Live Wire with Luke Burbank
Live Wire Radio is an independently produced radio show that artfully blends unpredictable conversation, live music, and original comedy featuring all types of cultural talent and creative minds, from emerging artists to established acts. Join host Luke Burbank and announcer Elena Passarello for a live recording of this popular radio show, heard nationwide by thousands of listeners every weekend. Featured Guests: Paul F. Tompkins is a comedian, actor, and writer who the Los Angeles Times describes as “a mix of Mark Twain, old-timey radio entertainer and vaudeville actor for the internet age.” He’s appeared on over two hundred episodes of Comedy Bang! Bang! and hosts popular podcasts including Threedom, The Neighborhood Listen, and Spontaneanation. An Emmy-nominated writer on Mr. Show, Tompkins also hosted TV shows like Best Week Ever and voiced Mr. Peanutbutter on the Netflix animated series Bojack Horseman. In his long-running live show “Varietopia,” he blends stand-up, character work, and improvisation, always in his signature suit and tie. Melissa Febos is the nationally bestselling author of four books, including Girlhood—which won the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism, and Body Work: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative. She has been awarded prizes and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, LAMBDA Literary, the National Endowment for the Arts, the British Library, the Black Mountain Institute, the Bogliasco Foundation, and others. Her work has appeared in The Paris Review, The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Best American Essays, Vogue, The Sewanee Review, New York Review of Books, and elsewhere. Febos is a full professor at the University of Iowa and lives in Iowa City with her wife, the poet Donika Kelly. Tickets $25 Student & Under 35$35 General Admission$50 Preferred Seating (First 5 rows of Front Center Section – available in advance only) $5 Arts For All – Oregon Trail or SNAP Benefit Card required for admission with Arts for All Tickets. For more details about the Arts for All program, visit: https://racc.org/artsforall/ Click HERE for tickets. Doors open at 6:30 Guests subject to change.
Live Wire with Luke Burbank
Live Wire Radio is an independently produced radio show that artfully blends unpredictable conversation, live music, and original comedy featuring all types of cultural talent and creative minds, from emerging artists to established acts. Join host Luke Burbank and announcer Elena Passarello for a live recording of this popular radio show, heard nationwide by thousands of listeners every weekend. With special guests: Guy Branum is the creator and host of truTV’s Talk Show The Game Show, a mashup pitting comedians and celebrities against each other for “Best Guest of the Night.” He recently starred in BROS with Billy Eichner and wrote for Mel Brooks’ History of the World, Part II. His book My Life As A Goddess made NPR’s 2018 Good Reads List. As a TV writer, Guy was supervising producer on The Other Two, wrote for The Mindy Project, HACKS, and numerous other shows including A League of Their Own and Q-Force. Tamara Yajia is an Argentine writer, comedian, and ex-child star who authored the 2022 poetry collection Poems I Wrote While Taking A Shit. She also wrote and starred in a one-woman show Cumming of Age. Tamara has written for ClickHole, Funny or Die, and several comedy series, including Acapulco, This Fool, and the upcoming Netflix series Strip Law. Currently, she’s developing a show for Apple. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and her dog Odie, who just pooped in the living room. Alexis Okeowo is a staff writer at The New Yorker who has reported on conflict, human rights, and culture across Africa, as well as from Mexico and the American South. She is the author of A Moonless, Starless Sky: Ordinary Women and Men Fighting Extremism in Africa, which received the 2018 PEN Open Book Award. Her latest book, Blessings and Disasters: A Story of Alabama, is a blend of memoir, history, and reportage that weaves her Nigerian-immigrant family’s story with Alabama’s complex past and present, examining the state as a stage for America’s most extreme experiments. Pete Droge gets personal on his captivating new album, Fade Away Blue, reflecting on the loss of his birth mother, who he missed meeting by months, and the remarkable journey that followed as he reunited with long-lost relatives, battled a mysterious illness, and discovered himself in the process. Recorded with Grammy-winning producer Paul Bryan (Aimee Mann), the collection is largely autobiographical, built on a series of dreamy, cinematic snapshots from throughout Droge’s life. The songs are bittersweet, balancing longing and gratitude in equal measure. Click HERE to purchase tickets to the October 16th show. Our Fall 2025 Season Passes are now on sale! Click here to buy.
