The Third Story Podcast with Leo Sidran
THE THIRD STORY podcast features long-form interviews with musicians, producers, writers and members of the creative class, hosted by Brooklyn-based musician, Leo Sidran. Their stories of discovery, loss, ambition, identity, risk, and reward are deeply moving and compelling for all of us as we embark on our own creative journeys.
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331: Nicole Zuraitis
09/27/2026
331: Nicole Zuraitis
Nicole Zuraitis has spent much of her career being asked (and asking herself) variations of the same question: where do you fit? Is the music jazz? Is it pop? Is it cabaret? Her new album, The Devil I Knew, doesn’t exactly settle the question. Instead, it makes the question seem increasingly beside the point. It’s a sprawling, 20-song project produced by Larry Klein, with string arrangements by Vince Mendoza, horn charts by Jerry Hey, and musicians including Larry Goldings, John Cowherd, Gilad Hekselman and Christian McBride, alongside her working quartet, which includes her husband, Dan Pugach, on drums. The conceit of the project, which is broken into five parts — The Mirror, The Martyr, The Malediction, The Reckoning and The Requiem — came when a friend described a moment in her own life when she realized that, after years of seeing herself as the victim, she had become the villain in someone else’s story. Nicole was fascinated by the idea that the hero and the villain could be the same person. That became part of the world of The Devil I Knew. It’s a record about reckoning with your own choices, told by an artist fascinated by narrative, drama and what she calls “jazz lore”: the stories and mythology that surround the music. That same instinct led Zuraitis to found the Modern Songbook Society, a project devoted to the idea that the Great American Songbook doesn’t necessarily have to be a closed book. Nicole says she was a late bloomer. As she tells it, “I wasn't a fully baked cake until I was 37 years old. Like, I didn't burst into the scene when I moved to New York at 25. [...] I was so nervous. And just constantly learning. And so my cake was not even fully baked. But then once it's baked, I'm like, ‘For crying out loud, nobody wants this cake? Like, this is good cake. Somebody wants this cake? No? Fine. I'll eat the cake. It's fine.’” By any conventional measure, the cake is baked. Her album How Love Begins won the Grammy for Best Jazz Vocal Album in 2024. And yet, even after that recognition, she says she still feels like something of an outsider in the jazz business. She plays nearly 150 shows a year, mostly on the road, but remains fiercely independent and largely self-managed — still baking her own cake. We talked recently about all of this: about her early years as a rising soccer player and the injury that led her from one kind of pitch to another, her brief stint as a trombone player, her years of hustling in New York, what it means to live a jazz life in today’s music business, and how she went about creating the world of The Devil I Knew.
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Duncan Sheik (from 2020)
09/19/2026
Duncan Sheik (from 2020)
Duncan Sheik’s career did not follow a straight line. After studying semiotics at Brown University, he emerged in the mid 1990s as a pop singer songwriter with his hit “Barely Breathing”, and quickly revealed himself to bend toward more literate adult oriented rock. He continued to make records and land himself on the charts but also began exploring composition for film and theater. The success of 2006's Spring Awakening, a hit rock musical that featured Sheik’s score (and which won the Tony for Best Original Score as well as a Grammy for Best Musical Show Album) planted him firmly in the world of Broadway. He continued to write for theater, often collaborating with poet and playwright Steven Sater. Over more than three decades he explored electronic music, folk music, and enjoyed covering songs by his favorite writers, many of whom were influential to him as a boy. In this interview, recorded in late 2020, he talked about his career, his songwriting, technology in music, how meditating and chanting have helped him throughout the years, how becoming a father influenced his work, his life in Covid and what it means to release music in strange and trying times, and what exactly Semiotics is anyway. Duncan Sheik died on September 17, 2026. This conversation is a reminder of the breadth of his curiosity and the thoughtfulness with which he approached both music and life. It offers a rare glimpse into the mind of a singular artist whose creative journey was never quite what anyone might have expected.
