This Song

In this rerun from 2018, Beth Ditto, former lead singer of the band Gossip, talks about how Nina Simone's "Mississippi Goddam" helped her grapple with complex feelings about her home state, Arkansas. She also talks about returning home after heartbreak and explores making her first record "Fake Sugar."

In this rerun from 2018, Liz Phair talks about hearing The Soft Boys "I Wanna Destroy You," revisiting her 1991 Girly-Sound Tapes and 1993 debut album, and parenting realities.

John Prine explains how Bob Dylan's "The Lonsesome Death of Hattie Carroll" changed his life and goes in depth about his own songwriting process for his album "The Tree of Forgiveness."

Thao Nguyen from Thao and the Get Down Stay Down talks to host Elizabeth McQueen about the inspiration behind her new song "Temple," and about what it was like to release music during a pandemic. She also shares how making the new album helped prepare her to address her sexuality publicly and to create a safe space in her life where she could exist as her full self.

Kathy Valentine, bass player in the seminal 80s all-girl rock group the Go-Go's, recently wrote a memoir titled All I Ever Wanted. In this episode of, Kathy explains what "Sunshine of Your Love" by Cream taught her about herself when she was 9 years old, describes how she found her creative process as an author and details how music and storytelling intersected in her new book.

In this episode, St. Vincent explores how music from early Disney films helped her lay the foundation for beauty and wonder in her life and work. She also explains why she approached the songs on Masseduction with a Disney-esque lack of irony.

Emily Haines and Jimmy Shaw from Metric talk about hearing "Teardrop" by Massive Attack early in their musical partnership and how it inspired them, terrified them and helped them find a collaborative way of making music that still works for them today.

In this episode of This Song, originally published last February, Jackie Venson talks about how "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" from Evita changed the way she listened to music and thought about herself.

This week we have a special treat for you! A full episode of the new Song Confessional Podcast! In this episode you'll hear a tale of family, weed and secrets, the song it inspired written by Brooklyn based Vlad Holiday, and an interview with Holiday about his boozy creative process.

Devendra Bahnart talks about how hearing "Just Another Diamond Day" by Vashti Bunyan when he was busking on the streets of Paris comforted him with a feeling of motherly love that he still turns to today and how themes of motherhood, love, fear and compassion show up on his latest record "Ma."

King Princess describes how listening to "Cosmic Dancer" by T. Rex as a kid made her feel seen, helped her understand her gender and showed her how music could transport the listener to another place and time.

Indie electronic duo Matt and Kim talk about how "The Mullet Burden" by The Dillinger Escape Plan showed them how intense music could be.

La Marisoul, lead singer and songwriter for the band La Santa Cecilia explains how Mercedes Sosa's version of "Yo vengo a ofrecer mi corazon" by Fito Páez helped her understand what a powerful tool music could be for connection and healing.

British singer, songwriter and producer Shura explains why My Bloody Valentine terrified her and intrigued her she she heard it for the first time, what it's like to write an entire album of love songs and why she felt like now was the right time to use female-gendered pronouns in her work.

This Song host Elizabeth McQueen has been helping produce a new podcast called The Breaks. Every Saturday from 10pm-1am, Confucius and Fresh host a hip-hop show on KUTX called The Breaks. And now every Monday at 2pm the world can hear highlights from their wide ranging conversations about all things hip-hop, Austin’s hip-hop and R&B scenes […]

Singer, songwriter and producer Finneas O'Connell not only writes and produces music with his sister Billie Eilish, but also makes his own music under the name FINNEAS. Listen as he explains why he loved "Holy Sh*t" by Father John Misty from the moment he heard it and how the song helped him expand his ideas of what he could say in his own songs.

Carrie Brownstein explains how "Stay" by Rhianna inspired her to write the last track on Sleater-Kinney's latest record,"Broken."

Ezra Koenig, lead singer and songwriter for the band Vampire Weekend, explains why he recently became obsessed with "I Don't Think Much About Her No More" by country singer and songwriter Mickey Newbury and explores what it was like to apply country music's direct approach to songwriting to some of the the songs on Father of the Bride.

On the last episode of This Song until the fall, Krissy Teegerstrom, a self-made artist, creative consultant, podcaster, and designer at Featherweight Studio talks about how listening to "Mojo Pin" by Jeff Buckley transported her to a place beyond the real and showed her how to follow her creative intuition.

On this episode of This Song, Elizabeth McQueen sits down with Eric Burton, the lead singer of Black Pumas to talk about what he learned about honesty an connection from Otis Redding's "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay" and how went from busking on the Santa Monica Pier to fronting the Black Pumas in Austin Texas.