Best Momus Podcasts (2024)

1
An Inflection Point in Art Publishing – Season 7, Episode 2 53:28

14h ago53:28

53:28

Earlier this year, the Momus editorial team gathered for a talk at Plural Art Fair in Montreal. It marked the first time Sky Goodden, Catherine G. Wagley, Jessical Lynne, and Merray Gerges were all together IRL. The lively conversation touched on how we’ve shifted from a discourse of “crisis” in art criticism to its material reality; the ethics of …

1
Session Twelve: Hera & Zeus 30:48

1d ago30:48

30:48

Surprise! Zeus has decided he wants to take part in Therapy. Well, it might have been Hera’s decision but they are there nonetheless, whether it’s for better or for worse is up for debate. This program was directed and executive produced by Emma Paquette. Text copyright 2024 by Emma Paquette. Featuring the voice talents of Jim Schiffman as Pholus, …

1
Session Eleven: Eros & Psyche 17:44

4d ago17:44

17:44

Eros, the god of love, is so deeply in love with Psyche that he cannot bear to part from her. Get comfortable, because they will be telling the story of how they met…whether you want to hear it or not. This program was directed and executive produced by Emma Paquette. Text copyright 2024 by Emma Paquette. Featuring the voice talents of Jim Schiffma…

1
Session Ten: Apollo & Artemis 23:57

15d ago23:57

23:57

Like all siblings, Apollo and Artemis, the twins, have their fair share of arguments. Their disagreements usually start with things like, "Who's the better archer?" or "Why'd you trick me into killing my friend?" Just your typical sibling teasing, really. This program was directed and executive produced by Emma Paquette. Text copyright 2024 by Emma…

1
Interlude III 12:55

8d ago12:55

12:55

Back home from an unexpected trip, Pholus continues to learn more about what a therapist should and should not do. However, he receives another unexpected surprise. This program was directed and executive produced by Emma Paquette. Text copyright 2024 by Emma Paquette. Featuring the voice talents of Jim Schiffman as Pholus and Isabel Sugrue as Caly…

1
Session Nine: Calypso 23:41

1M ago23:41

23:41

Pholus finds himself traveling outside of the comfort of his home to an island called Ogygia to visit his next patient, Calypso, the goddess of the sea and forever trapped and cursed to fall in love with anyone who visits her island. This program was directed and executive produced by Emma Paquette. Text copyright 2024 by Emma Paquette. Featuring t…

1
Session Eight: Hephaestus 17:28

1M ago17:28

17:28

Always working on something and known as the ugliest of them all, the god of metalworking and fire happens to be the next patient. Never judge a book by its cover, unless that cover is Hephaestus. This program was directed and executive produced by Emma Paquette. Text copyright 2024 by Emma Paquette. Featuring the voice talents of Jim Schiffman as …

1
Elvia Wilk – Season 7, Episode 1 1:09:05

26d ago1:09:05

1:09:05

Launching Season 7, Elvia Wilk, an essayist, critic, and novelist, talks to Sky Goodden about the decision to quit writing—if only to be able to start again. In discussing rejection, the changing conditions of the field, and the denuding of successful female writers, Wilk also touches on the authors who have modeled quitting ("the authors of the no…

1
Session Seven: Iris 17:54

2M ago17:54

17:54

Trapped as her role as Hera’s messenger, Iris attempts to fly through this session, however, finds herself grateful to finally be given a voice. This program was directed and executive produced by Emma Paquette. Text copyright 2024 by Emma Paquette. Featuring the voice talents of Jim Schiffman as Pholus and Margaret Mills as Iris. Illustrations, in…

1
Interlude II 11:55

3M ago11:55

11:55

Pholus is revisited by the god in the book and begins questioning whether or not he is emotionally capable of being the gods’ therapist. This program was directed and executive produced by Emma Paquette. Text copyright 2024 by Emma Paquette. Featuring the voice talents of Jim Schiffman as Pholus. Illustrations, including cover and episode art, by M…

1
Session Six: Echo 15:56

3M ago15:56

15:56

Cursed to only speak once spoken to and to repeat the final words of another, Echo makes a visit and Pholus is unsure how to communicate with this unusual patient. This program was directed and executive produced by Emma Paquette. Text copyright 2024 by Emma Paquette. Featuring the voice talents of Jim Schiffman as Pholus and Ana Paula Saldaña Cisn…

