Shows
SHEROESRatboysJulia Steiner joins Carmel Holt this week on SHEROES to discuss the recently released sixth Ratboys album, Singin' To An Empty Chair, growing up a tomboy, and the sixteen year journey from hushed dorm room performances to a headlining international touring band, and critically hailed indie rock darlings.
2026-02-1354 min
SHEROESCourtney Marie AndrewsGrammy-nominated singer, songwriter, poet, and painter Courtney Marie Andrews returns to SHEROES this week to talk with Carmel Holt about her brand new, tenth studio album, Valentine. We learn that this album is a piece of a greater whole that includes Courtney's latest book of poetry, Love Is A Dog That Bites When It's Scared, and she reads one of those poems during this in-depth conversation.
2026-01-1659 min
SHEROESMadison CunninghamThe extraordinary singer, songwriter, guitarist, and multi-instrumentalist Madison Cunningham returns to SHEROES this week to discuss her third album, Ace, what she has learned about expressing anger, and stepping into a new era of creative liberation, as she is caring less than ever about industry recognition and more about writing music she adores.
2025-12-051h 01
SHEROESKathleen EdwardsThe seven-time Juno Award nominated, two-time Polaris Prize Award-nominated Canadian singer and songwriter Kathleen Edwards returns to SHEROES this week to discuss her sixth album of original material and seventh overall called Billionaire. In this deep conversation, Kathleen shares her journey and wisdom gained over her nearly 25 year career, quitting music and then choosing to return, and overcoming clinical depression, and she shares one of the best pieces of advice that she has ever gotten.
2025-10-241h 13
SHEROESFlock of DimesThe multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and producer, Jenn Wasner returns to SHEROES this week to talk about her new album The Life You Save, her self-produced third release under the moniker Flock of Dimes. Now newly settled in Los Angeles, Jenn reflects on the journey of making the album, choosing to lean into acoustic instrumentation for the first time, and what that represents.
2025-10-171h 06
SHEROESNeko CaseA self-described ferocious person, the ever-wild and perpetually awe-inspiring Grammy-nominated artist, producer, author, and visual artist Neko Case returns to SHEROES this week as we celebrate the release of her first album in seven years, Neon Grey Midnight Green, her ninth overall. Neko and Carmel catch up on the myriad projects that have kept her extremely busy during the years between records: writing and publishing her New York Times bestselling memoir, writing music for a musical adaptation of Thelma & Louise, writing, recording ,and touring with The New Pornographers, writing for her Substack, and writing songs that would become this...
2025-09-2651 min
SHEROESLido Pimienta: A SHERO's JourneyMulti-hyphenate Artist with a capital "A" Lido Pimienta returns to SHEROES this week to talk with Carmel Holt about her latest album, La Belleza - an emotionally resonant and triumphant orchestral album that sees Lido going wide with her sonic palette while she continues to build the canon of music rooted in her Afro-Indigenous Caribbean background.
2025-08-1557 min
SHEROESShirley Manson of GarbageSay it with us: ICON. Shirley Manson returns to SHEROES this week to chat with host Carmel Holt about the new Garbage album Let All That We Imagine Be The Light, their eighth studio release, and what she describes as the "good twin" to their last album No Gods No Masters. As always, Shirley comes with the wisdom, the wit, and the no-fucks-given feminist empowerment that we ALL need now, more than ever.
2025-08-0851 min
SHEROESA SHERO's Journey: UwadeGet to know Uwade on this week's episode of SHEROES. The Nigerian American indie folk artist (and PhD student) joins Carmel Holt to share her story and what went into the crafting of her beautiful debut album, Florilegium.
2025-08-0150 min
SHEROESA SHERO's Journey: Billie MartenThis week we celebrate the return of UK's Billie Marten with her brilliant fifth full length studio album, Dog Eared, and welcome Billie for an in depth conversation with Carmel Holt about avoiding making a "singer-songwriter" album, how following her instincts about bringing led to joyfully unexpected results in the studio, embodying both masculine and feminine stage personas, and her musical SHEROES.
2025-07-181h 05
SHEROESSHEROES Special Episode: U.S. Girls In NashvilleThis week it's a special edition of SHEROES with Meg Remy aka U.S. Girls in Nashville, the place that her newest album, Scratch It, was made. Our episode includes an interview with Meg Remy recorded from Nashville public radio station WNXP and a few songs recorded that same day at East Nashville event space Soft Junk, with thanks to label 4AD and Beggars Group.
2025-07-1157 min
SHEROESA SHEROES Journey: Daughter of SwordsAlex Sauser-Monnig who records and performs as Daughter of Swords recently released their second album, Alex, and they join Carmel Holt this week to talk about why acoustic music was initially a more comfortable sonic world to live in for them - both in their trio Mountain Man, and on their 2019 debut Dawnbreaker - and breaking free of those limits while simultaneously investigating and expanding the definition of how they live and support themself as an independent artist.
