Difficult Artist

Lizzy talks to New Yorker staff writer Jia Tolentino about the weird honor of becoming well known for writing about commodification of self - Tolentino's best-selling essay collection Trick Mirror was published in 2019. They also, predictably, get to talking about the golden age of blogging, pandemic anxiety, and why so many women of the millennial generation grew up convinced feminism was a dirty word.  

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Lizzy speaks with the filmmaker Floria Sigismondi about the art of collaboration. What’s it like to make music videos with David Bowie? Or fashion films with Gucci’s Alessandro Michele? How do you keep track of your own creative voice while also serving the vision of someone else? 

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Lizzy talks to her friend and hero, the writer and pop cultural historian Rob Sheffield about how he’s stayed so psyched to write about music for so long. A few of his secrets: old mixtapes, new bands, and the willingness to approach it all with a beginner’s mind. 

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Lizzy talks to Chvrches frontwoman Lauren Mayberry about the value of an onstage persona, the charmingly nerdy spreadsheet she made when crafting lyrics for the band’s forthcoming LP, Screen Violence, and reclaiming the “Hitchcock blonde” archetype.

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Stand-up comedian Iliza Shlesinger is also a writer, producer, actor, author and podcaster. Many people - especially women - who do a lot of things well try to play down the labor involved; pretending it's easy is yet another thing you're supposed to be good at. Not Iliza. Lizzy talks to the comedian about her unapologetic drive, her willingness to wear her work ethic on her sleeve and how she knows when she has a new idea.

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Megan Abbott is the author of ten novels, including her most recent, The Turnout. She’s also an accomplished screenwriter who co-show ran the TV adaptation of her novel, Dare Me, and was a writer on David Simon’s The Deuce. Lizzy wants to know all of Megan’s secrets. How does she keep all these different worlds alive at the same time? And how does Megan, a cerebral lit and film nerd with an actual PHD write novels that are so proud...

Terrence “Punch” Henderson is the president of Top Dawg Entertainment, the small but mighty Carson, California based record label that’s home to some of the most innovative and influential artists in the music business, like Kendrick Lamar and SZA. Punch - who is a rapper himself, as well as a producer, executive, and artist whisperer - started working with the label back in the early 2000s when it was still run out of his cousin, ...

Patrick Carney and Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys first knew each other as two kids in their Akron, Ohio neighborhood who got beaten up by the same bully. How did that relationship turn into one of the most enduring and productive of the modern rock era? Lizzy and Patrick get into it all – the highs and lows of being in a band with one other person, the value of unabashedly trying, and the importance of shutting the f**k up in the ...

Kerrilynn Pamer is the co-founder and CEO of the natural beauty brand CAP beauty. She’s built a career out of being curious - about cool face oils and amazing scents - but also about more esoteric health and beauty practices. At her core she’s a student of routine. She and Lizzy discuss what it’s like to live a creative life that has no one central creative practice, and why the term wellness needs a refresh. 

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Singer songwriter KT Tunstall discusses everything from how her process has changed in over two decades of rock stardom to how she wrote some of her most beloved songs. She also gets into the sense of malaise that took over once the touring industry stopped due to Covid, and what she’s learned about the practice of making stuff from being forced to sit still for nearly two difficult, illuminating years.

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Michelle Zauner does a lot of things well: she fronts her band Japanese Breakfast, she directs music videos, and she writes. Zauner's first book, Crying in H Mart, which came out earlier this year, is a rare thing - it's a grief memoir that also manages to be a true celebration of life. The musician and writer talks to Lizzy about mental health, her pure love of pure pop and why she first picked music over writing.

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Laurie Anderson is a master at making her life her art. In a conversation as unconventional as the artist herself, Lizzy and Laurie discuss everything from the geological history of the planet to death and grief to the importance of fun as a frame for how to live and work.

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As a founding member of Radiohead, Ed O'Brien has been on the inside of one of the great rock and roll stories. He talks about growing up in the cloistered world of British boarding school life, recalling the wonder of first seeing a kid his age with a real guitar and the pain of feeling like the sensitive one in a world that equated emotional repression with strength. We get into the dizzying rise of Radiohead, the unique pleasure...

Olivia Nuzzi is the Washington Correspondent for New York Magazine. For four-plus years it was her job to think about Donald Trump and his cohort every day. She talks to Lizzy about the emotional cost of that work, the morality of journalism in general, and explains why some of her most significant influences are stand-up comedians and rappers.

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One of the most resonant voices in music, Liz Phair is a true iconoclast with a sense of levity about the game of fame. Liz gets into her long history being both embraced and rejected by the indie rock community, touches on motherhood and creativity, and explains that yes, there are in fact voices in her head telling her what to write. Liz's first album of new material in eleven years, Soberish, is out June 4th.

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The visual artist Shantell Martin has an unusual creative process: she draws live. As in, she walks up to a blank canvas, and, in front of an audience, waits for inspiration to strike. The results are mesmerizingly detailed, joyful, playful black and white line drawings that are also strangely soothing to look at and to watch the artist make. Shantell talks to Lizzy about growing up an outsider, finding herself at Central St. Marti...

Writer, director, comedian, and dog rescuer Whitney Cummings joins Lizzy to talk about how she comes up with her seemingly endless stream of red hot takes. Known for outrageous, incisive comedy exploring relationship dynamics, sexism, and the real hierarchy in Hollywood, Cummings's mind is a mile-a-minute marvel. In this episode she gets into the practices that allow her to create art out of chaos, her "love bombing" philosophy on ...

Trent Reznor says he’s never listened to a podcast before, but he makes a great guest. In this wide ranging interview, Lizzy and Trent cover everything from MSNBC addiction to Tom Ford’s quarantine insights to the particular challenge and pleasure of scoring for animated films. They also talk about how Trent’s approach to songwriting has changed over time, as he’s evolved from a guy screaming into the void in private, to a guy scre...

Before Maggie Rogers became a Grammy-nominated, best-selling artist, she was Lizzy's intern. The pair reminisce about Maggie's role as head transcriber on Meet Me in the Bathroom, and discuss the conflict Maggie once felt about whether to pursue journalism or music. They also get into how Maggie's process has adapted to the age of Covid, as well as what types of pens, fabrics, and beverages are helping her conjure her new album.

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