The Emergence Room
Hosted by TJ Dedeaux-Norris & Jason Šimánek. Conversations on art, care, creativity, and what it means to emerge.
info_outline
Paula Gaither
01/29/2026
Paula Gaither
Okay – today’s episode is one of those conversations that reminds us why we love doing this podcast. We’re so excited to share this conversation with Paula Gaither – and truly, talking with Paula was such a gift. She is equal parts party, equal parts scholar, equal parts absolute bright light of a human being. Paula is a PhD candidate at Stanford and a Rome Prize Fellow here at the American Academy in Rome, and her research looks at how ancient Roman depictions of Blackness have been shaped – and misshaped – by modern scholarship and museum practices. But what makes Paula so special isn’t just the rigor of her work, it’s the way she moves through the world while doing it. She’s the hype gal of the Academy – whether it’s time to go check out an archaeological dig, show up for someone’s work, or turn the energy all the way up when it’s time to gather and celebrate. Paula brings curiosity, care, joy, and fire into every space she enters. In this conversation, we talk about Blackness, queerness, partnership, reclaiming narrative authority, and what it means to do research that actively breaks down patriarchy and dismantles white supremacist frameworks – without losing yourself, your joy, or your people along the way. This episode’s emergence arc is from representation to reclamation – and Paula embodies that shift so beautifully. So settle in, turn the volume up, and get ready for a conversation that feels like thinking, laughing, and becoming all at once. Let’s go!
/episode/index/show/aebcba1e-c62f-4d5f-a90e-5e015c676c39/id/39395205
info_outline
Anita Contini
01/15/2026
Anita Contini
Just moments before we recorded this episode of The Emergence Room, roles briefly reversed. Anita Contini – founder of Creative Time and longtime leader at Bloomberg Philanthropies – was in the midst of conducting interviews for her current research project, Origins and Outcomes. As part of that work, she interviewed T.J. while T.J. is working at the American Academy in Rome. Then we pressed record—and the conversation simply shifted direction. What followed was a grounded, generous exchange about how ambitious artistic visions meet reality: how ideas evolve once they encounter scale, funding, community engagement, and time; how some of Anita’s most influential contributions began almost by accident; and how leadership often moves from individual problem to collective solution. With Anita’s partner Steve quietly behind the scenes helping record, the moment itself reflected the deeper truth of the episode: meaningful work is relational, shared, and sustained by care. This conversation captures the spirit of The Emergence Room—reciprocity, curiosity, and emergence unfolding in real time. We’re honored to share it with you.
/episode/index/show/aebcba1e-c62f-4d5f-a90e-5e015c676c39/id/39395180
info_outline
Timothy Darden
01/02/2026
Timothy Darden
We’re excited to welcome Timothy Darden, also known as @blackostume, to The Emergence Room. Timothy is a filmmaker and musician currently completing his BFA in Film, and during his time as a Fellow Traveler at the American Academy in Rome, he’s been immersed in cinema, sound, and study — watching Italian films, listening deeply, and learning how culture, language, and rhythm shape storytelling. In this episode, we talk about what it means to be an undergraduate artist finding your voice, how music and filmmaking inform one another, and how studying film in Rome has opened new ways of thinking about identity, translation, and authorship. We explore an emergence arc from mask to mirror — from experimenting with alter egos and creative protection to using art as a way of seeing yourself more clearly. Timothy reflects on what he’s becoming, what he’s unlearning, and how this moment in his education is shaping the artist he’s growing into. This conversation is thoughtful, grounded, and full of curiosity — a beautiful look at creative becoming in real time.
