What are you gonna do about Nina Simone? We're going to talk about and listen to her. Piercing vocals, pristine piano chops, and enduring activism, all lend themselves to decades upon decades of discussion. This is why we've compiled a few thoughts from our friends Zachary Quinto, Tonya Pinkins, Ari Shapiro, and Lea DeLaria, to make one Naked American Songbook style tribute to the High Priestess of Soul.

As promised by host Julian Fleisher and Star Trek star Zachary Quinto, check out Nina Simone - Live in Montreux 1976!!

Yes, there are more Extras and Previews on the way! So subscribe on Apple Podcasts to make sure you don't miss a beat!

And while you're there, please give a rating and leave a comment. It really helps the Naked American cause. And please join conversation on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

You may know Ira from his touring storytelling, radio, and et-cm-ira-glass-dancers-20151104-story.html">dance show. Or as a ringtone on the Netflix show Bojack Horseman. Or maybe you know Ira Glass from his always-chart-topping show This American Life, which has earned a shelf full of Peabodys and other awards.

A few months ago, the very same public radio icon and Baltimore's own Ira Glass got naked with Naked American Songbook host Julian Fleisher. In that episode, we learned all about Ira's passion for Fiddler on the Roof, and that he "super loves" Bruce Springsteen (who's now on Broadway).

If you, like we, were left wanting more after Ira Glass in 3 Acts, you're in luck. 

If you thought Ira kvelled over Taylor Swift in our first installment, in this Act 4 he goes way deeper into T-Swift territory. Listen as Ira tries to convince Julian that Swift belongs in the same company as Bruce (and Bono and Joni). There's even a cameo T-Swift performance by Kenny Mellman of Kiki & Herb fame.Ira tells also us what he's listening to on the treadmill, why he sending you those X's and O's, what song is the cockroach of the American Songbook, and how he doesn't consider himself a "music person" ...but (just like us!) Ira Glass is totally a product of the songs he loves.

Ira Glass and Julian Fleisher kvell about songs

(Julian Fleisher)

 Share this episode with your friends and check out more Naked American episodes on Stitcher or Apple Podcasts or wherever else you like to listen. And while you're there, leave us a rating and a comment, it really helps the Naked American Songbook cause. Then join the Naked American conversation on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. 

When Cole Porter first met Richard Rodgers during a slow point in his career, he confessed to the composer that he knew the key to his success on Broadway: just write "Jewish tunes."

Why did WASP of WASPs Cole Porter make such a statement? Perhaps because so many successful songwriters of the Great American Songbook were members of the tribe who may or may not have been greatly influenced by the songs and melodies of their ancestors. And Cole Porter did just that. Taking the minor key like it was his birthright, Porter wrote several handfuls of smash hits. 

In this Naked American Extra, we'll listen in on a bit more of our chat with Rachel Bloom, star and co-creator of the only original musical comedy on television, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (season 3 premieres October 13 on The CW).

Hear Julian Fleisher honor the new year with a bit of his haftoroh and his new favorite Jewess, Rachel Bloom as they break matzoh, wine-holding.gif">drink fermented kosher grape juice and toast the dear prophet of Fiddler, Sheldon Harnick.

For more Rachel Bloom, you can listen to her do Space Jam here, and hear the glory of our full episode with her here.

Please share this episode with your friends and make sure to subscribe on Stitcher or Apple Podcasts or wherever else you like to listen. And while you're there, leave us a rating and a comment, it really helps The Naked American Songbook cause. Then you can join the Naked American conversation on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Here's to a sweet New Year. L'chaim!

Sheldon Harnick

(Melissa Eagan)

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend star and co-creator Rachel Bloom left it all on the court during her recent TNAS episode. But there was one thing we didn't get to, and it's just too important not to share. 

Michael Jordan poses with a cutout of Bugs Bunny at a news conference, Tuesday, June 20, 1995

(ASSOCIATED PRESS/AP Images)

In this bonus mini-episode, hear a different side of Bloom -- this is Rachel, the unofficial oral historian of the 1996 Warner Brothers triumph, Space Jam!

Yes, the film movie where Jordan-034.gif">Michael Jordan gets sucked underground to play basketball with Bugs Bunny and the rest of the Looney Tunes. Bloom has jammed on the plot and the theme song since she was in 5th grade. The Space Jam soundtrack was Rachel's mid-90s attempt at Normal People Music (that's not true, all of us listen to Normal People Music).

As it turned out, Space Jam proved an important catalyst in her career. Her first on-stage sketch featured Rachel doing a lot of grape-vines to the title tune, and an early show at UCB centered around a very involved exploration of the film’s role in her character's life, along with her first experiment with musical comedy.

