The world feels like it’s spiraling into madness. What can art do to help? In this urgent and intimate conversation, Jad Abumrad, radio host, producer, and creator of Radiolab, joins renowned cartoonist and educator Lynda Barry to explore the power, necessity, and strange transmission of art in troubled times. The two argue that there’s an unnameable energy that moves through art, but what exactly is this force? And what can it do?

Drawing on Abumrad’s podcast about Fela Kuti and grounded in Barry’s book Syllabus, the two consider the healing and regenerative capacities of creative practice. Barry will share stories and slides from her work with children — demonstrating how drawing can lift us out of toxic, paralyzing feelings and return us to something more instinctive and alive. And together, Barry and Abumrad will consider art not as luxury or ornament, but as a vital human technology: a way of metabolizing fear, restoring imagination, and reconnecting us to one another. In a moment when despair feels ever-present, two of the world’s leading creatives offer us a living demonstration of how art can move us, change us, and carry us forward.

This event is supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation as
part of a year-long celebration of the 45th anniversary of the MacArthur Fellows program.

This event is presented with special support from WBEZ Chicago.

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