/episode/index/show/aebcba1e-c62f-4d5f-a90e-5e015c676c39/id/39395195
info_outline
David Keplinger
12/11/2025
David Keplinger
This week in The Emergence Room, we sit down with someone whose presence feels like stepping into a poem — David Keplinger, poet, translator, teacher, and Rome Prize Fellow. David moves through the world with a quiet radiance, shaped by years of listening: to language, to silence, to the histories that live between words. Our conversation traces an emergence arc from stillness to voice, from interiority to offering, and from the private act of writing toward the communal act of being witnessed. He shares how translation has become a spiritual practice, what it means to write into the unsayable, and how Rome — with its ruins and reliquaries — is reshaping his understanding of time, artistry, and devotion. We talk about poetry as wayfinding: a method for surviving grief, cultivating presence, and returning to ourselves. His story unfolds through movements of Listening → Vulnerability → Transformation → Offering. By the end, David reminds us that creativity isn’t a performance of genius — it’s a practice of being porous to the world. Here’s to David Keplinger, and to this tender, luminous conversation. Welcome to this week’s episode of The Emergence Room. David's Website Meditate with David
/episode/index/show/aebcba1e-c62f-4d5f-a90e-5e015c676c39/id/39368580
info_outline
Margo Weitzman
12/06/2025
Margo Weitzman
This week we sit down with Margo Weitzman, Rome Prize Fellow and PhD candidate at Rutgers University, whose research traces a sixteenth-century merchant moving between India and Italy—translating worlds through trade, language, and desire. Margo opens up about her own emergent journey: being adopted, navigating queerness, partnership, travel, and the ongoing search for belonging. We explore how her scholarship and personal history inform one another, and how mining the histories of objects, places, and people parallels the work of assembling identity from fragments, archives, and lived experience. We also talk about the unexpected ways growth shows up in motion—and how Margo’s own artistic practice threads through her research and her sense of self. She speaks beautifully about visiting churches throughout Rome as part of her inquiry into space, meaning, and ritual. Here’s to hoping The Emergence Room gets to go “churching” with her soon. This episode is a thoughtful, vulnerable reflection on connection, curiosity, identity, and finding home at the intersection of the personal and the scholarly.
/episode/index/show/aebcba1e-c62f-4d5f-a90e-5e015c676c39/id/39052400
info_outline
Boris Dramov & Bonnie Fisher
11/27/2025
Boris Dramov & Bonnie Fisher
In this episode of The Emergence Room, we sit down with the extraordinary duo Bonnie Fisher and Boris Dramov of the ROMA Design Group—partners in life, in practice, and in purpose. This married team of architects has shaped communities, cities, and cultural memory through their work, including the iconic Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C. Our conversation moves from the foundations of architecture to the architecture of a life well-lived—exploring what it means to collaborate with intention, nurture creativity, raise a family, and stay aligned with one’s values in the face of external demands. Bonnie and Boris open up about balancing client expectations with artistic integrity, making space for children to become themselves, and how partnership—both personal and professional—can deepen one’s sense of purpose. They are, without question, relationship goals: tender, grounded, generous, and deeply inspiring. Their reflections remind us that building a life, a family, or a community follows the same principles as building meaningful spaces—clarity, care, flexibility, and love. A beautiful conversation with two people who truly design from the heart.
/episode/index/show/aebcba1e-c62f-4d5f-a90e-5e015c676c39/id/38966495
info_outline
Pythagoras the Sage
11/20/2025
Pythagoras the Sage
In this episode of The Emergence Room, we sit down with Pythagoras The Sage — artist, philosopher, musician, and fellow traveler at the American Academy in Rome — to explore how flow, music, and philosophy merge in a practice rooted in transformation and queerness. Pythagoras moves fluidly through electronic sound, ritual, and reflection, accessing multiple modalities and inversions of self to communicate and exist beyond fixed identity. Together we discuss culture shock, creative intuition, and the ways queerness expands what it means to think, feel, and listen. This episode moves like rhythm itself — an exploration of becoming through frequency, philosophy, and flow. Pythagoras the Sage website: instagram:
/episode/index/show/aebcba1e-c62f-4d5f-a90e-5e015c676c39/id/38890295
info_outline
Rick Luttmann – The Addendum Episode
11/13/2025
Rick Luttmann – The Addendum Episode
Rick Luttmann – Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at Sonoma State University – joins The Emergence Room as a Rome Fellow Traveler at the American Academy in Rome. A mathematician, public servant, and lifelong wanderer of unconventional paths, Rick brings a generosity of spirit and a catalog of stories that simply do not fit into one episode. Rick’s second arc continues with the beaten-path to off-the-beaten-path to even-further off-the-beaten-path, capturing the freewheeling, curiosity-driven spirit of his adventures.