2025-07-0442 min
SHEROESA SHERO's Journey: Katie GavinAs our annual Pride Month celebration continues on SHEROES, Carmel Holt welcomes musician Katie Gavin for a fantastic conversation about her recent debut solo outing What A Relief, as well as Katie's musical journey from her roots as a singer-songwriter growing up in Chicago, to forming the now massively successful pop band MUNA over a decade ago with two of her best friends in college.
2025-06-2051 min
SHEROESA SHERO's Journey: Ezra FurmanOur annual Pride Month series continues with musician Ezra Furman in the SHEROES Spotlight. Carmel Holt talks with Ezra about her amazing tenth album Goodbye Small Head, the recognition that no feeling is final, and how being trans has made her life better despite the painful challenges that comes with it.
2025-06-1359 min
SHEROESSHEROES Live with LuciusCarmel Holt sits down with all four members of Lucius - Jess Wolfe, Holly Laessig, Dan Molad, and Pete Lalish - at Public Records in Brooklyn, NY to discuss their brand new self-titled album, the love and loss that informed their new songs, and getting back to their roots as a band while simultaneously settling down with their growing families.
2025-05-3056 min
SHEROESA SHERO's Journey: Tune-YardsMerrill Garbus returns to SHEROES this week to chat with Carmel about the brand new Tune-Yards album Better Dreaming, motherhood, and stepping into her power as an artist with nearly two decades and six albums under her belt.
2025-05-2353 min
SHEROESA SHERO's Journey: Maren MorrisMaren Morris returns to SHEROES this week to discuss her amazing new album Dreamsicle, a new era of musical liberation, embracing her queerness, and discovering the calm that has found her after the storm of several big life changes over the last three years.
2025-05-1647 min
SHEROESA SHERO's Journey: Natalia LafourcadeThe 18x Latin Grammy and 4x Grammy Award winning Mexican singer, songwriter, guitarist and producer Natalia Lafourcade returns to SHEROES to talk about her newest chapter: her twelfth studio album called Cancionera.
2025-04-2832 min
Summer Album/Winter AlbumJoni Mitchell's "Court and Spark" with Tim HeideckerTonight on Summer Album / Winter Album: Court and Spark. Joni Mitchell. 1974.Our special guest: Tim Heidecker, musician and host of Office Hours, On Cinema, and lots more.Jody Avirgan is arguing Summer, Craig Finn is arguing Winter.Jody won the coin toss. He is presenting first.Special thanks to Carmel Holt. Be sure to check out "The Road To Joni" from Sheroes.Weigh in and find lots more on instagram, and clips on our...
2025-04-1857 min
SHEROESA SHEROES Journey: HindsCarlotta Casials and Ana Perrote are best friends and co-founders of the Spanish garage-punk-pop band Hinds, and they join Carmel Holt this week to share their story, which saw them rise to stardom, release three albums, and then suddenly find themselves without a label, or management, and the dissolution of their lineup as their drummer and bass player departed the band. Their latest album Viva Hinds! is the result of their recommitment to each other and to the spirit that originally inspired them to start the band over a decade ago.
2025-04-1852 min
SHEROESA SHERO'S Journey: Caroline RoseIn this not to miss episode, singer, songwriter, producer Caroline Rose returns to SHEROES to join Carmel Holt in conversation about their sixth album, Year of the Slug, which sees Caroline taking a "experimental year" to do things in a much simpler, more grassroots way. No fancy gear, no label, no streaming platforms, no big productions on tour. Just Caroline, a microphone, a guitar, and a desire to find a way to be a modern day musician that makes sense.
2025-03-2149 min
SHEROESA SHERO's Journey: Deep Sea DiverJessica Dobson aka Deep Sea Diver returns to SHEROES to talk with Carmel Holt about her fantastic fourth full length album (and first for indie stalwart label, Sub Pop) Billboard Heart, and the hard-won journey it took to get here.
2025-03-1446 min
SHEROESA SHERO's Journey: Basia BulatToday Polaris Prize and Juno Award nominated Canadian singer, songwriter, and producer Basia Bulat returns with her seventh studio album, Basia's Palace, and returns to SHEROES to sit down with Carmel Holt to discuss the new album, the importance of staying in touch with her inner child, and how becoming a mother herself brought Basia to some unexpected new sonic landscapes.
2025-02-2144 min
SHEROESA SHERO'S Journey: St. Vincent (encore episode)We love St. Vincent! To celebrate her recent three Grammy wins in one night for her first fully self-produced album All Born Screaming, it's an encore episode of SHEROES with Annie Clark recorded live in conversation at The Current in St. Paul, Minnesota in September 2024.
2025-02-1441 min
SHEROESSHEROES Live at Newport Folk 2024 with Joan Baez (birthday edition!)We've dressed up and lit 84 birthday candles for Joan Baez this week with a newly refreshed version of our interview at Newport Folk Festival six months ago. Newport was where an 18 year old Joan Baez got her start in 1959, and where she returned last summer for the first time since 2009 to share some of her poems from her new poetry book, When You See My Mother Ask Her To Dance. She reads from her book during our conversation, and treats us to a powerful impromptu a-capella song.
