Critical Currents

Eric Avila is Still a Dodgers Fan

In this episode of Critical Currents, hosts Dani Taylor and Stella Horns speak with UCLA professor and cultural historian, Eric Avila. He is bridging the gap by documenting the history of Los Angeles’ urban design through people-centered, deeply contextual historiographical methods. Avila paints a portrait of an image-obsessed city where competing visions and versions of history lie just below its sparkling surface. We delve into those tensions, from the clash between top-down authority and Los Angelinos’ vision for their surroundings, to the ways displaced communities reclaim spaces through muralism and other forms of urban artwork. Ultimately, Avila reflects on how Los Angelinos can chart a path forward, both socially and aesthetically, while acknowledging the city’s past struggles and present challenges. MENTIONED: Popular Culture in the Age of White Flight: Fear and Fantasy in Suburban Los Angeles [https://www.ucpress.edu/books/popular-culture-in-the-age-of-white-flight/paper] by Eric Avila The Folklore of the Freeway: Race and Revolt in the Modernist City [https://www.upress.umn.edu/9780816680733/the-folklore-of-the-freeway/] by Eric Avila Amusing the Million: Coney Island at the Turn of the Century [https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780809001330/amusingthemillion/] by John F. Kasson The Painting of Modern Life: Paris in the Art of Manet and His Followers [https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691009032/the-painting-of-modern-life] by T.J. Clark Judith Baca [https://www.judybaca.com/about/] Chicano Park [https://chicano-park.com/] Should Scientists and Engineers Run Society? [https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YAmzlB40hZs&pp=0gcJCTMBo7VqN5tD] by Dr. Fatima Tom Bradley [https://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/archives/la-me-tom-bradley-19980930-story.html] Audio & Sound Engineering by sadie ibrahim. Critical Currents is a collaborative production of the Wende Museum, Thomas Mann House, and dublab, with episodes airing from the heart of Downtown Los Angeles at the dublab studio. New episodes release monthly throughout the spring and fall, available on all podcast platforms. Subscribe to Critical Currents and join the conversation!

Susan Neiman on the Moral Left

In this episode of Critical Currents, hosts Stella Horns and Ziyan Xie interview philosopher Susan Neiman, diving into a nuanced discussion of freedom, universalism, and power. Neiman seeks to bridge the gap between academia’s ivory tower and the front lines of political resistance, believing that public engagement and activism is an integral part of the philosopher’s mission. While covering much of the subject matter of Neiman’s newest book, Left is Not Woke, the conversation pushes past the ideological infighting about controversial buzzwords that so often derails political discussions to get to the meat of the issues Neiman is passionate about. She grapples with the concepts of tribalism, self-interest, and in- and out-group philosophies in politics, coming out the other side advocating for the universalism that underpins classical leftism and a foundational sense of justice. Neiman tells us to travel, to read, to celebrate the wins we get, and above all, to remain engaged and hopeful. MENTIONED: Carl Schmidt [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/schmitt/] (1888-1985) Martin Heidegger [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/heidegger/] (1889-1976) Hannah Arendt [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/arendt/] (1906-1975) Ground News [https://ground.news/] Susan Neiman’s website [https://www.susan-neiman.com/en/] Left is Not Woke [https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=left-is-not-woke--9781509558308] Audio & Sound Engineering by sadie ibrahim, with additional sound engineering by Najeeb Jones. Critical Currents is a collaborative production of the Wende Museum, Thomas Mann House, and dublab, with episodes airing from the heart of Downtown Los Angeles at the dublab studio. New episodes release monthly throughout the spring and fall, available on all podcast platforms.  Subscribe to Critical Currents and join the conversation!

Listening and Digressing with Paul Holdengräber

In this episode of Critical Currents, interviewer and cultural curator Paul Holdengräber joins hosts Ziyan Xie and Dani Taylor to explore how words, silence, and misunderstanding shape human experience. Renowned for staging encounters that are as much performance as dialogue, Holdengräber calls himself a “curator of public curiosity.” The conversation drifts through pockets and portals, digression and discomfort, improvisation and euphoria. Along the way, Holdengräber reflects on storytelling, collectorship, cultural institutions, and on conversation itself as an act of risk: nerve-wracking, intimate, semi-private, yet always alive with the possibility of surprise and obsessions. With wit, humor, and an untethered spirit, Holdengräber reminds us that the point is not to make a point, but to open the realm of thought. This episode is both a dance and a pause, a reminder that when we truly listen, anything can happen. MENTIONED: Adam Phillips [https://www.lrb.co.uk/contributors/adam-phillips] Walter Benjamin [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Benjamin], The Storyteller: Tales Out of Loneliness [https://www.versobooks.com/products/173-the-storyteller?srsltid=AfmBOorK9HZOPQWaSlup9SB2PltGJ5dL84OdMLJGcLnUnylv0uIK0xw1] Walter Benjamin, Berlin Childhood around 1900 [https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674022225] Dorothy Parker [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/dorothy-parker] Tristan Tzara [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tristan_Tzara] Mike Tyson [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sb1krIZJ7JQ] (interview at NYPL) Aristotle [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristotle], Metaphysics [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphysics_(Aristotle)] Pierre Mac Orlan [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Mac_Orlan] Charlie Mingus [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Mingus] Melvin Gibbs [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melvin_Gibbs] Laurence Sterne [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurence_Sterne] Roland Barthes [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_Barthes], Michelet [https://www.amazon.com/Michelet-Roland-Barthes/dp/0631156356] Van Cliburn [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Cliburn] Werner Herzog [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Herzog] Patti Smith [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33QXPCAdoX8] Audio & Sound Engineering by sadie ibrahim, with additional sound engineering by Najeeb Jones. Critical Currents is a collaborative production of the Wende Museum, Thomas Mann House, and dublab, with episodes airing from the heart of Downtown Los Angeles at the dublab studio. New episodes release monthly throughout the spring and fall, available on all podcast platforms.  Subscribe to Critical Currents and join the conversation!

