosophy of the show and the sexuality of each of your characters, which is a bit different.
- [29:24]
Ilana Glazer
I don't know. People are like, oof, you guys are filthy. And it's like. I don't know. It doesn't feel that filthy to us. It's like, it certainly doesn't feel serious, you know, like, just in you saying that, I'm like, oh, yeah. Like, sex usually isn't, like, seen as silly or it's, like, so silly that it's not sexy. But it's like sexiness is silly because the fact that it's a new time, you know, it's like, now it's a different time. Like, it's just. It's silly the way it's set up. So it's very easy to make it silly.
- [29:55]
Abby Jacobson
But I think the reason people. Some people like it is because they do treat sex in that way. And that's what people talk about with their friends and how they talk about it. So I think it's a very relatable thing. I don't know what you guys.
- [30:12]
Ilana Glazer
Yeah. And it's also like. I feel like, in general, the show is like. Even though everything is a big deal, it's also. Nothing is a big deal. Like the weed and, I don't know, these, like, elements that feel natural. But, like, I guess on most shows, it's like sex is so part of this narrative of, like, getting the guy. Where in this show it's just for the purpose of sex, which it is more in life. It's just pleasure, so it's less of a big deal. Even though it's so important to them.
- [30:40]
Emily Nussbaum
Yeah, they talk about it all the time. I mean, it's really, like.
- [30:43]
Ilana Glazer
It is a constant. Yeah. But it's not really central to the plot. I guess it's just essential setting and context or something.
- [30:55]
Emily Nussbaum
We know that Alana is into Abby. Is Abby into Alana? Like, what's Abby's sexuality? Vis a Violana. You can address this either as the characters or yourself.
- [31:06]
Host/Producer
It's fine.
- [31:08]
Abby Jacobson
I don't. No, I don't think so. And.
- [31:12]
Ilana Glazer
Yeah, me neither. Me neither. No, me neither. No.
- [31:21]
Abby Jacobson
Well, I kind of, like, I don't think she is.
- [31:25]
Ilana Glazer
What do we mean here? Like, that's her number one.
- [31:28]
Abby Jacobson
That's her number one. I like. I love that it doesn't always have to be, like. It doesn't always have to be a sexual relationship.
- [31:35]
Ilana Glazer
And, like.
- [31:35]
Abby Jacobson
And it's like, oh, these are just two best friends. Even though it's sometimes hinted at, with Alana, it's like a runner.
- [31:42]
Ilana Glazer
And I also think Alana, it's like, more based in romance than sex. With Abby, it's their primary partners, you know, and they're again, it's that, like, fiery early 20s when, like, everything's romantic. Moving to the city is romantic, even though it smells like it's like. And yet they're so romantic about it. Like, I think it's that same thing where there's just that fire, that there's a way.
- [32:08]
Emily Nussbaum
You're making an amazing television show. What are your. I mean, it's one of these things where I don't know how long the show will last. Do you have other plans?
- [32:16]
Ilana Glazer
Yeah, we are working on a movie or.
- [32:19]
Abby Jacobson
Yeah. Yeah. We just.
- [32:20]
Ilana Glazer
We just finished our first draft of this movie, handed it in, sent it to the studio. You know, thanks, you guys. Tonight, it's not.
- [32:27]
Abby Jacobson
We're not in it. It's not.
- [32:29]
Ilana Glazer
Which I think is more baller. It's, like, so boss. It's like, with script pages, that's what we do.
- [32:35]
Abby Jacobson
We hand it in like that.
- [32:36]
Host/Producer
We're like.
- [32:36]
Ilana Glazer
We're like, one, two. Pick them up.
- [32:38]
Abby Jacobson
They're numbered.
- [32:39]
Ilana Glazer
Pick them up. Act one, Ray. Midpoint, baby. Lois. Darkest of the soul. Whatever. And we have individual projects.
- [32:50]
Emily Nussbaum
Yeah. I was wondering, do you want to do solo stuff or.
