How Sara Bareilles became a Broadway writer, Sondheim star, and sitcom lead

One of my favorite singers, Sara Bareilles, is our guest this episode. Sara's released five top 10 albums, written the music and lyrics for the hit Broadway show "Waitress," and starred in a Sondheim musical. She's back with her first new studio album in seven years, "Good Grief," and it's a beauty.

00:00 Intro

01:03 Juggling an album, a tour, a film and a musical

03:24 "Good Grief": an album born from loss

05:20 How "Forever" became a song for Gavin Creel

07:12 Morning pages and The Artist's Way

09:33 How writing Waitress changed her songwriting

12:42 Asking big questions without answers

14:17 "Capsize Me": a letter to God

16:41 "Wind Is The Weather" and feeling out at sea

19:05 Letting go of control in the studio

22:06 Finding herself in the music industry

26:05 Why being "somewhere in the middle" served her

27:41 A word from The FLAG Art Foundation

28:50 Jennifer Nettles and the musical that never was

31:01 Adapting "The Interestings" for the stage

33:58 Saying yes to Girls5eva

36:43 Working through anxiety

37:42 Grief is love

42:48 Putting lost friends into songs

44:13 Staying on the growth edge

46:36 Her first time on a Broadway stage

49:20 The chimney video that went viral

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About our Founding Sponsor, ⁠⁠The FLAG Art Foundation⁠ (flagartfoundation.org)⁠:

The FLAG Art Foundation is a nonprofit contemporary art exhibition space in New York's Chelsea Arts District. Since 2008, FLAG has staged more than 100 exhibitions celebrating nearly 1,000 artists, with innovative partnerships including the Parrish Art Museum, the Serpentine Galleries in London, and the Harlem Children's Zone. FLAG is free and open to the public. Follow FLAG on⁠Instagram⁠⁠ (instagram.com/flagartfoundation).

About Anthony Mason:

Anthony Mason, the host of Alchemy, is also a Special Correspondent with CBS News. One of the most versatile and experienced television journalists, Anthony co-hosted CBS This Morning: Saturday for seven years (2012-2019), and then the weekday CBS This Morning broadcast for two more. But he may be best known for his interviews with artists like Bruce Springsteen, Aretha Franklin, Dolly Parton, Annie Leibovitz, Judi Dench, David Hockney, and André 3000. He has won a dozen Emmy Awards. In 2023, the Songwriters Hall of Fame presented him their Patron of the Arts Award. And for the past three years he has hosted the GRAMMY Hall of Fame Gala.