This week, Kate is unexpectedly back home in Alaska, Richie is melting in Los Angeles, and a suspiciously perfect Afro House track sends us into a much bigger conversation about AI, craftsmanship, Spotify, the Grammys, extractive systems, and why having an idea is not the same thing as making something.

From there, as usual, the playlists take us everywhere: early-2000s pop punk and Richie's brief frosted-tips era, the German song that became a Frank Sinatra standard, new friends and old memories in Hong Kong, Australian and Papua New Guinean voices, Alaska folk music, Jeremy Dutcher and Indigenous language preservation, Hungarian ancestral echoes, the Womack Sisters carrying a remarkable musical lineage, an electrified Turkish bağlama, Radiohead, and a rare dose of Turkmen pop.

Along the way, we wonder whether making things with our hands might become a small act of rebellion, reconstruct the deeply unfortunate voice of an ancient mummy, drink overpriced beer out of wine glasses, badly tip a Viennese waiter, meet a puppy with excellent eyebrows, and remember that sometimes the best response to an increasingly synthetic world is remarkably simple: pick up an instrument, go hear somebody play, make something badly, and get a little better tomorrow.

Also: an idea is not enough.

Listen to the full Episode 13 playlists and discover the artists we talk about in the links below.

If you like the show, follow Entry Points Radio, send an episode to someone who loves finding new music, and leave us a review; it genuinely helps other people find us.

Entry Points Radio: a mixtape with a passport.

Produced and edited by Kate Bass and Richard Steighner.

🟢 Full Playlist on Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7tyDJYblDY3oLEQj11Vb5f?si=RC_UdtxISGebdsW3jS5kDw

🍎 Full Playlist on Apple Music:

https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/entry-points-13/pl.u-DdANrYaFLkNWVB

▶️ Watch/Subscribe on Youtube:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXgeSnlkZC_zdaWytIIUx8iA-mDGRnVVQ&si=70zPI3tyslA6xVqP

Subscribe on Deezer:

https://www.deezer.com/us/show/1003292131

Subscribe on Amazon:

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/e5cab8c2-ae60-4411-966b-b3d42257fec3/entry-points-radio

Subscribe on iHeartRadio:

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/337398467/

🗟 Full Transcript:

https://globalmusiccollective.substack.com/

🥰 Support us on Patreon for the Full Playlist Archive:

https://www.patreon.com/cw/EntryPointsRadio

"Heroes get remembered, but a legend never dies."

So what makes a legend? Is it the music itself, the culture, the impact, the post-mortem?

In this 12th episode, Richie and Kate can't stop saying 'Legendary' when it comes to artists who have passed away: Dolly Parton to Nina Simone, Miriam Makeba, Lata Mangeshkar. For those that live on, how has their musical work so far elevated them to the status of 'Legend'? Spoiler, there's more than one way to become great.

This episode criss-crosses continents and generations, from American soul and pop to African music, Indian playback singing, Hong Kong’s Sam Hui, Cuban songwriting, and the unexpected ways music travels around the world. They talk about artists who became activists, musicians became the voice of their communities, and the beautiful phenomenon of discovering that a song has been part of your life long before you knew who made it.

What does it actually mean to live a “rich” life? Does financial security come at the expense of adventure, travel, creativity, and cultural connection? And after years of touring the world, can you bring that sense of curiosity and discovery home with you?

NOTE: Velemseni is from Eswatini, not Zimbabwe

Make sure to review, subscribe, and share Entry Points Radio with a music fan who could use a new rabbit hole.

Produced and Edited by Kate Bass and Richard Steighner

🟢 Full Playlist on Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/11n1yi1RQQoS9myrp3kEfL?si=7266269e58744df7

🍎 Full Playlist on Apple Music:

▶️ Watch/Subscribe on Youtube:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXgeSnlkZC_zdaWytIIUx8iA-mDGRnVVQ&si=70zPI3tyslA6xVqP

Deezer:

https://www.deezer.com/us/show/1003292131

Amazon:

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/e5cab8c2-ae60-4411-966b-b3d42257fec3/entry-points-radio

iHeartRadio:

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/337398467/

🥰 Support us on Patreon for the Full Playlist Archive:

https://www.patreon.com/cw/EntryPointsRadio

Artists in the episode: Nina Simone, Lata Mangeshkar, Dolly Parton, Miriam Makeba, Totó la Momposina, Moses Hightower, Nneka, Bobby Lone, Anne Brun, Linnea Olsson, Vladimir Martynov, Conspirare, Craig Hella Johnson, Lubomyr Melnyk, Active Child, OutKast, Silvio Rodríguez, Gina Chavez, Whitney Houston, Led Zeppelin, The Beach Boys, Brian Wilson, Paul McCartney, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings, Glen Campbell, Ed Sheeran, Ngaiire (Papua New Guinea), Nico, J Dilla, Busta Rhymes, J Dilla / Jaylib, Madlib, Velemseni, Jackson Browne, Sam Hui, Marvin Gaye, Donny Hathaway, BTS

Topics include: legendary musicians, global music, music history, cultural exchange, music and activism, Dolly Parton, Nina Simone, Miriam Makeba, Lata Mangeshkar, Sam Hui, American music, world music, music discovery, travel, creativity, and what it means to live a rich life.

In this, the 11th episode of Entry Points Radio, Richie and Kate take a journey through music, movies, artistic identity, and the strange ways we decide what (and who) is worth listening to.

Stay to the end for Top 3 songs for the week!

This week's songs span Glenn Campbell, The Highwaymen, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, John Prine, Nickel Creek, The Notorious B.I.G., Jay Dilla, Tina Turner, electronic music, jazz, Lang Lang and Franz Liszt, MF DOOM, Olivia Dean, Ella Fitzgerald, choral / a cappella and more. We dive into the cultural roots of guitar, hurdy-gurdy connections, and songs shared on busses.

Richie and Kate discuss the complicated mythology of “making it” from performing at legendary venues like Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium to sitting in Dolly Parton’s dressing room.

They debate Ars Gratis Artis and the value and privilege of making art “for art’s sake.”

Then they unpack value of discovery, especially acknowledging that we simply don’t know what we don’t know. Kate’s experience discovering MF DOOM or Richie learning the Orpheus myth leads to a broader discussion about musical appreciation, expertise, and the importance of approaching unfamiliar genres with curiosity rather than embarrassment or judgment. They go further talking about classifying artists into genres and how we build walls around genres that then keep out new fans.

Whether it’s a 1970s country song, a hip-hop classic, a Renaissance-inspired vocal work, or a Sufi performance from Pakistan that moves someone who cannot understand a single word, there are countless ways into music. Sometimes the most powerful entry point is simply being willing to listen.

Make sure to review, subscribe, and share Entry Points Radio with a music fan who could use a new rabbit hole.

Produced and Edited by Kate Bass and Richard Steighner

🟢 Full Playlist on Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1cdc1j7D1hlhdnXRsjpbnW?si=7e79a2319cde4b73

🍎 Full Playlist on Apple Music:

https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/entry-points-11/pl.u-e98lkXqH1MZkv0

▶️ Watch/Subscribe on Youtube:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXgeSnlkZC_zdaWytIIUx8iA-mDGRnVVQ&si=70zPI3tyslA6xVqP

Deezer:

https://www.deezer.com/us/show/1003292131

Amazon:

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/e5cab8c2-ae60-4411-966b-b3d42257fec3/entry-points-radio

iHeartRadio:

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/337398467/

🥰 Support us on Patreon for the Full Playlist Archive:

https://www.patreon.com/cw/EntryPointsRadio

We made it to Episode 10! And naturally, we celebrate by asking why humans make art in the first place.

Kate and Richie start with longevity experiments, people who make fun of other people for trying too hard, bird songs, gray walls, AI music, and the idea that supporting the arts isn’t charity—it’s part of building a life and a society worth living in.

Kate kicks off her playlist with a song by Richie himself and the slightly unhinged story of the 52 original a cappella songs and music videos he made in 52 weeks during COVID. From there, we travel through Indigenous Australian music with Gurrumul, Idris Elba rapping, Jacob Banks, Bill Evans, Rajasthan, Radiohead, Daniela Spalla, an Uzbek cover of Amr Diab, Esperanza Spalding, Texas alt-country, Ohtoro in Hawaiʻi, Cypress Hill, and Jimi Hendrix.