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330: Sullivan Fortner
09/14/2026
330: Sullivan Fortner
Sullivan Fortner is one of the most admired and influential pianists of his generation, a musician whose curiosity stretches from the traditions of jazz and gospel to synthesizers, studio experimentation and beyond. Here Sullivan talks about growing up in New Orleans, learning to play organ in church, nearly choosing medicine over music, and the teachers and mentors who shaped his path. He reflects on studying with Barry Harris, playing with Roy Hargrove and Stefon Harris, the importance of continuing to learn no matter how far you get, and his lifelong fascination with sound. He also talks about his relationship with Cécile McLorin Salvant, as a musical collaborator and partner in life, and how their connection has changed the way he thinks about accompaniment, lyrics, listening and space. Along the way, Sullivan discusses synesthesia, literally tasting music, making Solo Game and Leave That In There, and what it means to remain open to discovery while staying deeply connected to tradition. A conversation about listening, learning, collaboration, curiosity, and following the music wherever it leads.
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329: Sofia Rei
09/02/2026
329: Sofia Rei
Argentine singer, composer and producer Sofía Rei talks about leaving Buenos Aires and rediscovering the music of home, moving beyond the boundaries of jazz, embracing electronics and production, and learning from collaborators and students. Her new album, Antónima, brings those threads together through what she calls “Folk and Futurism” a meeting place for tradition, technology and a distinctly contemporary musical identity.
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328: Ashley Kahn
08/21/2026
328: Ashley Kahn
Forty years ago this month, Paul Simon released Graceland, an album that became one of the defining records of his career, and one of the most celebrated and debated albums of its era. The record would go on to sell millions of copies and win the Grammy for Album of the Year. It would also generate enormous controversy over Simon’s decision to record in apartheid South Africa during a cultural boycott. Music historian Ashley Kahn tells the whole complicated story in his new book, Days of Miracle and Wonder: Paul Simon and the Trials and Triumphs of Graceland. Here Ashley talks about his career, the making of Graceland, Paul Simon’s unusual creative process, and the complicated cultural and political questions that have followed the album for forty years.
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327: Ben Sidran at 83
08/14/2026
327: Ben Sidran at 83
For his 83rd birthday, Ben Sidran revisits a 1974 DownBeat profile (done when he was 30) and considers what has changed - and what hasn’t - over more than half a century of music and life. In his annual birthday conversation with Leo, he reflects on aging, ambition, practice and the surprising persistence of a worldview formed long ago. https://youtu.be/SZY4QRpJCTw
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326: Ben Wikler
07/22/2026
326: Ben Wikler
Ben Wikler has spent his career moving between comedy and politics, communication and organizing. Growing up in Madison, Wisconsin, a city shaped by civic engagement, academic inquiry, and the satirical spirit that gave rise to The Onion, he developed a worldview in which humor isn't a distraction from democracy, but one of the ways people learn to trust one another enough to participate in it. Wikler has become one of the country's most closely watched political organizers. He was the chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin from 2019-2025, and is the author of This Is the Plan: How to End America's Meltdown and Save Democracy. But this conversation isn't about campaign tactics or election cycles. Instead, it's about the values and experiences that shaped him: the Wisconsin Idea, the role of humor in public life, the changing media landscape, and why curiosity, optimism, and solidarity remain essential ingredients of democratic life. Recorded at the Madison home where Ben grew up, and where he and his wife are now raising their own family, this is a conversation about place, purpose, and what it takes to keep believing in the promise of democracy.
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325: Ben Sidran - Free In America
07/03/2026
325: Ben Sidran - Free In America
A conversation with Ben Sidran, from Greece on America's 250th birthday, about jazz, democracy, identity, and what remains when the scaffolding begins to shake.
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324: Heather Aimee O'Neill
06/19/2026
324: Heather Aimee O'Neill
Before The Irish Goodbye became one of the most acclaimed debut novels of 2025, Heather Aimee O'Neill spent years quietly writing it while building a career helping other writers tell their stories. Here, she discusses the vulnerability of ambition, the challenge of living an authentic life, and the strange transition from observer to protagonist when a lifelong dream finally comes true.
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323: Lakecia Benjamin
06/09/2026
323: Lakecia Benjamin
Saxophonist and bandleader Lakecia Benjamin has become one of the most dynamic voices in jazz today. Here she talks about hanging up on Clark Terry, finding her way from Washington Heights to the international stage, and how the mentors, heroes, setbacks and aspirations that shaped her journey continue to inform her new album, We Dream.
