Time Sensitive

In 1989, a month before his fourth birthday, the artist and photographer Trent Davis Bailey (our host, Spencer Bailey’s, identical twin brother) lost his mother in the crash-landing of United Airlines Flight 232 in Sioux City, Iowa. Now 38 and a husband and father, Bailey is at work on “Son Pictures,” an ongoing series of photographs piecing together fragments of his family’s past, including details of his mother’s life and the relationship he was never able to develop with her. Leading him to take deep-dives into newspaper and family photo archives, and from Colorado to Iowa to the Adirondacks, the project serves as a microcosm of Bailey’s intensely personal and place-based body of work, which continually seeks to unearth the tangled roots of his identity. This summer, Bailey’s first-ever solo museum exhibition, “Personal Geographies,” opened at the Denver Art Museum, and this fall he will release the corresponding project, “The North Fork,” in book form. Bailey is also currently at work on “Son Pictures,” an ongoing series of photographs piecing together fragments of his family’s past, part of which was recently published as a New York Times op-ed titled “What a Motherless Son Knows About Fatherhood.” Leading him to take deep-dives into newspaper and family photo archives, and from Colorado to Iowa to the Adirondacks, “Son Pictures” On this episode—his and Spencer’s first formal “twinterview,” recorded on their 38th birthday—Bailey talks about what it was like to grow up as an identical twin; his unusual and decidedly dysfunctional upbringing; photography as a device for commemoration; and his deep pictorial explorations of the climates, geographies, and landscapes of the American West. Special thanks to our Season 8 sponsor, Van Cleef & Arpels. Show notes: [00:28] Trent Davis Bailey [09:58] “The North Fork” [10:02] “Personal Geographies” at the Denver Art Museum [10:12] “What a Motherless Son Knows About Fatherhood” [10:18] “Son Pictures” [11:54] Paonia, Colorado [17:37] Elsewhere Studios [20:10] California College of the Arts [20:22] Museum of Contemporary Photography’s Snider Prize [20:28] Robert Koch Gallery [22:34] The Sublime [22:38] Shaun O’Dell [23:52] The Hotchkiss Crawford Historical Museum/Society [26:42] Robert Frank [26:53] Stephen Shore [26:55] Joel Sternfeld [28:27] “A Kingdom From Dust” [28:32] The California Sunday Magazine [28:36] Stewart Resnick [28:49] “Who Keeps Buying California's Scarce Water? Saudi Arabia” [36:40] Rebecca Solnit [37:00] “How Rebecca Solnit Became the Voice of the Resistance” [37:30] Wanderlust: A History of Walking [39:11] River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West [45:43] United Airlines Flight 232 [45:46] Spencer Bailey Reflects on the Crash-Landing of United Airlines Flight 232 [45:56] Sioux City, Iowa [46:02] Frances Lockwood Bailey [56:42] International Center of Photography [56:47] Anderson Ranch Arts Center [56:57] Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb [59:55] Robert Frank “The Americans” Exhibition at the Met [01:01:40] “Alex Webb: The Suffering of Light” [01:02:53] Harry Gruyaert [01:03:02] Helen Levitt [01:03:04] Garry Winogrand’s “The Animals” [01:08:10] Lake Placid, New York [01:14:24] Brooklyn Darkroom