- [32:53]
Ilana Glazer
Yeah, it's fun to, like, talk about them with each other, too, because it's like we're still honing that broad city voice, but we also still. We're changing, so there's an individual voice to still be found, and those individual voices feed the combined voice in broad city or otherwise.
- [33:10]
Emily Nussbaum
Thank you so much. That was fantastic. And thank you to the wonderful audience. Thank you guys for coming.
- [33:18]
David Remnick
Abby Jacobson and Ilana Glaser talking with the New Yorker's Emily Nussbaum. They spoke at the recent New Yorker Festival. I'm David Remnick. Still to come, the New Yorker's Kelefasaneh speaks with Marc Maron. Stick around.
- [33:36]
Host/Producer
David.
- [33:38]
David Remnick
I'm David Remnick, and welcome back to the New Yorker Radio Hour. Next week, I'll be talking with the filmmaker Laura Poitras, who chronicled Edward Snowden's revelations of illegal NSA spying. We'll also meet musicians that David Bowie plucked from a small jazz club to play on his final record, Black Star. I hope you'll join us.
- [34:02]
Host/Producer
Today.
- [34:02]
David Remnick
We're hearing three highlights from the New Yorker Festival. And now I'll turn things over to my colleague, Kelef Asaneh.
- [34:11]
Host/Producer
What?
- [34:11]
Kelefah Sanneh
So is this it? We're doing this?
- [34:12]
Host/Producer
Yeah. Let's just do it. Let's do It.
- [34:14]
Kelefah Sanneh
They gave me this thing to read.
- [34:16]
Host/Producer
Oh, you're gonna welcome everybody. Okay. I'm let you do your thing.
- [34:18]
Kelefah Sanneh
Okay, I'm gonna do my thing.
- [34:19]
Host/Producer
Okay.
- [34:20]
Kelefah Sanneh
Hi, my name is Kelifacenne. I'm a staff writer here at the New Yorker magazine. I'm here with Marc Marin.
- [34:30]
Host/Producer
Thank you.
- [34:34]
Kelefah Sanneh
Just in case anyone doesn't know, he's been doing stand up since the 1980s. He's had two one person shows, one of which the New Yorker described as heartbreakingly funny, the other of which the New Yorker did not review.
- [34:50]
Host/Producer
I don't even know which one that one was.
- [34:52]
Kelefah Sanneh
He has Marin, a TV show that he's done three seasons so far on ifc. Yeah, he's written a book. And as a few of you might be aware, written two books. I'm sorry.
- [35:02]
Host/Producer
It's okay.
- [35:03]
Kelefah Sanneh
And as a few of you might be aware, starting in 2009 and continuing to this moment and onward into the future, he has recorded 642 episodes of WTF with Marc Maron.
- [35:17]
Host/Producer
Thank you. Yes, that's all true.
- [35:21]
Kelefah Sanneh
It's all true.
- [35:21]
Host/Producer
So I can validate all of that.
- [35:24]
Kelefah Sanneh
642 episodes.
- [35:26]
Host/Producer
Yeah. It's crazy.
- [35:27]
Kelefah Sanneh
Are you getting better?
- [35:29]
Host/Producer
I think I am getting better because I don't talk as much during it. I think I listen better. And I think I'm a lot more emotionally engaged. I mean, I'm crying for almost no reason. People come and I'm crying already, and they're like, this is an interesting way to start an interview. And I'll just say, well, this is how it's going to go now.
- [35:53]
Kelefah Sanneh
There's this. A story from one of. I can't remember. I think it might be in one of your books where you come off stage and someone says to you, why comedy?
- [36:02]
Host/Producer
Yeah, man, that guy I was at that time, that was in the 80s, maybe 87, 88. And I was very aggressive. I was angry. It was not, you know, it was not necessarily everyone's idea of a nice evening out. And I'd just done this set at Stitches. I remember it in Boston, and I'd just done this set and I was pretty happy with it. And some dude just walked up to me and he's like, why comedy? And I could not answer him. I don't think I could answer him now, really. I just. I thought that what I was doing was perfectly fine for comedy. I think laughs were an essential. It was impact. It was impact.
