Jack Stafford PODSONGS

“One day everyone will have always been against this” — Helen Ganya, One Day

Brighton-based Scottish-Thai songwriter Helen Ganya sits down with climate justice activist and author Tori Tsui, whose book It’s Not Just You reframed eco-anxiety as a collective problem rather than a private one. They talk about finding East and Southeast Asian community in the UK after COVID, growing up between cultures, and what Tori would add to her book now: militarism, Palestine, and the colonial and environmental violence that emissions accounting quietly leaves out. They take apart the hero narrative in activism, make the case for imperfect activism and the radical flank, and ask how music and metaphor can carry ideas that headlines can’t. Helen then turned the conversation into a new song about empire, oil, rewritten history, and holding on to the people you love.

New single “One Day” by Helen Ganya, out 6 November. Stream/pre-save: https://ffm.to/onedaypodsongs

CHAPTERS

00:00 Meet Helen Ganya and Tori Tsui

00:26 Why Helen chose Tori

02:31 Finding ESEA community after COVID

05:13 Growing up between cultures

07:12 It’s Not Just You, and what Tori would update

08:38 Why militarism is a climate justice issue

13:28 Going beyond climate messaging

17:39 The problem with hero activists

24:08 Music as a bridge to the climate crisis

32:28 Imperfect activism and accountability

37:16 Diversity gaps and feeling unwelcome in climate movements

38:31 Radical flank theory explained

40:54 Activists who hold the line

43:05 How history gets rewritten

44:32 Finding your role in the movement

49:03 How Tori became an activist

52:15 Fossil Fuel Treaty letter, EarthPercent and Iran organising

55:30 Hope, self-care and slowing down

01:05:31 Turning the conversation into a song

01:12:59 Creating without constraints

01:15:38 Closing thoughts

GUEST & MUSICIAN

Tori Tsui: https://toritsui.com

Helen Ganya: https://helenganya.com

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#Podsongs #ToriTsui #HelenGanya #DreamPop #ClimateJustice #ItsNotJustYou #ClimateActivism

"It's not finding the one. It's finding the many." — Meggan Watterson

Florida folk singer-songwriter Corey Kilgannon returns to Podsongs (his first visit gave us "Lost Connections") to interview Harvard-trained feminist theologian Meggan Watterson, author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller Mary Magdalene Revealed and The Girl Who Baptized Herself. Corey arrives with an honest question about anger and what his role is in the feminist reckoning inside Christianity. Meggan answers with a different idea of power: one nobody can ever take from you. From the pages torn out of the Gospel of Mary, to the supper clubs that kept the early Christ movement alive under empire, to why the answer to our times isn't finding the one but finding the many. Singer-songwriter Jake Wesley Rogers drops in to sing. Meggan's call for "a new song, a new story" became Corey's new single, down to the Greek word she unpacks for him: nous, the spiritual eye of the heart.

New single "Herstory" by Corey Kilgannon — out 2 October. Stream/pre-save: https://ffm.to/herstory

CHAPTERS

00:00 Welcome to Podsongs
00:23 Corey Gets the Assignment
01:11 Gushing Over Mary Magdalene Revealed
03:04 Righteous Rage and New Power
09:22 One Eye Inward One Outward
10:27 Cleveland Florida and Spiritual Practice
15:35 Finding the Many Community
20:05 Early Church Supper Clubs
23:39 Contemplative Christianity and Inner Authority
30:53 Artists as Mystics
32:41 Missing Pages of the Gospel of Mary
35:41 Mind Between Soul Matter
37:11 Nous Spiritual Heart Eye
38:48 Mary Secret Teachings
39:46 Missing Pages Inner Work
42:48 Unworthiness False Hierarchies
45:34 Mercy Anchors Love
48:09 Mary Magdalene Film Review
53:45 Debrief Books And Practice
56:37 Yoga Christianity Links
01:02:17 Recording Anxiety Craft
01:05:08 Closing Song New Story