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322: Miles Davis
05/26/2026
322: Miles Davis
Miles Davis spent his life searching. He changed the sound of jazz repeatedly, assembling generations of musicians around him and pushing constantly toward something new. Few artists loom so large over the history of the music. To mark what would have been his 100th birthday today, I’m revisiting a rare 1986 conversation between Miles and my dad, Ben Sidran, recorded on the terrace of Miles’ Malibu home. At a time when Miles was reticent about revisiting his past, in this interview he reflected on Kind of Blue, his early musical development and influences, as well as his ideas about creativity, individuality and what it means to make a meaningful artistic contribution. To start the episode, Ben and I had our own conversation about the Miles interview, his memory of doing it, how it resonated at the time and how it resonates today. In the 40 years since it was recorded, the interview has become one of the definitive documents of Miles’ thinking during that period. Ben’s original interview with Miles Davis was originally made for his NPR program Sidran on Record, and is now part of his Talking Jazz project. The full archive is available at Today’s episode image is borrowed from "Notes from the Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame" produced by Quoted Studios and Jazz at Lincoln Center.
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321: Julieta Venegas
05/18/2026
321: Julieta Venegas
Mexican singer-songwriter Julieta Venegas on how growing up in Tijuana - a border city suspended between Mexico and the United States - developed an instinct for living “in-between,” musically and personally. She traces her path from a musically curious childhood in Tijuana to her move to Mexico City, the emergence as one of Latin music’s defining singer-songwriters and her return to her roots through her new album Norteña and memoir, both of which revisit the border identity and intuition that first shaped her artistic life.
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320: Dida Pelled
05/03/2026
320: Dida Pelled
Dida Pelled on her latest album I Wish You Would, a blues-focused project recorded with Tony Scherr, Kenny Wollesen, and Sullivan Fortner. Along the way she considers her approach to tradition, identity, and finding a personal voice across genres. And she talks about she discovered the truth about her sexuality, her singing, and the six strings she loves so much.
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319: Emily Cavanagh's Song For You
04/21/2026
319: Emily Cavanagh's Song For You
Singer, songwriter, and founder of , on music, service, resilience, and finding purpose in uncertain times. In the early days of the pandemic, Emily began calling hospitals with one simple question: “Does anyone need a song?” That question became A Song For You, a nonprofit that has delivered hundreds of personalized songs to patients, families, and healthcare workers. She talks about her Chicago roots, accidentally becoming famous in Ireland, relearning how to walk after a mysterious illness, running away from the altar, and why she says she’s never felt lonely or lost. A warm, funny, and moving conversation about what music can do when it matters most.
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318: Michael Leviton and The Tell
04/14/2026
318: Michael Leviton and The Tell
At his monthly series The Tell, writer and storyteller Michael Leviton brings together performers and audiences for an evening where nothing is scripted and no lineup is announced. At The Tell, audiences arrive without knowing who will take the stage. Each night features four storytellers and two musical performances, unfolding over two sets. The result is a dynamic and unscripted experience where stories can be funny, moving, surprising—or all three at once. Leviton created The Tell as an alternative to more formal storytelling formats. Rather than polished, rehearsed narratives, he favors stories that are chronological, unpredictable, and rooted in real experience. As he explains, he’s drawn to stories that are “wild rather than relatable,” and to storytellers who embrace vulnerability over resolution. Over the past decade, The Tell has grown into something more than a performance series. It has become a community—one where people connect, form relationships, and share experiences in a space built on honesty and curiosity. Despite its success, Leviton resists pressure to expand or commercialize the series. For him, the goal isn’t growth—it’s maintaining the spirit of the experience itself. Here he explains the philosophy behind The Tell, and what it reveals about the role of storytelling in our lives.
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317: Janis Siegel and The Scent of Danger
03/28/2026
317: Janis Siegel and The Scent of Danger
When singer Janis Siegel was invited to help produce a Women’s History Month event at the United Nations, everything seemed aligned—until she was told, just days before, that she would not be allowed to speak. She had been flagged for her social media posts. Here she reflects on that moment and what it reveals about a broader cultural shift. Drawing on conversations about jazz, democracy, memory, and fear—and voices ranging from Louis Armstrong to Milan Kundera—this piece explores how authoritarianism doesn’t arrive all at once, but quietly, through hesitation and self-censorship. At a time when voices are still rising in protest, the question remains: what happens when speaking starts to feel like a risk?