For each and every performance the theater director, playwright, choreographer, and sound and lighting designer Robert Wilson creates, time isn’t just of the essence—it is the essence. Perhaps best known as the director of the four-act opera Einstein on the Beach, which he composed with Philip Glass and debuted in 1976, Wilson now has nearly 200 stage productions to his name. These include Dorian, which premiered last year in Düsseldorf, and The Life and Death of Marina Abramović, which opened at the Manchester International Festival in 2011. What stands out about Wilson’s work, among many things, is its rare ability to disorient viewers while also enchanting them. Duration is often another part of the equation: Some of the performances on Wilson’s résumé have ranged from seven hours to an astonishing seven days. Many critics, writers, and scholars have agreed that Wilson has completely reshaped the landscape of theater, vastly expanding its vocabularies and horizons. On this episode, Wilson talks about his personal philosophies around silence and sound, the intersections of architecture and theater, and his enduring vision for the Watermill Center. Special thanks to our Season 8 sponsor, Van Cleef & Arpels. Show notes: [04:31] The King of Spain [04:32] The Life and Times of Sigmund Freud [04:34] Deafman Glance [04:59] John Cage [09:02] Madama Butterfly [13:51] “Time to Think” [14:34] Marina Abramović [16:37] The Ring [16:39] King Lear [16:41] Einstein on the Beach [16:43] Philip Glass [18:14] Parsifal [18:50] The Watermill Center [28:55] Dorian [32:09] Time Rocker [32:15] Lou Reed [34:27] Ka Mountain and Guardenia Terrace [39:28] Festival of Autumn in Paris [40:38] The Golden Windows [41:04] Pratt Institute [43:45] Medea [44:48] Edison [44:58] Dr. Faustus Lights the Lights [45:00] Relative Calm [46:32] H-100 Seconds to Midnight [52:27] The Life and Times of Joseph Stalin [52:40] A Letter for Queen Victoria

Through his abstract paintings, the Miami-born, Brooklyn-based artist José Parlá explores themes ranging from memory, gesture, and layering, to movement, dance, and hip-hop culture, to codes, mapping, and mark-making. Coming up in Miami in the late 1980s and early ’90s, Parlá spent his adolescence and young adult years steeped in hip-hop culture and an underground scene that involved break dancing, writing rhymes, and making aerosol art. The art form still manifests, in wholly original ways, in his abstract works, which, while decidedly of the 21st century, extend in meaning and method back to ancient wall writings and cave drawings. On the episode, Parlá talks about his recent near-death experience with Covid-19; his activism with the collective Wide Awakes; and how his large-scale murals at locations including the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Barclays Center, and One World Trade Center trace back to his early days of painting elaborate wall works with aerosol. Special thanks to our Season 7 sponsor, Van Cleef & Arpels. Show notes: [07:37] Rey Parlá [11:45] Ciclos: Blooms of Mold [12:19] Augustin Parlá [13:13] Curtiss School of Aviation [14:05] José Martí [16:20] “Phosphene” series [18:27] “Polarities” series [18:32] “Breathing” series [23:25] Wide Awakes [23:26] For Freedoms [23:29] Hank Willis Thomas [23:31] J.R. [23:35] Wildcat Ebony Brown [24:28] “The Awakening” [32:04] “It’s Yours” [34:17] Snøhetta [34:45] Ghetto Gastro [36:50] Craig Dykers [36:55] José Parlá’s Studio [38:20] James B. Hunt Jr. Library [38:22] “Nature of Language” [38:47] Far Rockaway Writer’s Library [56:56] “Brothers Back to Back” [59:51] “Parlá Frères” [01:00:03] Hurricane Andrew [01:00:12] Savannah College of Art and Design [01:01:32] New World School of the Arts [01:01:51] Mel Alexenberg [01:02:29] “Combine” by Robert Rauschenberg [01:06:29] “Gesture Performing Dance, Dance Performing Gesture” at BAM [01:06:30] Barclays Center mural [01:06:32] “One: Union of the Senses” at One World Trade Center [01:06:33] “Amistad América” at the University of Texas at Austin [01:12:08] Gordon Parks fellowship

