The Jagged Little Pieces of Singer-Songwriter Alanis Morissette

**Sam Fragoso** (0:00)
I remember this quote your grandmother said. Alanis.

**Alanis Morissette** (0:03)
Dude, are you fucking talking to my dead grandmother?

**Sam Fragoso** (0:06)
No. You love, you see the wall and you just go right through it.

**Alanis Morissette** (0:13)
That was her quote with me, because I love to design, I love architecture, I love taking-

**Sam Fragoso** (0:17)
By the way, you think your dead grandmother is over there?

**Alanis Morissette** (0:20)
Well, I pointed there.

**Sam Fragoso** (0:21)
Oh, there?

**Alanis Morissette** (0:22)
Well, maybe there.

**Sam Fragoso** (0:23)
Can we give her the flowers?

**Alanis Morissette** (0:25)
Yes.

**Sam Fragoso** (0:26)
Let's say the flowers.

**Alanis Morissette** (0:26)
Okay, great.

**Sam Fragoso** (0:27)
If she's going to be someone-

**Alanis Morissette** (0:28)
Are you talking to her right now?

**Sam Fragoso** (0:30)
You tell me.
This is Talk Easy. I'm Sam Fragoso.
Welcome to the show.
Today, seven-time Grammy Award-winning artist, musician and activist, Alanis Morissette. When her seminal Generation Defining Record, Jagged Little Pill, was released in 1995, it was reported that roughly one out of 10 Americans had a copy of the album. In fact, it was so popular that it remained the best-selling record of 1996 Chart-topping singles like Ironic, You Oughta Know and Hand in My Pocket, they became so massive, so successful, that to some her work began to feel a little bit like wallpaper, which you may admire at first, but over time kind of take for granted. But her work was special then and remains so now. While Jagged Little Pill is as vivid and vulnerable as it was in 1995, Alanis has had a pretty remarkable career since then, including nine other electric acclaimed records, including Under Rug Swept and Such Pretty Forks in the Road. As an activist, she's given keynotes on everything from female empowerment to spiritual and psychological wholeness. She's also hosted her own podcast, Conversations with Alanis Morissette, featuring interviews with authors, educators, and therapists. All of which culminates in her latest project, Butterfly with a Machete, A Rock Traumaty. Part musical stage play, part rock concert, part confessional. It takes the audience through Alanis' own journey from Ottawa to the global stage, with all the attendant highs and lows of being a cultural icon and a woman in music for the last 30 years. On the heels of her sold out Las Vegas residency, the show will have a limited run in Los Angeles this fall on November 5th, 6th, 10th, and 11th. It's excellent, by the way, and something you should check out. But like most of her best songs, this show, which is kind of this multimedia presentation, everything's on the table. And the same was true for the conversation you're about to hear. We talk about her turbulent years as a teenage Canadian pop star, the pressures and insecurities that undergird her perfectionism, the brilliance of her songwriting, the fallout from relationships that were at best inequitable, why she's determined to finally set the record straight with this new show, Butterfly with a Machete, and how she's provided a roadmap, really refuge, for the next generation of pop stars like Taylor Swift and Olivia Rodrigo. This is Alanis Morissette.
Hi, Alanis.

**Alanis Morissette** (3:16)
Hi, Sam.

**Sam Fragoso** (3:17)
It's nice to meet you.

**Alanis Morissette** (3:18)
Nice to meet you too.

**Sam Fragoso** (3:19)
This is pretty surreal having you here.

**Alanis Morissette** (3:21)
Is it?

**Sam Fragoso** (3:21)
Yeah.

**Alanis Morissette** (3:22)
It's surreal being here.

**Sam Fragoso** (3:23)
Is it? Are you okay?

**Alanis Morissette** (3:25)
Never.

**Sam Fragoso** (3:26)
Right.

**Alanis Morissette** (3:26)
Yeah.

**Sam Fragoso** (3:27)
Well, I think that's the time. I think that's it.

**Alanis Morissette** (3:29)
Thank you so much for having me.

**Sam Fragoso** (3:32)
That'd be, I mean, I think it would go viral. She walks out, but actually, they walked out together.

**Alanis Morissette** (3:38)
Yeah. Seemed happy.

**Sam Fragoso** (3:39)
We ended the interview before anything happened.
I do want to genuinely know, how are you doing? Are you all right these days?

**Alanis Morissette** (3:50)
Well, here's what's happening. I'm in perimenopause, so all the feel-good hormones, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, and when you're pregnant, progesterone is in the thousands.

**Sam Fragoso** (4:01)
Okay.

**Alanis Morissette** (4:02)
Perimenopause and menopause, they go down to zero.

**Sam Fragoso** (4:04)
Zero?

**Alanis Morissette** (4:05)
Zero.

**Sam Fragoso** (4:05)
Where do they go?

**Alanis Morissette** (4:06)
Exactly. But they can come back and visit.

**Sam Fragoso** (4:09)
Wait, when do they come back?

**Alanis Morissette** (4:10)
They come back if you get into HRT and peptides and vitamins, supplements, taking dietary very seriously. Some people love the fasting, some people don't. But you know-

**Sam Fragoso** (4:20)
Where are you on that spectrum?