1
Session Five: Momus 20:48

3M ago20:48

20:48

Hated by the rest of the gods, Momus is the god of mockery and he takes pride in it by critiquing others. They say honesty is the best policy, but is being honest always the right thing to do? This program was directed and executive produced by Emma Paquette. Text copyright 2024 by Emma Paquette. Featuring the voice talents of Jim Schiffman as Phol…

1
Session Four: Athena 19:46

3M ago19:46

19:46

Athena is a busy goddess. She's crafty, guides heroes on their quests, and not to mention is protector of an entire city. How does she have time for a therapy session? She doesn't! This program was directed and executive produced by Emma Paquette. Text copyright 2024 by Emma Paquette. Featuring the voice talents of Jim Schiffman as Pholus and Margu…

1
Interlude I 11:55

4M ago11:55

11:55

Finally given a break in his schedule, Pholus finds a book Chiron gifted him a long time ago and it is proving to be useful now, but something is a little strange. The book seems to know exactly who he is. This program was directed and executive produced by Emma Paquette. Text copyright 2024 by Emma Paquette. Featuring the voice talents of Jim Schi…

1
Session Three: Harmonia 21:31

4M ago21:31

21:31

Harmony is hard to maintain, especially in this day in age. How does Harmonia do it while keeping sane? Who says she does? This program was directed and executive produced by Emma Paquette. Text copyright 2024 by Emma Paquette. Featuring the voice talents of Jim Schiffman as Pholus and Tara Gravelle as Harmonia. Illustrations, including cover and e…

1
Session Two: Demeter 23:06

4M ago23:06

23:06

The biggest mistake others make is underestimating Demeter, the goddess of agriculture and mother of Persephone. Do not make her angry or you might end up eating yourself for dinner. This program was directed and executive produced by Emma Paquette. Text copyright 2024 by Emma Paquette. Featuring the voice talents of Jim Schiffman as Pholus and Bre…

1
Session One: Dionysus 26:26

4M ago26:26

26:26

Pholus welcomes his first patient as therapist: the god of wine and revelry. He was preparing for a party, so he must be prepared for things to get wild, right? This program was directed and executive produced by Emma Paquette. Text copyright 2024 by Emma Paquette. Featuring the voice talents of Jim Schiffman as Pholus and Brendon Etter as Dionysus…

1
Lara Khaldi – Season 6, Episode 8 54:42

4M ago54:42

54:42

Lara Khaldi is our final guest on Season 6 of Momus: The Podcast. A curator, artist, writer, and educator, Khaldi was born in Jerusalem, Palestine, and currently lives in Amsterdam, where she has been newly appointed as director of de Appel. In this episode, Khaldi speaks to Lauren Wetmore about the Palestinian American artist, activist, and schola…

1
Prologue 14:16

5M ago14:16

14:16

Pholus, the wise Centaur, is preparing for a party, but his preparation is put on halt when he is visited by an unexpected guest, the king of the gods himself, and he has a special task for the Centaur. This program was directed and executive produced by Emma Paquette. Text copyright 2024 by Emma Paquette. Featuring the voice talents of Jim Schiffm…

1
Nasrin Himada – Season 6, Episode 7 59:53

5M ago59:53

59:53

For the 50th (!) episode of Momus: The Podcast, Lauren Wetmore speaks to Nasrin Himada, a Palestinian curator and writer who is currently associate curator at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. "I write for my people. I write for Palestinians, and I write for the liberation of our lands," Himada says of the…

1
Jessica Lynne and Catherine G. Wagley – Season 6, Episode 6 1:09:29

7M ago1:09:29

1:09:29

In this episode, Jessica Lynne speaks with Catherine G. Wagley about their shared love for Barbara Christian’s iconically confrontational essay, “The Race for Theory” (1987, Cultural Critique). Christian, a ground-laying literary academic who introduced writers like Toni Morrison and Alice Walker to the academe, goes toe to toe with her peers in th…

1
Kate Wolf - Season 6, Episode 5 1:01:35

9M ago1:01:35

1:01:35

This episode features Kate Wolf, one of the founding editors of the Los Angeles Review of Books and a critic whose work has appeared in publications including The Nation, n+1, Art in America, and Frieze. Wolf is currently an Editor at Large of the LARB and a co-host and producer of its weekly radio show and podcast, The LARB Radio Hour. In conversa…

