Conversation ex Nihilo

Bethany Springer is an Associate Professor of Art at the University of Arkansas. Her installations have been exhibited at venues including: 21C. Museum and Hotel in Bentonville, AR, Maryland Art Place (MAP) in Baltimore, Boston Center for the Arts and The Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design just to name a few. She joins Billy via Zoom to talk about sculpture, the current controversy surrounding removing national monuments, spacial experience, politics and art, her travels in the arctic circle and a variety of other topics.
This Episode is for: People who are tired of the KKK funding statues, people who would like less screen-time and more hand-time, devotees of Bob Ross. 
This Episode is not for:  People disinterested in metamorphosis.  

Zena Dixon is a lifelong horror fan, writer and filmmaker. Her writing has been featured on Bloody-Disgusting, Florida Geek Scene, Black Girl Nerds, and Horror Hound among others. She has a horror column at Dread Central called Zena's Period Blood.  She joins Billy via Zoom to talk about her affinity for the genre, her personal paranormal experiences and filmmaking.
This Episode is For: The horror hoi polloi, paranormal lovers, lovers of the phrase "do you remember..." and then anything horror related that comes after that.
This Episode is not For: The uncomfortably frightened, the horror high brow, people who prefer untrue blood. 
@BDisgustingPod | Linktree 

BC Studio was established in 1981 with funding from Brian Eno where he recorded some of Ambient 4: On Land. Martin Bisi was there from the beginning. Along with Bill Laswell and the band Material, Bisi recorded Herbie Hancock's hit "Rockit." Throughout the years Bisi has worked with a number of notable musicians, recording some of their most memorable and groundbreaking work: Sonic Youth, Swans, John Zorn, Foetus, Afrika Bambaattaa, Dresden Dolls all have worked with Martin in his studio in the Gowanus neighborhood in Brooklyn.
Martin speaks to Billy via Zoom about the studio, his take on creativity, his album ex Nihilo (and the significance of the phrase to him,) Voice of Gowanus and their fight for a just and sustainable neighborhood.
This episode is for: People who like their neighborhoods to have character, people who are aficionados of noise rock, people who are suspicious of Whole Foods.
This episode is not for: Jeff Bezos
Learn more about and watch Sound and Chaos: The Story of BC Studio here
Donate to the Gowanus Legal Defense Fund here



 

Billy's old Hollow Points 2.0 cohost comes by to talk Craigslist, conservative meetups, The Dr.  Jill Biden fiasco, news avoidance and a mess of other things. This episode marks the first in what Convo ex Nihilo hopes will be the norm of publishing two episodes a week.  
This episode is for: Boys, braggarts and bros.
This episode is not for: Fans of the Japanese attack on Pear Harbor.

Chad "Chazilla" Johnson is a musician, composer, producer and educator. He runs the House of Rock program at Swallow Hill Music and has toured with multiple national and internationally renowned acts. He makes Denver his home and he joins Billy via Zoom to talk about technique and creativity, his album In My Skin, Defining musical mastery, Beck, Rush, and getting snubbed by those we hold in admiration.
This episode is for: All Chad lovers old and new, Denver music scene completists, appreciators of appreciators.
This episode is not for: Those who deify Daniel Ash (he's just a man, sorry,) people who have died and hence lost their sense of rhythm, people who are against nose piercings in educators.    

V is a paranormal podcaster. She is the host of Life Paranormal with V on which she talks about her experiences with the paranormal. She joins Billy via Zoom to talk about her advocacy for people who have had their own paranormal experiences, the personal costs she has incurred for sharing her own story and the path that lead to her starting her podcast. Billy and V talk about spirituality and the interpretation of strange phenomena through the filters of different cultures, V- through the lens of her Native American heritage, with an open mind and an embracing of different beliefs. Billy- through his usual squirming, whiny, Western European lens of non-belief and skepticism.  

Karen is an award-winning comedienne, director, actress and playwright.  She is the creator of The Pochsy Plays, one-woman, dark-comedy shows in which she has played the title character, a woman suffering from mercury poisoning, lovesickness and cultural overstimulation.  She has also appeared in the motion pictures Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Man of the Year.

Karen joins Billy via Zoom to talk about her early work on the stage and her collaborations with Ken Finkleman on Married Life and The Newsroom. 

This episode is for: People who like people with dark hair, people who like listening to talented people explain themselves, people who believe that cities can be sisters.

This episode is not for: Those who want to keep realism real, those who prefer light comedy as opposed to dark, and those who can't tell the difference.

Check out more of Karen's work here 

The host of Frequency 13, Jason Plett joins Billy via Zoom to talk about radio personalities of yesteryear, The Simpsons, film and its impact on our thought patterns and yes, a little bit about beans. This is episode is sponsored by Someone You Have Never Heard of but Who Has Heard a Lot About You Inc. 

In a lively conversation Afeeya talks of her collegiate dance studies, transitioning into music journalism and creating a modality of exercise for those who have experienced body trauma called "Joncing." As a dancer she has traveled the world. As a journalist she has found herself speechless in front of Morphine (not as feeble as it sounds.) She tells Billy the origin for the band name Scared of Chaka and she shares some stories from her bohemian life.
This Episode is For: People who like to move using different styles of movement at the same time, people who enjoy energetic conversations, people who remember or are interested in the 1990's.
This Episode is Not For: People who hate portmanteaus, people who think there should be fewer stories about amusement parks on podcasts, people who hate the human body. 

Recorded on January 4, 2020 this is part two of Billy's conversation with Dragon Wing author Rebecca K. Busch. It is amateur hour on Billy's end, as he makes noises and walks away from the mic to get coffee but Rebecca is as composed as always as she talks about the darker nature of human beings. This was one of the earliest recordings of Conversation ex Nihilo and it seems an appropriate one to close 2020. For more information on Rebecca please visit her website www.rebeccakbusch.com