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316: Ben Sidran - Jazz and Modernism
03/11/2026
316: Ben Sidran - Jazz and Modernism
When I arrived in Palm Springs last month, a few days before the concert-lecture I was to play with my father, Ben Sidran, I found him surrounded by months of research notes, trying to wrestle his ideas into something coherent. The performance was part of the Palm Springs International Jazz Festival during the city’s annual Modernism Week, and it grew out of an earlier program we presented at Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright’s home and studio in Spring Green, Wisconsin. What began as a playful idea about the relationship between architecture and music gradually expanded into a deeper exploration of the natural structures that shape both. Along the way we found ourselves diving into the harmonic series, overtones, Fibonacci sequence, and the physics of vibration, asking how these natural phenomena influence the way we hear rhythm, harmony, and beauty. Drawing on conversations with musicians like Gil Goldstein, Howard Levy, and Jacob Collier, the episode is part personal story, part philosophical inquiry, and part behind-the-scenes look at how creative work actually gets made. And how, in the end, even the most abstract ideas often begin the same way: with a gig.
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315: Phoebe Katis
02/06/2026
315: Phoebe Katis
Phoebe Katis — a UK-born, New York–based songwriter can pinpoint the moment when her life and career were quietly reoriented. It started with a single direct message. Katis traces her journey from being a young singer-songwriter in England, measuring herself against inherited ideas of success, to becoming part of a global musical community through a series of small, intentional actions — including the DM that led to her first collaboration with Cory Wong, years of touring, a move to the U.S., and a creative and personal life she never could have planned. At the center of the conversation is the idea of the inflection point — the moments that don’t announce themselves while they’re happening, but later reveal themselves as before-and-after lines. Katis speaks candidly about ambition, people-pleasing, pop music as a delivery system for emotional truth, and the reality of sustaining a creative life without asking your art to carry everything. Her latest album, A Coming Of Age was released in late 2025. Here she reflects on success and arrival, the value of side hustles, pop music as a delivery system for truth, how to build a creative life without asking your art to carry everything.and what it means to keep “coming of age” well into adulthood.
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314: Keren Ann
01/23/2026
314: Keren Ann
Keren Ann was born in Israel, spent her early years in the Netherlands, and later moved to France. The daughter of a Russian-Jewish father and a Dutch-Javanese mother, she grew up multilingual and deeply aware that identity, language, and place are always in motion. She began writing songs as a teenager and, by her mid-twenties, was already making her living as a professional songwriter — thanks in part to an unexpected collaboration with the legendary French singer Henri Salvador, for whom she co-wrote several late-career songs, including the hit “Jardin d’hiver.” From her debut album La Biographie de Luka Philipsen, Keren Ann established herself as a distinctive writer, singer, and producer. Over the next two decades, she moved fluidly between French and English, between Europe and New York, releasing a body of work shaped by solitude, curiosity, and an openness to change. Along the way, her songs have been recorded by artists including Iggy Pop and Jane Birkin, and she has collaborated with musicians such as David Byrne, Questlove, and Barði Jóhannsson. In 2025, she released Paris Amour, an album inspired by and written from Paris, but not a record about Paris. Composed from her apartment in Montmartre, overlooking the city, the songs reflect a creative process rooted less in place than in solitude. Paris Amour is shaped by stillness and interior life. It’s a record that acknowledges its surroundings while turning inward. In this conversation, recorded in Paris, Keren Ann reflects on creativity, solitude, and the shift from inspiration to discipline, and on why, after twenty-five years, the process still matters.