- [36:48]
Kelefah Sanneh
But you've often talked about this, right? That you weren't necessarily driven by this desire to entertain. And somewhere along the way you realized, oh wait, this is supposed to be part of the job description. Like I'm supposed to entertain people or people expect me to entertain them.
- [37:03]
Host/Producer
Yeah, I always like, kind of, I would always rationalize that by, if I'm not entertaining, I'll be compelling. I mean, I can be compelling. Like if I'm on stage, you're not gonna be like, this is boring. You know what I mean? Like, I'll be sweating, I'll be doing something. But. But I don't think I got into it to be an entertainer. I got into it to be a comic, like a stand up comic. To me, in my mind, it was just, it wasn't an entertainer's position. It was some sort of strange, noble, truth telling place. I didn't think of it as an entertainer. I thought they were important people that did important thinking.
- [37:42]
Kelefah Sanneh
Did you think of but was making people laugh. I mean, how does that.
- [37:45]
Host/Producer
I think that was part of it. I'm not a moron. I mean, I wasn't like, I'm gonna reinvent stand up comedy, so it's not funny. That wasn't my agenda. But I just thought that. But in my mind, performing stand up comedy was you could do whatever you want if the context was comedy. So I knew I had to get laughs. I wanted to be funny. I believe I was funny. I think I'm funnier now. But I knew you could do whatever you wanted up there. And to me, it was a place to figure out who I was, to figure out the parameters of the stage, to figure out how far I could push people, to basically get the parenting I didn't get. I was going to drag people through my childhood for as long as it took for them to accept me. And then I tell them to off.
- [38:35]
Kelefah Sanneh
One of the continuing narratives on your show is. And one of the things that I love is when you get a young comedian on the podcast who has achieved some success and hasn't gone through 10 years, 20 years of hell on the road and in these comedy clubs. And there's a special skepticism that you bring out when you talk to comedians like that.
- [38:55]
Host/Producer
It's a nice way to put it.
- [38:56]
Kelefah Sanneh
Do you think it's important that comedians go through that same kind of suffering, of tough rooms outside of suffering?
- [39:04]
Host/Producer
Is it important for any creative person to pay their dues and figure out who they are before we're dragged through their success?
- [39:14]
Kelefah Sanneh
When you say we're dragged through, you mean as fans, Whatever you want to call it.
- [39:18]
Host/Producer
And back when I start God, am I that guy now? Back in the day, you can only do comedy at a comedy club, so you'd have to wait around and you have to wait for their dumb open mic. Now anyone who's been on stage for seven minutes is like, I'm doing comedy. No, you're not. You're not. You're some guy that went on stage for five. Do I take it as an insult to what I do as a comic? And yes, I do. Do I have to shut my mouth about that? Generally, kinda. I'm happy if people are, you know, like, you know, taking improv classes so they can, you know, be around people better. I'm happy if, you know, experiment all you want, but it's like, you know, I'm a guy that committed to it, so if somebody's sitting before me and they don't treat it with the respect that a lifer has for it, then fuck them. On some level, they can try to talk me out of it. And a lot of guys turn out to be, you know, geniuses. And they're great and I love them. And sometimes what you're hearing is not so much skepticism about a lifestyle, it's just old guy jealousy. So it's just like anything else, dude, you know? You know, as a lifer, it's hard to hear someone disrespect it or take it for granted.
- [40:39]
Kelefah Sanneh
Part of what goes on in comedy and has always gone on is that when someone achieves a certain amount of success in stand up, there's an industry that wants to take them from stand up and have them do something else.
- [40:50]
Host/Producer
I've been fortunate to avoid that. So.
- [40:53]
Kelefah Sanneh
Well, sort of. Of all the things. Right. When you record that first episode, I think it was with Jeffrey Ross on the phone.
- [41:00]
Lin-Manuel Miranda
Right?
- [41:00]
Host/Producer
Yeah.