2025-01-1032 min
SHEROESSHEROES Live at The Current with St. VincentWe just wrapped our limited SHEROES series called The Road to Joni. The road was both a metaphor for artists’ paths that led to Joni Mitchell and where those roads led them - and it was a literal road to Joni, as simultaneously, host Carmel Holt travelled across the country from New York to Los Angeles to see Joni at the Hollywood Bowl and back again, while on a tour of public radio affiliate stations who carry SHEROES each week. At the very start of the journey back in September, I visited The Current in St. Paul, Minnesota, and ho...
2024-11-2241 min
The Road To JoniFeeling The LoveWe’ve reached the end of The Road - the one that leads our host Carmel back home and to the finale of our special 10 episode series. It is also Joni Mitchell’s 81st birthday. From Newport Folk Festival 2022 to the Hollywood Bowl on October 19, 2024, we’ve watched the remarkable comeback of our SHERO, and in the past ten weeks, we’ve heard from a group of artists who shared their roads to Joni with so much love and reverence that it was rare to end a conversation without tears.We set out on this jou...
2024-11-071h 20
The Road To JoniThe SHERO of Her Own StoryThe penultimate episode of the Road To Joni series packs in more conversations than any episode so far. As host Carmel Holt heads east toward home and the finale of the series on Joni’s 81st birthday, the throughline of “Both Sides Now” continues on with four artists whose creative path would have been very different if not for Joni Mitchell. Sylvan Esso’s Amelia Meath was introduced to Joni’s music at the age of 12 by her dad. They listened in the car on cassette until she knew the songs by heart. Amelia cites Joni’s freedom with her voice an...
2024-11-011h 32
The Road To JoniThere's STILL Nobody Like Joni MitchellThis week’s episode comes to you in the afterglow of two sold out Joni Mitchell performances at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, where molecules were rearranged, hearts were broken wide open and 17,000 fans basked in her brilliance. Though she has a bit of FOMO over missing out on being part of the Joni Jam, this week’s first guest, Shawn Colvin, has plenty of Joni stories. After initially discovering Clouds as a teenager at church camp, Shawn found herself many years later recording her 2nd album at Joni’s house with Joni’s then-husband Larry Klein, and Episode...
2024-10-251h 29
The Road To JoniShe Was Right There With UsThe two guest interviews featured in Episode 7 with Bruce Hornsby and Béla Fleck were recorded back-to-back by host/producer Carmel Holt. As it turns out, the threads that connect the two artists to each other and to Joni, make the conversations a perfect pair. Joni's then-husband, Larry Klein, played bass on and co-produced several of her albums in the '80s and '90s. He would also bring the two guests in this episode closer to each other and to their shared SHERO, Joni.Pianist and genre-blending musician Bruce Hornsby sings us through h...
2024-10-181h 04
The Road To JoniThere Is More Freedom To ExploreFor Episode 6, we continue a thread from last week as host Carmel Holt talks with three “boundary dweller” artists about their Roads To Joni. Each of our guests this week are visionaries who push beyond their comfort zone. They are producers, singers, songwriters and instrumentalists. Like Joni, they are multi-Grammy nominees and winners who do things on their own terms. Grammy award winning artist Arooj Aftab spent her teenage years in Lahore, Pakistan listening to American folk music. She found Joni Mitchell’s Blue and from there she was “all in.” Arooj takes us through her gue...
2024-10-111h 05
The Road To JoniThe Boundary DwellerThe title of this week's episode comes from a term that legendary rock photographer Norman Seeff uses to describe a truly innovative artist, one who is willing to risk sacrificing their career in order to expand beyond their creative comfort zone. He calls these people “boundary dweller artists.” Norman says that he sees Joni as the archetype of this concept. Her evolution to incorporate jazz influences in the 70s, threw some of her fans for a loop, but as we’ve heard in previous episodes, Joni was not concerned with what others think. Working with the likes of Wayne Shorte...
2024-10-041h 07
SHEROESThe Bridge to JoniSHEROES is on The Road To Joni, but in this episode we discover that sometimes that road is a bridge. A bridge to healing. A bridge to holding your own. A bridge to a new creative path. A bridge from one generation to another. Episode 4 of the Road To Joni begins at the SHEROES studio in upstate New York with 5x platinum recording artist and activist Natalie Merchant. A long time friend of host Carmel Holt, they discovered that they were both Joni Mitchell fans at a 1999 at breast cancer benefit concert that Carmel organized and Natalie headlined. The...
2024-09-271h 25
The Road To JoniThe Bridge to JoniSHEROES is on The Road To Joni, but in this episode we discover that sometimes that road is a bridge. A bridge to healing. A bridge to holding your own. A bridge to a new creative path. A bridge from one generation to another. Episode 4 of the Road To Joni begins at the SHEROES studio in upstate New York with 5x platinum recording artist and activist Natalie Merchant. A long time friend of host Carmel Holt, they discovered that they were both Joni Mitchell fans at a 1999 at breast cancer benefit concert that Carmel organized and Natalie headlined. The...