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313: Dan Pashman
01/16/2026
313: Dan Pashman
Dan Pashman is one of those increasingly rare people who always wanted to be in radio. His career began at the turn of the millennium as a producer and reporter for NPR, Air America, and SiriusXM. But after six layoffs in under a decade—and an industry in steady contraction—Pashman found himself at a crossroads just as podcasting was beginning to emerge. In 2010, he created The Sporkful, a show he describes as being “for eaters, not foodies.” With a young family in front of him and a decade of false starts behind him, Pashman saw the podcast as his last real shot at the career he’d imagined. Long obsessed with food, he finally had a platform to explore something he cared about deeply. Built on curiosity, humor, and an almost comical level of rigor, The Sporkful began with hyper-specific food debates—ice cubes, grilled cheese, cereal milk—and evolved into a broader exploration of culture, identity, business, and human connection. That evolution reached a turning point when Pashman embarked on a multi-year experiment inventing a new pasta shape, cascatelli, which became an award-winning narrative series and a real product on grocery store shelves. In this conversation, Pashman talks about creative obsession, building a sustainable podcast business, audio versus video, integrating ads without losing trust, and what he sees as a key to his success: “Never underestimate the power of desperation.” It’s a candid look at how a modern creative career gets built—one forkful at a time.
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312: Kurt Elling Returns
01/08/2026
312: Kurt Elling Returns
Kurt Elling returns for a wide-ranging conversation about vocation, gratitude, and what it means to be in service of the music. Elling first appeared on The Third Story nearly ten years ago, already one of the most celebrated singers of his generation and still deeply focused on what he calls “the work I haven’t done yet.” Since then, he has moved from New York back to his native Chicago, launched major projects like SuperBlue with Charlie Hunter and members of Butcher Brown, recorded intimate small-group albums in the Wildflowers series of recordings, started his Big Shoulders record label, and continued his "poetic practice" of adding new lyrics to instrumental works by artists such as Wayne Shorter and Jaco Pastorius. The immediate occasion for this reunion, however, is something entirely new: Elling is currently appearing on Broadway in Hadestown, playing the role of Hermes. Recorded in an apartment on the Upper West Side during his Broadway run, the conversation moves fluidly between jazz clubs and civic life. Elling speaks candidly about depression, aging, discipline, politics, and the moral responsibility of artists in unsettled times. Throughout, he returns to a central idea: the artist’s job is not ego or display, but manifestation — to channel the song so something healing can happen in the room.
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311: Cafe Central, Madrid
12/23/2025
311: Cafe Central, Madrid
The Café Central, a jazz club located just off Madrid’s Puerta del Sol — Spain’s "Kilometer Zero" — has been going out of business for more than forty years. And now, it finally might. Opened in the early 1980s during Spain’s cultural reopening after Franco’s dictatorship, Café Central became a rare kind of space: part jazz club, part café, part public living room. Bands were booked for full weeks — seven nights at a time — a model that favored musical development over turnover, and community over efficiency. It was never a good business. But it was a great room. For nearly thirty years, my father, jazz musician Ben Sidran, and I returned every November to play there. Over time, the ritual turned into a tradition, and the tradition turned into a legacy — not just for us, but for audiences who marked their calendars around those weeks. Café Central also reflected the city around it. For years, Madrid felt quietly provincial — less touristy, more inward-facing than other European capitals. But that changed. Tourism surged. Rents rose. The economics shifted. In 2018, new owners took over the club. The booking model changed. Week-long residencies largely disappeared, replaced by shorter runs and double seatings. The future arrived, whether anyone wanted it or not. And yet, something endured. Café Central wasn’t just a place where music happened. It was where relationships formed — between musicians and audiences, between locals and visitors, between generations. It taught us that culture survives not because it’s profitable, but because people show up, night after night, year after year. As Café Central prepares to close — or possibly move — it raises a familiar question: when a place disappears, what actually goes with it? The answer, I think, is never just the room. It’s the memory of how it felt to be there — and the responsibility to carry that feeling forward. Featuring conversations with my father, Ben Sidran and my mother, Judy Sidran, this episode explores music, memory, and the fragile ecosystems that keep culture alive.
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310: Remembering Phil Upchurch
12/08/2025
310: Remembering Phil Upchurch
Guitarist, bassist, composer Phil Upchurch died on November 23, and with his passing the music world lost one of its true “musician’s musicians.” Upchurch played on more than a thousand recordings — from Michael Jackson, Donny Hathaway, Chaka Khan, Curtis Mayfield, and George Benson to Jimmy Reed, the Staples Singers, and countless jazz, blues, and soul sessions. He belonged to the generation that didn’t just shape popular music; they invented it. For my dad, Ben Sidran, Phil was also a friend for over 50 years. They recorded and toured together, shared studios, homes, families, and a deep creative kinship. Some of my earliest gigs as a drummer were with Phil, and those moments helped define my own musical path. When we heard that Phil had passed, I called my dad so we could remember him together — the sessions, the stories, the laughter, the generosity, and the unmistakable sound that made him both an insider’s secret and a foundational figure in American music. This episode is a tribute — a conversation about a life lived fully in music, about reputation and legacy, and about the musicians who shaped the landscape from behind the scenes. Visit for the full archive, and sign up for writing and updates at . The Third Story is made in partnership with WBGO Studios.
