Top Rank Podcast

After a brief hiatus as we transitioned into this new year and decade, we are back in the booth with Jessica Lynne, a writer and cultural critic from coastal Virginia and co-founder of ARTS.BLACK, an online journal that publishes art criticism from Black perspectives. We spoke with Jess about the craft of criticism, the relationship between research, love and vulnerability, and the art of finding...

Who has the power to write history and how has the digital age transformed this process? On this episode, we speak with Professor Maria Cotera about her approach to grassroots community history-making with the Chicana por mi Raza Digital Memory Collective, an ongoing Chicana feminist history project documenting the oral histories and personal archives of women across the U.S. We speak with Profess...

Salome Asega is a NYC based artist, educator and researcher whose work engages with the intersection of technology, design and social justice. Currently, she is the Technology Fellow at the Ford Foundation's Creativity and Free Expression program area, and a director of Powrplnt, a digital art community organization for youth in Brooklyn. On this episode, we chat with Salome about her dynamic inte...

On this episode, we spoke with our friends Mia & Danielle from the new podcast "New York's Loudest" about their passion and expertise in the cannabis industry. From chatting about our first experiences with weed, to diving into the debates surrounding its legalization, our discussion highlights the deeply personal & political stakes of cannabis use. Check out "New York's Loudest" across all platfo...

Kimberly M. Jenkins is a leading expert on the intersections of race and the fashion industry. In the midst of Gucci's recent controversies, Kimberly has recently become the brand’s first in-house scholar, for which she will consult on responsible design practices that do not invoke racial stereotypes and iconography. We spoke with Kimberly on what the study of race and fashion means to her, and h...

On this episode of the Top Rank Podcast, we had the pleasure of speaking with Jonathan González — multidisciplinary performance artist, professor, farmer and dear friend of ours. We chatted about his NYC upbringing, his ever-evolving performance practice, and the politics of identity in the murky value systems of contemporary art. Follow Jonathan's work on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jona...

For our 20th episode, we did something we never have done before - we interviewed each other! After three years of making this show, we realized we never properly introduced ourselves. For this episode, we chat about the story of our friendship and the ways consumerism shaped our childhoods & informed our ongoing *critical* interest in globalization, branding, and identity. For more, follow us on...

There is no biological experience more fundamental than birth. However, the ongoing conversation in the US between medical doctors, natural-birth practitioners, researchers, and mothers about what could and should be a safe and positive birth experience has remained extraordinarily controversial. For some, midwifery & doula care are complementary methods of maternal care that are being more freque...

There is no biological experience more fundamental than birth. However, the ongoing conversation in the US between medical doctors, natural-birth practitioners, researchers, and mothers about what could and should be a safe and positive birth experience has remained extraordinarily controversial. For some, midwifery & doula care are complementary methods of maternal care that are being more freque...

There is no biological experience more fundamental than birth. However, the ongoing conversation in the US between medical doctors, natural-birth practitioners, researchers, and birthing people about what could and should be a safe and positive birth experience has remained extraordinarily controversial. For some, doula care are complementary methods of maternal care that are being more frequently...

There is no biological experience more fundamental than birth. However, the ongoing conversation in the US between medical doctors, natural-birth practitioners, researchers, and mothers about what could and should be a safe and positive birth experience has remained extraordinarily controversial. For some, midwifery & doula care are complementary methods of maternal care that are being more freque...

There is no biological experience more fundamental than birth. However, the ongoing conversation in the US between medical doctors, natural-birth practitioners, researchers, and mothers about what could and should be a safe and positive birth experience has remained extraordinarily controversial. For some, midwifery & doula care are complementary methods of maternal care that are being more freque...

Feminism has reached new levels of mass popularity. Such a shift in public discourse and top line awareness about the daily realities of gender inequality must be acknowledged and celebrated. Yet, it begs many questions: What are the feminist ideas that are becoming popularized, circulated, and, sold today? Who does pop culture feminism benefit? Who might it foreclose and even erase? How do we har...

