National

'You Can Be Your Best Friend': Hear Robyn On World Cafe

By Talia Schlanger, John Myers

Published November 13, 2018 at 11:39 AM PST

This story was published more than 5 years ago.

Robyn's latest album, Honey, out now, is her first new full-length solo album in eight years. While making the record, the Swedish pop singer was dealing with two big losses: the end of a relationship and the death of a longtime friend and collaborator, Christian Falk. She came out the other side with an outstanding album that offers dance as an alternative to sitting down through sadness.

"I don't know if I thought about dancing as therapy or whatever, and I still don't know if I do," Robyn says, "But I think it's soothing, it's healing and it's something we forget that's, you know, a really important part of our lives."

Robyn drops by World Cafe to reflect on becoming friends with her body at a young age, — "I remember loving to let out energy" — using bodily movement to deal with grief and realizing she was ready to stop seeing her therapist after years of psychoanalysis. Hear the session in the player.

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Talia Schlanger

Talia Schlanger hosts World Cafe, which is distributed by NPR and produced by WXPN, the public radio service of the University of Pennsylvania. She got her start in broadcasting at the CBC, Canada's national public broadcaster. She hosted CBC Radio 2 Weekend Mornings on radio and was the on-camera host for two seasons of the television series CBC Music: Backstage, as well as several prime-time music TV specials for CBC, including the Quietest Concert Ever: On Fundy's Ocean Floor. Schlanger also guest hosted various flagship shows on CBC Radio One, including As It Happens, Day 6 and Because News. Schlanger also won a Canadian Screen Award as a producer for CBC Music Presents: The Beetle Roadtrip Sessions, a cross-country rock 'n' roll road trip.

John Myers

Since 2017, John Myers has been the producer of NPR's World Cafe, which is produced by WXPN at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. Previously he spent about eight years working on the other side of Philly at WHYY as a producer on the staff of Fresh Air with Terry Gross. John was also a member of the team of public radio veterans recruited to develop original programming for Audible and has worked extensively as a freelance producer. His portfolio includes work for the Eastern State Penitentiary Historic Site, The Association for Public Art and the radio documentary, Going Black: The Legacy of Philly Soul Radio. He's taught radio production to preschoolers and college students and, in the late 90's, spent a couple of years traveling around the country as a roadie for the rock band Huffamoose.