0:01

BBC Sounds Music Radio

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Podcasts Hello, I'm Lauren Laverne

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and this is the Desert Island Discs podcast.

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Every week I ask my guests to choose the eight

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tracks, book and luxury they'd want to

0:13

take with them if they were cast away to a desert

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island. And for rights reasons,

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the music is shorter than the original

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broadcast. I hope you enjoy listening.

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Dune of the Sea Dune

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of the Sea Dune

0:41

of the Sea

0:45

My cast away this week is Dame Donna

0:47

Langley, Chairman and Chief Content Officer

0:49

for the NBC Universal Studio

0:51

Group. She's the first British woman

0:54

in history to run a major studio and

0:56

is arguably the most powerful woman in Hollywood.

0:59

Her brief encompasses Universal's film

1:01

and television studios and she oversees

1:04

franchises like Fast and Furious, Despicable

1:06

Me and Jurassic World. Under

1:08

her leadership, the studio has achieved record-breaking

1:11

revenues and enjoyed some of the most

1:13

profitable years in its 111-year history. She's

1:17

earned respect in a fickle industry for her

1:20

creative nous and championing of emerging

1:22

talent, as well as successfully wooing

1:24

the likes of Steven Spielberg and Christopher

1:27

Nolan. She's also stuck her neck out

1:29

by backing original content, often

1:31

where others failed to see the potential. Mamma

1:34

Mia, Get Out and Straight Outta Compton,

1:37

the story of the hip-hop group N.W.A., are

1:39

just three examples from a very long

1:41

list. It is a testament to her talents

1:44

that Ice Cube once declared her the

1:46

sixth member of the band. Though to be

1:48

clear, she's not from Compton. She's actually

1:50

straight out of the Isle of Wight, growing up on the UK's

1:53

so-called Sunshine Island. When

1:55

she was in her early twenties, she decided

1:57

to go where the weather was even better, L.A.

1:59

She says, I am hyper competitive

2:02

with myself. I push myself to beat my time,

2:04

to be faster, higher and stronger. Dame

2:07

Donna Langley, welcome to Desert Island Discs.

2:10

Thank you so much for having me. Donna,

2:12

the operation that you run is absolutely

2:14

vast, but I've so often heard you mention

2:16

the importance of listening to your gut. Tell

2:19

me about your decision making process when

2:21

you're deciding whether or not to green light a

2:23

film. It starts with

2:26

whether or not I love it. It's

2:29

really hard to imagine making

2:31

a film and going through that process, which

2:33

can take anything from a year to three years without

2:37

absolutely loving something.

2:38

Oppenheimer, directed by Christopher

2:40

Nolan and produced by his wife Emma Thomas,

2:42

came out earlier this year. Now, it's obviously

2:45

a dark subject. It's three hours long and technically

2:47

hugely ambitious. What made you say

2:49

yes to the film?

2:50

I was looking for people who make

2:53

films that are undeniably theatrical.

2:55

You have to see a Christopher Nolan film at

2:58

the cinema.

2:59

So I went to Chris and Emma's office

3:01

in their home and sat

3:03

by myself and

3:04

read the script. And I took with me a basket

3:06

of snacks because I'd heard the script was quite long.

3:09

So I went loaded up with a nice

3:11

tea and water. And what struck me

3:13

about the script was that not

3:15

only was it an ambitious, historical

3:19

story, but it had a lot of emotional

3:21

elements to it, like betrayal and love. So

3:24

it was just a great read. And

3:27

I wonder about your identity as a Brit

3:29

and how that's shaped your career.

3:31

Has it, do you think? I think it

3:33

has, yes. Certainly in the way that

3:37

I do my job. I'm very pragmatic

3:39

and don't sweat the small stuff. You know, I

3:41

think that's very much a cultural

3:44

element of my personality. I wonder if it

3:46

changes how people respond to you as

3:48

well. I think they're intimidated by my accent,

3:51

so I just milk it for all I can.

