Maha Sattva is an artist inspired by social media, pop culture and hip hop. The likes of Kanye West, Drake and J. Cole have his portraits in their collection and his reputation is growing, even as he works outside the gallery system from his base in Wisconsin. An active presence on twitter and Instagram has brought him a growing fan base both intrigued by his creative work and the life-coaching that comes with it. We talk about the time he flew to a Kanye concert in the hope of meeting and deliv...
Jul 20, 2022•33 min•Ep. 120
“Goddamnit I am hooked on nicotine again thanks to this fucking Flum!” writes Michel Lhooq. “I can’t even fucking deal!!! Just when I thought I’d left my crackhead vaping days behind, motherfuckers pulled me back in with this thing that literally looks like a whippit canister capped by a nipple-shaped teat.” Dubbed by some as “a female Hunter Thompson,” the drug guzzling gonzo writer of yore, Michelle is making a name for herself with her brazenly open cultural commentary and field notes from th...
Jul 13, 2022•34 min•Ep. 119
As both a creative and a business owner, Estelle Bailey-Babenzien sits at the intersection of art and commerce. She’s a partner in the clothing brand Noah with her husband Brendon, formerly of Supreme, and the owner of Dream Awake, an interior design studio whose clients have included Adrien Grenier. Born and raised in the UK, and of half Ghanaian descent, Estelle moved to New York in 1999 with a fashion degree from London’s prestigious arts and design college Central St. Martins. Responsible fo...
Jul 06, 2022•33 min•Ep. 118
Buff Monster is a street artist who first made a name for himself by pasting thousands of silk screened posters across Los Angeles. Over the 20 years or so that he has been an artist, his colorful Buff Monster character has inspired paintings, stickers, toys, murals, NFTs and private commissions. Born in Hawaii to a family of artists, he went to college in LA to study business, but decided that New York City was the place to be. He is an active presence on social media where he talks directly to...
Jun 29, 2022•33 min•Ep. 117
It’s one of those happy moments for the photographer Mark “The Cobrasnake” Hunter. His new book, “The Cobrasnake: Y2Ks Archive,” features a kaleidoscopic selection of photos that helped define the party scenes of Los Angeles and New York at the beginning of the 21st century. As if that wasn’t enough, he’s also earning kudos (and photo assignments) as a visionary of what fashion magazines are calling “a mid-aughts Indie Sleaze” revival. His relentless pursuit of the next party and the next photo ...
Jun 22, 2022•33 min•Ep. 116
Saul Williams is a legend who refuses to rest on his laurels. A pioneer of the Hip hop meets spoken word movement of the 90s, he created a lane that drove poetry from the musty halls of academe into the modern era. As a recording artist, he has worked with Rick Rubin, Trent Reznor, Nas , The Fugees , Erykah Badu , KRS-One , Zack De La Rocha , De La Soul , as well as poets Allen Ginsberg and Sonia Sanchez . Perhaps his most ambitious project to date is Neptune Frost, a sci-fi Afro-Futurist musica...
Jun 15, 2022•32 min•Ep. 115
Travis Mills and Nick Gross are Girlfriends. No, not like that. Like the pop punk band Girlfriends that’s dropping new singles as we speak with a full-length album out this summer. Once known by the stage name T.Mills , Travis rose to fame as a rapper collaborating with the likes of T.I., Dom Kennedy, and Ty Dolla $ign. He is also an actor and the host of the “Travis Mills Show” on Apple 1 Radio. Nick has produced songs for Ariana Grande and Wiz Khalifa while also playing drums for the band Gold...
Jun 08, 2022•31 min•Ep. 114
Valentina Ferrer is half of a power couple with the father of her child, the Reggaeton super star J. Balvin. The Miss Universe contestant and entrepreneur grew up in modest circumstances on a mountaintop in Argentina in a large “hippie” family. Her lifestyle today as a supermodel and co-founder of Kapowder, a “superfood for superhumans,” is very different. We talk about being a businesswoman, raising a son in the age of social media, growing up a tomboy, her baby daddy J. Balvin and her love for...
Jun 01, 2022•27 min•Ep. 113
Daily Paper is an unlikely name for a fashion brand founded as a blog by three childhood friends from Ghana, Morocco and Somalia who met while living in Amsterdam. But there you have it. My guest today is Jefferson Osei, who along with his childhood friends Abderrahmane Trabsini and Hussein Suleiman, first started a blog – hence the name Daily Paper – that focused on their shared love for music, art, fashion, and culture. All that changed when they released a small collection of t-shirts that we...
May 18, 2022•36 min•Ep. 112
As a teenager, Sevana was in a girl group competing on Jamaica’s version of American Idol. She came in third, positioned to take her career to the next level. But that wasn't the path taken by my guest Sevana, at least not at first. For Sevana, the journey from reluctant pop star to a recording artist fully embracing her black female identity is a story of professional and personal maturity. With the result that we are gifted by the presence of an artist who has found her voice. And with breakou...
