Studio 360: Live with Eugene Mirman & tUnE-yArDs

The Brooklyn-based comedian Eugene Mirman is the stand-up king of hipsterville. He was a regular on the HBO series Flight of the Concords and now appears on Adult Swim’s Delocated — and you can see him on YouTube inventing slogans to promote Canada.

Next, Merrill Garbus is the performer and multi-instrumentalist behind tUnE-yArDs — a music project that blends African-inspired rhythms and vocals with electric bass and saxophone. But she only discovered music after a failed career as a puppeteer. She tells Kurt Andersen she found musical inspiration as a student living in Africa; her mother’s ukelele, purchased at an Army-Navy store, helped her to take the plunge.

Then, we asked our studio audience to tell us about their dream jobs. Eugene Mirman reads some of the responses, from “astronaut” to “artisan glass blower.”

And finally, one classic reinvention fantasy goes like this: you leave a square, respectable job and write a best-selling book. Elizabeth Wurtzel did just that — but in reverse. She was in her twenties when Prozac Nation made her famous overnight. She became a rock critic and wrote a memoir about her addictions. Then she did the not-obvious thing and went to law school. Wurtzel explains to Kurt Andersen why intellectual property law is where’s it’s at. [Broadcast Date: Feburary 11, 2012]