2024-09-271h 25
The Road To JoniDear Joni, The World Loves YouEpisode 3 of The Road To Joni picks up a thread from our conversation with Don Was… and leads us to esperanza spalding. In 2021 esperanza collaborated with her mentor Wayne Shorter on Iphigenia, an opera with a revisionary take on Euripides' Greek tragedy Iphigenia at Aulis. It was Ipheigenia that led esperanza to Joni’s living room, though her path on the road to Joni started years prior with a track from the 1976 album Hejira. esperanza tells host Carmel Holt how, at a recent Janet Jackson concert, she was reminded that Joni Mitchell has “literally influenced everyone.”Jon...
2024-09-2056 min
The Road To JoniShe's Like CézanneWe travel to Los Angeles for the first half of Episode 2, where Carmel talks to legendary producer, bassist, and Blue Note Records president, Don Was about his first gig ever at age 12 opening for Joni Mitchell. Don also shares how he learned an important life lesson from listening to Blue, and discusses the sophistication of Joni's harmonic and poetic compositions, and how this naturally intersected with some of the greats of jazz, including their mutual friend, the late Wayne Shorter. Next, in a heartfelt conversation, host Carmel Holt tells Bonnie Raitt that her own road to Joni began with ca...
2024-09-131h 04
The Road To JoniIf Only I Could Talk To Joni Mitchell...Episode One takes us back to South By Southwest 2024 in Austin, TX where an interview with Kathleen Edwards takes an unexpected and affirming turn, and Kathleen remembers how a case of mistaken identity temporarily changes the backstage rules at Toronto's Massey Hall. Then we travel to Newport Folk Festival 2024, where Joni Mitchell made her big comeback in 2022, and Carmel meets up with Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes who shares how talking to Brandi at Newport a few years ago led him to getting the invitation to jam sessions at Joni's house and getting to play his favorite Joni song with...
2024-09-0657 min
The Road To JoniTrailer: The Road to Joni: A SHEROES JourneySHEROES is proud to present The Road To Joni - a limited audio series and travelogue devoted to SHERO Joni Mitchell. Our first all-genders series will include interviews with artists and some non-musicians about their own roads to Joni Mitchell, where that road has led them, and how they see Joni’s artistic road as an influence on music and culture as we know it today.In September host Carmel Holt will be embarking on a cross country road trip, stopping along the way in public radio markets where SHEROES Radio airs, with a destin...
2024-08-2802 min
SHEROESA SHERO's Journey: Arooj AftabGrammy-winning artist Arooj Aftab returns to SHEROES this week to discuss her fourth solo album, Night Reign, and her journey of the last two decades, staying true to her vision, and pioneering a sound that she wanted to hear.
2024-08-2337 min
SHEROESA SHERO's Journey: Anaïs MitchellSinger, songwriter, playwright and author Anaïs Mitchell returns to SHEROES to discuss her newest album with Bonny Light Horseman Keep Me On Your Mind / See You Free, the threads that runs between her solo work, her Tony-award winning Broadway musical Hadestown, and writing with Eric D. Johnson and Josh Kaufman in Bonny Light Horseman, and the importance of passing the flame from one generation to the next - and back again.
2024-08-1651 min
SHEROESA SHERO's Journey: esperanza spaldingOn release day of the new album Milton + esperanza, bassist, composer, singer, songwriter, and producer esperanza spalding returns to SHEROES to discuss the two decade long journey she has been on since her college days at Berklee when she first heard Brazilian legend Milton Nascimento singing on the Wayne Shorter album, Native Dancer, and the full circle moment that brought her to working with Milton to produce this collaborative new album.
2024-08-0955 min
SHEROESA SHERO's Journey: Shana Cleveland of La LuzSinger, songwriter, guitarist, and bandleader Shana Cleveland returns to SHEROES to celebrate the release of the fifth full length album from her longtime band La Luz, called News of the Universe. Carmel Holt and Shana discuss the themes of change on the new album, the first following her cancer diagnosis and treatment, birth of her son, and departure of two of her longtime bandmates.
2024-08-0241 min
SHEROESSHEROES Live at Newport Folk Festival with Joan BaezSHEROES returns to Newport Folk Festival this year for an on-stage conversation with none other than SHERO of SHEROES, Joan Baez, who has just published her first book of poetry, When You See My Mother, Ask Her To Dance.
2024-07-3026 minThe Road To JoniComing Soon: The Road to JoniSHEROES is proud to present The Road To Joni - a limited audio series and travelogue devoted to SHERO Joni Mitchell. Our first all-genders series will include interviews with artists and some non-musicians about their own roads to Joni Mitchell, where that road has led them, and how they see Joni’s artistic road as an influence on music and culture as we know it today.In September host Carmel Holt will be embarking on a cross country road trip, stopping along the way in public radio markets where SHEROES Radio airs, with a destin...
2024-07-2301 min
SHEROESA SHEROES Journey: Bridget Kearney & Rachael Price of Lake Street DiveBridget Kearney and Rachael Price of Lake Street Dive return to SHEROES to discuss their brand new album, Good Together. Now twenty years in, their eighth album simultaneously highlights the unity and togetherness of this extraordinary band with their most collaborative collection to date, with songs that are intended to bring audiences together in "joyful rebellion".