May 04, 2022•24 min•Ep. 111
Ted Lidie is the man behind the premier west coast cannabis brand Alien Labs. A Cannabis Culture OG, he was born into a family business of growers in Northern California and learned the ropes working his way up from local dealer to dispensary door man to dispensary manager to his exalted position today as an industry elder who was able make the business legitimate in the 21st century. We talk about his preference for black market weed, the end of cannabis culture, the definition of “good weed,” ...
Apr 20, 2022•34 min•Ep. 110
Whitney Beatty wasn’t particularly interested in the cannabis plant until a personal, transformative experience turned her around. For Whitney, it was a doctor’s suggestion that got her to pivot from entertainment industry executive to founder of Josephine and Billie’s – as in Baker and Holiday – the nation’s first black women-owned cannabis speakeasy. We talk about her transition from being a Detroit kid who said No to Drugs to an LA “Tea Pad” power player with backing from Jay-Z’s social equit...
Apr 06, 2022•27 min•Ep. 109
One fateful day Kyle Nelson rolled up to a Sweet 16 party wearing a Versace suit that prompted a friend to call him KSace. It stuck and he’s been building his name one improbable success story after another. You might say he’s been lucky. At the right place at the right time, naturally swag, fluidly moving from skate punk to Teen Vogue model to TV to rapping to becoming the face of YouTube music to his position with the fashion label When Smoke Clears. Yeah, he’s been lucky. But there’s more to ...
Mar 23, 2022•33 min•Ep. 108
When bling meets hip hop meets cannabis the business synergy can be explosive. At least that’s what Alex Todd of Saucy Farms and Extracts is counting on. Better known as a “celebrity jeweler” to clients like Jay-Z, Rihanna and Kevin Hart, he’s feeling his way into a business which is very much of a moving target as rules and regs wind their way from local to state to national approval. We talk about his pivot to cannabis and its future in New York; east coast v. west; being an indie; and why it’...
Mar 09, 2022•45 min•Ep. 107
Once upon a time the British synth-pop group Tears for Fears sold over 30 million records with anthems like “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” and “Shout,” peaking in the late 80s before the duo of Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal decided it was time to break up the band. Reuniting in 2000, they’re back with a new album that’s energizing their passionate fan base as well as those who discovered them through samples and covers by The Weeknd, Kanye, Lorde and Nas. We talk with Curt Smith about New Y...
Feb 23, 2022•41 min•Ep. 106
If you have a picture in mind of what a typical stoner looks like, Brett Heyman is here to prove you wrong. Married with children, she is the founder of the irreverent handbag company, Edie Parker, and its cannabis and smoking accessories brand Flower by Edie Parker. A red carpet regular who has her home featured in Architectural Digest, she's a veteran of the fashion world who has worked for Gucci and Dolce and Gabbana. While the rest of the fashion world sits on the sidelines of cannabis, Bret...
Feb 02, 2022•36 min•Ep. 105
Olympic snowboarder, musician, artmaker, streetwear designer, filmmaker, NFT creator, Trevor Andrew is perhaps best known today as the man behind the fashion brand Gucci Ghost. What started as a playful hack using bootleg Gucci fabric caught the eye of the fashion brand’s creative director Alessandro Michele who brought him on board for an official collaboration. Andrew’s amazing journey from world-class snowboarder to prolific creator includes recuperating from a terrible snowboarding accident ...
Jan 05, 2022•36 min•Ep. 104
If I were to make a modern day version of the Kevin Costner-Whitney Houston movie “The Bodyguard,” it would be based on the life of Kenny Hamilton. His experience handling security for a 14-year old Justin Bieber, would give writers plenty of material to work with. In his current incarnation as managing partner at thet CSH group, Kenny focuses on artist development and music management. We talk about fan mania, what he learned from Bieber, how Jerry McGuire changed his life, cannabis and his sti...
Dec 15, 2021•41 min•Ep. 103
JR is the famous photographer who shoots larger than life portraits and pastes them on buildings and walls for the local residents to see and be seen. JR’s disruptive hands-on collaborations and interventions get the treatment they deserve in his new documentary, “Paper and Paste” which takes us on a journey through some of JR’s most impactful activations -- a Paris ghetto, a supermax US prison, the Mexican-American border and a favela in Rio. We talk about what inspires him, how he deals with d...
Dec 01, 2021•32 min•Ep. 102
With cannabis legalization for New York a done deal, there's an ancillary economy growing around the fringes of the industry that’s rarely tabulated and has little to do with the growing, buying or selling of the plant and its CBD offshoots. Millions more go into the economy thanks to all the creative businesses and financial spinoffs cannabis generates -- consulting, publishing, the arts, legal, fashion, finance, design, influencer, media and home entertainment among others. That's where LA can...
