It’s not lost on me that the title for today’s episode might seem heavy-handed, but when you stop to think about it; what a perfect time to be reminded of the vitality of comedy. People generally agree that we’re living through unprecedented times in every corner of the world. The best comedy doesn’t shy away from that, rather it jumps headfirst into poking fun at the madness of life, which is something that Munya Chawawa understands brilliantly.

The Zimbabwean-British satirist/comedy writer is on an insurmountable rise, dominating social media and television at a pace that’d make your head spin. But beyond the millions of views on TikTok (or Instagram if you’re a millennial like me), is a guy who wants to say it as it is, who wants to plant a flag on what matters most to him. And that’s what we discuss on today’s bonus podcast, along with exploring why comedy means so much to him.

(Thanks for the help on this one, Bartees Strange!). Personally, I haven’t found that old saying of “never meet your heroes” to be true. This latest episode is a beautiful example of that and it doesn’t take long for me to share my appreciation to this guest while we’re talking. Today’s pod is with the one and only Tunde Adebimpe, leader of the legendary indie rock band, TV on the Radio. Beyond that, he’s also a cartoonist, art director, music video director (go check out the video for Pin by Yeah Yeah Yeahs), and an actor; most recently appearing in Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.

Simply put, he loves to explore his imagination, and doing so has been the prominent fixture of his life for as long as any of us can remember. This has culminated in his debut solo album, THEE BLACK BOLTZ (out this Friday via Subpop). The album features Tunde trying to make sense of the human condition, highlighting the big and small stressors of life that we can all relate to. It also (in typical Tunde fashion) sounds really fucking cool and on this latest episode of the podcast, we chat all about it.

Also, by request of Tunde, be sure to check out the works of legendary visual artist Gary Panter (through his website and Instagram).

Something that comes up quite a bit on this podcast is how particular the job of a musician is. It’s easy to focus on the sold-out shows and the admiration of fans across the world, but let’s take a sec here to really pinpoint what happens: musicians are people who go into rooms to write down how they feel, and the longer their careers go the more depth they have to utilize to achieve this task. It’s something we don’t often think about when it comes to the mechanisms and how just the sheer mental weight of doing such a thing….is actually kind of insane. These aspects of songwriting were heavily on the mind of today's guest: Lauren Mayberry, the frontwoman of Scottish synth-pop band, CHVRCHES. Both while working on the upcoming fifth CHVRCHES album and her recently released solo album, Vicious Creature. Her solo album contains so many multitudes of what it’s like to be a human being, especially one dealing with grief, anger, sadness, and the persistent desire to dance above all. We chat about all that and crucially: why does Lauren continue to write music?