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.
When Mike Birbiglia tells a story, he tries to make it relatable to everyone in the audience – whether it’s tapping into his childhood anxiety, relating his clumsy attempts at self improvement or sharing his earnest fears about his aging parents. Mike’s new Netflix special is “The Good Life.” He shares with Rachel Martin how he learns valuable lessons from writing jokes, and explains how found some peace.
Mike Birbiglia: Mike Birbiglia is a comedian, writer, director, and actor who has performed his award-winning solo shows worldwide—from the Sydney Opera House to the West End of London to Broadway.
His five solo shows Sleepwalk With Me, My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend, Thank God For Jokes, The New One, and The Old Man & The Pool enjoyed successful runs on and off Broadway and became hit Netflix comedy specials. Mike received a 2024 Emmy nomination for Best Writing for The Old Man & The Pool. The shows merge storytelling and comedy in a way that The New York Times has called “Birbiglian.” Birbiglia also wrote, directed, and starred in the films Sleepwalk with Me and Don’t Think Twice. As an actor, Birbiglia has appeared in the films Trainwreck, The Fault in Our Stars, Popstar, A Man Called Otto as well as TV roles in Orange Is the New Black and Billions. He hosts the podcast Mike Birbiglia’s Working It Out.
