Episode 461

with Anna Sale, Elissa Washuta, and Juliana Hatfield

Host Luke Burbank and announcer Elena Passarello celebrate the trivial things we spend too much time debating; podcaster Anna Sale reveals how she gets to the heart of the matter in her podcast Death, Sex & Money and in her new book Let's Talk About Hard Things; writer Elissa Washuta explains how magic and witchcraft helped her get sober, as detailed in her collection of essays White Magic; and indie rock icon Juliana Hatfield performs "Mouthful of Blood" from her new album Blood.

Anna Sale
Writer & Podcaster

Anna Sale is a journalist, memoirist, podcaster, and an expert on having tough conversations. As the creator and host of the WNYC podcast Death, Sex & Money, she explores “the things we think about a lot and need to talk about more.” After debuting at the top of the Apple Podcasts chart in 2014, Death, Sex & Money was named the #1 podcast of 2015 by New York Magazine and won a 2018 Webby for best interview show. Before developing Death, Sex & Money, Anna covered politics for nearly a decade and has contributed to Fresh Air with Terry Gross, as well as to This American Life. In her book Let’s Talk About Hard Things, released in May 2021, she dives into five of the most fraught conversation topics — death, sex, money, family, and identity — sharing the lessons she’s learned from her podcast about how hard conversations can teach us about ourselves, others, and the world that we make together.​ Website • Twitter

Elissa Washuta
Writer

Elissa Washuta is a member of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, an assistant professor of creative writing at the Ohio State University, and the author of three nonfiction books. She is the co-editor of the anthology Shapes of Native Nonfiction: Collected Essays by Contemporary Writers and has received fellowships and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Creative Capital, Artist Trust, 4Culture, and Potlatch Fund. Released by Tin House in 2021, her most recent book, White Magic, is a collection of intertwined essays in which she writes about land, heartbreak, colonization, and how she became a powerful witch. Interlacing stories from her forebears with cultural artifacts from her own life — Twin Peaks, the Oregon Trail II video game, a Claymation Satan, a YouTube video of Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham — she explores questions of cultural inheritance and the particular danger, as a Native woman, of relaxing into romantic love under colonial rule. Website • Twitter

Juliana Hatfield
Singer & Songwriter

Juliana Hatfield is a singer and songwriter from the Boston area, formerly of the bands Blake Babies, Some Girls, and The Lemonheads. As part of The Juliana Hatfield Three, she produced her best-charting work, including the critically acclaimed album Become What You Are (1993), as well as the singles "My Sister" (1993) and "Spin the Bottle" (1994). In 2014, she re-booted The Juliana Hatfield Three and released the album Whatever, My Love, which was named one of the most anticipated albums of 2015 by multiple outlets. In 2016, she began a collaboration with Paul Westerberg under the moniker The I Don't Cares to release the album Wild Stab. Her most recent work includes an album of original work called Weird (2019) and two cover albums, Juliana Hatfield Sings Olivia Newton-John (2018) and Juliana Hatfield Sings The Police (2019). Her latest album, Blood, will be released from American Laundromat Records on May 14, 2021. Listen • Twitter