GUEST & MUSICIAN

Meggan Watterson: https://www.megganwatterson.com

Corey Kilgannon: https://www.instagram.com/corey_kilgannon

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#Podsongs #MegganWatterson #CoreyKilgannon #MaryMagdalene #GospelOfMary #DivineFeminine #Herstory

"You have to hold on to hope." — Juliet Marillier

Dutch folk singer Sophie Janna was 14 when she read Daughter of the Forest. Twenty-four years later she finally gets to ask its author the questions she's been carrying since. Juliet Marillier — the New Zealand-born, Western Australia-based novelist behind the Sevenwaters saga and the Blackthorn & Grim novels, and winner of the 2025 World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award — talks about the marriage that ended, the office job, and the first novel she wrote over three years purely to put her feelings on the page. She talks about being a musician long before she was a writer, about belonging to a druid order, about the trees in an Irish wood she was warned away from, and about the morning she lifted a magpie off a picket fence — a moment that became the opening scene of her new novel, The Amber Owl. Sophie takes the conversation into the song, and writes it back into the book that started her: the silent sister, the needle, and the word that must not be spoken.

New single "Hold On" by Sophie Janna — out 28 August. Stream/pre-save: https://ffm.to/holdon-sophiejanna

CHAPTERS

00:00 Welcome to Podsongs
00:40 Meet Sophie Janner
01:09 Falling for Daughter
02:43 Songs from the Books
04:13 Juliet’s Late Start
05:27 What Her Stories Are
07:27 Juliet Joins the Call
09:24 From Music to Writing
11:15 Writing Through Crisis
17:36 Music in Her Fiction
20:43 Roots in Scotland
25:07 Researching Wolfskin
30:47 Forests and Climate
35:39 Art as Activism
38:19 Self Doubt Reflections
40:35 Writing Battles Hard
43:18 Creating Despite Doubts
44:56 Rethinking Soulmates
49:27 Libraries And Access
52:46 Comfort Reads And Moomins
54:43 Finland Research Trip
58:29 Believing In Nature Magic
01:04:11 Magpie Rescue Inspiration
01:08:34 Signing Off And Aftertalk

SONG CREDITS

"Hold On" performed by Sophie Janna

Massimino Voza: drums, piano

Luigi Falcione: bass

Maurizio Sarnicola: electric guitar, mellotron

Mixed and mastered at Goldmine Records, Italy

GUEST & MUSICIAN

Juliet Marillier: https://julietmarillier.com

Sophie Janna: https://sophiejanna.nl

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#Podsongs #JulietMarillier #SophieJanna #folk #TheAmberOwl #druid #folklore

Joel McHale reveals his secret 5am pre-flight ritual, the secret to his marriage, and a Dave Grohl story he's never told — plus, hidden in this hour, the confession that becomes Lowland Hum's new song "Tarantula" on Friday. | Podsongs #173

"I'm Irish, so I could drink turpentine and it would be fine." — Joel McHale

Husband-and-wife folk duo Lowland Hum (Daniel and Lauren Goans) guest-host Podsongs from a friend's studio near their Virginia log cabin and interview comedian and actor Joel McHale (Community, The Soup, Animal Control, Crime Scene Kitchen, Scream 7). Inside this hour: the thing he drinks at 5am before every single flight, the reason he refuses to check a bag, the backstage Dave Grohl story he's never told anywhere, the one thing his wife never does that keeps the marriage working, what cobra actually tastes like, packing procrastination as an existential crisis, an animal that "in two months could kill us all" — and somewhere in all of it, the moment that became Lowland Hum's new single "Tarantula". Even Joel doesn't know which one. See if you can spot it before the song drops.

