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 TBA Fall 2026 Season Passes are now on sale! Click here to buy. Individual show tickets will be on sale soon HERE Minors ok when accompanied by a parent or guardian. Review our venue FAQ here
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: – Sarah Marshall is a writer, podcaster, and media critic focused on setting straight our collective memory—or at least getting to the bottom of why we believe and in turn define ourselves by popular narrative and myth. Why is the maligned woman a staple of our news media? Why do we believe that serial killers are brilliant? How do we keep stumbling into all these moral panics? These are some of the questions that propel Sarah forward. She is the host of the popular modern history podcast You’re Wrong About, which has been highlighted in The New Yorker, The Guardian, and Time Magazine. Her latest project, The Devil You Know, is an 8-part podcast with the CBC that explores the tangled web of the Satanic Panic and its continued impact in culture today. – Camille T. Dungy is the author of Soil: The Story of a Black Mother’s Garden. Soil was named book of the month by Hudsons Booksellers, received the 2024 Award of Excellence in Garden and Nature Writing from The Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries, and was on the short list for the PEN/Jean Stein Award. Dungy has also written four collections of poetry, including Trophic Cascade, winner of the Colorado Book Award, and the essay collection Guidebook to Relative Strangers: Journeys into Race, Motherhood, and History, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. – Angela Nissel is author of the national bestselling comedic memoirs The Broke Diaries and Mixed, and a prolific television producer and writer whose credits include The Other Black Girl, Mixed-ish, and Scrubs. Prior to her television career, she had illustrious careers as a temp for the IRS, a stripper, and a “sleep apnea auditor” watching people snore overnight in a local hospital. She lives in Los Angeles and enjoys beating people half her age in video games. In her new poignant and hilarious memoir, Angela chronicles her odyssey as she tries to remain “like her mother” in the face of grief. Delightfully self-deprecating, unsparing in its honesty, yet filled with wacky humor and joy, Good Grief, Pass the Bread, Mom is Dead, is an unforgettable portrait of love, yearning, loss, and resilience that reveals the indelible power of introspection to save our lives. Click HERE to purchase tickets to the May 14th show. Spring 2026 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. With special guests TBA Fall 2026 Season Passes are now on sale! Click here to buy. Individual show tickets will be on sale soon HERE Minors ok when accompanied by a parent or guardian. Review our venue FAQ here
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: Described by NPR Music as joyous folk pop, Kuinka “laces modern folk and Americana with an electronic jolt, waltzing along the grooved edges of dream-pop, synth-pop, and Brooklyn’s mid-aughts guitar-rock revival” (Vanyaland). Their genre-defying music features several different lead singers, four-part harmony, and eclectic instrumentation. For all of their sonic experimentation, the Seattle group’s songs and live shows are linked by an infectious energy that remains present in everything they do. Zak Toscani is started as a stand-up comedy here in Portland but it has since taken him all around the world. He has performed at the Bumbershoot Music & Arts Festival, The Bridgetown Comedy Festival, and the The High Plains Comedy Festival and been highlighted by TIME, The AV Club, and The Portland Mercury. He is also the most reoccurring guest on the hit comedy podcast “All Fantasy Everything.” 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: Mary Roach is the author of eight New York Times bestsellers, including Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal, Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law, and Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void. Her new book, Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy, debuts in September 2025. Mary’s books have been published in 21 languages, and her second book, Spook, was a New York Times Notable Book. Mary has written for National Geographic, Wired, The New York Times Magazine, and the Journal of Clinical Anatomy, among others. She has been a finalist for the Royal Society’s Winton Prize and a winner of the American Engineering Societies’ Engineering Journalism Award, in a category for which, let’s be honest, she was the sole entrant. Janesh Rahlan is an LA based comedian, actor and writer. He’s opened for acts like Kumail Nanjiani, Atsuko, Josh Johnson, Cedric the Entertainer, Alex Edelman, and Jordan Klepper. He’s a regular at many clubs, including the Hollywood Improv and San Francisco Punch Line. His comedy touches upon his immigrant upbringing and aggressively millennial persona. Canadian chanteuse Amy Millan is best known as the co-lead vocalist for indie rock act Stars and as a satellite member of the iconic collective Broken Social Scene. She launched her solo career with Honey from the Tombs (2006) and Masters of the Burial (2009), blending indie rock with country and folk influences. After a 15-year hiatus from solo work, Millan has returned with I Went To Find You, a deeply personal album that explores themes of loss, friendship, and self-discovery. River Selby is a former hotshot and wildland firefighter, a writer, and a nonbinary person. They hold an MFA in creative writing from Syracuse University; they are currently pursuing their PhD. They were the recipient of the Emerging Writer’s Prize for Fiction from Boulevard Magazine for their story, “How Certain Fires Burn.” Their writing has appeared in the New Ohio Review, Bellevue Literary Review, Vox, and High Country News. They currently live in Tallahassee, Florida. Click HERE to buy tickets for the October 18 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. With special guests: – Jo Firestone is a comedian whose work can be seen on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Joe Pera Talks With You, High Maintenance, Shrill, and more. She’s the author of Murder on Sex Island and the forthcoming sequel, Sex on Murder Island, set to publish June 30, 2026. She can be heard on Maximum Fun’s Dr. Gameshow, a podcast she co-hosts with Manolo Moreno, and Comedy Central’s Everyday Decisions, a podcast she hosts all alone. Her album, The Hits, is available on Comedy Central Records, and if you like puns, check out Punderdome: A Card Game for Pun Lovers. Her special, Good Timing with Jo Firestone, featuring 16 senior citizens from her online comedy class, is out now on Peacock. – Jeff Chang’s first book, Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation, was named one of the best American nonfiction books of the last quarter century. He has been a USA Ford Fellow in Literature and, among numerous other honors, has won the American Book Award and the Asian American Literary Award. Chang has written three other acclaimed bestsellers on American history and culture, music, and the arts. In May 2019, he and director Bao Nguyen created a four-episode digital series adaptation of his award-winning book We Gon’ Be Alright for PBS’ Indie Lens Storycast. Chang was featured in Nguyen’s ESPN Bruce Lee documentary, Be Water; the PBS series, Asian Americans; and Lisa Ling’s CNN series, This Is Life. – Renowned for his live shows, Tyler Ballgame’s music is built on strong melodic hooks and draws subtle inspiration from the 60s and 70s, blending nostalgia and undeniable songcraft. Tyler’s stunning debut album For the First Time, Again is a bracing reminder of how great songs delivered by a gifted vocalist can move, captivate and inspire, it boasts 12 finely crafted tunes rooted in classic rock, indie, and Americana. Ballgame’s infectious melodies draw the listener into a story, and his message of belief in one’s true self resonates deep and wide. The album’s lead single, the rhapsodic Lennon-meets-Orbison “I Believe In Love” is out now, alongside the previously released “Got a New Car.” Click HERE to purchase tickets to the June 4th show. Spring 2026 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. With special guests TBA Fall 2026 Season Passes are now on sale! Click here to buy. Individual show tickets will be on sale soon HERE Minors ok when accompanied by a parent or guardian. Review our venue FAQ here
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.