3:54

Quite right, too. It's time for your first

3:56

disc, Donna. What's it going to be? Disc number

3:59

one is... they're thank you

4:01

for the music so apo was

4:03

my first love it was the first album

4:05

i ever bought with my own money i had a little

4:07

one of those as adults kids hell machines

4:10

that this song because i could have chosen any

4:12

amazon that this song

4:14

really

4:15

gets to me even today there is lyrics

4:18

in it i'm nothing special in fact

4:20

some a bit of a bore but i have a talent

4:22

a wonderful thing and vitamins are crying his

4:24

eyes but a in the woods those

4:26

lyrics spoke to me as a little

4:29

girl they gave me hope that i could

4:31

actually turn into some things that

4:33

i could become something that my dreams may

4:36

come through one day he is a song

4:38

about recognizing your own talent

4:40

or having somebody else recognize that for you

4:42

i

4:44

did he

4:50

find a job he

4:52

from me but

4:58

i have a wonderful

5:00

see ah

5:08

ah ah

5:15

ah thank you for the music done

5:17

an ugly were born in london and ninety

5:19

sixty eight new family moved to the isle of wight

5:21

when you are banks seven he say about

5:24

your mother on that she was created

5:26

she also had a political conscience what

5:28

you member that not side of her i

5:30

remember heard taking me

5:33

to a slaughter house when i was

5:35

quite young i became budgetary

5:37

when i was for i think you did two hours

5:39

that his head and of

5:41

have no sense to the slot i now i i

5:44

i think that was unnecessary but

5:46

i just remember my mom always

5:49

instilling and me this sense of

5:51

social awareness that

5:54

the world was a bigger place then

5:56

the one you know just where we were living and

5:59

to be mindful of our impact

6:01

on the world. She was very focused on

6:03

the environment even back then

6:05

in the 70s and I was out on

6:08

the streets of the Isle of Wight with a little collection

6:10

tin often raising money for Greenpeace

6:12

and things like that. You

6:15

became a vegetarian when you were 4

6:17

so that would have been 70s quite early then?

6:19

Yes, when it was not popular. How did

6:21

that work? It was a nightmare. Doing

6:24

home economics and trying to make a Swiss

6:26

roll with whole wheat flour and

6:28

brown sugar was virtually impossible.

6:31

I mean where did you get this? My parents used to have

6:33

to go to like the one hippie shop in our region

6:35

in Newcastle to get organic potatoes.

6:37

My mum owned the hippie shop. It started

6:41

as a market stall and then became

6:44

two shops. In the

6:46

window we had a basket

6:48

of recycled toilet paper. So

6:51

it was recycled paper made into toilet

6:53

paper but I was the laughingstock at school

6:55

because they said our family used to have recycled

6:57

toilet paper. Your

7:00

dad, John, he was an engineer.

7:03

He designed radar systems for the Civil Aviation

7:05

Authority and while he was growing up he

7:07

would work in London during the week and then come home

7:10

to the family at weekends. I think because

7:12

the Isle of Wight was so special to your parents wasn't

7:14

it? Yes, this is definitely

7:16

lost on me as a kid that for 10 years

7:18

my dad commuted and he was gone Monday to

7:20

Friday and my parents have a wonderful

7:23

relationship. They're very close

7:25

and so it was

7:27

a real sacrifice for them to do that.

7:29

I think they fell in love with the

7:31

Isle of Wight. My dad worked there on the radar

7:34

system down there when they first

7:36

got married and it was their happy

7:38

place very much and I think they wanted to

7:41

raise their children in an environment where

7:43

we could be free, we could roam around, the

7:46

schools were great. Did you develop a love of nature,

7:48

a love of being outdoors? Very

7:50

much so, I did. I mean I have an absolute

7:53

love of the ocean, of the sea.

7:55

It is a very grounding

7:59

feeling or sense of nature.

