CalArts Podcasts

The Mitchells vs. the Machines (2021) is the Oscar-nominated animated sci-fi comedy directed by Mike Rianda (Film/Video 10) and co-directed by Jeff Rowe (Film/Video BFA 11). The two also wrote the script, which follows Katie Mitchell and her quirky family as their road trip to drop her off at film school is unexpectedly interrupted by a robot apocalypse.

Rianda and Rowe were the guests of honor at the 2022 Character Animation Producers’ Show on May 4 at the Academy Museum in Los Angeles, addressing students in the audience where they once sat a decade before.

In this episode, Rianda and Rowe talk about the highs and lows of making the movie, their time at CalArts, and how Mike's Mom won Oscar night.

Content Warning: Language

Host: Christine Ziemba
Music: Erick "Pepper" Rivera (Music MFA 12)

Featured in CalArts' The Pool, Issue 11

Beyond the Blue Wall is a production of the CalArts Office of Advancement. You can find all of the episodes at https://calarts.edu/about-calarts/newsroom/podcast.

In late March, podcast network CurtCo Media launched Solar, a 12-episode, immersive sci-fi drama created by CalArts alums Chris Porter (Music MFA 09) and directed by Porter and Jenny Curtis (Theater BFA 12). 

The audio drama follows crew members on the ill-fated solar research probe Aethon, who are disconnected from earth and trapped on separate parts of their spacecraft. As they face a literal and physical abyss, their painful memories, forgotten dreams and realities collide during their fight for survival. 

Listen to the 24700 podcast interview—preceded by the Solar trailer—with Porter and Curtis about the development of Solar, which  features a number of CalArtians on the mic and behind the scenes.

Host: Christine Ziemba
Music: Erick "Pepper" Rivera (Music MFA 12)

Featured in CalArts' The Pool, Issue 11

Beyond the Blue Wall is a production of the CalArts Office of Advancement. You can find all of the episodes at https://calarts.edu/about-calarts/newsroom/podcast.

In this episode of Beyond the Blue Wall, Henderson Blumer talks with David O (Theater BFA 92) about their time at CalArts, life as a music director, and what it is like working on a Broadway production.

David O is the music director for Mr. Saturday Night, a musical comedy starring Billy Crystal. It is currently playing at the Nederlander Theatre in New York.

Beyond the Blue Wall is a production of the CalArts Office of Advancement. You can find all of the episodes at https://calarts.edu/about-calarts/newsroom/podcast.

Director of the Jazz Program, David Roitstein, joins two of his former students: Scott Colley (Music BFA 88) and John Schwerbel (Music BFA 14) to talk about the extraordinary legacy of Charlie Haden at CalArts and beyond, including the annual Charlie Haden/CalArts Artist in Residence program.

Learn more about Charlie Haden at charliehadenmusic.com
Learn more about David Roitstein at davidroitstein.com
John Schwerbel currently serves as Director of Administration at Thomas Safran and Associates and is the Founding Chair of the CalArts Alumni Council
Learn more about Scott Colley at scottcolley.com
Watch Carla Bley and Steve Swallow as part of the 2021 Charlie Haden / CalArts Artists in Residence

Music Credit:  "Turnaround" (composed by Ornette Coleman) from 80/81 (ECM) with Pat Metheny, Charlie Haden, and Jack DeJohnette. 

Beyond the Blue Wall is a production of the CalArts Office of Advancement. You can find all of the episodes at https://calarts.edu/about-calarts/newsroom/podcast.

Socks Whitmore (Music BFA 20) talks about the ins and outs of starting your career as a freelance artists.

Socks (they/them/theirs) is a Los Angeles-based singer, stage and voice actor, lyricist-composer, and writer. They have done voice over work on projects like the Narwhal & Jelly audiobook series (Penguin Random House) and the fiction podcast "Georgie Romero Is Done For." Socks has also written the book, lyrics, and music to original musicals like "We Are Here" (New Voices Project winner 2019) and "Back to One," as well as originated roles in new works like the ballet operetta "Children Cannot Sleep" and the new musical "The Bully Problem."

