Podcast
Time Sensitive
Hosted by The Slowdown · EN
Candid, revealing long-form conversations with leading minds about their life and work through the lens of time. Host Spencer Bailey interviews each guest about how they think about time broadly and how specific moments in time have shaped who they are today.
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28episodes
Episodes
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Sheila Hicks on Life as a Series of Portals
2w ago01:08:36Tap to summarizeFor our latest “site-specific” episode of Time Sensitive, Spencer meets Sheila Hicks inside her courtyard in Paris’s Saint-Germain-des-Prés neighborhood, where she has called home for more than 60 years. The 91-year-old Nebraska-born artist—widely known for her vibrant, sculptural textile and fiber works—resists any firm classification of what she does, as her multifarious output reflects. Currently, Hicks’s work is on view in a solo exhibition at SFMOMA through Aug. 9, and a two-person exhibition, “Material Matters: Sheila Hicks & Shi Hui,” at Shanghai’s West Bund Museum through Aug. 2. Last year, Knoll Textiles reissued her classic Altiplano collection from 1966 in an updated palette, and a major Milan retrospective, her first in Italy, will open on Nov. 16 at the Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea. On the episode, Hicks discusses her lifelong relationship with textiles, weaving, and perception through materials and environments; her formative travels in South America, Morocco, India, and Japan; and how chance encounters can shape one’s life. Show notes: Sheila Hicks [0:44] Cour de Rohan [3:05] Altiplano (1966) for Knoll Textiles [10:02] Edward Steichen [16:36] Josef Albers [15:03] Yohji Yamamoto [18:57] George Kubler [19:10] Trevor Paglen [28:00] Ford Foundation [28:00] Darren Walker [33:20] Raoul d’Harcourt [37:50] Rue de Seine [38:43] May Day [41:56] Jantar Mantar [55:48] Florence Knoll [58:44] Cristobal Zañartu [58:44] Opening the Archives [58:44] Hanging by a Thread [1:02:57] “Calder: Rêver en équilibre” [1:04:14] Monique Lévi-Strauss [1:05:15] Thaddeus Mosley Pierre Horay
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Valerie June on Joy as a Form of Resistance
4w ago01:18:09Tap to summarizeThe singer-songwriter Valerie June has a gift for writing contemporary songs that feel timeless and as though they could also have existed at various points across the past century. Her expansive layering of Appalachian folk, Delta blues, gospel, soul, early country, and even spiritual jazz, at once down to earth and dreamy, has drawn appreciation from the likes of Bob Dylan, Norah Jones, and Mavis Staples, and for good reason. In true folk tradition, the Grammy-nominated June views her work in one long, multigenerational continuum of American songwriting and storytelling, both ancient and urgent. Not one to chase hits or rush her process, she revels, instead, in a slow, patient devotion to her craft, as her latest album, Owls, Omens, and Oracles, puts on full display. On this episode of Time Sensitive, June discusses songs as vessels capable of preserving and transporting us to once-in-a-lifetime moments, music-making as a mystical act, and the value of prioritizing gradual progress over instant results. Special thanks to our Season 13 presenting partner, L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts. Show notes: Valerie June [04:36] Maps for the Modern World (2021) [06:17] Pema Chödrön [06:17] How We Live Is How We Die (2022) [06:17] The Tibetan Book of the Dead [07:11] Irma Thomas [08:31] Hazrat Khan [12:28] Elizabeth Cotten [12:28] Mississippi John Hurt [17:38] The Order of Time (2017) album by Valerie June [17:38] The Order of Time (2017) book by Carlo Rovelli [25:21] Hitoshi Fugo’s “Flying Frying Pan” series [33:06] Joni Mitchell [38:23] Carla Thomas [26:20] Pushin’ Against A Stone (2013) [43:57] Mavis Staples [1:05:28] Sapiens (2015) by Yuval Noah Harari [1:05:58] The Serviceberry (2024) by Robin Wall Kimmerer [1:09:11] Owls, Omens, and Oracles (2025)
