MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Each week, a guest draws a card from NPR's Wild Card deck and answers a big question about their life. David Sedaris has been sharing snippets of his life here on public radio and on the page since the early '90s. He often draws on his relationships with his siblings and encounters with strangers for his essays. His newest collection is called "The Land And Its People." He spoke with Rachel Martin about another of his primary subjects, his husband, Hugh Hamrick.
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RACHEL MARTIN: What's a sound that instantly puts you at ease?
DAVID SEDARIS: A leaf blower. (Laughter) I'm kidding.
(LAUGHTER)
SEDARIS: What's a sound that puts me at ease?
MARTIN: It's an earnest question.
SEDARIS: "The Archers."
MARTIN: What does that mean?
SEDARIS: "The Archers" is a soap opera that's been playing on the BBC for - what is it? - 70 years now? And it takes place in a small farming community. And Hugh listens to "The Archers." And the sound of Hugh...
MARTIN: He doesn't even really watch it?
SEDARIS: Oh, it's on the radio.
MARTIN: Oh, it's on the radio.
SEDARIS: Yeah.
MARTIN: Oh, my gosh. You guys are so old timey.
SEDARIS: And every episode is - what? - 15 minutes long.
MARTIN: Yeah.
SEDARIS: And it takes place in this little farming community. And the sound of Hugh in the kitchen listening to "The Archers" makes me feel lucky whenever I hear it because there's no cursing on "The Archers." Nobody ever - there's no - there aren't murders on "The Archers." It's all pretty gentle...
MARTIN: It sounds lovely.
SEDARIS: ...Stuff, right?
MARTIN: Yeah.
SEDARIS: Like, somebody will decide not to get their dog spayed, you know, and that's like, oh, my goodness. You know, it's a big scandal.
MARTIN: (Laughter).
SEDARIS: And it's right up Hugh's alley. Like, Hugh doesn't want to watch a movie that's violent. He - I do. To me, a gun makes a movie, right? Throw a gun in there. Let's liven things up.
MARTIN: (Laughter) Oh, my God.
SEDARIS: But it's very suited to his nature. And it just makes me feel lucky that that's a good time for him...
MARTIN: Yeah.
SEDARIS: ...Is, you know, standing in the kitchen. And he'll happily spend 3 hours making dinner. He doesn't care, you know? So he's in there. And if we're in England, we have a fireplace in the kitchen, and he's got a fire going in there. And it's just exactly my idea of a home, you know?
MARTIN: Yeah.
SEDARIS: We eat at the table. Like, we've never - the only time we're allowed to eat in front of the TV is when the Academy Awards are on. And him listening to "The Archers" means that he's making dinner and, again, means that I'm lucky, means that I have a home that he keeps. I don't mean that he's a homemaker, but he is.
MARTIN: Yeah.
SEDARIS: You know, he's - like, at Christmas, you know, we always have big stacks of gifts. He makes cookies every year. You know, he decorates the tree. He...
MARTIN: Yeah.
SEDARIS: At Thanksgiving, it's all of those things he does. I mean, he puts his back into it. And he - I know it's so easy for people. And they say, well, no, you get a Christmas tree, then you got to take it down and, you know, a lot of stuff.
MARTIN: Oh my God. No, it is not easy as a person who does that in my family. It's not.
SEDARIS: No.
MARTIN: It takes a lot of effort...
SEDARIS: Yeah.
MARTIN: ...To make things meaningful. Yeah.
SEDARIS: And he puts a lot of effort into us having a home.
KELLY: You can watch the full conversation with David Sedaris on YouTube or the NPR app by searching for NPR Wild Card. His newest book is called "The Land And Its People." Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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