David Byrne on Musical Democracy
Notes from America with Kai Wright
WNYC Studios
4.4 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 10 February 2022
⏱️ 19 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The former Talking Heads frontman explores the various challenges – and beauties – of human connection while breaking down his hit Broadway show, American Utopia. David Byrne's American Utopia is running at Broadway's St. James Theater through early April. You can also stream the filmed version, directed by Spike Lee, on HBO Max.
Companion listening for this episode:
Lynn Nottage: Unexpected Optimist (1/3/2022)
Playwright Lynn Nottage breaks down her remarkable career and shares how, as an optimist at heart, she finds the light and resilience in unexpected stories.
“The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.
We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at anxiety@wnyc.org.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | What's about to win here? |
| 0:09.6 | Hey everybody, this is Sky, and we have a podcast special for you this week. |
| 0:14.4 | You might recognize this song. |
| 0:16.4 | It's Slippery People by the Talking Heads performed here by their frontman, David Byrne. |
| 0:21.9 | And you know, it's a song that evokes thoughts about faith. |
| 0:26.0 | Not just about religion, that's in there too. |
| 0:28.0 | But I mean, faith like faith we put in people in each other, |
| 0:32.4 | about how we all try to navigate the challenges of our lives together. |
| 0:36.6 | That might be why this song is a good fit for Byrne's show American Utopia. |
| 0:42.0 | It's a live Broadway show in which he performs his music almost as a catalyst to a wider |
| 0:48.0 | conversation about living in a plural society. |
| 0:51.0 | You, me, us, and what's possible if we can make that work? |
| 0:55.8 | I was lucky enough to talk to David Byrne about all of this recently, |
| 0:59.4 | about his music, about the show, and about the sort of musical democracy that is on his mind. |
| 1:06.0 | So check it out, and I hope you'll enjoy it. |
| 1:08.4 | Here you go. |
| 1:10.2 | David, thank you so much for this time. |
| 1:12.2 | Thank you. |
| 1:12.9 | Thank you for arranging this. |
| 1:14.6 | Yeah. |
| 1:15.4 | So I want to start with you spoke with a friend of mine, actually, |
| 1:18.3 | Rich Benjamin for the New Yorker recently. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from WNYC Studios, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of WNYC Studios and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.