2024-06-2152 min
SHEROESA SHERO's Journey: Ann PowersIn this episode of SHEROES, host Carmel Holt welcomes fellow public radio SHERO and music critic Ann Powers to discuss her latest book, Traveling: On The Path of Joni Mitchell, her nearly decade-long journey writing it, her own story building a 30-year career, and the evolution of her relationship to Joni as an artist, and to her music.
2024-06-141h 00
SHEROESSHEROES Live at Brandi Carlile's Mothership WeekendHost Carmel Holt takes SHEROES on the road to Brandi Carlile's Mothership Weekend in Miramar Beach, Florida. Through conversations with Sara Watkins of Nickel Creek, S.G. Goodman, and Brandi's co-curators and festival organizers, Topeka, we continue the ongoing conversation and inquiry into lack of inclusion on festival lineups (see last week's episode with Book More Women), discussion about touring artists who are mothers and how to make working conditions better for them, and what queer identity and visibility means in both music spaces and to the artists themselves.
2024-06-071h 26
SHEROESA SHERO's Journey: Abbey Carbonneau of Book More WomenThe popular Instagram account Book More Women began tracking the statistical data for gender inclusivity on U.S. music festival lineups in 2018, and has grown to a following of over 16k over the last six years. The account has become hailed by the likes of Brandi Carlile, who says that founding her own festival (Girls Just Wanna Weekend) was directly inspired by seeing the data that Book More Women posts. The identity of the woman who runs this account and handles the hefty task of tracking this data has mostly been a mystery, and it took us five years...
2024-05-3159 min
SHEROESA SHERO's Journey: Sarah JaroszSarah Jarosz joins us on SHEROES and reflects on her journey thus far, including starting her career in her teens and early 20’s, the importance of joining forces with Aoife O’Donovan and Sarah Watkins to form I’m With Her, and how her new album, Polaroid Lovers, her seventh studio release, finds her both breaking new ground by deciding to invite co-writers to work with for the first time, while simultaneously bringing her full circle to her early days when the world had crowned her a bluegrass prodigy and she had just barely graduated high school.
2024-04-2659 min
SHEROESA SHERO's Journey: Bridget KearneyBridget Kearney returns to SHEROES to celebrate the release of her new solo album Comeback Kid. Best known as a founding member of Lake Street Dive, the bassist, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist and host Carmel Holt discuss Bridget's multi-faceted journey thus far - from discovering her love of songwriting and the bass as a child in her native Iowa City, to her pursuit of jazz at New England Conservatory where Lake Street Dive was formed, to her travels and recordings in Ghana with one of her many side projects, to teaching a course in songwriting at Princeton University and...
2024-04-1958 min
SHEROESHurray For The Riff RaffAlynda Segarra returns to SHEROES to discuss their critically-hailed new Hurray For The Riff Raff album The Past Is Still Alive, their journey that is documented in these memoir-style songs, and how the songs and recording of the album took on a whole new meaning following the sudden passing of their father.
2024-04-1256 min
SHEROESA SHERO's Journey: Sheryl CrowIt's Sheryl Crow week on SHEROES! The iconic singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, activist, Rock-and-Roll-Hall-of-Famer, and all-around SHERO joins Carmel Holt to celebrate the release of her 12th album, Evolution, which both sees her more inspired than ever, and handing over production duties for the first time since her debut. Sheryl shares her reflections on a four-decade career, her insights on where we have seen progress for women in the music industry and where we still have work to do, the crucial piece of advice that Chrissie Hynde gave her when she was still coming up in the business, and...
2024-03-2948 min
SHEROESA SHERO's Journey: Aoife O'DonovanOn this episode, Carmel Holt welcomes back singer-songwriter Aoife O'Donovan to SHEROES to celebrate the release of her fourth solo album, All My Friends: a timely and ambitious new collection of songs whose origins began with a commissioned work for the Orlando Philharmonic to honor of the centennial of the 19th amendment and inspired by one of the central figures in the women's suffrage movement, Carrie Chapman Catt.
2024-03-2253 min
SHEROESA SHERO's Journey: Kim KransOn this week's episode, host Carmel Holt welcomes one of her SHEROES, Kim Krans (creator of The Wild Unknown tarot decks) to the podcast to celebrate and discuss her journey back to music, as she has recently released her first solo album MIRRORMIRROR - her first recorded music in a decade. Kim was part of an indie band in the mid-late 2000's called Family Band, whose star was on the rise when Kim created her first hand-drawn tarot deck, The Wild Unknown. In this moving conversation, Kim shares how her career unfolded, finding her way back to recording music...
