Call to Adventure

Chris Jordan, who lives in Seattle, works with photography, digital photo illustration, and film to create unmistakable bodies of work in unified themes exploring contemporary mass culture. His series “Intolerable Beauty” and “Running the Numbers” give artistic visual form to the enormity of global consumerism. His collection “In the Wake of Katrina: Portraits of Loss from an Unnatural Disaster” feature the devastation in New Orleans post-Katrina - and while the images are devoid of any people, they read as intimate portraits. A winner of the prestigious Prix Pictet prize in Paris, he traveled to Kenya to document native tribes, and the killing of elephants for their tusks, producing photographs with a haunting mixture of beauty and horror. His latest work brought him to Midway Island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean to capture firsthand the consequences of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch on a colony of Albatross who are feeding toxic plastic to their young. This turned into an unexpected 8-year journey culminating in the creation of an original feature length film called "Albatross". What began as a documentary morphed into a powerful, paradigm shifting, contemplative poem about contemporary culture, interconnectedness, grief and love.

This is our first true long-form podcast and couldn’t have come at a better time, because it felt like a real luxury to spend two hours talking with the incredibly inspiring Chris Jordan. Cheers.

Alex & John

http://www.chrisjordan.com/ 

http://www.albatrossthefilm.com/

https://www.ted.com/talks/chris_jordan_pictures_some_shocking_stats/up-next

http://halsey.cofc.edu/main-exhibitions/midway/

http://www.prixpictet.com/growth/commission/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR6qRXo4y7c&feature=youtu.be

"Time is a river that flows backwards and forwards" - A wonderful conversation with Kelly Jean Moore, owner and founder of Mission Yoga in Charleston SC, and founder of her own style Sarayana Yoga. We discuss "changing the narrative" and how complicated that can be. The idea of "life as creative process", forgiveness, and healing a family and DNA moving forward through her son Owen - loving backwards and forward in time.

Karen joins us in the studio to discuss the personal tragedy of her long term partner committing suicide, and how that led to the unexpected 'death of herself' as well. We talk about her ditching pharmaceutical school to follow her passion to be a full-time artist. An incredibly talented painter, she moved to Charleston to become the executive director of REDUX Contemporary Art Center, then became an associate director at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art. We talk about moving towards a life where everything she does is in alignment - and how the death of her long-time partner has her contemplating moving away from the female figure as a subject and instead painting her succulents.

"I'm don't think I'm the brightest guy, so I try to make up for it with hard work." - Chad Walldorf

Alex and John sit down with the ever-modest Sticky Fingers BBQ co-founder Chad Walldorf. The conversation ranges from a serendipitous stint on President Ronald Reagan's staff while in college that later inspired him to work as Deputy Chief of Staff for SC Governor Mark Sanford in Columbia, to unexpectedly running a successful restaurant chain with his only prior experience being a summer at Wendy's in high school.

They discuss his moving from a fear of responsibility, to a desire to be the one directing the ship. And how small incremental changes collectively create the unique culture of a restaurant, and the result is greater than the sum of its' parts. Chad also recounts an experience with his father that made him reflect personally about the responsibility of engaging in current big societal issues in order to confidently answer the future question from his children, "Dad, in 2016 this was a big issue, where were you?"

In the first episode of Season 2, John and Alex interview Grammy-nominated jazz percussionist and musician Quentin Baxter. We discuss his journey from pharmaceutical school to the College of Charleston, planting his roots of involvement in the Charleston community, and how, as an artist, one must be able “to maximize moments in your world.”

Alex and John sit down to reminisce about the first season - discussing what it was like to manifest from idea to reality, then they highlight favorite moments from each of the first 20 guests, and they close it out by pondering what season 2 may have in store...

Alex interviews co-host of the show, John Duckworth. They discuss his pivotal AWAKE exhibition from late 2014, transformation as a continual process, inner voices, moving in harmony with what is, cycling the Alps, and getting involved in community...

“Hallucinating and being alone on the ocean is not a good mix, getting off the boat to go grab a Domino's pizza and a six-pack is a bad idea”. Brad Van Liew, America's undisputed champion of solo sailing, shares his story of racing around the world three times, winning twice. He discusses the moment the pinnacle of success merged with financial and personal breakdown, and how "Talladega Nights" felt so autobiographical it inspired the design of his last boat. As he says, "it's not worth living unless you can smile".

A wonderful conversation with Vikki Matsis, the trailblazing woman who helped start OHM Radio in Charleston. We discuss her book on running a hostel, a 30-day trek in the wilderness, and how the seed was planted for OHM Radio. She tells us that her "bad wolf" is laziness, and that her next Call to Adventure is sharing her own songwriting with the world. (*Photo by Adam Chandler for Charlie Magazine 50 Most Progressive 2016)

A fun conversation with musician McKenzie Eddy, Hilton Head native, USC graduate, who moved to NYC to work with hip-hop legend Damon Dash and later became the president of his label Bluroc Records. We discuss musical collaboration, the fear and excitement of moving to NYC and the fear and hesitation in leaving NYC for Charleston SC, her startup venture King Dusko, and her current musical project The Very Hypnotic Soul Band.