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George Saunders on the Power of Fiction to Enliven the World
May 601:16:03Tap to summarizeThe novelist, essayist, and short-story writer George Saunders—widely celebrated for his novel Lincoln in the Bardo (2017), which won the Man Booker Prize, and book of short stories Tenth of December (2013)—has made it his mission to “de-dullify” the world through his clear-eyed, empathic, often-puckish prose. There’s an unwavering spirit of generosity embedded in the way Saunders tells stories and teaches his craft that ensures his readers and students alike stay along for the ride. Saunders’s curiosity about the afterlife, a recurring motif in his writing, rises to the fore in his latest novel, Vigil, which follows a pair of ghostly figures as they visit the deathbed of a prideful, climate-change-denying Texas oil tycoon. On this episode, he shares how practicing meditation has shifted his approach to writing and his outlook on life, the underlying importance of humor in his work, and why to be a good storyteller is akin to being a good host. Special thanks to our Season 13 presenting partner, Van Cleef & Arpels. Show notes: George Saunders [04:34] Vigil (2026) [04:34] Lincoln in the Bardo (2018) [19:18] Master and Man and Other Stories (1895) [19:18] Tolstoy [27:41] CivilWarLand in Bad Decline (1996) [30:22] Esther Forbes [30:22] Johnny Tremain (1943) [35:03] John Steinbeck [35:03] The Grapes of Wrath (1939) [36:58] Kurt Vonnegut [36:58] Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) [42:13] Terry Eagleton [42:30] Mary Karr [42:43] Jack Handey [47:19] Jimi Hendrix [53:13] Aldous Huxley [56:11] Tobias Wolff [59:22] A Swim in a Pond in the Rain (2021)
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Alma Allen on Connecting to the Primordial Through Art
Apr 2201:11:02Tap to summarizeThere’s an animate quality to the biomorphic sculptures of the self-taught, Utah-born artist Alma Allen. His works, carved from wood, marble, and bronze—and informed by his deep appreciation for the natural world—appear as if they’re living, breathing things, at once prehistoric and futuristic. Far from fixed objects, they eschew any overt symbolism or predetermined narratives. For this “site-specific” episode of Time Sensitive, our milestone 150th, we traveled to Mexico City to sit down with Allen inside his family’s home there to discuss his highest-visibility exhibition yet: “Call Me the Breeze,” a solo presentation at the U.S. Pavilion for the 61st edition of the Venice Biennale, opening May 9 and on view through Nov. 22. In addition to his plans for Venice and how he’s been navigating the noise and public debate around his selection for this year’s U.S. Pavilion, he also delves into the hard-to-pin-down nature of his material-forward sculptures and his peripatetic path to art-world ascendancy. Special thanks to our Season 13 presenting partner, Van Cleef & Arpels. Show notes: Alma Allen [20:04] Issey Miyake [20:04] Todd Oldham [20:04] Julio Espada [26:06] "Call Me the Breeze" (2026) [29:00] Mauricio Rocha [29:00] Isamu Noguchi [32:02] The Sound and the Fury [32:02] Thomas Pynchon [32:02] Samuel Beckett [41:03] Clyfford Still [39:10] Pierre Soulages [50:13] Glenn Adamson [53:00] J.J. Cale [55:41] JB Blunk [57:42] Constantin Brâncuși [57:42] Lynda Benglis [57:42] Louise Bourgeois [57:42] Thaddeus Mosley [59:24] Museo Anahuacalli [1:04:38] Alma Allen on Park Avenue (2025)
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Devon Turnbull on Elevating the Beauty of Sound
