Episodes
Dec. 16, 2025
How actress Mayim Bialik is rethinking her worth after a lifetime in the spotlight
Mayim Bialik has seemingly done it all: she became a beloved teen star on Blossom , earned a PhD in neuroscience, then returned to TV to play a neuroscientist on The Big Bang Theor y. She’s written books, hosts a popular podc...
Dec. 9, 2025
Inside musician John Grant’s pain: Seven songs that saved his life
John Grant’s music is known for its brutal honesty – songs about desire, rage, and shame. But the story behind that voice is even more extraordinary. Raised in a religious household where being gay meant losing your family an...
Dec. 2, 2025
31 and done: F1 champion Nico Rosberg on why he walked away at the top
From the outside, Nico Rosberg lived every young racer’s dream: born to a Formula One world champion, raised with a go-kart track in his backyard, and the Monaco Grand Prix roaring outside his bedroom window. But behind the g...
Nov. 25, 2025
Baking star Christina Tosi on the soundtrack behind her cookie empire
Milk Bar founder Christina Tosi didn’t set out to become a dessert icon. She just knew that if there was one thing she’d like to do every day for the rest of her life, it was baking cookies. That instinct led her from the wor...
Nov. 18, 2025
How Taylor Swift got TV writer Michael Schur out of a rut
Michael Schur is the creative force behind some of the most beloved comedies of the past two decades: The Good Place, Parks and Rec, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and most recently, A Man On The Inside, starring Ted Danson. If Mike’s f...
Nov. 17, 2025
Introducing 'Pacific Standard Time'
Pacific Standard Time is smart, surprising weekly podcast about California’s future—and why what happens here matters everywhere and to everyone. Hosted by SF Standard culture editor Emily Dreyfuss and enterprise reporter Jes...
Nov. 11, 2025
Why Andrew Ahn remade the first gay film he ever saw
When Andrew Ahn’s family rented “The Wedding Banquet” in the early 1990s, they didn’t realize it was a queer film. They also had no idea that 30 years later, Andrew would write and direct his own version of the film. For many...
Nov. 4, 2025
Trump fired him, but Preet Bharara is still defending the country he loves
Long before he became the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara was a first-generation Indian immigrant, listening to Bollywood music in his childhood home outside of Asbury Park, New Jersey. It’s...
Oct. 28, 2025
How actress Pepi Sonuga keeps the faith, even when Hollywood says 'We don't need you'
Pepi Sonuga always knew she would become a performer. Even as a little girl in Lagos, Nigeria, watching “Barney” tapes that her flight attendant mother brought home, Pepi felt certain that someday, she’d be the one onscreen. ...
Oct. 21, 2025
Drag queen and activist Peppermint finds joy even when there’s ‘no tears left to cry’
Miss Peppermint wears a lot of hats (and wigs): drag queen, first openly trans woman on RuPaul’s Drag Race , Broadway actress, Traitors contestant – and through it all, vocal trans rights activist. She’s also hilarious, fabul...
Oct. 14, 2025
How music taught culture critic Sam Sanders to be grateful for his grief
As the host and creator of numerous hit culture podcasts, Sam Sanders is known for having a finger on the pulse of pop culture. But growing up strictly Pentecostal in Texas, non-religious music was forbidden – so Sam got reso...
Oct. 7, 2025
From the South Bronx to Sesame Street: How Sonia Manzano made Maria a Latina icon
Sonia Manzano knows you think of her as Maria on Sesame Street – and that’s exactly the point. Growing up in the South Bronx in a household “ruled by domestic violence,” TV was Sonia’s refuge as a child – but she never saw an...
Sept. 30, 2025
From Mozart to Drake: The music that moves Misty Copeland
After 25 years with American Ballet Theatre, Misty Copeland is taking her final bow this October. Just ahead of her last performance, the groundbreaking ballerina – who made history as ABT’s first Black female principal dance...
Sept. 23, 2025
Riding waves and weathering life’s storms with surfer-turned-writer Jamie Brisick
Jamie Brisick was living the California dream – a pro surfer sponsored by Quicksilver, traveling the world and competing on the ASP World Tour. But beneath the “Malibu Barbie” facade, tragedy was brewing: his brother was desc...
Sept. 16, 2025
Special Episode: The songs that shaped our listeners’ lives (and Sophie’s, too)
To celebrate (a little over) one year of Life in Seven Songs, Sophie answers some burning questions about the show, shares a few songs off her list, and turns the mic to you — our listeners — to hear about the songs tied to y...
Sept. 9, 2025
How I Met Your Mother gave Josh Radnor 'identity vertigo.' Ayahuasca set him straight.
This week, we Willkommen actor and musician Josh Radnor! Josh is best known for playing Ted Mosby on the hit sitcom How I Met Your Mother for nearly a decade. But that success came at an unexpected cost: an identity crisis th...
Sept. 2, 2025
How TV’s favorite couples therapist, Dr. Orna Guralnik, found her interior life through music
Dr. Orna Guralnik broke barriers by bringing actual therapy sessions to millions of viewers through Showtime’s hit docuseries “Couples Therapy” — but her rebellious streak started much earlier. In this episode, Dr. Guralnik t...
Aug. 26, 2025
'Everyone’s seen my tits': Keeley Hazell on reclaiming the narrative in her new memoir
Keeley Hazell has lived a life that would make great television – which is probably why she inspired the beloved character Keeley Jones on Ted Lasso . In her new memoir, “Everyone’s Seen My Tits,” Keeley chronicles her chaoti...
Aug. 19, 2025
Amanda Knox survived a living nightmare. 2000s power ballads helped.
At 20 years old, Amanda Knox found herself alone in an Italian jail cell, falsely accused of a brutal murder, and facing 26 years in prison. She was called “Luciferina” in the courtroom – and far worse in the tabloids. But Am...
Aug. 12, 2025
ENCORE: How Robert Reich learned to fight bullies
This week, we’re revisiting a favorite – our conversation with former US Labor Secretary Robert Reich, who just released “Coming Up Short,” a memoir that doubles as a national reckoning. The title is a nod to his height — jus...
Aug. 5, 2025
Mary Louise Kelly: NPR host, war reporter, mother … spy novelist?
You probably know Mary Louise Kelly’s voice as the co-host of NPR’s All Things Considered. But you may not know that the veteran journalist has faced her fair share of challenges – from discovering she had severe hearing loss...
July 29, 2025
Biographer of geniuses Walter Isaacson on the songs and city that made him
In our first ever live episode, recorded at the 2025 Aspen Ideas Festival, Sophie sits down with Walter Isaacson, the acclaimed journalist behind the definitive biographies of visionaries like Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, and Leona...
July 22, 2025
Best-selling author Jason Reynolds writes the Y.A. books he never had
Jason Reynolds is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and 2024 MacArthur Fellow who writes books for young people – but he didn’t finish a book until he was 17. Instead, Jason found his literary voice in the rap lyrics pri...
July 8, 2025
The music, movie stars and murder trial that shaped actor Griffin Dunne
Griffin Dunne was a Hollywood insider long before he became the successful actor he is today – in fact, he might not have survived childhood if Sean Connery hadn’t pulled him from the bottom of a pool. But Griffin’s story, ca...