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Wild Card with Rachel Martin Part-interview, part-existential game show – this is Wild Card from NPR. Host Rachel Martin rips up the typical interview script and invites guests to play a game about life's biggest questions. Rachel takes actors, artists and thinkers on a choose-your-own-adventure conversation that lets them open up about their fears, their joys and how they've built meaning from experience – all with the help of a very special deck of cards.

Want more Wild Card? Support NPR by subscribing to Wild Card+. You'll get access to bonus episodes and you'll get to listen sponsor-free. Learn more at plus.npr.org/wildcard.
Wild Card with Rachel Martin

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Wild Card with Rachel Martin

From NPR

Part-interview, part-existential game show – this is Wild Card from NPR. Host Rachel Martin rips up the typical interview script and invites guests to play a game about life's biggest questions. Rachel takes actors, artists and thinkers on a choose-your-own-adventure conversation that lets them open up about their fears, their joys and how they've built meaning from experience – all with the help of a very special deck of cards.

Want more Wild Card? Support NPR by subscribing to Wild Card+. You'll get access to bonus episodes and you'll get to listen sponsor-free. Learn more at plus.npr.org/wildcard.

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Margaret Atwood isn't surprised people find her scary

Margaret Atwood appears on an episode of NPR's Wild Card with Rachel Martin. Mike Coppola/Getty Images hide caption

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Mike Coppola/Getty Images

Margaret Atwood isn't surprised people find her scary

Margaret Atwood knows that she scares people. She says that's been the case since the beginning of her career, long before her dystopian novel The Handmaid's Tale was published. She talks to Rachel about that perception, and also reflects on the bad advice she's received in her career and how she takes vengeance. Margaret's new poetry collection is Paper Boat: New and Selected Poems: 1961-2023.

Margaret Atwood isn't surprised people find her scary

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Terry Crews likes feeling small in the universe

Terry Crews on Wild Card Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images hide caption

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Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images

Terry Crews likes feeling small in the universe

Terry Crews went to college on an art scholarship, played football in the NFL, and now stars in movies and hosts America's Got Talent. The key to his many successes, he says, is to be really good at failure. Or, put another way, to be a lobster. He tells Rachel about getting cut from the NFL, staying up all night drawing as a kid, and how Bear Grylls helped him appreciate his place in the universe.

Terry Crews likes feeling small in the universe

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Sterlin Harjo didn't see himself in the TV shows he watched – so he made one

Sterlin Harjo on Wild Card Frazer Harrison/Getty Images hide caption

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Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Sterlin Harjo didn't see himself in the TV shows he watched – so he made one

When Sterlin Harjo was growing up, he didn't see many Native Americans in mainstream media. But Sterlin's TV show, Reservation Dogs, changed that, depicting the lives of four Native teenagers growing up in Oklahoma. Sterlin talks to Rachel about how he thinks fate has guided his life, why people should go to more funerals and how hunting feels like praying.

Sterlin Harjo didn't see himself in the TV shows he watched – so he made one

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Hanif Abdurraqib is a 'genius.' His friends aren't impressed

Hanif Abdurraqib on Wild Card with Rachel Martin Megan Barnard/Courtesy of the artist hide caption

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Megan Barnard/Courtesy of the artist

Hanif Abdurraqib is a 'genius.' His friends aren't impressed

Hanif Abdurraqib's writing has earned him a MacArthur "genius" grant. His most recent book, There's Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension, landed a spot on Barack Obama's summer reading list. But those accolades don't matter to him as much as being a good friend and neighbor. Abdurraqib talks to Rachel about a youth spent unhoused and incarcerated, and the zen of making mixtapes.

Hanif Abdurraqib is a 'genius.' His friends aren't impressed

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Kacey Musgraves says a past boyfriend helped her become more accepting

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Kacey Musgraves says a past boyfriend helped her become more accepting

From the beginning of her career, Grammy-winning musician Kacey Musgraves has been doing what feels authentic to herself. She sings about familiar country themes like falling in love and heartbreak. But she also sings about smoking pot and queer relationships. Musgraves talks to Rachel about not being defined by anyone but herself, becoming more open-minded and living with the ghost of her grandma.

Kacey Musgraves says a past boyfriend helped her become more accepting

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Jeff Goldblum was bullied growing up. It made him crave something 'finer'

Jeff Goldblum on NPR's Wild Card Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images hide caption

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Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

Jeff Goldblum was bullied growing up. It made him crave something 'finer'

Jeff Goldblum has a special brand of charisma — the kind that seeps its way into all of his roles. Whether it's in The Fly or Independence Day or Jurassic Park — or his newest show KAOS — every character feels like a version of Jeff Goldblum himself. He also brings that Goldblumian charisma to Wild Card, breaking into song as he reflects with Rachel about his life.

Jeff Goldblum was bullied growing up. It made him crave something 'finer'

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Why Rob Delaney loves failure: 'I smash it up into a powder and I snort it'

Rob Delaney on Wild Card Justin Tallis/Getty Images hide caption

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Justin Tallis/Getty Images

Why Rob Delaney loves failure: 'I smash it up into a powder and I snort it'

Rob Delaney has experienced great success as a comedian and actor. He created and starred in the acclaimed TV series Catastrophe and he's been featured in blockbuster movies like this summer's Deadpool & Wolverine. But he's also experienced tragedy, including the death of his son. He talks to Rachel about loss, failure and why he kind of wants a meteor to hit his house.

Why Rob Delaney loves failure: 'I smash it up into a powder and I snort it'

Listen · 30:02
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Jenny Slate turns fear inside out (encore)

Jenny Slate on Wild Card Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images hide caption

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Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images

Jenny Slate turns fear inside out (encore)

Jenny Slate is known for her roles in Obvious Child, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On and Parks and Recreation. Jenny opens up to Rachel about whether fate brought her to her husband, what she's sacrificed for motherhood and what's so special about margarine and white bread sandwiches.

Jenny Slate turns fear inside out (encore)

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Taffy Brodesser-Akner was kicked out of multiple schools. This is what she learned

Taffy Brodesser-Akner on Wild Card Emil Cohen hide caption

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Emil Cohen

Taffy Brodesser-Akner was kicked out of multiple schools. This is what she learned

Taffy Brodesser-Akner built her journalism career with her incisive celebrity profiles and then found additional success with two novels that examine wealth and class, including this year's Long Island Compromise. She and Rachel talk about what makes fame and fortune so compelling, whether some people are just innately restless, and longing for a conversation with a burning bush.

Taffy Brodesser-Akner was kicked out of multiple schools. This is what she learned

Listen · 33:52
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Abby Wambach has won 2 gold medals. She says real success came later

Abby Wambach on Wild Card Alexandra Hedison/Courtesy of Abby Wambach hide caption

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Alexandra Hedison/Courtesy of Abby Wambach

Abby Wambach has won 2 gold medals. She says real success came later

As the U.S. women's national soccer team's all time top goal scorer, Abby Wambach knows what it feels like to win. She's brought home a World Cup and multiple Olympic gold medals, but she says true success comes after the podium. She and Rachel talk about forgiving yourself, how a little narcissism isn't a bad thing, and why she wants to be forgotten.

Abby Wambach has won 2 gold medals. She says real success came later

Listen · 32:52
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Wild Card with Rachel Martin

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