- [41:01]
Kelefah Sanneh
Of all the things that went through your head, I can't imagine that one of them was this thing might become so successful that I become slightly jealous of my own podcast.
- [41:11]
Host/Producer
Right.
- [41:11]
Kelefah Sanneh
I mean, that's pretty insane.
- [41:14]
Host/Producer
Yeah.
- [41:16]
Lin-Manuel Miranda
What were like.
- [41:17]
Host/Producer
I'm still trying to wrap my brain around that. Yeah. Yeah, it is insane. I think at the beginning I had no idea what we were up to. I just knew I needed to keep doing something and. And that I liked radio a lot and that for some reason, whatever I did on those mics connected. I don't know what that was, but I knew it from when I did talk radio. Like, I would go like, there was this thing once, I remember the time that it happened where like we were doing political talk radio at six in the morning on Air America. And because we had to do news, I had to get up at like 2:30 or 3 in the morning because I don't. It takes a lot for me to wrap my brain around that, you know. So we just spent four hours, you know, trying to get this news together and, you know, focusing my anger on stuff right around the Republican national convention in 2004, like the night before, I decided to trap five feral cats and bring them into my house. And it became so much more important than politics. And I was so relieved by it. So I started talking about the cats. And then I started talking about, like, one time I let lentils cook too long, and it created this sort of weird tar, like, substance. And like, I just was aggressively going through it because I would drink like two Dunkin Donuts coffee, and I eat all these M and Ms. And I just like, rambled on for 15 minutes about lentil tar and my. And my. And my cats. And I started getting these emails, like, that was the most compelling I ever heard. I don't know what you were talking about, but, man, I was in. I was in. And I'm like, whoa, whoa. Maybe I got something with this thing. So. So that was what was going on with that. Like, I didn't know what that show was, but I love the medium. I liked audio. And it's a gift, you know, to be. To be good at something that you didn't expect. And even if with all my speech impediments, my dumb stuttering, you know, like, there's something that still comes through, I don't know why, but I loved it. And I didn't know what the show would be then. I certainly didn't know at that time. You know, I was desperate. I was desperate.
- [43:37]
Kelefah Sanneh
But the format didn't change that much, right? I mean, it kind of from the start was you talking a little bit into the microphone and then having a conversation with the people around.
- [43:47]
Host/Producer
Have people around. Because when you do morning radio and you got a crew, there's nothing better than that. There's nothing more exciting than doing live morning radio with a bunch of people in the room. Like, you know, it's easy to condescend, and I've done it myself. But a good morning crew, there's like, that's a big job. You gotta hold an audience who don't want to be awake, and they're probably going someplace that they don't want to go to, and their life is not what they planned. And you're sitting there going, how's everybody doing out there? Here we go. It's a hell of a job. But I needed people around. I needed people to laugh. I needed to be able to look at somebody. The day I learned how to talk on a microphone alone was one of the best days of my life. You know who's the best at that? Rush Limbaugh. Now, I like to admit that, but, you know, as a radio guy, you know, you listen to that guy, pause. And I don't like listening to him. You know, I don't like it as much as any liberal who listens to Rush Limbaugh. You kind of like it because it makes you go. So I think. I think 25% of his listeners are liberals going, dad. So that's a pretty compelling personality.
- [45:01]
Kelefah Sanneh
But.
- [45:03]
Host/Producer
But the day that I learned how to do that, just talking freely to nobody, alone in my garage, and it was comfortable, I was like, this is it. I freed myself, and I became a broadcaster in my mind. And then it just became the conversations because I needed to talk.
- [45:23]
Kelefah Sanneh
And when did you realize that people were coming to your standup because they liked wtf?
- [45:28]
Host/Producer
Well, that took a while. You know, I mean, we could see the numbers. You know, you can see how many people download your thing, you know, and I was aware that, you know, that if I talk to somebody who was a big celebrity that, you know, we bring people to it. I'm not gonna pretend, like, who knew that Robin Williams would, you know, like, so. So there was. You know, there were definitely people that I struggled to get. It was not easy to book, necessarily, because no one knew what a podcast was. And a lot of people were like, no, I guess Marin's kind of hit the bottom. I always liked the guy. I'm going to go. I'll help him out. Like, I don't. I don't think Louis CK had any idea that anyone was going to listen to that thing at all, which is.