Along the way: what it means to be “too much,” dreaming in another language, how musicians develop a sound that is unmistakably their own, camel logistics in Rajasthan, Silk Road rabbit holes, tourism versus cultural appreciation, and why sometimes admitting you know absolutely nothing about a musical tradition is the perfect place to start.

Richie’s list goes from an old-school a cappella version of “Pure Imagination” to Bangladesh, Afro-Colombian hip hop, K-pop, Zimbabwe, space-age jazz, satirical Italian funk, glitchy electronic music, Coldplay, and an Australian pub tradition involving “Eagle Rock” and, apparently, removing your pants.

Ultimately, Episode 10 comes back to why we started doing this at all: music is never just music. It carries people, places, memory, history, identity, friendship, weird stories, and conversations we might never have otherwise.

Also discussed: trying hard in gym class as a personality disorder, the Whitney Houston of Rajasthan, the Whitney Houston of Egypt, and Columbo.

Make sure to review, subscribe, and share Entry Points Radio with a music fan who could use a new rabbit hole.

Produced and Edited by Kate Bass and Richard Steighner

🟢 Full Playlist on Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2OQh6IYenfaX8ib1GKsxf5?si=s9zWWRlDQ1Ko988_YtMQQg

🍎 Full Playlist on Apple Music:

https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/entry-points-10/pl.u-d2b0k4WFgbGZz2

▶️ Watch/Subscribe on Youtube:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXgeSnlkZC_zdaWytIIUx8iA-mDGRnVVQ&si=70zPI3tyslA6xVqP

Deezer:

https://www.deezer.com/us/show/1003292131

Amazon:

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/e5cab8c2-ae60-4411-966b-b3d42257fec3/entry-points-radio

iHeartRadio:

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/337398467/

🥰 Support us on Patreon for the Full Playlist Archive:

https://www.patreon.com/cw/EntryPointsRadio

What happens when everything gets more convenient—but somehow less human?

Kate and Richie start with broken smart homes, forty-year-old refrigerators, Broadway auditions that now require a home studio, Regenerative Economics, and whether everything needs to be optimized, upgraded, automated and monetized forever.

Then they remember this is a music podcast.

Richie takes us through his guitar history—from learning The Cars in a Colorado bedroom and improvising to “House of the Rising Sun,” through punk, Tool, Eric Johnson, The Living End, Joe Satriani, John Mayer, Yngwie Malmsteen, and an unreasonable double dose of DragonForce. Along the way: learning badly before learning well, boredom as a gateway to improvisation, and why beatboxing felt more physical than guitar.

Kate’s playlist goes elsewhere: a slow Texas summer with Baden Powell, Erasmo Carlos, Ponto BR, Arooj Aftab’s “Mohabbat,” Sabor a Mí, José González, Congolese rumba, New Orleans funk, jazz fusion, and Sam Cooke singing “Blowin’ in the Wind.” Also: a black kite outside a Mumbai bedroom window and a defense of pigeons.

They talk about how cultures influence one another, what happens when style becomes uniform, and why a great recommendation algorithm can’t replace another person saying, “You have to hear this.”

Maybe breaking out of the algorithm is less about defeating it than staying curious: listening to the radio, asking friends what they’re playing, hearing songs you might not like, and bringing back the listening party.

Also discussed: Hot Topic goths, Paganini and the devil, Monty Python, Trombone Shorty, and Old Rich and Gold Rush Jane.

Make sure to review our episode and share it with music fans who are tired of the algorithms!

Subscribe today!

Produced and Edited by Kate Bass and Richard Steighner

🟢 Full Playlist on Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3fp04ecwgpiVup7EMblqOB?si=9802077ae8dd4d29&pt_success=1&nd=1&dlsi=c83ecb51363f470f

🍎 Full Playlist on Apple Music:

https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/entry-points-9/pl.u-11zBXNYi7kKME9

▶️ Watch/Subscribe on Youtube:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXgeSnlkZC_zdaWytIIUx8iA-mDGRnVVQ&si=70zPI3tyslA6xVqP

Subscribe on Deezer:

https://www.deezer.com/us/show/1003292131

Subscribe on Amazon:

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/e5cab8c2-ae60-4411-966b-b3d42257fec3/entry-points-radio

Subscribe on iHeartRadio:

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/337398467/

🥰 Support us on Patreon for the Full Playlist Archive:

https://www.patreon.com/cw/EntryPointsRadio

Can a feel-good playlist still have depth?

