The ever so talented and brilliant Rachel Bloom joins Deborah and Joel to give a standing ovation to Stephen Sondheim’s Original Cast Recording of Assassins. The conversation starts with a couple of not great massage stories and moves to swooning over Sam Cooke. Rachel then tells us how she went to an open-air school near the beach in SoCal where everything was sunny and surf-forward. Perfect right? Well, no. Peel back the curtain and you’ll see some darkness. She navigated some mental illness, bullying and a real real complicated, deep, angsty relationship that could only have started with a shared love of Sondheim. Great stuff happened but obsession did too, and she cake-walked her way to the inevitable and disappointing relationship’s end. But, in this epilogue, Rachel looks back with insight, self awareness and perhaps an even stronger love for Sondheim. Well, his work. Not necessarily...the man. As Deborah says, “Don’t meet your heroes.” But we also discover Rachel wants so badly to start a Klezmer band and has a healthy respect for the impending earthquake apocalypse in Southern California. Let’s just say she’s prepared. As Deborah says, “Meet your heroes!” These particular songs are Daft Punk’s “Nightvision” and “Bring it On Home To Me” by Sam Cooke.. Subscribe, Listen, Enjoy Rate and Review!