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Unibrow Radio

Unibrow Radio

The Unibrow

The audio home of The Unibrow, featuring live shows and interviews covering the world of art + culture, creativity + design, pop-culture + the artists who define our times. Visit us at The-Unibrow.com or listen up on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

183 - UR-14: The Haunting of Smithsonian Castle (A Ghost in the Gallery Series)
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  • 183 - UR-14: The Haunting of Smithsonian Castle (A Ghost in the Gallery Series)

    A few years ago in Paris, I found myself in the Montmartre Cemetery on a sunny afternoon. It’s not as renowned as Père Lachaise, where people flock to pay their respects to Jim Morrison or Oscar Wilde. Montmartre is a bit more quiet, which may be an odd thing to say about a cemetery. I sat on a bench, drinking wine out of a bottle, reading a book, and tried not to get spooked by every leaf that moved out the corner of my eye. Before you side eye me, did you know that cemeteries often functioned as our first public parks? In the nineteenth century, garden cemeteries became places not only for burial, but for strolling, picnicking, and quiet reflection. A place to reflect on death, yes, but more to reflect on life. 

    Looking around I became more curious about the artistry of gravestones, which feels like a very under-recognized art form. How do you begin to approach a single object that will represent the entirety of a soul’s existence? And not just for a moment, but in perpetuity. I found my way to Degas’s grave by chance, beckoned by the desire to see who lay inside the mausoleum with the pretty pink ballet shoes hanging from the door. I’ve always loved Degas. Maybe a bit of a cliché, but I can’t help it. I remember as a teenager going to the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. where I looked with awe at Little Dancer of Fourteen Years. There I was, a decade later, just a crypt door away from this beloved artist's final resting place. I put my hand on its stone walls, said my thank-yous, and tried not to look over my shoulder as I walked away. 

    You may already have an idea of where you’d like your final resting place to be, but have you thought about the adornment that might mark it? What objects and symbols define your life? What words would you like for people to remember you by? 

    What if that tombstone existed inside a museum? In fact, inside the symbolic heart of our nation’s largest museum complex: the Smithsonian Castle. Inside this magnificent building lies the tomb of James Smithson, the founding donor of the institution that bears his name. On this episode of The Unibrow Radio, we continue our Ghost in the Gallery series, where we look beyond the art inside our beloved cultural institutions, to the things that can’t quite be explained. Today, I speak with Carly Bond, Associate Director of Architectural History and Historic Preservation, about a personal experience she had in the Smithsonian Castle, currently undergoing the largest historic preservation project in the Institution’s history. One that may have also awakened some of the museum's longer-term residents. After all, renovations have a way of unburying the past. Sometimes, perhaps, a little more literally than intended.

    –– Shaquille Heath

    You can learn more about the Smithsonian’s Institution's vast offerings atSI.edu. 

    Writer's Note: As you may be aware, our beloved Smithsonian is currently under a watchful eye by the Trump administration in his distracting and obsessive culture war. Please support the curators, academics, and all of its incredible staff who work diligently to keep the truth of our nation's founding, well… the truth. 

    Tue, 13 Oct 2026 - 37min
  • 182 - UR-13: The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art Needed an Editor; Jessica Hundley Took the Task

    The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art is finally open; George Lucas and his wife, Melody Hobson's new opus. The building is stunning, it's a mothership, a cloud, a home to a new way to see art in America. We have been about 4x already. We wrote about it. Please read.

    But today we wanted to talk to Jessica Hundley, who edited the catalog that was published by Taschen Books. I'm always fascinated about this part of the process, how an author or editor puts together a timely and meaningful companion piece to, for some, is a show that they will remember for the rest of their lives.

    This is different though. This is a catalog (the hardcover edition comes in two volumes, in slipcase,, and is nearly 14lbs and 832 pages) of one collection, of one building, of one couple; a life of telling stories. So it has to be good. Jessica has been writing and editing for years, and has worked with Taschen on the  The Library of Esoterica series. She was up for the task of how to take this monumental collection and give it a chance to come home with you.

    This episode is hosted by The Unibrow's Evan Pricco and recorded live on October 2, 2026 at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles

    You cansubscribeto our print edition now. Read Jessica’s profile onJenny Morganfrom Issue 03 here.

    You can also listen on ⁠Spotify⁠ or⁠Apple⁠or wherever you get your pods, too.

