Grammy winner Rhiannon Giddens on opera’s relevance in modern life and her podcast ‘Aria Code’

Rhiannon Giddens made her mark in music when her band the Carolina Chocolate Drops won a Grammy for Best Traditional Folk Album in 2011. Whether with a banjo, a fiddle, or her voice, Giddens fuses folk with blues and country to help bring recognition to overlooked African American musicians.

But long before she was a country music maker, Giddens studied opera at the Oberlin Conservatory. Those skills come in handy as host of the podcast Aria Code, which dissects some of opera’s most famous arias and connects them to modern life.