"The Dad Rock That Made Me a Woman" with Niko Stratis, Opinions on Aesop Rock & The Beths

·50 min·2 clips

Niko Stratis says she never expected to reach 43, and credits sad songs — not happy ones — with keeping her alive.

The episode opens with album reviews before moving to its main interview. The Beths' fourth album, Straight Line Was a Lie, is discussed as a mixed effort: DeRogatis and Kot praise the band's power-pop energy and hooks but find the quieter, introspective tracks — written in the wake of singer Elizabeth Stokes's experience with antidepressants — fall short of peers like Phoebe Bridgers or Julian Baker. They conclude it is roughly half a strong album. Aesop Rock's tenth solo album, Black Hole Superette, receives warmer notices. The hosts praise rapper Ian Bavitz's elliptical wordplay, his celebration of everyday wonder — snails multiplying in an aquarium, a mutt of indeterminate breed — and his psychedelic-meets-old-school production. They call it one of the better albums of the year. The interview with Niko Stratis begins with a discussion of what dad rock actually means. Stratis traces the concept through Paul Westerberg's lyric about fatherhood, Kurt Cobain's similar framing, and Wilco's Sky Blue Sky, arguing that dad rock is not a demographic but an attitude: music made by people who have lived hard lives and share those experiences without telling listeners how to live. She explicitly expands the category beyond white men to include Julian Baker, Neko Case, and Sharon Van Etten. Stratis describes the book's origins: she was approached by University of Texas Press for their American Music Series, inspired by Hanif Abdurraqib's A Tribe Called Quest book Go Ahead in the Rain. When her initial concept felt dishonest, she pitched the dad rock idea almost as a joke, then built it into a full proposal. She credits her lack of formal education — she came from trades work, not an MFA — with freeing her to design the book she actually wanted. The book deliberately avoids the standard transgender transition narrative, placing Stratis's transition in the final third and spending most of its pages on her blue-collar years in the Yukon, her alcoholism, and her relationship to hyper-masculinity. DeRogatis compares these sections to Charles Bukowski's Post Office and Studs Terkel's Working. Stratis discusses a chapter on Julian Baker's 'Song in E,' explaining that she grew up expecting to die young and that sad songs — not happy ones — kept her going by reminding her she was alive. She reflects on turning 43, an age she never expected to reach. The conversation turns to specific artists. Stratis describes her initial resistance to Bruce Springsteen based on the Born in the USA cover's apparent nationalism, then her conversion upon actually listening. She argues his most beautiful work is his most bombastic, and that he has always examined masculinity with unusual tenderness — citing 'Drive All Night' as an example. On Neko Case, Stratis calls her a once-in-a-generation talent and describes her as formative during her twenties. The hosts and Stratis also discuss how the book speaks to the current political moment around toxic masculinity, and Stratis reflects on her anxiety about whether the book would resonate beyond trans readers and Wilco fans — noting with some relief that it has found a broader audience.

As heard by us

Niko Stratis turns dad rock into a personal, unsentimental conversation about transition, failure, survival, and why certain songs keep working.

Sound Opinions frames this episode around author Niko Stratis and The Dad Rock That Made Me a Woman, a book that turns so-called dad rock into a personal route through transition, failure, and endurance.

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Why you'd press play

You already know a record that got you through something -- Nico Stratis turned that into a book.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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