MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
Every week, a famous guest draws a card from our Wild Card deck and answers a big question about their life. The show's latest guest is Erykah Badu. She's a musician best known for her hit '90s album "Baduism," but her work extends way beyond her music. She's also an actor who can be seen in "The Piano Lesson" that's streaming on Netflix this Friday, and she works as a doula, too. In her conversation with Wild Card host Rachel Martin, she talks about guiding new life into the world and guiding people at the end of their lives. Here's Rachel.
RACHEL MARTIN, BYLINE: One, two, three.
ERYKAH BADU: Three.
MARTIN: Three. Well, I know the answer to this question.
BADU: No, you don't.
MARTIN: OK, you're right. Do you think there's more to reality than we can see or touch?
BADU: No.
MARTIN: What?
(LAUGHTER)
BADU: See; you thought you knew the answer. OK. Do I think there's more to reality than we can see or touch? Absolutely. Absolutely.
MARTIN: I know you work as a doula. You also sit with people who are at the end of their life.
BADU: Yeah.
MARTIN: And in those spaces, it's hard to deny that there is more to reality than we can see or touch because there's an energy there...
BADU: Yeah.
MARTIN: ...That we can't see or touch when life moves in and out of the world.
BADU: Yes. I mean, I don't know. And I don't have to know to want to be the welcoming committee as a doula.
MARTIN: Yeah.
BADU: You know, where they're coming from. I just - I want to make sure that from what I've learned since I've been here, I just want to feel like your guide around the high school. And I'm a junior, and you're a freshman. You know, and this is what I know about the school. It's what I want to share.
MARTIN: Yeah.
BADU: As a doula specifically, I'm the welcoming committee. I want to make sure that when you come to this place, the room is prepared for you because I believe if you have a start with easy breath and love and things you can smell that are beautiful and music that you can hear that's beautiful and your parents united - and even though they have problems, they're taking this day to come together for this most important ceremony, the day you came into this world.
MARTIN: So if you're the welcome committee for the baby, when you sit with people who are at the end of their life...
BADU: I'm the ushering committee.
MARTIN: Yeah.
BADU: Yeah. So I'm not going to profess that I know where they're going, or by what kind of pathway or portal or vortices. I just want them to have the same experience going out - easy breath.
MARTIN: Yeah.
BADU: Easy heart rate. I've left this realm or this place with something sweet to smell or to taste or to hear with love and relaxed. And I suggest that there should be no fear. Let's get to a point of no fear because you're going to know something that we don't know. But I believe that you're going to need your easy breath.
KELLY: To hear more from that conversation with Erykah Badu, you can follow the Wild Card podcast. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.