The New Exchange with Ken Grand-Pierre

It’s a colossal privilege to welcome HAAi to the finale of season 11. We close this season with a pointed conversation about creativity, vulnerability, and what it means to remain human in an increasingly algorithmic world. Across her acclaimed album HUMANiSE , HAAi crafts music that feels simultaneously intimate and expansive, using electronic production to explore connection, identity, and the c...

For over 15 years, Michelle Grace Hunder has built one of the most distinctive careers in music photography, capturing everyone from emerging artists to global stars while helping shape the visual identity of Australian hip-hop. An ARIA Award-winning photographer and official Nikon Creator based in Melbourne, Michelle's work has appeared on the covers of  Rolling Stone  and  NME , and she'...

Whether it's through her music, books, public speaking, or collaborations with orchestras, Dessa's work consistently returns to human connection. This is very much the "real talk" episode of the season, where we explore questions of community, the strange times we're living through, and why creating art is ultimately an act of reaching beyond ourselves. If you've ever won...

Ya know, something that becomes more apparent with every passing year is how rare it is to find artists who continue to expand their creative world decades into their career. Morcheeba have been doing exactly that for more than thirty years, and on this episode of the pod I’m joined by Skye Edwards, the band’s frontwoman and one of the defining voices of 90’s trip-hop. With a catalog that has effo...

Something that never gets old is the joy of bringing you a band I know you're going to love. Antwerp-based indie pop band High Hi are the kind of group you hear once and immediately connect with, thanks to their infectious blend of vitality and fun. Across their fourth album, Noonday Demon , the band perfectly captures the frenetic yet ever-present energy of anxiety. There's an urgency run...

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: a musician retreats to a remote area to write songs that are deeply emotive and pierce through the veil of urban modernity? You’d be forgiven for mistaking today’s guest for following that path, but it’s quite startling how much she’s actually carving out her own. RAKEL is an award-winning singer-songwriter from Iceland, whose debut album, A Place To Be, is...

This is without a doubt the most selfish episode of the season. Pillow Queens and Soda Blonde are my two favourite bands from Ireland, and getting an excuse to catch up with them both is a treat too good to pass up. Though they sound massively different, both of these bands have a shared ethos of human connection being paramount, along with the responsibility of facilitating spaces where that can...

OK, so the intro to this episode runs the risk of being a soapbox of sorts, but when you have an artist that’s so steeped in intentionality…it’s next to impossible not to reflect on the current state of things. Sharone Halevy is an abstract expressionist painter (based here in New York) that has gone on to deeply inspire me not just from her work, but also from what that work means to her on a per...

Austra is the moniker of Canadian singer-songwriter Katie Stelmanis, a band and project that continuously reflects Stelmanis’s thoughts on….well, pretty much everything. The songs on the latest Austra album, Chin Up Buttercup, traverse the madness left behind after a breakup. You know the one, those breakups that not only shake us up emotionally but leave us wondering “what the hell is this life e...

(Thanks for the help on this one, Juliet!) Here we have someone who is most likely the coolest person to ever grace this podcast. Say hello to the badass punk that is Keaton Kustler, an LA-based creator who dabbles in creative direction, event production, brand development, project management, content strategy, and modeling. However, she’s most known for her favourite activity: running, and the wa...

Something that I learned a long time ago is that there can be an art to rambling. They’re conversations you can be part of (or overhear) where you find yourself thinking “wait, how did we get here?” and somehow, the flow will tie back to an overall topic. That’s how it feels whenever I chat with my old friend, ALA.NI, a London-born singer-songwriter who’s called Paris home for many years. Across 3...

This episode is a bit of a special one, as I’m joined by Natalie and Meegan of JOSEPH for a conversation that feels just as much of a life update as it does an interview. Their new album, Closer to Happy , digs into that strange space of realizing your life doesn’t quite look how you imagined, and learning to be okay with that. We get into how that mindset shaped the songs, and how the band contin...

One of the most beautiful lessons we can learn in this life is how having clarity on what matters to us can set forth a path for us to walk through. I feel lucky that I’ve met people who’ve echoed that with their actions, and today’s guest does that in spades. Jess DiPierro Obert is an investigative photojournalist, filmmaker, producer, and visual artist whose work has focused on people who’ve had...

