Jonas Yip is a photographer and musician in the Los Angeles area, not to mention a friend of mine. I first met Jonas several years ago at the first Medium Festival of Photography, where we immediately hit it off. As he puts it in his bio, Jonas is "more interested in capturing feeling than in capturing detail," something that I've always found to be true about his work. For today's show we talked about several of his bodies of work, including his "Somewhere Between" series and his "Paris: Dialogue" series. For the second segment, we talked about the idea of the Internet as an archive, and what that might mean for our culture as we move into the future.

(Conversation recorded March 22, 2017.)

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• Jonas Yip
• Jonas Yip - Instagram
• Jonas Yip Photography - Instagram
• Jonas Yip - re:place
• Jonas Yip - Somewhere Between
• Jonas Yip - Paris: Dialogue
• Medium Festival of Photography
• Jeremias Paul
• Jardin des Tuileries
• Jonas Yip - Dresses from the Small Years

Barbarella Fokos is a writer and filmmaker based in San Diego, CA. I came to know Barbarella's work through The Artist Odyssey where, as one of the executive producers, she creates documentary films about artists and their processes and motivations. In our conversation, we talked about her work with The Artist Odyssey as well as her previous work, including her Emmy-winning show Art Pulse TV. I was also pleased to get her perspective on San Diego's burgeoning art scene. Finally, in the second segment, Barbarella chose as her topic the distinction between art and craft.

(Conversation recorded February 27, 2017.)

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• Barbarella Fokos
• The Artist Odyssey
• David Fokos
• David Fokos - The Book Pages Project
• Keep the Channel Open - Episode 1: Trinh Mai
• The Artist Odyssey - Trinh Mai
• The Artist Odyssey - Tribal Baroque
• The Artist Odyssey - Frank Lee Drennen
• Art Pulse TV
• San Diego City Beat - Q: What does San Diego’s art scene need to thrive?
• John Raymond Mireles - Why I Left San Diego’s Art Scene Behind
• Adrian Sierra Garcia
• The Artist Odyssey - A Look at the Latest Show at basileIE Gallery
• Melissa Walter
• Arthur Danto - What Art Is
• Rebecca L. Webb

Paul Turounet is a photographer who lives and works in the San Diego area. Paul's work focuses on the border region between the United States and Mexico, which is a topic that is always relevant here in San Diego, but which has taken on even greater import over the past few months. Using forms from traditional darkroom prints to artist books to site-specific installations, Paul's photography encompasses a wide range of experiences, and I was happy to get the chance to talk with him for today's show. We talked about three of his series, "Tierra Brava," "Bajo La Luna Verde," and "Estamos Buscando A," all of which deal with various psychological aspects of the border region. For the second segment, we talked about the idea of artistic commitment.

(Conversation recorded February 24, 2017.)

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• Paul Turounet
• Paul Turounet - Tierra Brava
• Paul Turounet - Bajo La Luna Verde
• Paul Turounet - Estamos Buscando A
• La Jolla Historical Society - Weather on Steroids: the Art of Climate Change Science
• Open Show San Diego #4
• Bomb Magazine - Frayed at the Edges
• Pedro Meyer
• jdc Fine Art
• Raymond Meeks
• Steidl Verlag
• TBW Books
• Trans-Border Institute
• Retablo (Wikipedia)
• William Kentridge
• Anselm Kiefer
• John Chiara
• Commitment - John Szarkowski

Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib is a poet from Columbus, Ohio. For today's episode I was pleased to talk to Hanif about his 2016 book The Crown Ain't Worth Much, one of my favorite reads of 2016. The poems in this book are an intensely personal account of his experiences growing up in Columbus, and in our conversation we talked about Hanif's approach to writing from experience, and how art can engender empathy. We also talked about music, a subject he's very familiar with as a music and culture writer for MTV News. For the second segment, we talked about a subject near and dear to Hanif's heart: the Columbus Blue Jackets.

(Conversation recorded January 23, 2017.)

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• Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib
• Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib - The Crown Ain't Worth Much
• Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib - They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us
• Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib (MTV.com)
• Button Poetry
• Belly
• Nate Marshall
• Nate Marshall - Wild Hundreds
• Kendrick Lamar - Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City
• Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib - Chance the Rapper: Artist of the Year
• Chance the Rapper - Coloring Book
• Donnie Trumpet & the Social Experiment - Surf
• Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib - We Can’t Stop Livin’: Listening to Marvin Gaye On the Morning After
• Jay-Z/Kanye West - Watch the Throne
• Columbus Blue Jackets
• Hannah Stephenson
• Keep the Channel Open - Episode 20: Hannah Stephenson
• Columbus Crew SC
• Columbus Arena District
• Columbus Clippers
• Aziza Barnes - i be, but i ain’t

José Olivarez is a poet living and working in Chicago, Illinois, and is also co-host of one of my all-time favorite podcasts, The Poetry Gods. In our wide-ranging conversation we talked about how The Poetry Gods came to be, toxic masculinity in the poetry world, and how discovering poetry allowed José to find his artistic voice. In the second segment, we talked about beginnings and endings.

(Conversation recorded January 1, 2017.)

