Episode 436
with Phoebe Robinson, Thomas Page McBee, and Sammy Brue
Host Luke Burbank and announcer Elena Passarello describe the small things they've recently accepted; memoirist Thomas Page McBee shares what he learned about masculinity while training to become the first transgender man to box at Madison Square Garden; Dope Queen Phoebe Robinson reflects on managing debt and embracing "trash" culture; and Americana wunderkind Sammy Brue performs "Our Garden" from his EP "Down with Desperation."
Phoebe Robinson
Phoebe Robinson is best known as the co-creator and co-star of the hit WNYC Studios podcast 2 Dope Queens, which was turned into eight one-hour, critically-acclaimed HBO specials. She’s also a New York Times best-selling author of the books Everything’s Trash, But It’s Okay and You Can’t Touch My Hair and Other Things I Still Have to Explain. Additionally, Phoebe was a staff writer on the final season of Portlandia, hosted the critically-acclaimed podcast Sooo Many White Guys, starred in the movies Ibiza and What Men Want, and was a five-time moderator on Michelle Obama's international Becoming book tour. Most recently, she founded Tiny Reparations, a production company under ABC Studios, and TinyRep’s first project, a talk show entitled Doing the Most With Phoebe Robinson, will premiere in 2021 on Comedy Central. Website • Twitter
Thomas Page McBee
Thomas Page McBee is an author, film and TV writer, reporter, and “questioner of masculinity” (New York Times). His Lambda award-winning debut memoir, Man Alive, was named a best book of the year by NPR Books, BuzzFeed, Kirkus, and Publisher's Weekly. His “refreshing [and] radical” (The Guardian) follow-up, Amateur, explores the vexed relationship between masculinity and violence with a beginner’s mind. In the course of reporting the book, Thomas became the first transgender man to ever fight in Madison Square Garden. Amateur was shortlisted for the UK’s Baillie-Gifford nonfiction book prize and the Wellcome Book Prize, named a best book of 2018 by many publications, and translated into multiple languages. Thomas’s recent television credits include Tales of the City (Netflix) and The L Word: Generation Q (Showtime). Website • Twitter
Sammy Brue
Singer-songwriter
When it comes to singing and songwriting, Sammy Brue is a wondrous wunderkind. He wrote his first original song at the age of 10, busked at the Sundance Film Festival at 11, and started opening for artists like Justin Townes Earle before he could even think about driving. Now 19, Brue followed up his trio of accomplished EPs with his full debut album I Am Nice (2017) and Crash Test Kid (2020), which both feature his timeless talent when it comes to realism, storytelling, and composition. Called an “Americana prodigy” by Rolling Stone, age-wise Brue might be a teenager, but music-wise he embodies the wisdom, empathy and insight of a musical veteran. Website • Twitter • Spotify