The renegade British designer Tom Dixon has long had a roving obsession with raw materials—everything from cast iron, steel, and copper; to clay, glass, and stone; to felt, plastic, and marble; to, more recently, cork and aluminum. Entirely self-trained and without any formal design education, Dixon emerged in the design sphere in the 1980s by creating unusual welded salvage furniture that was at once antique, experimental, beautiful, and punk in spirit. Never short of bold, forward-looking ideas, Dixon works from a materials-first perspective. Over the years, he has created an industrial chair with upholstery inspired by the rubber inner tubing of car tires, furniture made of flame-cut steel, and even conceptual pieces grown underwater and built of Biorock. Central to all that he does is a quest for longevity and, in turn, sustainability; he has even, in the past, toyed with the idea of a thousand-year guarantee. On the episode, Dixon talks about how two motorbike accidents transformed his life, his days in the early 1980s as a bass player in the disco-funk band Funkapolitan, why he considers cork a “wonder material,” and the parallels he sees between his design creations and those of a baker. Special thanks to our Season 7 sponsor, Van Cleef & Arpels. Show notes: [00:56] Tom Dixon [07:02] Flame-Cut Furniture [11:27] Design Miami [12:06] Craig Robins [13:50] Wolf Hilbertz [31:14] S-Chair [34:41] Giulio Cappellini [35:12] Marc Newson [35:15] Jasper Morrison [38:56] Isamu Noguchi [38:56] Akari Light Sculptures [39:57] Constantin Brâncuși [40:33] Dixonary [46:34] Funkapolitan [49:16] Funkapolitan’s “If Only” [49:17] Funkapolitan’s “In the Crime of Life” [50:17] August Darnell [53:56] Guy Pratt [53:58] Rockonteurs with Gary Kemp and Guy Pratt [54:50] Creative Salvage [01:01:06] IKEA [01:03:37] Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec [01:03:50] Enzo Mari [01:03:51] Achille Castiglioni [01:03:52] Verner Panton

Dr. Jessica B. Harris is renowned as the grande dame of African American cookbooks. One of the world’s foremost historians, scholars, writers, and thinkers when it comes to food—and African American cooking in particular—she has, over the past 40 years, published 12 books documenting the foods and foodways of the African diaspora, including Hot Stuff (1985), Iron Pots and Wooden Spoons (1989), Sky Juice and Flying Fish (1991), The Welcome Table (1995), The Africa Cookbook (1998), and High on the Hog (2011)—the latter of which became a Netflix docuseries and, in turn, a New York Times bestseller. Through her cookbooks, her work, and her very being, Harris is a living testament to the polyvocal, far-reaching traditions and histories of African American food and culture. On the episode, Harris talks about her love of West African markets, her disregard for recipes despite being the author of numerous cookbooks, and the widely unrecognized yet critical differences between yams and sweet potatoes. Special thanks to our Season 7 sponsor, Van Cleef & Arpels. Show notes: [00:49] Dr. Jessica B. Harris [05:28] Harris’s “French-Speaking Theater in Senegal” N.Y.U. Doctoral Dissertation [05:49] Carrie Sembène [07:45] Souvenirs du Sénégal by J. Gérard Bosio and Michel Renaudeau [10:17] R.A.W. [21:06] Hot Stuff (1985) [21:43] The Welcome Table (1995) [22:01] Iron Pots and Wooden Spoons (1989) [22:05] Sky Juice and Flying Fish (1991) [22:06] Tasting Brazil (1992) [23:12] The Africa Cookbook (1998) [23:15] Beyond Gumbo (2003) [23:28] Rum Drinks (2010) [23:56] Vintage Postcards From the African World (2020) [24:46] High on the Hog (2011) [25:46] High on the Hog Netflix Series [33:53] “African/American: Making the Nation’s Table” Exhibition [33:57] Ebony Test Kitchen [34:00] Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture [34:29] New York Botanical Garden [35:41] Stephen Satterfield [01:05:00] My Soul Looks Back (2018) [01:05:14] Maya Angelou [01:05:15] James Baldwin [01:05:16] Toni Morrison [01:05:17] Nina Simone [01:07:46] Yahdon Israel [01:09:29] Nancy Harmon Jenkins