Share this episode with your friends and make sure to subscribe on Stitcher or Apple Podcasts or wherever else you like to listen. And while you're there, leave us a rating and a comment, it really helps the Naked American Songbook cause. Then you can join the Naked American conversation on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

If you need more Rachel Bloom Does Space Jam, watch the full performance of her Chorus Line-themed sketch "Space Jam" at the UCB Theater in Los Angeles:

If you are a certain age, you know that Darren Criss made his name on the hit show Glee. Or you may also know that he recently starred in American Crime Story, and the Broadway revival of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. And he's also the founder of a Broadway and showtune party called ElsieFest, which returns to New York in October (featuring friend of the show, Alan Cumming).

Speaking of that sappy Scotsman, Cumming was also featured in our Magic of Disney Extra, in which Darren Criss admitted to being a bit of a Stephen Schwartz fan.

Turns out, Darren's favorite Disney composer (and Glee) led him to a beautiful friendship with a legendary member of the original Rat Pack... Listen to find out which Stephen Schwartz song from Pippen brought Darren together with the force that is Shirley MacLaine!

Want more? Have you heard the Magic of Disney Extra and Darren Criss's longer conversation with Julian Fleisher, The Song is The Song, in which Darren compared Cole Porter to Carly Rae Jepson? What?! You haven't? Stop reading this and GO LISTEN NOW!!! 

And if you have already listened to those, there's plenty more at the Naked American Archives. Please tell your friends, tell your local podcatchers, tell your teachers, and tell your parents. 

Darren Criss and Julian Fleisher

(The Jonathan Channel / Hillary Bonhomme)

Subscribe to The Naked American Songbook Podcast on Stitcher or Apple Podcasts or wherever else you like to listen. And while you're there, leave us a rating and a comment, it really helps the Naked American Songbook cause. Then you can join the Naked American conversation on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Keep it naked!

Naked American Songbook host Julian Fleisher has a painfully clear memory of his mother nagging him about her friend Shirley Glass' son. The young Glass had recently found success as a public radio host. To Julian's mother, it was simple: "Why don't you get a radio show like Shirley's son Ira?" A couple decades down the line, it's old home week here on The Naked American Songbook.

That's right, public radio superstar host Ira Glass is a fellow Baltimorean, and Julian finally convinced him to switch places and share songs. However, Ira decided to stay in place, and invited Julian into the swank This American Life studios. After admiring the show's glass-peabody.jpg">trophy collection and catching up on Baltimore-specific Jewish geography, Ira got deep into the songs he loves, and how they made him who he is today. 

It's The Naked American Songbook, in 3 parts! Act I: Growing up Glass.Act II: Ira Gets His Wings.Act III: Getting Under Ira’s Skin. Stay with us.

Ira Glass and Julian Fleisher kvell about songs

(Julian Fleisher)

When we got multiple Peabody Award-winning Ira Glass naked in his studio, he was prepared and eager to discuss the most incidental of musics from Fiddler on the Roof, his favorite Cole Porter arrangement, and other musicals from his childhood, which shaped the way he tells stories on This American Life. We also learned what surprised Ira about his sexuality. Ira then shared some soothing but 01A-BIG.jpg">lyrically-problematic music he'd picked during stints at AfroPop and down at Tote.jpg">National Headquarters, and then told us what Bruce Springsteen and Frank Sinatra and even little singing.jpg">Donald Trump have in common

Sadly, this is our last full episode of the summer season. You can still check out the Naked American Archives in the podcast feed for extras and other bits you might have missed. But for now, we're ripping a page right out of Sinatra's songbook. As Julian promised in the episode, here's a clip of Sinatra's "farewell concert" from June 13th, 1971.

Ol' Blue Eyes closed the set with Angel Eyes, leaving the crowd with that eerie final refrain: "Excuse me while I disappear..."

But please, please, don't YOU disappear! Share this episode with your friends and make sure to subscribe on Stitcher or Apple Podcasts or wherever else you like to listen. And while you're there, leave us a rating and a comment, it really helps the Naked American Songbook cause. Then you can join the Naked American conversation on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. 

Rachel Bloom takes musical comedy seriously. A graduate of the NYU Tisch of the Arts, and an avid scifi reader, she's found a way to take music and fantasy and make comedy gold. She started hitting it big on her own YouTube channel and now is the Golden Globe-winning star of the prime-time musical comedy show Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. The CW show, which boldly references to Jazz, musical theater, old Hollywood, and some of the biggest names of Broadway, will launch a third season in the fall.

Clearly, Rachel Bloom's incidentals are much bigger than two lentils. When she came to the studio over Passover, Rachel and host Julian Fleisher made a meal out of the Great American Songbook, as well as our Naked American offering: a box of gluten-free matzo and a blessed bottle of fermented concord grape juice. All in the name of songs and freedom. 

