Jensen McRae

Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond

Pushkin Industries

Music, Society & Culture

4.5 • 4.2K Ratings

🗓️ 28 October 2025

⏱️ 76 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jensen McRae writes songs that cut straight to the bone—intimate, unflinching examinations of identity, relationships, and the complexities of coming of age in today's world. Since releasing her debut EP, Who Hurt You?, in 2021, she's garnered attention for her literary approach to songwriting and her ability to balance vulnerability with sharp observation.

Her music often grapples with difficult subjects: navigating mixed-race identity, processing heartbreak, and confronting the uncomfortable truths we tell ourselves. But there's also warmth and humor in her work which can be heard that today when she performs three songs live—"Savannah" and “Let Me Be Wrong” from her new album I Don't Know How But They Found Me, and "White Boy" from her 2022 full-length release, Are You Happy Now?

On today’s episode I talk to Jensen McCrae about her journey as an artist, why she gravitates toward niche communities online like Reddit, and her list of goals that include both winning the Grammy for Album of the Year and a mayoral run in her native Los Angeles.

You can hear a playlist of some of our favorite songs from Jensen McRae HERE.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Pushkin.
0:10.8	Jensen McCrae writes songs that cut straight to the bone.
0:14.3	Intimate examinations of identity, relationships, and the complexities of coming of age in
0:18.7	today's world.
0:20.1	Since releasing her debut EP, who hurt you in 2021,
0:23.6	she's garnered attention for her literary approach to songwriting
0:26.4	and her ability to balance vulnerability with sharp observation.
0:30.5	Her music often grapples with difficult subjects,
0:33.4	navigating mixed race identity, processing heartbreak,
0:36.4	and confronting the uncomfortable truths we tell ourselves.
0:39.6	But there's also warmth and humor in her work, which can be heard in this episode when she performs three songs,
0:46.0	Savannah, White Boy, and Let Me Be Wrong from her new album, I Don't Know How, But They Found Me.
0:51.9	On today's episode, I talked to Jensen McCray about her journey as an artist,
0:55.8	why she gravitates towards niche communities online on Reddit,
0:59.1	and her list of goals that include both winning the Grammy for album of the year
1:02.8	and a mayoral run in our native Los Angeles.
1:08.7	This is Broken Record, Real musicians, real conversations.
1:16.2	This is an I-Heart podcast.
1:22.0	Tim Harford here. I'm the host of cautionary tales. We've teamed up with a couple of other
1:27.3	great shows from the Pushkin Network
1:29.3	to bring you a special episode all about mistakes and what we can learn from them.
1:34.1	They said, swish the ketamine around in your mouth and then spit it out.
	...

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