The term “polymath” is unquestionably overused, and often just plain wrong, but it suits the multi-hyphenate British designer, creative director, and artist Samuel Ross, whose hard-to-pin-down practice spans high fashion, streetwear, painting, sculpture, installation, stage design, sound design, product and furniture design, experimental film, and street art. Best known for founding the Brutalism-tinged fashion label A-Cold-Wall, which sits at the nexus of streetwear and high fashion, and for his work, earlier in his career, with the late Virgil Abloh, Ross also runs the industrial design studio SR_A and has collaborated with brands including Nike, Converse, and Timberland. On this week’s episode of Time Sensitive, he talks about notions of ritual, essence, and alchemy; how his work straddles the line between the organic and the synthetic; and why he always thinks in threes. Special thanks to our Season 7 sponsor, Van Cleef & Arpels. Show notes: [03:59] “Samuel Ross: Coarse” at Friedman Brenda [06:41] Glenn Adamson [22:48] Hettie Judah’s Lapidarium: The Secret Lives of Stones [27:45] Vitsoe 606 Shelving System [30:46] Virgil Abloh [37:02] “Samuel Ross: Land” at White Cube [42:05] Rhea Dillon [46:24] Sondra Perry’s Typhoon Coming On [46:43] Christina Sharpe’s In the Wake [46:46] Saidiya Hartman’s Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments [50:30] Steve McQueen’s Small Axe [52:41] John Berger [58:19] 2wnt4 [58:53] Pyrex Vision [58:55] Kanye West [58:56] Donda [01:04:09] A-Cold-Wall [01:05:46] Jerry Lorenzo [01:09:25] Black British Artist Grants [01:12:22] SR_A [01:12:50] “Fashion Design: Samuel Ross/A-Cold-Wall” at the V&A Museum [01:13:22] Grace Wales Bonner [01:13:54] Mac Collins [01:13:59] Nifemi Marcus-Bello [01:20:44] David Drake

To Jelani Cobb, reading, writing, and education are inherently acts of empowerment, and sometimes even ones of defiance. A staff writer at The New Yorker since 2015 and recently appointed the dean of Columbia Journalism School, where he has been on the faculty since 2016, Cobb has written on subjects ranging from the power of Dave Chappelle’s comedy, to the vital lessons of Martin Luther King Jr., to Donald Trump as a rapper. Cobb is also the author of the books The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of Progress (2010) and To the Break of Dawn: A Freestyle on the Hip Hop Aesthetic (2007). Given the precarious moment we’re in when it comes to truth and the future of not just journalism, but democracy itself, he is unquestionably one of the most essential writers, historians, and thinkers of our time. On this week’s episode of Time Sensitive, Cobb talks about timing and flow in hip-hop, why being a “first Black” leader in any high-profile profession is like “doing a high-wire act without a net,” and his belief that the future of journalism will include greater transparency around how a story gets made. Special thanks to our Season 7 sponsor, L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts. Show notes: [03:39] DJ Kool Herc [03:49] “Hip-Hop at Fifty: An Elegy” [03:56] To the Break of Dawn [08:05] August Wilson [09:13] Skip James [27:10] Run-D.M.C. [27:16] LL Cool J [27:24] Q-Tip [27:25] Phife Dawg [27:27] Salt-N-Pepa [27:41] Kool G Rap [27:45] Pharoahe Monch [37:17] Queens Public Library [39:27] Adell Patton [41:18] Elizabeth Clark-Lewis [43:06] David Carr [43:23] Ta-Nehisi Coates [49:58] The Devil and Dave Chappelle: And Other Essays [53:21] “Trayvon Martin and the Parameters of Hope” [59:14] “Postscript: Rodney King, 1965-2012” [59:46] “Alvin Bragg, Donald Trump, and the Pursuit of Low-Level Crimes” [01:02:21] Between the World and Me [01:03:51] Columbia Journalism School

Over the past 50 or so years, Marilyn Minter has been on a roving exploration of feminist, sex-positive thinking. In her art-making, she harnesses the power of sexual imagery—a realm long controlled by men—and presents it through the lens of female desire. Among her most acclaimed works are her “Bathers” series, which reimagines classic female bathers; her “Bush” series, originally a Playboy commission; and a group of new portraits, currently on view at the New York gallery LGDR (through June 3), featuring impactful cultural figures she admires, such as Roxane Gay, Gloria Steinem, Lizzo, and Monica Lewinsky. On the episode, Minter talks about the unrealistic societal and body-image standards young women continue to face, the importance of embracing complexity and multiplicity in artwork, and the hope she has in the next generation to fight social injustice. Special thanks to our Season 7 sponsor, L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts. Show notes: [00:49] Marilyn Minter [04:02] Bettie Page [06:10] Susie Bright [24:31] “The Joys (and Challenges) of Sex After 70” [27:31] HBO’s The Deuce [33:37] Pamela Anderson for Parkett [40:33] LGDR [46:30] Minter’s “Coral Ridge Towers” Series [52:19] Linda Yablonsky [53:23] Diane Arbus [55:24] James Harithas [56:35] Sylvia Mangold [56:59] Kenneth Snelson [58:16] Christof Kohlhöfer [01:04:15] Neville Wakefield [01:07:32] Planned Parenthood [01:07:45] ADLAR AR App

