What’s the one album or film that changed everything for you? On The Spark Parade, host Adam Unze sits down with actors, musicians and other cultural icons to explore the music and movies that ignited their creative journeys. Each episode is a deep dive into a single transformative work of art — from cult classics to chart-topping albums — and how it continues to shape their lives and careers. You’ll hear from artists like Margaret Cho, Maya Hawke, Chris Gethard, Beth Ditto, Bob The Drag Que ...
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For 20 years, the Modern Love column has given New York Times readers a glimpse into the complicated love lives of real people. Since its start, the column has evolved into a TV show, three books and a podcast. Each week, host Anna Martin brings you stories and conversations about love in all its glorious permutations, dumb pitfalls and life-changing moments. New episodes every Wednesday. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subsc ...
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How do today’s masters create their art? American Masters: Creative Spark presents narrative interviews that go in-depth with an iconic artist about the creation of a single work. Each episode offers a unique window into the world of art and the creative process of artists and cultural icons across a wide range of disciplines, from music and comedy to poetry and film. Explore more at www.pbs.org/creativespark
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Charli XCX finds perfect tracks for life's ultimate playlist - whether you're going through a break up, or pulling up to the party, Charli and friends have the best song ever. A Radio 1 podcast.
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She the People with Aimee Allison in collaboration with Design Observer invites you into a joyful conversation about the power of our multiracial democracy, led by women of color. In depth interviews with women leaders, strategists, thinkers and artists alongside on the ground reporting will help us make meaning of this historic moment.
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This episode of “Modern Love” features Lisa Selin Davis’s essay “What Lou Reed Taught Me About Love.” She writes about how the song “I’ll Be Your Mirror” became the soundtrack to her summer romance with a floppy-haired “rocker kid” who inadvertently helped her find healing. Then, we hear from some members of the “Modern Love” team about the songs t…
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George C. Wolfe on Desperation and Desire in His “Gypsy”
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25:43For Tony-winning playwright and theater director George C. Wolfe, the “landscape of America is rich and complicated and messy.” He takes the greatest joy in putting that messiness on the Broadway stage. This time, he’s directing the Broadway revival of “Gypsy,” widely considered the best of the Golden Age musicals. Alongside the show’s lead actor A…
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Friends for 16 Years. Lovers for One Night.
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39:43Elizabeth and Jeff were best friends. They did everything together, from early-morning runs to late-night karaoke sessions. They came up with secret code names for each other and went on undercover missions in their neighborhood. They fought, and made up, and fought some more. Beneath their playful dynamic, an attraction was growing between them, b…
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Singer-songwriter Julia Wolf joins Adam to talk about her love for Twilight — the blockbuster film that defined a generation. In this episode, Julia opens up about how Twilight helped her through her teenage years, why she connected so deeply with Bella Swan, and how the intense emotions of first love, heartbreak, and identity shaped both the story…
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Why Boys and Men Are Floundering, According to Relationship Therapist Terry Real
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37:15A session with Terry Real, a marriage and family therapist, can get uncomfortable. He’s known to mirror and amplify the emotions of his clients, sometimes cursing and nearly yelling, often in an attempt to get men in touch with the emotions they’re not used to honoring. Real says men are often pushed to shut off their expression of vulnerability wh…
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Tune-Yard's Merrill Garbus' Spark Is Ani DiFranco's Not A Pretty Girl
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41:20What album shaped Tune-Yards’ Merrill Garbus as both an artist and a person? Ani DiFranco’s Not a Pretty Girl. In this episode of The Spark Parade, Merrill joins host Adam Unze to reflect on the raw, political, and poetic power of DiFranco’s groundbreaking 1995 album. They explore how the record helped her find her voice, challenged traditional ide…
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A Mother’s Fierce, Extravagant Love (Encore)
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22:18In honor of Mother’s Day this week, we revisit the story of one mom who went to extraordinary lengths to make sure her daughter always felt her love, even after she was gone. Each time Genevieve Kingston reached a milestone — a birthday, her first period, high school graduation, she’d reach into the box her mom had packed for her and pull out the n…
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Ok Go front man Damian Kulash's Spark Is Fugazi's Repeater
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37:26Damian Kulash, lead singer and guitarist of OK Go, joins Adam for an unforgettable conversation about the album that changed his life: Fugazi’s landmark 1990 release Repeater. Damian shares his teenage memories of discovering Fugazi in the heart of the Washington, D.C. punk scene and how Repeater gave him a blueprint for making music that was raw, …