Live Wire with Luke Burbank
Live Wire Radio is an independently produced radio show that artfully blends unpredictable conversation, live music, and original comedy featuring all types of cultural talent and creative minds, from emerging artists to established acts. Join host Luke Burbank and announcer Elena Passarello for a live recording of this popular radio show, heard nationwide by thousands of listeners every weekend. Featured Guests: Karen Russell is the author of six books of fiction, including the New York Times bestsellers Swamplandia! and Vampires in the Lemon Grove. She is a MacArthur Fellow, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. She has received two National Magazine Awards for Fiction and was selected for the National Book Foundation’s “5 under 35” prize and The New Yorker’s “20 under 40” list (She is now decisively over 40). She serves on the board of Street Books, a mobile-library for people living outdoors. Born and raised in Miami, Florida, she now lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband, son, and daughter. Kelsey McKinney is a reporter and writer who lives in Philadelphia. She is the co-creator of Normal Gossip, as well as a co owner and features writer at Defector.com. She has worked as a staff writer at Deadspin, Fusion, and Vox, and her reporting and essays have appeared in The New York Times, GQ, Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Vanity Fair and many others. Felipe Torres Medina is a Peabody and Writers Guild of America Award–winning writer from Bogotá, Colombia and the author of America, Let Me In: A Choose Your Own Immigration Story. His writing for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert has earned him five Emmy nominations. Khatumu is a 23-year-old alternative folk singer-songwriter whose breakout hit “Hunting Days” went viral on TikTok, sparking a cult-like fanbase. The success of the track led to her signing with Bright Antenna Records, with whom she will release an EP in May 2025, as well as headlining shows at venues such as Mercury Lounge in New York City. Drawing inspiration from artists like Phoebe Bridgers and Dijon, Khatumu’s sound blends sweet harmonic vocals with indie folk instrumentation and kickass songwriting. Tickets $25 Student & Under 35$35 General Admission$50 Preferred Seating (First 5 rows of Front Center Section – available in advance only) $5 Arts For All – Oregon Trail or SNAP Benefit Card required for admission with Arts for All Tickets. For more details about the Arts for All program, visit: https://racc.org/artsforall/ Click HERE for tickets. Doors open at 6:30 Guests subject to change.
Live Wire with Luke Burbank
Join Emmy award-winning host Luke Burbank for the taping of Live Wire, the fastest growing entertainment show on public radio. We’ve got a late-night stride, an Oscar Wilde wit, and the charisma of Ferris Bueller grand marshaling a parade. Music, comedy, and conversation, live and packed with surprises.Featured Guests: TBA Tickets$30 General Admission$45 Preferred Seating (First 5 rows of Front Center Section – available in advance only) Click HERE for tickets. Doors open at 6:30 Guests subject to change.
Live Wire with Luke Burbank
Join Emmy award-winning host Luke Burbank for the taping of Live Wire, the fastest growing entertainment show on public radio. We’ve got a late-night stride, an Oscar Wilde wit, and the charisma of Ferris Bueller grand marshaling a parade. Music, comedy, and conversation, live and packed with surprises.Featured Guests: TBA Tickets$30 General Admission$45 Preferred Seating (First 5 rows of Front Center Section – available in advance only) Click HERE for tickets. Doors open at 6:30 Guests subject to change.
Live Wire with Luke Burbank
Live Wire Radio is an independently produced radio show that artfully blends unpredictable conversation, live music, and original comedy featuring all types of cultural talent and creative minds, from emerging artists to established acts. Join host Luke Burbank and announcer Elena Passarello for a live recording of this popular radio show, heard nationwide by thousands of listeners every weekend. With special guests: Jeff Hiller is an Emmy award-winning actor, writer, and comedian who has appeared on TV shows such as Somebody Somewhere, American Horror Story: NYC, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, 30Rock, and Law and Order: CI, among numerous others. His film roles include Greta, Morning Glory, Ghost Town, and Set it Up. His 2025 memoir, Actress of a Certain Age: My Twenty Year Trail to Overnight Success, details his journey from growing up “profoundly gay” in 1980s Texas to his experiences as an inept social worker and how he clawed, scraped, and brawled to Hollywood’s lower middle-tier. Tara Roberts spent the last seven years following, diving with, and telling stories about Black scuba divers as they searched for and helped document slave shipwrecks around the world. Her journey was turned into an award-winning National Geographic-produced podcast called “Into the Depths” and featured in the March 2022 issue of National Geographic magazine. She became the first Black female explorer ever to be featured on the cover of the magazine. Tara is also a former magazine editor and indie publisher, a nonprofit communications director, and editor of several non-fiction books for girls. Reginald Dwayne Betts is the author of three books of poetry, a lawyer, the founder and CEO of Freedom Reads, as well as a former MacArthur Fellow (2021). His most recent collection. Doggerel, is a majestic new volume of poetry that marks a transformative stage in his life and career. This resplendent tableau ruminates on dogs and the ostensibly trivial joys that transform us—peonies blooming, a “symphony” of wine glasses, father-son bike rides, basketball, seeing and being seen, surrendering to a lover’s touch. Recorded live in a circle with some of her dearest friends, acclaimed singer-songwriter Anna Tivel has released her 7th studio album, Animal Poem, on Fluff and Gravy Records. Known for her introspective and narrative-driven folk music, Anna writes songs that often focus on vignettes of ordinary people’s lives and struggles, drawing inspiration from small, everyday stories. No Depression praises her as “one of the finest storytellers modern folk music has to offer.” Click HERE to purchase tickets to the October 16th show. Fall 2025 Season Passes are now on sale! Click here to buy.