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309: Madison Cunningham
11/24/2025
309: Madison Cunningham
Madison Cunningham’s new album Ace marks a striking and vulnerable chapter in the young songwriter’s evolution. Not yet 30, Cunningham has already lived through a period of profound personal transformation. She married young, divorced young, and found herself rebuilding her identity in the wake of major change. Instead of retreating, she turned the experience into a meditation on the difference between happiness and contentment. Raised in a large religious family in Orange County, Cunningham began performing in her father’s church band at twelve and was experimenting with alternate tunings before she fully understood them. Her breakthrough albums Who Are You Now (Grammy-nominated) and Revealer (Grammy winner for Best Folk Album) established her as one of the most distinctive voices of her generation. Here she reflects on her early musical formation, artistic growth, and the deeply personal experiences that shaped Ace—a record about honesty, resilience, and learning to stay present. This episode is sponsored by Musication, offering in-home music lessons in Brooklyn and Manhattan for kids ages three and up. Visit and mention the podcast to receive two free trial lessons.
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308: Theo Bleckmann
11/10/2025
308: Theo Bleckmann
Singer and composer Theo Bleckmann has spent his career between categories - jazz and avant-garde, improvisation and composition, structure and discovery. Born in Germany, he began as a boy soprano and figure skater before discovering jazz and moving to New York to study with Sheila Jordan. Since then, he’s built a singular life in music, collaborating with artists like Meredith Monk, Laurie Anderson, and Ben Monder. Here he talks about community, teaching, queerness, and the meaning of “a life in music” rather than “a career in jazz.” He also talks about his new album Love & Anger, produced by Ulysses Owens Jr., which bridges Kate Bush and the Beatles, Frank Ocean and original compositions - all infused with curiosity, empathy, and mystery. This episode is supported by Musication, providing in-home music lessons in Brooklyn and Manhattan to children ages 3yrs old and up. Email lessons@musication.nyc and mention "The Third Story" to receive two free trial lessons.
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307: dodie
10/27/2025
307: dodie
British singer-songwriter dodie has spent half her life in public. Long before algorithms and engagement metrics ruled the day, she began posting homemade songs and videos on YouTube as a teenager from Essex. Her soft voice, self-effacing humor, and unfiltered honesty drew millions of viewers who watched her grow up online—sharing heartbreaks, mental-health struggles, and moments of joy in real time. Fifteen years later, that same authenticity anchors her second album, Not For Lack of Trying (Decca / Verve), a project that finds her looking inward with more clarity and balance than ever. Produced with Joe Rubel, the record feels both intimate and expansive, blending hushed guitars, clarinets, and a subtle electronic pulse beneath lyrics about healing, boundaries, and learning to feel okay. Here she talks about what it means to grow up online, how she learned to protect her private life, and the long road to emotional equilibrium. She opens up about the strange feedback loop of being praised for her pain, the decision to step back from constant posting, and the discovery that medication, therapy, and time have finally helped her feel “a bit better.” She discusses the making of Not For Lack of Trying, her collaboration with friends like Greta Isaac and producer Joe Rubel, and the sonic choices that define her sound - the low rumble of drop-tuned guitars and the warmth of analog synths supporting a voice that seems to hover just above the mix. “When I’m writing,” she says, “I’m not aiming for how it sounds. I’m aiming for how it feels—I just want to get goosebumps.” Along the way, dodie reflects on the evolution from being a “special girl” with a ukulele and a webcam to becoming a full-fledged artist with more than a billion streams, seven million followers, and a place on Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list. Through it all, she’s still trying, still curious, still kind, still chasing that feeling.
