How Talking Partners Teach You to Listen

Mandy reflects on how Kathryn's talkativeness taught him to listen and credits family influences for his phrasing onstage.

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Episode notes

Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody join us for a heartfelt, soulful, and delightfully chaotic conversation about:

- How to make a marriage last;

- The importance of quiet; and

- how we can hold tight to our own humanity while demanding a more humanitarian world.

This conversation is an urgent reminder of how we can all use our voices to make the world more beautiful. Join us now.

About Mandy:

Mandy Patinkin is a Tony Award–winning actor, singer, and storyteller whose career spans four decades across stage, film, and television. He’s known for unforgettable roles in Evita, Sunday in the Park with George, The Princess Bride, Homeland, and Criminal Minds. He has toured the world with his solo concerts and collaborations with icons like Patti LuPone and Nathan Gunn. Since 2020, Mandy and his wife, fellow performing artist Kathryn Grody, have offered a delightfully unvarnished glimpse into 45 years of marriage online—sparking live shows with their son Gideon and a new Lemonada Media podcast, Don’t Listen to Us.

About Kathryn:

Kathryn Grody is an Obie Award–winning actor and writer whose work spans theater, film, and television. She won Obies for Top Girls and The Marriage of Bette and Boo, earned a Drama Desk nomination for her one-woman play A Mom’s Life. She has long been active in advocacy with groups including the International Rescue Committee and Downtown Women for Change. This fall, she premieres her new one-woman show, A Radical, Rollicking Rumination on the Optimism of Staying Alive, exploring the transition into elderhood at 78 years young.

On their new podcast, “Don’t Listen to Us,” Mandy and Kathryn are giving you unqualified advice on everything including love, life, dolphins, work, art, bewilderments, relationships, pasta, aging, embarrassments, triumphs, ponderings on how to get through this crazy world. No question too small, no dilemma too big, no story too strange, no musing too trivial! All are welcome.

00:00:00 Introduction

00:03:41 Welcome Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody

00:05:37 Mandy playfully promotes Kathryn’s new show

00:09:31 The surprising reaction from young people

00:10:48 Mandy Patinkin’s dog, Becky

00:13:26 Mandy on how he feels about getting old

00:15:40 What Kathryn does after Mandy goes to bed

00:16:46 Mandy and Kathryn debate a recurring “issue” in their marriage

00:20:06 The first time Kathryn saw Mandy

00:27:10 Mandy and Kathryn share their repetitive marital issues

00:31:39 A hysteria about losing time

00:34:03 How a pause in the conversation can leave space for others to join