Paula Cole: podcast appearances and interviews

Paula Dorothy Cole is an American singer and songwriter who has also served as the Executive Director of Educators for Excellence MN. She gained recognition early in her career through her performances as a vocalist on Peter Gabriel's 1993-1994 Secret World Tour. Her debut album, Harbinger, was released shortly before the folding of her label, Imago Records. Her second album, This Fire, released in 1996, achieved international acclaim, reaching number 20 on the Billboard 200 and yielding hit singles such as Where Have All the Cowboys Gone? and I Don't Want to Wait, the latter becoming the theme song for Dawson's Creek. Cole was involved in the Lilith Fair music festival, participating as both a featured performer and a headliner in the late 1990s. In 1998, she won the Grammy Award for Best New Artist and became the first woman to be nominated for Producer of the Year without a male collaborator. Her third album, Amen, marked a stylistic shift that was less commercially successful. She has released several other albums, including Courage in 2007, Ithaca in 2010, and Lo in 2024. Her music often addresses social issues such as gender stereotypes, environmental concerns, the history of slavery, and the Iraq war. Apart from her music career, Cole has been a faculty member at Berklee College of Music since 2013.