Hi, I'm Nora Jones, and today I'm playing along with Mavis Staples.

I'm just playing along with you.

I'm just playing along with you.

Hi. Hi, welcome to the show. I'm Nora, and with me as always is Sarah Oda.

Hello, hello. Today's show was so fun to record and pretty emotional. I don't know how you felt about it, Oda, but for me it was very, very special. I feel like Mavis Staples is a force, but like a very sweet, tender, loving,

hugable force. Yeah, I know what you mean. Yeah, she's just an amazing human. She is full of love

and we love her. You cannot be in a bad mood when she's in the room. No, and we talk about that a

little in this episode about her energy and where it comes from. Mavis Staples, of course,

was part of the Staples singers. Mavis and her family comes from. Mavis Staples, of course, was part of the Staples singers.

Mavis and her family were iconic throughout the Civil Rights Movement. Her father was friends with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Yeah. And they performed at rallies and protests before his speeches. They inspired people when people needed it the most.

We enjoy talking to Mavis about her family and the dynamic of the staple singers pops.

And of course, now she's also a solo artist in her own right.

She's influenced so many people.

Everybody loves her.

And aside from the incredible music that she

makes, all the stories that come along with the history she's had and the people she's

encountered along the way, I mean, I could just listen to her talk all day long. Yeah. We talk about

all this and we sing several songs together, some that I didn't even know we were going to sing in this

episode, so that was really fun. She just goes with it at all times, and that's what's so fun

about being around Mavis. I met her for the first time in 2010 when we were both honoring

Paul McCartney at the Kennedy Center honors.

...