"Music is a powerful tool. In an instant, it can change your mood, your perspective, or your life," Stacey Abrams says on her Crooked Media podcast, Assembly Required, introducing her conversation with Rhiannon Giddens. "No matter the motivation, music is an outlet, a force that builds us up or keeps us steady. It holds the capacity to move millions and to resonate with each individual, and every lyric, every note, every beat has the potential to share a message." You can watch and hear their conversation here. Giddens's new album with Silkroad Ensemble, American Railroad, is out next week; their fall tour begins tonight.

"Hurray for the Riff Raff is the perfect music for this moment," Anna Sale says of the guest on her Slate podcast, Death, Sex & Money. "In it, you hear the sweep of American history and propulsive motion, coming together in joy and protest and marking losses in family and community, and Alynda Segarra's voice—clear and melodic with a sly punk edge." You can hear their conversation, about Segarra's life and music, here.

Natalie Merchant spoke with Sheroes host Carmel Holt, a longtime friend, on the latest episode of the show and its special ten-part series The Road to Joni, honoring Joni Mitchell. This week, on episode four, "The Bridge to Joni," Merchant discusses her own relationship with Mitchell's music and shares a previously unreleased recording of her performing "All I Want" from her personal archives. You can hear the episode, which also features Madison Cunningham, here.

"My participation in country music was short lived, but it was the launchpad for my career," k.d. lang tells Talia Schlanger, guest host of CBC's Q, ahead of her reuniting with her band The Reclines for the first time in 35 years to perform on the Canadian Country Music Awards and her being inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame this weekend. "It's nice to be recognized, that I had an impact for that small amount of time ... I'm lit up about it, what can I say? It was a really fun period of my life." You can hear their conversation here.

"Sarah Kirkland Snider is, quite simply, one of my favorite living composers," Stephen Rodgers, host of Resounding Verse, says on the latest episode of the podcast about poetry and song. "I love her vocal works. She has a great sense for the human voice, she sets text beautifully." "Alleluia," the third movement of Mass for the Endangered, composed by Snider with a libretto by poet/writer Nathaniel Bellows, is the subject of the episode. You can hear the episode here.

"I think he’s an absolute genius, and his way of thinking about creativity has totally shaped my way of thinking about creativity," Isaac Butler, host of Slate's Working podcast, says of his guest, composer and bandleader Darcy James Argue. They discuss the thought processes that go into Argue's compositions, as on his Secret Society ensemble's 2023 Nonesuch debut album, Dynamic Maximum Tension, and more. You can hear their conversation here.

Composer/guitarist Yasmin Williams returns to Aquarium Drunkard's Transmissions podcast to talk with host Jason P. Woodbury about her upcoming Nonesuch debut album, Acadia. "It's beautiful—a showcase for a one-of-a-kind artist. And while the focus remains Williams' fluid and lyrical guitar work, she's joined by a roster of ringers to help fill out the corners," says the show. You can hear their conversation here.

"More than 50 years later, this ensemble has forever changed the shape and sound of classical music," Jon Fasman says in a feature on Kronos Quartet on The Economist's The Intelligence podcast. "Kronos has also delighted in breaking genre barriers. They’ve played pieces by some of the greatest living classical composers, including Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and Terry Riley. But they’ve also played songs by Thelonius Monk and Jimi Hendrix. At its core, though, Kronos has dedicated itself to expanding chamber music repertoire ... Throughout it all, they’ve developed and performed scores rich with depth and meaning." You can hear the feature, including conversations with Kronos's David Harrington and Paul Wiancko, here.

"Since I was a kid, I was in love with the sky, the beauty of it, the freedom of it, like I could just float up forever," Laurie Anderson tells BBC Radio 4's Front Row presenter Tom Sutcliffe in a conversation about her upcoming album, Amelia, due August 30. "I remember as a kid doing that, running into the dark ... the ecstasy. Your arms are out like a plane, and you close your eyes and you run." You can hear their conversation here.

The Staves have released a new video podcast episode in which band mates and sisters Jessica and Camilla Stavely-Taylor chat about all things All Now, their new album. "I think wanting things to be really good can make you very afraid to try, because you're worried about failing, about falling short of that, which is such a trap—it keeps you kind of frozen," Camilla says. "Ultimately it doesn't matter, you have to just do things, keep those muscles moving, making things and being imperfect and imperfections are what life is about. That's human." You can watch their conversation here.

"For every music lover, I think there are two basic forms of pleasure: the huge satisfaction of something you love done just perfectly, and then the thrill of hearing something altogether shockingly new. When an artist does both things at once, your head comes open a little bit, which is what happened when I first heard Cécile McLorin Salvant," David Remnick, the editor of The New Yorker, says of his guest on The New Yorker Radio Hour. "She's a jazz singer for sure, someone on the level of Sarah Vaughan or Ella Fitzgerald, but her repertoire and her approach to performing are totally her own." Salvant spoke with Remnick and performed three songs with pianist Sullivan Fortner: the Funny Girl favorite "Don't Rain on My Parade," the late 16th-century John Dowland song “Can She Excuse My Wrongs," and her own “Moon Song,” from her 2022 Nonesuch debut album, Ghost Song. You can hear it all (including a shoutout to Rhiannon Giddens) here.

"There is a dreamy, hard-to-place quality to the sound of MESTIZX," WNYC Studios' New Sounds host John Schaefer says of Ibelisse Guardia Ferragutti and Frank Rosaly's new album, which sets the tone for the latest episode of the show, focused on songs from the Caribbean and South America that "mix cultures and styles and instruments." There are tracks from MESTIZX; Gustavo Santaolalla's acclaimed 1998 album Ronroco, recently released on vinyl for the first time; Gaby Kerpel's 2003 Santaolalla-produced Nonesuch album, Carnabailito; and more. You can hear it here.