7:59

I get when I think about it and I think I

8:02

carry that with me. What was it like off-season

8:04

when things were a lot quieter and the weather

8:06

wasn't so good? It was so depressing. I have

8:08

memories of wandering along the oceanfront

8:11

just hoping and dreaming that the

8:13

foreign exchange students

8:16

from Sweden would

8:16

show back up and come back

8:18

and visit and we'd have to wait. So

8:21

the winters were actually very long. It would be a lot

8:23

of time spent yearning and hoping and wishing

8:25

for the summer. So yearning

8:27

and hoping. I mean were you also hankering

8:30

for adventure, dreaming of a bigger world? Always.

8:33

I really was always. Yes, I couldn't

8:36

wait to leave. It's time

8:38

for some more music. Your second choice today. What

8:40

is it and why have you chosen it? It's

8:42

Zorba the Greek and I've

8:45

chosen it because this song

8:47

really reminds me of my parents. They were

8:49

not big into music as we were growing

8:51

up and this was one of I think two

8:53

records that we had in our house.

8:56

And so before I had money to buy my own records

8:59

this would be one that I would play. And

9:02

it occurs to me that this song

9:05

is something that I think about

9:07

when making films. Great filmmakers

9:09

do this brilliantly is that they

9:11

start off low and small

9:13

and then they build it and build it and build it and this

9:15

song really does that too. It just starts

9:18

around my living room to it.

9:49

It's over the Greek composed and performed

9:52

by Mikus Theodorakis.

9:54

Dona Langley, you've known from an early age

9:56

I think that you were adopted as a baby. Can

9:59

you remember when your parents? parents told you and what you

10:01

felt about it. There was never

10:03

a time where they sat me down and told me

10:05

I was adopted. It was always part of the conversation

10:09

and I think partially because I look nothing

10:11

like my family. They're blonde hair and blue

10:13

eyed and I'm the opposite of that. But

10:15

I think really because they made that

10:18

decision

10:19

to be very open about

10:20

it. And so it was never a thing.

10:23

It was not

10:23

a big deal for me. I felt

10:26

part of the family and

10:28

if anything it made me feel

10:30

a little bit special.

10:31

What did you know about your birth parents? I

10:34

don't know very much about them actually. My father was

10:36

Egyptian,

10:36

my mother was English and I think

10:39

they were college students. Back then adoptions

10:41

were closed and so I don't have very much

10:44

information about either of them.

10:45

And so I got

10:48

to imagine that my father was Omar

10:50

Sharif and I've

10:52

always had in my heart a

10:54

lot of respect for my birth mother because I

10:56

imagine that back then it wasn't

10:58

easy as a young woman to go

11:01

nine months of pregnancy and have a baby and

11:03

have to give

11:04

it up for adoption. So

11:05

I thank her. Obviously

11:07

you're very happy with your family that you

11:10

grew up with but did you ever want to

11:12

find out more? Were you curious as a kid or did

11:14

you ever consider digging into

11:16

it as you got older? I had moments

11:18

where I would wonder and I would think about

11:20

it but never enough quite frankly to

11:23

spur me to go through the process.

11:26

It just felt

11:26

horribly disruptive

11:27

and I'm quite fatalistic and so

11:30

I thought well I am where I'm supposed

11:32

to be and with the people I'm supposed to be with

11:34

and that's enough for me. Do you think that that's

11:37

partly where your resilience and

11:39

independence comes from? I think

11:41

there's a fearlessness there for sure

11:44

absolutely. And I have a trust and a faith

11:47

in myself and in the universe

11:49

really to I think sometimes

11:52

make me

11:52

okay with taking some risks. Alright,

11:55

it's time for some more music Donalangli. Your third

11:57

choice today. What's it going to be?

