Let's talk about what’s killing us, the stuff that’s hard to comprehend and getting worse every day. In this award-winning series, Lemonada co-founder and author Stephanie Wittels Wachs confronts massive epidemics with humanity, wit, and a quest for progress. Season one tackled the opioid crisis, and in season two, we took a look at the rising rates of suicide. Now, back for a third season, Last Day grapples with guns in America, asking: How can we live safely in a country that has more guns than people? This season, the team travels to Montana and Georgia, talking to families who have lost loved ones to gun suicides and stray bullets, trying to discover tangible solutions to reducing gun-related deaths, all while gaining perspective on gun culture across the US.
Introducing: Mind Your Own with Lupita Nyong’o
We’re excited to tell you about a brand new storytelling show – hosted and produced by the amazing Lupita Nyong’o – that we are just loving. It’s called Mind Your Own, and it’s about navigating what it means to belong, all from the African perspective. Lupita Nyong’o knows what home feels like. But where exactly is it? In Mexico, where she was born? Kenya, where she grew up? Or the States, where she’s spent the past 20 years? Like Lupita, millions of Africans are spread out across the globe following family, searching for love, building futures and creating stories. It's these stories – wild and messy, intimate and joyous – that she wants to hear. Here’s the first episode of Mind Your Own. It’s about what it’s like to try to find your voice. You’ll hear a story from Lupita, and then you’ll meet a Ghanaian who rediscovered his voice after losing it. Mind Your Own – listen to more episodes wherever you get your podcasts or head to https://lemonada.lnk.to/mindyourownfd.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
9/28/2024 • 37 minutes, 11 seconds
Listen Now: Everything Happens with Kate Bowler
Today, we are dropping into your feed to share another podcast from Lemonada Media called Everything Happens. Duke Professor Kate Bowler is an expert in the stories we tell about success and failure, suffering and happiness. She had Stage IV cancer. Then she didn’t. And since then, all she wants to do is talk to funny and wise people about living with the knowledge that everything happens. In this episode, Kate speaks with one of the funniest people on the entire planet, comedian Samantha Bee, about the people who made her, her. What virtues did they create? What absurdity ensued? How does she think about how she impacts her own kids? New episodes premiere next week! To hear more of Everything Happens, head to https://lemonada.lnk.to/everythinghappensfdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
8/28/2024 • 46 minutes, 52 seconds
Listen Now: Love Letters
This week, we’re sharing a story from another podcast near and dear to our hearts. Love Letters, from The Boston Globe, shares stories from real life people. Host Meredith Goldstein hears from people about dating, relationships and falling in love. Tooky Kavanagh is one of the people, and she had her own Last Day moment in 2014. After years of being told she wasn’t enough – good enough, smart enough, pretty enough – Tooky discovered that, yeah, actually, she was enough. This revelation came in the unlikeliest of places: the basement of a burger place, at a comedy open mic night. For the first time, Tooky could see who she was supposed to be. Find out more about Love Letters here. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
7/31/2024 • 36 minutes, 32 seconds
Listen Now: Pack One Bag featuring Stanley Tucci
We are dropping in your feed today to share a new series that we know you will enjoy. Pack One Bag is epic true story of an Italian family, split apart by love, fascism and war. Through shocking discoveries - and Stanley Tucci’s artistry - an enthralling personal history comes to life. When documentarian David Modigliani was a kid, his grandfather, Franco, won the Nobel Prize. But, David’s always been more fascinated by the love story that made it possible -- his grandparents' romance on the run from Fascist Italy. When he digs into their story, he uncovers a darker side to their fairytale escape: a brother left behind to face the Nazi occupation - and startling personal connections between his family and Benito Mussolini. In the Tribeca-winning podcast, PACK ONE BAG, he returns to Italy to investigate his family's past, carrying a pressing question: if Fascism takes over your country, do you stay, or do you try to flee? And what happens if you can’t? You’re about to hear a preview of the first episode of Pack One Bag. After you listen, head to https://lemonada.lnk.to/packonebagfd to hear more. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
7/3/2024 • 7 minutes, 53 seconds
Listen Now: The Pink House with Sam Smith
We’re excited to drop in your feed today to tell you about a new Lemonada Media series called The Pink House with Sam Smith. Hosted by five-time Grammy winner Sam Smith, The Pink House is about the people and places that make us who we are. One of those places was Sam’s childhood home in the English village of Great Chishill, literally called The Pink House. It was a space of total warmth and love where Sam felt safe enough to find their voice. Each week, join Sam in conversation with icons and friends like Trixie Mattel, Gloria Estefan, Elliot Page, Joel Kim Booster, Ben Platt, Rebecca Sugar and Michelle Visage as they explore their own “Pink Houses” and how they navigated early struggles and ultimately found their place in the world.
You’re about to hear the first episode of The Pink House, where Sam chats with Elliot Page about his upbringing in Canada, his breakout role in the film Juno, and how seeking time away from it all has helped him embrace a whole new, exhilarating life.
