Javier Muñoz and Standing in Awe of Humanity

06/06/21 • 41 min

Sunday Pancakes with Celia Keenan-Bolger

JAVIER MUÑOZ is an actor and activist whose impressive body of work spans theater, film and television. Javier is best known for co-creating the role of, and starring as, "Alexander Hamilton” in the cultural-phenomenon musical Hamilton on Broadway for two years, after Lin-Manuel Miranda departed the show (and was his alternate prior to that). He got his break starring as “Usnavi” in In the Heights on Broadway, also created by Miranda. Javier will soon star in the dark comedy indie feature, Monuments. On the TV side, he’s appeared on Shadowhunters, Blindspot, Quantico, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee and will soon be heard voicing the character of “Ohm” on Disney’s upcoming animated series Eureka. Recent theater credits include The New Englanders at MTC and the starring role in the North American premiere of Stephen Lloyd Helper’s A Sign of the Times. Javier is also an outspoken activist for LGBTQ+ rights and a Global Ambassador for (RED), which fights to end HIV/AIDS. Muñoz was honored with the prestigious OUT100 "Breakout of the Year" award in 2016, as well as the Howard Ashman Award by the Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC). Javier now serves on the Board of GMHC as well.

Weekly Round-Up:

Read The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
Watch the short documentary, Short Fuse about Danny Sotomayor, a Chicago activist
Listen to Slate’s What’s Next podcast episode “Larry Kramer Wouldn’t Be Quiet”
Read about Javier Muñoz Day
Support and learn more about the organizations Javi mentions: GMHC, Broadway Green Alliance, and BCEFA.

Weekly Round-Up:

Read The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
Watch the short documentary, Short Fuse about Danny Sotomayor, a Chicago activist
Listen to Slate’s What’s Next podcast episode “Larry Kramer Wouldn’t Be Quiet”
Read about Javier Muñoz Day
Support and learn more about the organizations Javi mentions: GMHC, Broadway Green Alliance, and BCEFA.

Previous Episode

Stepping Into The Unknown with Sara Bareilles

SARA BAREILLES first achieved mainstream critical praise in 2007 with her widely successful hit "Love Song," which reached No. 1 in 22 countries around the world from her debut album Little Voice. Since then, Sara has taken home a Grammy Award for Best American Roots Performance for her performance of “Saint Honesty” and has received seven more Grammy® nominations, two Tony nominations and three Emmy nominations. Her book, “Sounds Like Me: My Life (So Far) in Song,” was released in the fall of 2015 by Simon & Schuster and is a New York Times best seller. Making her Broadway debut, Sara composed the music and lyrics for Waitress, and made her Broadway acting debut in 2017 by stepping into the show's lead role. In 2019, Sara released her fifth full-length album entitled Amidst The Chaos. For this body of work, she joined forces in the studio with legendary Academy® Award-winning producer T Bone Burnett. Always looking to try something new, Sara teamed up with her writing and producing partner, Jessie Nelson, J.J. Abrams and Apple, and executive produced Little Voice: a 10-episode musical drama series featuring her original music. In September, 2020, Sara released More Love – Songs From Little Voice Season One, which features her personally performed and recorded versions of the ten songs from the series. Most recently, Sara wrapped filming a brand new Tina Fey scripted musical-comedy series for Peacock called Girls5Eva. Her brand new record, "Amidst the Chaos: Live from the Hollywood Bowl," is also releasing in 2021.

Weekly Round-Up:

Watch The Gap by Ira Glass
Read Wolfpack by Abby Wambach
Read The Atlantic article “What Happens When Americans Can Finally Exhale” by Ed Yong
Watch the trailer for Sara’s new show, Girls5Eva streaming now on Peacock
Download Sara’s album, Amidst The Chaos Live From The Hollywood Bowl

Next Episode

Lie Still On The Day of Pain And The Day Of Joy Will Greet You with Shakina Nayfack

Most recently, SHAKINA NAYFACK made television history starring in NBC’s Connecting... as the first transgender person to have a starring role in a network comedy. She can also be seen in Amazon’s GLAAD Award Winning Transparent Musicale Finale, which she helped write and produce, and Hulu’s Difficult People, for which she was a writing consultant. Her play Chonburi International Hotel and Butterfly Club premiered on Audible in 2020 in collaboration with Williamstown Theatre Festival and was recognized with a 2021 Drama League Award for Best Audio Theatre Production. She is the Founding Artistic Director of Musical Theatre Factory, where she helped to develop hundreds of new musicals including Michael R. Jackson’s Pulitzer Prize winning musical, A Strange Loop and her own autobiographical glam rock odyssey, Manifest Pussy.

Weekly Round-Up:

Watch the documentary Disclosure on Netflix.
Listen to the On the Rookie podcast episode “The Roadmap For Liberation, feat. Janet Mock” and then read Janet’s book, Redefining Realness.
Read My Gender Workbook by Kate Bornstein.
Visit Shakina’s website to learn more about her work and download her award-winning Audible play, Chonburi International Hotel and Butterfly Club.
Support the Juneteenth Jubilee, organized by Intersectional Voices Collective.