I am a Funeral Pyre with Nnenna and Pierce Freelon
How to Survive the End of the World
How to Survive the End of the World
4.9 • 2.3K Ratings
🗓️ 30 January 2026
⏱️ 71 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The sisters are ecstatic to welcome Nnenna and Pierce Freelon to the show.
Nnenna is a GRAMMY nominated jazz singer, storyteller and grief sojourner. Her latest album is Beneath the Skin. Her new book is Beneath the Skin of Sorrow: Improvisations on Loss.
Nneena’s son Pierce is a GRAMMY nominated artist, picture book author and podcaster. His GRAMMY nominated children’s music albums AnceStars (2023) and Black to the Future (2021) have been featured on Today Show, NPR and Billboard. He has written songs for the PBS Kids animated series’ Alma’s Way and Work it Out Wombats!
The Freelons regal the Browns with tales of the late great architect/husband/father, Phil Freelon, being Maya Angelou's friend, manufacturing space ice cream, living in an Octavian future, having to leave Nancy Drew behind and go off-planet, settling in North Carolina, making puppet art about grief, digging where your tears fall and scatting your way through the universe.
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| 0:00.0 | My music is saving me. |
| 0:07.0 | My writing is saving me. |
| 0:10.0 | My writing is saving me. |
| 0:14.0 | My children are saving me. |
| 0:17.0 | Little moments of beauty I have to search for, like I have to look for them and remind myself that all is not lost. |
| 0:29.6 | I'm Autumn Brown, front woman of the soul pop band, Autumn, a queer science fiction writer, a theologian, a mother of dragons, |
| 0:41.4 | and a healing justice facilitator for social movements living on Dakota and a Shannabe |
| 0:46.6 | land currently known as Minneapolis. And I'm Adri Marie Brown, a luscious, black queer |
| 0:53.3 | witch writer Auntie, an apocalyptic cosmic optimist |
| 0:57.2 | and a gardener of healing ideas. |
| 1:00.1 | I live in the land of the Okunichi, Shakori, Skrura, Tuscarora, Ino, and Lumpy peoples. |
| 1:08.4 | And this is how to survive the end of the world. |
| 1:12.3 | Our podcast about learning from apocalypse with grace, rigor, and curiosity. |
| 1:18.5 | As a reminder, we have no ads. |
| 1:21.9 | We are exclusively listener supported. |
| 1:25.5 | And y'all are the listener. |
| 1:27.0 | So thank you for supporting us so far. |
| 1:28.8 | And if you haven't already, join our Patreon for exclusive content. |
| 1:33.6 | Okay. |
| 1:34.5 | I'm excited to get into our conversation today. |
| 1:37.3 | As you all know, this season is all about revolutionary art and the revolutionary power of art. |
| 1:44.0 | And today we're going to have two people on who are from my Durham community here, |
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