New single "Tarantula" by Lowland Hum — out Friday 24 July 2026. Pre-save it and hear the answer the moment it lands: https://ffm.to/tarantula

CHAPTERS

00:00 Warm welcome and delays

00:25 Log cabin heat wave chaos

01:17 Woods talk and how memory fragments

02:26 Joel's inside-outside portal office

04:10 Seattle roots and Northwest life

07:00 Meet the host, Jack

08:06 Travel, airports and kid logistics

10:39 Joel's 5am airport ritual and travel kit

13:33 Packing anxiety and style trends

19:02 The perfect pants rabbit hole

23:54 Do acting roles follow you home?

32:48 Flow state across standup, hosting and Scream 7

35:51 Lowland Hum's origin story and gratitude

39:15 Therapy, the inner critic and motivation

43:31 The emotional dial and tour energy

46:32 Tour van naps

46:53 Saying yes to everything: the hustle

48:29 Pro mode onstage

51:40 Collaboration chemistry and 20-year friendships

54:48 The blindfolded audience experiment

01:00:03 Music nerd tangents and the untold Dave Grohl story

01:06:24 Tarantulas and cougars

01:12:27 Food memories and Rome

01:15:32 Goodbyes and the blindfold show

01:19:00 Aftershow: finding the song's entry point

01:24:46 Patreon and community

01:28:08 Closing song tease

GUEST & MUSICIAN

Joel McHale: https://joelmchale.com

Lowland Hum: https://www.lowlandhum.com

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#Podsongs #JoelMcHale #LowlandHum #Tarantula #indiefolk #Community

"You're in despair. You just don't know you're in despair." — Peter Rollins
 

On this episode of Podsongs, John Kunkel of The New Division takes the guest-host chair to interview Northern Irish writer, philosopher and theologian Peter Rollins as inspiration for a brand new song. John opens up on his influences — Depeche Mode, New Order, Echo & the Bunnymen, Duran Duran — before the conversation turns to Rollins' work: questioning certainty, exposing the contradictions we live by, and finding freedom from the relentless "tyranny of happiness," with Los Angeles cast as a spiritual "Mecca" selling wholeness to anyone who can afford it. Along the way Rollins unpacks desire, sacrifice, work and alienation, ideology, AI and the unconscious, the films that shaped him, and the parables behind his "pyrotheology" — and the talk becomes the seed of "Idols," a song about the things we all end up worshipping, good and bad.

New single "Idols" by The New Division — out 26 June. Stream/pre-save: https://ffm.to/tnd_idols

TOPICS

• Peter Rollins on desire, contradiction, and ideology
• The tyranny of happiness and the demand to enjoy
• Los Angeles as a spiritual marketplace
• Lacanian psychoanalysis and the unconscious
• Why desire needs obstacles
• Sacrifice, meaning, and fulfillment
• AI, consciousness, and the technological singularity
• Films, storytelling, and creative inspiration
• John Kunkel’s influences: Depeche Mode, New Order, Echo & the Bunnymen, Duran Duran
• Writing a song live on the podcast

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 Intro: welcome to Podsongs
01:29 Why UK music hits different (New Order, Depeche Mode, Echo & the Bunnymen)
04:45 Keeping new wave alive
06:18 Moving abroad: music logistics
09:47 Writing 150 song demos
14:41 Who is Peter Rollins?
28:17 Peter joins the call
31:50 LA and the demand to enjoy
37:01 The tyranny of happiness
38:35 The superego's demand to enjoy
40:19 Why fulfilling your dreams can backfire
41:53 The enjoyment hidden in sacrifice
44:33 Why desire needs obstacles
47:39 The unconscious and Lacan's "object a"
52:56 Filmmaking and prohibition
57:43 Negative universality and politics
01:01:16 The church of contradiction
01:05:29 AI, singularity and the unconscious
01:12:42 Music tastes and influences
01:14:08 Film picks: They Live and ideology
01:19:49 Who inspires Peter now
01:20:34 Writing the song live
01:21:20 The Vegas parable and unknowing
01:26:02 Where to find Peter Rollins
01:28:43 The profane temple and lack
01:34:51 Post-interview debrief
01:39:07 "Idols" — song outro

