Brad Mehldau has recorded a podcast episode about his new album, Jacob’s Ladder. He talks about some of his personal experiences over the last two years while working on the music he's made during these turbulent times. You can hear it here. Additional episodes are expected to come.

Laurie Anderson, a longtime student of Buddhism and meditation, is on the podcast A Skeptic’s Path to Enlightenment to discuss her personal path with Buddhism and approaching art with a beginner’s mind. “It’s what music does,” she says. “It helps you free yourself from meaning into a much more tangible world or state, in which you feel things and understand them, rather than put them into words.” You can hear the conversation here.

Pianist and composer Tigran Hamasyan is the guest on the latest episode of the JAZZIZ Travel podcast. He talks with host by Matt Micucci about StandArt, his first-ever album of American standards, out April 29 on Nonesuch Records. “Hamasyan is one of today’s most revered and distinctive voices in jazz and creative music,” says Micucci. “StandArt finds him applying different techniques and ideas that he has developed over the years to a revered repertoire, breathing new life into well-worn songs and lesser-known gems.” You can hear their conversation here.

Gabriel Kahane is on a special episode of New Sounds' Soundcheck, recorded live at WNYC's The Greene Space, in which he spoke with host John Schaefer about his two Nonesuch albums—Magnificent Bird, released last month, and his 2018 album, Book of Travelers—and performed several songs from both with a string quartet. You can listen to the episode and watch his performance here.

Composer Steve Reich is on the Song Exploder podcast to talk with host Hrishikesh Hirway about the first movement of his groundbreaking 1988 piece Different Trains and the childhood experiences that inspired it. The New York Times declared the piece, which Kronos Quartet performed on the Grammy Award–winning first recording, “a work of such originality that ‘breakthrough’ seems the only possible description.” You can hear what he had to say here.

David Byrne is on the Talk Easy podcast hosted by Sam Fragoso. They discuss his show American Utopia, which marks its last few weeks on Broadway and which Fragoso calls “dazzling … remarkable,” the celebratory nature of performing the show for audiences as people have begun to congregate again, and much more. You can hear it here.

WNYC's New Sounds dedicates its latest episode to "some of the exciting new music coming out of Chicago," including three albums released through partnership between the Chicago-born label International Anthem and Nonesuch Records: Jeff Parker's Suite for Max Brown and Forfolks and Ben LaMar Gay's Open Arms to Open Us. You can hear the episode here. Both artists will perform at the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville in March. Parker then tours the West Coast with Steve Gunn and will perform on the East Coast with Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo in May.

David Byrne is on a special bonus episode of WNYC's United States of Anxiety to talk with host Kai Wright about his show American Utopia on Broadway. "It's a live Broadway show in which he performs his music almost as a catalyst to a wider conversation about living in a plural society," Wright says: "you, me, us, and what's possible if we can make that work." You can hear their conversation here.

Jonny Greenwood, who was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score for Jane Campion's film The Power of the Dog earlier today, was the guest on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross yesterday to discuss his work as a film composer—including his four Nonesuch soundtracks for Paul Thomas Anderson's films There Will Be Blood, The Master, Inherent Vice, and Phantom Thread—his album with composer Krzysztof Penderecki, and Radiohead. "Thank you for that music," Gross says of his Phantom Thread score. "I really love it." You can hear their conversation here.

Punch Brothers guitarist Chris "Critter" Eldridge is on the Fretboard Journal Guitar Podcast to talk with host Jason Verlinde about the band's new album, Hell on Church Street, a reimagining of, and homage to, the late bluegrass great Tony Rice’s landmark solo album Church Street Blues. You can hear their conversation here. Rice was a hero to all the Punch Brothers, but perhaps to no one more than Eldridge, who, as a college student, had worked out a deal where he could study one-on-one with the notoriously reclusive guitarist in exchange for school credit. 

Laurie Anderson is on the Chatter podcast to talk with host Shane Harris about her work, particularly as it relates to the podcast's focus on the intersection of art and national security, including her piece Habeas Corpus, her surprise 1981 hit single "O Superman," and her 2015 film Heart of a Dog. You can hear their conversation here. Nonesuch Records reissued Laurie Anderson's debut album, Big Science, which features "O Superman," on red vinyl last year. Remixes of two tracks from the album were recently released: the title track, remixed by Arca, and "Sweaters," by Sam Gendel.

David Byrne is the guest on the latest episode of the SmartLess podcast hosted by Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, and Will Arnett. "I am truly starstruck," Arnett says in the introduction of his surprise guest. "This person's music has played a huge role certainly in my life and lots of people's lives ... This person is, quite honestly, it's rare that you get to say, living legend." You can hear their conversation here.