Bad at Sports Episode 903: Jake Nickell & Lance Curran of Threadless
Bad at Sports
This week on Bad at Sports, Duncan MacKenzie and Ryan Peter Miller cruise their way into a murder mansion fever dream with Jake Nickell and Lance Curran, two of the minds behind Threadless—the Chicago-based t-shirt empire that helped invent crowdsourced artwear before we’d marketed terms like “creator economy” or “drop ship.” What begins as a nostalgia trip (setting the stage for how the business developed through DIY screenprinting and forum culture) quickly becomes a deep dive into ethics, art careers, AI disruption, licensing chaos, and why having your work sold in Hot Topic...
info_outline
Episode 902: David Schilter and Pedro Vieira de Moura
Bad at Sports
Recorded live at the Comics Without Borders / Sans Frontières gathering at Rice University, this episode dives deep into international comics publishing, aesthetic risk-taking, and how underground networks drive a truly global comics culture. David Schilter, publisher and editor of Latvia’s acclaimed kuš! comics, joins us alongside Pedro Vieira de Moura, Portuguese critic, writer, and co-founder of the bookstore/gallery Mundo Fantasma. We talk about how a small-format anthology changed Latvian comics forever, why RAW magazine changed Pedro's life, and how comics have always been a...
info_outline
Episode 901: Florencia Rodriguez and CAB 6
Bad at Sports
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...
info_outline
Bad at Sports Episode 900: Robert Pruitt
Bad at Sports
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...
info_outline
Bad at Sports Episode 899: Jessica Snow & Liga Spunde
Bad at Sports
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...
info_outline
Bad at Sports Episode 898: Wafaa Bilal and Bana Kattan
Bad at Sports
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,...
info_outline
Bad at Sports Episode 897: Architecture, Documentaries, and Changing Minds with Kyle Bergman and Ashley Lukasik
Bad at Sports
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)...
info_outline
Bad at Sports Episode 896: Beth Hetland and Kyle O'Connell
Bad at Sports
In the final episode recorded live from Stitch and Staple: The Artist Book Fair, we’re thrilled to sit down with two incredible comic creators, Beth Hetland and Kyle O'Connell. This conversation dives deep into the world of comics and graphic narratives, with Hetland and O'Connell offering insights into their creative collaborations and shared comic interests. Beth Hetland, known for her heartfelt and intricate autobiographical comics, discusses the power of graphic novels to explore memory, identity, and storytelling. She and Kyle O’Connell also shed light on how their collaboration...
info_outline
Bad at Sports Episode 895: Emma Bergman
Bad at Sports
In this episode, Bad at Sports welcomes artist, writer, and thinker to discuss a range of fascinating topics that blend the personal, the theoretical, and the speculative. We delve into Emma's ideas about utopian conviction and how they intersect with the looming specter of the coming apocalypse, and the games we can play with what is becoming our practical nightmare. From philosophical musings to creative solutions, we explore how different utopian ideologies might intersect and prepare (or fail to prepare) us for the crisis of our future. also enters the conversation, as we examine...
info_outline
Bad at Sports Episode 894: Hoof Print Press & Immaterial Publications
Bad at Sports
In this episode, Bad at Sports dives into the world of independent publishing, printmaking, and the intersections of art, academia, and production with two innovative presses pushing the boundaries of their respective fields. , based in Pilsen, Chicago, is not just a print shop, but a thriving print publisher that explores multiple media, including ceramics. Known for their dynamic exhibition series, they bring a unique perspective on the art of printmaking, combining tradition with modern experimentation. We talk about how they balance the fine art of print with the hands-on craft of ceramics...
info_outlineRecorded 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!)