Humor and the Abject Podcast

Time Zero is a new podcast about the nuclearized world from Humor and the Abject creator and host Sean J Patrick Carney. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/time-zero/id1804227201 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6c4aw0DTyhYVcZkxciYb8T?si=30f54ea6d2254e71 Learn more, get an essay version of each episode, and support the show at: http://timez...

It’s slime time. In 2022, artists Christopher Michlig and Oliver Payne released, respectively, the book File Under: Slime and the film A Brief History of Slime. At the time, each was completely unaware of the other’s slime-related research. On this episode, they join to discuss peak slime culture of the 1980s and 90s, the recent resurgence of slime through YouTube and TikTok, California as a cultu...

Filmmaker and artist Adam Khalil joins the podcast to talk collaboration, nonlinear time, irony’s extant potential, and the aesthetics of Indigenous cinema. Among Khalil’s many film projects are Nosferasta: First Bite (2021), Empty Metal (2018), and INAATE/SE/ (2016). Khalil is a co-founder of the public secret society New Red Order, which you can get involved with by dialing 1 (888) NEW-RED1. If...

New York writer Elvia Wilk joins to discuss her recent collection of essays on ecologies, “Death By Landscape” (Soft Skull Press, 2022). Using an accessible approach she calls “fan-nonfiction,” Wilk’s latest book catalouges and considers a diverse group of writers, while ruminating on plant-becoming, slow apocalypses, mysticism, LARPing, trauma, the New Weird, consent, and black holes. The outro m...

Humor and the Abject has a special treat for all you screedlers out there: an interview with Japanther co-founder Ian Vanek. He’s about to release “Puppy Dog Ice Cream,” a new book all about Japanther’s 13-year run, published by Outlandish Press. We talked about buzzing, vibing, and dancing; Brooklyn DIY in the mid-00s; one-man motorcycle/sampler tours; the rainy charm of the Pacific Northwest; bl...

Ohhhhhhhhhhh, babyyyyyyyy. It’s the lucky thirteenth episode of the DSA Podcast, starring your pals Darcie, Sean, and Azikiwe. To celebrate, the power trio ripped into some of the most important topics of the day including Jeff Bezos delivering packages to the moon, raccoon roommates, fighting a cat, Alec Baldwin sightings, and more. The outro music is “True Romance” by Tiger Army.

New York writer Charlie Markbreiter (@BerlantBro) has written about contemporary art, humor, and edgelordism for The New Inquiry, Artforum, Baffler, Momus, and Garage, among others. On this week’s episode, we talked about their interest in comedy and humorlessness; a recent interview they conducted with scholar Lauren Berlant; why the NYMPHOWARS podcast subverts right wing and liberal expectations...

Janet40 is the Mexico City-based curatorial and production platform of Patricia Siller and Luis Nava. They’ve been in Austin for the last month as part of the Unlisted Projects residency program at the Museum of Human Achievement. While in town, they’ve been working on prototyping and fabricating objects for artists Canek Zapata (Mexico City) and Hannah Dubbe (Austin). We got the chance to get tog...

It’s my big birthday week, babies. To celebrate, I caught up with an old friend, artist Beth Campbell from New York. She was visiting Austin this past week to unveil a new public art project as part of the Landmarks collection at the University of Texas. I got to see Beth do a great conversation with philosopher Timothy Morton, who also wrote a nice essay about her work available via the link belo...

Azikiwe is finally back from his travels all around North America, so it’s time for another installment of everybody’s favorite podcast within the podcast, the DSA Podcast (Darcie, Sean, and Azikiwe). With the remake of “Pet Sematary” dropping this week, we thought it only appropriate to do a comprehensive review of the original film that is now 30 years old. We also learn a lot about different ty...

New York writer Mike Pepi makes his debut on the Humor and the Abject podcast to talk about the important topics currently ripping up your mind: the smooth jazz rock of Steely Dan; parvenus; the Mueller Report; restaurant lighting design; why museums are failing to confront platform capitalism; how many times one can legally donate to Bernie; that classic libertarian love of street art; the twiste...

March is apparently Toronto month, because we’ve got artist Bridget Moser joining this week. Bridget is currently an artist-in-residence in Cleveland at SPACES, where she’s got a solo exhibition of brand new work, generated in-residence, opening up next month. Over the course of this episode, we got to talk about many important topics including: the slow death of mall culture; how ugly Toronto is;...