To hear more of The Pink House head to: https://lemonada.lnk.to/thepinkhousefdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
6/19/2024 • 42 minutes, 52 seconds
Listen Now: Stephanie on Everything Happens with Kate Bowler
Last Day listeners, today we're sharing with you Stephanie's conversation with Kate Bowler on her show Everything Happens. Kate is a professor at Duke University and someone who was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer in 2015 that had already metastasized. She is now in remission, and spends lots of time talking to other people about the fact that everything just, well, happens! To hear more of Everything Happens, head to: https://lemonada.lnk.to/everythinghappens
Today, we’re talking about tragicomedy. And isn’t that all of life? The absurdity. The horror. The laughter that somehow cuts through the most difficult of moments. Our guest today, Stephanie Wittles Wachs wrote a beautiful memoir called Everything is Horrible and Wonderful about the death of her brother to an accidental heroin overdose when he was 30 years old.
In this conversation, Kate and Stephanie discuss:
Loving someone with addiction
Grieving a person in public
Why it’s okay (and maybe necessary) to laugh in the midst of the worst moments
The 6th stage of grief—the manic-investigative stage
CW: mention of suicide, drug overdose, death of a sibling
Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here.
Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
4/17/2024 • 51 minutes, 37 seconds
Christine: In Our Crisis, We Have Opportunity
There are few modern photos more iconic than the image of Christine Blasey Ford with her hand raised in the U.S. Senate chamber, vowing to tell nothing but the truth about being sexually assaulted by then-nominee to the Supreme Court, Brett Kavanaugh. From that moment on, Christine’s life was forever changed, exposing her to vicious hate and shaking the deeply rooted respect for government that had motivated her to come forward in the first place. Now, almost six years later, Christine sits down with Stephanie to give her a look into this new life. She shares how, even though many things got harder for her after her testimony, if she had the choice to do it all again, she would.
Lemonada has teamed up with Apple Books to bring you the Lemonada Book Club. The March pick is One Way Back by Christine Blasey Ford. For more details, visit http://apple.co/lemonadabookclub
This series is presented by the Marguerite Casey Foundation. MCF supports leaders who work to shift the balance of power in their communities toward working people and families, and who have the vision and capacity for building a truly representative economy. Learn more at caseygrants.org or visit on social media @caseygrants.
Follow Stephanie on Instagram at @wittelstephanie. Stay up to date with us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at @LemonadaMedia.
Have a story you want to share? Head to bit.ly/lastdaystories to fill out our confidential Google form.
Joining Lemonada Premium is a great way to support our show and get bonus content. Subscribe today at bit.ly/lemonadapremium. And if you want to continue the conversation with other listeners, join the My Lemonada community at https://lemonadamedia.com/mylemonada/
For a list of current sponsors and discount codes for this and every other Lemonada show, go to lemonadamedia.com/sponsors.
To follow along with a transcript, go to www.lemonadamedia.com/show/lastday shortly after the air date.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
3/20/2024 • 43 minutes, 9 seconds
Listen Now: The Defenders
We are dropping in your feed to share Lemonada Media's newest series, The Defenders. On Friday, June 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Since then, it's been a barrage of bad news and bleak headlines. But for every restriction, there are many more acts of resistance, and a growing network of activists, clinic workers, faith leaders, and everyday people working to expand access to care.This is the story of the fight for freedom in a post-Roe America, co-hosted by Samantha Bee and Gloria Riviera.
Episode One of The Defenders features Brittany, Back in 2022, shortly after the fall of Roe, Brittany felt trapped. She was pregnant and stuck in an abusive relationship, totally cut off from her support system. She didn’t see a way out - until she happened to hear a radio story about the Midwest Access Coalition, an abortion fund helping people travel across state lines. We follow Brittany’s harrowing journey as she travels hundreds of miles, with the help of a group of volunteer pilots from Elevated Access.
To hear more of The Defenders, head to : https://lemonada.lnk.to/DTc0CrfdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
11/22/2023 • 44 minutes, 46 seconds
Introducing Hard Feelings with Jennette McCurdy
We’re dropping in your feed today to bring you the first episode of our newest Lemonada podcast, Hard Feelings with Jennette McCurdy. If you like what you hear, there’s another episode out now and waiting for you in the feed! Don’t forget to like and subscribe. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
10/25/2023 • 20 minutes, 43 seconds
Learn More: Stopping Violence Before It Starts
In this special episode, Lemonada co-founder Stephanie Wittels Wachs sits down with the leaders of the Coalition to Advance Public Safety (CAPS), an organization working to intercept and prevent violence in communities across the U.S. The coalition’s work builds on years of knowledge of public health and the particular needs of different locales, as well as the lived experience of community members on the ground. With these tools, CAPS creates and maintains community violence intervention (CVI) ecosystems around the country. In this conversation, CAPS’ leaders share the progress that their work has already brought to fruition and how you can help support what comes next.
Thank you to the Coalition to Advance Public Safety for making today’s conversation possible. To learn more about the CVI ecosystem, and the individual organizations at work in this coalition, visit www.cviecosystem.org.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.