Photo By: Julia Gorton

Adam Sobel, nephew of Sumner Crane of the band Mars, studies extreme weather and climate dynamics, focusing on tropical cyclones, severe convection, and precipitation. A professor at Columbia since 2000, he combines theory, observation, and simulation to understand atmospheric behavior and assess risk. Adam also hosts Deep Convection, a podcast featuring conversations with leading climate scientists.

Rose Tang is a musician, multidisciplinary artivist, and event curator who leads over 30 groups in New York and Seattle. Her music, described by record labels and critics as experimental, free jazz, post-punk, noise, and "Weird Shit", blends diverse influences and unconventional sounds. A Mongol from Sichuan, Rose plays piano, electric guitar, and percussion, while also performing vocals, spoken word, and movement. Her music has been released by ESP-Disk' and 577 Records, and she has organized and hosted concerts in New York and California.

Beyond music, Tang has performed stand-up comedy at the Peek Pique Peak Festival at The Brick theater in New York. Her paintings, sculptures, photography, and performance art have been exhibited in Berlin, Los Angeles, and New York.

Previously, Rose was a decorated journalist, named Best Local Journalist by the Society of Publishers in Asia and recognized as a Champion for Freedom of Speech by the Visual Artists Guild in the U.S. She taught journalism at Princeton University and worked for CNN, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and numerous media outlets across the U.S., Australia, Hong Kong, and China.

Dave Markey is a self-taught filmmaker and musician who has documented underground music and punk culture for over four decades. His films, including 1991: The Year Punk Broke and Desperate Teenage Lovedolls, capture the energy of the punk scene with a direct, DIY approach. He has worked with Sonic Youth, Nirvana, Black Flag, and the Circle Jerks, among others. His latest documentary, The Secret Lives of Bill Bartell (2025), explores the influence of a key figure cultural figure, bull rider and cop Bill Bartell.

Jack Rabid has spent 40 years documenting underground music as the founder and editor of The Big Takeover. His writing has appeared in Spin, Creem, Village Voice, and dozens more. He drums for Even Worse, Leaving Trains, Last Burning Embers, and Springhouse. He hosts The Big Takeover Show on realpunkradio.com. Based in Brooklyn with his wife and two kids, he remains a fixture in punk journalism and radio.

Tony O'Neill, a British-born writer now in the U.S., has built a career that moves between fiction, non-fiction, and screenwriting. A former musician who played with Marc Almond and The Brian Jonestown Massacre, he made his literary debut with Digging the Vein in 2005, followed by noir-tinged novels like Sick City—now edging toward a TV adaptation with Bret Easton Ellis. Tony's work has found an eager audience in France, where 13e Note Editions translated much of his output. He's also co-authored bestselling memoirs and worked with screenwriters like Jim Uhls. When not writing for The Guardian or Vice, he resides in New Jersey with his family.

Ali Smith, a portrait and documentary photographer, moved to the UK from NYC, where she built a career shooting for The Guardian, The New York Times, and more. She's shot campaigns for Rimmel, Disney, and Johnson & Johnson and published two acclaimed photography books—Momma Love earned praise from The NY Times and Gloria Steinem. Her work, rooted in gender equality and environmentalism, includes a grant-funded project on incarcerated mothers. She's exhibited and taught internationally, mentoring young women in photography. Also a writer and former touring musician, her memoir The Ballad of Speedball Baby dropped back in January 2024 via Blackstone Publishing.

Bruce Moreland grew up in West Covina California, playing in glam rock bands with his brother Marc before diving into LA's punk scene in the late '70s. He hung around The Masque, played bass for The Weirdos, and co-founded Wall of Voodoo, recording on most of their albums between stints in and out of the band.

He later formed Black Cherry, played with Nervous Gender, and co-wrote a track for Concrete Blonde. After Marc's death, he started Ravens Moreland, shifting to vocals and guitar.

Matilda Joon Dominique Stringfellow In this cuntroversial episode we feature the dynamic poetry of Matilda Joon, and an in depth conversation between Lydia and Dominique Stringfellow concerning the need for female empowerment to replace the ever present imbalance in sexual relationships which have spiraled out of control.

JD Pinkus, who set a Georgia Boy's State 100-meter freestyle relay record in 1980, left swimming behind in 1985 to tour with the Butthole Surfers, later playing bass for Melvins, Helios Creed, and others. He took up the 5-string banjo, releasing albums like Keep On The Grass (2018), Fungus Shui (2021), and Grow A Pear (2024). JD splits his time between the road, the studio, and the mountain he now calls home.

Mike IX Williams, the voice of New Orleans for lack of a better term "sludge" pioneers Eyehategod, embodies the unrelenting grit of the genre. Raised in High Point, North Carolina, he gravitated toward rebellion and punk before finding his footing in the music scene of late-70s New Orleans. Over the years, he's faced addiction, incarceration, Hurricane Katrina, and a liver transplant, emerging as a testament to survival against the odds. Mike's music channels the chaos of a life shaped by struggle and defiance, capturing an unvarnished reflection of the world around him.