I am a Funeral Pyre with Nnenna and Pierce Freelon

I am a Funeral Pyre with Nnenna and Pierce Freelon

Author: How to Survive the End of the World January 30, 2026 Duration: 1:10:57

The sisters are ecstatic to welcome Nnenna and Pierce Freelon to the show.

Nnenna is a GRAMMY nominated  jazz singer, storyteller and grief sojourner. Her latest album is Beneath the Skin. Her new book is Beneath the Skin of Sorrow: Improvisations on Loss.

Nneena’s son Pierce is a GRAMMY nominated artist, picture book author and podcaster. His GRAMMY nominated children’s music albums AnceStars (2023) and Black to the Future (2021) have been featured on Today Show, NPR and Billboard. He has written songs for the PBS Kids animated series’ Alma’s Way and Work it Out Wombats!

The Freelons regal the Browns with tales of the late great architect/husband/father, Phil Freelon, being Maya Angelou's friend, manufacturing space ice cream, living in an Octavian future, having to leave Nancy Drew behind and go off-planet, settling in North Carolina, making puppet art about grief, digging where your tears fall and scatting your way through the universe.

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Sisters Autumn Brown and adrienne maree brown host How to Survive the End of the World, a podcast rooted in their shared lives as writers, activists, and facilitators shaped by multiracial diasporic lineages. This isn't a theoretical discussion about distant catastrophes; it's a direct, grounded conversation about the endings we are all already living through-the collapse of systems, the death of old ways, and the personal transformations that feel like worlds dissolving. Each episode delves into the tangible, often messy practices a community needs to navigate these ruptures. You'll hear them explore how we grieve, how we organize, how we imagine futures, and how we find wholeness even as things fall apart. The dialogue is intimate and urgent, moving from the kitchen table to the front lines of social change, always asking what it means to survive with integrity and connection. This podcast operates from the belief that learning to face endings together is the first, most necessary step toward building something new. For more from Autumn and adrienne, find them at endoftheworldshow.org.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

How to Survive the End of the World
Podcast Episodes
FRACTAL #6: Altars as/for Your Art [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 20:08
The sisters describe how and why they build altars for creation and detail recalibrated writing nooks, work laptops, writing in the tub and car, vision boards, doodles for the self and bringing their creative and familia…
FRACTAL #5: The Beauty and Precision of Project Management [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 26:30
The sisters nerd out on project (and self!) management, spreadsheets, procrastination, saving your work and ensuring you have adequate support for the art you're making.---⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TRANSCRIPT⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠---⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠…
FRACTAL #4: The Womb of Weird [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 22:17
Another year, another fractal! Autumn and adrienne revel in the majesty their respective weirdness in the artistic process and how improvisation and structure co-mingle. ---⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TRANSCRIPT⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠---⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠…
CORRECTED: Freedom Practice in an Unfree World [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:12:23
Some of you may have gotten the wrong audio when we posted this episode on 11/21/25. SORRY!Today we're thrilled to feature the recent interview featuring Autumn from ⁠Next Economy Now⁠ with Ryan Honeyman. In this episode…
Freedom Practice in an Unfree World [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:11:11
Today we're thrilled to feature an interview featuring Autumn from Next Economy Now with Ryan Honeyman. In this episode, she shares her journey of moving from cooperative leadership at AORTA into a new phase of life focu…