1
Drew Kahuʻāina Broderick - Season 6, Episode 4 1:07:13

10M ago1:07:13

1:07:13

Drew Kahuʻāina Broderick (Kanaka ‘Ōiwi) joins Lauren Wetmore in conversation about Māhealani Dudoit’s fundamental text, “Carving a Hawaiian Aesthetic,” published in the first issue of ‘Ōiwi: A Native Hawaiian Journal – He ‘oia mau nō kākou’, which Dudoit co-founded in 1998. Broderick, an artist, curator, and educator from Mōkapu, Oʻahu, champions t…

1
Sháńdíín Brown - Season 6, Episode 3 1:07:12

11M ago1:07:12

1:07:12

This episode features an interview with Sháńdíín Brown (Diné), continuing our series talking to participants in the Momus residency "Estuaries: An International Indigenous Art Criticism Residency" co-hosted with Forge Project. Lauren Wetmore talks to Sháńdíín Brown, a citizen of the Navajo Nation and the first Henry Luce Curatorial Fellow for Nativ…

1
Megan Tamati-Quennell - Season 6, Episode 2 42:20

1y ago42:20

42:20

Throughout the season, Lauren Wetmore and Sky Goodden will speak with participants of the Momus residency, “Estuaries: An International Indigenous Art Criticism Residency,” created with Forge Project and led by Dr. Léuli Eshrāghi (Sāmoa) and Candice Hopkins (Carcross/Tagish). To launch this series, Wetmore speaks with writer and curator Megan Tamat…

1
Sky Goodden – Season 6, Episode 1 41:31

1+ y ago41:31

41:31

To launch our sixth season, Lauren Wetmore interviews Sky Goodden on a book that has recently got her all "twirled up." They discuss Art Writing in Crisis (Sternberg Press, 2021) which sits adjacent to an exhausting list of books on art criticism in crisis and points instead to the emancipatory potential of criticism, and, as Goodden and Lauren ter…

1
Jessica Lynne and Kemi Adeyemi - Season 5, Episode 10 1:10:34

1+ y ago1:10:34

1:10:34

The season finale for Momus: The Podcast’s fifth season features a conversation between writer, art critic, and co-founder of ARTS.BLACK, Jessica Lynne, and Dr. Kemi Adeyemi, an “art-adjacent academic” and Director of The Black Embodiment Studio at the University of Washington. Adeyemi talks about her new book, Feels Right: Black Queer Women and th…

1
Cecilia Alemani - Season 5, Episode 9 1:00:55

1+ y ago1:00:55

1:00:55

For the penultimate episode of Season 5, Sky Goodden interviews Cecilia Alemani, the Artistic Director of the 59th Venice Biennale. After three years of research and commissioning (an extended period of preparation, due to the pandemic) and 7 months of The Milk of Dreams being open to an immense public, Alemani takes a rearview look onto a show tha…

1
Meeka Walsh and Jarrett Earnest - Season 5, Episode 8 1:05:49

2y ago1:05:49

1:05:49

On the occasion of her first book of collected art writings, Malleable Forms (ARP Books), Meeka Walsh, editor of Border Crossings magazine, speaks to guest-host Jarrett Earnest about geographic isolation, the eroticism of art writing, her connection with an emerging spiritual lineage, and about a set of relationships driving her engagement with art…

1
Ben Davis - Season 5, Episode 7 1:23:17

2y ago1:23:17

1:23:17

In the introduction to Ben Davis’s new book, a bracing and perspectival collection of essays titled Art in the After-Culture (Haymarket Books), he reflects that “the only thing that has grown faster than the demands on art has been doubt that art can respond adequately to those demands.” In a generous and thoughtful conversation with Sky Goodden, D…

1
Arushi Vats - Season 5, Episode 6 1:19:01

2y ago1:19:01

1:19:01

"We are post-purity," observes Arushi Vats, a Delhi-based writer and inaugural fellow of the Momus/Eyebeam Critical Writing Fellowship. Rooted in field research and expanded through poetics, Vat's text Exit the Rehearsal: A Body in Delhi, published by Runway Journal, is a precise yet capacious meditation on our "epoch of waste"— ecocide, legacy was…