/episode/index/show/aebcba1e-c62f-4d5f-a90e-5e015c676c39/id/39019715
info_outline
Rick Luttmann
11/13/2025
Rick Luttmann
Rick Luttmann – Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at Sonoma State University – joins The Emergence Room as a Rome Fellow Traveler at the American Academy in Rome. A mathematician, public servant, and lifelong wanderer of unconventional paths, Rick brings a generosity of spirit and a catalog of stories that simply do not fit into one episode. In fact, Rick’s life has been so full of adventure that, for the first time in Emergence Room history, we recorded an addendum episode—a double feature dedicated entirely to him. From participating in political life and serving his community, to teaching mathematics in a prison, to driving a tour bus through wildly unexpected landscapes, Rick’s experiences remind us that emergence is not linear – it’s lived. His first episode’s emergence arc traces Responsibility to Opportunity, reflecting his belief in civic duty, public service, and the power of voting and political engagement. His second arc continues with the beaten-path to off-the-beaten-path to even-further off-the-beaten-path, capturing the freewheeling, curiosity-driven spirit of his adventures.
/episode/index/show/aebcba1e-c62f-4d5f-a90e-5e015c676c39/id/39019590
info_outline
Chuna McIntyre
11/02/2025
Chuna McIntyre
In this powerful and expansive episode, we sit down with Chuna McIntyre, Founder and Director of the Nunamta Yup’ik Eskimo Singers and Dancers and current American Academy in Rome Fellow, to talk about his work with the Yup’ik Masks in the “Anima Mundi” of the Vatican Museums. Our conversation weaves together memory, ancestry, and care — from Chuna’s reflections on his grandmother and the Vatican’s stewardship of these sacred objects, to the deeper meanings of reciprocity, generosity, and giving without expectation. Chuna reminds us what it means to be among the real, true people, inviting us to consider who has possession — and who has responsibility — for beauty, culture, and spirit. He shares the honor of wanting his people to feel pride as the first people, speaks in his first language, and even sings a beautiful song to close the episode. Together, we explore the difference between conservation and care, and what it means to truly tend to the life within objects — not just preserve them, but allow them to breathe again. This conversation is a meditation on heritage, healing, and honesty — a reminder that generosity itself can be a form of resistance and repair.
/episode/index/show/aebcba1e-c62f-4d5f-a90e-5e015c676c39/id/38857110
info_outline
T.J. Dedeaux-Norris & Jason Simanek (co-hosts)
10/30/2025
T.J. Dedeaux-Norris & Jason Simanek (co-hosts)
In our third episode, co-hosts T.J. Dedeaux-Norris and Jason Šimánek finally turn the mic on themselves. Now that each of our individual episodes has dropped, we sit down together—wine in hand—for a one-of-a-kind, maybe once-in-a-lifetime Emergence Room session. We share the story behind the podcast: how it began, what inspired it, and what we’ve learned along the way. Expect laughter, honesty, and a few unforgettable bloopers (including the moment T.J. accidentally introduced our esteemed colleague and fellow Rome Prize Fellow Sean Mooney as Paul Mooney). In this behind-the-scenes conversation, we talk about balancing art, academia, and consciousness-based education through our respective MFA and EdD programs at Maharishi International University, and how those studies shape the way we listen, lead, and create. We also reveal our first Rome Prize Fellow interview guest—the incredible Chuna McIntyre, founder and director of the Nunamta Yup’ik Eskimo Singers and Dancers—whose episode drops this Sunday, Nov. 2, 2025. Until then, enjoy this candid, wine-filled conversation as we build camaraderie, unpack our motivation for creating The Emergence Room, and invite you deeper into our world at the American Academy in Rome. Available wherever you get your podcasts. Stay tuned for Chuna’s episode next!
/episode/index/show/aebcba1e-c62f-4d5f-a90e-5e015c676c39/id/38842880
info_outline
Jason Simanek (co-host)
10/26/2025
Jason Simanek (co-host)
For our second episode, Jason Simanek turns inward to consider what it means to emerge through care and clarity. In conversation with T.J. Dedeaux-Norris, he explores the quiet strength of self-prioritization, the rhythm of restoration, and the creative tenderness that arises when we honor our own needs first.
/episode/index/show/aebcba1e-c62f-4d5f-a90e-5e015c676c39/id/38634170
info_outline
T.J. Dedeaux-Norris (co-host)
10/19/2025
T.J. Dedeaux-Norris (co-host)
In our first episode of The Emergence Room, artist and educator T.J. Dedeaux-Norris opens up about performing and shedding identity. In conversation with co-host Jason Simanek, T.J. explores how race, gender, and size shape leadership and self-expression, and what it means to strip away what no longer serves in order to lead from authenticity and vulnerability.
/episode/index/show/aebcba1e-c62f-4d5f-a90e-5e015c676c39/id/38633795