Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond

By Pushkin Industries

Society & Culture Music

What's Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond about?

From Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, and Bruce Headlam, liner notes for the digital age. Digressions, arguments, back-stories, and random things to disagree with about music.

4.5

3,339 ratings

Download our free app to listen on your phone

LAST EPISODE

Craig Finn Holds Steady

06.22.2021

Craig Finn, the lead singer and songwriter of The Hold Steady, is known for his vivid, literary-style songwriting. He often writes about characters going through an existential crisis. The Hold Steady released their eighth album, Open Door Policy, earlier this ...

Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond episodes:

06.22.2021 Craig Finn Holds Steady Craig Finn, the lead singer and songwriter of The Hold Steady, is known for his vivid, literary-style songwriting. He often writes about characters going through an existential crisis. The Hold Steady released their eighth album, Open Door Policy, earlier this ...
06.17.2021 Pushkin Honors Juneteenth At Pushkin, we think of Juneteenth as an opportunity to reflect on the past and think about the future: How do we build a more just and equitable society? We strive to make podcasts that help answer that question, and ...
06.15.2021 Moby Reprised Moby may be one of the most highly recognizable dance-music artists of all time, but he’s also a talented multi-hyphenate whose unconventional 30-year career includes massive success as a producer and DJ, and notoriety as an animal rights activist. Moby’s ...
06.08.2021 Brian Eno: The Innovator Brian Eno’s 50-year career is teeming with innovation. He started out playing synths in the early ‘70s as a member of the UK glam-rock band Roxy Music and went on to create an entirely new musical genre—ambient music, and later ...
06.01.2021 Liz Phair's Soberish Liz Phair helped lay the foundation for a generation of fierce, independent artists on her gritty 1993 debut album, Exile In Guyville. Early in her career, she pushed for freedom and creative control, especially for female artists. It's something she’s ...
05.25.2021 Rhiannon Giddens Comes Home Rhiannon Giddens is a brilliant fiddle and banjo player who’s one of the few musicians alive today trained in the centuries-old black string band tradition. Giddens is a North Carolina native but now lives in Ireland, not far from her ...
05.18.2021 Superwolves: Bonnie "Prince" Billy and Matt Sweeney In 2005 singer Bonnie "Prince" Billy a.k.a. Will Oldham and guitarist Matt Sweeney released the Superwolf album, which has developed a cult following that includes Rick Rubin who absolutely fell in love with the project. Now, 16 years later, they’re ...
04.29.2021 Presenting: An Excerpt from The Bomber Mafia by Malcolm Gladwell The Bomber Mafia is the new audiobook by Revisionist History host (and Pushkin co-founder) Malcolm Gladwell. It examines the rise of air power, which created one of the greatest moral challenges of the Second World War. In The Bomber Mafia, ...
04.27.2021 Peter Frampton Forgets the Words Peter Frampton is a classic rock guitar god who rose to international fame in the late ‘70s with his chart-topping double album, Frampton Comes Alive! Justin Richmond caught up with Frampton recently to talk about his new album of cover ...
04.20.2021 Serj Tankian Talks Toxicity and Activism System of a Down’s classic Rick Rubin-produced album, Toxicity, turns 20 this year. Released in 2001 one week before 9/11, the politically charged and wildly bizarre album provided the perfect soundtrack for a world descending into chaos. Serj Tankian, the ...
04.13.2021 Andrew Bird + Jimbo Mathus Listening to Jimbo Mathus and Andrew Bird’s new album, These 13, is like taking a trip down South … a century ago. It’s new territory for Andrew Bird, a classically trained multi-instrumentalist from the Chicago suburbs who’s been a successful ...
04.06.2021 Barry Gibb's Wild Ride Few bands have experienced such extreme highs and lows as the Bee Gees. Throughout their decades-long career, the band of brothers managed to be both grossly underrated and one of the best-selling acts of all time. Barry Gibb and his ...
03.30.2021 Merry Clayton's Redemption Merry Clayton is a legendary backup singer who has managed to consistently steal the spotlight. Merry’s journey from a renowned backup singer to a solo artist was documented in the Oscar-winning documentary 20 Feet From Stardom in 2013. Almost exactly ...
03.23.2021 Marianne Faithfull Fights Back Marianne Faithfull has been many things throughout her half a century in music—a close confidant of the Rolling Stones, a pop star, a homeless drug addict and a critically acclaimed comeback artist. Despite a career filled with personal and professional ...