1
Rahel Aima – Season 5, Episode 5 1:23:00

2+ y ago1:23:00

1:23:00

This month, Sky Goodden speaks with Rahel Aima, a prolific critic, art writer, and Associate Editor at Momus. We focus on a text Aima published in Momus, “Depleting Felix Gonzales-Torres” (July 2020), that takes aim at “a mammoth exhibition” of the late Gonzalez-Torres’s 1990 work Untitled (Fortune Cookie Corner). Aima writes “In a move taken right…

1
Raimundas Malašauskas – Season 5, Episode 4 59:33

2+ y ago59:33

59:33

Days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Lithuanian curator and writer Raimundas Malašauskas resigned as curator of the Russian Pavilion at the 59th Venice Bienniale, along with participating artists Alexandra Sukhareva and Kirill Savchenkov, citing the war as “politically and emotionally unbearable.” Using his letter of resignation, which Mala…

1
Dana Kopel – Season 5, Episode 3 1:16:28

2+ y ago1:16:28

1:16:28

In this episode Lauren Wetmore speaks with writer and organizer Dana Kopel about her widely-read article “Against Artspolitation: Unionizing the New Museum,” published in September 2021 by The Baffler. In conversation, Kopel expands on “the personal and messy dimensions” of unionizing work, and reflects on the challenges of calling out the exploita…

1
Harry Dodge – Season 5, Episode 2 1:26:30

2+ y ago1:26:30

1:26:30

In this episode, artist and writer Harry Dodge reads from My Meteorite, or Without the Random There Can Be No New Thing (Penguin Press, 2020). Perhaps best known as a sculptor, Dodge writes from inside the artist’s life and the sometimes inchoate density of a studio practice. Tracking us through cosmic patterns and material grapplings as they inter…

1
Emmanuel Iduma – Season 5, Episode 1 1:15:49

2+ y ago1:15:49

1:15:49

In the first episode of Season 5, Lauren Wetmore speaks with Nigerian art writer Emmanuel Iduma, who reads from “Mileage from Here: Nine Narratives.” Known for his travel and photography writing, and for establishing what he calls “a third, or shared, space between images and text,” the selection Iduma reads from (published in an exceptional presen…

1
Kristian Vistrup Madsen - Season 4, Episode 9 1:16:01

3y ago1:16:01

1:16:01

In the penultimate episode of Season 4 – across which Momus: The Podcast has been engaging writers on the genesis and reception of a particular piece of criticism – Sky Goodden speaks with Kristian Vistrup Madsen about writing Artforum Diary through the pandemic, and bringing the historic column to a more isolated, romantic, existential, and someti…

1
Muna Mire & Tourmaline – Season 4, Episode 8 48:43

3y ago48:43

48:43

This episode gets a jump on summer with artist and filmmaker Tourmaline and writer and producer Muna Mire. In conversation, they discuss Mire’s profile of Toumaline in Frieze (October 2020) and elaborate on Tourmaline's celebration of trans histories, queer joy, community organizing, Black freedom, communing with her chosen ancestries, and what she…

1
Nora N. Khan on “Within, Below, and Alongside” – Season 4, Episode 7 1:20:09

3y ago1:20:09

1:20:09

“A school will change you, and it teaches you as much about how people will interpret you, misunderstand and dismiss you, as it will teach you about a creative life.”Critic, curator, and educator Nora N. Khan reads from "Dark Study: Within, Below, and Alongside," a feature text published in the inaugural issue of March, which starts with the questi…

1
Alexandra Stock on “The Privileged, Violent Stunt” – Season 4, Episode 6 1:00:37

3+ y ago1:00:37

1:00:37

Lauren Wetmore interviews Swiss American curator and writer Alexandra Stock about her scathing critique of Christophe Büchel’s 2019 Venice Biennale project Barca Nostra. Published that same year by the independent Egyptian online newspaper Mada Masr, Stock’s "The Privileged, Violent Stunt That is the Venice Biennale Boat Project" decries an “artwor…