After a few heavy weeks of protest music, world events, viral posts, and existential spiraling, Kate and Richie decided they needed a reset. This week’s playlists are filled with songs they simply enjoy—but because this is Entry Points Radio, “feel good” still leads to Greek tragedy, ancestral languages, immigrant stories, the collapse of civilization, and at least one polyamorous tardigrade.

Kate’s playlist moves through Hadestown and the eternal question of why we keep retelling stories when we already know how they end; summer memories with The Lovin’ Spoonful; moving to Texas with Blaze Foley; an eighteen-year-old rooftop crush soundtracked by Nick Drake; Bulgarian choral music that feels like the ancestors calling; Lebanese pop; an extraordinary Ossetian artist from the Caucasus; the very useful Arabic philosophy of toz; and Austin-based Ecuadorian songwriter Javier Jara’s beautiful reflections on immigration, culture, and the many worlds living just down the street.

Richie builds a feel-good playlist that is emphatically not saccharine, moving from Cécile McLorin Salvant and M83 to Australian electronic music, Skee-Lo’s refreshingly honest hip hop, a Bon Iver cover with more drums, Filipino vocal group Acapellago, Eddie Money, DJ Harrison, and the cathartic electronic brilliance of Daft Punk.

Along the way, Kate and Richie ask whether joy has to ignore suffering—or whether real joy actually requires depth, memory, catharsis, and human connection. They also consider why singing with other people makes us feel better, whether algorithms and AI are optimizing all the interesting parts out of art, and why sometimes “I like this song” is reason enough to share it.

Also discussed: Richie being a Scorpio, the unforgivable “Java Jive,” Kate’s teenage Barnes & Noble almost-boyfriend, Mick Jagger at the MoMA coat check, an opera about two microplastics falling in love with a polyamorous tardigrade, and whether an egg is emotionally somewhere between a carrot and a donut.

Because the world is still the world—but joy, lightness, ridiculousness, and music are part of what makes it worth fighting for.

Make sure to review our episode and share it with music fans who are tired of the algorithms!

Subscribe today!

Think of it as a mixtape with a passport...

Produced and Edited by Kate Bass and Richard Steighner

Full Playlist on Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5uDffKrZ7LQsFJVjHae6Sr?si=XjjfvCrFR1eyoQ6dfCrBfg

Full Playlist on Apple Music:

https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/entry-points-8/pl.u-aZb0kWDImKRWMJ

Youtube:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXgeSnlkZC_zdaWytIIUx8iA-mDGRnVVQ&si=70zPI3tyslA6xVqP

Patreon for the Full Playlist Archive:

https://www.patreon.com/cw/EntryPointsRadio

Entry Points Radio is back with Part 2 of our conversation with TaraxBella, the extraordinary sister duo from Abuja, Nigeria. After internet connectivity issues forced Tara and Bella to jump off early — because Nigerian internet had other plans — Kate and Richie keep the conversation going with the songs they had chosen for the week.

Richie’s list moves from hidden histories to big feelings: Big Mama Thornton’s original “Hound Dog” before Elvis made it famous, Duke Ellington’s “Mood Indigo,” Max Richter’s “On the Nature of Daylight,” Chilean artist Nekki and the power of roots, The Cranberries’ “Zombie,” Fabrizio De André’s Italian song about the Sand Creek Massacre, Sinead O’Connor, and a Swiss vocal tradition involving mountains, bells, overtones, and one bad European mustache era.

Kate’s list follows the thread of protest, simplicity, grief, beauty, and not knowing how to be a person in a world on fire: Joan Baez’s “There But for Fortune,” Clairo’s “Alewife,” Bob Dylan’s “Gates of Eden,” Stromae’s “Fils de joie,” Jacob Banks, Moroccan artist Ouidad, The Breath’s “Let It Calm You Down,” and the Sikh singer Bhai Mehal Singh Ji — whose music becomes an entry point into Sikh devotional tradition, service, and the powerful presence of Nihang Sikhs at the recent protests in India.

