The Stories: "I dyed the bottom of it Manic Panic raspberry-red. I had a belly button pierce. I wore a lot of midriffs. I was a kind of Jewish Shakira, trying to have some influence from Erykah Badu or something, but I was not cool in that way at all.” “I really wanted to be in that movie. I just love Sofia Coppola so much. At the time I didn't have a child. I didn't know much about mothering, and because the writing was so good, I think I knew what to do.”” I want Ida to know that the world is a field of relations. It's cause and effect. Things don't come from nowhere. People don't come from nowhere. Everybody has a heart. It means that she has the ultimate safety in me and in Ben, my husband.”
The Backstory: “When I started doing improv and excelled, it was like realizing that you could run really fast or something.” “[SNL] was a necessary opportunity for me to take. I saw a lot in myself that I didn't expect to see. Though challenging, it completely pointed me the direction of my own natural success.” Wisdom Rains: "Every time we love a piece of art, that's our achievement. The original creation is the achievement of the artist and the people who may have helped them, or made them feel encouraged or inspired...the beauty and offerings of their world at that time.” On Inspo: "When something is ready to be expressed outside of my personal life, there tends to be no hesitation in terms of either putting it in standup or putting it on the page.” On playing the best friend in both It Ends With Us and Dying for Sex:
"Other than me playing them, I think it's totally two different pieces of work, two different writers...totally different. I'm often cast as people who are 'the funny person', but in Dying for Sex, what was offered to me was such an incredible combination of character traits.’ On Dying for Sex: " it was a real moment in understanding my own self-defined legitimacy. ...backed up by Liz Meriwether and Kim Rosenstock writing it. They're so incredible. I thought, Michelle wants me to be here, and she sees me. She's not like seeing hope for what I will be. She's watching my work. She's connecting with me. We're glad we're here. It felt so good. I felt really enrobed in my character.” On her latest book, Lifeform: “I'd found it really hard to write anything that felt like it could breathe and progress.  I found it hard to say something interesting, and that wasn't just me having a tiny little shit fit. That's cruel to say about myself, I know, but sometimes it's just that way. Then, in the summer of 2023, my daughter was two and a half, and I could suddenly just catch a wave.” What Else: "I really want to write another kid's book, not a Marcel book, but another picture book. And I'm writing a screenplay right now. I would also like to write a theater piece for myself. There's always a lot that I'm trying to do all at once, in small doses, and then something will overtake everything else.” At The Sea, an upcoming film with Amy Adams.

a note from the host

It’s been a big year for our cover star, Jenny Slate. Her skills span so many creative mediums that I titled her cover story, ‘The Maker’. There are all levels of makers or creators, and these days, the term  ‘content creator’ is used with such unchecked frequency…like the way we all find ourselves checking or scrolling our phones on a given day.  But you can tell when you’re in the presence of a true artist and deeply creative soul, and Jenny Slate is one of them. Ahead on the podcast, my conversation with the maker who does writing, standup, acting, voicing, comedy, drama---each with depth. Ask Jenny questions and her answers aren’t just answers: they are stories that tell us much more, and that put a fine point on who she is as a storyteller. It was a year of It Ends With Us, and now streaming on Hulu, Dying for Sex---the movie and the series where Jenny plays two radically different best friends. Hear how working with Michelle Williams has affected her, and how she had to clip away her character, Nikki. Jenny gets into the intricacies of building a book, and how she strung together the musings and tales for latest, titled Lifeform. She reflects on Marcel The Shell and what happens when we interact with art, talks her transformative stint on SNL, dives deep into her creative process and the wishes she has for her daughter, being Jewish Shakira at Colombia, and much more.

                                  + tamara rappa