"You have to hold on to hope." — Juliet Marillier

Dutch folk singer Sophie Janna was 14 when she read Daughter of the Forest. Twenty-four years later she finally gets to ask its author the questions she's been carrying since. Juliet Marillier — the New Zealand-born, Western Australia-based novelist behind the Sevenwaters saga and the Blackthorn & Grim novels, and winner of the 2025 World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award — talks about the marriage that ended, the office job, and the first novel she wrote over three years purely to put her feelings on the page. She talks about being a musician long before she was a writer, about belonging to a druid order, about the trees in an Irish wood she was warned away from, and about the morning she lifted a magpie off a picket fence — a moment that became the opening scene of her new novel, The Amber Owl. Sophie takes the conversation into the song, and writes it back into the book that started her: the silent sister, the needle, and the word that must not be spoken.

New single "Hold On" by Sophie Janna — out 28 August. Stream/pre-save: https://ffm.to/holdon-sophiejanna

CHAPTERS

00:00 Welcome to Podsongs
00:40 Meet Sophie Janner
01:09 Falling for Daughter
02:43 Songs from the Books
04:13 Juliet’s Late Start
05:27 What Her Stories Are
07:27 Juliet Joins the Call
09:24 From Music to Writing
11:15 Writing Through Crisis
17:36 Music in Her Fiction
20:43 Roots in Scotland
25:07 Researching Wolfskin
30:47 Forests and Climate
35:39 Art as Activism
38:19 Self Doubt Reflections
40:35 Writing Battles Hard
43:18 Creating Despite Doubts
44:56 Rethinking Soulmates
49:27 Libraries And Access
52:46 Comfort Reads And Moomins
54:43 Finland Research Trip
58:29 Believing In Nature Magic
01:04:11 Magpie Rescue Inspiration
01:08:34 Signing Off And Aftertalk

SONG CREDITS

"Hold On" performed by Sophie Janna

Massimino Voza: drums, piano

Luigi Falcione: bass

Maurizio Sarnicola: electric guitar, mellotron

Mixed and mastered at Goldmine Records, Italy

GUEST & MUSICIAN

Juliet Marillier: https://julietmarillier.com

Sophie Janna: https://sophiejanna.nl

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Joel McHale reveals his secret 5am pre-flight ritual, the secret to his marriage, and a Dave Grohl story he's never told — plus, hidden in this hour, the confession that becomes Lowland Hum's new song "Tarantula" on Friday. | Podsongs #173

"I'm Irish, so I could drink turpentine and it would be fine." — Joel McHale

Husband-and-wife folk duo Lowland Hum (Daniel and Lauren Goans) guest-host Podsongs from a friend's studio near their Virginia log cabin and interview comedian and actor Joel McHale (Community, The Soup, Animal Control, Crime Scene Kitchen, Scream 7). Inside this hour: the thing he drinks at 5am before every single flight, the reason he refuses to check a bag, the backstage Dave Grohl story he's never told anywhere, the one thing his wife never does that keeps the marriage working, what cobra actually tastes like, packing procrastination as an existential crisis, an animal that "in two months could kill us all" — and somewhere in all of it, the moment that became Lowland Hum's new single "Tarantula". Even Joel doesn't know which one. See if you can spot it before the song drops.

New single "Tarantula" by Lowland Hum — out Friday 24 July 2026. Pre-save it and hear the answer the moment it lands: https://ffm.to/tarantula

CHAPTERS

00:00 Warm welcome and delays

00:25 Log cabin heat wave chaos

01:17 Woods talk and how memory fragments

02:26 Joel's inside-outside portal office

04:10 Seattle roots and Northwest life

07:00 Meet the host, Jack

08:06 Travel, airports and kid logistics

10:39 Joel's 5am airport ritual and travel kit

13:33 Packing anxiety and style trends

19:02 The perfect pants rabbit hole

23:54 Do acting roles follow you home?

