Writer and director Cord Jefferson charts his journey from being a rule-following kid to an angry teenager to an adult with depression. After a lifetime of rejection, Cord shares what helped him finally make "American Fiction," the Oscar-winning film that was always in him. Here are his songs.

1. Flamenco Sketches - Miles Davis
2. The What - Notorious B.I.G. (Feat. Method Man)
3. Boxcar - Jawbreaker
4. My Old School - Steely Dan
5. This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody) - Talking Heads
6. If It Makes You Happy - Sheryl Crow 
7. Ben's My Friend - Sun Kil Moon

Listen to Cord Jefferson’s full playlist on Spotify. Find the transcript of this episode at lifeinsevensongs.com. Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at [email protected].

On this special episode, we’re featuring a conversation from our friends at the Professional Book Nerds podcast, a podcast from the book nerds at OverDrive.  

Every week host Joe Skelley chats book recommendations on a theme with his friends and bookish experts, interviews authors and personalities, and encourages people to check out all the amazing resources their library has to offer. Ranked number 5 of the top 100 book podcasts, this is the place for book nerds! 

In today’s episode, Joe chats with author Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) LIVE during his book tour for And Then? And Then? What Else? Joe and Daniel talk about Tim Curry, sharing your personal life publicly, and what exactly it’s like being Lemony Snicket.  

Listen to more episodes of Professional Book Nerds and follow the podcast:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/professional-book-nerds/id1065515588

Cofounder and CEO of Nextdoor, Nirav Tolia, looks back on his childhood in small-town Texas, and how an inner conflict about belonging may have led to him creating the first social network for neighbors. With his commitment to building community, it’s no surprise two of his seven songs include the words ‘home’ and ‘house’ in their titles.

1. Take me Home, Country Roads – John Denver
2. The Reflex –  Duran Duran
3. World in My Eyes –  Depeche Mode
4. Eye of the Tiger – Survivor
5. If My Heart Was a House – Owl City
6. Con Te Partirò – Andrea Bocelli
7. Beautiful Day – U2

Listen to Nirav Tolia’s full playlist on Spotify. Find the transcript of this episode at lifeinsevensongs.com. Thoughts? Guest suggestions?

From Nirvana to BB King, The Rolling Stones to Radiohead, legendary rock photographer Jay Blakesberg has been documenting music icons for nearly 40 years. His work has been published in thousands of magazines, documentaries and books, but what he’s most known for is creating a seminal photographic archive of the Grateful Dead. Here are his songs.

1. Hey Jude – The Beatles 
2. Black Water  – The Doobie Brothers 
3. Wooden Ships – Crosby Stills & Nash 
4. Eyes of The World – Grateful Dead
5. Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On) – Talking Heads 
6. Tangled up in Blue – Bob Dylan
7. Attics of My Life – Grateful Dead 

Listen to Jay Blakesberg’s full playlist on Spotify. Find the transcript of this episode at lifeinsevensongs.com. Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at [email protected].

From her groundbreaking role playing one of the first openly gay characters on television, to her iconic appearances on David Letterman — where she repeatedly made the host speechless — actor and comedian Sandra Bernhard has always been unapologetically herself. And yet, decades into her career, she says she still discovers new layers every time she performs. Here are her songs.

1. Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera) – Doris Day
2. Stop! In The Name Of Love – The Supremes
3. Like A Rolling Stone – Bob Dylan
4. People's Parties – Joni Mitchell 
5. You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) – Sylvester 
6. Lose Again –  Linda Ronstadt 
7. Edge Of Seventeen – Stevie Nicks  

Listen to Sandra Bernhard’s full playlist on Spotify. Find the transcript of this episode at lifeinsevensongs.com. Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at [email protected].

Lawyer Chesa Boudin’s professional life has been nearly as tumultuous as his upbringing. He was raised by family friends because his parents—members of the Weather Underground—were incarcerated for crimes committed when he was just 14 months old. Boudin eventually became a progressive San Francisco district attorney representing criminal justice reform. However, he was recalled a few years later. These are his songs.

