Dadwell & Co.

Chris Rudd is an activist, educator, and design leader. Built on his commitment to community organizing, social equity work, systems change, and youth development, Chris founded ChiByDesign, a Black-owned and people-of-color-led design firm in Chicago. In addition to leading ChiByDesign, Chris is also an Instructor and Lead of Community-led Design for the Chicago Design Lab at the Illinois Institute of Technology Institute of Design, where his work focuses on developing the co-design practice and the anti-racist design field. Chris is a former Stanford Institute of Design (d.school) Civic Innovation fellow and a current Chicago Urban League IMPACT fellow.

Chris is dad to three daughters: ages 15, 6 and 3.

In this episode, Chris talks about how his strong socio-political views were forged in an interacial household with activist parents and the countless ways this world view manifests in his children's lives and his own anti-racism work. Chris shares some larger-than-life stories about his father and the working class wisdom he imparted when Chris became a dad at 22. Chris discusses his time at Standford's d.school, the limits of human-centered design, and why he ignored the allure of startup culture and Silicon Valley to remain committed to place-based social innovation in Chicago. Finally, we talk about the connections and similarities between leading (and serving) community projects, a creative consultancy, and one's own family.

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Since devising his own independent photography curriculum in high school, Johan Bävman's passion for image making led him to the Nordic School of Photography, a coveted spot on the Moment Agency roster, and a full-time staff position in editorial photography with Sydsvenskan, one of Sweden's largest newspapers. Now 100% independent, Johan splits his time between client assignments, personal projects and gallery work. When he needs a needed break from photography and family life, Johan restores vintage motorcycles at Odd Luck Garage, a collaboration with 13 other fathers.

Johan is dad to two sons: ages 8 & 4.

In this episode, Johan talks about the myriad roles photography's played in his life and career: as a connection to his grandfather, an invitation to embed himself in other cultures, a narrative device for storytelling, and as solution for his dyslexia—allowing him to express himself without the burden of the written word. Johan also talks at length about Swedish Dads, a collection of photographs he self-published in 2016 documenting 45 Swedish men who took advantage of the country's generous parental leave system. Capturing the mundane, beautiful and often lonesome moments of fatherhood, the images, book and exhibit continues to help change policy, shift cultural attitudes, and advocate for gender equality and the rights of women and children.

His photographs are currently on exhibit at Chicago's Swedish American Museum now through November.

Keep up with Johan →

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An 8-minute special episode on COVID-19. Antonio offers ideas, hope, and perspective for how parents can change their state, shift their thinking, and care for their families, communities and themselves.

Justin Roberts is truly one of the "all-stars" of the indie family music scene. For nearly 20 years, the three-time Grammy Nominee has been creating the soundtrack to families' lives—helping kids navigate the joys and sorrows of growing up while allowing parents to remember their own childhoods. Along with his band, The Not Ready for Naptime Players, Justin has traveled the globe, from Hong Kong to New York, and Miami to Seattle. His songs are the kind of get-stuck-in-your-head pop nuggets that more draw more comparisons to Elvis Costello, Fountains of Wayne, and Paul Simon than any simple nursery rhymes, prompting USA Today to call him "hands-down the best songwriter in the genre." In addition to his recordings, Justin is also the author of two acclaimed picture books: The Smallest Girl in the Smallest Grade and The Great Henry Hopendower.

Justin is dad to his 1½-year-old son.

In this episode, Justin talks about becoming a happy, proud (but utterly exhausted) father at 50 and how he found magic in even the darkest days of those first sleep-deprived months. He shares the advantages and struggles that come when both parents are full-time professional musicians—he's married to the lovely Anna Steinhoff, a talented baroque cellist. And we talk about where he found the confidence to make a life creating kids music and why that particular genre is so easy to dismiss, but provides him the greatest creative freedom.

Justin's 15th studio album Wild Life is his most personal and intimate to date. It comes out February 28th.

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A quick 10-minute recap of episodes 13–18 of Dadwell's third season. Antonio summarizes each episode with commentary and key takeaways.

Tim Lapetino is a writer, geek culture historian, and award-winning graphic designer. In his 20-year career, Tim's consistently been drawn to design and the way it impacts our popular culture. He's obsessed with exploring and understanding the creative process and loves telling the stories of unheralded creative people who work beyond the spotlight. His best-selling design history book, Art of Atari, has sold more than 60,000 copies and been published in English, French, German and Spanish. Tim is also the editor of Undisputed Street Fighter, a retrospective on the popular video game franchise and co-author of the design inspiration book Damn Good: Top Designers Discuss Their All-Time Favorite Projects. His work has been published in more than a dozen books and journals, including the LogoLounge series and industry classic Designing Brand Identity. Tim's written for HOW magazine, Geek Monthly, Retro Gamer, and other publications.