32:48 Flow state across standup, hosting and Scream 7

35:51 Lowland Hum's origin story and gratitude

39:15 Therapy, the inner critic and motivation

43:31 The emotional dial and tour energy

46:32 Tour van naps

46:53 Saying yes to everything: the hustle

48:29 Pro mode onstage

51:40 Collaboration chemistry and 20-year friendships

54:48 The blindfolded audience experiment

01:00:03 Music nerd tangents and the untold Dave Grohl story

01:06:24 Tarantulas and cougars

01:12:27 Food memories and Rome

01:15:32 Goodbyes and the blindfold show

01:19:00 Aftershow: finding the song's entry point

01:24:46 Patreon and community

01:28:08 Closing song tease

GUEST & MUSICIAN

Joel McHale: https://joelmchale.com

Lowland Hum: https://www.lowlandhum.com

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"You're in despair. You just don't know you're in despair." — Peter Rollins

On this episode of Podsongs, John Kunkel of The New Division takes the guest-host chair to interview Northern Irish writer, philosopher and theologian Peter Rollins as inspiration for a brand new song. John opens up on his influences — Depeche Mode, New Order, Echo & the Bunnymen, Duran Duran — before the conversation turns to Rollins' work: questioning certainty, exposing the contradictions we live by, and finding freedom from the relentless "tyranny of happiness," with Los Angeles cast as a spiritual "Mecca" selling wholeness to anyone who can afford it. Along the way Rollins unpacks desire, sacrifice, work and alienation, ideology, AI and the unconscious, the films that shaped him, and the parables behind his "pyrotheology" — and the talk becomes the seed of "Idols," a song about the things we all end up worshipping, good and bad.

New single "Idols" by The New Division — out 26 June. Stream/pre-save: https://ffm.to/tnd_idols

TOPICS

• Peter Rollins on desire, contradiction, and ideology
• The tyranny of happiness and the demand to enjoy
• Los Angeles as a spiritual marketplace
• Lacanian psychoanalysis and the unconscious
• Why desire needs obstacles
• Sacrifice, meaning, and fulfillment
• AI, consciousness, and the technological singularity
• Films, storytelling, and creative inspiration
• John Kunkel’s influences: Depeche Mode, New Order, Echo & the Bunnymen, Duran Duran
• Writing a song live on the podcast

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 Intro: welcome to Podsongs
01:29 Why UK music hits different (New Order, Depeche Mode, Echo & the Bunnymen)
04:45 Keeping new wave alive
06:18 Moving abroad: music logistics
09:47 Writing 150 song demos
14:41 Who is Peter Rollins?
28:17 Peter joins the call
31:50 LA and the demand to enjoy
37:01 The tyranny of happiness
38:35 The superego's demand to enjoy
40:19 Why fulfilling your dreams can backfire
41:53 The enjoyment hidden in sacrifice
44:33 Why desire needs obstacles
47:39 The unconscious and Lacan's "object a"
52:56 Filmmaking and prohibition
57:43 Negative universality and politics
01:01:16 The church of contradiction
01:05:29 AI, singularity and the unconscious
01:12:42 Music tastes and influences
01:14:08 Film picks: They Live and ideology
01:19:49 Who inspires Peter now
01:20:34 Writing the song live
01:21:20 The Vegas parable and unknowing
01:26:02 Where to find Peter Rollins
01:28:43 The profane temple and lack
01:34:51 Post-interview debrief
01:39:07 "Idols" — song outro

GUEST & MUSICIAN

Peter Rollins: https://peterrollins.com

The New Division: https://www.newdivisionmusic.com

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#PeterRollins #JohnKunkel #NewDivision #Philosophy #Theology #Psychoanalysis #Lacan #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #Consciousness #Ideology #Desire #Happiness #Spirituality #Songwriting #SynthPop #NewWave #PostPunk #Podsongs #JackStafford