#499: Lin-Manuel Miranda Returns! // Part One

Lin-Manuel Miranda returns to The Hamilcast for the third and final time… at least for now. Lin was first on the show in 2017, and it was true Russell Hammond partying with "real Topeka people" moment when he came over to a then-stranger's apartment and recorded in my living room for about four hours. In this penultimate episode, we're talking about HamilTEN, HamilTEEN, and HamilTIME. Translation: the ways the show did and didn't celebrate the ten year anniversary, the fact that Hamilton will be the high school play in a few years (!!!), and how things and people have changed over the last decade of Hamilton being out in the world.

We also talk about Lin's experience with Jonathan Larson's tick, tick... BOOM!, from having his mind blown after seeing it for the first time over 20 years ago, to directing the film adaptation ("Andrew Garfield was the other hand on the ouija board" - whaaaat?!), and the similarities and differences in Lin's and Jonathan's writing styles.

And hey boppers, I hope you're ready because we get into Lin's work on Warriors: The Concept Album with Eisa Davis and I AM SO EXCITED ABOUT THIS. Lin talks about how the concept album came to be, what it was like to work on this extremely women-centric project, how 1979 is "fertile" for music, our mutual love for Aneesa Folds, and the fact that Lin asked super famous MCs like Nas to rap lyrics THEY DIDN'T WRITE about the BOROUGH. THEY. ARE. FROM. Incredible.

We wrap it all up talking about Basketcase, Lin's nineties jukebox musical that lives in the hearts of millennials and Gen Xers everywhere.

This episode was recorded in November of 2025 at WTF Media Studios in Manhattan and produced with Natalie Grillo from Any Moment Productions in collaboration with Meghan Miles.

Warriors: The Concept Album

Lin-Manuel Miranda: The Education of an Artist by Daniel Pollack-Pelzner

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#88: Lin-Manuel Miranda // Part One (2017)

#89: Lin-Manuel Miranda // Part Two (2017)

#90: Lin-Manuel Miranda // Part Three (2017)

#91: Lin-Manuel Miranda // Part Four // The B-Sides (2017)

#92: Lin-Manuel Miranda // Part Five // The B-Sides (2017)

#225: Lin-Manuel Miranda Returns! // Part One (2020)

#226: Lin-Manuel Miranda Returns! // Part Two (2020)

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