All Of It with Alison Stewart

Former MTV VJ Karen Duffy shares some life advice in her new book, Wise Up: Irreverent Enlightenment from a Mother Who's Been Through It. Told through a series of letters with guidance on living a meaningful life, Duffy shares how she embraced stoicism to raise a cool kid in New York, find happiness in small spaces, and not let debilitating illness and chronic pain steal her life.  

James McAvoy is receiving rave reviews for his intense take on Cyrano in the new adaptation running at BAM. He joins us to discuss the production, which is written entirely in verse, rap, and spoken word. "Cyrano de Bergerac" is running at BAM through May 22nd.

Season 2 of "Russian Doll"? What a concept! The hugely anticipated sophomore season of the hit Netflix series premieres on April 20, and we are joined by co-creator, writer, and star of the series Natasha Lyonne, who plays Nadia, a woman who has just managed to escape a time loop that kept her trapped on her 36th birthday. The second season opens just days before Nadia's 40th birthday... where another strange happening is about to occur.

Debra Messing stars in "Birthday Candles," a new play from Noah Haidle that tells the story of one woman's life over the course of a series of birthdays, from her 17th to her very last. And, a cake is baked... on stage. Messing joins us to discuss her role as Ernestine. "Birthday Candles" is running at the American Airlines Theater through May 29th.

Vulture podcast critic Nick Quah checks in for a Review/Preview to give us his picks for what podcasts to listen to now, and a few he’s looking forward to.

Last week it was announced that twenty-five new works of audio have been added to the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry, including albums by Tribe Called Quest and Alicia Keys, as well as reporting from WNYC News during 9/11. We'll speak to the Librarian of Congress Dr. Carla Hayden about what was added to the Registry this year and why.

It's Tax Day in the United States, and we speak to former tax attorney and professor of law at Emory University Dorothy A. Brown, who's also author of the book, The Whiteness of Wealth. The book touches on how racial biases in the tax code can often limit people of color from building generational wealth.

After buying the largest share in Twitter, Tesla and SpaceX chair Elon Musk made a hostile bid to take over the tech giant. Sarah Frier explains what it means for free speech, business, and politics.

Janelle Monáe needs no introduction. Amongst all of her creative endeavors, now she's the author of a new collection of short fiction stories called, The Memory Librarian. Monáe wrote the book in collaboration with female and nonbinary writers based on her 2018 album, Dirty Computer. She joins us to discuss the book, which touches on themes of Afrofuturism, identity, oppression, and more. The Memory Librarian is out on April 19. Tonight, Monáe will be in conversation about the book at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Information to attend the event can be found here.

Back in February, Alison hosted an evening of Selected Shorts, a program that curates a selection of short stories, and brings together world class performers to read them aloud. The event featured stories by Louise Erdrich, Hilary Leichter, Carmen Maria Machado, and Bryan Washington, with readings from Molly Bernard (Younger), Sarah Mezzanotte (The Wolves), Cynthia Nixon (And Just Like That ...), Petronia Paley (On the Way to Timbuktu), and Michael Potts (Netflix's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom).

Check out the rest of Selected Shorts' programming here.