11:59

It's the aria that I heard in

12:02

the film Diva. I saw the film

12:04

Diva

12:05

when I was in Paris, and I used to go

12:07

to Paris with a friend of mine when I was 18, 19,

12:12

and this film had a very

12:15

big impact on me. It was the first

12:17

time, I think, for me, I saw a foreign

12:20

film in the movie theater, and

12:22

it was subtitled, and this song really

12:25

struck me as what music

12:27

could do in film, and

12:30

it certainly didn't occur to me at that moment that

12:32

I would then go and pursue a career in film, but

12:34

looking back on it, it was a very pivotal

12:37

and seminal

12:37

moment for me. ["I

12:41

Am The One"] ["I

13:01

Am The

13:04

One"] ["I

13:29

Am The One"]

13:39

A then, Neandro Lontana,

13:41

from Catalani's La Valli, performed

13:44

by Wilhelmina Fernandez from the soundtrack

13:46

to the film Diva. Dame

13:48

Donna Langley, The Isle of Wight wouldn't have been especially

13:51

diverse back in the 70s. How

13:53

aware were you of that growing up, and did

13:56

it ever cause problems for you at school? I

13:58

did run into... some bullying

14:01

from time to time. People just didn't understand

14:03

me and didn't really

14:06

like my features. They made them

14:08

uncomfortable, curly hair and darker

14:10

skin. But I was always

14:12

surrounded by great friends and

14:15

they would stick up for me and we'd

14:17

have a good laugh about it always. And

14:20

I rarely fought back but would always

14:22

stand strong and so it was

14:24

a great life lesson. So what form did

14:26

it take? You said you didn't fight back. Was it physical? It

14:29

could be, absolutely. Yes,

14:30

I was pushed and roughed

14:32

up a bit. Somebody spat in my face and

14:35

oh, it was really quite strange. But

14:38

my mum was also a great support here

14:40

too. She would just give me great advice

14:42

and a way to think about it in a philosophy that

14:44

still holds true to this day. What did she

14:47

say? She would just say you just have to think

14:49

about what they're going through. They obviously

14:51

are afraid because you're different

14:54

and it's great that you're different. And so

14:57

they're great words of wisdom and great words

14:59

of advice and I carry them with me to this day.

15:02

You went to Sixth

15:02

Form College in Kent where your grandparents

15:05

lived and then after that you moved to London

15:07

with your best friend Tanya. Did the two

15:09

of you have jobs? What was the plan? What were you getting

15:11

up to? We worked in

15:13

a health club, a private health club in Balsize

15:15

Park Gardens and we

15:18

were very cheeky and filled

15:20

with moxie.

15:21

I think that was where I began to

15:23

realize that I wanted to push

15:25

myself to have a big adventure. And

15:28

what about going to the cinema? Had that played a part

15:30

in your life when you were growing up? Did you have a

15:32

local cinema nearby that you could go to? We really

15:35

didn't on the Isle of Wight. There was one and

15:37

we would get the big films there but I didn't

15:39

develop a love of cinema until about

15:41

this time in my life. I think there was one experience

15:44

you had watching the film at Dry White Season.

15:48

It was very important to me and I began

15:51

to percolate this idea of

15:53

storytelling and

15:55

this medium of cinema

15:56

doing something that was important to me.

17:41

summer

18:00

and we got very lucky with the exchange

18:03

rate and showed up in Los Angeles with

18:05

our bags and a wad of cash to

18:07

go and buy a VW Bug. And

18:09

the thing that I fell in love

18:11

with was the possibility and the attitude

18:14

of people. I left London and

18:16

lots of people questioned why

18:18

we were going to Los Angeles, what were we going to

18:20

do there? People said you'll never make it, it's

18:23

a very difficult place to navigate and

18:25

of course that spurred me on to prove everybody

18:28

wrong. We

18:29

met people in those early days who

18:32

rather than saying all of that would

18:35

ask what do you want to do, how can we help? And

18:38

I thought at that time, you know what,

18:40

I'm in the right place, this is a community for

18:42

me and I'm just going

18:44

to see what I can make of it. So

18:47

obviously once you were there you had to make ends

18:49

meet and I know that you got a job at a nightclub on

18:51

Sunset Boulevard called the Roxbury. You

18:54

were at the VIP hostess, what did that

18:56

involve?