As the co-host of NPR’s flagship news program All Things Considered, Ari Shapiro is a go-to source for tens of millions of Americans for essential deep-dives into some of the most critical stories unfolding across the globe. At NPR for more than two decades now, Shapiro has made it his mission to serve as an informational and emotional conduit—or even a translator of sorts—between the subject and the listener. On this week’s episode of Time Sensitive, he talks about his new memoir, The Best Strangers in the World: Stories From a Life Spent Listening; why he considers hosting All Things Considered like inheriting an heirloom; embracing one’s identity as a journalistic asset; and the parallels between reading fiction, cooking, and reporting the news. Special thanks to our Season 7 sponsor, L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts. Show notes: [01:14] Ari Shapiro [03:48] “The Best Strangers in the World: Stories from a Life Spent Listening” [04:09] Mary Louise Kelly [04:10] NPR’s All Things Considered [07:23] Susan Stamberg [08:51] Noah Adams [09:44] Audie Cornish [17:27] “A Second, Chance Interview With Subject of Controversial First Lady Remarks” [20:46] “Ari Shapiro On Covering the Pulse Shooting” [22:07] Billy Manes [24:50] “‘Dr. No’ Becomes Diplomat, Continues a Family Story” [24:54] Norm Eisen [27:29] “For Two Sarajevo Women, a Chance Friendship Forged in the Ashes of War” [31:40] “One Man's Moment With Martin Luther King Jr.” [38:48] Cascade AIDS Project [43:21] Nina Totenberg [52:59] Amitav Ghosh [53:02] “Journey To The Sundarbans: The ‘Beautiful Forest’ of Mangroves” [53:05] Ghosh’s “The Hungry Tide” [54:30] “Meet Bonbibi: The Indian Forest Goddess Worshiped Across Religions” [54:32] “Experts Fear Climate Change Will Lead to More Tiger Attacks in the Sundarbans” [54:53] “Amitav Ghosh: ‘The World of Fact Is Outrunning the World of Fiction’” [55:00] Ghosh’s “Gun Island” [55:49] Pink Martini [55:53] Alan Cumming [57:50] Kim Hastreiter [59:23] Och and Oy [01:02:11] Ernesto Lecuona

Over his 25 years as CEO of the Danish textile company Kvadrat, Anders Byriel has turned what was once a small, fairly dusty family design business into a global giant. Perhaps just as notably, he’s taken a radical, and even artistic, approach to building and cultivating the brand’s culture, partnering with designers such as Raf Simons, Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec, and Peter Saville; arts institutions like the New Museum in New York, the Tate Modern in London, and the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebaek, Denmark; and brands including Adidas Originals, Bang & Olufsen, and Jaguar Land Rover. On this week’s episode of Time Sensitive, Byriel talks about why the best design has an artistic edge, the importance of making space for emotion within a corporate environment, and his deep and lifelong passions of poetry and photography. Special thanks to our Season 7 sponsor, L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts. Show notes: Anders Byriel [01:04] Annie Ernaux [04:25] “Vermeer” at the Rijksmuseum [06:04] Kvadrat [06:56] Raf Simons [12:05] Peter Saville [13:24] David Adjaye [14:05] Thomas Demand [14:14] Louisiana Museum of Modern Art [14:17] Rosemarie Troeckel [14:20] Olafur Eliasson [14:27] Jean Nouvel [14:40] Massimiliano Gioni [18:06] Pipilotti Rist [18:39] Wu Tsang [19:07] “The Triple Folly” [19:33] Danh Vo [24:20] Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec [27:09] Giulio Ridolfo [30:41] “Materializing Color” [30:43] Adidas Originals x Kvadrat Stan Smith [39:03] Konstantin Grcic [43:06] Verner Panton [49:29] “Pop Art Design” exhibition at Vitra Design Museum [50:20] Robert Adams [01:03:08] Henrik Nordbrandt [01:03:52] Nan Goldin [01:10:39] Ocean Vuong [01:04:54] Ocean Vuong’s “Time Is a Mother” book of poems [01:05:01] “Your Brain on Art” book [01:05:09] Hiroshi Sugimoto [01:11:37] “Ai Weiwei In the Elevator When Taken Into Custody by the Police” (2009) [01:12:00] Ansel Adams [01:12:44] Robert Adams’s “Around the House” book [01:13:01] Robert Adams’s "A Road Through Shore Pine" book [01:13:30]