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Miranda July Knew Exactly What She Was Doing
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36:17It’s been almost a year since Miranda July released her hit novel, “All Fours.” The novel features a woman in her mid-40s who heads out on a solo road trip across the country, only to stop at a roadside motel 30 minutes from her home. She winds up staying there for three weeks, exploring and questioning what she actually wants and needs out of midl…
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You might know rapper and actor Daveed Diggs from his performances in Broadway’s “Hamilton” or 2024’s “Nickel Boys.” But he is also one-third of the hip-hop group clipping. Known for their love of genre storytelling, the group’s new album “Dead Channel Sky” is not their first foray into science fiction. Along with William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes…
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You’re Probably Thinking About Boundaries All Wrong
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39:29KC Davis is a therapist and author known for her practical, empathetic advice on dealing with clutter, even when you are feeling like too much of a mess yourself to take care of the mess in your home. Her TikTok videos on the subject have been viewed millions of times. But lately, Davis has been talking and writing about our relationships not just …
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Suzanne Vega's Spark Is Lou Reed's Berlin
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28:42Legendary singer-songwriter Suzanne Vega joins Adam to discuss her deep connection to Lou Reed’s 1973 concept album Berlin — a haunting, operatic record that became a major influence on her songwriting, especially her iconic hit “Luka.” Suzanne shares how seeing Lou Reed live for the first time at Columbia University blew her mind, how Berlin’s bru…
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Mireille Silcoff recently wrote an article for The New York Times Magazine titled “Why Gen X Women Are Having the Best Sex.” At a time of life when many women describe feeling less visible and less desirable, Silcoff said, her life instead “exploded in a detonation of sex confetti.” On today’s episode, Silcoff shares the juicy back story to her pop…
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Legendary drum and bass DJ and producer Goldie joins Adam for a deep dive into the cultural force that helped shape his identity: the groundbreaking graffiti documentary Style Wars. From his first encounters with the film and Subway Art to his close relationships with graffiti pioneers like Henry Chalfant and TATS CRU, Goldie unpacks the profound c…
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Let Yourself Rage With Poet Laureate Ada Limón
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34:35As U.S. poet laureate, Ada Limón has had a far-reaching impact. She has visited readers and writers across the country, installed poems at majestic sites in national parks, and she even wrote a poem that’s engraved inside a NASA spacecraft on its way to Jupiter. Today on the show, though, our host Anna Martin talks with Limón about something more p…
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Freaky Tales and Captain Marvel directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck's Sparks Are The Outsiders And The Shining
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35:15Filmmakers Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (Captain Marvel, Half Nelson) join Adam for a rich and nostalgic dive into two beloved films: Francis Ford Coppola’s The Outsiders and Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. They explore how both films shaped their creative lives, the emotional and stylistic impact of each, and their unique experiences discovering them.…
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My Brother Has Schizophrenia. This Is How I Love Him.
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35:57Growing up, Jamie Shandro was interested in science, while her younger brother, Tim, liked art. When they were in their twenties, they both landed in Seattle: Jamie for medical school and Tim for art school. They were closer than ever. But as Jamie was finishing up a rotation in psychiatry, Tim started behaving strangely. In this episode of Modern …
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Singer-songwriter Lucy Dacus has been building up to this moment her entire career. With her new album, “Forever Is a Feeling,” she is ready to write about love. Coming off the heels of a Grammy Award-winning run with her supergroup, boygenius, Dacus has signed a major label contract with Geffen for her solo work. In this episode, Lucy Dacus talks …
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I Got Addicted to Love and Came Out the Other Side
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34:42If you know one thing about Orville Peck, it’s probably that he wears a mask. The country musician has long kept himself shrouded in mystery, shielding his face from the public and revealing few details about his past. His music, however, is full of emotional honesty and vulnerability — he told the Modern Love podcast that most of his lyrics are ab…
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How I Decentered Men and Learned to Center Myself
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32:26Natasha Rothwell plays characters who are constantly trying to improve and to better understand their desires. This season on “The White Lotus,” Rothwell, an Emmy-nominated actress, is back playing Belinda, a striving spa manager with dreams of becoming her own boss. Ambitions like these are relatable to Rothwell, who created and starred in her own…