Toronto artists Amy Lam and Jon McCurley have been collaborating for 13 years as Life of a Craphead. On this week’s episode, we talked about their current exhibition, “Entertaining Every Second,” which has toured throughout Canada to its current site of Montreal; self-organizing a 30-show live even series called Doored; why cutting your teeth on stage makes you a better sculptor; the glaring probl...

It’s episode 100 of the Humor and the Abject podcast! To celebrate this unholy milestone, we brought back our very first guest ever: Darcie Wilder. THIS IS NOT JUST A DSA PODCAST WITHOUT AZIKIWE. Over the course of this latest conversation, Darcie and I discussed her weekly conceptual newsletter, “sentences”; the Elizabeth Holmes Theranos scandal; the nuances of reporting for jury duty; that time...

Western Mass artist Emma Kohlmann was visiting Austin for a printmaking residency at the University of Texas last week, and was kind enough to drop by to record an episode. We talked about zines and doing book fairs; bakeries and why sourdough is printmaking; liberal arts colleges; Scooby Doo; flirting with anti-civ tendencies; punk festivals; assuming you can’t be an artist; our siblings; the 200...

As part of fabled collective Paper Rad, artist Jacob Ciocci co-produced animations, video collages, and HTML works that have had a profound influence on almost every artist working with technology today—whether they realize it or not. On this week’s episode, Jacob joins from his new home of Chicago to discuss fatherhood; his early days as a student at Oberlin College with Cory Arcangel and Paul B...

Performance artist Jordan Wayne Long moved to Los Angeles in 2013 with his collaborator Matt Glass. Over the last six years, they’ve written, directed, and produced multiple film projects and taken home numerous Emmys as HCT.Media. On this week’s episode, Jordan joins first to talk about shipping himself in a crate across the country, tackling PTSD through performance, the complications of audienc...

Comedian Lorelei Ramirez returns to the podcast to talk about why founding—and sustaining—their monthly show NOT DEAD YET was important; the behind-the-scenes process of producing an 11-minute infomercial epic called “Pervert Everything” for Adult Swim; collaborating to identify resources for community organizing through the event series Incite Action (and how you can get involved); curating a new...

With partial federal government shutdown over, the Humor and the Abject furlough comes to an end. We’re kicking off 2019 with the 11th episode of the podcast within the podcast, the DSA Podcast, which stands for Darcie, Sean, and Azikiwe. Get yourself into the groove of reopened national parks, a funded TSA, and federal I-9 work verifications courtesy of a conversation blossoming with 2019 predict...

Humor and the Abject is taking a little holiday break, but to celebrate the end of 2018, it’s episode 10 of the podcast within the podcast, The DSA Podcast (Darcie, Sean, and Azikiwe). On this Christmas-themed episode, the comrades discuss their holiday plans, recent encounters with cinema, a super obscure book about Jesus that Darice has, screaming tips, the upcoming season of True Detective, and...

New York poet Peter BD is about to release a new mixtape, “Milk & Henny,” a follow-up to his 2018 book of the same name from Inpatient Press. Peter and I connected to talk about accidentally channeling Jack Handy, his broad animal care skills, the “Milk & Henny” origin story, writing in Gmail drafts, studying biology, JC Chasez, inadvertently becoming an alt-lit darling, collaborating with musicia...

Dena Winter, FKA May Waver, is an artist and production designer known for her audiovisual explorations of intimacy, environment, memory, and selfhood in the so-called digital age. She joins Humor and the Abject this week from the frozen tundras of her home in St. Paul, MN to talk about the advent of her online alter ego May Waver, the value of tenderness in art and life, self and ego, perceptions...

Are you feeling experimental? I am. On this week’s episode, I’m trying out something that I hope to do more of in the future: writers reading their work. To break the ice, I’ve opted to offer myself up as the sacrificial lamb and read two pieces of my own. The first, “Jalipaz Kirkham: In Profile,” is something I wrote for the release event of poet Peter BD’s book “Milk & Henny” last spring. The se...

Darcie, Sean, and Azikiwe are back for another podcast-within-the-podcast, and this time they’re talking about cheese—and animals! The outro music is “Cheese Roll Call” from Pinky and the Brain.

Photographer Matthew Leifheit’s most recent body of work, “Fire Island Night,” is on view at Deli Gallery in Brooklyn through December 2nd. He joined Humor and the Abject this week to talk about his independent photo journal MATTE, trying to maintain a practice while juggling multiple adjunct teaching gigs, the importance of building trust and allowing for coincidence in photography, his years as...