Maybe it was the grape juice, but you can hear in this show that Julian was webster.com/dictionary/kvell">kvell-ing over Rachel's deep knowledge of great American art forms like Broadway, Hollywood, and the Disney Songbook. [For more on that, you can listen to our EXTRA: The Magic of Disney]

Rachel Bloom left her Naked American Songbook Interview with a taste for kosher wine

(Kim Nowacki/WNYC)

Rachel kindly took time out of her busy schedule of co-producing Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, filming her husband's movie, and appearing on stage, to share her love of music with you, The Naked American Songbook audience. So why don't you go ahead and take the time to subscribe to the show on Stitcher or Apple Podcasts. And while you're there, please rate the show and leave a comment. It really helps the Naked American Songbook cause. Then you can join the Naked American conversation on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Listen to what happens when you put a Disney Princess impersonator, a Funny Girl-quoting boy from Baltimore, two microphones, and bottle of kosher wine in a small studio! 

You're looking at a very special Naked American Songbook episode. Our first-ever live show was also our Lincoln Center debut (perhaps you heard the Doris Day-soaked preview). And for a special show, a special guest.

Host Julian Fleisher described the singer-songwriter-producer-genius Stephin Merritt as having a unique combination: the craftsmanship of Cole Porter, the heartbreak of Roy Orbison, the polished production of Brian Wilson, the wizardly wordplay of Noël Coward, the radical redemptive queerness of Oscar Wilde, and the sheer output of Pablo Picasso. Merritt's trademark croaking baritone, against all conventional wisdom, both breaks and baffles our collective heart.

Julian Fleisher and Stephin Merritt at the New York Library for the Performing Arts

And in this episode you'll hear that baritone intoning on the songs he loves. There's a clear line from Gershwin to Sondheim to Neil Innes to The Magnetic Fields. We took the naked show on the road, to the fabulous New York Public Library for the Performing Arts to learn about what songs marinated in Merritt's mind to make him the profound songwriter of his time.

And we must admit, we were pretty surprised at what made the list. There were some well known pop stars like ABBA and some lesser known groups like The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and the Ray Charles Singers (not that Ray Charles). But luckily, we had Evan Leslie and the archives at the Library for the Performing Arts to help us do some research.

Clipping of promotional material of The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band

(The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts/NYPL)

Ella Fitzgerald Sings the George and Ira Gershwin Song Book

(The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts/NYPL)

You'll hear all of that and more on this week's episode of The Naked American Songbook with Julian Fleisher. Listen all the way through for Stephin's special live performance of a song from his recent auto-biographical album 50 Song Memoir.

Thanks to Steve Remote (that's right) and Jon D'Uva at Aura-Sonic for recording the live show. Make sure you don't miss an episode by subscribing to Naked American Songbook on iTunes! And while you're there, please rate us and leave a comment. It really helps the Naked American Songbook cause. Then join the Naked American conversation on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Brad from Los Angeles sent a request to Judge Julian regarding the case of Fitzgerald v. O'Day. The brief contains each artist's definitive versions of that old American classic "Sweet Georgia Brown." The song brought two unlikely opponents to court to claim title of "Who Sung it Better!" It's quite a courtroom drama. Harold Bloom is cited. 

Watch each plaintiff make their case and listen as Judge Julian decides!

Need more Naked American Songbook? Check out The Naked American Songbook archives, and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever you park your podcasts. 

Join the conversation on Twitter/Facebook, and tell Judge Julian what case you’d like The Naked American Songbook court to hear next! 

Almost everyone has a favorite Disney song. There's something for everyone, it's like a proto-songbook training we unknowingly receive as babes. Is magic too strong a word to describe the glimmering nostalgia that only a Disney song can provoke? We don't think so. And neither do our Naked American guests like Glee's Darren Criss, the always-sappy Alan Cumming, and the upcoming Rachel Bloom, from the hit TV musical show, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend!

We begin this Naked American EXTRA by clearing up some confusion about the Prince of Egpyt's Disney affiliation and dig deeper into the components of standout songs from your/our favorite Disney movies like Hunchback of Notre Dame, Beauty and The Beast, and host Julian Fleisher's favorite, The Little Mermaid. You can hear Alan Cumming's delight in his Disney find.

"Darling it's better / Down where it's wetter / Take it from me." Indeed.

Darren Criss performing a mashup up of "The River Lullaby" and "All I've Ever Wanted":

Do you have a favorite Disney song? It's time to @ us and tell us what! While you're being social, please, please, please tell your friends, leave us a comment in your podcast app, and join the conversation on Twitter and Instagram and Facebook!