- [46:09]
Kelefah Sanneh
I mean, which is part of what made that so intense. We have a. Should we play a little clip from you having a conversation with Louis ck?
- [46:16]
Host/Producer
It always hurts me a little, but, yeah, I could have used you. I could have used you. I got divorced. I got a show canceled. You know, I had some tough times. I could have used a friend. But you didn't. During those times that were making. Those times that were making you jealous, I was struggling. I was having a hard time. Doing the Louie show was really hard. To keep my family together was hard. But the thing is, is that in our. In the way our friendship always operated, it was not that I was kept up to date in the day to day things. It wasn't a day to day call that we had, but it seemed that most of the time, the thing that made our friendship so deep and so strong was that when we did talk, we made each other feel better. No, it's true. But you shut me out. You shut me out because you were.
- [46:54]
Kelefah Sanneh
Having a hard time.
- [46:55]
Host/Producer
Okay, well, I apologize again. Well, I apologize to you because I.
- [46:58]
Kelefah Sanneh
Then I did it to you, probably.
- [46:59]
Host/Producer
Out of resentment, ignored your emails. Because you ignored my phone calls back when there was no email. Well, can we get back on track or what? Yeah, I think we can. I think that's the first time I noticed you said that. That you ignored my phone calls back before there was no email. Is that what you said? When was that? The worst part about hearing that is. But I just can't handle that. But let me just try and smooth this over. This can't be this bad.
- [47:36]
Kelefah Sanneh
Well, but that's when. I mean, in theory, right? This is like two comics talking about comedy. In practice, this is nothing like that at all. This is the kind of conversation we never get to hear in any context. And even if you don't care at all about comedy, I think anyone would find that compelling.
- [47:53]
Host/Producer
No, I agree. I never set out to do, you know, making the sausage podcast. I mean, that's just a way to get somewhere else. I have a great deal, like, comics, like, all they do is sit around and think all day. That's their job. There's very few things they can't speak to. Well, most of them are pretty intelligent people. Some of them are incredibly sensitive. Most of them, they're like, you know, they're philosophers or poets or people that live life in a way. They're not great, obviously, you know, emotionally and with relationships all the time. But I never set out to make a sausage making podcast, so it never struck me that Louis and I were going to talk about comedy. I just wanted. I thought I had a very personal take on Louis career because I saw some of the stuff that I experienced with him as being defining. And it was. And then it went this other direction. And we're good now. I mean, it was a very. It was a good conversation. We're very close now. Like, you know, he texts me a lot, and we were talking a lot for a while, and now he's busy. I guess I'm busy too, but, like, I get texts, you know, he'll be like, how you doing, pal? Be a pretty good buddy. You good? That's good. Love you. Man. Love you too, buddy. We do that. I could text him right now and he'd probably respond to me.
- [49:21]
Kelefah Sanneh
Let's put that to the test.
- [49:22]
Host/Producer
Go ahead.
- [49:23]
Kelefah Sanneh
Was there a point where you started realizing that these conversations were having an effect on your life, were shaping your life, the conversations that you were having in your garage?
