Season 6 Trailer

Season 6 Trailer

Author: What's Contemporary September 29, 2025 Duration: 0:52
What’s more contemporary than the pursuit of happiness? The restless task of creating it, sustaining it, sharing it. It’s a game not so far from that of the creative class, with its inevitable demand for the next turn, the next gesture, the next affirmation of relevance. Designers, editors, critics, even self-anointed new media mavens know it all too well. Exploring larger cultural truths in their microcosmic forms is a habit we’ve happily returned to this season, and one we look forward to sharing across the months ahead. Because happiness, like relevance, is never fixed. It slips just out of reach the moment it seems secured, requiring constant reexamination and reinvention. The same holds true for the people and industries we cover: what feels urgent today risks redundancy tomorrow. That cycle of fulfillment, exhaustion, and reinvention, is the rhythm of both creativity and life. And in that rhythm lies the story of what it means to be contemporary now. New episodes begin Monday, October 6th. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The cultural landscape shifts constantly, and What's Contemporary Now? is a guide to its ever-changing terrain. Host Christopher Michael sits down with creators, critics, and innovators who are actively shaping the arts, from visual design and architecture to music and media. These conversations move beyond simple interviews, delving into the underlying philosophies and shared currents that connect seemingly disparate fields. Each episode unpacks a specific idea or movement through the lens of a guest's expertise, offering listeners a deeper understanding of the forces defining our current moment. Produced by Sasha Grinblat, the sound of the podcast is as considered as its content, creating an immersive space for genuine dialogue. You'll hear architects discuss the politics of space, musicians analyze the aesthetics of sound, and writers trace the lineage of new literary forms. It’s for anyone who feels that simply consuming culture isn't enough-who wants to understand the "why" behind the "what." By focusing on these broad, compelling perspectives, the series reveals the common threads woven through contemporary creative life, providing context and clarity in a fragmented world. Tune in to find your own place in the conversation.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

What's Contemporary Now?
Podcast Episodes
The Fifth Fashion Week, How Copenhagen Rewrote the Rules [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 40:12
Copenhagen Fashion Week marks its 20th anniversary at a moment when the fashion system is being asked to account for itself. In conversation with CEO Cecilie Thorsmark and COO Isabella Rose Davey, this episode examines h…
On the Road in Copenhagen [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 0:41
With a quick trip to Copenhagen for the city's 20th anniversary fashion week, we will be attending the shows, interviewing the organizers, and participating on a panel with Vogue business to explore the idea of what a ma…
Yoon Ahn on AMBUSH, Subculture, and One Foot In, One Foot Out [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 50:01
The episode follows AMBUSH’s evolution from jewelry made for friends to a brand that Yoon describes as a platform, shaped by experimentation rather than a rigid business plan. She speaks candidly about learning in real t…
Asad Syrkett on Interiors, Identity, and the Human Touch [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 47:58
Asad Syrkett joins What’s Contemporary Now? for a wide-ranging conversation about design as a cultural language and the quiet ways environments shape identity, memory, and access. From a childhood spent moving through Ne…
Happy Holidays! [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:01
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Angelo Flaccavento on Taste, Doubt, and the Beauty of Uncertainty [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 49:05
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 pat…
Camille Miceli on Pucci, Play, and Joie de Vivre [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 42:58
Camille Miceli brings a vivid, almost incandescent joie de vivre to Pucci, treating color, movement, and intuition as both vocabulary and philosophy. Her worldview is shaped by an upbringing steeped in art and fashion, a…
Matthew Whitehouse and The Face of Today [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 35:35
In this episode, Matthew Whitehouse reflects on the winding path from a rainy Lancashire childhood and a brief burst of band-life glamour to leading The Face, a title forever suspended between myth and reinvention. He sp…
Recho Omondi’s Candor, Curiosity, and The Cutting Room Floor [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 51:45
Recho Omondi, host of The Cutting Room Floor, handles candor with the ease of someone who has little interest in performance and every interest in clarity. Over seven years, her once-modest podcast has steadily entered t…