Picturing the Universe with Lois Rosson

In this episode of Critical Currents, Student Council Members Stella Horns and Ziyan Xie speak with space historian and writer Lois Rosson. She is bridging the gap by exploring how art can transport us out of our own atmosphere and into the alien landscapes of foreign planets–and by pointing out how those landscapes aren’t all that alien afterall. The hidden or implicit messages within the visual culture of the space race reveal deep biases and anxieties; examining them helps us better understand our broader society and maybe even ourselves. Rosson questions assumptions like the idea that machine-like photorealism is the most objective method of image production, and turns the lens of fine art analysis upon NASA’s visual commissions. Next, she puts science fiction and the metaphor of the final frontier under the microscope. The conversation approaches Rosson’s research topic from myriad angles and perspectives, giving the audience an hour’s worth of answers and many, many more interesting questions to ponder. MENTIONED: Patricia Bridges [https://lowell.edu/lowell-and-the-space-race/] Vija Celmins [https://www.sfmoma.org/artist/vija_celmins/] NASA’s Artist Cooperation Program [https://airandspace.si.edu/explore/stories/nasa-art-program] The International Association of Astronomical Artists [https://iaaa.org/] In the Stream of Stars: Soviet/American Space Art Book [https://www.budsartbooks.com/product/in-the-stream-of-stars-the-soviet-american-art-book/] edited by William K Hartmann, Andrei Sokolov, Ron Miller, and Vitaly Myagkov Solaris [https://english.lem.pl/index.php/works/novels/solaris] by Stanislaw Lem The Truth and Other Stories [https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262545068/the-truth-and-other-stories/] by Stanislaw Lem 2001: A Space Odyssey [https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062622/] dir. Stanley Kubrick Picturing the Cosmos: Hubble Space Telescope Images and the Astronomical Sublime [https://www.upress.umn.edu/9780816679577/picturing-the-cosmos/] by Elizabeth A. Kessler Octavia Butler [https://www.octaviabutler.com/theauthor] (1947-2006) Crop Rotation [https://www.astronautical.art/artworks/crop-rotation] Lois Rosson’s Website [https://www.loisrosson.com/] Metal Hurlant [https://www.humanoids.com/book/1482] Audio & Sound Engineering by sadie ibrahim. Critical Currents is a collaborative production of the Wende Museum, Thomas Mann House, and dublab, with episodes airing from the heart of Downtown Los Angeles at the dublab studio. New episodes release monthly throughout the spring and fall, available on all podcast platforms.  Subscribe to Critical Currents and join the conversation!

Rosecrans Baldwin says LA isn't going to prom with you unless you ask it

In this spring episode of Critical Currents, best-selling author and journalist Rosecrans Baldwin joins hosts Dani Taylor and Ziyan Xie for a wide-ranging conversation. Baldwin bridges gaps by recording and retelling stories that bind people within an intersubjective urban horizon. Since moving to Los Angeles, he has become entangled with its contradictions, its mythologies, and its shifting textures. Drawing from his own obsessions and recurring motifs—the city as narrative, as psyche, and as a “city-state,” in his words—Baldwin reflects on the heart of his creative practice: articulating the voices and everyday truths of others. The episode is witty, poignant, chaotic, and sharp, as Baldwin keeps the conversation pulsing with surprising anecdotes and hard-won insights. What emerges is a compelling lens for tuning into, and acting within, our contemporary urban lives—caught, as ever, in the push and pull between disaster and hope. MENTIONED: Jonathan Gold [https://www.latimes.com/people/jonathan-gold] (1960-2018) Jade Chang [https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2131108.Jade_Chang] Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir [https://www.djwaldie.com/holy-land] by D.J. Waldie Everything Now: Lessons from the City-State of Los Angeles [https://www.rosecransbaldwin.com/everything-now] by Rosecrans Baldwin Charles Bukowski [https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/charles-bukowski] (1920-1994) Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/wittgenstein/#TracLogiPhil] by Ludwig Wittgenstein Rosecrans Baldwin’s Website [https://www.rosecransbaldwin.com/] Rosecrans Baldwin’s Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/rosecransbaldwin] Audio & Sound Engineering by sadie ibrahim. Critical Currents is a collaborative production of the Wende Museum, Thomas Mann House, and dublab, with episodes airing from the heart of Downtown Los Angeles at the dublab studio. New episodes release monthly throughout the spring and fall, available on all podcast platforms.  Subscribe to Critical Currents and join the conversation!