Bad at Sports

• Episode 901: Florencia Rodriguez and CAB 6

  In this episode, we sit down with architect, editor, and curator Florencia Rodriguez, Artistic Director of the Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) 6. We dig into the ideas shaping this year’s edition—titled “Shift: Architecture in Times of Radical Change”—and her approach to curating a biennial that centers transformation, public space, and critical imagination. Rodriguez reflects on her journey from Buenos Aires to Chicago, the founding of PLOT and SOILED, and her evolving relationship to criticism as both practice and provocation. We explore how writing and curating can act as architectural tools, shaping not only discourse but the environments we inhabit. We also soft-launch Bad at Sports’ partnership with CAB 6—an evolving audio collaboration that will track the biennial’s voices, urgencies, and ideas throughout the year. Mentioned in this episode: Chicago Architecture Biennial CAB 6: Shift – Architecture in Times of Radical Change Florencia Rodriguez – SOILED Florencia Rodriguez – PLOT Journal (Spanish/archived)

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• Bad at Sports Episode 900: Robert Pruitt

  Recorded live at Comics Sans Frontières, Houston For our milestone 900th episode, we headed to Houston and sat down with the brilliant Robert Pruitt, live at the Cats Conference: Comics Sans Frontières—a gathering of artists, thinkers, and cultural workers reshaping the future of comics, narrative, and speculative visual worlds. Live at a bar after the second conference day. So, this is never going to make it to the radio. Cuss-y MacCusserson shows up and healthy arguments occur. Pruitt, known for his richly layered drawings and deep engagement with Black cultural production, walks us through the politics of representation, the influence of comics and sci-fi on his work, and the shifting cultural landscape of the Gulf Coast. We talk materials, mythology, the beauty of inconsistency, and what it means to make work that traffics in both critique and care. Let’s take a moment to reflect on what it means to reach 900 episodes of Bad at Sports—and what’s next for us in the ever-evolving, ever-weird world of contemporary art discourse. Nah. Let’s do it later this week at EXPO Chicago. Mentioned in this episode: Robert Pruitt – Artist Website The Drawing Center Comics Sans Frontières Conference The Studio Museum in Harlem Project Row Houses EXPO Chicago 2025 Bad at Sports: The Center of Discourse (link coming soon!)

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• Bad at Sports Episode 899: Jessica Snow & Liga Spunde

  Gremlins, Borders, and Recipes for Resistance This week we’re joined by Jessica Snow and Liga Spunde, two artists navigating the world through comics, street theater, and occasionally letterpress and photoshop. Jessica Snow walks us through her wide-ranging practice—from illustration and letterpress to building massive puppets and organizing street performances to attempting to confronting the entangled realities of border politics, ecological collapse, and resistance. Her work with Kitchen Table Press and collaborative projects like Recipes of Resistance blend protest and performance into shared, tangible experiences that challenge the quiet violence of contemporary life. Meanwhile, Liga Spunde brings us deep into a psychological terrain. Working with a unique computer-generated drawing style, Liga explores the emotional weight of the traumas of contemporary life—from the Russian invasion of Ukraine to the various ways we experienced the pandemic to the existential task of making a 6 page comic. Her work resists tidy narratives, instead making room for ambiguity, emotional excess, fragile and detailed humor, and a specific fascination with Gremlins. This episode was recorded as part of Chris Sperandio’s Comics Without Borders (but say it in French) event at Rice University—an international gathering of artists, publishers, and thinkers reframing what comics can do in turbulent times. (More here: Comics Without Borders.) We cover a lot of ground—Latvia’s premier comic publisher, post-crisis psychology, DIY print culture, and why strange books and big puppets might still save us all. This is Bad at Sports at its finest: loose, live, urgent and embedded, and full of strange joy. Links & Projects Mentioned: Jessica Snow: jessicasnowart.com Kitchen Table Press: kitchentablepress.org Recipes of Resistance: recipesofresistance.com Liga Spunde: ligaspunde.com kuš! komikss: https://komikss.lv/ Comics Without Borders @ Rice University: https://cats.rice.edu/comics-sans-frontieres-march-20-24-2025/ Christopher Sperandio: https://pinkojoe.com/

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• Bad at Sports Episode 898: Wafaa Bilal and Bana Kattan

  This week. Dana’s back? She and Duncan sit down with artist Wafaa Bilal and curator Bana Kattan to discuss Bilal’s powerful and deeply personal mid-career retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Known for his provocative, often participatory works that grapple with war, trauma, displacement, and surveillance, Bilal has long made the body both a site of resistance and a vessel of memory. We talk through key moments in Bilal’s practice—from early performance pieces like Domestic Tension to newer, installation-based works—and reflect on how his work has shifted, expanded, and endured over the past two decades. Kattan, who curated the exhibition, shares insights into the retrospective’s structure and the challenges of contextualizing work that refuses easy categorization. While reminiscing, Duncan and Wafaa also talk through what it means to make art as a form of witnessing, how museums hold space for pain and politics, and why Bilal still believes in the power of beauty… (Spoiler: Duncan isn’t sure, but Bana and Dana side with Wafaa.) Links & References: Wafaa Bilal's website: http://wafaabilal.com MCA Chicago Exhibition Info: https://mcachicago.org/Exhibitions/2024/Wafaa-Bilal Bana Kattan bio & curatorial work: https://mcachicago.org/About/Who-We-Are/Staff/Bana-Kattan Domestic Tension (aka “Shoot an Iraqi” project): https://wafaabilal.com/domestic-tension Book: Shoot an Iraqi: Art, Life, and Resistance Under the Gun (co-authored with Kari Lydersen) – https://www.amazon.com/Shoot-Iraqi-Life-Resistance-Under/dp/087286491X @wafaabilal on Instagram @mcachicago on Instagram

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• Bad at Sports Episode 897: Architecture, Documentaries, and Changing Minds with Kyle Bergman and Ashley Lukasik

   In this episode, we talk Architectural Doucmentaries, Graphic Design, the cross over of the art and design audiences, and whether or not social practice could be a job: Kyle Bergman, is the mastermind behind the Architecture & Design Film Festival (ADFF), takes us through the wild ride of showcasing global architectural stories and films. He shares the festival’s international charm and its role in making architecture the star of the show.  Ashley Lukasik, filmmaker and Principal of Murmur Ring, joins us to talk about The New Bauhaus documentary (Maholy’s got swag) and the work she’s producing at Murmur Ring. They’re out to change the minds of makers and using social practice and design thinking strategies on the practioneers and the designers. Links and Resources: Architecture & Design Film Festival (ADFF): ADFF’s global tour of must-see design docs. (adfilmfest.com) Chicago Architecture Center (CAC): The CAC is where the architectural magic happens. (architecture.org) Murmur Ring: Ashley Lukasik’s team is all about immersive experiences that challenge what it means to be human in a digital age. (murmur-ring.com) 'The New Bauhaus' Documentary: Get the lowdown on the Bauhaus movement and why it’s still cooler than you might think. (https://www.thenewbauhaus.com/)  

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