In this episode, artist Jim Campbell speaks with Hugh Leeman about the experiences that shaped his life and work from growing up around electronics in Chicago and struggling through MIT, to making deeply personal art rooted in family history, memory, disability, and grief. Campbell reflects on the early Tenderloin exhibition that changed his career, the emotional origins of works like Hallucinations and Shock Treatment, and the way low resolution imagery invites viewers into a more primal, meditative form of perception. The conversation also explores Campbell’s public work atop Salesforce Tower, his evolving thoughts on abstraction, and the importance of creating opportunities for emerging artists.

Tiffany Shlain and Ken Goldberg discuss their decades-long creative partnership, the role of humor and questioning in their work, and the ideas behind their exhibition Ancient Wisdom for a Future Ecology: Trees, Time & Technology. The conversation moves through Jewish thought, feminism, robotics, ecology, family life, screen-free Shabbat, and the ways art can reframe our relationship to time, nature, and technology. Together, Shlain and Goldberg reflect on collaboration, creativity, and why the human experience matters even more in the age of AI.

Artist, licensed psychoanalyst, and new media pioneer Ken Feingold has explored fascinating concepts on the potential impact of AI on society for decades through his exhibitions from the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art to the Center Pompidou and beyond.

Beau Stanton traces his rise from a Craigslist apprenticeship with Ron English during the housing crisis to murals spanning Times Square and small-town America. He reflects on the tension between public art, revitalization, and gentrification, and on the controversy that nearly ended his career before Shepard Fairey and the Kennedy family came to his defense.

Authors Chris Feliciano Arnold (The Third Bank of the River) and Ingrid Rojas Contreras (The Man Who Could Move Clouds) share on dreaming in fiction to fighting with an AI boyfriend, from the vanishing Amazon to the vanishing liberal arts, this episode is a call to action for anyone who has ever felt the pull of a story they needed to tell.

Emory Douglas, former Minister of Culture for the Black Panther Party, discusses the movement’s visual strategy, the impact of FBI surveillance, and the enduring power of political art. This conversation explores race, activism, media, and the role of images in times of social upheaval.

Today's episode is with art gallery owner Jack Fischer. In our conversation, we talk about the shrinking collector base, the decision to close his gallery after decades of showing art that leaves behind the raw emotion of the artist's hand, and the changing times of society amidst a very uncertain future of the arts and humanities.

Artist and educator Nigel Poor discusses teaching photography at San Quentin, co-creating Ear Hustle, and the role of storytelling in humanizing incarceration. We talk about memory, empathy, creative practice, and how art can reveal forms of everyday life that are often ignored or misunderstood.

A podcast about art and culture in a time of profound social change: listen to conversations with artists, museum curators, and cultural thinkers on controversy, censorship, migration, incarceration, and the future of our institutions. Follow the show to hear the full season.

Artist Javier Salazar Rojas, also known as The Deported Artist, reflects on life after deportation from the United States and the role of art in rebuilding community. We discuss incarceration, forced displacement, and how collective art-making can create dignity, healing, and connection beyond the commercial art world.