Sahana Srinivasan, host of the popular Netflix science show for kids Brainchild explains how listening to "Where Will I Go" by Sweet Valley helped her find her voice a young artist. She also tells us about the artistic journey that led her to host Brainchild, and what it's like being the kind of role model she never had growing up.

Jackie Venson explains how seeing "Don't Cry For Me Argentina," from the movie Evita, changed the way she listened to music and the way she saw herself.

Bayonne, KUTX's Artist of the Month, explains how "God Only Knows" by the Beach Boys taught him the power of vulnerability and openness and how to embrace it in his own music.

On this episode, Josh Lloyd-Watson and Tom McFarland of British electronic pop outfit Jungle, tell us about the Jai Paul's "Jasmine," and how it helped their band get comfortable with sonic experimentation.

Meredith Goldstein is host of the Love Letters podcast, the love advice columnist and entertainment writer for the Boston Globe and one of host Elizabeth McQueen's oldest and dearest friends.  In this episode she explores all the reasons she loves the sexy, pleading desperation of "Father Figure" by George Michael.

Allison Moorer Moorer describes how "Every Breath You Take"  by the Police gave her a window into an entire other world of music, and helped her define herself apart from her family.

Cara Tillman, vocalist and instrumentalist from Moving Panoramas, describes the joy that Elton John's "Burn Down the Mission" brings her, followed by guitarist Rosie Castoe exploring her life long love of Peter Gabriel's "Steam." And lead singer and songwriter Leslie Sisson explains why "Some Song" by Elliot Smith made her feel less alone.

Amanda Palmer explores how seeing Nick Cave's performance of "Magneto" in the documentary "On More Time With Feeling" showed her how powerful inviting an audience into deeply personal experiences could be. "The ability too walk into the dark and carefully take people with you is why we do our jobs."

Warren Hood describes how hearing the song "High Hill" gave him a deep appreciation for the music of Uncle Walt's band while helping him process his grief around the loss of his father.

Jenny Lewis' describes the effect that hearing  "Govinda Jai Jai" by Alice Coltrane while on a road trip across California with Jim James and Gary Burden had on her spirit and on her approach to her new record "On the Line."

Patty Griffin latest record "Patty Griffin" is a gorgeous acoustic exercise in vulnerability.  Listen as she explores all the ways that Peter Gabriel's  "Secret World" impacted her life and her music.

Cautious Clay explains how the video for Outkast's "B.O.B" blew his mind as a 7 year old and tells us how that experience continues to have a profound impact on his own work, especially on his new project "Table of Context."

Ian Graham,  guitarist, songwriter and singer for the Austin psych metal band The Well, describes how hearing "Ocean Size" by Jane's Addiction when he was a kid showed him how powerfully music could convey a feeling by  transporting him "to somebody else's movie."

Producer and multi-instrumentalist GRiZ explains how seeing Disney's "Fanstasia"as a child helped him understand music's ability to take the listener on an emotional journey and piqued his interest in making music on the computer. The listen as he explains why he wanted to explore his own complex emotional journey on his latest record "Ride Waves."

Citizen Cope details how his emotional connections to legends such as Randy Newman and Trouble Funk aided his understanding of the powerful energy that music can have. Cope then goes on to discusses how his experiences of the last seven years led him to the songs on his latest record "Heroin and Helicopters."

Austin's Pocket Sounds is the solo project of singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and arranger Mike St Clair. Listen as he describes how hearing Dionne Warwick's version of the Burt Bacharach/Hal David classic "Do You Know the Way to San Jose"  at a kiddie pool party inspired him to meld the classical, jazz, pop and rock parts of himself, and influenced his new song "Radio Song."

Austin rapper The Teeta breaks down all the reasons he loves "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen and how it influenced the direction he took on "Rain" from his latest record  Teeta World. 

Writer and entrepreneur Thea Wood describes how hearing Joan Jett's "Bad Reputation" while watching the documentary of the same name  reignited her passion for music and inspired her to create the "Backstage Chats With Women in Music" podcast as well as the the Backstage Chats Foundation.

Our May Artist of the Month- The Bishops explain that hearing "Soundtrack to My Life" by Kid Cudi for the first time as middle schoolers changed what they thought hip-hop music could be.

Timothy Showalter, who leads the folk-rock band Strand of Oaks describes how hearing David Bowie's "Lazarus" at the end of the recording process helped him see how powerful documenting dark times could be.

Musician, writer, and frontman for Old 97’s Rhett Miller launched his own podcast “Wheel’s Off With Rhett Miller” earlier this year.  In it, he talks to artists about what it’s really like to live a creative life. In this 2017 episode, he describes how hearing the Jewish Lesbian Folk singer Phranc perform ‘The Lonesome Death […]

Austin based sisters Tori, Tiffany and Sofia Baltierra have been playing as the Tiarra Girls since they were in elementary and middle school. Listen as they describe how seeing the video for No Doubt's "Just a Girl" influenced them all stylistically and helped them find their voices as young women in music.

On this episode of This Song, Elizabeth McQueen sits down with Eric Burton, the lead singer of Black Pumas to talk about what he learned about honesty an connection from Otis Redding's "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay" and how went  from busking on the Santa Monica Pier to fronting the Black Pumas in Austin Texas.

On the last episode of This Song until the fall, Krissy Teegerstrom, a self-made artist, creative consultant, podcaster, and designer at Featherweight Studio talks about how listening to "Mojo Pin" by Jeff Buckley transported her to a place beyond the real and showed her how to follow her creative intuition.

Ezra Koenig, lead singer and songwriter for the band Vampire Weekend, explains why he recently became obsessed with  "I Don't Think Much About Her No More" by country singer and songwriter Mickey Newbury and explores what it was like to apply country music's direct approach to songwriting to some of the the songs on Father of the Bride.