For a lot of people, the idea of reaching superstardom and holding on to it is a focal life goal. But what happens when you reach that and realize that actually, there’s much more to life? That’s where the story starts with Béatrice Martin (aka Cœur de pirate), a celebrated singer-songwriter from Montreal who’s had a career that feels uniquely reflective of her growth. That growth has come about f...

Being able to give someone their flowers isn’t new to me (especially on this podcast), but I do think the way it happens in this episode is particularly unique. You see, today’s guest, Kimbra, is an old friend who’s gone on to inspire me immensely. A large part of it is due to how, for Kimbra, there is no delineation between artist and human. She’s the kind of artist who lives and breathes her art...

This might just be the most timely episode we’ve ever released on this feed. The current state of the world continues to be this perpetual sh*t cycle of…well….sh*t, and with that, it’s easier than ever to fall into despair. But it’s usually in those moments where life feels its heaviest, that we’re reminded of what really matters, which is simply each other. This last episode of In The Long Run is...

You know the end of  Ferris Bueller  when he looks straight at you and says, “You’re still here?” That’s kind of how it feels writing this. Not that we don’t want you to stay (please stay), but this  is  Part 2, so ideally, you’ve listened to Part 1. If not, and you’re listening backwards… bold choice. We respect that kind of independence at The New Exchange. Carry on, dear listener. This episode...

Katie shouting, “What the f%£k is creatine?” pretty much sums this episode up. This two-parter on aging feels like the heart of the series. In this first part, Katie reflects on how her views and feelings of life have shifted over time. We talk about the usual stuff (ya know, run clubs, consumerism, community, etc.) but as the conversation unfolds, it becomes something else entirely. Something I f...

Happy International Women’s Day! To celebrate, we’ve made a special new episode of Creative Maintenance, with an interview featuring my co-host, Laura Harvey, interviewing Neesha Hothi. Neesha is a CEO in PR and marketing with her independent company, Neesh Communications. For over a decade, she’s worked vigorously hard to become a leading voice in Canada’s entertainment industry, with a specialit...

What if the trick to falling back in love with your craft was falling back in love with yourself? That’s not the question that Charlotte OC set out to ask herself, but it’s the answer she’s clearly been met with; the songs off her latest EP being the proof. That EP is called ‘Seriously Love, Go Home’ and though I’ve told you the end of the movie, the journey is what needs to be explored.  Musicall...

There’s a hauntingly familiar way in which loneliness can creep in when you’re surrounded by people. It can feel like such a small thing, but it will gnaw away at you until it’s the dominant thought in your mind. This is a feeling that Katie and I have chatted about in private many times throughout the years, and on this episode, we tackle it head-on. How do you make sense of that specific sense o...

This is another episode that feels unintentionally timely. We all crave escapism, but to many of us, it increasingly feels like the escapism available to us can leave us feeling more detached than intended. Enter in Brooklyn R&B duo Bathe, a group that’s made it their mission to make music that acts as “ a balm for the anxieties of modern life .” Take it from this music lover, the ways in whic...

(Thank you, Heather!). Welcome to the first proper episode of In The Long Run with Katie Dadarria. If you missed the announcement episode, don’t worry, this first episode has been (partially) designed to catch you up to speed. Throughout these episodes, I’m going to be chatting with my dear friend, Katie Dadarria, about a developing personal project she’s working on, which features her interviewin...

I couldn’t be more excited to announce our next mini-series, In The Long Run with Katie Dadarria. Katie is an exceptionally talented photographer and runner based in New York City. Though running has become a focal element of her life, she’s grown hyper-aware of how often the projection of community amongst run clubs can be anything but. Especially regarding older women, who (as Katie puts it) “ar...

I don’t think it’d be a stretch to say that ambition can usually be associated with a lot of tropes. The tortured artist laboring over their craft & resigning themselves to perpetually chasing greatness at the expense of everything (no, this isn’t a review of Marty Supreme, but I did love that movie). But what happens when an artist is able to take ambition and view it through a different lens...