Learn more about Socks at sockwhitmore.com

Check out Building Your Freelancing Career, a new specialization from Coursera for CalArts, offered FREE to all students, alumnx, faculty, and staff at CalArts.

Beyond the Blue Wall is a production of the CalArts Office of Advancement. You can find all of the episodes at https://calarts.edu/about-calarts/newsroom/podcast.

Henderson Blumer talks with K Rocka Knittel (Art MFA 10) about their experience at CalArts, Other Places Art Fair (OPaf), and what it takes to make an independent art fair happen (with some help from funding awarded by the Alumnx Council).

The next OPaf will take place on Saturday, May 14, 2022 in Santa Rosa, CA. OPaf 5 is happening in San Pedro on September 17 and 18, 2022. Learn more at Other Places Art Fair and visit them on Instagram. 

Beyond the Blue Wall is a production of the CalArts Office of Advancement. You can find all of the episodes at https://calarts.edu/about-calarts/newsroom/podcast.

If you’ve been to a reading by poet, librettist, and former CalArts faculty Douglas Kearney (Critical Studies MFA 04), you know that Kearney doesn’t merely recite and read poetry. He performs it, lives it, breathes it, on stage or at the lectern, with an energy that’s more akin to hip hop and jazz with varied rhythms and turns of phrases.  

Kearney has published seven poetry collections, including this year’s National Book Award nominee, Sho (Wave 2021). A Foundation for Contemporary Arts Cy Twombly awardee and Cave Canem fellow, he currently teaches Creative Writing at the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities.

In October 2021, Kearney returned to CalArts as a visiting guest artist and lecturer for the Creative Writing Program’s Writing Now Reading Series.

Before Kearney’s lecture, we chatted with him for the 24700 podcast about his book, Sho, the performance of poetry, his writing influences, and teaching.  (And because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, masks were required on campus, which Kearney wore during this interview.)

Music by: Erick Pepper Rivera (Music BFA 12)

Beyond the Blue Wall is a production of the CalArts Office of Advancement. You can find all of the episodes at https://calarts.edu/about-calarts/newsroom/podcast.

We talk with Casey Baden and Minga Opazo, co-founders of Textile Resource LA and current residents at the CalArts REEF Residency. 

You can learn more about Casey Baden at caseybaden.com

You can learn more about Minga Opazo at mingaopazo.com

For more information about Baden and Opazo’s Textile Resource LA project, visit textileresourcela.com

For more information about Baden’s Full Service project, visit  fullservicearts.com

Watch Baden and Opazo’s Craft Contemporary conversation here.  

Beyond the Blue Wall is a production of the CalArts Office of Advancement. You can find all of the episodes at https://calarts.edu/about-calarts/newsroom/podcast.

In this episode we bring together Arturo Márquez (Composition MFA 90) and Maestro Ryan Bancroft (Trumpet BFA 11, MFA 13) who emerged from CalArts’ hotbed of avant garde music to headline classical music programs on the most venerated world stages. 

They will discuss the value of CalArts culture of creative freedom, and how its cross-disciplinary pedagogy transformed their vision for their artistic practice, and continues to influence their craft and collaborations with artists and orchestras.  

Beyond the Blue Wall is a production of the CalArts Office of Advancement. You can find all of the episodes at https://calarts.edu/about-calarts/newsroom/podcast.

In this premier episode of Beyond the Blue Wall, the podcast of the Office of Advancement at CalArts, we talk with Yara Elfouly, an MFA2 in Experimental Animation and the beneficiary of two scholarships from the Institute. 

Yara is Egyptian and grew up in Qatar, receiving her undergraduate degree in Painting and Printmaking from VCUArts Qatar. She talked to us about her experiences as an artist as well as her transition into animation and filmmaking at CalArts. She also discussed finding her own identity and her desire to see more women from her cultural background represented in the arts. 

 You can learn more about Yara Elfouly and her art at yaraelfouly.com or at Instagram. 

Beyond the Blue Wall is a production of the CalArts Office of Advancement. You can find all of the episodes at https://calarts.edu/about-calarts/newsroom/podcast.