I was in New York City a few weeks back for On-Air Fest, an audio and podcasting festival in Brooklyn.

We recorded a live show there. I had two conversations with two women artists that we'll share with you today.

Writer Ada Calhoun, whose novel Crush follows a long married protagonist, surrendering to temptation.

Ada wrote the novel just after she had separated from her husband, whom she'd been with since her 20s, and comedian Rosebud Baker,

whose Netflix comedy special The Motherload unfolds in two interwoven timelines. One captures her

at eight months pregnant, the other after her child

has arrived and is now 11 months old. So you see two versions of Rosebud on stage, one

anticipating, one knowing. Both of these conversations are about moving into new phases

of womanhood and getting to know how you're changing, what you're shedding, what you'll miss, what's exhilarating about what's new.

And the night before I recorded this conversation in my hotel room, I watched the Hulu documentary about Sly and the Family Stone called Sly Lives.

Questlove and the filmmaker Joseph Patel made it together, and it's really great.

There is incredible music history, interviews with DiAngelo, Andre 3000, and members of the band.

And for me, watching this made me remember a different live show that I hosted back in 2016

when I was in a different transitional moment, about seven months pregnant myself.

And I talked on stage then about the Sly and the Family Stone version of the song K. Sarah Sarah.

When I was just a little girl, I asked my mother, what will I be? Will I be pretty? Will I be rich

Here's what she said

To be

The singer wonders

What she'll be

And she asks her mother

Then her lover

...