Summary
Myosha Smith stopped speaking to her brother Joseph Wilson after he handled her coming out poorly. Realizing his mistake, Joe decided to try to win his sister back with a song.
— Daniel A. Gross is a writer, reporter, and radio producer based in Brooklyn.
— Myosha Smith is a social worker and songwriter based in Brooklyn.
— Musical Connections is a program run by Carnegie Hall that teaches inmates at Sing Sing Correctional Facility to create and perform music.
— You can listen to live performances of Gnarly Knees and Bright Dark, a song Joe co-wrote with Myosha, from inside Sing Sing Correctional Facility.
Special thanks to John J. Lennon, a journalist in Sing Sing Correctional Institution who helped Nancy find this story. John wrote about the Carnegie Hall Musical Connections program for Pacific Standard. Also thanks to our friends at WQXR: Christine Herskovits, Aaron Dalton, Eileen Delahunty, and Matt Abramovitz.
Music in this episode by Kyle Sanna. Nancy theme by Alexander Overington.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | A content warning before we start, this episode discusses childhood sexual assault. |
| 0:07.0 | Tobin. |
| 0:08.0 | Kathy. |
| 0:09.0 | Have you ever written a song? |
| 0:11.0 | Um, I've written a song one time. |
| 0:14.0 | It was for an assignment in a music theory class when I was a freshman in college. |
| 0:19.0 | And the assignment was truly just to write like a melody. |
| 0:23.0 | Like it could be instrumental, like on a piano or a cello. |
| 0:26.0 | Okay. |
| 0:27.0 | I was in a rebel phase where I thought of myself as like a badass. |
| 0:31.0 | Oh god. |
| 0:32.0 | So I wrote a song with lyrics. |
| 0:34.0 | Tobin, was this like a punk rock phase of your life? |
| 0:37.0 | No, it was like a chorale. |
| 0:38.0 | Oh my god. |
| 0:39.0 | But the lyrics, and this is where I was really a badass. |
| 0:45.0 | The lyrics were making fun of the dean of the music school because he had a fake British accent. |
| 0:50.0 | Oh my god, Tobin. |
| 0:52.0 | But like in my defense, it was so pretentious. |
| 0:56.0 | And it wasn't even a fake British accent. |
| 0:59.0 | It was just that he pronounced words pretentiously. |
| 1:02.0 | Like. |
... |
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 2025.