Nabil Ayers

Brooklyn! Feb 23 Identified live podcast with Allison Russell and Valerie June.

tinyurl.com/identifiedpodcast

Had a great time compiling my 100 best shows of all time.

nabilayers.substack.com

Bring on the arguments and Seinfeld jokes.

This Saturday is my 100th Substack post. To mark it, I’m working on a list of my 100 favorite shows of all time. What’s on your list?
nabilayers.substack.com

I’m excited to announce an LA live taping of my podcast Identified with Matt Berninger of The National. Thurs Jan 29. Tix go on sale 1/23 3pm pacific.

www.eventbrite.com/e/identified...

James Brown on Italian TV in 1971

Kate Bush appreciation post. Here she is on SNL in 1978 with Paul Shaffer on piano.

Tim Heidecker is our final guest of 2025 on the Identified podcast. @timheidecker.bsky.social

linktr.ee/identifiedpo...

One amazing minute of Isaac Hayes conducting “Theme From Shaft” 1971

A Year-end List I Didn’t Keep If it doesn’t come to mind now, it probably didn’t need to.

A year-end list of sorts. If it doesn’t come to mind now, it probably didn’t need to.

nabilayers.substack.com/p/a-year-end...

Ramsey Lewis trio performing “Summer Breeze” in 1973

Stevie Saturday: live on German TV 1974

The Music You Inherit vs. the Music You Choose Two musicians died this year who lived on opposite sides of an important divide for me: Jimmy Cliff, whose music filled my childhood home, and Ace Frehley from Kiss, the first band I truly chose for m...

Wrote about these 2 guys

nabilayers.substack.com/p/the-music-...

Curtis Mayfield “Move on Up” live on Beat Club / German TV 1972

love this new episode of Identified with my guest Yasi Salek

linktr.ee/identifiedpo...

How to start the show. Herbie Hancock on Danish TV in 1976.
youtu.be/9RsZifvSVSI?...

A Family Tree With Roots Deep In Slavery At first, the results of Nabil Ayers' DNA test made him feel less black than ever. But months later, those results uncovered his ties to a unique and specific black experience.

Annual Thanksgiving repost of this 2018 piece I wrote for NPR’s Code Switch about discovering my family tree… and a lot more

www.npr.org/sections/cod...

One of my favorite Identified episodes yet: Massima Bell on her journey growing up between rural Iowa and urban cities, discovering her gender identity, and navigating family relationships.

linktr.ee/identifiedpo...

1995

Did You Hear Hiro from Soundgarden’s Rock Hall Speech!? When Soundgarden’s singer Chris Cornell passed away in May 2017, I was deep in my new habit of writing about everything that caught my attention—still in private, not quite yet ready to share.

New Substack post about Hiro from Soundgarden’s incredible Rock Hall speech
nabilayers.substack.com/p/did-you-he...

Headed to Boston later this week for events at Berklee and Harvard…

Thrilled to have Jad Abumrad as this week’s guest on Identified.

linktr.ee/identifiedpo...

The Risk and Reward of Doing Shit Live I had no idea what I was doing when I started a podcast, but I figured that a) seemingly everyone has one, and b) I was lucky to be working with Kieron, an experienced executive producer.

New Substack post about doing shit live

open.substack.com/pub/nabilaye...

The first ever Identified podcast live episodes were a blast!

Huge thanks to my guests Meshell Ndegeocello and Michelle Zauner, executive producer Kieron Banerji, and the wonderful (sold out) audience. More of these to come. 🎤

linktr.ee/identifiedpo...

Live from Gowanus!

Tomorrow’s event is sold out but we will hopefully have a pair of tix to give away today…

publicrecords.nyc/events/nabil...

Saturday’s event is sold out but we will release a few more tix this week!

dice.fm/event/k6kwpo...

File Under: Electronic Even after all these years, music can still sneak up on me

It’s Substack Saturday!

nabilayers.substack.com/p/file-under...

I’ll be in New York this week for a pair of book events. On Tuesday, I’ll be in conversation with Benny Horowitz of @gaslightanthem.bsky.social at @roughtraderecords.bsky.social. On Wednesday, I’ll be at Powerhouse Arena in Brooklyn in conversation with @nabilayers.bsky.social. Hope to see you!

Best selling author Dani Shapiro is my guest on Identified this week

linktr.ee/identifiedpo...