In this episode, Tim explains how journalism school led him to a career as a self-taught graphic designer and how a blog post in 2012 changed the trajectory of his life and career forever. He also explains how he talked his way into all sorts of design roles he wasn't a perfect fit for but made work with a combination of tenacity and humility. We talk about the rise of geek culture, the power of pursuing strange passions, and why people pay to see others believe in themselves. Tim also provides an intimate and honest view behind the scenes of his book projects and the impact they have on his marriage and children. This is a pretty optimistic and inspirational episode and why I saved it for the end of Season 3.

Keep up with Tim →

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Matt Woodburn is co-founder and CEO of ESP Presents, where he manages event production, technical and creative direction, as well as brand activation for the company and its new venue space, Exchange312. Matt is a serial entrepreneur, event producer, connector and (self-described) social concierge, whose personal interests directly reflect his professional endeavors.

In this episode, Matt talks about riding the waves of his father's entrepreneurial pursuits and how inspiring (and intimidating) it was to witness his parents' constant hustle. He explains how a childhood in sunny SoCal—full of thrash metal, BMX and skateboarding—exposed him to Hollywood's behind-the-scenes trades and eventually led to film school in Chicago. We talk about how he lucked out and launched a hip hop recording studio in his early 20s and went on to parlay those experiences and connections into countless ventures in film, music, video and special events. And we talk at length about what it means to create experiences and memories for his daughters—born just 14 months apart—and how his divorce and commitment to co-parenting, continues to reshape life, work and the example he and his ex-wife set for their girls.

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Jeffrey Brown is the Eisner Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author of Darth Vader and Son, the Jedi Academy middle grade series, and numerous other graphic novels for both adults and kids. Most recently, Jeffrey's been hard at work on the middle grade Lucy & Andy Neanderthal series, the picture book My Teacher Is A Robot, and a new Star Wars book, Rey and Pals. Jeffrey has an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where he also occasionally teaches making comics. His artwork has been exhibited in New York, LA, Paris, and Chicago.

In this episode, Jeffrey talks about the ways his late father's work as a minister—while deeply religious—was also creative, curious, and underscored by life-long learning. We discuss his transition from tourist shop handicraft, to fine art painting, how things eventually came full-circle back to his childhood love of comics and writing. He shares the surprise of his firstborn, the confidence he found in his second, and how he navigates (and negotiates) time between both boys. He also explains his analog workflows, techniques for squeezing art into the tiniest gaps of daily routines, and how his kids influence his Star Wars stories. This conversation offers a supplemental companion to Jeffrey's autobiographical graphic novel, A Matter of Life, a collection of pivotal moments, slices of life, and intimate vignettes.

If you're a parent new to comics, I highly recommend starting here.

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Jared and I met in the advertising design school at the Atlanta College of Art almost 25 years ago. Today he runs Question Mark to Period, a marketing and design agency in Atlanta. He’s a larger-than-life personality, a globetrotting storyteller, a Taekwon-Do black belt and a Sunday school teacher. He's released five independent hip hop albums, founded a creative collective of renown black curators a decade before influencers took over social media, and launched a wildly successful luxury bag company. (He also got me to run my very first marathon.)

In this episode, Jared talks about his father’s military discipline, attention to detail, and struggles with alcohol (a primary reason why he, himself, doesn't drink). We talk about how he attended the prestigious Pratt Institute at age 6 and how this exposure—and growing up with siblings a decade older than him—shaped his gregarious, competitive personality. He explains why the world needs fewer rappers and professional athletes and shares the secret word his mother used to push his critical thinking.

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Named one of Filmmaker Magazine's "25 New Faces of Independent Film," Brad Bischoff is an award-winning director whose work has been screened in major film festivals, staff-picked on The Atlantic, Vimeo, Short of the Week, and YouTube. He is an alumni of the Telluride Film Festival student symposium (‘07) and Columbia College Chicago (‘09) and just wrapped on what is to be his debut feature film, The Grasshopper.

In this episode, Brad talks about the myriad odd jobs he's held to make ends meet and make movies happen—from working at a skatepark, to packaging incontinence briefs, to transcribing detective's interviews at 100 words per minute. We talk about his remarkable success (and tenacity) as an independent filmmaker and how much his life feels like scenes from a John Hughes script. He also opens up about the sacrifices he's made for his films and the tolls they've taken on his health, his family, and his marriage. As you might imagine, Brad is a master storyteller which made this episode especially tough to cut down—but particularly enjoyable to get lost in.

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