1
Rianna Jade Parker on “Letter from London” – Season 4, Episode 5 1:14:58

3+ y ago1:14:58

1:14:58

Rianna Jade Parker reads "Letter from London: What is the Status of Black Artists in England Today?" published in ARTnews (June 2020), and engages Sky Goodden on issues of artworld access, stature, masculinity, precariousness, deference to sovereignty, and duty to one another, for Black British artists working in the UK. From Steve McQueen's accept…

1
Léuli Eshrāghi on tagatavāsā – Season 4, Episode 4 56:00

3+ y ago56:00

56:00

In episode 4, Dr. Léuli Eshrāghi discusses "tagatavāsā," a text centered on Eshrāghi's grandmother's art practice that interweaves Indigenous language with the vernacular of contemporary art. Eshrāghi works across visual arts, curatorial practice, and university research, "intervening in display territories to centre Indigenous kin constellations, …

1
Tausif Noor on “Hand in Glove” – Season 4, Episode 3 49:08

3+ y ago49:08

49:08

“Like writing, fisting is both a replicable skill and a rarefied art form.” This brachioproctic line begins writer Tausif Noor’s “Hand In Glove” (Artforum, 12 April 2019), a joyfully loaded review of William E. Jones’s novel I’m Open to Anything, released in 2019 by Los Angeles independent publisher We Heard You Like Books. In this searching conver…

1
Nikki Columbus on “Guston Can Wait” – Season 4, Episode 2 1:07:05

3+ y ago1:07:05

1:07:05

"Let’s stop talking about Philip Guston and start talking about structural racism."This has been critic Nikki Columbus's refrain through the past season, issuing what many considered the final word of a furious debate surrounding the postponement of a Guston retrospective. Titled "Guston Can Wait" and published October 27, 2020 in N+1, the text (wh…

1
Nikki Columbus on "Guston Can Wait" - Season 4, Episode 2 1:07:05

3+ y ago1:07:05

1:07:05

"Let’s stop talking about Philip Guston and start talking about structural racism." This has been critic Nikki Columbus's refrain through the past season, issuing what many considered the final word of a furious debate surrounding the postponement of a Guston retrospective. Titled "Guston Can Wait" and published October 27, 2020 in N+1, the text (w…

1
What Artists and Curators Do for Money - Season 4 Episode 1 49:23

3+ y ago49:23

49:23

Season 4 of Momus: The Podcast invites art critics and journalists to talk about an important piece of their writing – texts that carry stories, that ran in prestigious publications to great acclaim, or that were killed under tense circumstances. Every two weeks, co-hosts Sky Goodden and Lauren Wetmore will ask a different writer to read their text…

1
The White Pube on “What’s Changed, and What Should?” - Ep. 24 1:05:47

4y ago1:05:47

1:05:47

In the final episode of Season 3, which has been devoted to the question of "what's changed, and what should?", Sky Goodden speaks to The White Pube, a UK-based art-criticism collective comprised of Zarina Muhammad and Gabriella de la Puente. Across five years of publishing, The White Pube has been celebrated for its insistence on "embodied critici…

1
Sophia Al Maria on “What’s Changed, and What Should?” – Ep. 23 56:02

4y ago56:02

56:02

For episode 23, Lauren Wetmore spoke with Sophia al Maria, a Qatari-American artist, writer, and filmmaker based in London. Author of publications including Sad Sack, Virgin With A Memory, and her autobiography The Girl Who Fell To Earth, Al Maria has also written for Triple Canopy, Bidoun, and Harper’s Magazine. Her work as an artist has been exhi…

1
Ebony L. Haynes on “What’s Changed, and What Should?” – Ep. 22 48:43

4y ago48:43

48:43

For episode 22, Lauren Wetmore spoke with Ebony L. Haynes, a gallerist, curator, and writer. Haynes is the Director of Martos Gallery in New York, and Shoot the Lobster in New York and LA. Active for the past ten years, Haynes has insisted on the meaningful inclusion of Black artists and professionals in the contemporary artworld. In this potent co…

1
Coco Fusco on “What’s Changed, and What Should?” - Ep. 21 48:59

4y ago48:59

48:59

For episode 21, Sky Goodden spoke with Coco Fusco, the legendary Cuban-American critic, artist, educator, and art historian. Speaking from the center of a pandemic, and on the brink of a significant wave of civil unrest and anti-racist protest, Fusco circled themes relevant to each crisis, looping them through the lens of Cuban history and the seis…

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