03.16.2021 Valerie June Shines Bright Valerie June has helped widen the scope of contemporary Americana music. She’s one of few African American women in the category and her unique combination of gospel and Appalachian folk is a shimmering example of what's possible in the roots-music ...
03.09.2021 Ziggy Marley Reminisces About Jamaica and His Father Malcolm Gladwell recently spoke with Ziggy Marley as part of the Live Talks Los Angeles series. Their conversation centers around a book of photographs Ziggy curated called Bob Marley: Portrait of the Legend. Ziggy has gone on to become a ...
03.02.2021 Mike Shinoda on Beats, Rhymes and Linkin Park Since forming in 1996, Linkin Park has sold over 100 million records worldwide. Their enormous success mixing genres like hip-hop, metal and anthemic pop was spearheaded by the band’s ultra-talented founder, Mike Shinoda. In this episode Rick Rubin talks to ...
02.23.2021 Kenny Beats + Rick Rubin, Part 2 Since his first conversation with Rick, Kenny Beats’ star has continued to rise. In the past couple of years he has produced songs with Ed Sheeran, Da Baby and Vince Staples. He’s also taken several trips to the UK, and ...
02.16.2021 Kenny Beats on the Regional Sounds of Hip Hop There’s a reason Kenny Beats is one of the great young producers in Hip Hop. Because he has a vast understanding of the regional sounds and histories of cities to pull from when making beats for an artist. This allows ...
02.09.2021 Joan Baez Rick Rubin speaks with the great Joan Baez fresh off her birthday and the announcement that she'll be among this year's Kennedy Center honorees! Joan was known the world over as the Queen of Folk at the height of her ...
02.02.2021 Rivers Cuomo on Weezer's New Approach and a Wild Nirvana Conspiracy Most people know Rivers Cuomo as Weezer’s brilliant, quirky lead singer. But one thing people may not know, is that several years ago, a bizarre conspiracy theory made its way around the Web that Rivers was actually Kurt Cobain. To ...
01.26.2021 Earth, Wind & Fire's Verdine White with Rick Rubin Rick Rubin connected with Earth, Wind & Fire's Verdine White to talk about the early days of the band and about their producer, Charles Stepney, who Verdine calls their George Martin. Also Rick reads to Verdine a poignant note from ...
01.19.2021 Nas In Conversation with Rick Rubin Nas dropped one of the most universally loved rap albums of all time in 1994 with Illmatic. Few legends in Hip Hop have been able to maintain their relevance over several decades based on their skill alone. Nas has never ...
01.12.2021 Legendary Music Journalist Lisa Robinson Rick Rubin speaks with friend, pioneering rock journalist, Lisa Robinson about her over 40 year career that's seen her interview everyone from John Lennon to Lady Gaga, from Jay Z to Eminem, and even an 11 year old Michael Jackson. ...
01.08.2021 Ben Folds Singer/songwriter, pianist, alt-rocker Ben Folds has been releasing records since the 90s. Sometimes with his band Ben Folds Five, sometimes solo. In this episode of Broken Record, he connects with Bruce Headlam to discuss the origins of his biggest hit, ...
12.24.2020 Broken Record Presents: A Musical Episode of Solvable Mike Dickey is co-founder and chairman of the JackTrip Foundation and the creator of Virtual Studio. The awkward and disjointed experience of making music over the internet is a solvable problem. Virtual Studio is a device that works with the ...
12.22.2020 Dave Cobb: Nashville's Super Producer Nashville producer Dave Cobb has earned six Grammys for his standout work with artists like Jason Isbell, Brandi Carlile and Chris Stapleton. Over the past 15 years Dave's managed to inject some much-needed soul into country music. In this interview ...
12.17.2020 My Morning Jacket's Jim James Jim James talks about and performs some songs off My Morning Jacket's The Waterfall 2. The album of holdovers from the band's 2015 album came out in July. Jim explains to Bruce Headlam why these songs finally came out five ...
12.15.2020 James Blake James Blake speaks with Rick Rubin about his new Covers EP. Since his debut album in 2011, the British-born James Blake has gone on to win England's top musical honor, the Mercury Prize, and a Grammy. He’s also produced and ...
12.10.2020 Pharrell Williams Rick Rubin connected with Pharrell Williams over Zoom recently to talk through and listen to some of the biggest hits from Pharrell’s illustrious career. They chat about what Pharrell is currently working on (Rihanna!), the French powdered drink mix that ...
12.08.2020 Andrew Watt: Producer on the Rise It’s hard to believe Andrew Watt is only 30 years old. He's built up an impressive and diverse roster of collaborators over the last five years including Ozzy Osbourne, Miley Cyrus, Sam Smith, and Justin Bieber. He’s quietly become one ...
12.03.2020 Black Pumas The runway to success was short for Black Pumas. Five months after releasing their debut album in 2019, the Austin-based band was nominated for Best New Artist at the Grammys. And now, one year later, Black Pumas are up for ...
