A climate scientist and an architect discuss how design can be a force for positive environmental change.
“I certainly remember, as a child growing up in the UK, we had a lot more snow than we do recently,” says UK-based climate scientist Ed Hawkins in this month’s episode of the Magazine podcast. Hawkins’s work, which visualizes the globe’s warming temperatures over the last 160 years, is striking in more ways than one, showing us just how quickly and dramatically the environment has been changing.
But climate change is more than escalating temperatures. It has tangible effects on how people live, and architects like Marina Tabassum have been using design as a tool to address hazardous conditions like flooding and soil erosion. For this Earth Month edition of the Magazine Podcast, we’ll also hear from Tabassum about her collaboration with Bangladesh’s landless populations and her project Khudi Bari (tiny house).
Access a transcript of the conversation at https://www.moma.org/magazine/articles/1212.
--------
22:38
Frequency Gardens: This Room Feels Like a Hug
Listen to a teen-led conversation with DonChristian Jones, about building spaces for belonging and memory.
When artist DonChristian Jones started at MoMA as the inaugural Adobe Creative Resident, they created a vision for working with young people to share their stories about what art and community meant to them. In the summer of 2024, DonChristian—through their Residency at MoMA, along with the nonprofit they run, Public Assistant—and the Lower Eastside Girls Club collaborated on Frequency Gardens, a summer program and radio show.
Over the course of a month, eight teens learned how to record and edit audio, conduct live interviews, and tell their stories through art. Four of the teen participants interviewed DonChristian about their collaborative process and what it was like to hear themselves as part of the exhibition.
Read a transcript of the audio: https://www.moma.org/magazine/articles/1208
--------
13:27
The Art of Making It Up as You Go
Hear from two artists and an educator about how they use improvisation to engage with art.
Improvisation informs all kinds of creative practice. But how does chance really play out in an artist’s work? And how might it inform their everyday lives?
Choreographer and dancer Mariana Valencia and artist and musician Jazmin “Jazzy” Romero test these ideas in the performance Jacklean (in rehearsal). In this episode of the Magazine podcast, they discuss how chance operates in their work, what a performance score for improvisation looks like, and share more about their collaboration. Their story of friendship and innovation is bookended by anecdotes from Sarah Dinkelacker, an educator at MoMA who uses improvisation to help people engage with art. Tune in to hear more about improvisation as a tool for life—a way to make it up as you go and move through the world with others.
Access a transcript of the conversation at https://www.moma.org/magazine/articles/1201
--------
27:58
Can Loneliness Open the Door to Love?
The future of this complex emotion is still being written, but its history can offer interesting insights on our present day.
“ Everybody fundamentally wants to be loved…to feel like they belong,” says historian Fay Bound Alberti. “But many people don’t find that, or they think about romantic love as the answer to all of their problems.” As a result, many of us end up feeling something else entirely: loneliness. Recent scientific research has described loneliness as a “modern epidemic,” an experience that can pose a threat to our health. While there is truth to these claims, they risk simplifying the complexity of this experience.
For this year’s Valentine’s Day episode of the Magazine podcast we speak to Professor Fay Bound Alberti, author of A Biography of Loneliness. She guides us through the history of this emotion—its roots in the modern era and the ways it has been depicted in the work of artists. The podcast also revisits last year’s conversation with Dr. Stephanie Cacioppo; alongside Professor Alberti, she offers strategies for reframing our perceptions of love and loneliness.
Access a transcript of the conversation at https://www.moma.org/magazine/articles/1184
--------
22:43
How can art help with feelings of grief?
Hear from artists, writers, and therapists about what happens when art and grief collide.
When was the last time you grieved? What is for a person or an animal? A place or a thing? Did you experience grief at the loss of something intangible? These questions are not meant to cause pain. Rather, they offer an opportunity to acknowledge the grief that may be hiding within us—even if it’s been several years since you experienced the loss.
Many artists have used their talents to document, understand, and share their experiences of death, dying, grief, and loss. In this Magazine podcast episode, we discuss three of these artists: Kay WalkingStick, Georg Kolbe, and Käthe Kollwitz. We’ll explore how grief entered their lives and how art helped them see it in new ways. We’ll also hear from a somatic therapist and a thanatologist (a person who studies death and grief). Together, they’ll help us make sense of this complex experience that affects our bodies, minds, and spirits, and discuss the role of art in helping us heal.
Access a transcript of the conversation here: https://www.moma.org/magazine/articles/1178
Colombia