Stars and Stars with Isa

Poet and writer Yesika Salgado is a two-time National Poetry Slam finalist and the recipient of the 2020 International Latino Book Award in Poetry. Informed by her Salvadoran roots and her love for Los Angeles, Yesika explores yearning: a longing for lovers, home, big dreams. She is the author of the best-sellers Corazón, Tesoro, and Hermosa, and her works have been featured in the New York Times, LA Times, Teen Vogue, HBO and many more. Isa Nakazawa sits down with Yesika as they discuss how her Cancer stellium shows up in her radical honesty, a rare mix of self-compassion and realness towards the many versions of herself she has shed and transformed.

Rico Nasty began releasing mixtapes online, self-teaching and innovating when she was in high school, leading to collaborations with rapper Lil Yachty, two studio albums, and her latest EP, Hardcore Dreamz. Rico’s journey into motherhood and her rap career developed hand-in-hand, and her story is one of personal resilience and creative shape shifting. Rico liberates herself and her fans from the shackles of normativity. Isa sits down with Rico to discuss how her Taurus sun and moon and Aquarius rising allow her to reinvent herself constantly, but remain grounded in who she is.

Multidisciplinary artist, poet, and writer Fariha Róisín is a Capricorn Sun and Cancer Moon and Rising. Host Isa Nakazawa sits down with Fariha to unpack how her chart illuminates the trajectory of her writing career, from a critical examination of wellness culture to her own healing from childhood abuse. Fariha shares details of her journey to mending her body and spirit through liberation. Isa also guides Fariha through her Saturn and Pluto placements, planetary aspects that are slow to arrive — but when they do arrive, they arrive with force. 

Poet, writer, and podcast host Saeed Jones is a Sagittarius Sun, Taurus Moon, and Libra Rising. Our host, Isa Nakazawa, leads Saeed to reflect on how his seemingly opposing appetite for life and tendency to turn inward harmoniously meet in his Sagittarius, or what Saeed calls the “party hermit.” Also, Saeed’s Venus in Scorpio has influenced his pursuit of intense experiences, sometimes confusing dangerous passion for depth. Finally, Saeed satiates his Moon in Taurus through his home, where he’s created a sanctuary for life, work, and play in Columbus, Ohio.

Maya Murillo came up in the early days of social media, when she started making humorous videos on Vine and YouTube at 16. The internet sweetheart and co-host of the Super Secret Bestie Club podcast with creator and bestie Curly Velasquez joined Buzzfeed Latine video vertical Pero Like in 2016, making videos about identity and Latinidad and pop-culture. Today, she’s on Instagram and TikTok as @Mayainthemoment, where she makes content as varied, bubbly, and exuberant as her personality. She gets real about her dating life and the importance of self-care and self-love, while still delivering her funny snippets of observational comedy. Maya and Isa look at how Maya balances her double Aries with her Pisces Rising, and how she learns boundaries through her friends.

Zach Stafford is a journalist, podcast host and producer whose wide-ranging work explores pop culture, queer joy and loss, and police brutality among other issues. Today, Zach is co-creator and co-host of Vibe Check, an original podcast in our Stitcher family, which he leads with fellow journalist Sam Sanders and writer Saeed Jones. Zach has also recently earned a Tony for his co-production of the Broadway musical A Strange Loop, which also won a Pulitzer Prize in drama. Isa Nakazawa discusses Zach’s Pisces sun, Pisces moon, and Leo rising, and how together, they allow him to ride the in-between spaces and identities that can’t be contained nor easily defined.

Jahad Chris Carter also known as JC, created The Hopeless Romantic Society, an interview series about love’s adventures and misadventures with millions of viewers on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. In their videos, JC inspires strangers to spill the tea, revealing stories about the wildest thing they ever did for love. Rather than hide behind the microphone, JC exposes themself with equal honesty and humor. Isa Nakazawa sits down with JC to discuss how their Pisces sun, Cancer moon, and Taurus rising create the perfect balance for their work while also revealing what makes them happy, and when to ask for help.

Writer, comedian, and actor, Ana Fabrega is a Leo Sun, Scorpio Moon, and Gemini Rising. Our host, Isa Nakazawa, teases out how Ana’s multiple Virgo placements show up in several aspects of her life, including career, love, and daily rituals like meditative running. Her Virgo stands out in her detail-oriented approach to every project, including her hit Spanish language series, Los Espookys. Ana’s Scorpio moon also informs her critical lens of the status quo and the systems that govern modern life.

Singer-songwriter Bethany Cosentino has reinvented herself over and over again and in the process helped define the indie sound of the aughts. Bethany first appeared on the charts with the group Best Coast in 2009. The band’s album ‘Crazy for You’ charted on Billboard to significant buzz and continued to stake their place in the lo-fi pop music scene of the 2010s. Yet, after over a decade of recording and touring, Best Coast went on hiatus in 2023, and Bethany launched her solo career with her album ‘Natural Disaster.” Isa Nakazawa sits down with Bethany to discuss how her chart is perfectly suited to aid her as she adapts. Her Scorpio Sun is there to help her ask the right questions and her Cancer Rising allows her to intuit the best path. But whatever life throws at her, Bethany’s Sagittarius Moon allows her to spring to her next adventure

New Yorker writer Jia Tolentino has lived what she describes as a “conventional life.” And yet, she’s always questioning everything—taking notes about life’s dark corners in order to write about them in her signature, incisive style. Isa sits down with Jia, a Scorpio sun, Aries moon, and Leo rising, to unpack how Jia’s subterranean inclinations reveal themselves in her life and work. Jia also reflects on her lifelong pursuit of ecstatic experiences, which in her youth came from drugs and religion; but now, come from motherhood. While she settles into this more domestic phase of her life, Jia also resists the expectation that care should be reserved only for her small family and instead chooses to also invest in her wider community.

Singer, songwriter, multidimensional healer and artist Umi is on a journey of transcendence and she wants to take you there with her. Astrologer host Isa Nakazawa explains how Umi’s big 3 – Aquarius Sun, Sagittarius Moon, and Cancer Rising – affect how she approaches relationships, creativity, and self acceptance. Umi’s ability to tap into her own unique flow has allowed her to live up to her namesake, sharing this flow with her audiences through music and meditative exercises. Her combination of Aquarius and Sagittarius energy leads her to defy convention, experimenting in love, life, and art.

W. Kamau Bell is an Oakland-based standup comedian, host, director, and producer. He is best known for hosting the CNN docuseries United Shades of America, where he connects with communities across the country and across differences. Host Isa Nakazawa discusses his Aquarius Sun, Scorpio Moon, and Taurus Rising. Together they look at how his big three are the perfect synergy to fuel his ability to ask the right questions of people as he explores race and contemporary issues in American society with political incisiveness and biting nuance.

Surrealist blues poet, aja monet, is a Virgo rising, Leo sun, and Cancer moon. Astrologer and host Isa Nakazawa sits down with aja to explore how her chart has informed her career, love, loss, and more.aja opens up about the importance of her Cuban-Jamaican-Brooklyn roots, cultivating self-awareness, how she defines success, and the difficulty of being “fluent in the language of loss.” Leaving no stone unturned, they also delve into the significance of aja’s Leo sun in the 12th house, the house of the subconscious, dreams, compassion, solitude, loss, and endings.

This is a show where we look to the stars above with the stars below. Each week our host and astrologer, Isa Nakazawa, sits with the most talented artists and thinkers of our time to read them their birth chart and discuss their life’s purpose and why they love, create, and walk the world the way they do. Coming March 19.