Show Notes
Get your tickets for Wild Card live in Los Angeles with special guest Tracee Ellis Ross on May 7!
Lena Dunham tells Rachel that for much of her 20s and 30s, she took a vacation from who she was as a child. These days, though, she says she’s much more in touch with that part of her life. Her new book, “Famesick,” chronicles those tumultuous years during the rise of her hit show, “Girls.” In this episode, Dunham shares what she learned from struggling with stardom and chronic illness. To listen sponsor-free and support the show, sign up for Wild Card+ at plus.npr.org/wildcard
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More from Wild Card with Rachel Martin
London today is very different from the one Zadie Smith grew up in and the one she wrote about in her debut novel “White Teeth.” That is just one of the things Smith is grappling with 26 years after her best-selling book's debut. She talks to Rachel about the difficulty of revisiting the first few pages of "White Teeth," the wisdom only teenagers possess, and fighting despair with crème brûlée.
Jesse Eisenberg plays characters who spend a lot of time in their heads grappling with anxiety, fear and insecurity. You can see it in “The Squid and the Whale,” “Zombieland” and “A Real Pain,” which he wrote directed, and starred in. He chats with Rachel about how anxiety plays into his own life, as well as his unique use of ChatGPT, his pro basketball aspirations and the virtues of true boredom.
“I think joy and melancholy have a lot to say to each other,” Pádraig Ó Tuama tells Rachel. In his poetry, he allows that conversation between joy and melancholy to play out as he explores love, grief, and faith. Pádraig's latest poetry collection is called “Love Between Men.” He tells Rachel about why the Irish language is of the earth, and the fear and relief that comes with admitting the truth.
Trixie Mattel is so many things: a musician, entrepreneur, TV host, and one of the most beloved drag queens out there. But it all began with a deep love of music; her latest EP, "Till Death Do Us Part" is out this fall. Trixie tells Rachel about learning to read people by working at an ice cream shop, life's impermanence, and why the promise of the afterlife steps on the joy of being alive now.
Willem Dafoe sees acting as a form of service – both to the audience and to his coworkers making a movie. That selfless approach means he’s also on guard for anything that can inflate his ego, including, he tells Rachel, sounding too pompous in interviews. “Don’t let me talk too much!” he jokes with her. They discuss his highly productive year, including his film “Late Fame,” and why he loves putting the animals on his farm to bed every night.