Across her 40-year-long career, the photographer Tina Barney has become internationally renowned for capturing her particular milieus—family, friends, and neighbors in Watch Hill, Rhode Island, most notably, but also in New York and Sun Valley, Idaho. On this week’s episode of Time Sensitive, she talks about her new book, The Beginning (Radius Books), and corresponding Kasmin gallery show (on view through April 22), which bring together some of her earliest images, taken between 1976 and 1980; what she views as the underlying sources of nostalgia; the fascinating natures of ritual and tradition; and the small miracles that can exist within a single photograph. Special thanks to our Season 7 sponsor, L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts. “China Visit”“Marina’s Room”Watch Hill, Rhode Island“The Europeans” “Big Pictures by Contemporary Photographers”“Sunday New York Times”“Tina Barney”John SzarkowskiSun Valley Center for the ArtsTheater of Manners Players Tina Barney Rizzoli monographTina Barney: The Beginning Radius BooksKasmin Gallery

On this week’s episode of Time Sensitive—our first of Season 7—Chicago-based artist Nick Cave talks about his career-spanning retrospective, “Forothermore,” currently on view at the Guggenheim (through April 10), which takes over three floors and features installation, video works, and sculpture, including recent iterations of his famous Soundsuits; his improvisational approach to work and life; how his art seeks to find brightness in darkness; and what the world might be like if everyone sat in silence for an hour each day. Special thanks to our Season 7 sponsor, L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts. Show notes: Nick CaveFacilityBob FaustJack Cave“TM13”“Forothermore”Naomi Beckwith“Time and Again”“Sea Sick”Anselm Kiefer“Made by Whites for Whites”Claudia RankineReginald Dwayne Betts

From the archive: The late artist, jewelry-maker, and metalsmith Daniel Brush, who died on Nov. 26, 2022, at age 75, talks about memory (and interpretations of memory); his deep, monkish engagement with a wide variety of materials; and some of his most valuable tools—breathing, language, and light.

For the American-born chef and restaurateur Ruth Rogers, owner of the Michelin-starred River Cafe on the north bank of the Thames in London’s Hammersmith neighborhood, food is a portal: to memories and cultures. To conversations. To meaningful connections. Since Rogers, who goes by Ruthie, co-founded the celebrated Italian restaurant with Rose Gray in 1987, it has become a well-trod stomping ground for a bevy of artists, filmmakers, writers, actors, architects, and other movers and shakers—many of whom have appeared on her podcast, Ruthie’s Table 4, including the director Steve McQueen, British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful, and the artist Tracey Emin. Similarly, many highly regarded chefs have come up through the River Cafe’s kitchen, including Jamie Oliver, April Bloomfield, and Jess Shadbolt and Clare de Boer of the New York restaurants King and Jupiter. Rogers’s latest project, The River Cafe Look Book (Phaidon), captures her true spirit; that of the restaurant as a whole; and that of her late husband, the Pritzker Prize–winning architect Richard Rogers, to whom the book is dedicated. A book as much about looking as eating, it encourages, in Rogers’s wonderfully joyful way, engaging the full body and mind as a cook. On this episode, Rogers talks with Spencer about her journey in food and cooking; her 35 years at the helm of the River Cafe; and the rigorous culture of kindness and openness, paired with toughness, that she has built at the restaurant, both in and out of the kitchen. Special thanks to our Season 6 sponsor, L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts. Show notes: Ruthie RogersThe River Cafe Look BookRiver Cafe 30The River Cafe Cook BookThe River CafeRuthie’s Table 4