Apr 801:09:27Tap to summarizeTo be in a room with one of the artist and audiophile Devon Turnbull’s texture-rich Ojas hi-fi audio systems may be the closest one can get to being in the studio with the musicians themselves. It’s not a stretch to call what he creates “sound sculptures”: Over the past two decades, Turnbull has built up his company Ojas through experimentation, engineering, and deep exploration, and in recent years, his work has been presented at SFMOMA, as well as at Lisson Gallery, both in New York and London. Currently at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum (through July 19), as part of its “Art of Noise” exhibition, he’s showcasing his large-scale “HiFi Pursuit Listening Room Dream No. 3,” with listening sessions on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. On this episode of Time Sensitive, Turnbull discusses why, while there’s a certain spiritual factor to his practice, he wants to “at all costs, avoid the guru complex”; the role of Japan in shaping his understanding of sonic purity; and the synergistic relationship between D.I.Y. culture and his systems. Special thanks to our Season 13 presenting partner, Van Cleef & Arpels. Show notes: Devon Turnbull [01:34] “Art of Noise” [14:24] Hamfests [17:07] Isamu Asano [18:29] Wabi-sabi [18:29] Kanso [18:29] Shibui [18:29] Mingei movement [18:29] Theaster Gates [20:27] Tube Kingdom [20:27] Stereo Sound [20:55] Tamura Transformer Company [26:04] Sound Practices [27:29] Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974) [28:14] Nils Frahm [33:09] Alex Calderwood [33:09] Sarah Andelman [33:09] Virgil Abloh [33:09] James Jebbia [38:43] Toccata and Fugue in D minor [43:24] Karimoku [45:17] Kunichi Nomura [58:45] Arne Jacobsen [58:45] Poul Kjærholm [1:00:20] New Sounds [1:02:35] Fred Again
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Shohei Shigematsu on Why “Memorable Space” Matters
Mar 2501:14:45Tap to summarizeAccording to the Japanese-born, New York–based architect Shohei Shigematsu, there’s such a thing as a building being too refined. What matters most, in his view, is creating what he calls “memorable space”: the antithesis of anything lifeless or lacking a symbiotic relationship to the city or its surroundings. As a long-time partner at the firm OMA, Shigematsu leads its New York studio with a sense of openness, radicality, and unexpectedness. This philosophy connects the dots between his multifarious projects, whether they take the form of the new diamond-like extension to the New Museum in New York; the torquing Faena Forum in Miami; or the Casa Wabi Mushroom Pavilion in Puerto Escondido, Mexico. For this (serendipitously “site-specific”) episode of Time Sensitive, Spencer met with Shigematsu inside a Hotel Chelsea suite, a fitting location for their long-view conversation on cities, urbanism, mixed-use design, and spaces for art and community-building—with a particular focus on the New Museum. They also discuss Shigematsu’s nearly three-decade evolution at OMA, how he has carved his own distinctive path at the firm, and the ways in which his Japaneseness has come alive through several of his recent building designs. Special thanks to our Season 13 presenting partner, Van Cleef & Arpels. Show Notes: Shohei Shigematsu [4:33] Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) [5:10] Rem Koolhaas [5:47] S,M,L,XL (1995) [6:59] Delirious New York (1978) [7:43] Learning From Las Vegas (1972) [10:57] OMA New York [21:33] Toyo Ito [23:20] Universal Headquarters [26:42] New Museum [31:55] SANAA New Museum Building [48:16] Cai Guo-Quiang [48:16] Taryn Simon [48:16] “An Occupation of Loss” (2016) [50:38] Kengo Kuma [50:38] Alberto Kalach [50:49] Bosco Sodi [50:49] Casa Wabi Mushroom Pavilion [54:22] Wilshire [Boulevard] Temple [59:58] Tenjin Business Center [59:58] Toranomon Hills Station Tower [1:07:14] Olafur Eliasson
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Lucinda Childs on the Dance of Everyday Life
