Painter Nanette Vonnegut with her self-portrait, painted at 14 (Yaël Ksander)
Nanette Vonnegut grew up in an artistic household. Her father painted, her sister was “born drawing,” as Nanette put it. And her mother believed in all of them, and that creative work, especially writing, could save lives. When Nanette was 14, she did a painting that kind of changed her life. We hear about that, how art can help you deal with neuroses, about growing up with her father, the writer Kurt Vonnegut, and more. Then we remember Kurt Vonnegut’s friend, the writer Dan Wakefield, with excerpts from a 2016 interview. He talks about Indianapolis in the 1950s, spiritual writing, and his friendship with Kurt.
Credits
Inner States is produced and edited by Alex Chambers. Our social media master is Jillian Blackburn. We get support from Eoban Binder, Mark Chilla, LuAnn Johnson, Sam Schemenauer, Payton Whaley, and Kayte Young. Our Executive Producer is Eric Bolstridge.
Special thanks to producer Yaël Ksander for not one but TWO interviews this week.
Our theme song is by Amy Oelsner and Justin Vollmar. We have additional music from the artists at Universal Production Music.