Along the way, we talk about who gets credit for music, what songs reveal when you actually listen to them, why folk music once felt so politically alive, how identity gets complicated by borders and belonging, and why sometimes the only honest answer is: we don’t know what to do, but we’re still listening.

Also discussed: Elvis’s nose, Colorado having far more sides than anyone asked for, whether we are all becoming jaded folk singers, Alaska again obviously, and the eternal truth that sometimes everything matters and nothing matters and somehow music still helps.

Produced and Edited by Kate Bass and Richard Steighner

Full Playlist on Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3BHFLJuPtM2lPajZbV9ZJC?si=VVFQKRCPT2eo_BzGO046Nw

Full Playlist on Apple Music:

https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/entry-points-7/pl.u-JPAZE8ZIBRlqZb

Watch/Subscribe on YouTube:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXgeSnlkZC_zdaWytIIUx8iA-mDGRnVVQ&si=70zPI3tyslA6xVqP

Deezer:

https://www.deezer.com/us/show/1003292131

Amazon:

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/e5cab8c2-ae60-4411-966b-b3d42257fec3/entry-points-radio

iHeartRadio:

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/337398467/

Substack:

https://globalmusiccollective.substack.com/

Support us on Patreon for the Full Playlist Archive:

https://www.patreon.com/cw/EntryPointsRadio

What happens when a story from India, told by two musicians in America, resonates with two sisters in Nigeria?

Entry Points Radio is back with our second guest episode — and Part 1 of a two-part conversation with our friends TaraxBella, the incredible Abuja-based sister duo whose music moves from love songs to activism with soulful magic.

This week’s conversation picks up right where the world left us: talking about the power of stories, why musicians can’t always separate art from politics, and what it means to keep using your voice when everything feels overwhelming. Tara and Bella reflect on the recent India clip that brought so many new people into the Entry Points conversation, and from there, the episode opens into Nigeria, protest music, bad internet, Big Brother as distraction, voter apathy, faith, grief, motherhood, and the eternal cultural phenomenon known as Nigerian time.

Their playlist moves between fight and rest: TaraxBella’s own “Oxygen” and “Mr. President,” Fela Kuti’s “Suffering and Smiling,” Falz as one of Nigeria’s fiercest musical activists, ODENOSE using music to say “we no dey fear,” Jessica Bongos’ “Breathe,” Deborah Enenche’s “Rest,” Nathaniel Bassey’s “In Your Presence,” and the emotional survival power of gospel, soul, protest, and songs that help us come back to ourselves.

Along the way, we talk about what it means to be artists in difficult times, why “I’m not interested in politics” doesn’t really work when politics is shaping everyone’s daily life, how storytelling makes us feel less alone, and why sometimes the playlist has to hold both the front line and the fetal position.

Also: Kate brings up Alaska again, Richie tries to survive Nigerian time, TaraxBella gives us “activist mode,” and Lauryn Hill makes everyone cry. Obviously.

This is Part 1 of 2 with TaraxBella.

Produced and Edited by Kate Bass and Richard Steighner

🟢 Full Playlist on Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3BHFLJuPtM2lPajZbV9ZJC?si=VVFQKRCPT2eo_BzGO046Nw

🍎 Full Playlist on Apple Music:

https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/entry-points-7/pl.u-JPAZE8ZIBRlqZb

▶️ Watch/Subscribe on YouTube:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXgeSnlkZC_zdaWytIIUx8iA-mDGRnVVQ&si=70zPI3tyslA6xVqP

Subscribe on Deezer:

https://www.deezer.com/us/show/1003292131

Subscribe on Amazon:

https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/e5cab8c2-ae60-4411-966b-b3d42257fec3/entry-points-radio

Subscribe on iHeartRadio:

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/337398467/

🗟 Full Transcript:

https://globalmusiccollective.substack.com/

🥰 Support us on Patreon for the Full Playlist Archive:

https://www.patreon.com/cw/EntryPointsRadio