Mar 1100:59:31Tap to summarizeOver six decades and counting, the postmodern choreographer and dancer Lucinda Childs has built an exceptional, category-defining body of work grounded in a style that draws as much from “pedestrian,” everyday movements as it does from her foundational ballet training. Emerging out of the 1960s Judson Dance Theater in New York City, Childs founded her namesake company in 1973 and has created more than 50 works since. This year will see two major New York presentations of her pieces—the first, from March 14–15, 2026, at the Guggenheim as part of Van Cleef & Arpels’s Dance Reflections Festival, will restage five of her early dances, most of them silent; the second, titled “Momentary Reprise,” will be showcased at Bard College’s Fisher Center from June 26–28 and include her collaborations with the likes of Frank Gehry, Philip Glass, and Robert Wilson. On this episode—our Season 13 opener—Childs reflects on her various experimental collaborations with Glass and Wilson; her profound perspectives on time through the lens of choreography and performance; and how she has remained unapologetically steadfast in refining her highly distinctive approach to dance. Special thanks to our Season 13 presenting partner, L’ÉCOLE, School of Jewelry Arts. Show notes: Lucinda Childs [06:23] Philip Glass [12:46] Merce Cunningham Dance Company [10:02] John Cage [12:17] “Pastime” (1963) [12:36] Judson Dance Theater [13:19] Yvonne Rainer [14:04] Robert Ellis Dunn [15:34] “Calico Mingling” (1973) [15:38] “Untitled Trio” (1973) [17:01] Babette Mangolte [17:29] “Reclining Rondo” (1975) [17:29] Robert Morris [29:44] Hanya Holm [22:59] “Radial Courses” (1976) [22:08] “Katema” (1978) [32:30] “Shoulder” (1964) [37:44] Robert Wilson [37:44] Einstein on the Beach (1976) [33:59] Susan Sontag [33:59] Against Interpretation (1966) [34:28] Marguerite Duras [36:34] “Description (of a Description)” (2000) [46:07] “Dance” (1979) [48:36] “Available Light” (1983)
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Hans Ulrich Obrist on Art as a Portal to Liberate Time
Dec 1701:20:46Tap to summarizeThe Swiss-born, London-based curator, art historian, and Serpentine Galleries artistic director Hans Ulrich Obrist moves through his life and work with a deep internal sense of urgency. Among the most prolific and everywhere-all-at-once people in the world of art—whose peripatetic path has taken him from a sheltered upbringing in a small Swiss village to his current post in London at the Serpentine—Obrist has been curating shows for more than three decades. During this time, he has recorded conversations with thousands of artists, architects, and others shaping culture and society. He’s also the author of dozens of books, most recently Life in Progress, released in the U.K. this fall, with the U.S. edition coming out next spring. On this episode, Obrist reflects on 25 years of the Serpentine Pavilion, which has become a defining annual moment in culture globally and a springboard for many of today’s leading voices in architecture, including Lina Ghotmeh (the guest on Ep. 129 of Time Sensitive) and Frida Escobedo, and his firm belief that we all need to embrace more promenadology—the science of a stroll—in our lives. Special thanks to our Season 12 presenting sponsor, Van Cleef & Arpels. Show notes: Hans Ulrich Obrist [03:37] Brutally Early Club [06:05] Frank Gehry [06:35] Bettina Korek [06:51] Luma Arles [08:26] Pierre Boulez [11:35] Etel Adnan [18:03] Giorgio Vasari [19:41] Ludwig Binswanger [25:45] “Life in Progress” [30:50] Peter Fischli & David Weiss [31:27] Kasper König [37:30] Maria Lassnig [39:45] Serpentine Galleries [40:30] Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris [45:15] Serpentine Pavilion [48:12] Frida Escobedo [49:00] Lina Ghotmeh [53:14] The FLAG Art Foundation [53:38] Play Pavilion [54:11] Serpentine General Ecology [55:10] Serpentine Arts Technologies [58:35] “Peter Doig: House of Music” [1:00:34] “Danielle Brathwaite-Shirley: The Delusion” [1:01:25] Édouard Glissant [1:02:17] Umberto Eco [1:08:56] Lucius Burckhardt [1:09:33] Cedric Price [1:08:13] Robert Walser
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Jennie C. Jones on Time Traveling Through Art, Sound, and Space