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• José Olivarez
• The Poetry Gods
• Adirondack Center for Writing - Online Writing Class Registration
• Jon Sands
• Aziza Barnes
• Jamie Foxx Ruins Doug Williams
• T-Pain: NPR Music Tiny Desk Concert
• Louder Than a Bomb
• Celeste Ng - Everything I Never Told You
• José Olivarez - I Walk Into the Ocean
• Young Chicago Authors
• Urban Word NYC
• Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib - Searching for a New Kind of Optimism
• Maria Popova - Hope, Cynicism, and the Stories We Tell Ourselves
• Patricia Smith
• Gloria Anzaldúa - Borderlands
• Eduardo Galeano - Open Veins of Latin America
• Keah Brown
• @_joseolivarez

• Editing/Mixing: Mike Sakasegawa
• Music: Podington Bear
• Transcription: Shea Aguinaldo

Ginger Shulick Porcella is the Executive Director of the San Diego Art Institute, an experimental, bi-national contemporary arts center in San Diego, CA. In the three years since Ginger has been leading SDAI, it has grown to become one of most vibrant, innovative art spaces in San Diego, something that has been exciting for art-minded folks in San Diego, like me. In our conversation, Ginger and I talked her curatorial background, the changes she's made at SDAI, how it's grown, what's to come, and how she engages with the San Diego arts community. In the second segment, we talked about one of Ginger's favorite topics: conspiracy theories.

(Conversation recorded December 5, 2016.)

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• San Diego Art Institute
• AMT Festival
• 2016 Southern California/Baja Biennial
• MIXTAPE: Volume 2
• Kite
• Sticks of the Sun, Ashes of the Night
• SDAI Project Space @ Horton Plaza
• Medium Festival of Photography
• Unarius Academy of Science
• Heaven’s Gate
• Vice - The Berenst(E)ain Bears Conspiracy Theory That Has Convinced the Internet There Are Parallel Universes
• Mark Geston - Mirror to the Sky

Christina Riley is a photographer and musician currently based in Seaside, California. When I first saw Christina's 2014 book Back to Me, I was immediately blown away by the emotional power and authenticity of the photographs. We talked about Christina's experience with bipolar disorder, her photographic process, and what it's like to move from Ontario, Canada to a small coastal community in Northern California. For the second segment, Christina chose change as her topic.

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• Christina Riley
• Christina Riley - Back to Me
• Christina Riley - Instagram
• Tony Fouhse
• Straylight Press
• Tony Fouhse - drool
• Burnt Palms
• Burnt Palms - Instagram
• Burnt Palms - Facebook
• And Gone
• Kurt Vile
• Carrie Brownstein - Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl

Rachael Short is a fine art photographer based in Carmel, California. After graduating from the Brooks Institute, Rachael had a thriving wedding and portrait photography business, which ended in 2010 when she was in a car accident that broke her neck and left her paraplegic. Nowadays, Rachael uses her iPhone as her primary tool, and makes beautiful platinum prints from her iPhone images. I talked with Rachael about her work, the town we're both from, the gallery she owns, and her experience as a board member with the Center for Photographic Art. For the second segment, we talked about the importance of supporting the people in our communities.

(Conversation recorded November 20, 2016)

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• Rachael Short
• Gallery Exposed
• Viktor Klinger
• Evynn LeValley
• Zach Weston
• Tom Gundelfinger O'Neal
• Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Déjà Vu
• Center for Photographic Art
• Anthony Carbajal

Matt Eich is a documentary and editorial photographer based in Charlottesville, Virginia. I've been a fan of Matt's work for several years now, and I was excited to get the chance to talk about his four-part project The Invisible Yoke. We talked about his approach to documentary photography, how he reckons with and avoids stereotypes in his work, and what he hopes the work can accomplish. For the second segment, we talked about how to balance family live with an art practice.

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• Matt Eich
• Conscientious Extended - A Conversation With Matt Eich
• Matt Eich - Love in the First Person
• Eugene Richards - Cocaine True, Cocaine Blue
• James Nachtwey
• Matt Eich - Carry Me Ohio
• Matt Eich - Sin and Salvation in Baptist Town
• Matt Eich - The Seven Cities
• Matt Eich - We, the Free
• Stacy Kranitz - Speak Your Piece
• Shane Lavalette - One Sun, One Shadow
• John Francis Peters - Falling
• Gregory Halpern - ZZYZX
• Curran Hatleberg - Lost Coast
• Matt Eich - Shop

Matt Eich is a documentary and editorial photographer based in Charlottesville, Virginia. I've been a fan of Matt's work for several years now, and I was excited to get the chance to talk about his four-part project The Invisible Yoke. We talked about his approach to documentary photography, how he reckons with and avoids stereotypes in his work, and what he hopes the work can accomplish. For the second segment, we talked about how to balance family live with an art practice.

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• Matt Eich
• Conscientious Extended - A Conversation With Matt Eich
• Matt Eich - Love in the First Person
• Eugene Richards - Cocaine True, Cocaine Blue
• James Nachtwey
• Matt Eich - Carry Me Ohio
• Matt Eich - Sin and Salvation in Baptist Town
• Matt Eich - The Seven Cities
• Matt Eich - We, the Free
• Stacy Kranitz - Speak Your Piece
• Shane Lavalette - One Sun, One Shadow
• John Francis Peters - Falling
• Gregory Halpern - ZZYZX
• Curran Hatleberg - Lost Coast
• Matt Eich - Shop