One small step for Mikkel Vestergaard Frandsen, one giant leap for mankind. So goes the story of several of the entrepreneur, philanthropist, and humanitarian’s pursuits over the past three decades. At present the founder and CEO of Sceye, a company building stratospheric platforms to help prevent human trafficking and monitor climate change, Vestergaard has a long history in developing catalytic products that have quite literally revolutionized the humanitarian and public health landscapes. Through his eponymous material science company Vestergaard, he developed PermaNet, a screen designed to kill mosquitoes by contact, which has more than halved the global prevalence of malaria, and ZeroFly, a storage bag that protects agricultural commodities against insect infestation, mold growth, oxidation, and rancidity. With LifeStraw, he created a product that filters contaminated water, which has eradicated Guinea worm disease from South Asia and all but eradicated it from Sub-Saharan Africa. Imbuing a values-driven approach into everything he does, Vestergaard is driven by the desire to close the gap between those who have and those who don’t. On the episode, Vestergaard talks with Andrew about the values of equity he was raised with in Scandinavia, the importance of maintaining rigor and commitment over time, and why doing good and doing business aren’t mutually exclusive. Special thanks to our Season 6 sponsor, L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts. Mikkel Vestergaard FrandsenSceyePermaNetLifeStraw

The artist Hank Willis Thomas is a voracious reader, not only of books, but of the world around us—and particularly, of images. Through his practice, Thomas interrogates and investigates, probes and prods, and ultimately helps make sense of various strands of visual culture—advertising, photographs, videos, clothing and ephemera, monuments—to tell necessary stories and shape new forms of meaning and memory. While Thomas’s roots are in the medium of photography, his work also extends far into other realms, including sculpture and memorialization. A prime example of this and a collaboration with MASS Design Group is “The Embrace,” a memorial to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King, that will be unveiled in the Boston Common in January 2023. Another is the Gun Violence Memorial Project, organized with the prevention organizations Purpose Over Pain and Everytown for Gun Safety, and also with MASS. Central to Thomas’s art are the subjects of truth and reality (best illustrated by his traveling “Truth Booth” installation, which toured all 50 states in the lead up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election), how they’re shaped, and by whom. Many of Thomas’s more conceptual projects also tend to be collective. Most notable among these is For Freedoms, an artist-run coalition he co-founded in 2016 as a super PAC that serves as a platform for artists of all kinds to meaningfully contribute to public discourse and help raise political awareness in the United States. On this episode of Time Sensitive, Thomas speaks with Spencer about identity as a figment of our imaginations, race as the “most successful advertising campaign” ever, and quilt-stitching as a metaphor for all that he does. Special thanks to our Season 6 sponsor, L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts. Hank Willis Thomas“Remember Me”“Digging Deeper”MASS Design Group“The Embrace”Raise UpGun Violence Memorial Project“Unity”TED Talk“Along The Way”“Branded”“Unbranded”“Rebranded”“Absolut Power” “A Place to Call Home”“Question Bridge: Black Males”“Truth Booth”For Freedoms“For Freedoms News”“Guernica”

The Swiss-born, Brooklyn-based designer Tina Roth Eisenberg has, over the past 15 years or so, built a cult following of creatives around the world who, like her, constantly seek to connect, reflect, and grow together—and who view her as an inspirational curator and guide. In 2008, Eisenberg founded Creative Mornings, an egalitarian platform that hosts free talks and events, with chapters currently in 225 cities and 67 countries. A serial entrepreneur and the creator of the widely followed Swissmiss design blog, Eisenberg also founded that same year Studiomates in Brooklyn’s Dumbo neighborhood; a predecessor to WeWork, it was the borough’s first co-working space. (Eisenberg now operates the co-working space Friends Work Here in Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill neighborhood.) Also over the past decade-plus, she has founded and launched the aptly named to-do list app Teux Deux and the temporary tattoo company Tattly, the latter of which she sold to Bic Group earlier this year. On this episode, Eisenberg talks with Spencer about why she views the idea of time as a farce, her spiritual belief that everything is vibration and energy, and her mantra of leading with a sense of gentleness and what she calls “an extra layer of love.” Special thanks to our Season 6 sponsor, L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts. Tina Roth EisenbergCreative MorningsTattlyStudiomatesFriends Work HereFingerspitzengefühlTime Well SpentSwissmiss