1. Worlds Apart (1985 Original Broadway Cast) – Daniel Jenkins
2. Fast Car – Tracy Chapman
3. Dear Mama – Tupac Shakur
4. I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be – Free Nina Simone
5. Be (Intro) – Common
6. Here Comes the Sun – The Beatles
7. Baby Shark – Pinkfong

Listen to Chesa Boudin’s full playlist on Spotify. Find the transcript of this episode at lifeinsevensongs.com. Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at [email protected].

Rahsaan “New York” Thomas spent more than two decades incarcerated before being granted a commutation for his rehabilitation efforts behind bars. He shares how his life was shaped by growing up in Brownsville, “the murder capital of New York,” the music that got him through prison life and what he’s working on now. Here are his songs.

1. Rapper's Delight – The Sugarhill Gang
2. Survival of the Fittest – Mobb Deep
3. Do What I Gotta Do – Ralph Tresvant
4. Good Man – India Arie
5. Black – The-Dream
6. Empire State of Mind (Part II) Broken Down – Alicia Keys

Listen to Rahsaan “New York” Thomas’ full playlist on Spotify and also check out the podcast Ear Hustle about life inside prison. Find the transcript of this episode at lifeinsevensongs.com. Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at [email protected].

Longtime journalist and media entrepreneur Kara Swisher has been covering Silicon Valley and the Internet since the days of dial-up. She’s taken nearly all of technology's titans to task with a fearless, no-nonsense style. But in this episode, she shows another side of herself: the “San Francisco liberal lesbian who loves country music and wanted to be in the military.” Here are her songs.

1. The Last Great American Dynasty – Taylor Swift
2. Whatever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera) – Doris Day
3. Corner Of The Sky – John Rubinstein
4. Landslide – Fleetwood Mac 
5. Jesus, Take the Wheel – Carrie Underwood 
6. Wahine ‘Ilikea – Dennis Kamakahi
7. Quarter Moon – Cheryl Wheeler

Listen to Kara Swisher’s full playlist on Spotify. Find the transcript of this episode at lifeinsevensongs.com. Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at [email protected].

Billionaire businessman and investor Mark Cuban is known for making — or crushing — entrepreneurs' dreams on the TV show Shark Tank. But in reality, he's a big softie. Here, he talks about getting his start selling trash bags as a kid, opening a bar before he was even 21, and betting on the Internet early. Here are his seven songs, including his life’s “theme” and a song that brings him to tears.

1. Play That Funky Music – Wild Cherry
2. Life’s Been Good – Joe Walsh
3. September – Earth, Wind & Fire
4. Fame – DMX
5. Rapper's Delight – The Sugarhill Gang
6. Eminence Front – The Who

Listen to Mark Cuban’s full playlist on Spotify. Find the transcript of this episode at lifeinsevensongs.com. Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at [email protected].

Today we’re sharing an episode of a podcast from our friends at PBS that we think you’ll really like – American Masters: Creative Spark. 

It’s a show that interviews iconic artists across disciplines about their creative journeys in a way that is sure to inspire listeners. This episode features an interview between host Joe Skinner and Tony Award-winning actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt. The actor discusses the vast “spectrum of realism” in his line of work. Whether it’s the recently released Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, Lincoln, 3rd Rock From the Sun, The Dark Knight Rises, Mysterious Skin, 500 Days of Summer, or one of the dozens of other projects he’s starred in, Gordon-Levitt really shows his range. 

Listen to hear him unpack his creative journey, and find more episodes of American Masters: Creative Spark at https://link.chtbl.com/eOfylsfA?sid=LISS

Sam Altman is the CEO of OpenAI, the groundbreaking company leading the development of AGI—artificial general intelligence. AGI aims to create machines that can think, learn, and understand the world like humans—or even better than we can. It’s a concept with the potential to transform every aspect of life, for better or worse. But in this episode, a rare glimpse into the human behind superhuman machine intelligence. Here are his songs.

1. Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto 2 – Sviatoslav Richter
2. What’s My Age Again? – Blink-182
3. That Was a Crazy Game of Poker – O.A.R.
4. Opus – Eric Prydz
5. Spring 1 – Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi – The Four Seasons
6. Underwater – Rufus du Sol
7. Your Hand in Mine – Explosions in the Sky

Listen to Sam Altman’s full playlist on Spotify. Find the transcript of this episode at lifeinsevensongs.com. Thoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at [email protected].