2024-03-1557 min
SHEROESSHEROES Live with Norah Jones at On Air FestThis week we’re thrilled to bring you a special edition of SHEROES recorded live in front of an audience at On Air Fest - an annual podcast festival at the Wythe Hotel in Brooklyn. Our very special guest this year was nine time Grammy winning singer, songwriter, pianist, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Norah Jones, who has just released her ninth studio album Visions on Blue Note Records, and is preparing to head out on tour starting in May. With tequilas in hand, Norah and I chatted about the new album, her fantastic podcast called Norah Jones Is Playing Along, an...
2024-03-0838 min
SHEROESA SHERO's Journey: Madi DiazSinger, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Madi Diaz has been hard at work building her music career since dropping out of Berklee back in 2007, and self-releasing her debut, Skin and Bones. 2021 ended up being her year. A record deal with Anti- Records and her critically hailed fifth full length effort, History Of A Feeling, got a much bigger wheel in motion than ever before, including finding a fan in one Harry Styles, who invited Madi to join him on tour to open some of his shows, and join his band. Now after standing on some of the biggest stages in...
2024-02-2352 min
SHEROESA SHEROES Journey: Sleater-KinneySleater-Kinney is one of the most influential and revered indie rock bands of the last three decades, and just returned with their eleventh album, Little Rope. The co-founders, guitarists, vocalists, and songwriters Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein (with a guest appearance by Carrie's dog) join Carmel Holt in conversation to discuss the intense emotional landscape the songs for the album journeyed through, finding a new perspective and a renewed commitment to Sleater-Kinney, and their perspectives on feminism and intersectionality.
2024-02-1650 min
SHEROESA SHERO's Journey: Rhiannon GiddensRhiannon Giddens returns to SHEROES exactly three years since host, producer, and creator Carmel Holt launched the show as a syndicated radio hour for public radio (November 17, 2020) with her as its very first featured interview guest. As SHEROES Radio celebrates its third anniversary, Carmel welcomes the multi-Grammy and Pulitzer Prize winning singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, artist, composer, author, and activist Rhiannon Giddens back to discuss her third solo outing You're The One, a week following its Grammy nominations for Best Americana Album and a second for Best American Roots Performance for a song from that album, making her a 10-time G...
2023-11-1752 min
SHEROESSinger/songwriter/poet Jamila Woods sits down with host Carmel Holt to discuss Water Made Us, her third solo album and first since 2019's critically-hailed conceptual album Legacy! Legacy! While that last album saw the Chicago native researching and writing about some of her SHEROES and heroes, Water Made Us was born of introspection and gathered wisdom from more immediate teachers in Jamila's life - her therapist, her family, her friends, her astrologer, and her tarot practice.Singer/songwriter/poet Jamila Woods sits down with host Carmel Holt to discuss Water Made Us, her third solo album and first since 2019's critically-hailed conceptual album Legacy! Legacy! While that last album saw the Chicago native researching and writing about some of her SHEROES and heroes, Water Made Us was born of introspection and gathered wisdom from more immediate teachers in Jamila's life - her therapist, her family, her friends, her astrologer, and her tarot practice.
2023-10-2048 min
SHEROESA SHERO's Journey: RomyA companion episode to Romy's recent visit to SHEROES during Pride Month on the heels of announcing her debut album Mid Air, Romy Madley Croft, who is best known as one-third of The xx, returns to SHEROES to celebrate the release of the album and reflect on the journey thus far as a solo artist with Carmel Holt.
2023-09-1537 min
SHEROESSHEROES Live at Newport Folk Festival with Neko CaseSHEROES returned to Newport Folk Festival this year with special guest Neko Case, who just released the vinyl edition of her career-spanning retrospective, Wild Creatures, and discusses her many current writing projects : music for a Broadway musical, songs for a new album, a book, and her ongoing Substack, Entering The Lung. She and Carmel Holt also talk in depth about her relationship with her audience, the influence of the Indigo Girls, and the importance of queer/BIPOC/women's spaces.
2023-08-1133 min
SHEROESA SHERO's Journey: Indigo De SouzaSinger, songwriter, guitarist, Indigo De Souza returns to SHEROES to talk with Carmel Holt about her new album All Of This Will End, and the necessary changes she made in her personal and professional life over the last couple years, resulting in her most confident work to date.
2023-06-3037 min
SHEROESSHEROES & QUEEROES with ani difrancoOur Pride Month series SHEROES & QUEEROES comes to a close with an in-depth conversation and look back at ani difranco's iconic and most commercially successful eighth studio album, 1998's Little Plastic Castle. The 25th anniversary reissue has arrived, and with it, many reflections on that chapter of ani's career. Ani holds nothing back in openly discussing the complexities of that time, as many of her queer fans expressed feelings of betrayal when their SHERO/QUEERO ani difranco married a man (gasp!), and her anti-capitalist fans called her a sellout for producing what was her most polished studio album to...
2023-06-2354 min
SHEROESSHEROES & QUEEROES with Meshell NdegeocelloAs part of SHEROES Pride Month series, SHEROES & QUEEROES, Carmel Holt sits down with acclaimed singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and eleven-time Grammy nominee, Meshell Ndegeocello, who has just released her 13th album, The Omnichord Real Book.