Carrie Brownstein explains how "Stay" by Rhianna inspired her to write the last track on Sleater-Kinney's latest record,"Broken." 

Singer, songwriter and producer Finneas O'Connell not only writes and produces music with his sister Billie Eilish, but also makes his own music under the name FINNEAS. Listen as he explains why he loved "Holy Sh*t" by Father John Misty from the moment he heard it and how the song helped him expand his ideas of what he could say in his own songs.

British singer, songwriter and producer Shura explains why My Bloody Valentine terrified her and intrigued her she she heard it for the first time, what it's like to write an entire album of love songs and why she felt like now was the right time to use female-gendered pronouns in her work.

La Marisoul, lead singer and songwriter for the band La Santa Cecilia explains how  Mercedes Sosa's version of "Yo vengo a ofrecer mi corazon" by Fito Páez helped her understand what a powerful tool music could be for connection and healing.

Indie electronic duo Matt and Kim talk about how "The Mullet Burden" by The Dillinger Escape Plan showed them how intense music could be.

King Princess describes how  listening to "Cosmic Dancer" by T. Rex as a kid made her feel seen, helped her understand her gender and  showed her how music could transport the listener to another place and time.

Devendra Bahnart talks about how hearing "Just Another Diamond Day" by Vashti Bunyan  when he was busking on the streets of Paris comforted him  with a feeling of motherly love that he still turns to today and how themes of motherhood, love, fear and compassion show up on his latest record "Ma."

Come to Waterloo Records Thursday, November 21st at 4pm for a live taping of the This Song podcast. Singer, songwriter and author Allison Moorer will talk about a song that changed her life, and talk about her new book and companion album, Blood. The event is FREE and open to the public.

This week we have a special treat for you! A full episode of the new Song Confessional Podcast! In  this episode you'll hear a tale of family, weed and secrets, the song it inspired written by Brooklyn based Vlad Holiday, and an interview with Holiday about his boozy creative process.

In this episode of This Song, originally published last February, Jackie Venson talks about how "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" from Evita changed the way she listened to music and thought about herself.

Emily Haines and Jimmy Shaw from  Metric talk about  hearing "Teardrop" by Massive Attack early in their musical partnership and how it inspired them, terrified them and helped them find a collaborative way of making music that still works for them today.

In this episode, St. Vincent explores how music from early Disney films helped her lay the foundation for beauty and wonder in her life and work. She also explains why she approached the songs on Masseduction with a Disney-esque lack of irony.

Kathy Valentine, bass player in the seminal 80s all-girl rock group the Go-Go's, recently wrote a memoir titled All I Ever Wanted. In this episode of, Kathy explains what "Sunshine of Your Love" by Cream taught her about herself when she was 9 years old,  describes how she found her creative process as an author and details how music and storytelling intersected in her new book.

Thao Nguyen from Thao and the Get Down Stay Down talks to host Elizabeth McQueen about the inspiration behind her new song "Temple," and about what it was like to release music during a pandemic. She also shares how making the new album helped prepare her to address her sexuality publicly and to create a safe space in her life where she could exist as her full self.

John Prine explains how Bob Dylan's "The Lonsesome Death of Hattie Carroll" changed his life and goes in depth about his own songwriting process for his album "The Tree of Forgiveness."

In this rerun from 2018, Liz Phair talks about hearing The Soft Boys "I Wanna Destroy You," revisiting her 1991 Girly-Sound Tapes and 1993 debut album, and parenting realities.

In this rerun from 2018, Beth Ditto, former lead singer of the band Gossip, talks about how Nina Simone's "Mississippi Goddam" helped her grapple with complex feelings about her home state, Arkansas. She also talks about returning home after heartbreak and explores making her first record "Fake Sugar."

In the first half of this edition of In Perspective host Rebecca McInroy of KUT Radio talks with: Dr. Amelia Weinreb, lecturer at the Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Texas; Dr. Yoav Di-Capua, History Professor at UT and author of Arab Existentialism: A lost chapter in the intellectual history of decolonization;...

On this edition of In Black America, producer/host John L. Hanson Jr. presents a 2018 interview with Dr. Patrice A. Harris, MD, a psychiatrist and president of the American Medical Association. She’ll serve for a year as president-elect and become the first African-American woman to lead the organization in 2019.

This week on In Black America, producer and host John L. Hanson, Jr. begins a conversation with Dr. Aldon D. Morris, the Leon Forrest professor of Sociology and African American Studies at Northwestern University and author of The Scholar Denied: W.E.B. Dubois: The Birth of Modern Sociology.

This week on In Black America, producer and host John L. Hanson, Jr. presents the conclusion of a conversation with Dr. Aldon D. Morris, the Leon Forrest professor of Sociology and African American Studies at Northwestern University, author of The Scholar Denied: W.E.B. Dubois: The Birth of Modern Sociology, and president-elect of the American Sociological...

This week on In Black America, producer and host John L. Hanson, Jr. speaks with Dr. Idopise Umana, a board-certified internal medicine physician who specializes in managing patients with acute and chronic illnesses and founder of The Wellness Institute, located in Suwanee, Georgia.

This week, In Black America producer and host John L. Hanson, Jr. speaks with Dr. Monique W. Morris, social justice scholar, author o f Sing a Rhythm, Dance a Blues: Education for the Liberation of Black and Brown Girls, and founder and President of The National Black Women’s Justice Institute.

In a Fox News interview, Mr. Trump also angrily revived grievances about the special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and promised a swift economic rebound.

The Office of Special Counsel has found “reasonable grounds” to investigate whether Dr. Rick Bright was ousted from a senior science post for questioning Trump administration actions.