    Thu, 08 Oct 2026 - 34min
  • 181 - UR-12: The Unexplained Mystery of Los Angeles Philharmonic (A Ghost in the Gallery Series)

    Before I sat down with the LA Philharmonic to talk about their ghost stories, I found myself thinking about the last time I had been onstage. It was at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, in the museum's beautiful and, at times, rather eerie theater. Many of our usual readers will know that I previously worked at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, which includes the Legion of Honor and the de Young Museum. It’s a public secret that the Legion was built on the grounds of a former cemetery that operated from 1868 to 1909. When the city decided to turn the area into the park it is today, families were ordered to remove the graves, many of which were reinterred down the peninsula to Colma, also known as the "City of Souls.” Unfortunately not allof the bodies were removed, something made gruesomely clear during the museum’s seismic renovation in the 1990s. One quick Google search and you will see the remains of the unfortunate souls the city of San Francisco was too cheap to remove. 

    Before the museum was renovated to include its downstairs galleries, the only original underground section of the museum was its divine theater. The circular room was designed in a Louis XVI style, with red velvet seats that glisten beneath an ornate ceiling painted by Spanish painter Julio Vila y Prades. It’s a gorgeous setting for any production, but the times I’d spent in the theater when it's empty often chilled me to the bone. During my time at the museum, there were many a security guard who refused to go into the theater at night, let alone anywhere downstairs at the Legion of Honor. 

    Alas, this conversation is not about the Legion of Honor, but three even more renowned stages: The Hollywood Bowl, The Ford, and the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Together, these three venues serve as the primary stages for the LA Philharmonic, and present nearly 300 concerts each year. The Bowl and The Ford were built in the 1920s, while Walt Disney Concert Hall, designed by renowned architect Frank Gehry, opened in 2003. These venues have seen the greatest musicians in the world, from Ella Fitzgerald to The Beatles, retaining the profound energy and emotions that have passed through them. And perhaps, a few lost people who have never seemed to find the exit.

    On this episode of The Unibrow Radio, we continue our Ghost in the Gallery series, where we look beyond the art inside our beloved cultural institutions, to the things that can’t quite be explained. Today, I speak with Derek Traub, a writer at the LA Philharmonic, about the institution's hallowed halls and strange encounters. At the heart of our conversation is a question that has lingered in the wings for centuries: Why do theaters and concert halls seem to attract so many ghosts?

    So come along. The performance may be over, but not everyone has left the building. 

    –– Shaquille Heath

    VisitLAphil.comto see current offerings and performances. 

    Fri, 02 Oct 2026 - 33min
  • 180 - UR-11: Bea Scaccia and the Weight of Italian Art History

    What a time to be talking to Bea Scaccia. Yes, she was featured in our Issue 01, so we have been familiar and friends for quite some time now. But she is opening a new solo show, Groomed, at Gagosian Gallery in New York, curated by Francesco Bonami, which is certainly a sign that her trajectory in the contemporary art world is that of rocket shooting into the sky. She's big time.

    But her journey to now is fascinating. From a small village in Italy, to her education and teaching in Rome, the weight of Italian art history forced her to make a change: how does one become a contemporary artist in a culture who's history is the Renaissance? That ain't easy. So she moved to NYC, where she worked in the studios of Jeff Koons and Marilyn Minter, honing her own craft and understanding the heights of contemporary art practices. Now, her own career is the center of her universe, and with a passion for what she calls "Existential Performance," and works spanning painting, drawing and stop-motion animation, the world is literally her stage.

    This episode is hosted by Evan Pricco of The Unibrow, and you can subscribe to our print edition now. You can also listen on Spotify orAppleor wherever you get your pods, too.

    Mon, 21 Sep 2026 - 1h 00min
  • 179 - UR-10: Everything Now and an Evolving Los Angeles City-State with Author Rosecrans Baldwin

    This summer, I was feeling a little down on my time in Los Angeles. I must admit, it comes in waves; some days I love this city and some days I'm wondering how I, one, all, could tolerate a 2-hour, 14 mile commute on a Monday. There are moments where I feel like I wouldn't want to be anywhere on Earth, though. A sunset at the Hollywood Bowl, a morning walk along the ocean, a taco on the side of the road. And, of course, there are the museums, and damn, did the city get two good ones this year: the new Geffen Galleries at LACMA and the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art. So I love this city again, right now.

    So when looking at this evolving place, I wanted to talk to author Rosecrans Baldwin about his book, Everything Now: Lessons From the City-State of Los Angeles. With these new institutions, and his deep-dive into the history, neighborhoods and people that make this city such an expansive and confusing narrative, he felt like someone who might have some insight into what I was seeing and feeling. The stories that Baldwin tells are not so much why LA is what it is, but the stories of people who are aren't so much trying to make sense of it, but survive it.

    I also wanted to share my thoughts on the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, and what I think the critics get wrong and, to be honest, what is the critics role in deciphering the art that was mostly trying to avoid the critics for so long...

    This episode is hosted by Evan Pricco of The Unibrow, and you can subscribe toour print edition now.

    Tue, 15 Sep 2026 - 58min
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