2023-06-1630 min
SHEROESSHEROES & QUEEROES Pride Hour with RomyRomy Madley Croft of The xx has just announced her solo debut album, Mid Air (out September 8), and Carmel Holt invited Romy to take part in her month-long celebration of Pride by joining her for a special SHEROES & QUEEROES Pride Hour, that features a playlist curated by Romy, a peek at the new album, and in depth conversation about the journey that led her here.
2023-06-0954 min
SHEROESA SHERO's Journey: Arlo ParksArlo Parks was raised in West London, and while still a teenager, released her first single in 2018 and caught the attention of the BBC. Soon a pair of EP’s arrived in 2019 - Super Sad Generation, followed by the EP Sophie. The accolades and press was nearly immediate. Arlo Parks was longlisted as a Breakthrough Act of 2020, and before the end of that year, she was gracing the cover of NME, and won the AIM Independent Music Award for One to Watch. When we last had Arlo Parks on SHEROES, she had just released her hotly anticipated full length de...
2023-05-2631 min
SHEROESA SHERO's Journey: Rickie Lee JonesThis week, we bring you a very special edition of the show, featuring a SHERO of SHEROES. Also known as the Duchess of Coolsville, she is an unparalleled, Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, musician, interpreter of songs, and author. She is the one and only Rickie Lee Jones, and she’s just put out her 15th studio album, Pieces of Treasure. The album is her first devoted entirely to the Great American Songbook, and while this seven-time Grammy nominated artist has always woven jazz and pop sounds and covers into her work, one could say this album is nearly a lifetime in...
2023-05-1256 min
SHEROESA SHERO's Journey: Nikki LaneNot only is this week's guest a fantastic songwriter and performer, she is a genuine outlaw country SHERO, a rebellious tough girl with a tender heart, and, as she dubbed herself on her last record in 2017, a Highway Queen who has logged countless miles as a touring musician, while running several businesses at once. She is a woman who suffers no fools, but with a smile. On this new episode of SHEROES, we meet the many sides of Nashville singer-songwriter-entrepreneur Nikki Lane, as she sits down with Carmel Holt to talk about her fourth and most personal album, Denim a...
2023-03-1736 min
SHEROESSHEROES Live at On Air Fest with Valerie JuneGrammy-nominated singer, songwriter, poet, and author, Valerie June sits down with Carmel Holt live in conversation at the annual podcast festival, On Air Fest: Brooklyn. They discuss Valerie's hard-won success, the spiritual practices that have carried her through, and the many questions that she has when it comes to equality in the music industry. Two decades into her already illustrious career, Valerie June continues to forge an incredibly inspiring, not to mention prolific, path, and a message of joyful resistance, courageous dreaming, and compassionate love.
2023-03-0351 min
SHEROESA SHEROES Journey: Laurie Henzel, co-founder + creative director BUST MagazineThis episode takes a detour from the usual SHEROES artist interview to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the O.G. feminist lifestyle and culture publication, BUST Magazine. Founded in 1993 by three women in New York City, BUST started as a ‘zine, made of stapled pages and a passion for their cause: to make feminism cool again. Now a quarterly magazine, BUST has kept going despite financial challenges along the way - and a world which still favors hyper-sexualized images of women on magazine covers and advertisers that sell unattainable standards of youth and beauty. BUST proudly continues to feature ne...
2023-02-1032 min
SHEROESA SHEROES Journey: Big JoanieOn the heels of releasing their sophomore album, and Kill Rock Stars debut, Back Home, UK black feminist punk trio Big Joanie join Carmel Holt for a thought-provoking conversation about their journey as musicians pushing back against the lack of intersectionality in punk and the music industry for the past decade, and the ongoing double bind of an industry that is simultaneously trying to diversify music spaces and falling prey to tokenism.
2023-01-2036 min
SHEROESA SHEROES Journey: Say She SheThe Brooklyn-based trio Say She She joins Carmel Holt in conversation to discuss their debut album Prism, the importance of using their voices for positive change, and how uplifting women (and each other) has impacted their creativity for the better.
2023-01-1333 min
SHEROESA SHERO's Journey: Kanene Pipkin of The Lone BellowFor the past decade, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, songwriter and producer Kanene Pipkin has been a founding member of Americana trio The Lone Bellow. She'll tell you that she rarely does interviews on her own, and isn't used to talking about herself. But on this episode of SHEROES, she joins Carmel Holt for an in-depth conversation that reveals what that decade has been like for her, as she navigated motherhood and being a touring musician, and the sometimes lonely life of being woman in the male dominated industry of music.
2022-12-0841 min
SHEROESA SHEROES Tribute to Mimi Parker of LowFollowing the heartbreaking loss of Mimi Parker of Low who passed away due to ovarian cancer on November 5th, 2022, SHEROES host Carmel Holt took to social media to gather song requests and remembrances from fans, collaborators, and fellow musicians, reached out to Minnesota radio hosts for guest DJ spots, and spoke to Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, who produced Low's 2013 album The Invisible Way. The result is a moving two-hour communal tribute to Mimi, that includes an encore presentation of her SHEROES interview from January 2022, where she had first revealed her cancer diagnosis to the public. **Special thanks to...