18:57

That involved taking people to their

18:59

tables and at that

19:02

time it was really the only

19:04

place to be in Los Angeles and so everybody

19:07

used to come in. Stevie Wonder,

19:10

all the actors, there was a period of

19:12

time that Madonna came

19:14

with Sean Penn, directors,

19:18

just really the who's who of Hollywood. While

19:21

you were working at the club you interned for a producer

19:23

and then worked as an assistant at the production

19:25

studio New Line Cinema. In 2001,

19:27

Donna, you joined Universal Studios

19:30

as senior vice president of production. Now that

19:32

was a big step, especially for someone

19:34

who didn't have a long track record in the business.

19:37

Did you have any moments of self-doubt? I

19:39

thought, oh gosh, at some point, yeah, someone's

19:41

going to find out that the gig is going to be

19:44

up, you know, that I don't have any qualifications.

19:47

And it wasn't until, I don't

19:49

know, probably 10 years ago that I looked around

19:51

and said, oh, hold on a minute, I actually do

19:53

know what I'm doing. What propelled you until

19:56

you got there? I mean, what were you what were

19:58

you pairing yourself with?

19:59

I think just the sense of

20:01

wanting to get it done

20:04

and prove to myself that

20:06

I could do it. And I could

20:09

outwork and outpace anyone.

20:12

Yeah, I think I was just in probably

20:15

the big dose of fear. Gets

20:17

me out of bed in the morning. It certainly does, the adrenaline,

20:19

always just a trick. One of the first films that

20:21

you supported was straight out of Compton

20:24

about the hip-hop band NWA. It came

20:26

out in 2015. Why were you so

20:28

determined to get that film made? I

20:30

thought that it was a

20:32

bigger story than people

20:35

expected. Even though it

20:38

was about

20:39

gangster rap in a very specific

20:42

moment in time,

20:43

it was also about young people

20:45

taking on the system.

20:47

How easy was it to convince people that it was a great

20:49

idea? It wasn't easy. There

20:51

were a couple of fights along the way on that one. So

20:54

even with your own team? With my own team. Yes,

20:56

there were a couple of people on my team. How do you navigate

20:59

that? As a leader, at

21:01

the end of the day, the buck

21:01

stops with me. So really

21:04

what people are looking for is, okay, this

21:06

is my opinion, but what happens if it goes horribly

21:08

wrong? And I was willing to stand

21:10

up in front of this one.

21:11

We're going to go to the music

21:13

team, Donna Langley, your fifth choice today,

21:15

if you would. What are we going to hear next and why? We

21:18

are going to hear It Was a Good Day

21:21

by Ice Cube. This song makes

21:23

me think of blue skies

21:25

and palm trees, all of those iconic

21:27

things you think about when you think about Los Angeles.

21:52

It can happen every

21:54

day, like someday. I can't

21:56

believe

21:57

today was a good day.

23:45

weeks.

24:00

I was on a plane to New York after nine

24:02

weeks. Oh that must have been really tough.

24:04

It was really horrible. Yes. Having

24:07

to go through security with

24:09

breast milk. Did

24:12

you feel under pressure to go back? I

24:15

did, yes. Looking

24:17

back on that time it was very

24:19

stressful. There was a lot

24:21

of politics going on at the company. We

24:24

were in, I think, about

24:26

to be sold and it was

24:30

every man for himself. So

24:32

yeah, I think

24:33

I felt under a ton of pressure to go

24:35

back.

24:37

It's time for your sixth disc. Donna, what

24:39

are you taking to the island next? Never

24:42

Is a Promise by Fiona Apple. It

24:44

was from the album title. I think it came

24:46

out in 1996 and

24:48

I just broken up with a boyfriend

24:52

of two years and I was

24:54

really at a time where I was beginning

24:57

to mature. I didn't quite know where

24:59

my life or my career was going but

25:01

I knew I had to make some changes but before

25:04

I got to make any changes

25:05

I got to wallow in this album. This

25:08

is a song that really moved

25:10

me. It's about a broken promise. I

25:12

think that's at least that's what it means to me.

