Episode #330: A One-Person Show with Nat Kalbach
About This Episode
No guest this time. Nat closes Season 3 on her own with a few minutes on the nine conversations that made up the season, the thread she noticed running through all of them, and an honest account of how this show actually gets made — a one-person operation with no ads, no crew, and no studio. Plus what's coming in Season 4.
Key Insights
What the Season 3 guests share isn't a medium, and it isn't even art — it's the decision that this city was theirs to act on
Nobody in this season waited for permission, and nobody waited to be qualified
The podcast isn't documentation of what other people make — it's the same impulse in a different shape
Nat's job is being an artist; the show is made alongside that work, on purpose
No ads, no video, no crew, no studio — recorded on Zoom and edited by Nat
One conversation this season was lost to audio failure and will be re-recorded for Season 4
You do what you can with what you have, and when it doesn't work, you do it again
Season 3 — All Nine Conversations
Ep. 321 — Woolpunk, fiber work out on the street
Ep. 322 — Lucy Rovetto, painter and curator
Ep. 323 — Nirupa Umapathy, who came here on a one-way ticket from Madras
Ep. 324 — Melida Rodas, poet laureate of Jersey City and founder of the Jersey City Poetry Festival
Ep. 325 — Elizabeth Deegan, who made a gallery out of her own house and garage in Greenville
Ep. 326 — Chris Perez, who won't let a building go
Ep. 327 — Ivy Huang at IMUR, running a gallery that's more than a gallery
Ep. 328 — Jenna Geiger and Keith "Dutch" VanPelt at Deep Space, who made a gallery out of a garage
Ep. 329 — DISTORT, a graffiti writer whose work you've walked past a hundred times
Coming Up Next
Nat is taking about two months off. Season 4 begins in the fall, opening with a conversation that had to be re-recorded after the original audio didn't survive.
Chelsea Castro is also coming back. Chelsea was Nat's guest at the end of Season 1, and the two have been working on an exhibition together, opening in January — more on that in Season 4.
Connect with Nat
Website: natkalbach.com
Substack: in-depth writing that follows the episodes
Instagram: @natkalbach
Email: podcast@natkalbach.com
Music: Our theme music is "How You Amaze Me," composed by Jim Kalbach and performed by Jim Kalbach, Bryan Beninghove, Charlie Siegler, and Pat Van Dyke.
Share Your Story: What sidewalk stories have you discovered in your neighborhood? Share them with Nat through email or social media.