12.01.2020 Jeff Tweedy's Songwriting Master Class Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy is a prolific songwriter and he's ready to share his secrets. They're all in his new book, How to Write One Song. On today's episode, Tweedy shares some of his techniques with Malcolm Gladwell and explains why ...
11.24.2020 Leslie Odom Jr. of Hamilton Leslie Odom Jr., best known for playing Aaron Burr in Hamilton, speaks to Bruce Headlam about his career on stage and in music and also his new Christmas album. The Christmas Album is Leslie's second crack at a holiday album ...
11.19.2020 Mike Campbell On First Album Post Heartbreakers Mike Campbell, guitarist, co-writer and original Heartbreaker talks to Rick Rubin about growing up with Tom Petty, working on Wildflowers and about his new album, Wreckless Abandon, with band The Dirty Knobs. It’s the first band Mike’s ever been a ...
11.17.2020 Deep Sea Diver There’s no playbook for successfully releasing music during a pandemic. Especially if you’re an indie artist, the stakes really couldn’t be higher. But Deep Sea Diver has managed to put all that aside to drop a thrilling and relevant new ...
11.12.2020 Sturgill Simpson Kentucky singer/songwriter Sturgill Simpson was in his mid-30s when he found fame as a country artist in Nashville. He had already lived a full life including a stint in the Navy, and years spent working in Salt Lake City rail ...
11.10.2020 Lenny Kravitz In the opening lines of his New York Times bestselling memoir, Let Love Rule, Lenny Kravitz writes that he is deeply two-sided. His young life was all about opposites and extremes—black and white. He grew up between his West Indian ...
11.05.2020 S.G. Goodman S.G. Goodman turns traditional Southern storytelling on its head with songs that present a deeper, more complex look at life below the Mason-Dixon line. As a queer person who lives with mental illness, she often sings about the social and ...
11.03.2020 Maya Hawke Maya Hawke has managed to escape the long shadow of her very famous parents, Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke. She’s made a name for herself, first as an actor in Stranger Things, Little Women, and Tarantino’s latest, Once Upon a ...
10.29.2020 Carlos Santana & Cindy Blackman Carlos Santana, along with his wife and drummer, Cindy Blackman got together with Rick Rubin to discuss the 2019 album they recorded together, Africa Speaks, and also to talk about Santana's early days in San Francisco. They discuss how Santana ...
10.27.2020 Bruce Springsteen Bruce Springsteen is a national treasure. Since his debut album nearly 50 years ago, Springsteen has helped define the American working-class psyche through a collection of world-renowned hit songs. In this interview with Malcolm Gladwell and Rick Rubin, Bruce talks ...
10.20.2020 Win Butler Rick Rubin talks to Arcade Fire's Win Butler on the occasion of the The Suburb's tenth anniversary. The band's third record was their first number one album in the US. Subscribe to Broken Record's YouTube channel to hear old and ...
10.16.2020 Benmont Tench on life with Tom Petty To celebrate the release of Tom Petty's Wildflowers & All The Rest box set, Rick Rubin connected with Heartbreakers keyboardist, Benmont Tench for a conversation. Benmont started playing with Tom back in Florida with a band called Mudcrutch. He stayed ...
10.15.2020 Tom Petty's Wildflowers II with Adria Petty Tom Petty crafted another of his many perfect albums back in 1994, this time with Rick Rubin producing. Wildflowers was released as a single disc, Petty's first for Warner Brothers. But Petty had always intended for it to be a ...
10.13.2020 Joe Henry Joe Henry is likely one of the best living singer-songwriters that you've never heard of. But even if you don't recognize his name, you've probably heard his work. He's been at it for 34 years: having released 15 solo albums, ...
10.06.2020 Khruangbin Khruangbin will tell you they did everything wrong. Gave their band a Thai name, play mostly instrumental music, two members wear wigs, they record in barn ... and yet, they've had a charmed existence since they released their first record ...
09.29.2020 Burt Bacharach & Daniel Tashian Burt Bacharach is a living legend. He's written hits sung by Aretha Franklin, Dionne Warwick, Elvis Costello, Dusty Springfield and so many more. With that kind of a resume, he doesn't need to still be working at 92. But he ...
09.22.2020 Buffy Sainte-Marie Buffy Sainte-Marie tells Rick Rubin there's a reason she isn’t a household name in the U.S. A pioneering artist in the Greenwich Village folk scene, she could've been Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell or Paul Simon. But in the early days ...
09.15.2020 Don Was Rick Rubin talk to Don was about his early days in Detroit, his time in Was Not Was and his wide ranging career producing defining-albums for the B-52's, Bonnie Raitt, Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones. He also talks about ...

Older episodes