Episode 460
with Barry Sonnenfeld, Saeed Jones, Laurie Kilmartin, and Alela Diane
Host Luke Burbank and announcer Elena Passarello celebrate Mother's Day by sharing some favorite fictional moms submitted by listeners; award-winning writer Saeed Jones (How We Fight for Our Lives) talks about coming out to his mother; comedian Laurie Kilmartin delivers an outrageous set about single motherhood; filmmaker Barry Sonnenfeld chats about his complicated relationship with his mom, which he details in his memoir Barry Sonnenfeld, Call Your Mother; and singer-songwriter Alela Diance performs "Albatross" from her album Cusp, which explores her experience around becoming a parent.
Saeed Jones
Writer
Saeed Jones is the author of the memoir How We Fight for Our Lives, winner of the 2019 Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction, and Prelude to Bruise, winner of the 2015 PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry and the 2015 Stonewall Book Award/Barbara Gittings Literature Award. The poetry collection was also a finalist for the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award, as well as awards from Lambda Literary and the Publishing Triangle in 2015. Jones publishes a newsletter called “The Intelligence of Honey,” which includes essays about people, places, and things that make him happy, as well as his reflections on what he’s learned from happiness. He lives in Columbus, Ohio. Website • Twitter
Laurie Kilmartin
Comedian
Laurie Kilmartin is a writer, comedian, and an expert on using humor to cope with grief. An Emmy-nominated writer who has performed standup on CONAN, Jimmy Kimmel Live, and Comedy Central, Kilmartin made headlines by live-tweeting her father’s time in hospice care and her grief process after he passed. She channeled this experience into a comedy special called 45 Jokes About My Dead Dad, which was named among Vulture’s Top Ten Comedy Specials of 2016. Kilmartin was a Top 10 finalist on season 9 of Last Comic Standing, and her first book, Shitty Mom, was a NY Times bestseller. Her latest book, Dead People Suck, is a hilarious guide to the imperfect art of coping with death, dying, and grief without losing your mind. Website • Twitter
Barry Sonnenfeld
Filmmaker & Author
Barry Sonnenfeld is a filmmaker and writer who broke into the industry as the cinematographer for the Coen Brothers' first three films. He was also the director of photography on Throw Momma from the Train, Big, When Harry Met Sally, and Misery. He made his directorial debut in 1991 with The Addams Family, and went on to direct a number of films including Addams Family Values, Get Shorty, and the first three films in the Men in Black series. His television credits include Pushing Daisies, for which he won an Emmy, and Netflix's A Series of Unfortunate Events. Sonnenfeld’s book, Barry Sonnenfeld, Call Your Mother: Memoirs of a Neurotic Filmmaker, is an outrageous and hilarious tale of his travels through life and serves as a roadmap for anyone who believes a rough beginning will stop them from being successful. Website
Alela Diane
Singer-Songwriter
Alela Diane is too busy making music to worry about the stereotypes that surround motherhood and art. The prolific Portland-based musician created the basis for her fifth album, Cusp, while on a three-week artist's residency when her first daughter was two years old. Alone and with the mental and emotional space to create, she spent her time at the residency making music driven by her experience of motherhood. Diane moved away from her signature finger-picking guitar and generated the most piano-driven album of her career. She recorded the majority of the songs while pregnant with her second child; her near-death experience while giving birth led her up to the “cusp” of the album title. Most recently, Diane collaborated with bandmates Heather Woods Broderick and Mirabai Peart to record Live at the Map Room, which is available on vinyl as of April, 2021. Listen • Twitter
