In 2017, a longtime friend of the podcast Seán Barna was living in New York City and wrestling with some serious life questions. How could he survive as an artist? Did he even WANT to make music anymore? Moreover, did he have anything left to say? In 2018 he found some of those answers through a fateful friendship and a handful of spontaneous studio sessions from which his latest EP, Cissy, was born.

We’re sitting down with Barna to talk about the creation of Cissy, the power of drag queens, struggling artists, and song, and winding down our time in the basement with our friend who was there at the beginning.

Over the past few years, Israel Nash has been building a solid catalog of cosmic folk and country from his home-base in Dripping Springs, Texas, and now he’s taking the show on the road. We sat down with Nash before his recent stop in Washington DC to talk about his most recent album Lifted, the power of recognizing the beauty of nature, and how our connection to each other is the key to building a better world.