About this episode

Martha Wainwright discusses her music career, motherhood, and personal challenges in midlife.

This episode of The Shift revisited was first aired in February 2023. I first met today's guest, Canadian singer-songwriter Martha Wainwright, when I interviewed her in Glasgow at the end of 2022. We got talking about the nuts and bolts of midlife in the green room and I was thrilled when she agreed to continue the conversation on The Shift. One of our foremost singer songwriters, Martha has released seven critically acclaimed albums. The latest of which, Love Will Be Reborn, is on repeat on my personal playlist. She’s also - let’s just get this out of the way now - the daughter of “folk royalty” Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III and sister of singer Rufus Wainwright. In short, she comes from a family of very distinct voices, which made finding her own a particular challenge. Martha joined me from her home in Montreal to discuss her extraordinarily frank memoir, the aptly titled Stories I Might Regret Telling You. This conversation goes to all the places: the struggle to make motherhood and the music industry mix, surviving her grim divorce, finding new love with a good man, leaning into your looks, and the agony of being unable to conceive in her 40s. Martha is as candid…

People in this episode

Host: Sam Baker

Guest: Martha Wainwright

Topics covered

• music
• motherhood
• midlife
• love
• personal struggles
• memoir

Keywords

• love
• Martha Wainwright
• music
• motherhood
• midlife
• memoir
• divorce
• personal struggles

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Love Will Be Reborn, Stories I Might Regret Telling You

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