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306: Vera Brandes
10/19/2025
306: Vera Brandes
The Köln Concert by Keith Jarrett is one of the most iconic recordings in jazz history — a completely improvised solo piano performance, recorded in 1975, that became both the best-selling solo album and the best-selling piano album of all time. And yet, the concert almost didn’t happen. The new film Köln 75, directed by Brooklyn-based filmmaker Ido Fluk, tells the remarkable true story behind that night through the eyes of Vera Brandes, the 18-year-old German concert promoter whose persistence and intuition made it possible. Against all odds - and with only a broken, nearly unplayable piano to work with - Brandes helped turn what could have been a disaster into a historic moment that continues to resonate fifty years later. Here Vera Brandes shares her memories of that night and her reflections on the making of Köln 75, which captures not only a pivotal event in jazz but also a coming-of-age story set in a post-war Germany rebuilding its identity. The conversation explores how art, community, and chance intersect, how the myths, friendships, and behind-the-scenes stories give life to the music itself. Narrative films about jazz are notoriously difficult to make, but Köln 75 manages to do the almost unthinkable: it’s funny, urgent, and even sexy — a movie about a concert promoter trying to put on a show that somehow feels thrilling and alive. leosidran.substack.com
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305: Jacob Jeffries
10/10/2025
305: Jacob Jeffries
Pianist, songwriter, and performer Jacob Jeffries the morning after he played Madison Square Garden with Vulfpeck, reflecting on the surreal thrill of performing in the legendary arena with his close friends, while also grounding the experience in the everyday reality of being a working musician. The conversation traces his journey from South Florida (where his childhood was shaped by Beatles records, summer theater programs like Lovewell, and the absence of a bar mitzvah he later regretted) to his early career with the Jacob Jeffries Band and formative studio experiences with Grammy-winning producer Sebastian Krys and guitarist-producer Dan Warner. He describes being taken under their wing, signed to Warner Chappell at 18, and even meeting Rick Rubin as a teenager—moments that felt like he was “six inches from Madison Square Garden,” only to discover it would take another 20 years of steady work to get there. Along the way, Jeffries talks about grief (losing both parents by his mid-20s), his bond with fellow Vulfpeck member Theo Katzman, the power of collaborative creativity, and the balance between sincerity and playfulness in his own music. He reflects on the intimacy of his new record You Got the Right Idea, the surreal humor of songs like This Is Not the Song I Wrote, and how he embodies a kind of singer, storyteller, and surrealist performer all at once. Jacob is on tour this month opening for the band Lawrence.
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304: Leonor Watling
10/04/2025
304: Leonor Watling
Born and raised in Madrid, Leonor Watling grew up between cultures, the daughter of a Spanish academic father and a British mother who had been raised in Africa. From an early age she was aware of both the fragility and the richness of life: her father was sick for much of her childhood and passed away when she a teenager, just as she began working steadily as an actress. That combination of otherness and awareness shaped her perspective, both on stage and in song. Best known internationally for her starring role in Pedro Almodóvar’s Talk to Her, she is one of the most recognizable faces in Spanish cinema, constantly at work in new films and series. Watling has also built a parallel career as a musician. For nearly two decades she fronted the band Marlango, releasing seven albums and touring the world, first singing in English and later in Spanish. In this conversation, recorded in Madrid, Leonor reflects on her journey from early television fame to international cinema, from intimate songwriting to major-label tours, and from the demands of motherhood to the challenges of sustaining a creative life. We also unpack our own collaboration, Leo & Leo, a new project that reimagines songs from the Leo Sidran song catalog alongside new originals, featuring guests Jorge Drexler, Kevin Johansen, Sol Sidran, Javi Peña, and the Paris based Groovy French Band. At its heart, this is both a portrait of an artist who has spent decades walking the line between acting and music, fame and privacy, English and Spanish—and a rare, intimate conversation between two close collaborators who are still discovering new ways to ask questions of each other.
/episode/index/show/thirdstorypodcast/id/38461010
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303: Stella Cole
09/10/2025
303: Stella Cole
Stella Cole went from nearly giving up singing in college to becoming one of the breakout stars of the pandemic era, thanks to her viral performances of American Songbook standards on TikTok. Now signed to Decca and releasing her second full length album It’s Magic, she talks about following her instincts, finding her voice, and turning childhood obsessions into a career.
/episode/index/show/thirdstorypodcast/id/38152040