Stars and Stars with Isa

In her nearly 25 years in the music industry Kathy Iandoli has become known for showing the humanity of musicians behind the sheen of fame. She’s written some of the most intimate biographies of Black women in hip hop, from Lil’ Kim and Eve to Aaliyah. Kathy’s connection to the spiritual world runs deep and she envisions her work as an offering to the music she’s long admired. In true Pisces fashion, Kathy doesn’t see herself as a critic but a cultural memory keeper. She joins host Isa Nakazawa to discuss her relationship to spirituality and the tender rigor she shows in her music writing.

Benjamin Earl Turner is a recording artist, actor, writer, educator and multi-hyphenate on shows like Blindspotting, Rap Sh!t and Snowfall. Ben captivates in any medium he chooses as an insatiably curious soul, guided by an exquisite ethics of love. Isa Nakazawa sits down with Ben to discuss how as a Scorpio Sun, Scorpio Moon, and Pisces Rising, he is always seeking ways to subvert stereotypes – whether it’s in his art or his relationships. Isa and Ben reflect on the different forms of water his chart holds and what it means to heal through “maintaining the ugly.”

Jessica Dore's skepticism of fate is the culmination of her roles as a writer, tarot reader, and licensed social worker blending the secular with the spiritual. In her book Tarot for Change, featured in The New York Times, The Cut, and Vogue, she radically converts tarot from prophecy into a foundation for growth and movement. Host Isa Nakazawa sits down with Jessica to explore how the constant evolution of herself and her life’s work is informed and complicated by the fixed signs dominating her chart as an Aries Sun, Aquarius Moon, and Aquarius Rising, and how these paradoxes are a fundamental part of both tarot and astrology.

Gaby Moreno is a Grammy-award-winning Guatemalan singer-songwriter and guitarist whose bilingual lyrics take listeners on vivid journeys. She was awarded the Grammy for Best Latin Pop Album in 2023 for X Mi (Vol. 1). Her decades-spanning career is defined by a tenderness for her home of Guatemala, as told through folklore in her songwriting. Her ninth studio LP, Dusk, released earlier this year, is a testament to her evolution and transition, from light to dark and dawn to dusk. The desire for change and exploration found in Gaby’s Sagittarius sun is rounded by its placement in the Fourth House, associated with family and tradition — manifesting in both her attachment to memory and her constant refinement of archiving the ache and triumph of her ancestors through her music. Gaby joins host Isa Nakazawa to discuss how the presence of each element in her chart conjures balance.

Dr. Bayo Akomolafe is a widely celebrated international speaker, teacher, author, and self-described "recovering psychologist.” As a Virgo Sun, Aquarius Moon and Pisces Rising his chart is full of beautiful contradictions—dealing in the details and seeing the big picture, searching for meaning and knowing there is no singular answer, and often existing most comfortably in the liminal. Bayo joins Isa to talk about how grief has traveled alongside him since the death of his father when he was a teenager. This traveling led him away from the Christianity that his Yoruba parents raised him in, and toward other frameworks to think about healing and grief. Bayo’s Pisces rising poetics refuse neat binaries of good/bad light/dark and instead speak in the tongue of the trickster, winking at modernity’s logic and surfacing conversations about neurodivergence, identity and faith.

Roxane Gay’s writing explores sexuality, race, feminism, and body image, often through her own personal experiences. From reality TV to that prestige series, to politics, Roxane’s cultural commentary crystallizes so poignantly what these pieces of culture tell us about ourselves and our society. Isa Nakazawa sits down with the New York Times bestselling author and editor to discuss her Libra stellium and how her cosmic blueprint informs the way she embraces the messiness and inherent contradictions of humanity, while she strives to be accountable, committed and transparent in her work and her life.

Poet and writer Yesika Salgado is a two-time National Poetry Slam finalist and the recipient of the 2020 International Latino Book Award in Poetry. Informed by her Salvadoran roots and her love for Los Angeles, Yesika explores yearning: a longing for lovers, home, big dreams. She is the author of the best-sellers Corazón, Tesoro, and Hermosa, and her works have been featured in the New York Times, LA Times, Teen Vogue, HBO and many more. Isa Nakazawa sits down with Yesika as they discuss how her Cancer stellium shows up in her radical honesty, a rare mix of self-compassion and realness towards the many versions of herself she has shed and transformed.

Rico Nasty began releasing mixtapes online, self-teaching and innovating when she was in high school, leading to collaborations with rapper Lil Yachty, two studio albums, and her latest EP, Hardcore Dreamz. Rico’s journey into motherhood and her rap career developed hand-in-hand, and her story is one of personal resilience and creative shape shifting. Rico liberates herself and her fans from the shackles of normativity. Isa sits down with Rico to discuss how her Taurus sun and moon and Aquarius rising allow her to reinvent herself constantly, but remain grounded in who she is.

Multidisciplinary artist, poet, and writer Fariha Róisín is a Capricorn Sun and Cancer Moon and Rising. Host Isa Nakazawa sits down with Fariha to unpack how her chart illuminates the trajectory of her writing career, from a critical examination of wellness culture to her own healing from childhood abuse. Fariha shares details of her journey to mending her body and spirit through liberation. Isa also guides Fariha through her Saturn and Pluto placements, planetary aspects that are slow to arrive — but when they do arrive, they arrive with force.

Poet, writer, and podcast host Saeed Jones is a Sagittarius Sun, Taurus Moon, and Libra Rising. Our host, Isa Nakazawa, leads Saeed to reflect on how his seemingly opposing appetite for life and tendency to turn inward harmoniously meet in his Sagittarius, or what Saeed calls the “party hermit.” Also, Saeed’s Venus in Scorpio has influenced his pursuit of intense experiences, sometimes confusing dangerous passion for depth. Finally, Saeed satiates his Moon in Taurus through his home, where he’s created a sanctuary for life, work, and play in Columbus, Ohio.