Recorded live from Abrons Arts Center in New York City, this episode of the Top Rank Podcast features Desmond Napoles, aka "Desmond is Amazing," who at just 11 years old, has made an international name for himself as a drag performer, LGBT advocate, and social media influencer with over 100K followers on Instagram. Marcel & Isabel had a lively chat with Desmond on what it is like to have such a la...

On this episode, Marcel & Isabel chat with Zenat Begum, the owner of Playground Coffee Shop - a multidisciplinary cafe, bookstore, event space and community non profit in the Bedford Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn. In addition to learning about Zenat's life as young, New York native and business owner in a rapidly gentrifying Brooklyn, she also offers insight on the challenges and triumphs of...

On episode 15 of the Top Rank Podcast, “Resource Generation” co-hosts Isabel Flower and Marcel Rosa-Salas spoke with Holly Fetter and Dominique Tan, representatives from the nonprofit organization Resource Generation. For two decades, Resource Generation has been advising and enabling young people with wealth and class privilege in the United States to work towards the equitable distribution of we...

On episode 14 of the Top Rank Podcast, “The New Racial Science” co-hosts Isabel Flower and Marcel Rosa-Salas spoke with Professor Dorothy Roberts about the politics of genetic ancestry tests. In 2017, over 12 million Americans had their DNA analyzed by genetic ancestry testing companies. This recent boom in popularity has turned “knowing your roots” into one of the biggest consumer products of the...

On episode 13 of the Top Rank Podcast, “Thick/er Black Lines,” co-hosts Isabel Flower and Marcel Rosa-Salas spoke with Rianna Jade Parker, Hudda Khaireh, and Aurella Yussuf founding members of the London based curatorial collective Thick/er Black Lines. Thick/er Black Lines is an interdisciplinary collective that brings together art criticism and, cultural studies, as well as archival, and activis...

On episode 12 of the Top Rank Podcast, co-hosts Isabel Flower and Marcel Rosa-Salas speak with Cecilia Palmeiro and Verónica Gago, founding members of Argentinian feminist movement and collective Ni Una Menos. Ni Una Menos (which translates to Not One Less) combats femicide—the intentional killing of women because they are female—as well as all gender based-violence. They are committed to changing...

On episode 11 of the Top Rank Podcast, “High Performance Hijabs,” co-hosts Isabel Flower and Marcel Rosa-Salas speak with Arshiya Kherani, founder and CEO Sukoon Active. Sukoon is a New York-based apparel company that designs inclusive activewear for women. Kherani, an active runner, launched Sukoon in 2016 after years of going without high-quality workout clothing that aligned with her Muslim fai...

This summer, an exhibition opened at the Museum of Sex in New York City titled NSFW: Female Gaze. Organized in collaboration with Vice’s Creators platform, and on view through April 2018, this show includes the work of 25 young and/or emerging female artists. The show’s two part title invokes Laura Mulvey’s canonical 1975 feminist film theory about the masculine cinematic perspective, as well as t...

Few would dispute the immense social, cultural, and political significance of creative production in realizing our potential as human beings and in fostering both inventive and nurturing communities. Creative labor is a critical part of our social ecosystem. Yet, artists—especially in the US—are often unable to make a living wage from their physical and/or intellectual labor or its products. The t...

Over the past decade, abuse of prescription opioids such as Oxycontin and Percocet has come to affect over two million Americans, precipitating a quadrupling in overdose fatalities. The spike in opioid related deaths within White communities in particular has visibly shocked and alarmed the media, the public, and policy makers. The so-called “new epidemic” has been widely and consistently framed a...

For Episode 7, co-hosts Marcel Rosa-Salas and Isabel Flower spoke with three guests—Khalila Douze (Social Media Editor at The Outline), Kimberly Drew (Social Media Manager at the Metropolitan Museum of Art) and Rawiya Kameir (Culture Editor at The Outline)—about the intersections of social media and identity politics in their professional and personal lives. Within the last 30 or so years, the phr...

On episode 6 co-hosts Isabel Flower and Marcel Rosa-Salas speak with New York-based activists Elaine Paredes and Lori Adelman about Planned Parenthood’s essential work, the current state of women’s health-related legislation (domestic and overseas), and how we might prepare for what’s to come. Paredes and Adelman lay out the implications of defunding Planned Parenthood and the repercussions of and...