Christina Agapakis : S1E17

Abigail Correu is a singer, songwriter, creator, explorer, and mother who lives in Nashville, Tennessee. I found her on Instagram around 2014/2015 and really appreciated her honest and authentic energy that she shared via the medium. I had wanted to connect with her for Five Questions after following her for a couple of years and finally had the chance when I visited Nashville this past summer. Abigail invited me to her house and we immediately started in on the unfiltered conversation that I love. We ended up talking for about an hour officially, then continued off the record for another hour. It felt like it could last for days if it wasn’t for the outside world calling on us to rejoin its ranks. We chatted about her recent leap into motherhood, the trials of heartbreak, and the shining good we both see in people. And she totally answered Five Questions. Meet Abigail.

Kevin Avery is a comedian, actor, and writer for TV. He’s written for Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, The Jim Jeffries Show, The New Negroes, VH1’s Best Week Ever, and served as head writer on Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell. Also with Kamau, he hosts Denzel Washington Is The Greatest Actor Of All Time Period. The title speaks for itself. In essence, Kevin’s pretty damned funny. He also recommends really good lunch spots. Kevin has lived and worked in San Francisco and New York, but it was in LA where we connected to chat about artistic collaboration, helplessness in love, the spiders that seem have taken residence in his apartment, and his process of writing. And before you ask: Yep, he answered Five Questions. Meet Kevin.

Hammock intertwines musical sub-genres of modern classical, ambient, post-rock, and shoegaze with ease, while consistently walking the fine emotional line between hope and despair. They truly are masters of emotion. Hammock is also regarded in the highest company of similarly influential artists, and their music has been featured in film (Columbus soundtrack), video games (Far Cry 5 soundtrack), radio (BBC), and TV (Ricky Gervais’ Afterlife). Marc Byrd and Andrew Thompson, the two members of Hammock, also happen to be lovely human beings. They graciously invited me to Marc’s home studio where we dove deep into the challenges of life in many different facets, as we normally do here at Five Questions. And today, during our chat, Marc opened up about something that he had never shared publicly before: His 5-year struggle with alcohol addiction which he called “a journey into authenticity.” I am honored that Marc chose to share his story with me and the listeners of Five Questions. His fortitude reaffirmed in me that this project is a safe space for the vulnerability of humans like Marc, like Andrew and me, like all of us. Marc, Andrew, and I also spoke about a ton of other deep and contemplative thoughts and feelings, and of course, they answered Five Questions. Meet Hammock.

Elizabeth Traynor is a writer, speaker and an avid runner based in Boston. At 24 she lost one of her closest friends to cancer, and shortly after broke her hip during a marathon – which caused her to spiral into a deep depression. Despite struggling heavily during that period, she found an outlet through writing about her grief, trauma and recovery. Her writing has been featured in SELF Magazine, Better Homes and Gardens, Fitness magazine, Women’s Running, to name a few. Elizabeth and I chatted about the fear of abandonment, coping with loss in the face of grief, feeling hopeful about family, and many other intriguing topics. Oh, and of course she answered Five Questions. Meet Elizabeth.

Jordan Rich is a seasoned veteran of the broadcasting industry and a staple of Boston’s airwaves having worked in the field for nearly forty years. His silky smooth voice that was destined for radio complements his interest in people and their lives. He happens to be a good friend of my dad’s too. The two of them worked in radio together in Boston for many years. Since his retirement (if you can call it that with all the work he does), he has continued sharing peoples’ stories on his podcast On Mic with Jordan Rich. A show on which I was a guest. I connected with Jordan at his studio in Massachusetts where we conducted back-to-back interviews of each other for our podcasts. During the recording of Five Questions, Jordan opened up about delivering the eulogy at his first wife’s funeral, how comfort and excitement are key components of true love, and how he finds joy in life by affecting people in a positive way. And you got it, he answered Five Questions. Meet Jordan.

Christina Agapakis is a biologist, writer, artist, and a mother of two. She collaborates with engineers, designers, artists, and social scientists to explore unexpected connections between microbiology, technology, art, and popular culture. Christina invited me over to her apartment where we talked about world travel, bias in biochemistry, how framing failure can reveal the process of learning, the difference between STEM and STEAM (and how STEAM is better), and the root of all consciousness…ya know, light-hearted topics. Oh, and of course she answered Five Questions. Meet Christina.

“I’m a lot like my dad. I’m not very vulnerable. That’s mostly because I tend to be 1) A black man in America, and 2) I work in a field where I’m a black man in America and I have to be able to prove twice as hard that I’m right compared to whoever else might be in the room. Sex, race, gender, whatever, be damned. I’m learning now, that as much as I have a gift for empathy, I am a vault sometimes. So I'm trying harder to make space for myself and the people around me. Also new people. Because I want to be inspired. I think friction makes the work better. I like bumping up against other good minds, other good intellects, other good creativity, other expressions, other forms, other function. To do that though, you have to continue to be somehow open.”

Sophia Moon is an abstract painter, a musician, a loving and conscious mother, and the newest host of CreativeMornings Boston. CreativeMornings is a global organization with chapters in 188 cities who host monthly events geared towards nurturing creativity. Their volunteer teams not only celebrate their city’s creative talent, but also promote an open space to connect with like-minded individuals.  Sophia invited me to her new studio space which is undergoing a rad renovation, and we chatted about the effects of her parents' divorce on the way she nurtures her own growing family, discovering a part of yourself in another person, combating imposter syndrome, and she even turned the tables and kindly talked me through some thoughts about depression and perfectionism. Talk about a versatile guest! Oh, and of course she answered Five Questions. Meet Sophia.

Will Dailey is a versatile and award-winning musician based in Boston, Massachusetts whose latest record Golden Walker will be out on June 1st. He is deeply involved with multiple charitable organizations including Farm Aid, Foundation to Be Named Later, and Zumix as well as other local organizations. He's a husband and a father of two, and a genuinely down-to-earth, affable, and humble human being.  I met up with Will at his home and studio just outside of Boston where we had a long and compelling chat about the positive impact on the arts of affordable access to healthy food, the selfishness of making art, the difference between quitting and moving on, the consequences of trying to do everything by yourself, the automatic privilege of being a white male, that guns represent weakness and fear, and we even had time to go off on a tangent about our magical experiences of seeing Pearl Jam in concert for the first time. Meet Will.

Kalmia Traver is the front-woman, co-band leader, and saxophonist for the art-pop-dance band Rubblebucket. She has an equally dynamic solo project called Kalbells which performs with an all female band. She is an avid nature lover having spent her childhood in the woods of Vermont. And most importantly, she's a cancer survivor.    I met up with Kal backstage at the House of Blues in Boston at which Rubblebucket was headlining the annual world music festival CRASHfest. (They absolutely crushed it, by the way.) We found a spot in the wings and watched a killer performance by Flor De Toloache, then found a cozy corner backstage, and chatted about finding peace inside relationships, the powerful spirit of an all female band, Kal and her mom's revolutionary love experiment, the lessons of trees, breaking up a romantic relationship with your bandmate and remaining a band, experiencing infinity in love, and also randomly discovered that Kal went to high school with my cousin. Small world! Oh, and she answered Five Questions. Meet Kal.