Wild Card with Rachel Martin

Busy Philipps found out she had a rare malignant brain tumor within hours of finding out she’d landed a part in the new CBS drama, “Cupertino.” She’s spent the past few months processing the highs and lows of going through treatment for the tumor while filming a TV show. Busy tells Rachel about why she wanted to do that processing publicly, and also talks about learning to trust her instinct and discovering the joy of sex later than most.

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Esther Perel’s warning is clear: “We are more and more sleepwalking into isolation.” Her work as a psychotherapist is, in part, an attempt to build connections in a disconnected world. This fall, she's going on tour, gathering strangers, friends, and lovers for an evening of connection and togetherness. She tells Rachel about what she learned while busking in Amsterdam in her youth, and her intimate relationship with dread.

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London today is very different from the one Zadie Smith grew up in and the one she wrote about in her debut novel “White Teeth.” That is just one of the things Smith is grappling with 26 years after her best-selling book's debut. She talks to Rachel about the difficulty of revisiting the first few pages of "White Teeth," the wisdom only teenagers possess, and fighting despair with crème brûlée.

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Jesse Eisenberg plays characters who spend a lot of time in their heads grappling with anxiety, fear and insecurity. You can see it in “The Squid and the Whale,” “Zombieland” and “A Real Pain,” which he wrote directed, and starred in. He chats with Rachel about how anxiety plays into his own life, as well as his unique use of ChatGPT, his pro basketball aspirations and the virtues of true boredom.

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“I think joy and melancholy have a lot to say to each other,” Pádraig Ó Tuama tells Rachel. In his poetry, he allows that conversation between joy and melancholy to play out as he explores love, grief, and faith. Pádraig's latest poetry collection is called “Love Between Men.” He tells Rachel about why the Irish language is of the earth, and the fear and relief that comes with admitting the truth.

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