25:26

I'll never grow old

25:28

the way that

25:32

you glow.

25:46

Never Is a Promise by Fiona Apple.

25:49

Dame Donna Langley, I want to ask you a little

25:51

bit more about the dark side of Hollywood.

25:54

What was your reaction when the full extent

25:57

of the sexual abuse perpetrated by Harvey

25:59

Weinstein? came to light. It

26:01

was shocking. I'll never

26:03

forget where I was when the article

26:05

broke, the great reporting

26:08

done by the New York Times. And

26:11

we knew that Harvey was a bully,

26:13

but we did not know

26:16

as an industry at large

26:17

the extent of

26:20

the abuse.

26:21

Why do you think he was able to get away with it for so

26:23

long? Well,

26:26

back then, you

26:27

just

26:28

didn't really talk about it. And

26:31

I think that

26:33

he created a system. It was pathological,

26:36

and he was very clever. This

26:38

was decades of behavior

26:41

going unchecked and abuses of power

26:43

in a myriad of different ways. And

26:46

it certainly predates me coming into the

26:48

industry. I think things did improve. There

26:50

were more women in positions of power

26:53

as I was coming up. And I think

26:55

when you have women in power, it does change

26:58

the climate and it changes the environment.

27:00

But it was still,

27:03

again, somewhat assumed that

27:05

bad behavior went on. And I mean, I

27:07

think for myself and my peers, we

27:09

just knew that it came with the territory.

27:12

And that's the thing that's really changed today. Donna,

27:15

last year you said yes to the film She Said. That's

27:17

based on the story of the two New York Times

27:19

journalists who broke the story, Jodie

27:22

Cantor and Megan Tooey. How

27:24

long did it take you to greenlight

27:25

that? I read the script, the producer

27:27

sent it to me, and I called

27:30

her immediately and said, we're going to do this.

27:32

It's a story that can never

27:34

be forgotten.

27:35

We have to

27:37

always remember that that was

27:39

made possible and

27:42

that something that bad went on

27:44

for a

27:45

very long time unchecked. As

27:49

an industry, we've just got to remember

27:51

that because it's very easy to move

27:54

on once you're out of the crisis of

27:56

the movement and people

27:58

go on to the next thing.

27:59

and don't want to talk about that anymore. So

28:02

I wanted it to exist. And as it turns

28:04

out, it didn't connect with the audience.

28:06

I think it was a very difficult film to

28:09

market.

28:10

The film is wonderful. I'm very proud

28:12

of it, and I'm very glad

28:14

that we made it. I don't like losing

28:16

money on a film at all,

28:18

but if there was one we were going to lose some money on, that

28:20

was a worthwhile endeavor. And

28:23

of course, that's the nature of the industry. You know, there

28:26

are challenges come along. Hollywood currently

28:28

experiencing a period of industrial unrest.

28:31

How do you personally feel about the dispute?

28:33

Well,

28:34

the strike is very unfortunate

28:36

because it comes at a time where

28:39

the industry was just getting itself

28:41

back on its feet after the

28:43

pandemic. And to have

28:45

this kind of disruption and

28:47

interruption is going to have an impact.

28:49

I remember the 2008 strike, and

28:52

it has an impact

28:54

for a couple of years or even more. It

28:57

fundamentally changes things. And I'm

29:00

not sure that

29:01

everybody quite understands

29:03

the magnitude

29:05

of that impact that it might have. Now,

29:08

of course,

29:09

everybody wants to feel like they're being

29:11

paid appropriately and equitably.

29:15

Then, Donalang, we've got to make time for the music. It's

29:17

your seventh choice today, your penultimate

29:19

disc. What have you got for us next? All

29:22

My Friends by LCD Sound System.

