All Of It with Alison Stewart

Last year, Jean Smart took home the Emmy for Best Actress for her role as a veteran comedian in HBO's series, "Hacks." This year the show is up for seventeen Emmys. We speak with co-creators Lucia Aniello and Paul W. Downs about the inspiration behind the show and what might be coming up in the 3rd season.

Millions of singles have swiped right in hopes of finding a connection on the popular online dating app Tinder. After the app launched almost a decade ago, we speak with Allison P. Davis, features writer for New York Magazine and The Cut, about her piece "Tinder Hearted: How did a dating app become my longest running relationship?" and listen to callers' Tinder stories.

[REBROADCAST FROM May 12, 2022] Navigating the nebulous world of chronic illness can be frustrating for patients, especially when their illness is not outwardly visible. Roughly six out of ten Americans suffer from at least one chronic illness, and many of these illnesses are poorly understood, and difficult to diagnose and treat. And now, with the emergence of "long-COVID," more people are grappling with what it might mean to live with chronic illness. A new book by Meghan O'Rourke, The Invisible Kingdom: Reimagining Chronic Illness, investigates the history of Western notions of "health" versus "illness," what it means to be "ill," and how we might reimagine these definitions to create a world where navigating the uncertainty of chronic illness is less frightening. O'Rourke joins us to discuss.

[REBROADCAST FROM January 14, 2022] Elvis Costello's new album, The Boy Named If, will appeal especially to fans of the singer-songwriter's Attractions-era rock and roll records. Costello also recently released a Spanish-language version of his 1978 album, This Year's Model. Costello joins us for a Listening Party, and to read some short stories from the book that accompanies the new album which he will perform songs from at Pier 17 tonight. 

Everyone has a story to tell. Whether it was some crazy life adventure, a family history, or a personal reflection, memoir writing is a great way to make sense of the world and our place in it. Maybe you've even started writing yourself. But it's not easy to write personal stories. The process can be intimidating, vulnerable, and uncomfortable. Cullen Thomas, a teacher at Gotham Writers, and Briallen Hopper, an associate professor at Queens College, both teach memoir writing to aspiring writers, and they join us to talk about the basic skills needed to write creative and narrative-driven non-fiction, how to dig deeper into your own story, and take calls from listeners for any writing questions or to give advice on your own memoir ideas.

Sona Movsesian, Conan O’Brien’s longtime assistant and cohost of his podcast, Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend, pens a how-to guide for becoming a horrible assistant while keeping a job. She shares her secrets with us and discusses her new book, The World's Worst Assistant.

In the late 1970s, punk music was particularly popular amongst teenagers. In New York City, they filled clubs like CBGB, Max's Kansas City, Hurrah, and TR3. They also formed bands. Tim Sommer, journalist and former record executive, recently wrote about this era of New York City music history for the New York Times in the article "In the Late ’70s, Teen Punks Ruled New York. These Are Their Stories." He joins us to discuss the piece alongside Kate Schellenbach, founding member of the Beastie Boys and drummer for Luscious Jackson who was a teenage punk in the 70s herself. Plus, we take your calls of your memories of the 70s New York punk scene.

In the last year, many of us have celebrated getting to go to concerts again... but that also means having to brave the experience of ticketing again. Exorbitantly-priced tickets to Bruce Springsteen's latest tour were recently in the headlines, but that's just the tip of the iceberg, with further issues like bots and resellers making the ticket-buying process all the more stressful. A new New York state law attempting to address issues with the ticket industry, which, among other changes, requires ticket vendors to show prices including fees upfront and resellers to display a ticket's original price, goes into effect at the end of the month. But will that make ticketing any less dreaded for lovers of live music? Ethan Millman, a staff writer covering the music industry for Rolling Stone, joins us to discuss.

This week marks the 48th anniversary of Gerald Ford taking office, becoming one in a growing list of one-term Presidents. Donald Trump might be angling to remove himself from that list by running again in 2024, and there has been much speculation about whether President Biden will only serve one term. To take a look at the legacy of one-term Presidents, we are joined by historian, Princeton history professor, and author Julian Zelizer.

This summer at the Newark Museum of Art, two exhibitions have highlighted intimate photographs of jazz musicians of the 20th century. The first, Billie Holiday at Sugar Hill: Photographs by Jerry Dantzic, displays the photographs Dantzic took of Holiday during her week-long residency at the Sugar Hill nightclub in Newark in 1957. The second exhibition is titled, Jazz Greats: Classic Photographs from the Bank of America Collection, which highlights photographs of jazz greats like Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald and others sitting in on jam sessions, recording in the studio, and living in their private life. Millicent Matthews, manager of travelling exhibitions, and Catherine Evans, deputy director of collections and curatorial strategies at the Newark Museum of Art, join to discuss the importance of these photographs and what else you can expect to see. Both exhibitions are on display until August 21.