GUEST & MUSICIAN

Peter Rollins: https://peterrollins.com

The New Division: https://www.newdivisionmusic.com

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#PeterRollins #JohnKunkel #NewDivision #Philosophy #Theology #Psychoanalysis #Lacan #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #Consciousness #Ideology #Desire #Happiness #Spirituality #Songwriting #SynthPop #NewWave #PostPunk #Podsongs #JackStafford

Australian singer-songwriter William Crighton joins host Jack Stafford for a remarkable conversation with legendary explorer, anthropologist and ethnobotanist Wade Davis — bestselling author of The Serpent and the Rainbow and one of the world’s leading voices on indigenous cultures, psychedelics, anthropology and human consciousness.

Recorded on Wade Davis’ 70th birthday, this episode explores Aboriginal songlines, Dreamtime, psychedelics, race, optimism, creativity, music as trance, fatherhood, indigenous wisdom and the modern crisis of meaning.

Before Wade joins the conversation, William discusses his evolving sound, his acclaimed album Water and Dust, collaborations with William Barton and Jeff Lang, touring in Canada and China, his prison songwriting programme and his focus on lower-carbon solo touring.

During the episode, Wade says:

“Despair is an insult to the imagination.”

Later:

“Give your destiny time to find you.”

That line inspired William to write a brand new original song called Destiny, which closes the episode.

Podsongs is the podcast where musicians interview inspiring non-musical guests as inspiration for a new song.

Timestamps:

00:00 Show Intro

00:34 William Crighton’s Sound Journey

04:30 Authenticity, Art & Service

05:32 Why William Chose Wade Davis

08:57 Wade Davis Stories & 70th Birthday

10:58 Touring Canada & Musical Roots

12:53 Australia, Landscape & History

14:43 China, Walkabout & The New Album

20:00 COVID Lockdowns & The Birth of Podsongs

22:11 Wade Davis Joins The Call

24:02 Aboriginal Dreaming & Songlines

28:52 Why Race Is A Myth According To Genetics

38:49 Optimism As A Choice

43:04 Psychedelics & Phases Of Life

46:44 Sacred Experience vs Religion

48:07 Music As Trance & Prayer

53:30 Nature, Myth & Metaphor

56:45 Hope In An Age Of Change

01:05:09 How Landscape Shapes Culture

01:08:53 Egalitarianism & Human Connection

01:17:11 Elder Wisdom & Destiny

01:23:48 Lucky Breaks, Risk & Saying Yes

01:28:07 Final Reflections & New Song

01:32:24 “Give Your Destiny Time To Find You”

Wade Davis Official Website

William Crighton:
William Crighton Official Website

Pre-save Destiny:
Pre-save Destiny on Spotify

Podsongs:
Podsongs Official Website

#WadeDavis #WilliamCrighton #Podsongs

Chad Kultgen — novelist, screenwriter, co-creator of Game of Roses (a.k.a. Bachelor Clues), co-host of Dudesy, and host of YouTube's The Necessary Conversation — joins Podsongs for a 90-minute interview with guest host Robin Dann of the Toronto art-pop band Bernice. Robin is a two-time Polaris Music Prize nominee with Bernice, and on this episode she steps into the host seat to dig into the ideas driving Chad's work: kayfabe, reality TV as sport, AI, and the politics of nihilism.The conversation covers kayfabe in professional wrestling and how the same logic now shapes The Bachelor, reality TV at large, social media, and American politics — including villain edits, engineered viral trends, and the "four audiences" framework from Game of Roses. They discuss the primary world shifting onto screens, what AR, Neuralink-style tech, and AI tools like Suno mean for art, labor, and music, and whether AI music will disrupt songwriting the way AI has disrupted comedy on Dudesy.