2022-11-161h 56
SHEROESA SHEROES Journey: Tegan and SaraTegan and Sara return to SHEROES, this time as the featured guests, joining Carmel Holt to discuss their 10th studio album Crybaby, and what this chapter in the Tegan and Sara story is all about. They go deep about Sara's newest role as mom to a newborn, and the new questions it raises about what the future looks like, lessons learned from the pandemic pause in touring, and the importance of swinging big to pave the way for women and LQBTQ voices in music.
2022-10-2147 min
SHEROESA SHERO's Journey: Karen OAs we celebrate the release of Cool It Down, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' fifth, and first album in nine years, Carmel Holt welcomes the iconic front-woman, songwriter, and vocalist Karen O for an in-depth, SHEROES conversation. While talking about the joy and inspiration behind the new album, Karen opens up about the struggles she's had in the (still) male dominated world of rock to be taken seriously as an artist and writer, the ways she has carved out a space for herself, and the life-affirming effect of seeing more and more Asian American and Pacific Islander women emerge as...
2022-09-3037 min
SHEROESSHEROES Live at AmericanaFest with Amy RayOn this episode of SHEROES, Amy Ray sits down with Carmel Holt in Nashville on the day between receiving an Americana Music Award with Indigo Girls and the release of her 10th solo album, If It All Goes South. Listen in as they discuss her journey as a queer feminist musician and the importance of intersectional feminism, the role that her solo work has had to play for her creative expression, aging as a woman, and the song Amy wrote for their mutual friend and radio SHERO, the late Rita Houston.
2022-09-2329 min
SHEROESSHEROES x SHEROES: Ani DiFranco x Tegan and SaraOn this special episode of SHEROES, host Carmel Holt bring Tegan and Sara together with their SHERO Ani DiFranco for the very first time to discuss her landmark live album Living In Clip, which celebrates its 25th Anniversary this year.
2022-09-161h 06
SHEROESA SHERO'S Journey: Mimi Parker of LowAs a long time fan of the band Low, Carmel Holt realized that she hadn't heard many (or perhaps any?) interviews that focused on drummer, singer, and songwriter Mimi Parker. When they sat down together for an interview back in January of this year, Carmel couldn’t have anticipated how important and rare this conversation would be. In addition to hearing about her nearly three decade journey with Low, the band she co-founded and has been in with her husband Alan Sparhawk since 1993, and the new high water mark of their latest album - 2021’s Hey What - what Mimi...
2022-08-1232 minSHEROESSHEROES Heart Bonnie RaittBonnie Raitt is a living legend. A Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, and multi-Grammy winning artist who just won a Lifetime Achievement Award this year, she is not only one of the greatest guitarists of our time, she is an incredible singer who brings as much passion to interpreting others songs as she does to her own. A lifelong activist and environmentalist, Bonnie is an artist who works overtime at giving back and giving voice to the causes she believes in, and all while overseeing her own Redwing Records label, and maintaining a busy tour schedule which has been...
2022-08-0412 minSHEROESSHEROES Live at Newport Folk Festival with Sylvan Esso // Amelia MeathIn the midst of what’s been a crazy busy weekend for Amelia Meath, being here with the A’s on Friday, her record label Psychic Hotline’s showcase on Saturday, and a TON of collaborations, she made some time to sit down with Carmel ahead of Sylvan Esso’s performance Sunday afternoon - which you may have heard, was a surprise live unveiling of Sylvan Esso's new album No Rules Sandy which drops August 12th!! Hear Amelia talk about the new album, the new label, and charting a path forward that puts art and equality first, ahead of commerce
2022-07-2418 minSHEROESSHEROES Live At Newport Folk Festival with Natalie MerchantThe last time Natalie Merchant was at Newport Folk Festival was in 2000, and today Carmel sat down with Natalie on Newport Folk Festival's Foundation Stage, to discuss where her career continues to take her. She revealed plans for a new album (or two), aging in the music business, and what it was like when she first started her career with 10,000 Maniacs.
2022-07-2224 minSHEROESSHEROES Heart Arooj AftabOn this SHEROES Heart episode, Arooj Aftab talks about the difficulty of not only being a woman in the music industry, but existing in a patriarchy. Arooj shares her discovery that “recognition buys you a voice”, and how important it is to build a team that you can trust. She tells us how she has endured through misogyny and discrimination, and she and Carmel discuss how her background in production and audio engineering ended up playing a crucial role in creating her Grammy-winning third album, Vulture Prince.
2022-07-2013 minSHEROESSHEROES Heart Episode 1: Angel OlsenOn this first SHEROES Heart episode, hear Angel Olsen discuss gender, the “different styles of patriarchy,” equality, and what it’s like being an AFAB, queer musician in today’s world. Fresh off the release of her sixth album Big Time, Angel gets deep about coming out, as well as navigating expectations men have when working with womxn, the challenges of being the boss, the internalized systems she is dismantling, and “learning to be straight up.”
2022-07-1813 min