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How to Get Talking Again, With Lucy Dacus of boygenius
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35:27On her fourth solo album, “Forever Is a Feeling” (out March 28), Lucy Dacus contemplates the fears and delights that go along with falling hard for someone. The song “Best Guess” celebrates the leap of faith involved in committing to a partner with the knowledge that both of you will change over time. And in another track called “Talk,” a couple re…
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This week on The Spark Parade, Adam is joined by the incredible musician Corook for a deep dive into Juno, the 2007 indie classic starring Elliot Page and Michael Cera. Together, they unpack the film's raw honesty, its nuanced approach to teenage life, and the way it portrays relationships with humor and depth. Adam and Corook also explore Elliot P…
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If You Want This Kind of Love, Don’t Expect It to Be Easy
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40:58When Samaiya Mushtaq was growing up, she imagined marrying a kind Muslim man, and at 21, she did. But while studying to become a psychiatrist in medical school, she realized her husband couldn’t meet her emotional needs — something she deeply craved. Despite the shame she felt, she got a divorce. In this episode, Mushtaq shares the twists and turns…
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In this episode, Adam Unze sits down with ZORA, the genre-blurring artist and producer, to dive deep into the nostalgic world of Spy Kids 2 and its lasting cultural impact. They discuss why the film remains iconic, how early-2000s music and aesthetics shape ZORA’s sound, the evolution of nostalgia-driven reboots, and the unexpected celebrity connec…
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Carrie Coon on What Being Worthy of Love Really Means
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35:29In the movie “His Three Daughters,” Carrie Coon’s character, Katie, has rigid ideas about who her sisters are and what they’re capable of. When the women reunite to care for their dying father, those ideas become a barrier to true connection and care for each other. In this episode, Coon reads the Modern Love essay “A Family Label, Ungarbled” by Ha…
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David Gray's Spark Is Van Morrison's Astral Weeks
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29:35🎙️ In this episode, host Adam sits down with singer-songwriter David Gray to explore his deep connection to Van Morrison’s iconic album Astral Weeks. From his first listen at university to his eventual obsession, David unpacks the album’s hypnotic power, poetic brilliance, and unique soundscapes. What You’ll Learn in This Episode: ✅ How Astral Week…
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Alicia Graf Mack on Honoring the Past and Future of Dance
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32:11Alicia Graf Mack has been entrusted with carrying the torch of ballet and modern dance into the future. As a dancer, she has battled through adversity to perform alongside artists like Beyoncé, John Legend and Andre 3000. As a teacher, she has helped bridge the past into the future, educating new generations of students. In this episode, Alicia Gra…
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For Kelsey McKinney, the author of the new book, “You Didn’t Hear This From Me: (Mostly) True Notes on Gossip,” spreading a good story occupied a morally gray zone throughout her childhood. McKinney, who is also the former host of the podcast, “Normal Gossip,” talks with Modern Love’s Anna Martin about navigating the ups and downs of gossiping in h…
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The Modern Love team asked you to share with us the moment you knew you were falling in love, and you delivered. Your stories took us to so many places — dinner dates, subway rides, sunsets, concerts — and showed us the many shapes of love. There were so many that we could not list them all. In this episode, we listen back to your voice messages. T…
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He’s Gay. She’s Straight. They’re Newlyweds.
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38:04When Jacob Hoff and Samantha Greenstone met, they became instant best friends. Then, even though Jacob was gay, they realized that their feelings for each other were evolving beyond the platonic, and they decided to give romance a try. On this episode, Hoff and Greenstone tell Anna Martin, host of “Modern Love,” how their love gave him the courage …
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That Time I Bought My Husband’s Girlfriend a Burial Plot
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33:04When Robin Eileen Bernstein’s almost-ex-husband, Mark, died of a heart attack, she suddenly found herself comforting her husband’s grieving girlfriend. Robin and Mark had been living apart for two years, but legally she was still the wife, so it was up to her to make the burial arrangements. Would offering to buy the girlfriend an adjoining plot ma…
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Neko Case: ‘If I Didn’t Yell the Truth, What Good Was I?
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40:55In a new memoir out next week, the singer-songwriter Neko Case shares some painful childhood memories. In the studio with Anna Martin, Case is open and unapologetically angry as she describes being treated like “an unwanted child.” Both parents, she says, struggled with trauma and addiction. They often left her with no food and only her pets for co…
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