Big Table
The BIG TABLE podcast is about books and conversation, an exploration into art and culture, as told through interviews with authors, conducted and curated by writer, editor, historian and publisher J.C. Gabel and a small cast of contributors, all former colleagues and friends.
This podcast is a co-production between Hat & Beard, Dublab, and Gold-diggers in Los Angeles, and is dedicated to the interviewing style and enduring memory of Studs Terkel, the Chicago oral historian, actor, activist, TV pioneer, and long-time radio host and author.
BIG TABLE is the first digital initiative of Invisible Republic, a nonprofit arts organization, working in coordination with Future Roots, Inc.
- Update frequency
- every 16 days
- Average duration
- 30 minutes
- Episodes
- 55
- Years Active
- 2021 - 2024
Episode 36: Dan Charnas on J Dilla
The Episode
J Dilla—aka James Dewitt Yancey or Jaydee as he was previously known—was a musical genius who was hardly known to mainstream audiences during his brief life.
In Dilla Time—equal parts biog…
Episode 35: Daniel Efram on Steve Keene
The Interview
It’s not hyperbole to say that Steve Keene has produced more original artwork than most (if not all) American artists, having painted more than 300,000 works in the last 30 years.
Raised …
Episode 34: Adam Clair on the Elephant 6 Collective
Adam Clair was barely out of undergrad when he began the manuscript for Endless Endless: A Lo-Fi History of the Elephant 6 Mystery (Hachette Books, 2022).
The book is a definitive history of the 1990s…
Episode 33: José Vadi on California
José Vadi grew up in California’s Inland Empire, but his roots go back to Puerto Rico and Mexico. His abuelo, or grandfather, was an Okie who hopped freight trains west to Nebraska and then on to Cal…
Episode 32: Carole Angier on W.G. Sebald
The Interview:
Although he did experience some fanfare in his lifetime, German writer, academic, and novelist W.G. Sebald—Max to his friends and colleagues—died 20 years ago in a car crash near his ad…
Episode 31: Robert Gottlieb on Greta Garbo
Interview:
As one of the most influential book editors of his generation—first at Simon & Shuster and then, for many years, at Knopf and Random House, Robert Gottlieb has lived a charmed life.
He was …
Episode 30: Emily Rapp Black Discusses Frida Kahlo
After seeing Frida Kahlo’s painting “The Two Fridas,” writer and professor Emily Rapp Black felt an intense connection with the famous Mexican artist—maybe one of the most recognized faces in the wor…
Episode 29: Jason Jules
Jason Jules is a writer, blogger, stylist, brand consultant, and devotee of the Ivy look, albeit in a quite subverted form.
The face of Drakes of London and writer of the John Simons documentary film…
Episode 28: Rosecrans Baldwin on Los Angles as City-State
The Interview:
Los Angeles is a hundred suburbs in search of a city, or so it’s been said.
In his new book about Los Angeles, novelist and nonfiction writer Rosecrans Baldwin—a somewhat recent transpl…
Episode 27: Daniel Oppenheimer on Dave Hickey
The Interview:
Dave Hickey was an inspirational character—a writer of essays and songs, an astute art and literary critic, a one-time gallerist and, certainly, an art-world provocateur.
Hickey publishe…
Episode 26: Norman Ohler
The Interview:
Like many readers in the States, I first became aware of Norman Ohler’s work after reading Blitzed (2015), his epic history of drug use in the Third Reich.
Episode 25: Warren Ellis On His First Book Nina Simone’s Gum
The Interview:
Musician Warren Ellis’ first book, Nina Simone’s Gum (Faber & Faber, 2021), is a magical journal mixing memoir, cultural history, reportage, and travelogue. The memorable title comes fr…
Episode 24: Joan Didion in the 1970s, 1980s & 1990s
The Interview:
For over 50 years, Joan Didion, a daughter of California, has been in a league all her own, as a writer and novelist. Unlike many critics, she is capable of writing memorable fiction th…
Episode 23: Matthew Specktor
The Interview:
Matthew Specktor grew up in Los Angeles, the son of a talent agent and screenwriter. One of his childhood heroes was the doomed writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, who arrived in Hollywood in t…
Episode 22: Kyle Beachy
The Interview:
Kyle Beachy has been skateboarding for as long as he’s been creating stories. For him, the two have always been intertwined. After releasing the coming-of-age novel The Slide in 2009, …
Episode 21: Nathaniel Rich
The Interview:
With the world leaders of the G20 having met about climate change last week and the upcoming United Nations climate summit happening in Scotland this week, we’re airing our conversation…
Episode 20: Peter Mendelsund
The Interview:
Peter Mendelsund began his career as a concert pianist, and reinvented himself as a graphic designer, now creative director, almost by accident. He came to book design—first as a reade…
Episode 19: Jona Frank
The Interview:
On this episode of Big Table, artist and photographer Jona Frank talks with J.C. Gabel about her visual memoir, Cherry Hill: A Childhood Reimagined (Monacelli Press), which documents, i…
Episode 18: The Future of the Internet with Damian Bradfield and Joanne McNeil
The Interview:
On this episode of Big Table, J.C. Gabel talks with We Transfer co-founder and Chief Creative Officer Damian Bradfield about his first book The Trust Manifesto: What You Need to Do to C…
Episode 17: William Sites on Sun Ra
The Interview:
In Sun Ra’s Chicago: Afrofuturism and the City (The University of Chicago Press), William Sites brings the cosmic musician back to earth—specifically to the city’s South Side, where fr…