Across his four-decade-long career in graphic design, Michael Bierut has amassed an impressively robust tally of bold-faced clients. From The New York Times, Saks Fifth Avenue, and the Robin Hood Foundation to Mastercard, the New York Jets, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Bierut and his team at the multidisciplinary design firm Pentagram—which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year with a two-volume book from the publisher Unit Editions, and where he has been a partner since 1990—have crafted some of the most unforgettable, standout identities and graphics around. Perhaps most notable in recent years, Bierut devised the unequivocal “H” logo used throughout Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. Consistently fueled by the sheer delight he finds in design, Bierut is also a co-founder of the website Design Observer, launched in 2003 and among the first online platforms dedicated entirely to design. With everything he creates, Bierut whittles each of his concepts down to its most essential core, ultimately arriving at something that feels both rigorously thought through and inevitable in its simplicity. On this episode of Time Sensitive, Bierut talks with Andrew about the integral practice of keeping notebooks throughout his life; the deep groundedness of his nearly lifelong relationship with his wife and high-school sweetheart, Dorothy Kresz; and why the “why” of design is far more important to him than the “how.” Special thanks to our Season 6 sponsor, L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts. Show notes: Michael BierutPentagramDesign ObserverMastercard logoThe Library InitiativeHow ToPentagram: Living by Design

As the New York restaurant Le Bernardin celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, chef Eric Ripert humbly reflects on his three-plus decades there. Over this time, he has brought his artistic vision fully to life, subtly evolving it season to season and year to year, creating an exquisite experience for those guests lucky enough to sit in the dining room of a restaurant that has managed to maintain its four-star rating from The New York Times since shortly after its stateside opening in 1987 (it started in Paris, in 1972). Le Bernardin has also kept up its three-Michelin-star status. This year, Ripert himself was honored by Michelin with its mentor chef award. The author of a best-selling memoir and of several cookbooks, Ripert has also been a guest judge on Top Chef, appeared on several episodes of the late Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations and Parts Unknown (the two were very close friends), and was the host of his own show, Avec Eric, on PBS. Careful to nourish a particular style in the kitchen that emphasizes a fastidious attention to detail, sharing knowledge, and leading in a compassionate way, Ripert credits his practice of Buddhism for helping shape his open-armed approach to life and work. On this episode of Time Sensitive, Ripert talks with Spencer about his cool-headed leadership style, his meticulous ways of managing time and technique in the kitchen, and the enduring influence of his mother’s culinary wonders. Special thanks to our Season 6 sponsor, L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts. Show notes: Eric RipertLe BernardinMaguy Le CozeGilbert Le Coze32 Yolks: From My Mother’s Table to Working the LineVegetable Simple: A CookbookAnthony Bourdain

The architect Brad Cloepfil views his work as less of a job and more of a calling. Sites speak to him. He listens with his eyes. When embarking on a project, Cloepfil slowly feels out the place, studying its particularities closely in order to understand its truest, deepest nature. He and his Portland, Oregon- and Brooklyn-based firm, Allied Works, craft buildings as much as they design them. His are finely tuned, well-wrought structures, elegantly proportioned, and unforgettable in their tactility, visual wonder, and reverence for their sites and surroundings. From the Portland, Oregon, headquarters of the advertising agency Wieden+Kennedy (2000); to Denver’s Clyfford Still Museum (2011); to, more recently, the U.S. embassy in Mozambique (2021), Allied Works sculpts spaces of meaning and feeling that also serve pragmatic functions. Not surprisingly, the firm has become renowned for its designs of museums and arts institutions, including the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (2003). On this episode of Time Sensitive, Cloepfil talks with Spencer about his multisensorial approach to design and making; how reading, writing, and poetry have shaped his perspectives on the built world; and why all of his buildings are on some level about “amplifying and elevating the idea of service.” Special thanks to our Season 6 sponsor, L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts. Brad CloepfilAllied WorksWieden and KennedyPortland Institute for Contemporary ArtMaryhill OverlookSitings ProjectContemporary Art Museum St. LouisMuseum of Arts and DesignDuchess County Guest HouseUniversity of Michigan Museum of ArtClyfford Still MuseumEleven Madison ParkNational Music Centre of CanadaNational Veterans Memorial and Museum