Wild Card Podcast With Rachel Martin: Play The Game Of Questions...& Answers

 Wild Card With Rachel Martin is, on one hand, a typical NPR podcast -- restrained, thoughtful, reflective -- and, on the other hand, different, playful, probing to the point of noisy, and roguish.

Part-interview, part-existential game show –  Wild Card from NPR has an interesting premise. Host Rachel Martin rips up the typical interview script and invites guests to play a game about life's biggest questions. Martin 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.

In the first episode on May 1, 2024, Wild Card host Rachel Martin chatted with senior producer Lee Hale about why they wanted to make an existential interview-game podcast and how they came up with the Wild Card questions. It's a smart way to begin the podcast with an inside peek into the thought process surrounding the formation of the podcast.

NPR was smart to pick Rachel Martin for this assignment. Martin is sharp, funny, inquisitive, bold, and engaging. While listeners and critics can throw stones at the NPR podcast model, it has produced a slew of talented podcast hosts -- Audie Cornish, David Folkenflik, Brooke Gladstone, Liane Hansen, and Sam Sanders, to name a few.

 

Rachel Martin was a producer and reporter for KQED in San Francisco. In 2003, Martin was a freelance reporter in Afghanistan, also for NPR. From 2005 to 2007, she was foreign correspondent for NPR. In 2007, she covered the Virginia Tech shooting. In 2008, she was a correspondent for ABC News. Martin was one of the hosts of NPR's The Bryant Park Project, a New York-based experimental morning news program designed to attract a younger demographic.

In 2010, Martin was National Security Correspondent for NPR, during which time she reported on the US' counterinsurgency efforts. She took over as host of Weekend Edition Sunday in 2012, shortly after longtime host Liane Hansen stepped down. She became a co-host of Morning Edition in 2016 when Renée Montagne stepped down. Furthermore, she left the show in early 2023. Having previously worked as the network's religion correspondent from 2006 to 2007, Martin is the creator of Enlighten Me, an NPR special series on religion, spirituality, and meaning.

In the second episode of the podcast, Rachel talked to Jenny Slate, known for her roles in Obvious Child, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On and Parks and Recreation. In the episode, Slade opened up about whether fate brought her to her husband, what she's sacrificed for motherhood, and what's so special about margarine and white bread sandwiches.

One of my favorites was with actor Chris Pine, who told Martin that his directorial debut, Poolman, got "obliterated" by critics. But the Star Trek and Wonder Woman star shares that the experience helped him reevaluate his desire for perfection. Pine also debated predestination with Rachel, reflects on the struggle to feel awe, and discusses his recurring childhood dreams of having tea with an elf in a tree.

 The most recent episode welcomes director David Lynch, and, true to his reputation, the Twin Peaks director delves into oddities and weirdness.

 NPR also has this subscription service called Wild Card+. You apparently receive access to bonus episodes, and you'll get to listen sponsor-free. If you're interested, you can learn more at plus.npr.org/wildcard.

 Wild Card With Rachel Martin takes the interview process and adds a taste of whimsy, chance, gossipy revelations, and removes the standard talking points response often given by celebrities to interviewers. 

Martin embraces the concept and has fun with it, as have the interviewed subjects so far. Check it out. It's refreshingly different.