Episode 504
with Andrea Nevins, Melissa Febos, and Pink Martini
Live Wire celebrates Women's History Month by honoring some unsung heroes from the past; filmmaker Andrea Nevins shines a light on the challenges and triumphs of female comedians in her documentary Hysterical; writer Melissa Febos opens up about her collection of essays, Girlhood, which looks at the forces that shape the lives of girls and the adults they become; and genre-bending musical group Pink Martini performs a soaring cover of the 1970s hit "I Am Woman."
Andrea Nevins
Director, Producer, and Writer
Andrea Nevins is an Emmy award-winning director, producer and writer. Her first independent documentary, Still Kicking, was nominated for an Academy Award. She followed this initial success with her first feature-length documentary, The Other F Word, about anti-authoritarian punk rockers donning the cloak of paternal authority. It premiered at SXSW, won theatrical distribution by Oscilloscope, and was broadcast on Showtime. Her critically acclaimed film Tiny Shoulders: Rethinking Barbie, a Hulu Original Documentary, won a 2019 Realscreen Award and was included in that year’s American Film Showcase. Her most recent film, Hysterical, is a documentary about women in stand-up comedy, which Indiewire called "equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking.” The film premiered at SXSW in 2021. Twitter · Website
Melissa Febos
Author
Melissa Febos is the author of the memoir Whip Smart and two essay collections: Abandon Me and Girlhood. She is a four-time MacDowell fellow; she won the inaugural Jeanne Córdova Nonfiction Award from LAMBDA Literary; and in 2022, she was named a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellow. Her work has appeared in such publications as The Paris Review, The Sun, The Kenyon Review, Tin House, Granta, The Believer, McSweeney’s, The New York Times Magazine, The Guardian, Elle, and Vogue. She is an associate professor at the University of Iowa, where she teaches in the Nonfiction Writing Program. Her newest book, Body Work, about the craft of memoir writing, comes out in March 2022. Twitter · Website
Pink Martini
Portland Band
Portland-raised, Harvard-educated pianist Thomas Lauderdale founded Pink Martini in 1994 to provide “beautiful and inclusive music” for political fundraisers. It’s safe to say that the band quickly eclipsed Lauderdale’s original vision. Their first song, “Sympathique (Je ne veus pas travailler),” became an overnight sensation in France, was nominated for “Song of the Year” at France’s Victoires de la Musique Awards, and to this day remains a mantra (“I don’t want to work”) for striking French workers. Featuring a dozen musicians, with songs in 25 languages, and performing with symphony orchestras around the world, Pink Martini has sold out Carnegie Hall, Royal Albert Hall, and the Sydney Opera House, among other legendary venues. “If the United Nations had a house band in 1962,” Lauderdale says, Pink Martini would be it. Listen · Website