- [49:31]
Host/Producer
Yes. Are you kidding me? Oh, I just wrote he, pal. Alright, let's see what happens. I wonder if that's the right number. Look, you know, I need to talk. It's the way I process things. Not good at processing without talking to people. And when I started the podcast when I moved to Los Angeles, it was not good with me. You know, I was darkly depressed, I was severely heartbroken, I was incredibly bitter. But I needed to talk to people, to reintegrate myself with my friends, to reintegrate myself with the community of artists, which, I'm wary to use that word, but yeah, the community of comedians. Artists is a weird word to me. I don't know why. I don't know why. I don't like calling myself an artist. I'm a comedian, so whatever. See, like right now, who am I arguing with? Do you see what happens if I'm not talking to somebody else? Okay, so there's also something within recovery concept, actually, and I don't mind being public about that, but, you know, when you talk to somebody else, you get out of your own head and it engages your empathy, it engages your compassion. It also is entertaining. You know, I had a very, you know, a very charismatic, fairly, you know, emotionally dangerous father and. But like, he was very compelling. And, and I spent my life, you know, seeking out, you know, charismatic people to sort of like just use as a battery, you know what I mean? Like, like, I like to be entertained. I like when people are engaging. I like to be engaged. And so I think like the first hundred or so podcasts were really just me inviting famous people over to help me with my problems and to sort of glean some of that energy. And I just, I love it.
- [51:29]
Kelefah Sanneh
One of the questions that you answered on the show this year is the question of who is harder to book, Lorne Michaels or the President of the United States?
- [51:39]
Host/Producer
Turns out the president is easier than.
- [51:40]
Kelefah Sanneh
It turns out the president.
- [51:41]
Host/Producer
Easier to book than Lorne Michaels.
- [51:42]
Kelefah Sanneh
Easier to book than Lorne Michaels. Let's roll the clip of Obama and then we'll take some questions from the audience.
- [51:47]
Host/Producer
Listen, I'm a big fan and, you know, I love conversations like this because if I thought to myself that when I was in college, that I'd be in a garage a couple miles away from where I was living doing an interview as president. As president with a comedian. I think that's a pretty hard scenario to. Couldn't imagine it. It's not possible to imagine. No, it is not. Nobody could imagine. So that's fun. Yeah. And I'm also like, you know, I, you know, I pay it. I don't, you know, there was a period where I was a little more attentive politically, where I, you know, I ran the country from my couch for a couple years. A lot of people. A lot of people do. Yeah. I hear from them all the time, you idiot. Why. Why aren't you doing it this way? Yeah, I heard from them this morning. I got nothing but emails from people telling me what I got to say to you. Unbelievable. That's a big day. The true honor. That was. The true honor. That was. I can't even quite wrap my brain around it because, you know, people, you know, a few people who interviewed me around that, they said, sir, you're going to be interviewing, you know, candidates. I'm like, no, I interviewed the president. Why would I interview those people? When they're president, I'll interview them. President asks me to talk to him. What an amazing day.
- [53:21]
Kelefah Sanneh
So if you've got a question, line up at the microphone.
- [53:24]
Host/Producer
And this guy's ready.
- [53:27]
Kelefah Sanneh
He's ready.
- [53:29]
Host/Producer
Hi, Mark. My name is Roy. How are you? Good, man. What's up? A little more about President Obama. Yeah. You know, you didn't have a president, a guy in a suit. You had Obama. Yeah. And love or like or not like his politics. He's a bright guy. He's the first black president in our country. When. When, when he left and the Secret Service left and they were all gone and it was just you in the studio. What was going through your head? It was me and Brendan, and I cried. I knew it.
- [54:06]
David Remnick
Comedian and podcast impresario Marc Maron talking with the New yorker's Kelefasaneh. @newyorkerradio.org you can find that interview with Lorne Michaels, the legendary head of Saturday Night Live. Episode 653 of Maron's podcast, WTF 653. This is episode 15 of the New Yorker Radio Hour, and I hope you've enjoyed it. If you listen to the show by podcast, please take a moment to rate it on itunes or wherever you subscribe. And you can drop us a line@newyorkerradio.org anytime. Next week, we'll meet the band who played with David Bowie on his final album, Black Star. And I'll talk with Laura Poitras, who made the film Citizen 4 about Edward Snowden. I'm David Remnick.
- [54:53]
Host/Producer
Have a great week.
- [54:57]
Abby Jacobson
The New Yorker Radio Hour is a.
- [54:58]
Host/Producer
Co production of WNYC Studios and the New Yorker. Our theme music was composed and performed by Meryl Garbis of Tune Yards. The New Yorker Radio Hour is supported in part by the Churina Endowment Fund.