Introducing The Frontier Magazine Podcast

Hi everyone,

I’m delighted to announce that First Things First, the podcast run by Paddy Harrington from 2018 to early 2023, is now The Frontier Magazine Podcast. I’m your new host, and beginning Monday you’ll receive a thoughtful, stimulating conversation every week for ten weeks. I’ll be speaking with writers, artists, curators, startup founders, and others about the ideas and ideals that inform their work and the ways that design and creativity accelerate positive change.

In an issue published five months ago, I wrote about my love of the interview format and my admiration for the radio and podcast hosts whose attentiveness evokes deep feeling and insight from their guests. I won’t make claims for what this podcast can do for you, though my sincerest wish is that you enjoy these conversations even a fraction as much as I have.

I’ve felt galvanized and nourished by these interactions. I’m still chewing on the ideas we’ve explored together and am beginning to see how they connect. Among the themes emerging are the importance of infusing creative work with an ethic of care, using design to give people as much agency as possible, and the value of the local in a globalized economy and culture.

My pal Jarrett Fuller, himself the host of Scratching the Surface, recent revisited the ideas about taste and talent that Ira Glass famously outlined in a 2009 interview. Jarrett wrote:

Every time you make the work harder for yourself, the gap between taste and talent open up again. This, perhaps, is the key to a long creative career: a constant opening and closing of this gap. More challenges, more refinement, more learning.

Though I’ve interviewed hundreds of people over the past two decades, podcasting is a new effort and a welcome challenge. I’m grateful to Paddy for giving me the opportunity to tackle it, and for giving me an excuse to reach out and talk with people I admire. Thanks also to my colleague Paul Twa, for the podcast cover and graphics you’ll see, and to Heather Ngo, whose audio-production skills make these episodes shine.

If you enjoy what we’re creating, please spread the word: tell a friend to subscribe to the newsletter or leave a rating on Apple Podcasts or other platforms. Every bit helps with discovery—and helps us sustain this work. As always, I’m happy to continue the conversation and am a reply or a comment away. See you on Monday for my conversation with writer, editor, and COVID Tracking Project co-founder Erin Kissane.

Love all ways,
Brian