29:24

It makes me think about friends

29:26

who I'm with and friends who I wish I was with.

29:29

It does also remind me of just a really

29:31

beautiful time at

29:34

the beginning of my relationship with my husband.

29:36

But right around the time, we had a

29:37

first son and we were still

29:41

irresponsible enough that we would have late night

29:43

dinner parties

29:43

and then have to get up at six in the morning.

29:45

But this was one we would put on a dark

29:48

day. Maybe

29:55

we'll take a hard house.

30:02

I have a son for you.

30:19

Dona

30:22

Langley, you have two sons, and you've

30:24

described being a mother as the missing piece of

30:27

the puzzle for you. What did you mean by that?

30:29

Well, I think this might go back to being adopted,

30:32

which is seeing my kids,

30:34

it's probably very egocentric, but

30:36

living, breathing things who are biologically

30:39

related to me, it's a very visceral feeling.

30:42

But that to the side, being a mother

30:44

is the most joyful

30:47

experience. Just watching them develop,

30:50

watching them turn into these

30:52

wonderful humans, these young men

30:55

and seeing what they're interested in

30:58

and what moves them and their personalities

31:00

come to life, it's an incredible feeling.

31:03

And do you still go back to the Isle of Wight from time to

31:05

time? Yes, I was there a few months ago.

31:08

My sister lives there with my brother-in-law, and

31:10

my parents are there. Nothing's changed

31:12

since I grew up there, so it's just a very

31:15

heartwarming feeling to go back. I'm

31:17

afraid all that said, Dame Dona Langley, you are off to a new

31:19

home now. What are your expectations of

31:21

your desert island? My expectations

31:24

of being on a desert island

31:27

are that I'm going to be

31:29

able to rest for a while. I'm really

31:31

looking forward to that. Just

31:34

maybe have a really long nap. Oh yeah, that

31:36

sounds alright. Are you okay with your own company?

31:39

You're surrounded by people and

31:41

people asking you a million questions a day. How

31:44

will you get on when all of that buzz and hubbub

31:46

stops? I think I am quite good at being

31:48

alone. Of course I would miss everybody,

31:51

but I think I can entertain myself quite

31:53

easily. One more track

31:56

before we send you away to your desert island,

31:58

your eighth choice today. What have you gone

32:00

for? It's Come Home by

32:03

Anderson Pack featuring Andre 3000.

32:06

Anderson Pack is a wonderful LA-based

32:08

artist, and he's one of the only artists

32:11

that we can all agree on to listen

32:13

to when we're in the car, in the family. So

32:16

my husband always plays music, and I wanted

32:18

to pick something that reminds

32:20

me of him, but this also reminds me of him

32:23

and my children. It's also

32:25

evokes a really beautiful

32:27

time, actually, during the pandemic. My

32:29

sons learned to surf, and we would

32:32

drive along the highway with all the windows

32:34

open, listening to this song, listening

32:37

to Anderson Pack on our way to the beach,

32:39

which was such an incredible

32:42

treat to be able to get out

32:44

and about somewhere we felt safe and

32:46

watch my boys learn to surf.

32:56

Come

32:59

Home by Anderson

33:01

Pack featuring

33:04

Andre 3000.

33:16

So

33:21

Dame Donna Langley, I'm going to send you away

33:23

to the island. I've given you the Bible, the complete

33:25

works of Shakespeare, and you can take another book

33:27

of your choice. What would you like? Love

33:29

in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia

33:32

Marquez. It's so romantic,

33:35

but it's also about missing people and yearning

33:37

and not being with the people you love. So

33:40

I thought it would be

33:41

just good to sort of confront some of those feelings

33:44

through the book.

33:45

You can also have a luxury item. What would you like?

33:48

Tarot cards. So

33:49

there might be times where I would wonder if

33:52

I would ever get off the island and so I could

33:54

consult my tarot cards. And

33:56

then also, tarot cards are quite fun because

33:58

they're characters and...