Dec 1001:19:06Tap to summarizeWhen the artist Jennie C. Jones listens closely to a piece of music, she’s particularly attuned to its pauses, in-between moments, and breaks. Widely celebrated for her abstract works in painting, sculpture, and sound art that, in many instances, incorporate architecture or space—through which she often elevates undersung or little-known Black artists and musicians—her practice is largely informed by minimalism and color field painting, as well as by jazz and avant-garde music. Jones currently has two exhibitions on view at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. Louis (through Feb. 1, 2026): “A Line When Broken Begins Again,” which features a selection of new and existing paintings, sculptures, works on paper, and sound pieces, and “Other Octaves,” a group show she curated of works by artists who have been formative to her practice. She was also commissioned to create the 2025 rooftop installation at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. On this episode of Time Sensitive, she discusses what listening as a conceptual practice looks like in action, the art of putting together a playlist, and her deep love of things tactile and analog. Special thanks to our Season 12 presenting sponsor, Van Cleef & Arpels. Show notes: [03:00] “Jennie C. Jones: A Line When Broken Begins Again” (2025) [03:00] “Other Octaves” (2025) [03:21] Carmen Herrera [03:21] Agnes Martin [03:21] Martin Puryear [03:21] Alma Thomas [03:21] Mildred Thompson [03:35] A Free and Shifting Tonal Center (2024) [05:43] Ellsworth Kelly [10:07] Fred Moten [10:07] “Dynamics” (2022) [11:26] Trisha Brown’s “Leaning Duets” (1970) [13:04] Tadao Ando [13:16] “These (Mournful) Shores” (2020) [15:38] Moses Williams [15:38] Louis Dotson [16:37] Richard Tuttle [28:41] Olly Wilson [29:52] Maryanne Amacher [29:52] Arthur Russell [35:23] Jennie C. Jones: Compilation (2015) [36:54] “The Theater of Refusal: Black Art and Mainstream Criticism” (1993) [40:48] “Slow Birds” (2004) [40:48] "Slowly in a Silent Way, Caged” (2010) [40:48] Charlie Parker [1:06:00] “Jennie C. Jones: RPM (revolutions per minute)” (2018) [1:08:37] “Ensemble” (2025)
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Noah Horowitz on Art Basel as a Cultural Force
Dec 301:07:26Tap to summarizeAs the CEO of Art Basel, Noah Horowitz has made it his mission to ensure that the international art platform is seen, valued, and experienced—far beyond its art-fair roots—as a cultural catalyst and “opportunity accelerator.” Over the past 55 years, beginning with its tight-knit origins in Basel, Switzerland, in 1970, Art Basel has evolved into an international juggernaut, with best-in-class fairs also in Miami Beach, Hong Kong, and Paris—and soon, under Horowitz’s leadership, Qatar, with an edition debuting there in February 2026. With more than two decades of experience, and as a tireless advocate and enthusiast for all things art, from artists and galleries to collectors and institutions, Horowitz is exactly the right person for the job. On this episode of Time Sensitive, Horowitz details his ambitious agenda to stretch Art Basel’s reach into realms far beyond what would traditionally be considered the art world; shares his long-view perspective on the economics of art; and considers the centuries-old history that, in a roundabout way, helped lead to—and continues to inform and shape—today’s art market. Show notes: [03:36] Art Basel Paris [03:36] Art Basel Qatar [03:36] Art Basel Miami Beach [03:36] Art Basel Hong Kong [06:07] Frida Escobedo [08:51] The Art Basel and UBS 2025 Survey of Global Collecting [08:51] Art Basel Awards [19:35] Rei Naito [20:55] Art of the Deal: Contemporary Art in a Global Financial Market (2011) [24:40] Rirkrit Tiravanija [29:51] KAWS [26:21] Princeton Record Exchange [38:36] High Art Lite: The Rise and Fall of Young British Art (2020) [39:27] Frieze [40:01] Hans Ulrich Obrist [40:01] Okwui Enwezor [41:54] Rem Koolhaas [43:15] Kirk Varnedoe [43:15] Pictures of Nothing: Abstract Art Since Pollock (2006) [47:01] Talking Prices: Symbolic Meanings of Prices on the Market for Contemporary Art (2005) [48:58] Clare McAndrew [51:10] The Experience Economy (2019) [52:12] Vincenzo de Bellis [59:02] Pérez Art Museum
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