Chad opens up about his nihilistic worldview, his position on free will, and how he navigates political conversations with his MAGA-supporting parents on The Necessary Conversation. The episode also gets into his day-to-day creative grind, his musical background and regrets about not studying music formally, his Logic production setup, his obsession with Mormon influencer culture, and the producer mindset he learned from Elon Gale. Robin talks about her own musical roots — jazz studies, Paris, a master's at Goldsmiths — the Toronto scene, Bernice's work in Italy, and her ASMR obsession. The two close by agreeing to collaborate on a song drawn from the interview.

The song that came out of this conversation, "Let's Go Supernova," was written by Robin Dann and is released May 1.

Guests: Chad Kultgen (Bachelor Clues, Game of Roses, Dudesy, The Necessary Conversation) —  www.youtube.com/@thenecessaryconversation  
Robin Dann (Bernice) — https://bernicemusic.com

Song: "Let's Go Supernova" — written by Robin Dann. Pre-save: https://ffm.to/gosupernova
Podsongs: https://podsongs.com
 

Songwriter Leroy Stagger speaks with writer Alistair McIntosh about the mental-health strain many experienced during COVID, the need for community, and how the “pause” helped Leroy slow down, reconnect with spirituality, and better understand his purpose as a touring musician. Leroy credits Alistair’s books, especially Soil and Soul and Poacher’s Pilgrimage, along with authors and artists like Patti Smith, Nick Cave, and others, for shaping his thinking about kindness, poetry, and a “divine inner reality.” Alistair discusses the Scottish bardic tradition, the “carrying stream,” mentoring through people, visions, and dreams, and the idea that spiritual insight is a gift of grace rather than willpower. They explore prayer as “holding others in God,” the dark night of the soul, interconnectedness, and keeping “one eye on the ground and the other on the stars,” then close with plans for Leroy to write a song inspired by the conversation.
 

Stream the song: https://ffm.to/carryme-ls

In this episode of Podsongs, Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Valerie June sits down with world-renowned mindfulness teacher and author Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR).Together, they explore mindfulness, meditation, breath, creativity and music as practices of awareness and connection. Valerie shares how meditation has shaped her daily life and artistic process, while Jon reflects on the philosophy of mindfulness, the idea of “the story of me,” and why presence matters more than ever in a fast-paced, overstimulated world.This deep, wide-ranging conversation touches on music as meditation, spiritual experience, activism, environmental responsibility, and the power of small, conscious actions. The interview also lays the groundwork for a new song, A Rest Between Breaths, written in direct response to the insights shared during the conversation.Whether you’re interested in mindfulness meditation, breathwork, conscious creativity, or the intersection of music and spirituality, this episode offers rare depth, warmth and practical wisdom.Listen to the song inspired by this episode:A Rest Between Breaths – Valerie JuneSpotify pre-save: https://ffm.to/arestbetweenbreaths

About PodsongsPodsongs is a unique podcast created and hosted by Jack Stafford, pairing musicians with thinkers, writers and cultural figures they admire. Each episode begins with a long-form conversation and ends with an original song inspired by the exchange. Podsongs was recorded at Goldmine Records in Vallo della Lucania, Italy.

⁠Alastair Campbell⁠ joins host ⁠Jack Stafford⁠ and musician ⁠Allman Brown⁠ for a rare and deeply human conversation on Podsongs.

Known for his central role in New Labour and his openness about mental health, Campbell reflects on vulnerability, resilience and leadership under pressure. The discussion moves from mental health in politics and the emotional weight of decision-making to Brexit, legacy and comparisons between past and present political leaders. Music weaves throughout the episode, offering insight into creativity, survival and Campbell’s lifelong love of sound — including an unexpected passion for bagpipes.A thoughtful, wide-ranging podcast episode exploring politics, mental health and the power of music to shape who we become.

Stream the song: https://ffm.to/livingbetter