Nov 17, 2021•37 min•Ep. 101
While Hollywood pursues it's blockbuster driven agenda, filmmaker Jim Jarmusch continues to do it his way, most recently the zombie-com “The Dead Don’t Die.” Whether casting accomplished actors Tilda Swinton, Bill Murray, Johnny Depp and Adam Driver or musicians Iggy Pop, Neil Young, Joe Strummer, Tom Waits and RZA, his off-beat movies never fail to enchant and surprise. A Cannes Film Festival regular, Jarmusch’s low-budget 80s trilogy “Stranger Than Paradise,” “Down By Law” and “Mystery Train” ...
Nov 03, 2021•52 min•Ep. 100
With LA the epi-center of cannabis and hip hop, it’s not surprising to find the two worlds cohabiting in the music and mindset of Problem. Immersed in LA rap royalty that includes Wiz Khalifa, Snoop and Kendrick LaMar, the one-time party bad-boy from Compton “changed the narrative” and it shows in his dress, demeanor and desire to transcend labels, set tables, and still stay true to his community and ongoing relationship with cannabis. When he’s not dropping mixtapes like “Coffee and Kush'' and ...
Oct 20, 2021•43 min
Along with cannabis, psychedelics like Ayahuasca, ‘Shrooms, MDMA, LSD, Ketamine and other mind altering substances are resurgent, finding their place as part of the plant-based health and wellness movement. Spurred on by medical studies and the support of the psychiatric community in search of answers to PTSD, depression and a growing list of mental problems, the movement to legalize these previously outlawed psychedelics is rapidly advancing what many have suspected all along: that far from bei...
Oct 06, 2021•37 min
Can you imagine how it must feel to be serving a 13 year prison sentence for possession of two joints in the midst of a gold rush in the growing, selling, and marketing of weed. Well, Bernard Noble can. He was that guy, but now he’s in the cannabiz thanks to the efforts of, among others, filmmaker and hip hop legend Fab 5 Fred Brathwaite. How Bernard got released and went into business with Brathwaite on BNoble prerolls is both a cautionary tale and an inspiring rare example of justice served be...
Sep 22, 2021•44 min
One art world Insider called him “the most charismatic artist since Jean Michel-Basquiat.” Like the great Basquiat, Dash Snow was a graffiti writer who showed in galleries, was dismissed as a lightweight clown, became an international art star and died a drug-related death in his 20's. There's more, much more to the story of Dash Snow, an heir to a fortune who immersed himself in New York’s art world demimonde of the early 2000's. Now, Cheryl Dunn's long-in-the-making documentary begun with Snow...
Sep 08, 2021•39 min
Frenchy Cannoli’s legendary life came to an end on July 18th. Recognized world-wide as an evangelist for Hashish, he was also a throwback to another era when adventurers trekked the Himalayas in search of ancient wisdom. Having him on my podcast was one of my career highlights. We honor his life as we rerun this classic Light Culture podcast from January, 2020. RIP Frenchy Cannoli. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Sep 01, 2021•47 min
Ricky Powell was a living legend who died earlier this year. A photographer who documented popular culture including hip hop, graffiti and pop art, he toured with the Beastie Boys and took some of the most iconic photos of that era. He was also very funny as you will hear in this rerun of one of my all time classic Light Culture podcast episodes from 2019. RIP Ricky Powell. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Aug 25, 2021•48 min
Jeremy Elkin’s documentary “All the Streets Are Silent” tells the story of New York in the 90s, a decade in downtown history when hip hop met skate and set off a combustion of energy that catapaulted a youth culture to stardom and mainstream appeal. We talk about Elkin prepping at Vanity Fair; finding vintage vids of Jay-Z, Busta Rhymes and Method Man; Eli Gesner’s legendary Zoo York “Mixtape”; the influence of Larry Clark’s “Kids” on the scene, and much more. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/priv...
Aug 11, 2021•38 min•Ep. 99
From his unlikely casting in Larry Clark’s movie “Kids” at 16 to his cult status as an actor and consummate art world outsider, Leo Fitzpatrick’s don’t-give-a-shit ethos has worked, landing him a role in the Wire and a co-director gig at the blue-chip Marlborough Gallery. Though he recently shut his St. Mark’s Pl. gallery, his commitment to youth-driven culture continues unabated. We talk about New York’s mean streets and the tragic loss of his friend, artist Dash Snow, his reverence for Larry C...
Jul 28, 2021•38 min•Ep. 98
What would make an editor/writer with a Conde Nast and Huffington Post pedigree chuck it all to start a cannbis-centric lifestyle magazine? As the co-founder of Gossamer, von Pfetten has channeled her love for travel, design, art, culture et al into a print venture that looks to update the stoner aesthetic for the 21st Century. We talk with the Vancouver born von Pfetten about her pride for BC Bud, her love-hate relationship with “wellness,” women in weed and why she thinks we make fun of Gwenet...
Jul 14, 2021•53 min•Ep. 97
