What's Contemporary Now? Podcast Por What's Contemporary arte de portada

What's Contemporary Now?

What's Contemporary Now?

De: What's Contemporary
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Designed for curious minds, "What's Contemporary Now?" engages various thought leaders across cultural industries taking in their broad, compelling perspectives and unveiling their common threads. Hosted by Christopher Michael Produced by Shayan AsadiWhat's Contemporary Arte Diseño y Artes Decorativas
Episodios
  • Kyle Hagler and Emil Wilbekin on Native Son, Visibility, and the Business of Culture

    Kyle Hagler and Emil Wilbekin on Native Son, Visibility, and the Business of Culture
    Jan 5 2026
    For our first episode of 2026, we sit down with Kyle Hagler and Emil Wilbekin for a deeply personal and wide-ranging conversation at the intersection of Native Son, culture, and media. We begin with formative histories shaped by strong women, faith, and instinct, before tracing how both have navigated long careers defined by pivots, visibility, and cultural responsibility. From Emil’s journey through magazine leadership to founding Native Son, to Kyle’s perspective on power, representation, and stewardship within fashion, the conversation explores what it means to build influence without losing yourself. Together, they reflect on community beyond branding, legacy without chasing legacy, and why staying contemporary today requires clarity, courage, and a willingness to exist fully in complexity. “A lot of my success came from haphazard decision-making based on instinct, not some grand plan. I followed the moment and figured it out later.” - Kyle Hagler “Native Son was never about nightlife or crisis. It was about creating space where we could see ourselves reflected with dignity.” - Emil Wilbekin Episode Highlights: Beginnings that explain everythingEmil reflects on being adopted at birth and raised by radically cultured, spiritually grounded Black parents, while Kyle traces the imprint of a brilliant young mother who negotiated her way through systems not built for her and brought him along for the ride. Strong women as original architectureNot a theme, a fact. Both credit women with shaping their confidence, ethics, ambition, and emotional literacy long before any career took form. The professional pivot, demystifiedReinvention is not indulgence, it is survival. Emil maps his evolution across media, teaching, faith, and founding Native Son. Kyle frames adaptability as the only real form of security. Safety, redefinedKyle’s assertion lands quietly but firmly: safety does not live in institutions or titles, it lives in your ability to navigate turbulence and keep moving. Spirituality as infrastructure, not ornamentEmil speaks to prayer and meditation as daily practice and social responsibility. Kyle shares a later awakening forged through loss, illness, and uncertainty, arriving at calm through surrender. A very New York origin storyThe Octagon in the 90s, Helmut Lang uniforms, early shade, and worlds colliding. Friendship eventually sealed not by proximity, but by shared obsession, precision, and care. Doing the work before knowing the impactEmil reflects on Vibe as cultural moment-making understood only in hindsight. Kyle recalls realizing his influence only once others named it, while he was simply doing the job. The birth of Native SonAn India retreat, a voice, Baldwin on a bookshelf. A mission emerges to create space for Black gay, queer, and gender nonconforming lives beyond nightlife, crisis, or erasure. Progress and backlash, side by sideVisibility expands while political resistance hardens. Both argue that representation without ownership is fragile, and that DEI without equity is noise. What feels contemporary now Fearless self-definition. Living in nuance. Building community that can hold contradiction, accountability, and becoming, without waiting for permission. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    59 m
  • Happy Holidays!

    Happy Holidays!
    Dec 23 2025
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 m
  • Angelo Flaccavento on Taste, Doubt, and the Beauty of Uncertainty

    Angelo Flaccavento on Taste, Doubt, and the Beauty of Uncertainty
    Dec 15 2025
    Angelo Flaccavento has long been one of fashion’s most distinctive critical voices — sharp yet empathetic, rigorous yet imaginative, always willing to question his own certainties. In this conversation, he traces his path from a Sicilian childhood spent absorbing magazines in boutique backrooms to becoming a writer whose clarity and candor designers both fear and admire. We discuss the formative power of self-doubt, the responsibility of the critic in an era shaped by branding and algorithms, and why genuine surprise has become fashion’s rarest commodity. Angelo reflects on taste as a lifelong education, the tension between fantasy and reality, and the importance of staying fluid rather than defined in a moment obsessed with categorization. “I’m a dreamer, but not an escapist. Fantasy has to somehow crash to the ground in order to become reality.” - Angelo Flaccavento Episode Highlights: A Sicilian childhood shaped by boutiques and early fashion literacy Angelo grew up in Ragusa surrounded by family-run boutiques at the height of Italy’s fashion boom. Magazines, Versace dresses, Guy Bourdin images, and the glamour of the early ’80s became his first education in style and visual culture. Discovering i-D and turning Ragusa into his personal London Getting a subscription to i-D as a teenager becomes a defining moment. He reads each issue obsessively, treating it as a window into a world he hasn’t yet reached — the foundation of his sharp, culturally attuned eye. From aspiring designer to critic: finding the right medium Though he once dreamed of being a designer, he realized he was more drawn to ideas, imagery, and interpretation. Writing became his path, encouraged by teachers who sensed his voice before he did. A voice that evolves rather than settles Angelo talks about tone and style as living entities — shaped by constraints, sharpened by editors, and never fixed in place. He values clarity, concision, and atmosphere, always pushing himself toward more precision. Doubt as a creative engine He sees doubt not as insecurity but as momentum, calling it “the essence of progress.” Self-questioning keeps him open, curious, and resistant to stagnation. Criticism as decoding, not destruction For Angelo, the critic’s role is to cut through PR storytelling and help readers understand what they’re actually seeing. He believes in honesty delivered with generosity — critique as illumination, not cruelty. Maintaining integrity in a political, PR-driven industry He speaks openly about the emotional and professional navigation required each season, from access issues to difficult conversations, and why seeing shows live is essential to telling the truth. Fashion’s power to surprise Angelo celebrates the rare, electric moments when a show shifts the mood of the entire industry — reminders of why fashion still matters and how a collection can rewire the cultural conversation. Taste as instinct refined over a lifetime For him, taste is a mix of instinct and education — shaped by art history, architecture, vertical lines, trial and error, and everything one has ever seen. Taste is biography turned into perspective. What is contemporary now: resisting definition Angelo concludes that the most contemporary stance is fluidity — refusing to let algorithms, labels, or nostalgia define us, and staying open enough to see the world anew. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    49 m
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