Smart culture, live-room spark.
Live Wire with Luke Burbank brings a stage-show pulse to interviews, comedy sets, poetry readings, and musical performances. Episodes move from literary talk to stand-up to singer-songwriter moments with quick warmth and a playful sense of timing.
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Live Wire with Luke Burbank works as a variety show for people who want culture with motion. It is not just an interview feed. Episodes stack conversations, comedy, poetry, and music so the hour keeps changing shape. The guest mix is wide but coherent: writers, comedians, poets, podcasters, filmmakers, memoirists, and singer-songwriters. A typical lineup might place Chuck Klosterman's thinking about football beside Sasha Debevec-McKenney's poetry and Laura Gibson's music. Another might put Karen Russell's new fiction next to Sam Miller's stand-up and David Ramirez's vocals. The show likes smart people who are willing to be funny. It also likes funny people with serious stories. Guy Branum can bring television writing and Jeopardy energy, while Julian Brave Noisecat can talk myth, history, and contemporary Indigenous life. Kelsey McKinney's gossip book leads toward Gilgamesh and ChatGPT. Sona Movsesian's memoir becomes a workplace game. Those pivots are part of the appeal. The show can talk about prison, cancer, divorce, and family illness without turning solemn for the sake of solemnity. Reginald Dwayne Betts brings poetry and Freedom Reads into the room. Annabelle Gurwitch discusses cancer and memoir with a sharp survival instinct. Scaachi Koul talks about a marriage ending, family stories, and rebuilding a sense of self. Then the episode may make space for Emma Ruth Rundle's chilling, beautiful poetry and music, Kuinka's indie folk, Brown Calculus, Georgia Maq, Max Gomez, or Kassa Overall. The live setting matters. Audience laughter, stage bits, membership-drive jokes, and backstage reflections keep the show from becoming a flat cultural digest. It is polished, but not airless. The result is a humane, quick-footed showcase for artists and thinkers who can handle both craft and chaos.
Made for: For listeners who like literary interviews, stand-up, poetry, memoir, and live music in one brisk package. It especially fits people who enjoy public-radio polish with a looser stage-show edge.
What sets it apart: The show stands out by treating variety as structure, not filler: a serious author conversation can sit beside a comedy set, a poetry reading, and a gut-punch song. Its live energy keeps even bookish or heavy topics moving.
Like late-night for radio, Live Wire is hosted by Luke Burbank (Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me) and artfully blends an eclectic mix of artists, musicians, writers, filmmakers, comedians, and cultural observers.
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A live hour pairing Sachi Cole's divorce essays with Emma Ruth Rundle's poetry and a physical record player.
Live Wire opens with writer Sachi Cole discussing Sucker Punch, her essays on the end of her marriage, and the neat contrast with the earlier bestseller that tracked its beginning.
Kelsey McKinney gives gossip, anonymity, and Gilgamesh the episode's sharpest comic charge.
Live Wire brings together three pleasures in one hour: Kelsey McKinney on gossip and You Didn't Hear This From Me, Omar El-Akkad on his latest nonfiction, and music from Seattle indie folk band Kawinka.
A drinking talk that keeps one eye on the bottle and one on mortality.
The hour leans on drinking, age, and the awkward arithmetic of restraint, starting with the 88-versus-86 riff and widening into martinis, hydration, and family history.
Great books, taken chapter by chapter, with delight
Book talk with room to wander.
This episode of Live Wire features writer Kelsey McKinney discussing her book on gossip, including her experiment with ChatGPT and Gilgamesh.
Host Luke Burbank interviews writer Gary Shteyngart for the third episode of Damp January, a series exploring personal relationships with alcohol.
This episode features interviews with comedian Jamie Loftus discussing her podcast on internet fame, comedian Hari Kondabolu sharing personal comedy stories, and music from Blitzen Trapper.
Live Wire with Luke Burbank brings together Sam Sanders on shared television culture, filmmaker Sandy Dabowski on Sabbath Queen, and music from The Lowest Pair.
Live Wire with Luke Burbank features Jeff Chang discussing Water, Mirror, Echo and Bruce Lee’s transformation from a difficult University of Washington student into a global icon.
Live Wire with Luke Burbank features Aubrey Gordon discussing semaglutide supply, weight-loss stigma, and the evidence behind Blue Zones; Jean Grae discusses her memoir In My Remaining Years and a pandemic-era puppet show.
Live Wire with Luke Burbank marks Independence Day through Jamie Loftus's analysis of hot dogs, Daisy Hernandez's history of citizenship, and Olive Klug's song "A Song About America." Loftus describes eating 200 hot dogs during a 2021 road trip, the meatpacking industry's lockdown conditions, and the politics surrounding Tyson, Smithfield, Joey Chestnut, and Takeru Kobayashi.
Comedian Atsuko Okatsuka recalls arriving in Los Angeles at age 8 for what her grandmother said would be two months, then learning she was undocumented, and describes taking a Craigslist stand-up class taught by Lisa Sunstead.
Writer Melissa Febos describes how a 90-day celibacy experiment in her early thirties stretched past one year and became the memoir The Dry Season.
Host Luke Burbank opens Live Wire at Portland's Alberta Rose Theater with two good-news stories: Tim Richards' TikTok fragrance reviews at an Ulta and Appleton, Wisconsin CPR instructor Carl Arps being saved by his own students.
Kenji López-Alt says he has eaten at 30-some of roughly 90 Seattle teriyaki shops and credits Toshi, an immigrant cook now working in Mill Creek, with inventing the style in the 1970s.
This episode of LiveWire features interviews with author Chuck Klosterman discussing football and his new book, poet Sasha Debevec-McKenney reading poetry and talking about dead presidents, and singer-songwriter Laura Gibson performing a new song and sharing her gardening enthusiasm.
This episode of LiveWire features interviews with author Karen Russell discussing her novel The Antidote, stand-up comedy from Sam Miller, and soulful music from singer-songwriter David Ramirez.
This episode of LiveWire features comedian Guy Branum for stand-up and discussion, writer Julian Brave NoiseCat talking about his new book on indigenous life, and music from singer-songwriter Georgia Maq.
This episode features interviews with writer Kelsey McKinney discussing gossip and her new book, author Omar El-Akkad on his nonfiction work, and music from indie folk band Kuinka, all framed within the show's annual membership drive.
This episode of LiveWire features interviews with poet and prison reform advocate Reginald Dwayne Betts, actor and author Annabelle Gurwitch discussing her cancer memoir, and music from singer-songwriter Max Gomez, along with announcements about upcoming live shows.
Luke Burbank talks with Sachi Cole at the Alberta Rose Theatre in Portland about Sucker Punch, a book that follows One Day We'll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter by covering the end of her marriage.
This episode is a year-end special featuring highlights and behind-the-scenes moments from 2025, including interviews with guests like Paul F.
This rebroadcast episode features an interview with Sona Movsesian about her memoir on workplace humor, stand-up comedy from Marcella Arguello, and music from Brown Calculus.
This episode features interviews with poet Ross Gay discussing his book 'Inciting Joy' and chef Lane Regan talking about foraging and cooking, all centered on the theme of joy.
This rebroadcast episode features interviews with poet Saeed Jones discussing his collection 'Alive at the End of the World', novelist Silvia Moreno-Garcia on her book 'The Daughter of Dr.