Live Wire with Luke Burbank – Portland Book Festival Special
Join Emmy award-winning host Luke Burbank for the taping of Live Wire, the fastest growing entertainment show on public radio. We’ve got a late-night stride, an Oscar Wilde wit, and the charisma of Ferris Bueller grand marshaling a parade. Music, comedy, and conversation, live and packed with surprises.Featured Guests: TBA Tickets$30 General Admission$45 Preferred Seating (First 5 rows of Front Center Section – available in advance only) Click HERE for tickets. Doors open at 6:30 Guests subject to change.
Live Wire with Luke Burbank
Live Wire Radio is an independently produced radio show that artfully blends unpredictable conversation, live music, and original comedy featuring all types of cultural talent and creative minds, from emerging artists to established acts. Join host Luke Burbank and announcer Elena Passarello for a live recording of this popular radio show, heard nationwide by thousands of listeners every weekend. Featured Guests: Aubrey Gordon is an author, columnist, and cohost of the podcast Maintenance Phase with journalist Michael Hobbes, where the two debunk and decode wellness and weight loss trends. Her work has been published in The New York Times, Vox, Literary Hub, SELF, Health, Glamour and more. Her first book, What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat was released in November 2020. Her second book, “You Just Need to Lose Weight” and 19 Other Myths About Fat People, is a New York Times and Indie bestseller. Kari Ferrell is a producer, writer, speaker, activist, and creator whose work is centered around prison reform and mental health. Her production company, Without Wax, is dedicated to uplifting and telling other stories from Women of Color, and she‘s working with Kaling International on a scripted show based on her life. Kari also supports various organizations like Second Chance Studios, Books Through Bars, the ACLU, and other advocacy groups. She lives in Brooklyn with her pup and her partner. Tickets $25 Student & Under 35$35 General Admission$50 Preferred Seating (First 5 rows of Front Center Section – available in advance only) $5 Arts For All – Oregon Trail or SNAP Benefit Card required for admission with Arts for All Tickets. For more details about the Arts for All program, visit: https://racc.org/artsforall/ Click HERE for tickets. Doors open at 6:30 Guests subject to change.
Live Wire with Luke Burbank
Join Emmy award-winning host Luke Burbank for the taping of Live Wire, the fastest growing entertainment show on public radio. We’ve got a late-night stride, an Oscar Wilde wit, and the charisma of Ferris Bueller grand marshaling a parade. Music, comedy, and conversation, live and packed with surprises.Featured Guests: Amanda MontellRoger ReevesMeklitBrian Lindstrom Tickets$30 General Admission$45 Preferred Seating (First 5 rows of Front Center Section – available in advance only) Click HERE for tickets. Doors open at 6:30 Guests subject to change.
Live Wire with Luke Burbank
Live Wire Radio is an independently produced radio show that artfully blends unpredictable conversation, live music, and original comedy featuring all types of cultural talent and creative minds, from emerging artists to established acts. Join host Luke Burbank and announcer Elena Passarello for a live recording of this popular radio show, heard nationwide by thousands of listeners every weekend. With special guests: – Sean Sherman, Oglala Lakota, born on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation, is a chef and leader who has been cooking across the United States and the world for the past thirty years. His main culinary focus has been to raise awareness of and revitalize Native food systems in a modern culinary context. In 2014, he founded The Sioux Chef, a food education and catering project, in the Minneapolis/Saint Paul area. His first book, The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen, was published in 2017 and won a James Beard award for American Cooking. His restaurant Owamni opened in Minneapolis in 2021 and was honored on many best new restaurant lists, winning the James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant. In 2023, Sean was named to Time Magazine’s list of 100 most influential people. – Chuck Klosterman is the bestselling author of nine nonfiction books (including Football; X; The Nineties; Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs; and But What If We’re Wrong?), two novels (Downtown Owl and The Visible Man), and the short story collection Raised in Captivity. He has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, GQ (London), Esquire, Spin, The Guardian (London), The Believer, and ESPN. Klosterman served as the Ethicist for The New York Times Magazine for three years and was an original founder of the website Grantland with Bill Simmons. – Georgia Maq served as the trailblazing frontwoman of the punk trio Camp Cope for 8 years, confronting music industry sexism with fierce indie rock and earning international acclaim before their 2023 farewell show at the Sydney Opera House. Now based in LA, Maq continues opening up on her vulnerabilities and heartbreaks in her solo career. Her latest release, God’s Favourite EP, marks a shift toward soulful Americana ballads, mining themes of romantic and self-love and growing far beyond her Melbourne punk origins. Click HERE to purchase tickets to the February 19th show. Spring 2026 Season Passes are now on sale! Click here to buy.
